User:Springnuts/Pope Benedict XVI visit to Great Britain, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI was invited to visit Great Britain by the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown in February 2009. According to the Daily Telegraph there is a widespread belief that the invitation was made for political reasons, to garner support away from the Scottish National Party in favour of the Labour Party.

Itinierary
Pope Benedict XVI will begin his official visit in Scotland, where he will be greeted by the Queen and Alex Salmond, the First Minister, at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, the Queen's official residence in the country. He will then travel by helicopter to Glasgow, to hold mass in Bellahouston Park, where Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus will perform before the start of the Mass. A parish fee of £20 per attendee is being levied, despite earlier assurances that no individual charge would be made. In early August, after the deadline for attendance to be notified, returns suggested that ticket take-up was well below expectations and that attendance would fall short of the 100,000 target. By mid-August it was revealed that "thousands of tickets" were being returned to organisers. Irish clerical singing group The Priests will headline a Hyde Park Prayer Vigil, which will be m/c'd by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Costs
The Pope will preach in Westminster Hall. He will make an address to MPs and peers from the spot where Sir Thomas More was sentenced in 1535 for high treason for denying the validity of the Act of Succession. Benedict will preside over the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, with 65,000 pilgrims expected at the 80,000 capacity Cofton Park in Longbridge, Birmingham, on Sunday, September 19. Early indications were that this event was oversubscribed in the Birmingham Archdiocese. The £25 charged per attendee for a "pilgrim pack" can be paid by parishes or benefactors, with the church emphasising that the so called "Pay to Pray" fees for this event and for a Hyde Park Prayer Vigil (£10) are not "ticket prices". The Pope will also deliver an address to academics in Oxford University, and according to the Archbishop of Westminster is considering a meeting with victims of sexual abuse by priests. The Pope will visit the Birmingham Oratory, founded by Newman and currently under investigation by the Vatican: there is controversy and mystery over this visit as three priests from the Oratory have been sent away to separate locations, apparently to ensure they are not present for the Pope's visit. The Papal visit official itinerary contains three to four hours each day with no formal events planned: this allows time for a secret meeting with victims of clerical abuse and also for a daily nap. In a perceived snub to British Airways the Pope will fly home on a chartered Italian state airline Airbus A320. In conjunction with the visit plans are being made for a display of Vatican tapestries at the Royal Academy.

On 2 August 2010 Papal visit souvenirs such as baseball caps (£15), key-rings and T-shirts went on sale from official merchandiser IVS Group, with marketing experts predicting total sales of up to £3 million despite the economic downturn: retail analyst Neil Saunders saying that "Committed Catholics do spend a lot per head on these visits because they don’t happen often.”

Controversy
The beatification of Cardinal Newman was originally planned for Coventry Airport with a congregation of 200,000 but was scaled down amidst concerns over costs: the visit is to cost the UK's Roman Catholics between £7 million and £14 million. £5 million had been raised by early July 2010, however fundraising stalled at this point and by mid August the church was facing a 2.6 million shortfall. The United Kingdom government contribution is set to rise by £4 million to at least an estimated £19 million, with officials suggesting costs are "out of control" and that the final bill could be over £20 million. Shortly before the visit a survey revealed that three our of four people in the UK were opposed to any government money being spent on the visit, however the Archbishop of Westminster insisted that it was right for the government to pay as it is an official State Visit. The visit is to cost Edinburgh City council £400,000. There is also concern among the UK's Roman Catholics that the visit has created hostility towards the Church and the Pope.

Opposition
Anjoum Noorani, leader of the UK State's papal visit team, was sacked after authorising a memo mocking the visit. Subsequently the UK appointed liberal Catholic Lord Patten to get the visit back on track following a series of setbacks. The visit is opposed by a wide range of people and organisations including ultra-Catholics, protestants, gay and secular groups, citing issues ranging from religious concerns to the Pope's opposition to gay and abortion rights, gender equality and the use of condoms. Former DUP leader Ian Paisley called the visit a "mistake", and the principal of Scotland's Free Church Training College said the visit airbrushed the Protestant Reformation out of history and dishonoured reformer and nation-builder John Knox. Richard Dawkins supported a call for the Pope's arrest for "crimes against humanity", an idea described by a former editor of the Catholic Herald as "lunatic", and human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson was reported to be looking at options to charge the Pope over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. In July 2010 the UK government announced plans to change the law on universal jurisdiction to prevent the issue of an arrest warrant. The National Secular Society is organising a campaign of protests against the visit. The Roman Catholic pressure group "Catholic Women's Ordination" is arranging for London buses to carry advertisements encouraging the Pope to "Ordain Women Now" and is also planning further unspecified lobbying action. Telegraph writer Damian Thompson warned of likely further attempts to "smear" the Pope in the run up to the visit. and in an editorial the paper warned that "any attempts to humiliate the Pontiff during his visit would damage Britain". The BBC are to mark the visit with documentaries including a papal profile ("The Real Joseph Ratzinger"), a documentary about Newman, and a documentary about Catholic clerical abuse scandals (The Pope on Trial ). Plans by BBC staff to black out live coverage of the visit are said to be related to internal disputes within the BBC; Union plans for industrial action in Scotland threaten to create difficulties for the visit there.