The pope is on a visit to England. This might not be of interest to most Indonesians, but I wish I were there to cover the event all the same. Apart from Pope John Paul II?s brief visit in 1982, the last time England had anything to do with the Bishop of Rome was more than 500 years ago during the reign of Henry VIII. This happens to be my favorite period in school history lessons. Henry VIII was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church when he tried to split up with his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon, for failing to bear him a son.

He wanted to marry Anne Boleyn instead. As it happened, Anne Boleyn bore him a daughter, for which the king had her beheaded. Henry VIII went on to marry Jane Seymour, who managed to bear him a son, but then she herself died.

After that, Henry VIII married, divorced and beheaded three more women.

He could not have done this, of course, if he had remained subservient to the Vatican, but he had split the Church of England off from the Roman Catholic Church and no longer needed the pontiff?s approval for his actions.

He held the keys to the country?s temporal and spiritual authorities.

Regardless of what may have happened to Henry?s immortal soul, history shows that England, as a nation, was not exactly cursed for getting rid of the pope.

Anne Boleyn?s daughter, Elizabeth, eventually assumed the throne and, many argue, presided over one of England?s most successful periods.

Her navy defeated the Spanish Armada and ruled the seven seas, while Shakespeare created his literary canon under her watch. God was not kicked out with Catholicism, but kept alive in the Protestant church.

Those were the days when the monarchy and the church wielded great power over their subjects, often vying with one another for influence.

With the line between church and state blurred, both desired power and authority over the people?s faith, and their wealth.

Today, the sight of Pope Benedict XVI paying a visit to the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, is almost surreal.

There is the pontiff whose unshakable belief in God does not protect him from his own kind, ensconced in his bulletproof Popemobile, meeting the Queen, who wields not a scepter but a handbag.

What are we to make of these two silvering octogenarians, manifestations of temporal and spiritual powers that are anachronistic in today?s age of secularism and democracy?

How do we square the individuals with their institutions ? the royal family is often seen as an unnecessary burden on the country?s taxpayers while the Catholic Church is increasingly notorious for its scandals and sex abuse?

It is a cause of some excitement to the people and the media, for sure. Pomp and circumstance rarely fail to ignite the ordinary person?s desire to be in the proximity of grandeur and the aura of the otherworldly.

Already the media are scouting for possible evidence of miracles that God?s representative on earth might bring.

More than that, however, the visit highlights the pope?s desire to revive religion in a country that he laments as increasingly beset by ?aggressive forms of secularism? and atheism that eradicates God from society and denies our common humanity.

He would like to see the Catholic Church not sidelined but playing a greater role. This is not surprising. He is after all, the head of an institution whose influence is diminishing.

Many religious leaders like to see their religion play a greater role in people?s lives. Lately it seems that all around the world religion and religious issues dominate our lives more and more.

Whether it has succeeded in bringing God back to society, however, is questionable. If anything, what is evident is the facility of religious extremists and bigots to use God as an excuse to attack our common humanity.

Often the source of this extremism is absolutism in a belief: The idea that God and virtue are intertwined and manifest solely in a particular religion, with anything outside it seen as undesirable.

But truth is relative and beliefs are many. Absolutism in government can only lead to institutionalized tyranny, whether based on religion or other forms of ideology. The idea of a utopian ?big society? could easily translate into an intolerant, totalitarian society.

Moreover, if we look through the annals of history, what are religions other than the results of institutional power struggles for authority, hegemony and influence?

Often, faith is not consciously chosen but is an accident of birth, relative to where one is born and raised.

One thing is for sure: History would have been very different if Henry VIII didn?t split from the pope.