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Milestones of a Monarch: The visit of Pope John Paul II

In May 1982, Pope John Paul II visited the United Kingdom marking the first visit there by a reigning Pope.

The visit was organised and largely funded by the Roman Catholic Church. It’s estimated it cost around £7 million at the time. This visit would be a pastoral visit rather than the state visit made by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. During the visit, the Church offered the public free access to all papal events. Security was of utmost importance at this time as, just a year before, John Paul II had been seriously injured in an assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square.

Landing at Gatwick Airport on the morning of Friday 28 May and after kissing the runway, the Pope was greeted by 3,500 singing children, Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, and Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. Also there at the runway to greet the Pope was the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, the Roman Catholic diocese in which the airport is located as well as Anglican Bishop, Eric Kemp of Chichester, the Anglican diocese where the Gatwick airport is located.

From the airport, the Pope travelled by train to Westminster Cathedral where he celebrated the first Mass of his visit. It was noted he departed from his prepared text on three different occasions. On one occasion, he called for peace in the Falklands and in Northern Ireland. The first day of the visit was also when he met, The Queen, who is also Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

During the visit to England, John Paul II visited Canterbury Cathedral, becoming the first pontiff to do so. He also had a historic meeting with the Prince of Wales before attending a ceremony with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Before leaving London, the Pope went through Wembley by means of procession for a Mass at Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 people.

Other stops throughout the country included Coventry, Liverpool, and Manchester where he met with the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Sir Immanuel Jakobovits. In the city of York, the final stop of the England tour, about 20,000 people gathered for a Liturgy of the Word, at Knavesmire Racecourse.

Following the ceremony in York, the Pope flew to Edinburgh in Scotland where he met with 45,000 people at Murrayfield Stadium. In between Masses, he would take time to visit patients at St Joseph’s Hospital in Rosewell and, he met with educators at St Andrew’s College.

Finally, the trip ended with a visit to Wales where John Paul II was awarded the Freedom of Cardiff, an honour bestowed by the community on someone that is considered a valued member, or a visiting celebrity or dignitary.

Her Majesty The Queen had made history two years prior when she became the first British monarch to make a State Visit to the Vatican on 17 October 1980. Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, she was welcomed by John Paul II at the door of his private library.

Two years later, Her Majesty invited the Pope to England, not for a state visit, but rather a visit “ to the Roman Catholic community in Great Britain where some four million of my people are members of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Pope John Paul II died on Saturday 2 April 2005 after he failed to recover from a throat operation. The Prince of Wales postponed his wedding to the Duchess of Cornwall by a day so he could attend the funeral.

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The Enduring Legacy of John Paul II’s 1982 Visit to Britain

“For the first time in history,” said Pope St. John Paul II after he stepped off the airplane, “a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

In 2022, the Church in Britain marks an important milestone in its long history: This May, it will be 40 years since the first visit of a pope to Britain.

And it almost didn’t happen.

There had been months of preparation, much debate and discussion in the media, elaborate rehearsals by choirs and cathedrals and Catholic organizations, the hiring of massive venues, including London’s famous Wembley Stadium — and then the Falklands war broke out, and the whole idea of a papal visit was called into question.

Most people in Britain knew little or nothing about the Falkland Islands, a small British colony in the South Atlantic. In April 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the Falklands, swept the small British garrison aside, and announced that the islands were now in Argentinian control.  Britain responded by sending a Royal Navy task force, and effectively the British were at war.

As part of the anniversary, I have been dipping into archives and discovering the inside story of the emergency meetings and messages that went back and forth between Britain and Rome as the crisis deepened and the papal visit was at risk of being abandoned. There must have been a great deal of prayer. Pope John Paul II, of course, led the prayers for peace, and British and Argentinian bishops were summoned to Rome, where he celebrated a Mass with them all. And then came the climax of the last-minute rescue operation to save the situation: He flew to Argentina for a swiftly arranged papal visit, before going on to Britain.

It was clear throughout that the Pope was not only neutral but that he was vigorously promoting peace: This was his consistent message, and it never wavered. On this basis, he was able to fly to London’s Gatwick Airport, where, as planned in detail over the previous months, a large crowd, drawn from Catholic parishes across Surrey and Sussex, had gathered to greet him. I was among that crowd. I remember the early-morning start and the excitement as we all arrived in a chartered bus, and then the wait at the airport, where the Duke of Norfolk — by long-established tradition Britain’s senior Catholic layman — greeted the Pope at the airport steps.

This was not, it was emphasized, an official visit. This was a pastoral visit of the Pope to Britain’s Catholics. So no formal representative of the queen was at the airport, and there were no government officials. There was music, and we sang a welcoming hymn. Then there were speeches — and the history was made. The Pope summed it up when he proclaimed , “For the first time in history, a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

In its own way, the tragedy of the Falklands War — more than 800 men, British and Argentinian, would eventually lose their lives in the fighting — helped to create a situation where old antagonisms dating back to the Reformation in Britain seemed to dwindle away. The papal visit became a true opportunity for a message of peace and goodwill, with anti-Catholicism of the old sort somehow at variance with a general recognition of the needs of the modern era. The whole visit had, in any case, been planned with ecumenical goodwill in mind, and there were some powerful moments, notably at Canterbury Cathedral , where the Pope prayed with Anglicans at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket.

And, yes, he did meet the queen — a courtesy visit, with tea at Buckingham Palace — with evident goodwill on both sides. Queen Elizabeth was wearing, I remember, a blue dress, and they were smiling and chatting as they emerged from the palace after tea. Postcards of the scene quickly became popular — I’ve still got mine.

The papal pilgrimage had the seven sacraments as its theme. At a packed Mass at Westminster Cathedral , the Pope baptized seven candidates of various ages, and then, after crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge, he arrived at St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark, which had been cleared of pews and filled with stretchers and wheelchairs bearing sick and disabled people from across Britain, and he administered the sacrament of the sick. And so it went on, across England and Wales and Scotland, with a penitential service, first Holy Communions, confirmations, ordinations and renewal of marriage vows. Vast crowds came, powerful moments of prayer experienced.

It was an unforgettable time. Looking back through the archives, something of the joy and excitement is still evident. So, too, are the changes since those days — the letters are typewritten (remember typewriters?) and there is just one reference to “a computer being installed” as a great innovation at one venue to store relevant information. Color photography relied entirely on film, paper and chemicals (some of the pictures have that curious greenish tinge that I remember well).  Fashions have, of course, changed: Ladies wore dresses, and there were even quite a lot of hats.

What did the papal visit achieve? A great deal. With its massive television coverage, it opened up an authentic vision of Catholic worship: from how Catholics pray to the centrality of the Eucharist. People saw what a baptism is and what is meant by the anointing of the sick. They saw the Pope as a bishop, a man in a white robe preaching about peace and the importance of family life and family prayer. Old notions of the Pope as a sinister foreign figure intent on imposing some sort of political rule were recognized as propaganda from a vanished era.

And that 1982 visit was followed, in the next century, by an official state visit by Pope Benedict XVI, where among much else, he addressed Parliament with a magnificent setting out of the respective roles of Church and state centered on a ringing call for true religious freedom. He led young people in a massive unforgettable night vigil of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in London’s Hyde Park, and he beatified John Henry Newman in a glorious Mass at Cofton Park on the outskirts of Birmingham.

The year 2022 sees another major milestone in Britain’s story: the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. She has always been clear in her commitment to the Christian faith and spoken of it as central to her life and service.

So much has changed in the 70 years of her reign. While there has been progress in fields that include health and general prosperity, there is also much that is cause for great sadness: Britain is a country with too much violent crime, many unhappy young people, a drug crisis, a worrying suicide rate, and a collapse in a general understanding of many basic moral values, including the value of human life itself.

But the Christian message is still on offer and is the message that holds the hope of renewal; and in a country with a long history, and a tradition of marking anniversaries and jubilees, 2022 brings scope for missionary activity on a new scale. We must pray the opportunity is taken up. A reminder of that historic papal visit four decades ago is part of that. 

• John Paul ii
• united kingdom
• great britain
• papal travels
• queen elizabeth ii

Joanna Bogle Joanna Bogle is the author of some 20 books, including several historical biographies and A Book of Seasons and Celebrations with information on traditions and customs marking the Church year. Her most recent book is John Paul II: Man of Prayer with colleague Clare Anderson, exploring the spiritual life of St. John Paul the Great. She broadcasts regularly with EWTN and initiated popular "Catholic History Walks" around London.

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Controversy Accompanies Historic Papal Visit To U.K.

Sylvia Poggioli

Children arrive for a rehearsal at Glasgow's Bellahouston Park ahead of Thursday's visit by Pope Benedict XVI. The pope will celebrate Mass in the park following his visit to Edinburgh, where he will be met by Queen Elizabeth II. Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images hide caption

The first state visit by a pope to Britain comes at a low point in relations between Catholics and Anglicans and under the weight of the clerical sex abuse crisis.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Scotland on Thursday morning to spend four days in Britain -- the first visit by a pope in nearly 30 years and the first papal state visit since King Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534 over a divorce.

The trip includes a meeting with Queen Elizabeth in Scotland, a speech in Westminster Hall, an ecumenical service with the archbishop of Canterbury and the beatification of a 19th century Anglican who converted to Catholicism.

Looming over the visit are 400 years of religious tensions and more contemporary divisions.

Particular Challenges For Benedict

Protests are being planned by gay activists, secularists, advocates of female ordination and militant atheists -- some of whom have called for Benedict’s arrest on charges of covering up sex abuse of minors by priests.

Pope Benedict XVI (right) prays during his weekly general audience Wednesday at the Vatican. Benedict takes his campaign to revive Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe to Britain on Thursday. He faces a daunting task in a nation largely at odds with his policies and where disgust over the church sex abuse scandal runs high. Alessandra Tarantino/AP hide caption

Pope Benedict XVI (right) prays during his weekly general audience Wednesday at the Vatican. Benedict takes his campaign to revive Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe to Britain on Thursday. He faces a daunting task in a nation largely at odds with his policies and where disgust over the church sex abuse scandal runs high.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi is unfazed.

“There have always been protests by some groups during papal visits,” he says. “There will be more groups on this trip -- such as atheists and anti-papists."

Lombardi adds, “It’s normal in a pluralistic society like the British one. We are not worried because we believe the media has overblown reality."

But a visit to such a pluralistic society is particularly challenging for a pope who has set as his mission the re-evangelization of Europe.

Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for the British Catholic weekly The Tablet, says the pope’s main goal is "to try to help make a space in society for religion, for faiths."

"It is very clear that [the pope] believes that the Catholic Church and Catholics within that church have been too lax in presenting the faith in reasoned, rational, argued terms that can stand up toe to toe in the arena of ideas," Mickens says.

Weekly church attendance among Britain’s 5 million Catholics has been dropping steadily, as it has elsewhere in Europe. In fact, many tickets to papal events -- which unusually carry a price tag -- have gone unsold.

Anglican-Catholic Relations A Key Issue

Just 11 months ago, the Vatican stunned the Church of England when -- without consulting the archbishop of Canterbury -- it offered to take in dissident Anglicans angered over their church’s consecration of female and homosexual bishops.

Anglican critics see it as part of a centuries-old campaign by Rome to annex the Anglican Church.

Vatican analyst Marco Politi says Catholic-Anglican relations are at their lowest point in recent history, as the Vatican tries to woo Anglican conservatives.

“All the issues of modernity which already in the Catholic Church the pope is fighting are just the reasons for which he is embracing this traditionalist part of the Anglicans,” Politi explains.

Benedict has the dubious precedent of having caused offense during several of his foreign travels: his remarks in Germany describing Islam as violent, which outraged Muslims; and his claim on his way to Africa that the use of condoms spreads AIDS.

Some Vatican watchers say Benedict’s decision to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, a priest in the Church of England who converted to Catholicism in the 19th century, could further strain relations with Anglicans.

The pope has described the decision as an act of ecumenism. But Politi points out that Benedict has always upheld the primacy of Catholicism -- “that the only real church is the Catholic Church, and that the Protestant churches for him are not real churches but only Christian communities.”

God's Somewhat Surprising 'Rottweiler'

Benedict will not receive the warm welcome given to his charismatic predecessor Pope John Paul II in 1982. Many of the British media have been openly hostile to the papal visit, which is costing British taxpayers some $18 million.

But The Tablet 's correspondent Mickens says Britons may be surprised when they see firsthand the man described as "God’s Rottweiler." “They will see someone who speaks with a lilting voice, soft-spoken, and he’ll look sweet and have white hair," Mickens says.

“But in the end," he adds, "the words will remain and he is going to have to choose his words carefully on this visit, words that are said with great kindness in the voice but really have a sharp bite to them on the page."

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The two-way, before state visit, pope benedict xvi aide analogizes u.k. to 'third world country'.

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Pope Benedict XVI arrives in UK for first official Papal visit

The Pope is visiting Britain from 16 to 19 September as Head of State and the leader of a major denomination.

Pope Benedict XVI has landed at Edinburgh Airport on the first day of his four-day visit, during which he will go to Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Birmingham. Watch the livestream of the visit here .

The Pope will start his visit by attending a State welcome ceremony at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where he will have an audience with her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. During his trip to Scotland he will celebrate mass in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow.

The Pope will hold a celebration of Catholic Education on Friday 17 September at St Mary’s University College in Twickenham, where he will inaugurate the John Paul II Institute of Sport. He will also address civil society in the Palace of Westminster, and lead a celebration of evening prayer in Westminster Abbey.

On Saturday 18 September, the Pope will hold a Prayer Vigil on the Eve of the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Hyde Park, London. This will be followed by the celebration of Mass for the Beatification of the Venerable Cardinal John Henry Newman in Cofton Park in Rednal, Birmingham, on Sunday 19 September.

The visit represents an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen ties between the UK and the Holy See on global initiatives such as climate change and international development, and to emphasise the important role of faith in creating strong communities. Please visit the Catholic Bishops’ Conference Official website for the visit for full details of the itinerary and details of the Popemobile routes.

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The Enduring Legacy of John Paul II’s 1982 Visit to Britain

“For the first time in history,” said Pope St. John Paul II after he stepped off the airplane, “a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

Joanna Bogle, February 16, 2022 – National Catholic Register

In 2022, the Church in Britain marks an important milestone in its long history: This May, it will be 40 years since the first visit of a pope to Britain.

And it almost didn’t happen.

There had been months of preparation, much debate and discussion in the media, elaborate rehearsals by choirs and cathedrals and Catholic organizations, the hiring of massive venues, including London’s famous Wembley Stadium — and then the Falklands war broke out, and the whole idea of a papal visit was called into question.

Most people in Britain knew little or nothing about the Falkland Islands, a small British colony in the South Atlantic. In April 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the Falklands, swept the small British garrison aside, and announced that the islands were now in Argentinian control.  Britain responded by sending a Royal Navy task force, and effectively the British were at war.

As part of the anniversary, I have been dipping into archives and discovering the inside story of the emergency meetings and messages that went back and forth between Britain and Rome as the crisis deepened and the papal visit was at risk of being abandoned. There must have been a great deal of prayer. Pope John Paul II, of course, led the prayers for peace, and British and Argentinian bishops were summoned to Rome, where he celebrated a Mass with them all. And then came the climax of the last-minute rescue operation to save the situation: He flew to Argentina for a swiftly arranged papal visit, before going on to Britain.

It was clear throughout that the Pope was not only neutral but that he was vigorously promoting peace: This was his consistent message, and it never wavered. On this basis, he was able to fly to London’s Gatwick Airport, where, as planned in detail over the previous months, a large crowd, drawn from Catholic parishes across Surrey and Sussex, had gathered to greet him. I was among that crowd. I remember the early-morning start and the excitement as we all arrived in a chartered bus, and then the wait at the airport, where the Duke of Norfolk — by long-established tradition Britain’s senior Catholic layman — greeted the Pope at the airport steps.

This was not, it was emphasized, an official visit. This was a pastoral visit of the Pope to Britain’s Catholics. So no formal representative of the queen was at the airport, and there were no government officials. There was music, and we sang a welcoming hymn. Then there were speeches — and the history was made. The Pope summed it up when he proclaimed, “For the first time in history, a Bishop of Rome sets foot on English soil.”

In its own way, the tragedy of the Falklands War — more than 800 men, British and Argentinian, would eventually lose their lives in the fighting — helped to create a situation where old antagonisms dating back to the Reformation in Britain seemed to dwindle away. The papal visit became a true opportunity for a message of peace and goodwill, with anti-Catholicism of the old sort somehow at variance with a general recognition of the needs of the modern era. The whole visit had, in any case, been planned with ecumenical goodwill in mind, and there were some powerful moments, notably at Canterbury Cathedral, where the Pope prayed with Anglicans at the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket.

And, yes, he did meet the queen — a courtesy visit, with tea at Buckingham Palace — with evident goodwill on both sides. Queen Elizabeth was wearing, I remember, a blue dress, and they were smiling and chatting as they emerged from the palace after tea. Postcards of the scene quickly became popular — I’ve still got mine.

The papal pilgrimage had the seven sacraments as its theme. At a packed Mass at Westminster Cathedral, the Pope baptized seven candidates of various ages, and then, after crossing the Thames at Lambeth Bridge, he arrived at St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark, which had been cleared of pews and filled with stretchers and wheelchairs bearing sick and disabled people from across Britain, and he administered the sacrament of the sick. And so it went on, across England and Wales and Scotland, with a penitential service, first Holy Communions, confirmations, ordinations and renewal of marriage vows. Vast crowds came, powerful moments of prayer experienced.

It was an unforgettable time. Looking back through the archives, something of the joy and excitement is still evident. So, too, are the changes since those days — the letters are typewritten (remember typewriters?) and there is just one reference to “a computer being installed” as a great innovation at one venue to store relevant information. Color photography relied entirely on film, paper and chemicals (some of the pictures have that curious greenish tinge that I remember well).  Fashions have, of course, changed: Ladies wore dresses, and there were even quite a lot of hats.

What did the papal visit achieve? A great deal. With its massive television coverage, it opened up an authentic vision of Catholic worship: from how Catholics pray to the centrality of the Eucharist. People saw what a baptism is and what is meant by the anointing of the sick. They saw the Pope as a bishop, a man in a white robe preaching about peace and the importance of family life and family prayer. Old notions of the Pope as a sinister foreign figure intent on imposing some sort of political rule were recognized as propaganda from a vanished era.

And that 1982 visit was followed, in the next century, by an official state visit by Pope Benedict XVI, where among much else, he addressed Parliament with a magnificent setting out of the respective roles of Church and state centered on a ringing call for true religious freedom. He led young people in a massive unforgettable night vigil of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in London’s Hyde Park, and he beatified John Henry Newman in a glorious Mass at Cofton Park on the outskirts of Birmingham.

The year 2022 sees another major milestone in Britain’s story: the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. She has always been clear in her commitment to the Christian faith and spoken of it as central to her life and service.

So much has changed in the 70 years of her reign. While there has been progress in fields that include health and general prosperity, there is also much that is cause for great sadness: Britain is a country with too much violent crime, many unhappy young people, a drug crisis, a worrying suicide rate, and a collapse in a general understanding of many basic moral values, including the value of human life itself.

But the Christian message is still on offer and is the message that holds the hope of renewal; and in a country with a long history, and a tradition of marking anniversaries and jubilees, 2022 brings scope for missionary activity on a new scale. We must pray the opportunity is taken up. A reminder of that historic papal visit four decades ago is part of that.

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Why is pope benedict xvi visiting britain.

• Pope doesn't travel often; British opinion of him ranges from indifference to hostility
• Pope relishes arguing for religion in such a secular society, says expert
• Expert: Pope wants to reach out to Anglicans
• Benedict often benefits from foreign travel, coming out more popular, says expert

London, England (CNN) -- As the United Kingdom braces to receive one of the best-known and most controversial figures on the planet, Pope Benedict XVI, a question hangs over the state visit: Why is he coming?

The leader of the world's 1 billion-plus Catholics does not particularly like to travel, Benedict biographer David Gibson says.

Since a high-profile visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories nearly a year-and-a-half ago, he's gone only to a handful of small countries not far from Rome -- racking up nothing like the number of air miles logged by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

And the United Kingdom is not a Catholic country. On the contrary, Britain's break from Rome in the 16th century echoes, if faintly, to the present day, with laws on the books forbidding the heir to the British throne from marrying a Catholic.

In fact, the country is one of the less religious ones in Europe, home to vociferous critics of religion, like Richard Dawkins, and those who find belief in a higher power simply unnecessary, like Stephen Hawking.

Public opinion on the eve of his visit ranges from indifference to downright hostility. There will be protests from critics who consider him a protector of pedophiles and from liberal Catholics who resent his staunch defense of orthodox doctrine.

And all this will play out in in front of the British media -- one of the world's most aggressive.

So why, aged 83 and happier at home, is the professorial vicar of Christ on earth stepping into the lion's den? It may be the very factors that seem to argue against his coming that impelled him to come, according to two experts.

This pope relishes a challenge, said John Allen, CNN's senior Vatican analyst. His "No. 1 priority is to combat secularism, and in some ways the United Kingdom is the dictionary definition of a post-religious society," Allen said. "He just created a whole new department in the Vatican to reawaken the faith in the West, and this trip is a chance to elaborate a strategy."

Benedict will make what the Vatican is billing as one of the major speeches of his papacy in London on Friday, making the case for religion over a purely secular society. Benedict biographer Gibson said the pope, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, has a history of rolling up his sleeves and taking on his intellectual opponents.

"He enjoyed it when he was cardinal -- going to various places and venues and presenting controversial views in a polemical tone," said Gibson, the author of "The Rule of Benedict." "Britain is such a redoubt of secularism, he can [try to] slay the dragon in its lair. He can't resist, really," Gibson said.

A close confidant of Benedict made headlines shortly before the visit by likening London's Heathrow Airport to a Third World country, but Cardinal Walter Kasper also very pointedly criticized what many Christians see as enforced secularism in the United Kingdom.

While Benedict is picking a fight with secularism, he also needs to mend bridges with fellow Christians, both experts said. The Catholic Church moved surprisingly forcefully last year to make it easier for disaffected members of the Church of England to switch allegiance to Rome, sparking consternation in a deeply divided Anglican world.

Benedict "cares about relations with the Anglicans, seeing it as the model for relations with all the other Christian churches in the West," CNN's Allen said. Creating "new structures to welcome Anglican converts into the Catholic Church" is seen by many Anglicans "as poaching, so he needs this trip to mend fences."

Allen compared the trip to Britain to one Benedict made to Turkey in 2006 after the pope made controversial comments about Islam. On that trip, the pope appeared with a top Muslim religious leader at Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque. This week he will pray with the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in London.

Gibson also sees an element of outreach to the Anglican archbishop in the pope's visit -- but also to his flock.

"He doesn't want to have bad relations with Rowan Williams, but he also makes very clear that he wants closer relations with traditional Christians," Gibson said. "He is looking for allies."

Indeed, a leading voice for conservative members of the Church of England, Canon Chris Sugden, said, "Many orthodox Anglicans in England would feel that they share more in common with the pope than with the presiding bishop of the Episcopal church [Rowan Williams]."

That doesn't mean Anglicans see eye-to-eye with the pope on a number of important theological issues, he said, but added, "We welcome the pope's visit because it raises many of the critical challenges to the current elite secularism that is being imposed on us," he said.

And if his religious message proves unpopular in Britain, particularly against the backdrop of the sex abuse scandals enveloping the Catholic Church, Benedict really doesn't mind, Gibson said. "He sees criticism almost as a form of persecution that reinforces the importance and the truth of his message," he said.

"He doesn't care about popularity and in fact revels a bit in drawing protests -- that whole dynamic of being despised proving your faith."

Coming under sufficiently intense criticism could even rebound in Benedict's favor, Gibson said. "British tabloids can be so over-the-top that they can prove his point," he said. "He could become a sympathetic figure."

Visiting the United States three years ago boosted Benedict's popularity there, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found. This visit could have a similar effect in the United Kingdom, Allen said.

"My prediction: He'll do better than people expect," he said. "He usually does on the foreign trips."

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Pope Benedict XVI visits the United Kingdom

The first state visit to the U.K. by a pontiff in centuries is overshadowed by scandals.

Pope Benedict XVI, right, is seen next to his personal secretary, father Gaenswein George, as they arrive at the Ciampino airport in Rome on Sunday, Sept. 19, after a four-day visit to England and Scotland.

Pope Benedict XVI leaves Oscott College seminary in Birmingham, England, Sept. 19.

Pope Benedict XVI addresses a mass to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, pictured in the background, in Birmingham, England, on Sept. 19. Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to Britain has been a "spiritual success", his spokesman said Sunday.

A girl takes holy communion as Pope Benedict XVI takes the beatification mass of Cardinal Newman at Cofton Park on Sept. 19, in Birmingham, England. On the last day of Pope Benedict XVI's state visit, the Pontiff is beatifying Cardinal Newman in front of over 60,000 faithful. His Holiness also met The Queen as well as political and religious representatives during the four day visit.

Pilgrims await the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Cofton Park, Birmingham, England, Sept. 19.

People crowd Hyde Park during a prayer vigil led by Pope Benedict XVI in London, Sept. 18.

Pope Benedict XVI chats with Catholic youth outside Westminster Cathedral in central London on Sept. 18. Pope Benedict apologised to victims of sexual abuse on Saturday, saying paedophile priests had brought "shame and humiliation" on him and the entire Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives for a celebration of Catholic education at St Mary's University College, Twickenham, in SW LondonFriday. The pope is on a four day visit to the United Kingdom.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives for a service of prayer at St Mary's University College Chapel during day two of his four day state visit at Twickenham on Friday in London, England.

Pope Benedict XVI meets Britain's Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, during a meeting of religious leaders at St Mary's University College, in Twickenham, south-west London on Friday.

Police patrol outside the Houses of Parliament ahead of the visit by Pope Benedict XVI, where he will give an address to the Civil Society, Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster on Friday in London.

Pilgrims depart from buses parked near Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, prior to the papal mass to be celebrated there Thursday afternoon.

Supporters gather ahead of the arrival of Benedict for the papal mass at Bellahouston Park on Thursday.

Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip, greets Pope Benedict XVI Thursday as he arrives in Scotland to begin a four-day trip. The trip is the first to the U.K. by a Pontiff since John Paul II in 1982, and the first to be designated a state visit as Queen invited him, rather than the church.

The pope inspects a guard of honour at Edinburgh Airport on Thursday.

Crowds watch as the Popemobile makes its way along Edinburgh's Princes Street on Thursday.

Pilgrims display their souvenir scarves in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, Scotland, on Thursday ahead of a celebration of mass slated for later in the day.

Pope Benedict XVI, right on stage, Britain's Prince Philip, left, and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, center, inspect an honor guard of members of the Royal Company of Archers and members of the Royal Regiment of Scotland Band as the Pope arrives at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh on Thursday.

The pope's controversial yet historic state trip to the United Kingdom has been overshadowed by the sex abuse scandals which have shaken confidence in the Roman Catholic Church.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip walk with the pope to the Morning Drawing Room in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen's official residence in Scotland on Thursday.

Ulster Protestant leader Rev. Ian Paisley, center, is seen at a protest at Magdalen Chapel in Edinburgh as the pope arrives at the city.

A car drives past an billboard ahead of the pope's visit.

A double-decker bus on London's Oxford St. carries a poster urging the pope to ordain women as priests.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives for mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, Scotland, Thursday.

Pope Benedict XVI's kisses a baby as he arrives for mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, Scotland, Thursday.

Pope Benedict XVI conducts Mass at Bellahouston Park on Thursday, Sept. 16 in Glasgow, Scotland.

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Details of Pope Benedict's first UK visit confirmed by Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace confirmed details today of the first official visit to Britain of a pope, which will see Benedict XVI celebrate two public masses, meet the Queen and move a 19th century theologian closer to sainthood in a ceremony at Coventry airport.

Non-policing costs amount to £15m, a sum to be met by the state and the Catholic churches of England, Scotland and Wales. Policing costs will depend on the venue for each engagement and will draw on existing budgets for the forces involved ‑ Strathclyde police, the Metropolitan police and West Midlands police.

The pope, due to visit in September, will travel to Scotland and England during his four-day trip, taking in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Coventry and London.

He will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor John Paul II, who visited the country on a pastoral trip in 1982, by celebrating mass in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow.

The pope will also lead the beatification ceremony at Coventry airport of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who is likely to become the first Englishman since the 17th century to be made a saint and the first British, non-martyred saint since St John Twenge in 1379. Popes normally instruct beatifications to be carried out at a local level but the pontiff has made no secret of his admiration for Newman, who is variously described as a "towering figure" and the most famous Anglican to convert to Catholicism ‑ at least until Tony Blair. At a Foreign Office briefing the Scotland secretary, Jim Murphy, welcomed the visit, describing it as a "truly unique event".

Murphy said discussions were continuing as to how to best divide the cost but that appropriate contributions from church or state would be made. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, president of the Conference of Bishops in Scotland, said: "When John Paul II came it was a pastoral event and it was paid for by the church. We're not scrimping in any way."

Following the Scottish leg of the tour, which includes an audience with the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and the Coventry event, the pope will travel to London for a lecture on civil society and a potentially awkward meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace.

Relations between the two buckled last year when the pope created a special wing in the Catholic church for traditionalist Anglicans disaffected with greater inclusion of gay and female clergy, by allowing them to convert while retaining Anglican aspects of worship.

Dr Rowan Williams received no notice of the papal plan and was only informed of the development a fortnight before a press conference to announce it, where he looked visibly uncomfortable.

• Pope Benedict XVI
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The Papal Visit

Pope Benedict XVI in the UK

Replay the Visit

In this section you can re-live Benedict XVI's historic Apostolic Journey to these shores in 2010.

Also in Benedict XVI in the UK

Here we have all the filmed speeches, addresses, homilies and much more. You can watch videos, look at galleries and re-read or listen to all our media covering Benedict XVI’s visit to England and Scotland.

• Events Timeline

This is the full detailed schedule for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the UK from 16 - 19 September 2010

Scotland was the first stop on Pope Benedict XVI's historic Papal Visit to the United Kingdom. The cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow hosted the main events.

• In-Flight Interview
• The Queen's Speech To Pope Benedict
• Speech to The Queen
• Archbishop Conti's Welcome Message to the Pope

Pope Benedict XVI flew to London from Scotland to start his visit to England.

• Big Assembly Welcome
• Pope Benedict addresses Teachers and Religious
• Big Assembly Address
• Welcome to Interreligious Gathering

London was the city hosting the memorable Day Three events of Benedict XVI's visit to the UK culminating in a vigil of prayer with Benediction in Hyde Park.

• Archbishop Nichols' Welcome
• Westminster Cathedral Homily
• Youth Address
• Benedict XVI to Young People

The final day of the visit focused very much on the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Cofton Park in Birmingham - adjacent, fittingly, to Rednal where Cardinal Newman was buried and the place where Newman and his community came for rest and recreation in the Lickey Hills.

• Cofton Park Welcome
• Beatification Request
• Beatification Homily
• Recitation of the Angelus Domini
• Popemobile Routes

At certain times during his visit to the UK Benedict XVI used the popemobile to travel through the streets of Edinburgh, London and Birmingham.

• Papal Liturgies

A million copies of the ‘Magnificat – Liturgies and Events of the Papal Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom’ were distributed to parishes across England, Scotland and Wales.

• Papal Visit Booklet

The booklet, “The Pope in the UK”, introduced the theme and aimed to answer some simple questions about the visit itself, the call of faith and its unfolding in daily life and the role of the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis’ schedule released for pastoral visit to Venice

By Devin Watkins

Pope Francis is scheduled to make a one-day pastoral visit to the northern Italian city of Venice on Sunday, April 28.

The Holy See Press Office released the programme for the visit on Monday.

According to the schedule, the Pope is due to arrive in Venice by helicopter, landing inside the Giudecca Women’s Prison facility.

After receiving a welcome by Venetian Patriarch Francesco Moraglia and several Italian officials at 8 AM, the Pope meets with around 80 female inmates in the prison’s courtyard.

He is then scheduled to meet with artists in the prison’s chapel, and view the Holy See’s Pavilion for the 60th International Art Exhibition – known as the Venice Biennale.

The Pavilion bears the title “With My Own Eyes,” and is dedicated to the theme of human rights and people living on the margins of society.

According to the Holy See, it seeks to draw the world’s attention to those people who are largely ignored while fostering a culture of encounter.

Encounter with young people and celebration of Mass

Following his meeting with artists, Pope Francis departs from Giudecca Island in a patrol boat and travels to the Basilica of St. Mary of Good Health.

There, he meets with young people from the Dioceses of Venice and Veneto.

The Pope then crosses a bridge to enter St. Mark’s Square, where he will be welcomed by the president of the Veneto Region, along with Venice’s Prefect and Mayor.

At 11 AM, Pope Francis presides over Mass in St. Mark’s Square and prays the Regina Coeli, the traditional noon-day Marian prayer during the Easter Season.

After Mass, the Pope will enter the Basilica of St. Mark to venerate the relics of the Saint, after which he will board a patrol boat that takes him to the island of St. Elena.

From there he is due to return to the Vatican by helicopter, where he is expected to land at around 2:30 PM.

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