Pope will meet Queen on first official visit
THE Pope will come to Britain next year in the first official visit by a pontiff.
During the trip, likely to take place in the spring, Pope Benedict XVI is expected to meet the Queen, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. He could even stay at Buckingham Palace.
The visit follows an invitation from Gordon Brown. Many of Britain’s four million Catholics are likely to attend any public appearances by the Pope, who was elected to office in 2005.
His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, came to the UK in a private capacity in 1982. The trip was kept relatively low-key as Britain was at war with mainly Catholic Argentina over the Falkland Islands at the time. He did meet the Queen and large crowds gathered at open-air masses to see him.
Pope Benedict’s visit is likely to mark the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th century convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism, who is set to be the first English saint born since the 17th century. Last night the trip had not been officially confirmed by the Vatican.