The Tablet says Pope's UK visit
will take place Sept. 16-19, 2010
ROME, Dec. 14 (Translated from SIR) - The English Catholic weekly
The Tablet writes that Benedict XVI's precedent-setting state visit to the United Kingdom next year will take place Sept. 16-19, will include a day in Scotland, and will climax in the beatification rite for Cardinal John Henry Newman.
In recent days, the British press has speculated on some of the key events in the Pope;s visit,including an address to Members of Parliament at the historic Westminster Central Hall, where St. Thomas More was condemned to death in 1535; and an address to the world of culture at Oxford University.
The Tablet says that a delegation from the Catholic Church in Britain and in Scotland was at the Vatican last week to discuss the details of the Pope's program.
Unlike John Paul II's 1982 visit, Benedict's trip will not only be a pastoral visit to the Catholics of the United Kingdom, but also a true and proper state visit [the highest category of visit that can me made by a chief of state, in which the host government pulls out all the pomp and circumstance it can muster aa a tribute to the visitor and the country he represents].
[Well, Benedict has a stamp-sized territory but he does represent the world's largest religion - which in its own way - might be considered to have taken over in terms of reach from the mighty and farflung British Empire of old 'where the sun never set'.]
Because of thw state visit aspect, there is a government committee to handle the preparations, under the secretary of the British cabinet, Sir Gus O'Donnell. His counterparts on the side of the Church are Mons. Andrew Sommergill, former secretary-general of the bishops' conference of England and Wales, and Fr. Paul Conroy, secretary of the Scottish bishops conference.
Sommergill and Roy led the delegation to the Vatican.
The Tablet apparently notes how unusual it will be for Benedict XVI to preside a a beatification rite, now normally presided over by the bishop of the new blessed's home diocese and a representative of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood from the Vatican.
[But it is not all that unusual, considering that until Benedict XVI himself instituted the curtrent 'norm', all beatifications were presided over by the Pope at the Vatican - although when the occasion presented itself, John Paul II found it fitting to beatify some of the new blessed ones in their own homelands if he happened to be visiting at the time.
Benedict XVI really is not making 'an exception to his own rule', as some Vaticanistas have expressed it. He's not celebrating it in the Vatican, to begin with, and since he would be on Cardinal Newsman's turf, I don't think the local bishop - who will be the ranking concelebrant of the Pope - will mind concelebrating with the Pope, instead of say, Archbishop Amato, who would probably have represented the Pope in other circumstances.]
I immediately tried to get this report from the original source, but I can't seem to see it on the Tablet's site so far, at least not in the headlines and teasers that they make available to non-subscribers. They don't even have any 'free' articles this week! Nor can I find anything in the other British papers yet, not even from Damian Thompson.
P.S.
There was this late report in the Telegraph commenting on the choice of Convetry airport for the Beatification Mass of Cardinal Newman:
Pope Benedict sent to Coventry
for the climax of his visit
by Tim Walker
Dec. 15, 2009
As the backdrop to the climatic moments of Pope Benedict XVI's historic first trip to Britain, it seems, to say the least, unexpected.
Reuters Mandrake hears, however, that the centrepiece of the pontiff's visit, the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, will take place at Coventry Airport.
"It is a nice central location and holds good memories because Pope John Paul II spoke there during his 1982 visit," whispers my Roman Catholic mole.
The airport is best known in recent years for the death of Jill Phipps, an animal rights protester, during clashes with police over the export of live calves in 1995.
Wembley Stadium had previously been seen as a more likely venue for the beatification ceremony, which is the last process before sainthood, of Cardinal Newman, who converted from Anglicanism in 1845.
The Pope, 82, is expected to stay at Buckingham Palace in September when he makes only the second Papal visit to this country since Henry VIII broke with Rome and established the Church of England 500 years ago.
[I really must question again the bit about the Pope staying at Buckingham Palace because there is no precednet at all for a Pope travelling abroad staying at other than the Apostolic Nunciature in teh host country.]
I reported in October that sources at the Vatican claimed the Queen's sympathy for Catholicism had increased as she had become "appalled'', along with the Prince of Wales, at developments in the Church of England, of which she is Supreme Governor. The Queen, 83, is said to have an "affinity" with the Holy Father, who is of her generation.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/12/2009 17:52]