{"id":1888,"date":"2015-12-04T10:18:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T15:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2015-12-04T10:21:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T15:21:08","slug":"pope-visit-cheated-philadelphia-out-of-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/2015\/12\/04\/pope-visit-cheated-philadelphia-out-of-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Visit Cheated Philadelphia Out of Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pope<\/a>Before the Pope came to Philadelphia, Newsworks.org (the website for the local WHYY, NPR station) did an interview with me<\/a> and a few other atheists about his visit. I told them that my main concern and the main concern of many other atheists was that the Pope visit was going to effectively shut down the city. But I also said that we weren\u2019t worried about the public cost of the event because there have been assurances that the World Meeting of Families (i.e. the Catholic Church) was going to be covering \u201call costs\u201d associated with the Pope\u2019s visit. But now, the Mayor is saying that \u201call costs\u201d really means \u201cslightly more than half the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to The Morning Call<\/a>, the city of Philadelphia laid out roughly $17 million for the Pope\u2019s visit. But now the city is only asking for $8 million. I\u2019m sorry, but that doesn\u2019t cut it. I expect the World Meeting of Families to pay in full. They owe the city $17 million. Philadelphia is suffering from all kinds of economic problems including school funding.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the Mayor doesn\u2019t believe that the World Meeting of Families organization should pay for the massive police and fire department presence. This included overtime pay. For those not in the Philadelphia region, I should point out that just prior to the Pope\u2019s visit, the city went into a state of near shutdown. Some train stations were closed, bus routes and schedules were altered, and certain parts of the city were also shut down including some city offices. Even in the suburbs, there were problems with people getting to work due to public transportation changes and closures. During the Pope\u2019s visit, train passes were also extremely limited and this impacted people\u2019s ability to get to work too. Even when the President comes to town, we don\u2019t have that level of disruption. Still, I get it. He\u2019s the Pope and it is kind of a big deal. But we were told that the City would not be paying for it and that no tax dollars would go toward the visit. We were lied to!<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t like the Vatican doesn\u2019t have the money. They could and should easily pay the $17 million. Do you know what isn\u2019t good for families? Forcing the City to pay for their Pope out of the pockets of public education. The truth is that the World Meeting of Families doesn\u2019t give a damn about children or families. They just care about pushing the Catholic religion. It is bad enough that they don\u2019t have to actually pay taxes, but now they are taking our taxes away from the City and families who need it. It is immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

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