The first ever state visit by a Pope to Britain could take place as soon as next year, The Times has learned. 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.
The Prime Minister, son of a Church of Scotland minister, told Pope Benedict XVI he would be welcomed by millions as was his predecessor Pope John Paul II in 1982.
But that visit was a pastoral visit in which the Pope, because of sensitivities around the Falklands War, met the Queen but did not visit Downing Street or meet the Prime Minister.
If the Holy See intimates that a visit is on, The Times has learned that it will be upgraded to a State visit and a formal invitation issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and signed by the Queen.
This would be the first ever such visit by a Pope to Britain. It would be timed to coincide with the expected beatificaton of Cardinal John Henry Newman but would also include the extraordinarily dramatic spectacle of the Pope addressing both houses of parliament at Westminster, in the same Westminster Hall where St Thomas More was tried and condemned in 1535 for opposing the Act of Supremacy.
This was the act that made King Henry VIII "supreme head" of the emerging new Protestant body, the Church of England, signalling the formal breach with Rome that has yet to be healed.
The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has been the instigator of the proposals, which were first raised with the Pope three years. Diary pressures and sensitivities around Northern Ireland meant no visit was possible then. If the Pope were to come to Britain on a formal state visit, Ireland would almost certainly be included.
A spokesman for Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said he understood the Prime Minister's invitation was being "actively considered" in Rome. Next year was more "probable" than this year because of schedules.
He said the Cardinal first raised the possibility of a visit more than two years ago it was not possible for a number of reasons, but the invitation had remained open. "If it can be arranged, it will be great news for Catholics and everyone in England and Wales," he said.
The disclosures come as the Pope today chose the conservative, pastorally skilled Archbishop Timothy Dolan to lead the Roman Catholic diocese of New York. Presently Archbishop of Milwaukee, Dolan, aged 59, will be the latest in a long tradition of New York prelates of Irish background.
Archbishop Dolan’s long-awaited appointment as successor to Edward Egan leaves the path clear for the Congregation for Bishops in Rome to decide who will succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor as Archbishop of Westminster in London.
Although Birmingham’s Archbishop Vincent Nichols remains the favourite, another name being talked of with increasing seriousness in Rome is Bishop Bernard Longley, from the conservative wing of the church, who is an auxiliary in the Westminster diocese covering east London.
Of Archbishop Dolan’s appointment, the veteran Vatican correspondent John Allen writes that it is “a choice for the center-right with a human face.”
Dubbing it part of the “Benedict Evolution”, he says it represents a pattern in appointments made by the present Pope of “leaders who are basically conservative in both their politics and their theology, but also upbeat, pastoral figures given to dialogue.”
This would fit the CV’s of Westminster favourites Archbishop Nichols and Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff but also of Bishop Longley.
A factor in the decision will be the need for a bishop equipped to lead an archdiocese that would play a central role in any state visit by a Pope to Britain if it goes ahead as hoped next year.
Any visit however would certainly depend on Newman's cause proceeding to the next stage.
Theologians in Rome will meet soon to discuss whether the 19th century’s Church of England’s most famous convert to Rome should be permitted to take the next step towards canonisation and sainthood.
If as expected the beatification goes ahead, the ceremony is expected to take place in Rome. The Pope has made a lifelong study of the writings of Newman. The work of Newman would form the centre of his Westminster Hall address.
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(Source: TOUK)