What's your view of the Pope's visit to the UK?

The Catholic Church says homosexuality is a sin.
The head of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI, advocates the exclusion of gay candidates from the priesthood and his right-hand man, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone, has blamed homosexuality for the priest abuse scandals.
So it’s no surprise that the Pontiff’s recent UK visit courted controversy in many corners, including LGBT groups.
He has become the focus of anger surrounding the priest abuse scandal that has rocked the Church.
His hard-line views on contraception, abortion and homosexuality appear to fly in the face of many aspects of our diverse society.
As the country prepared for the arrival of the first Pope to visit Britain since 1982 we were left with many questions.
Should we really welcome a man whose beliefs exclude women and gay people from his Church, who opposes fertility treatment for childless couples and abortion for rape victims, a man who welcomed Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson back into the fold?
How would the Pope be received by gay Catholics? And how do they reconcile their religion with their sexuality? Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner and member of the gay rights group Outrage, led a backlash against the Pope’s visit and organised a ‘Protest the Pope’ march in London on September 18, with 20,000 people. He said: "The Protest the Pope demonstration in London was the world's biggest demonstration against any Pope for many, many years. "The protest was not against the Catholic Church or Catholic people. It was against the Pope and his often harsh, intolerant teachings; especially his opposition to contraception, women priests, gay equality, abortion, fertility treatment, embryonic stem cell research and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV.”
Kieran Bohan, from the Liverpool branch of Quest – a lesbian, gay and bisexual Catholic support group – said although he found Pope Benedict’s comments on gay priests distressing, he believes Catholic attitudes to homosexuality can be changed.
He said while many gay Catholics were driven away from their faith, others remained in the church and believed change was better brought about from within.
"It seems that Benedict XVI has no experience of lesbian and gay people's lives and we feel his pronouncements would be different if he met some,” he said.
"I would ask him to have the humility to listen to the stories of people like myself and many members of Quest who have struggled to be true to ourselves and our faith, in the belief that it is possible to have a healthy sexuality and spirituality.
"I hope that this trip is an opportunity to raise awareness in the Church of the issues which concern the people of this country the most, so there may be understanding, compassion and healing on both sides.”
Kieran is himself a former student of the priesthood, who left when he came to terms with his sexuality.
He added: "Although I have been deeply hurt by the words and actions of leaders I was taught to respect, I and others like me choose to remain in the church because we believe it doesn't have to be this way.
"Just as the Bible was once used to justify slavery, which few if any Christians would now defend, so we believe that in time the oppression of LGBT people by the church will also be overcome by a deeper sense of social justice.
"We are more likely to effect this change if we remain and campaign for change within the church than if we join the chorus of disapproval from the outside.
"We each have a responsibility to develop our own conscience and morality, and that doesn't mean accepting uncritically the words of a Pope, or any other leader for that matter. It means reflecting on our own experience and that of our community and seeking out what is good in it. No one has God in their pocket, not even Benedict.”