The Bishop of Winona-Rochester, Robert Barron, graced our shores last week, hopping first to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship’s conference, then on to a parliamentary meet-and-greet, and now headlong into his own Evangelisation & Culture Conference (note the ‘s,’ of course). Who wouldn’t want to be more evangelical—or indeed cultured—especially when we’re being treated to the dulcet tones of an American prelate from the grand metropole visiting our humble island outpost?
In what only a (moneyed) Yank could muster, the conference took place at ExCeL London—part shopping mall, part theme park of convention events. Picture white-robed clerics rubbing shoulders with crowds of Pokémon enthusiasts, all tucking into their Chozen Noodles. It brought to mind that rather charming ecumenical blessing Pope John Paul II once offered the Pokémon franchise, lauding its promotion of ‘intense friendship.’
