Today's release of UK govt papers under the 30 year rule - JPII and the US look bad

I must admit I'd forgotten that his trip to the UK in 1982 was very nearly cancelled due to this opposition to Britain's response to the Argentine invasion. He probably feared a Communist takeover in Argentina if they lost. Realpolitik. However, he couldn't resist an historic trip to England - where Catholics had acted for so long as an Al-Qaeda grouping. The RC church has been ranting like an enraged child for centuries because the weakling Pope Clement VII was unable to grant a divorce for military reasons.

It's sounds strange now, but before that trip I hadn't actually realised the Catholics were still going in England!

Incidentally, I didn't know until today that the Americans planned to tip the Argentinians off about British plans to re-take South Georgia. Astonishing duplicity. History still makes your jaw drop sometimes.

"The United States was concerned by the prospect of Argentina turning to the Soviet Union for support and initially tried to mediate an end to the conflict. However, when Argentina refused the U.S. peace overtures, U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced that the United States would prohibit arms sales to Argentina and provide material support for British operations. Both Houses of the U.S. Congress passed resolutions supporting the U.S. action siding with the United Kingdom.

The U.S. provided the United Kingdom with military equipment ranging from submarine detectors to the latest missiles..."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War

Now, more facts have come out though. Wiki is behind the times.

any link?

try this one, though it's all over the place

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253926/How-US-nearly-betrayed-enemy-Secretary-State-threatened-tell-Argentina-British-troops-landing-South-Georgia.html

What? Somebody tricked stupid king into that heresy for personal gains and you blame the pope - typical!

The RC church has never been able to grant a divorce and still can't. The best it can do is officially recognise that no valid marriage has taken place, which is known as an annulment. To grant an official annulment where a valid marriage has taken place would amount to sanctioning adultery. Further, the cleric responsible would be considered to have commited a grave error and the annulment would itself be invalid.

it never happen though so why worry about it.

Not to mention that that idiot wanted divorce sister if the most powerful country at the time - Spain! Also he already has a daughter and after all his going about finally daughter succeeded him on the throne.

Exactly. Uncle Sam came through for us in its own quiet way. As a few have pointed out this was at the height of the whole *Red menace* rubbish in Latin America so while what the US ( condoned by JP )was shockingly wrong,immoral and plain criminal it worked out OK for us in the end.

The real villains of that debacle were the French,still trying to sell more Exxocets to the Argies even after the invasion.....and we now share aircraft carriers with those duplicitous bast*rds!

( Mind you,Oran....)


yes...lol...*idiot*...telll me, since Britan gained its freedom from Rome did it do poorly or rise to rule most of the world?
Lets compare that to the servile states tied to Rome, Oh yeah,still clawing their way out of the dark ages and the poorest in Europe.

Bless you though,showing such concern for our souls,its really rather christian of you..... :)

It was and is very popular in England. Where I live its mostly RC Churches.


It is very lucrative also.

Britain selling arms to the openly fascist Pinochet regime is completely moral?


And instigate the global drugs trade something they are still doing with their drug laundering banks and "tax havens" one bank was headed by (a now) government minister. Laundering money for Drug cartels, terrorists and rogue states, if that were a Russian bank.........


There is no correlation between religion and wealth, traditionally the richest parts of Europe have been Catholic some still are some not. Poor (majority) protestant countries disprove your bigoted statement as does the existence of poor protestant areas within rich countries.

There is nothing more dangerous than silly humanities students applying bollox to the real world.

you are missing the point as usual.
He wasn't able to predict the future.He had his own very simple, personal and very stupid reasons.
Are you claiming that he had been able to predict the element that wiped out Spanish Armada. If not for that England would have been outhouse of Spain.Courtesy of your beloved Henry.

Anyway it has nothing to do with wealth.


Unfortunately I'm not very Christian - I don't care much about souls of fools-unless they are ready to listen to a reason.

Far from it, you called a polymath, multi lingual near genius an "Idiot", Im thinking you haven't got to *I* in the Polish/English dictionary yet ? :)

FYI, it was not Henry who saw off the Armada it was one of his Daughters,Good Queen Bess, Liz the First, the protestant one who did that,well, with some help from the wind and the finest Navy in the world who actually knew how to use the cannons on their ships unlike the papal crusades lot of incompitant mumpties. :)


Yeah,I never get this whole absence of RC/ presumed *hate* for RC in England, we crack jokes but no more than about the French or the Germans or each other, half my mates went to RC Highschools and one of my Uncles was a Dominican Brother then Priest. Maybe in Liverpool there is a bit of tension still,but thats always been like Glasgow for having imported Northern Ireland to the mainland.

Yes. Everything is fair game including ones self. Doesn't seem so popular in Poland though :)

I've been amusing myself with "The Goon Show" over Christmas. Seriously funny 50 years on.

What you call ego-maniac who depleted mountains of gold hoarded by his father on his hut for fame and glory?
There is more but I'm not going to waste my typing power on some bigoted semi-educated dude talking bollox. Yes, you know the details but you are missing the point big time, and your understanding of the way things are connected is no existent..


I know that, What if on the throne was his first daughter kin of Spanish King? No Armada.
Firstly it was daughter not a son so his divorce was waste of time (yeah I know about E). Second he aliened England from Spain and most Kingdoms of Christendom.If not for him going for monies and the Church lands that wouldn't have happened.

All his greatness is just confabulation made up by the Protestant clique who grabbed lands and power in England - thanks to him..
As for Armada -Now that was a lucky escape due to the element.

Why I'm calling you semi-educated? It is not malicious but for a guy who knows all that details you are unable to draw conclusions and learn form them, it seems as if all those details were just reinforcing the most bizarre prejudices and preconceptions.

I don't care about all that but your claim that Protestantism is/was recipe for wealth and prosperity is just unsubstantial BS.

Intelligence doesn't always correlate with wisdom :P


Yeah, after the British government eased up on the religious repression, Catholics gradually became quite a mainstream religious minority. In the 19th Century, a large part of Anglicanism distanced itself from the Protestant tradition and shifted to Anglo-Catholicism, so for a time, the doctrinal difference between the two was miniscule. With secularisation, they drifted apart again, with Anglicanism following modern trends and becoming increasingly fragmented, and Catholicism trying to stick to its guns, but both have declined to the point that they're not relevant anymore, and nobody cares enough to be prejudiced.

Its the one thing that bugs me about Jonny Foreigner in general,they all seem so bl**dy up their own bums and take themselves far too seriously :)

Its the fact that Americans feel the need to have those " Roasts" as though taking the p!ss out of someone is some special event and not just standard behavior that points this up :)


You pose a question to a statement I never made,is that moral?
Of course not,why do so many people have such a problem switching off the Nationalist button in their brains. Its quite easy to disagree with things carried out by a government that was in power when you were an 8 year old....

One can hold two seemingly oppossing positions if one is open minded enough and wasnt brainwashed from childhood by one particular cult ,dogma,race,tribe or other.


Exactly,Ive always said its a good job I have no power or influence :)