Religion: Paisley and The Pope

Pope John Paul II had just begun his address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg last week when Northern Ireland’s hard-line Protestant leader the Rev. Ian Paisley stood up and unfurled a red placard that read POPE JOHN PAUL II ANTICHRIST. In case that was not clear enough, Paisley roared, “Antichrist! I renounce you and all your cults and creeds.” The Pope gave a slight, bemused smile while members of the Parliament shouted Paisley down. A brief scuffle broke out as they dragged him from the chamber.

Outside, Paisley, who heads the Democratic Unionist Party and has a reputation more for delivering fiery diatribes on street corners than for disrupting parliamentary proceedings, angrily complained that he had been “punched and hammered.”

With Paisley gone, the Pope, unfazed, continued his speech. As elsewhere during his four-day visit to France, John Paul strongly endorsed the European Community’s moves toward greater economic and administrative integration by 1992. And he urged still more European unity — reaching out to include East bloc nations — on the basis of a shared Christian identity.