The Most Holy Trinity - Year C - 30th May 2010

Papal Visit

Many people are asking about the arrangements for the papal visit and how they might get to see the Pope. As yet there has been no direct communication with the parishes but to keep us informed a special website has been set up. The visit is as follows:

Thursday 16 September: Pope Benedict arrives in Scotland where he will be received by Her Majesty the Queen, members of the Royal Family and people representing British society at the Palace of Holyrood House. He will then travel to Glasgow where he will celebrate an open-air Mass in the evening and then fly from Glasgow to London.

Friday 17 September: Pope Benedict will visit St Mary's University College, Twickenham, where he will pray with representatives of religious congregations. He will then meet about 3,000 young people in order to celebrate Catholic education. Later in the day the Pope is scheduled to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury and some Anglican Bishops. He will then address representatives of British society at Westminster Hall and conclude the day with the celebration of Evening Prayer at Westminster Abbey with various Christian leaders.

Saturday 18 September: Pope Benedict will celebrate Mass at Westminster Cathedral. Later in the day the Holy Father will visit a home for the elderly and will be present at an open-air Vigil of prayer in central London.

Sunday 19 September: The final day of the visit will focus on the beatification of Cardinal Newman, which the Pope himself will celebrate in the West Midlands. (Coventry airport). He will conclude the day by meeting with the bishops of England, Scotland and Wales at Oscott College before returning to Rome.

The visit is being co-ordinated by Mgr Andrew Summersgill who is anxious to ensure that as many people as feasibly possible can be with the Pope. However he also stresses the complexity of bringing a large number of people to one place and then safely back again. Once the number of attendees at each venue has been finalised, invitations will be allocated to the dioceses for each of these large events. The diocese will then assess how best, for each local area, to distribute those invitations.

To assist those who will not have an invitation or the opportunity of seeing Pope Benedict in person, every effort is being made with broadcasters and web partners to ensure that as much of Pope Benedict's time in the UK as possible will be broadcast live on TV and on thepapalvisit.org.uk. This means many more people will be able to be part of the Virtual Visit online - even when it isn't physically possible to be present with him.

Fr. Kevin O'Shea, C.M.