Pope’s Historical Four-day UK Visit Starts Today
The 83-year-old pope, Benedict XVI has started his historical UK visit on Thursday. The head of the Catholic church is going to visit Edinburgh as first during his four-day visit. Previously only one pope, Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II took a UK visit back in 1982.
However, John Paul’s visit had a formal pastoral nature. Now, 28 years later, Benedict XVI is going to be the first pope who comes to Great Britain as a guest of the Anglican Church. According to the official program the pope’s plane is landing on Thursday morning in Edinburgh, Scotland. The British monarch and the royal family are going to greet him personally at the Scottish airport.
Benedict’s first major program during his UK visit will take place in Glasgow on Thursday evening. He is going to hold an open-air mass for approximately 80 thousand people. One of the priorities of the pope’s UK visit is a special tribute to the English victims who died during the German air offense back in the World War II.
On Wednesday non-official reports from London claimed that the head of the Catholich church will have a personal meeting with the victims of past abuses committed by ecclesiastical personalities. Although, sources of the Catholic church did not confirm whether this will happen during Benedict’s four-day UK visit.
The pope’s trip to the UK – partly due to these scandals – is not preceded by any particular enthusiasm or celebration in Britain. UK papers are writing about “apathy” and “unconcern” in their preliminary assessments even that the pope has not touched UK’s soil yet. Moreover, the British media pointed out that tens of thousands admission tickets were left unsold regarding the pope’s visit. The Catholic church has not commented on these reports yet.
Albeit most of British newspapers did not launch a downright offensive regarding the papal visit, but almost all of them referred to the last scandal of the Catholic church, mainly the rage of pedophilia among Belgian priests.
The police investigation focusing on the period from 1950 to 1990 registered five hundred complaints from people that seriously undermined the reputation of the Catholic church, if not shaken it yet.
In the UK less than 9 percent of the population are Catholics, so the pope’s “target audience” will be relatively small and in addition many taxpayers find the historical visit – worth 31 million dollars – too expensive.
The highlight of the visit will be John Henry Newman’s canonization which will take place on Sunday in Birmingham. Newman – who switched from Anglican religion to Catholic – was one of the great mind of theology in the 19th century and he did much to improve the relationship between the Anglican community and the Catholc church.
The Vatican hopes that pope’s UK visit will bring the same result.
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