POPE BENEDICT’S state visit to the United Kingdom, the first by a pope since the Reformation, begins today, though it suffered an early blow after a leading cardinal said the UK had become an aggressively atheistic, third world country.
The pope will be greeted at Edinburgh airport by Prince Philip and later by Queen Elizabeth II at Holyrood House in the city, before he make his way to Glasgow for an open-air Mass at Bellahouston.
Leading organisers now accept that just 65,000 Catholics are likely to gather for the Mass – a fraction of the numbers that greeted Pope John Paul II during his 1982 pastoral visit, and far below what had been hoped for by organisers today.
In an outspoken interview with a German news magazine, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the recently retired head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, said the UK had been infected with an “aggressive neo-atheism”.
“England is a secularised, pluralistic country nowadays. When you land at Heathrow you sometimes feel as though you were in a third world country,” he said.
“If you wear a crucifix when you fly with BA you are discriminated against,” said the cardinal, who had been expected to take part in talks with the Church of England Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, at Lambeth Palace on Friday.
Last night, it was announced that Cardinal Kasper would not be travelling with the pope today. The Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi denied, however, that the controversy caused by the German magazine interview was the reason for the cardinal’s non-appearance.
Some in the Vatican yesterday said privately that Cardinal Kasper suffers from gout in his legs and that he is currently suffering from an episode.
In a bid to downplay the issue, the Catholic Church in England and Wales said the “attributed comments” of Cardinal Kasper do not represent the views of the Vatican, nor those of bishops: “Clearly, they are the personal views of one individual.
“Catholics play a full part in this country’s life and welcome the rich diversity of thought, culture and people which is so evident here. This historic visit marks a further development of the good relationship between the United Kingdom and the Holy See. We are confident that it will be a huge success,” said a statement.
Meanwhile, Archbishop of Liverpool Dr Patrick Kelly said the conduct of other bodies, and not just the Catholic Church, must be examined to investigate their handling of paedophilia allegations.
“It’s also worth asking similar groups who worked with young people what were they doing in those same years? Other groups were working with young people and we’ve found that the question of child abuse, above all, occurs within families – you know that as a fact.
“According to what others were doing at the same time, I’m afraid we were so ignorant we did not know about the addictive nature [of paedophiles],” Dr Kelly told the BBC.