In the giant lobby of CBC HQ in Toronto there’s a grand piano, for use during events, plus a busy restaurant, boutique and corner store. There’s also a big multi-screen jumbo-tron type television and when the Pope arrived at Toronto airport last Tuesday, a crowd gathered in the foyer to watch. Chairs were put out, and those were filled, and then more chairs appeared, and folks stood at the back. The group gazed up at the show with a collective sighing smile.

After a huge thunderstorm on Monday, the weather in Toronto was lovely. Notice of the Pope was all over. Out and about, it was very hard for anyone to avoid Pope related hype and hope.

The public address system in the Toronto subway system is much better than it used to be, and the announcements of the sale of transit passes for the day (at $4 a bargain compared to the usual $7.50 for an unlimited one-day pass) were clear and frequent. The passes were being sold to facilitate people moving around the city and getting to Downsview Park for the papal mass, and as collector items.

Coronation Park, down by the lakefront, looked like some art performance project had been installed. Two hundred purple plywood confessionals had been set up among the trees, and one thousand priests worked in shifts to hear those seeking forgiveness. By mid-week, they were doing a so-so business.

On Yonge Street, the World Youth Day store, tucked among the bars and discount watch outlets was crowded, and a YWD market at Exhibition Place was doing a great business, selling Pope memorabilia and Toronto Blue Jays souvenirs to hordes of youngsters.

Those young visitors were all over Toronto, commanding already busy sidewalks like small, bizarre scout troops. They traveled in tight packs, dressed in casual team-type uniforms-shirts and hats and sashes in various jockey-like colour combinations, carting big bags of supplies and flags. All of them, it seemed, wearing big WYD that flapped in the breeze.

There was a lot of Pope coverage in the newspapers — an itinerary printed daily, the usual photos from any appearance he made, whether at a big event or just cruising on Lake Simcoe, and small filler stories about the many small goings on and the delegates who attended them.

There wasn’t much sign of protest. It was reported that a group giving away condoms at Exhibition Place, where a mass was held, was removed by police.

But prominent at the festival or not, the visit by the Pope was the subject of protest — it wasn’t just another big pomp and circumstance event. Toronto and Canada have welcomed a man who for millions stands for the word of God on earth, but for millions more is the symbol of intolerance.

The Pope and some of his archbishops in following a strict dogma, are on record many times with teachings that repress and promise punishment. Premarital sex, abortion, euthanasia, the ordination of women, the dignity of gay and lesbian unions remain outside the compassion of such figures.

Archbishop George Pell of Sydney, Australia, gave an instruction in Toronto this week. He said abortion was a worse moral scandal than priests sexually abusing young people. He has refused to give communion to gay Catholics.

The Pope should be welcomed to Canada, but it’s important to remember that he’s not just another celebrity.