UK government moves to 'protect'
the Pope from arrest during visit
July 22, 2010
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The Government has moved to prevent the possibility of an arrest warrant being issued against the Pope during his state visit this autumn.
Sky News understands that Whitehall officials have been "seriously concerned" that campaigners would use international criminal rules to try to detain the Pontiff while he is in the UK.
Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC were among those campaigners reported to be looking at the options for bringing a private prosecution in relation to the Pope's alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
Now Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has proposed changes to the rules on universal jurisdiction, a law that allows individuals to be prosecuted in the UK for serious offences such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture even if they were carried out abroad.
The plans would mean the Director of Public Prosecutions would need to give his consent to any arrest warrant issued under universal jurisdiction.
This would effectively mean taking that power out of the hands of the courts.
Ministers say the
current rules are open to abuse because the evidence required to get a warrant is far below the threshold that would be needed to bring a prosecution. This has meant the rules are often used by those who wish to make a political statement or to cause embarrassment.
The most recent attempt to obtain an arrest warrant for a foreign dignitary was ahead of the visit by former Israeli defence minister Tzipi Livni who cancelled her trip at the last minute to avoid embarrassment.
"Our commitment to our international obligations and to ensuring that there is no impunity for those accused of crimes of universal jurisdiction is unwavering," Mr Clarke said.
"It is important, however, that universal jurisdiction cases should be proceeded with in this country only on the basis of solid evidence that is likely to lead to a successful prosecution - otherwise there is a risk of damaging our ability to help in conflict resolution or to pursue a coherent foreign policy.
"The Government has concluded, after careful consideration, that it would be appropriate to require the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions before an arrest warrant can be issued to a private prosecutor in respect of an offence of universal jurisdiction."
The state visit this September will be the first visit by a Pope to the UK since 1982.
70,000 pilgrims expected
for Papal Mass to
beatify Cardinal Newman
July 23, 2010
Because this is a report from the Press Association (the UK version of Associated Press, to which most major UK media subscribe), the story appears in most of the UK media today.
Up to 70,000 people from the UK and around the world are expected to attend a special Mass in Birmingham where Pope Benedict XVI will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, it has been announced.
Cardinals, bishops and more than 1,000 priests will be present at the Mass in Cofton Park on September 19, at the end of the Pope's four-day visit to Britain.
The beatification will be the first to be carried out personally by Benedict since he was elected Pope in 2005, a mark of his lifelong interest in and study of the 19th century clergyman and famous convert from the Church of England to Catholicism.
[Shortly after his election, Benedict XVI changed the practice followed by his predecessor, and decreed that the formal beatification rite be performed in the home diocese of the new Blessed rather than at the Vatican, to which the Pope sends a representative for the rites, usually the Prefect or Emeritus Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood. The visit to the UK was in part planned around the beatification of Cardinal Newman, enabling the Pope himself to preside at the beatification rite.]
The ceremony will bring the revered clergyman, who died in 1890, a step closer to becoming the first non-martyred English saint since before the Reformation.
Pilgrims at the Mass will be asked to make a £25 contribution, the Catholic Church said, to cover the costs of travel, use of the park and a "pilgrim pack" for the occasion.
A spokesman for the Catholic Church in England and Wales said the £25 cost could be paid by parishes, fundraising efforts or through donations by benefactors.
"This is about a pilgrim's journey. The idea is that they are representatives of their parishes," he said. "We want to encourage the idea of a pilgrimage and going collectively. We want to move away from the view that you are buying a ticket and this ticket gives you access to a concert."
Peter Jennings, press secretary to the Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Bernard Longley, said: "It is a momentous occasion for this Pontificate, for the Pope to actually beatify anybody, and it is a tremendous honour for the Catholic Church in England and Wales."
The Pope is expected to make a private visit to the Oratory House in Edgbaston, Birmingham, opened by Cardinal Newman in 1852, where he spent most of his life as a Catholic and where he died in 1890. He is due to visit Cardinal Newman's room and his private chapel before becoming the first pilgrim to pray at a new shrine to the Blessed John Henry Newman.
The Pope will then travel to the Roman Catholic seminary of St Mary's College, Oscott, Sutton Coldfield, for a private visit where he will address the Catholic bishops of England, Scotland and Wales in the chapel where Newman was confirmed a Catholic in 1845.
It seems the demand for tickets to a papal Mass has not been reported so much in previous trips by Benedict XVI:
Glasgow to get 25,000 Pope tickets
by Jasper Hamill
Bellahouston Park in relation to Glasgow city centre; right, some 300,000 crowded into the Park in 1982 for John Paul II's Mass. Tree growth since then considerably limits available space for Massgoers today.
Worshippers in Greater Glasgow are expected to be offered the largest share of tickets to see Pope Benedict XVI in Bellahouston Park.
One in four of the almost 100,000 tickets will be offered to people living in and around the city, with the other 75,000 split between parishes around Scotland.
The Catholic Church will start sending letters out to parishes over the weekend, telling them how many tickets each of them has been allocated for the Mass, which takes place on September 16.
Each parish will be given a set number of tickets, based upon their number of regular worshippers.
Parishes in Greater Glasgow will be offered 25,000, the largest share of the tickets.
Second is Lanarkshire (24,000) followed by Edinburgh, Fife, Lothians
and Borders (17,000); Renfrewshire and Inverclyde (11,000); Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway (5,000); Aberdeenshire, Highlands and Northern Isles (4000); Dundee, Angus and Tayside (4000) and finally Argyll, the Western Isles and Lochaber (2000).
Catholics are so keen to see the Pope that 5000 tickets will be also be handed out to parishes in the north of England, as the Bellahouston Park Mass offers them the best chance of seeing the Pontiff. A batch of 2500 will also be sent to Northern Ireland.
The Catholic Church has not offered explicit advice on how parishes should decide how to distribute their allotted tickets.
Demand is so high that in some areas ballots are expected to be held.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 24/07/2010 11:10]