Pope Benedict XVI’s four-day visit to Britain this week will be a moment of history – the first time a head of the Roman Catholic Church has paid a state visit to the country since Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534.But while there will be plenty of pomp and ceremony on his journey through Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Birmingham, there will be much tension, too.
The Pope’s arrival is overshadowed by the crisis over paedophile priests, strained relations with the Anglican Church and anger over Vatican policy on homosexuality and abortion.
The Pope will be only the second pontiff to visit Britain, the first being John Paul II, his predecessor, who made a pastoral trip to the UK in 1982. That visit was widely judged a success, helping to soothe rifts between the Catholic and Anglican churches.
But his successor, while recognised as a significant intellect and theologian, is a far less charismatic figure and one unlikely to appeal to the wider non-Catholic public in the way that John Paul did.
When Pope Benedict arrives in Edinburgh on Thursday the media spotlight will be focused on several issues. One of them is the Pope’s relations with the Anglican Church, badly damaged by his determination to encourage Anglo-Catholics to defect to Rome over the ordination of women priests.
Another is the cost of the state visit, put at about £12m, which comes at a time of deep cuts in public expenditure. Although Britain has 6m Catholics, protesters believe the Pope should not have been accorded the trappings of a full state visit.
However, it is the scandal over paedophile priests that will plague the Pope throughout his visit. The Catholic Church in Britain has been far less affected by the controversy than episcopates in the US and Ireland. The Catholic leadership in Britain has also put in place a range of measures to ensure that any abuse is dealt with.
But while the Pope has expressed contrition over the revelations, even senior Catholics in Britain believe the Vatican has not handled its response to the crisis well.
“The Vatican has got itself into a very defensive position, which probably inhibits the positive initiatives we could be taking,” Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, said recently. “The Holy See can do a lot better in its understanding of how the media perceive things and how important those perceptions are.”
Foreign Office officials are resigned to the controversy over paedophile priests dominating this week’s visit, but insist the invitation to the Pope is justified. They argue that the Catholic Church, with more than 1bn adherents worldwide, plays a key role on issues of importance to the UK government.
“The Vatican has a big voice on issues such as global inequality and the need for sustainable development in Africa and parts of Asia,” says a British official, “and that tends to be forgotten.”
The Vatican’s attitude appears to remain one of minimising the wave of criticism focused on Pope Benedict’s handling of the crisis over paedophile priests. Complaints were “excessive amplifications” with “an echo superior to that which is the true sensitivity of the population”, Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Vatican, said on Friday.
He also denied this was the most difficult visit of the 17 that Pope Benedict has made since 2005.
Much commentary in the Italian press has focused on the perceived dissolution of British society and how the Pope can help infuse a sense of spirituality.
One commentator in the daily Il Foglio newspaper claimed that the most common name of newborn boys was Mohammed and that 500 abortions were carried out each day.
SIC: FT/UK