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Papal visit more likely

I saw in today’s papers that a visit by the Pope to Scotland is looking more likely.

As some readers of this blog may be aware I have been asked by the Prime Minister to organise what may be a visit later this year to both Scotland and England with one of the big events being the beatification of Cardinal Newman at a ceremony during a possible English leg of the visit.

Over the weeks I have been meeting with faith leaders and chairing ministerial meetings in Downing Street to put together the plans. But this is all the preparatory work in the hope that the Vatican agrees to a visit. It will be for them to decide.

My view is that this would be a beautiful event for all of Scotland that will be remembered for decades to come. Unlike the visit of Pope John Paul we would like this to be an official visit. One of the things most people forget is his was an unofficial visit at the time of the Falklands war and the visit was only finally confirmed three days in advance (although all the plans had been put in place long beforehand).

So, while we would get more than a three day notice of any papal visit this year, it is too early to confirm the plans. We are still working hard on them and await a response from the Vatican. I thought some readers would find this update interesting.