The papal coat of arms and its copyright

I REFER to the report by Jonathan Petre ("Selling the Pope's Visit gives rise to unease"), Feb 12 and would make a few observations: The practical organisation of the papal visit has been placed in the hands of a regional and central co-ordination structure.
The Bishops also set up a limited company to provide themselves with a corporate (civil) legal entity to make business arrangements for such things as the provision of ground and air transport, royalties, leases and agreements and other practical considerations.
Papal Visit Limited for England and Wales (and Papal Visit Scotland Limited) appointed the firm of International Management Group as business consultants.
International Management Group does not have (and has not purported otherwise) any ability to make business agreements or sign contracts.
These may only be made by Papal Visit Limited or Papal Visit Scotland Limited.
International Management Group knows (and has reiterated publicly) that no promises may be made which bind Papal Visit Limited. These may only be made by the latter company.
It was only within the last year and with considerable surprise that it was appreciated that the personal papal coat of arms was subject to copyright.
The surprise was all the greater when it was known the Coat of Arms had been widely used (e.g. in Ireland on the papal visit there) without reference to any copyright holder.
Papal Visit Limited and Papal Visit Scotland Limited has worked closely with International Management Group for a considerable time.
Formal meetings take place monthly which involve both the English and Scottish companies and representatives of the regions (mostly made up of leading voluntary Catholic cornmittee members). This 'general, purposes committee' makes the. practical decisions.
There is close contact almost daily on a less formal basis.
Mgr Ralph Brown Central Coordinator for Papal Visit for England and Wales London SW1 THE TRUSTEE of the Archive which controls the copyright in Archbishop Dr. B Heim's designs of the official papal armorial bearings as well as of some 3,000 other coats of arms, cannot be held responsible for Mgr Ralph Brown only discovering last year that there is a law of copyright.
That is not a good defence coming from a learned gentleman who is a doctor of canon law. Besides, without even picking up a legal text book and just reading the Catholic Herald which featured in 1978 two articles on the designing of papal coats of arms, the whole issue would have been "lear to him, being a legally trairi,:-.1 person.
As to the papal visit to Ireland and the use of the papal coat of arms, there, the Trustee is not well enough informed about the reasons why Mgr Brown called in an American PR firm to help him organise the Pope's tour to Britain.
He can, however, confirm and assure the Monsignor that the Director of Bord Failte and the members of staff of the governmental departments responsible for tourism and publications could not have shown greater courtesy or generosity in the public acknowledgement of ¢he ownership of copyright.
They may not have had the McCormack Group to advise them how to organise things but they stuck to the rules and in the end they got all they wanted.
As far as the Pope's visit to Britain is concerned, the Archive has done everything to assist those who asked for and needed help. For example, British Leyland, who build and paint the papal cars, buses and coach, needed urgently the official papal coat of arms and the papal flags to match colours.
The Archive delivered all that was asked for, within twelve hours and, with the greatest of pleasure, at its own expense. Postal authorities needed a special bromide for a cancellation stamp, and such a bromide was delivered without delay.
It is therefore only fair to place on record that had it not been for the high-handed if not arrogant, manner of certain organisations and persons, who considered it their God-given right to do with other people's property as they pleased, disregarding the law and courtesy, matters should have turned out differently.
Similarly one cannot help feeling that trying to blame the Irish for using the papal coat of arms — with everybody's blessing, by the way — is a very thin camouflage to hide the fact that IMG and the McCormack organisation wanted to use those arms for commercial purposes only.
The Trustee The Lion Archive for Ecclesiastical and Secular Heraldry PO Box 1 Gerrards Cross Buckinghamshire SL9 7AE