the lone satanist

In 1995 Pope John Paul II visited Australia. I was working as a political photographer at the time and I was asked to go to Sydney airport and take some photos of the pontiff getting off the plane. I had the foresight to take a milk crate with me, even though my pass gave me access to the press pool where I’d be able to get as good a view as anywhere. So I’m standing on my milk crate waiting for the action to start. The place is swamped with enthusiastic Catholics waving signs and cheering. As I stand, I hear a lone voice atop the rest of the crowd. In a sort of surreal sequence, I turn around and see this guy waving a carved wooden 666 in the air. Nobody is paying any attention to him.
I think now is as good a time as any to share my photograph.

19 Comments

  1. I strongly suspect that, far from being a Satanist himself, this guy was accusing the Pope of being The Antichrist—a fairly commonplace Protestant Evangelical position.

    • Second only to the very commonplace Protestant Evangelical position of retrocranial inversion.

      Not that the Catholics are immune to that one [cough]Pell[cough]

      • George “Let’s shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic” Pell.

        There’s a priest doing something bad, lets just move him to somewhere else and let him start again. And never warn anyone about the bad apples either.

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