Update: The Archbishop's Presidential Address: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/3056

Further coverage of the afternoon's debates, including the main item on 'The Big Society' in Friday's Church Times.

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THOSE fortunate enough to have tickets began lining up at the top of Great Smith Street before three o’clock, ensuring that they obtained a decent spot in Westminster Abbey for evening prayer, and to witness the first Pope to enter the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster.

With registration by surname and airport-style security checks (including a request for a recent utility bill), they had a long wait. Not that the mixture of smartly dressed laypeople and clergy from across a variety of denominations seemed to mind. They hardly seemed to notice the handful of anti-Catholic proselytisers, distributing tracts across the other side of Victoria Street, and parading banners.

Once seated, they were able to watch the Pope’s journey from Lambeth Palace to Westminster Hall, and his speech to distinguished public figures, relayed via plasma screens in the Abbey. The congregation greeted his speech with enthusiastic applause.

The Popemobile arrived at the front entrance of the Abbey in what seemed like little time, the earlier clouds having made way for early evening sun. The Pope, with the Archbishop of Canterbury at his side, was greeted at the entrance by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Revd Dr John Hall, who paused briefly to point out the 12 Martyrs carved above the Abbey’s entrance.

Dr Hall then welcomed Benedict “most warmly as the first Pope to visit the Church dedicated to St Peter” which, “for 600 years as a Benedictine Abbey, until the English Reformation, enjoyed a close relationship of mutual support with the papacy”.

After retiring to the Jericho Parlour to vest, during which the Abbey’s choir sang, the Pope said a prayer, before being introduced to leaders of the Churches of the British Isles, who included the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Revd John Christie, and the President of the Methodist Council, the Revd Alison Tomlin.

The collegiate procession, together with the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury, moved to places in the Abbey Quire and Sacrarium as the hymn “Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation” was sung.

Once seated, Dr Williams welcomed the Pope “on behalf of all Christian communities of Great Britain . . . in fraternal love to this great shrine, which has been of such significance for both Church and nation”. Pope Benedict thanked Dr Williams for his welcome and said that “this noble edifice evokes England’s long history, so deeply marked by the preaching of the Gospel and the Christian culture to which it gave birth”.

The Archbishop then introduced the Peace, warmly embracing the pontiff. The cardinals and bishops seated to each side followed suit, with hearty handshakes.

A reading from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter 2, verse 5-11 followed, read by the President of the World Council of Churches, Dame Mary Tanner. The reading spoke of Christ’s emptying of himself, even to death, but subsequent exaltation.

The congregation then stood to sing the Charles Wesley hymn “O thou who camest from above”, after which the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Revd John Christie, read from the Gospel of St Mark, chapter 10, verses 35-45, which included Christ’s declaration that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many”.

The Archbishop and the Pope then venerated the St Augustine Gospels, after which they each gave short addresses. The Pope said the historic occasion was a reminder “that what we share in Christ is greater than what continues to divide us” and that there is a continual challenge “to present the risen Lord as the deepest response the questions of our time”.

The pontiff’s gentle delivery was not entirely in keeping with his robust language: “It is the word of God precisely because it is the true word. It leads us into obedience that must be free of intellectual compromise and accommodation to the spirit of this age.”

Dr Williams, in his address, spoke of the way “in our society we can see the dehumanising effects of losing St Benedict’s vision”, such as people devoting themselves to work at the expense of relationship, and the worthlessness felt by many who had been made unemployed.

Prayers were led by six different Anglican and Catholic representatives, both clerical and lay, including the Canon of Westminster, the Revd Dr Jane Hedges, and the secretary to the Church of England Youth Council, Leah Wagstaff.

After a collect sung by the Minor Canon of Westminster, the Revd Michael Macey, and the saying of the Lord’s Prayer, a seminal moment was marked when the Pope and Archbishop moved to the Shrine of Edward the Confessor to offer prayers. The Archbishop prayed for blessing on “all who witness to the gospel’s call in the public life of our countries”; the Pope prayed that God would “heal the divisions among Christians”.

The congregation then stood to sing “All my hope on God is founded”, followed by the blessing, spoken simultaneously by the Pope and Archbishop. As the Pope, helped by one of his aides, navigated the steps down out of the Sacrarium, the congregation broke into spontaneous applause.

IN a historic meeting on Friday, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to visit Lambeth Palace. There he addressed the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, as well as diocesan bishops from the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Pope was greeted with a warm round of applause in the Great Hall of the Archbishop’s Library at Lambeth Palace.

After an opening prayer, the Archbishop of Canterbury “recalled with great gratitude” the improved relations between the two churches during the past 50 years.

In his short address, Dr Williams urged the bishops present to be ready to “respond to the various trends in our cultural environment that seek to present Christian faith as both an obstacle to human freedom and a scandal to human intellect”.

They “needed to be clear that the gospel of the new creation in Jesus Christ is the door through which we enter into true liberty and true understanding”.

Dr Williams said neither Church sought “political power or control, or the dominance of the Christian faith in the public sphere; but the opportunity to testify, to argue, sometimes to protest, sometimes to affirm — to play our part in the public debates of our societies”.

In response Pope Benedict gave thanks for the “remarkable progress” on unity and mission that had been made between the two Churches through the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) in the past 40 years.

He acknowledged that the “increasingly multicultural dimension of society, particularly marked in this country, brings with it the opportunity to encounter other religions”.

He said this was an opportunity for witness, and that “Christians must never hesitate to proclaim our faith in the uniqueness of the salvation won for us by Christ.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope then exchanged gifts, before the Pope led the bishops in the Lord’s Prayer, and concluded with the Grace.

The Archbishop of Canterbury gave the Pope a leather-bound diptych of facsimile full-page illuminations from the Lambeth Bible, which dates from the 12th century. The Pope gave Dr Williams a copy of the Codex Pauli, a finely bound copy of a newly illustrated text of all Paul’s letters in Greek.

The Pope then was welcomed into the home of Dr Williams and his wife Jane for a private discussion.

A communiqué released after the meeting said the two leaders addressed issues of mutual concern for Anglicans and Roman Catholics, affirming “the need to proclaim the gospel message of salvation in Jesus Christ, both in a reasoned and convincing way in the contemporary context of profound cultural and social transformation”.

They also reflected together on the “serious and difficult situation of Christians in the Middle East”, and called for prayer for Christians in the Holy Land.

The Archbishop of York said the visit of the Pope was a “wonderful thing” and offered an opportunity for dialogue.

Dr Sentamu called for a spirit of “gracious magnanimity” towards the Pope from the British people, and praised Pope Benedict for his comments on aggressive secularism: “I’ve been at it for a long time now so I’m very pleased he said something on it.”

The Bishop of Lincoln, Dr John Saxbee welcomed the Pope’s visit, which he said was an excellent opportunity for the two Communions to encounter each other “face to face” and learn from one another.

The Bishop of Sodor & Man, the Rt Revd Robert Paterson, said the Pope’s visit was “a great occasion to welcome a fellow bishop and leader from another Christian tradition”.

As he left Lambeth Palace for Westminster the Pope was greeted by supporters and protesters. About 100 women from the Catholic Women’s Ordination Group, supported by members of the Women and the Church (WATCH), held placards and banners.

The Revd Jean Mayland, a retired priest from Hexham, said she was reciprocating the support Anglican women had received in the past from Roman Catholics when they were campaigning for ordination in the Church of England. She said the Lambeth event had been dominated by the male élite of the Church of England.

The Human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was also there for a while, along with other campaigners for victims of child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Revd Kevin Annett, a non-denominational minister from Canada, and part of Hidden From History group, said they were calling for the Pope to “stop protecting child rapists in the Church”. It plans to issue a summons for Pope Benedict to appear before an international tribunal in London next year, answering “charges of his complicity in crimes against humanity”.

The crowds outside had an international flavour. Roberto Duevara, 35, a Roman Catholic from Mexico now living in London, said “it was very symbolic to see the Pope”, and that he was delighted the pontiff was in the UK, but acknowledged many people did not welcome him.

Ian Luke-Macauley, an Anglican from St Mark’s, Kennington, said he simply wanted to take a photograph of the Pope, who he believed was an important figure in Christianity.

The addresses can be found in full here: The Pope at Lambeth Palace

RELIGION has a key place in the foundations of a state, the Pope said on Friday afternoon.

In what was the key speech of his visit, delivered in Westminster Hall — what John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, told Pope Benedict was the “heart of our democratic tradition” — the Pope acknowledged the privilege being afforded to him in his invitation to speak to parliamentarians, diplomats, and members of civil society. He praised Britain’s “profound influence on the development of participative government among the nations”.

But from praise he moved on to a challenge: democracy alone was not a sufficient grounding for action: “If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident — herein lies the real challenge for democracy.”

He will have won supporters for the example he chose of “the inadequacy of pragmatic, short-term solutions to complex social and ethical problems”: the global financial crisis.

He asked where the ethical foundations of a state were to be found, and placed the in the interplay between reason and religion. In the Catholic tradition, he said, religion did not so much supply the norms governing right action — they could be known to non-believers. Still less did it propose concrete political solutions.

Instead, religion provided a corrective, “to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles”.

In order to do this, religion itself had to be subjected to reason. “This “corrective” role of religion vis-à-vis reason is not always welcomed, though, partly because distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create serious social problems themselves. And in their turn, these distortions of religion arise when insufficient attention is given to the purifying and structuring role of reason within religion. It is a two-way process.

“Without the corrective supplied by religion, though, reason, too, can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that fails to take full account of the dignity of the human person.”

Religion, then, was “not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation”. Here, the Pope spoke again about the marginalisation of religion as he saw it in British society, supplying the tabloid newspapers with their headline by defending Christmas: “There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.”

The Pope’s speech was well received. Sustained applause followed him as he rose from the dais, pausing briefly to greet Nick Clegg, standing in for David Cameron, and past prime ministers and their wives, then walked slowly the length of Westminster Hall to depart for evening prayer at Westminster Abbey.

The text of the speech is here: Pope Benedict's address at Westminster Hall

17/09/2010 7:10 pm

Westminster Hall, City of Westminster, Friday, 17 September 2010

Mr Speaker,

Thank you for your words of welcome on behalf of this distinguished gathering. As I address you, I am conscious of the privilege afforded me to speak to the British people and their representatives in Westminster Hall, a building of unique significance in the civil and political history of the people of these islands. Allow me also to express my esteem for the Parliament which has existed on this site for centuries and which has had such a profound influence on the development of participative government among the nations, especially in the Commonwealth and the English-speaking world at large. Your common law tradition serves as the basis of legal systems in many parts of the world, and your particular vision of the respective rights and duties of the state and the individual, and of the separation of powers, remains an inspiration to many across the globe.

As I speak to you in this historic setting, I think of the countless men and women down the centuries who have played their part in the momentous events that have taken place within these walls and have shaped the lives of many generations of Britons, and others besides. In particular, I recall the figure of Saint Thomas More, the great English scholar and statesman, who is admired by believers and non-believers alike for the integrity with which he followed his conscience, even at the cost of displeasing the sovereign whose “good servant” he was, because he chose to serve God first. The dilemma which faced More in those difficult times, the perennial question of the relationship between what is owed to Caesar and what is owed to God, allows me the opportunity to reflect with you briefly on the proper place of religious belief within the political process.

This country’s Parliamentary tradition owes much to the national instinct for moderation, to the desire to achieve a genuine balance between the legitimate claims of government and the rights of those subject to it. While decisive steps have been taken at several points in your history to place limits on the exercise of power, the nation’s political institutions have been able to evolve with a remarkable degree of stability. In the process, Britain has emerged as a pluralist democracy which places great value on freedom of speech, freedom of political affiliation and respect for the rule of law, with a strong sense of the individual’s rights and duties, and of the equality of all citizens before the law. While couched in different language, Catholic social teaching has much in common with this approach, in its overriding concern to safeguard the unique dignity of every human person, created in the image and likeness of God, and in its emphasis on the duty of civil authority to foster the common good.

And yet the fundamental questions at stake in Thomas More’s trial continue to present themselves in ever-changing terms as new social conditions emerge. Each generation, as it seeks to advance the common good, must ask anew: what are the requirements that governments may reasonably impose upon citizens, and how far do they extend? By appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas be resolved? These questions take us directly to the ethical foundations of civil discourse. If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident - herein lies the real challenge for democracy.

The inadequacy of pragmatic, short-term solutions to complex social and ethical problems has been illustrated all too clearly by the recent global financial crisis. There is widespread agreement that the lack of a solid ethical foundation for economic activity has contributed to the grave difficulties now being experienced by millions of people throughout the world. Just as “every economic decision has a moral consequence” (Caritas in Veritate, 37), so too in the political field, the ethical dimension of policy has far-reaching consequences that no government can afford to ignore. A positive illustration of this is found in one of the British Parliament’s particularly notable achievements – the abolition of the slave trade. The campaign that led to this landmark legislation was built upon firm ethical principles, rooted in the natural law, and it has made a contribution to civilization of which this nation may be justly proud.

The central question at issue, then, is this: where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers – still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion – but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles. This “corrective” role of religion vis-à-vis reason is not always welcomed, though, partly because distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create serious social problems themselves. And in their turn, these distortions of religion arise when insufficient attention is given to the purifying and structuring role of reason within religion. It is a two-way process. Without the corrective supplied by religion, though, reason too can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that fails to take full account of the dignity of the human person. Such misuse of reason, after all, was what gave rise to the slave trade in the first place and to many other social evils, not least the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world of faith – the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief – need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.

Religion, in other words, is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation. In this light, I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance. There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere. There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none. And there are those who argue – paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination – that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience. These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square. I would invite all of you, therefore, within your respective spheres of influence, to seek ways of promoting and encouraging dialogue between faith and reason at every level of national life.

Your readiness to do so is already implied in the unprecedented invitation extended to me today. And it finds expression in the fields of concern in which your Government has been engaged with the Holy See. In the area of peace, there have been exchanges regarding the elaboration of an international arms trade treaty; regarding human rights, the Holy See and the United Kingdom have welcomed the spread of democracy, especially in the last sixty-five years; in the field of development, there has been collaboration on debt relief, fair trade and financing for development, particularly through the International Finance Facility, the International Immunization Bond, and the Advanced Market Commitment. The Holy See also looks forward to exploring with the United Kingdom new ways to promote environmental responsibility, to the benefit of all.

I also note that the present Government has committed the United Kingdom to devoting 0.7% of national income to development aid by 2013. In recent years it has been encouraging to witness the positive signs of a worldwide growth in solidarity towards the poor. But to turn this solidarity into effective action calls for fresh thinking that will improve life conditions in many important areas, such as food production, clean water, job creation, education, support to families, especially migrants, and basic healthcare. Where human lives are concerned, time is always short: yet the world has witnessed the vast resources that governments can draw upon to rescue financial institutions deemed “too big to fail”. Surely the integral human development of the world’s peoples is no less important: here is an enterprise, worthy of the world’s attention, that is truly “too big to fail”.

This overview of recent cooperation between the United Kingdom and the Holy See illustrates well how much progress has been made, in the years that have passed since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations, in promoting throughout the world the many core values that we share. I hope and pray that this relationship will continue to bear fruit, and that it will be mirrored in a growing acceptance of the need for dialogue and respect at every level of society between the world of reason and the world of faith. I am convinced that, within this country too, there are many areas in which the Church and the public authorities can work together for the good of citizens, in harmony with this Parliament’s historic practice of invoking the Spirit’s guidance upon those who seek to improve the conditions of all mankind. For such cooperation to be possible, religious bodies – including institutions linked to the Catholic Church – need to be free to act in accordance with their own principles and specific convictions based upon the faith and the official teaching of the Church. In this way, such basic rights as religious freedom, freedom of conscience and freedom of association are guaranteed. The angels looking down on us from the magnificent ceiling of this ancient Hall remind us of the long tradition from which British Parliamentary democracy has evolved. They remind us that God is constantly watching over us to guide and protect us. And they summon us to acknowledge the vital contribution that religious belief has made and can continue to make to the life of the nation.

Mr Speaker, I thank you once again for this opportunity briefly to address this distinguished audience. Let me assure you and the Lord Speaker of my continued good wishes and prayers for you and for the fruitful work of both Houses of this ancient Parliament. Thank you and God bless you all!

Your Holiness, brother bishops, brothers and sisters in Christ:

It is a particular pleasure that on this historic occasion we are able to come together as bishops of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches in this country to greet you, Your Holiness, during a visit which we all hope will be of significance both to the Church of Christ and to British society. Your consistent and penetrating analysis of the state of European society in general has been a major contribution to public debate on the relations between Church and culture, and we gratefully acknowledge our debt in this respect.

Our task as bishops is to preach the Gospel and shepherd the flock of Christ; and this includes the responsibility not only to feed but also to protect it from harm. Today, this involves a readiness to respond to the various trends in our cultural environment that seek to present Christian faith as both an obstacle to human freedom and a scandal to human intellect. We need to be clear that the Gospel of the new creation in Jesus Christ is the door through which we enter into true liberty and true understanding: we are made free to be human as God intends us to be human; we are given the illumination that helps us see one another and all created things in the light of divine love and intelligence. As you said in your Inaugural Mass in 2005, recalling your predecessor’s first words as pope, Christ takes away nothing "that pertains to human freedom or dignity or to the building of a just society… If we let Christ into our lives we lose absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. Only in his friendship is the great potential of human existence revealed." [Inaugural Homily, Rome, 24 April 2005]

Our presence together as British bishops here today is a sign of the way in which, in this country, we see our task as one and indivisible. The International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission has set before us all the vital importance of our common calling as bishops to be agents of mission. Our fervent prayer is that this visit will give us fresh energy and vision for working together in this context in the name of what a great Roman Catholic thinker of the last century called ‘true humanism’ – a passionate commitment to the dignity of all human beings, from the beginning to the end of life, and to a resistance to every tyranny that threatens to stifle or deny the place of the transcendent in human affairs.

We do not as churches seek political power or control, or the dominance of Christian faith in the public sphere; but the opportunity to testify, to argue, sometimes to protest, sometimes to affirm – to play our part in the public debates of our societies. And we shall, of course, be effective not when we have mustered enough political leverage to get our way but when we have persuaded our neighbours that the life of faith is a life well lived and joyfully lived.

In other words, we shall be effective defenders or proclaimers of our faith when we can show what a holy life looks like, a life in which the joy of God is transparently present. And this means that our ministry together as bishops across the still-surviving boundaries of our confessions is not only a search for how we best act together in the public arena; it is a quest together for holiness and transparency to God, a search for ways in which we may help each other to grow in the life of the Holy Spirit. As you have said, Your Holiness, "a joint fundamental testimony of faith ought to be given before a world which is torn by doubts and shaken by fears." [‘Luther and the Unity of the Churches’, 1983]

In 1845, when John Henry Newman finally decided that he must follow his conscience and seek his future in serving God in communion with the See of Rome, one of his most intimate Anglican friends and allies, the priest Edward Bouverie Pusey, whose memory the Church of England marked in its liturgical calendar yesterday, wrote a moving meditation on this "parting of friends" in which he said of the separation between Anglicans and Roman Catholics: "it is what is unholy on both sides that keeps us apart".

That should not surprise us: holiness is at its simplest fellowship with Christ; and when that fellowship with Christ is brought to maturity, so is our fellowship with one another. As bishops, we are servants of the unity of Christ’s people, Christ’s one Body. And, meeting as we do as bishops of separated church communities, we must all feel that each of our own ministries is made less by the fact of our dividedness, a very real but imperfect communion. Perhaps we shall not quickly overcome the remaining obstacles to full, restored communion; but no obstacles stand in the way of our seeking, as a matter of joyful obedience to the Lord, more ways in which to build up one another in holiness by prayer and public celebration together, by closer friendship, and by growing together both in the challenging work of service for all whom Christ loves, and mission to all God has made.

May this historic visit be for all of us a special time of grace and of growth in our shared calling, as you, Your Holiness, bring us the word of the Gospel afresh.

Pope Benedict's address to the Archbishop of Canterbury
17/09/2010 4:30 pm
Lambeth Palace, Friday, 17 September 2010

Your Grace,

It is a pleasure for me to be able to return the courtesy of the visits you have made to me in Rome by a fraternal visit to you here in your official residence. I thank you for your invitation and for the hospitality that you have so generously provided. I greet too the Anglican Bishops gathered here from different parts of the United Kingdom, my brother Bishops from the Catholic Dioceses of England, Wales and Scotland, and the ecumenical advisers who are present.

You have spoken, Your Grace, of the historic meeting that took place, almost thirty years ago, between two of our predecessors – Pope John Paul the Second and Archbishop Robert Runcie – in Canterbury Cathedral. There, in the very place where Saint Thomas of Canterbury bore witness to Christ by the shedding of his blood, they prayed together for the gift of unity among the followers of Christ. We continue today to pray for that gift, knowing that the unity Christ willed for his disciples will only come about in answer to prayer, through the action of the Holy Spirit, who ceaselessly renews the Church and guides her into the fullness of truth.

It is not my intention today to speak of the difficulties that the ecumenical path has encountered and continues to encounter. Those difficulties are well known to everyone here. Rather, I wish to join you in giving thanks for the deep friendship that has grown between us and for the remarkable progress that has been made in so many areas of dialogue during the forty years that have elapsed since the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission began its work. Let us entrust the fruits of that work to the Lord of the harvest, confident that he will bless our friendship with further significant growth.

The context in which dialogue takes place between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church has evolved in dramatic ways since the private meeting between Pope John XXIII and Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher in 1960. On the one hand, the surrounding culture is growing ever more distant from its Christian roots, despite a deep and widespread hunger for spiritual nourishment. On the other hand, the increasingly multicultural dimension of society, particularly marked in this country, brings with it the opportunity to encounter other religions. For us Christians this opens up the possibility of exploring, together with members of other religious traditions, ways of bearing witness to the transcendent dimension of the human person and the universal call to holiness, leading to the practice of virtue in our personal and social lives. Ecumenical cooperation in this task remains essential, and will surely bear fruit in promoting peace and harmony in a world that so often seems at risk of fragmentation.

At the same time, we Christians must never hesitate to proclaim our faith in the uniqueness of the salvation won for us by Christ, and to explore together a deeper understanding of the means he has placed at our disposal for attaining that salvation. God “wants all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), and that truth is nothing other than Jesus Christ, eternal Son of the Father, who has reconciled all things in himself by the power of his Cross. In fidelity to the Lord’s will, as expressed in that passage from Saint Paul’s First Letter to Timothy, we recognize that the Church is called to be inclusive, yet never at the expense of Christian truth. Herein lies the dilemma facing all who are genuinely committed to the ecumenical journey.

In the figure of John Henry Newman, who is to be beatified on Sunday, we celebrate a churchman whose ecclesial vision was nurtured by his Anglican background and matured during his many years of ordained ministry in the Church of England. He can teach us the virtues that ecumenism demands: on the one hand, he was moved to follow his conscience, even at great personal cost; and on the other hand, the warmth of his continued friendship with his former colleagues, led him to explore with them, in a truly eirenical spirit, the questions on which they differed, driven by a deep longing for unity in faith. Your Grace, in that same spirit of friendship, let us renew our determination to pursue the goal of unity in faith, hope, and love, in accordance with the will of our one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

With these sentiments, I take my leave of you. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor 13:13).

THE ARRIVAL of Pope Benedict XVI in Edinburgh yesterday, on the feast of St Ninian, marked the first ever state visit by any Pope to the United Kingdom.

The Pope was greeted at the airport by the Duke of Edinburgh, and the part travelled straight to the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Queen was waiting.

In her speech of welcome, the Queen referred to the visit by his predecessor, Pope John-Paul II, in 1982. She commented with pleasure on the advances made in understanding and communication between different faiths in the United Kingdom in the years since then.

The Pope, in reply, stated his satisfaction on the achievements of Church and state in the UK, citing the Good Friday Agreement. He also praised Britain for standing up to the Nazis, and warned about the influence of “aggressive atheism”. [full text].
 
Proceedings at the Palace ended with a reception for invited dignitaries, including Rowan Williams.

The Pope departed in a Popemobile, accompanied the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh, Cardinal Keith Patrick O‘Brien. Both were wearing shawls of the specially commissioned St Ninian tartan designed by Matthew Newsome.

Their progress along Princes Street had been preceeded by a St Ninian’s Day Parade featuring Pipe bands and characters dressed as William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots, Robert Burns, John Knox, and, of course, St Ninian. The crowds were estimated to number 100,000.

I was in Glasgow along with an estimated 70,000 other pilgrims in Bellahouston Park, waiting to take part in the papal mass later in the afternoon. The Pope toured the park in his Popemobile at shortly before five o’clock.

The mass began at 5.15. The altar area had a specially commissioned altar made from Carrara marble and Scots pine. The Pope’s chair was also built using Scots pine. Both were designed by Niamh Quail (with assistance from the “Rapid Prototyping Unit at Strathclyde University”).

A official welcome from the Archbishop of Glasgow, the Most Reverend Mario Conti, alluded to St John Ogilvie, who was martyred in Glasgow, and also St Margaret.

Mass settings were composed by James MacMillan. The main choir was made up from members of parishes across Scotland. Music was performed by instrumental ensembles and brass, as well as organ and clarsach.

The Pope’s homily encouraged bishops to know and care for their priests, for priests to do the same for their parishioners, and for wider society, especially the young, to cherish their faith and to respect their bodies and minds. This will make us happy: drugs and other vices may give pleasure but are destructive and divisive.

With the end of the mass, a glorious and sunny papal day in Scotland came to an end.

• The text of Pope Benedict's Address at Holyrood Palace
• Riazat Butt from the Guardian has been in Glasgow today - I've particularly enjoyed her observations on Twitter
• Stephen Bates on the meeting with the Queen: Pope's visit: two mighty spiritual leaders make small talk
• Watch on Channel 4: Thousands attend Mass in Glasgow
• The Guardian 'Live updates' page. Whether this will be updated throughout the night remains to be seen.
• The text of Pope Benedict's homily in Bellahouston Park.

Thank you for your gracious invitation to make an official visit to the United Kingdom and for your warm words of greeting on behalf of the British people. In thanking Your Majesty, allow me to extend my own greetings to all the people of the United Kingdom and to hold out a hand of friendship to each one.

It is a great pleasure for me to start my journey by saluting the members of the royal family, thanking in particular His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh for his kind welcome to me at Edinburgh airport. I express my gratitude to Your Majesty's present and previous Governments and to all those who worked with them to make this occasion possible, including Lord Patten and former Secretary of State [Jim] Murphy. I would also like to acknowledge with deep appreciation the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Holy See, which has contributed greatly to strengthening the friendly relations existing between the Holy See and the United Kingdom.

As I begin my visit to the United Kingdom in Scotland's historic capital city, I greet in a special way first minister Salmond and the representatives of the Scottish Parliament. Just like the Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies, may the Scottish Parliament grow to be an expression of the fine traditions and distinct culture of the Scots and strive to serve their best interests in a spirit of solidarity and concern for the common good.

The name of Holyroodhouse, Your Majesty's official residence in Scotland, recalls the "Holy Cross" and points to the deep Christian roots that are still present in every layer of British life. The monarchs of England and Scotland have been Christians from very early times and include outstanding saints like Edward the Confessor and Margaret of Scotland.

As you know, many of them consciously exercised their sovereign duty in the light of the Gospel, and in this way shaped the nation for good at the deepest level. As a result, the Christian message has been an integral part of the language, thought and culture of the peoples of these islands for more than a thousand years. Your forefathers' respect for truth and justice, for mercy and charity come to you from a faith that remains a mighty force for good in your kingdom, to the great benefit of Christians and non-Christians alike.

We find many examples of this force for good throughout Britain's long history. Even in comparatively recent times, due to figures like William Wilberforce and David Livingstone, Britain intervened directly to stop the international slave trade. Inspired by faith, women like Florence Nightingale served the poor and the sick and set new standards in healthcare that were subsequently copied everywhere. John Henry Newman, whose beatification I will celebrate shortly, was one of many British Christians of his age whose goodness, eloquence and action were a credit to their countrymen and women. These, and many people like them, were inspired by a deep faith born and nurtured in these islands.

Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live.

I also recall the regime's attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a "reductive vision of the person and his destiny" [Caritas in Veritate, 29]. Sixty-five years ago, Britain played an essential role in forging the post-war international consensus which favoured the establishment of the United Nations and ushered in a hitherto unknown period of peace and prosperity in Europe. In more recent years, the international community has followed closely events in Northern Ireland which have led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and the devolution of powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Your Majesty's government and the government of Ireland, together with the political, religious and civil leaders of Northern Ireland, have helped give birth to a peaceful resolution of the conflict there. I encourage everyone involved to continue to walk courageously together on the path marked out for them towards a just and lasting peace.

Looking abroad, the United Kingdom remains a key figure politically and economically on the international stage.

Your government and people are the shapers of ideas that still have an impact far beyond the British Isles. This places upon them a particular duty to act wisely for the common good. Similarly, because their opinions reach such a wide audience, the British media have a graver responsibility than most and a greater opportunity to promote the peace of nations, the integral development of peoples and the spread of authentic human rights. May all Britons continue to live by the values of honesty, respect and fair-mindedness that have won them the esteem and admiration of many.

Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society. In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate. Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms; and may that patrimony, which has always served the nation well, constantly inform the example your Government and people set before the 2 billion members of the Commonwealth and the great family of English-speaking nations throughout the world.

May God bless Your Majesty and all the people of your realm. Thank you.