Pope 'could visit Britain next year'

'The first ever state visit by a Pope to Britain could take place as soon as next year, The Times has learned.

John Paul II's ground-breaking visit in 1982 was a pastoral visit. Benedict XVI's looks likely to be the full monty, including an address to Lords and MPs in Westminster Hall where Thomas More was tried and condemned.

'The logistics of a visit to Britain by Pope Benedict XVI are being discussed after Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who advises the Queen on state visits, raised the possibility at a meeting with the pontiff at the Vatican.' Read it all here.

There was much confusion in Rome last week after the apparently inept response from the Pope's press office to Gordon Brown's invitation to the Pope to visit Britain. It looked as though the idea was being dismissed summarily, but I've learned this was not the case.

Both Gordon Brown and the Archbishop of Westminster have in the last three years raised the possibility of a visit before. Previously there has been an unequivocal 'no' because of two main reasons, diary commitments and sensitivities over Northern Ireland. The latter is no longer a problem, and the former is at the moment looking good for next year.

Further, there was no suitable 'peg' two years ago. Next year, assuming the Vatican theologians meeting soon to discuss the Cause give the go ahead, there could be. The Pope is just one of the many Catholics and non-Catholics worldwide who hope to see Cardinal John Henry Newman beatified. The ceremony could take place in Rome and then the Pope's visit here come soon after, to mark the momentous event.

The Pope wants to come. He would even like to speak at Oxford, having done so once previously at Cambridge. Health problems as yet unknown might still prevent it, as might the intrusion of other urgent diary commitments. But all these and other things being well, it might actually happen.

Imagine the symbolism of Pope Benedict delivering a speech in Westminster Hall, where Thomas More was indicted and tried for refusing to accept King Henry VIII as head of the nascent Church of England, where the instigators of the gunpowder plot were also tried and condemned.

Oh how I pray it happens. What a story to cover!

Technorati Tags: Britain, Catholic, Christianity, Pope, religion, Roman Catholic