Pope arrives for UK visit

The Queen has welcomed Pope Benedict to Edinburgh at the start of the first papal visit to the UK for 28 years.

He was officially welcomed at Holyrood House ahead of a parade through the city and an open-air Mass in Glasgow.

Tens of thousands of people are lining the streets of Edinburgh to greet him, although protests are also planned.

One of the Pope's aides has pulled out of the trip after reportedly saying arriving at Heathrow airport was like landing in a "Third World country".

The trip is the first to the UK by a Pontiff since John Paul II in 1982. It is also the first to be designated a state visit because the Pope has been invited by the Queen rather than the church.


The papal plane left Rome's Ciampino airport at about 0720 local time. On board with the Pope were about 30 senior Vatican officials and dozens of journalists.

The pilot raised the union jack and the papal standard from the cockpit as the plane taxied along the runway.

Child abuse

During the flight, in response to a question from the BBC, the Pope said the scandal surrounding the abuse of children by Catholic priests had come as a great personal shock to him.

He said he wanted to offer the victims "material, psychological and spiritual" help and to protect other children from dangerous priests in the future.

The Pope was greeted on the tarmac by the Duke of Edinburgh, Catholic leaders and a 30-strong honour guard from the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Lord Patten also welcomed him on behalf of the government.

Once at Holyrood House, the Queen and the Pope exchanged gifts before holding a private audience.

Vatican officials say Pope Benedict plans to use his visit to highlight the importance of the role of faith for everyone in contemporary Britain, not just Catholics and Anglicans.


Even before his arrival the Pope faced questions from journalists aboard the papal plane.

The Pope said the revelations about sex abuse by priests had caused him great sadness. How was it possible, the Pope asked himself, that priests who had been trained for years to be good pastors could fall into this state? The Church must show penance and humility. He congratulated the English bishops on the strong measures they have taken to deal with the problem.

Was he apprehensive about some opposition expressed in Britain to his state visit? No, he said. During his pastoral visits to France and to the Czech Republic, the Pope said there had been strong anti-clerical feelings expressed. But nonetheless, he had received a warm welcome in France from agnostics and in Italy, too, there was a long history of anti-clericism.

On how to create a more credible church, the Pope said the Church did not work for itself but for others in order to make the gospel message more accessible. Anglicans and Catholics have essentially the same task - to work together, he said.

Monsignor Michael Regan, who has been in charge of planning the first leg of the trip, said: "He's a Pontiff, he's the bridge-builder, and hopefully his visit to Edinburgh today, and to the United Kingdom, will be building bridges in a whole variety of different ways."

Prime Minister David Cameron has said it will be "a very special four days, not just for our six million Catholics, but for many people of faith right across Britain".

But in Edinburgh, Presbyterians, secularists, and other groups are planning to protest against Vatican policies on birth control, gay rights and abortion, as well as the abuse scandal, but police have said they do not expect large-scale demonstrations.

Asked about the protests, the Pope told journalists on his flight that the UK had a "great history of anti-Catholicism", but also "a great history of tolerance".

Meanwhile, one of the Pope's senior advisers - Cardinal Walter Kasper - will not make the trip after he made remarks about England to a German magazine, including claiming it was gripped with a "new and aggressive atheism".

The Vatican said the cardinal had not intended "any kind of slight" and had simply pulled out due to illness. Officials also said his "Third World" comment referred to the UK's multicultural society.

The leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland Keith O'Brien said he was "sure Cardinal Kasper will apologise for any intemperate remarks which he made".