Fresh anti-Benedict screeds from Hitchens and Cornwell

Here is Hitchens, in Slate, and here is John Cornwell, in the Financial Times, sharing their views in advance of the Pope's visit to the United Kingdom.  (Hitchens thinks that the Pope should be arrested and prosecuted, and Cornwell thinks that the Pope is "hijacking" the work and legacy of John Henry Newman.  I disagree with both claims.)  John Allen has some thoughts about the visit, here.

My own hope, for what it's worth, is that -- as a goodwill gesture and an expression of contrition over, say, the crushing of the Pilgrimage of Grace, the suppression of the monasteries, and execution of St. Thomas Garnet -- the Queen will give York Minster back to the Church.