THINGS are hotting up in Bromsgrove and Birmingham as the date for ‘Popefest 2010’ gets closer. At the Oratory in Birmingham, three priests, Father Dermot Fenlon, Father Philip Cleevely and Brother Lewis Berry have been told by Church authorites to take up their beds and walk. They have been dispatched to three seperate monastaries to spend time in prayer, writes Anorak reader Yampster.

No official reason has been given for the move but it’s believed to be linked to the beatificaton of Cardinal Newman.

Brother Berry has been sent to South Africa for a year which seems a little drastic to his parishoners, after all his Holiness is only in Brum for a day.

I would love to have been a fly on the cloister when these three chaps were informed that were going to miss what is probably the culmination of their life’s work

Elsewhere in Birmingham, four weeks in advance of the event, Travellers are arriving from Ireland. Fifteen families from Donegal have set up camp in Hall Green and intend to stay until after the Pope’s visit even though they do not have tickets for the event.

Looking at recent attempts by Birmingham and Bromsgrove Councils to keep travellers off their property I think we can guarantee His Holiness a full house at Cofton Park well in advance of any of the ticket holders getting there

The Sun’s take on the travellers:

“THE Pope’s visit to Britain has been thrown into turmoil amid fears swarms of gipsies will turn up hoping to meet him.”

Bring a tent and go large on wafers It’s Pope Fest…