Pope Benedict XVI in the United Kingdom
The Catholic Faith | Pope Benedict XVI in the United Kingdom | Itinerary | Biography of John Henry Cardinal Newman | Becoming a Saint | Replay the Visit
The Catholic Faith
Who is the Pope?
The Pope is a follower of Jesus Christ and although he is coming to the UK as a Head of State (The Holy See – the Vatican), the primary purpose of his visit is to share the Good News that God loves us unconditionally and is merciful. It’s this reality – of God’s love and mercy – that is his primary message and is one that lies at the heart of the Catholic Faith. Visit our section on Pope Benedict XVI.
What is a Catholic?
Catholics are Christians, this means that they are followers of Jesus Christ. They believe Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, the Son of God, their friend, liberator, Lord and Saviour. Catholics believe that Jesus Christ set up the Church (Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 16, verse 18) to pass on the fullness of his teaching, his life, and to carry on his work.
A family
Catholic means universal. There are over one billion people worldwide who are members of the Catholic Church which was founded by Jesus Christ in the first century AD. It is made up of a large family of people from every race, colour and social background, who share a common vision and beliefs. Whatever part of the world they live in, they are in communion (united) with one another in a special way through their leaders who they believe to be chosen and appointed by God.
Church
‘Church’ means the gathering of the people of God. The church building is the focal point for Catholic community gatherings, and is a place where friendships are made and lives shared. People gather there to pray, and to learn about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The ‘sacraments’ are a very important part of Church life. These are God-given spiritual channels through which life flows. The ‘Eucharist’ is a very special sacrament. When Catholics come together to celebrate ‘Mass’ they share a holy meal and believe that through it they are fed, under the appearance of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Christ. During the Mass a miracle takes place. When the priest says a special prayer over the bread, it is changed by God’s power, so that Jesus is present in it in a unique way. Though it still looks like bread, Jesus’ living presence is there, and this is what Catholics call ‘Holy Communion’ because they are united with God when they receive it. The seven sacraments are: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony and Holy Orders.
Leaders
The Catholic Church takes care of its community through a network of leaders, teachers and helpers. The head of the Catholic Church worldwide is Pope Benedict XVI. Locally, the Church is led by bishops and priests.
Jesus’ teachingJesus taught that we should love our neighbour as ourselves (Mark’s Gospel, chapter 12, verse 31). Catholics try to put this into practice and find it to be a life-giving and fulfilling way to live. They are involved in a wide variety of charitable works such as running hostels for the homeless and caring for the elderly.
Some of the core parts of Jesus’ teaching are:
- God loves us
- Believing in him is the way to true freedom, peace and happiness
- We should love God and one another, especially the poor and needy
- Our messes, mistakes and wrongs can be put right - we can be forgiven and know peace
- We can be healed from deep wounds and hurts by calling on the name of Jesus
- If we believe in Jesus we will inherit eternal life and live with him in heaven
Your choice
Jesus has many amazing things to offer you and those you love. His life and message is about wholeness, love and freedom. Jesus will not force you to get to know him and receive all the good things on offer. You are free to choose. It is up to you... What is your choice going to be?
Pope Benedict XVI in the United Kingdom
The Holy Father
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI was elected the 265th successor of St Peter on 19 April 2005. His Holiness is only the second non-Italian pope since 1522 - the other being his much-loved predecessor Pope John Paul II. To date, Pope Benedict has visited 15 countries and is due to visit Malta and Portugal this year before arriving in the UK for his four-day visit. On these pages you'll be able to read the Holy Father's biography, look up his three Encyclical Letters (papal letters on important subjects) and re-visit a selection of the papal visits made in the last five years.
Itinerary
Pope Benedict XVI will visit England and Scotland on a four-day Papal visit from 16-19 September 2010. Click here for the full detailed timeline.
In addition to the detailed event information below, there will be opportunities to see the Holy Father in Edinburgh and London travelling the streets in the Popemobile. The finalised routes will be released in due course.
Thursday 16 SeptemberScotlandWhen Pope Benedict arrives in the UK, he will visit Scotland where he will be received by Her Majesty The Queen, members of the Royal Family and people representing British society in the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh.
A St Ninian's Day Parade has been organised through the streets of Edinburgh to mark this historic occasion.
Having met the Queen, the Pope will travel to Glasgow where he will celebrate an open-air Mass at Bellahouston Park in the evening and then he will fly from Glasgow to London. The Holy Father will then be based in London for the remainder of the visit.
Friday 17 SeptemberLondonOn the second day of the visit, Pope Benedict is going to St Mary's University College, Twickenham, where there will be three aspects to his visit. The first is that he begins the day praying with representatives of religious congregations - particularly those who have a charism for education and a history of education.
He will then go and meet 3,000 young people - schoolchildren, students - to celebrate Catholic education. From there he will then meet with religious leaders and people of religious faith in the Waldegrave Drawing Room. He will discuss with them religion and belief in our society.
Later in the day, the Pope is scheduled to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace in the presence of the Anglican diocesan bishops and the Catholic diocesan bishops of England and Wales.
He has then been invited, as part of the State visit, to address British society. Representatives of British society will be invited to Westminster Hall to hear the Pope's address.
He will finish off the day with the Archbishop of Canterbury and Christian leaders at Westminster Abbey to celebrate Evening Prayer. The Holy Father will also pray at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior and also at the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor.
Saturday 18 SeptemberLondonOn the third day of the visit, Pope Benedict will celebrate Mass in Westminster Cathedral where he will also, from there, greet the people of Wales.
At the end of Mass, the Holy Father will greet around 2,500 young people gathered in the Piazza to welcome him.
Later in the day he will visit St Peter's Residential Home for the elderly in Vauxhall, giving the Pope an opportunity to go to those who cannot meet with him, and then be present at an open air Vigil of prayer in London's Hyde Park.
Sunday 19 SeptemberBirminghamThe final day of the visit is focused very much on the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, and the Pope will celebrate that beatification in Cofton Park in Birmingham - adjacent, fittingly, to Rednal where Cardinal Newman was buried and the place where Newman and his community came for rest and recreation in the Lickey Hills.
The Holy Father will then make a private visit to the Oratory of St Philip Neri, Edgbaston, Birmingham where he will be the first person to pray at the new shrine for the "Blessed" John Henry Newman as he will be then.
Pope Benedict will conclude the day by meeting with the bishops of England, Scotland and Wales in Oscott College before returning to Rome with a private departure from Birmingham Airport.
Biography of John Henry Cardinal Newman
Born in 1801, baptised in the Church of England, Newman became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford in 1822, an Anglican clergyman in 1825 and Vicar of the Oxford University Church in 1828. The Anglican Newman was a pastor of souls, a University teacher, and a student of Christian history and theology. His studies were never purely theoretical. Informed by pastoral experience, they were above all shaped by his insight into the needs of the present.
Newman's point of reference was the Church of the Apostles and 'the Fathers', the great teachers of the first Christian centuries. At school he experienced the attractions of atheism, and all his life showed unusual sympathy with religious doubt. But also at school he underwent a conversion granting him an abiding sense of God's presence. At the same time, Newman acquired the conviction that Christianity is a doctrinal religion, and that doctrine and religious experience are in harmony, not opposed. In Christianity, Newman believed, mind and heart, dogma and experience, come together. With the doctrinal and sacramental faith unfolding in him from his conversion, Newman desired to revive Christianity for a culture descending into unbelief.
Teachings
Some of Newman's Anglican works retain startling relevance. In Arians of the Fourth Century (1833) he conveys through Christian history the very contemporary drama of the battle for orthodox Faith against politically-inspired compromise and apostasy. In his Parochial and Plain Sermons (1834-1843), against a background of nominal, demoralised Christinaity, he unfolds the Mysteries of Faith and awakens the depth and grandeur of the Christian life.
In the Tracts For The Times (1833-1841), Newman and his friends in the 'Oxford Movement' addressed the Church of England in the hope that it could be renewed in the Apostolic Faith. Gradually, it dawned on Newman that this was impossible. The Church of England could not embrace the truth Newman taught.
Embracing the Catholicism 1842-5 were his 'wilderness' years, out of the public eye, secluded in prayer and study. At Littlemore, outside Oxford, he worked on the still deeply influential Development of Christian Doctrine (1845). The book studies the ways in which Faith has unfolded in history; Newman saw an analogy with how Faith unfolds in individual minds, including his own. At last he was convinced that the Faith of the Apostles and Fathers was the Faith of Roman Catholicism. The Church of Christ was the Church of Rome. Embracing the Catholic Church as the 'One Fold of Christ' Newman was received at Littlemore by Blessed Dominic Barberi on 9th October 1845.
An Oratorian
Ordained a Catholic priest in Rome in 1847 Newman returned to England with a mission from the Pope to found Oratories of St Philip Neri, in Birmingham (where he lived until his death on August 11 1890) and then in London. The Oratory discloses the heart of Newman: small and stable communities of priests, living together in charity, dedicated to prayer, to the liturgy, to preaching, teaching and the intellectual life.
In 1846, after he had been received into the Catholic Church, John Henry Newman's first Catholic home was on the site which is now Maryvale Institute. It was Newman and his followers who gave it the name Maryvale after St Philip Neri's church in Rome and it is specified in the Papal Brief as the location of the first English Oratory of St Philip in 1848. In fulfilment of Newman's vision for an educated laity, Maryvale is now an international distance learning Catholic Theology College open to anyone who wishes to study the Catholic Faith at any level.
As an Oratorian Newman founded a Catholic University in Dublin (1851) and a Catholic School in Birmingham (1859). He continued writing and publishing works which today are more profoundly influential than ever: his religious autobiography the Apologia (1864), the Grammar of Assent on the origins of Christian Faith (1870) and the Idea of the University (1873). Working tirelessly especially for the poor parishioners of the Birmingham Oratory, Newman also conducted an enormous correspondence, helping people all over the world with their religious difficulties.
Pastorally and educationally, in his published writings and in his correspondence, Newman's aim was to describe and arouse the Christian mind. His vocation was to help modern people realise the demands of thinking and acting with the mind of Christ and His Church.
Liberalism
When he was made a Cardinal in 1879, Newman said that all his life he had opposed religious Liberalism. In his own day, some of his fellow Catholics had regarded Newman himself as a 'liberal'. Influential ecclesiastical figures wanted to extend their authority beyond the domains of Faith and Morals, into areas where Catholics are free to have their own ideas. Newman criticised such ambitions, and as a result was distrusted. Ironically, such ecclesiastics were themselves 'liberal' by Newman's definition. By 'liberalism' in religion, Newman meant preferring our own mind to the mind of the Church, manipulating God's truth to suit our own judgement and will. In his day, those Catholics who opposed Newman did this in the name of 'orthodoxy'. In our own day, Catholic liberalism more typically expresses itself in dissent from the Church's teaching, especially in questions of morality. Newman gives no comfort to either party.
Newman was a Victorian, and his religious journey was intensely personal. But his is much more than a Victorian conversion. Perhaps no one better than Newman shows us the objective reality of Christianity, active in human history and human hearts, with an integrity profoundly (sometimes fiercely) independent of society and politics. He is a Man of Faith, but his voice is modern, recognisably of our own age. He knew the uncertainty, even hostitlity, towards Christianity, provoked by Science and Philosophy, flowing from politics, the media and popular culture, and prophetically confronted these things. Entering into the experience of the loss of God, he shows how God might once again be known and loved.
Faith
Unlike so many in his own day - and in ours - Newman's response was not a watered-down Christianity of private 'spirituality' and State-approved social 'responsibility'. He shows us how to move from religious doubt, beyond dilution and compromise, to the fullness of Doctrinal and Sacramental Faith.
Instead of trying to argue someone into believing, Newman focussed on his or her conscience. It is not argument that awakens and draws the soul to God, he believed, but fidelity to conscience. The most powerful arguments for believing in God arise from desiring Him, and that desire is the fruit of obedience to conscience. Arguments against God, Newman said, are typically rationalisations of a conscience falsified into 'self-will' or simply ignored.
In perhaps his most powerful testimony to our own day, Newman shows how the light of conscience, active in every human heart, finds fulfilment not in subjectivity and individualism, but in obedience to the teachings of the Pope in the communion of the Catholic Church.
Becoming a Saint
Beatification
This section of the website provides information on the beatification of Cardinal Newman. Below you will find articles that detail Cardinal Newman's path to sainthood and the impact of the miracle cure that paved the way for his beatification on 19 September.
A Multi-stage Process
The Making of a Saint is a multi-stage process requiring ongoing dialogue between the Bishops’ Conference of the country in which the possible saint lived and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. In this section you will find information on the stage involved with making a Saint and the types of Saints.
The Process
This is a multi-stage process requiring ongoing dialogue between the Bishops’ Conference of the country in which the possible saint lived and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
- Stage 1 - local interest – People who knew the person or knew of his or her life believe that the individual ‘gave an example of holiness that we can follow with confidence’. At least 5 years must have passed since the death of the candidate. This is to allow greater balance and objectivity in evaluating the case and to let the emotions of the moment dissipate.
- Stage 2 – information gathering - The Congregation for the Causes of Saints instructs the bishop of the diocese in which the person died whose beatification is being requested, to begin collecting the evidence for their claim of holiness. Witnesses are called before the tribunal and all documents regarding the candidate must be gathered. At the end of the stage, the candidate might be declared to be a ‘Servant of God’.
- Stage 3 – more information – Further scrutiny of the life, writings etc. by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints might lead to the candidate being declared ‘Venerable’.
- Stage 4 – more information and a miracle – The Congregation for the Causes of Saints want evidence that people are being drawn to prayer and holiness through the candidate. As a sign of a special relationship between the candidate and God, a miracle is required which, if accepted, enables the person to be declared ‘Blessed’. The ceremony is called beatification and usually takes place in the country where the candidate lived and worked. It is usually performed by a representative of the Pope, generally from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
- Stage 5 - more information and another miracle – For canonization another miracle is needed, attributed to the intercession of the Blessed and having occurred after his beatification. If the second claim of a miracle is accepted, the candidate will be accepted as a Saint in a canonisation ceremony, performed by the Pope, usually in Rome. Canonisation is a declaration that someone can be venerated by the universal Church as ‘an example of holiness that we can follow with confidence’.
Miracle
For a miracle to be accepted, it must be scrutinised by a panel of independent experts in the field and must be scientifically verifiable as ‘beyond human capability and inexplicable other than in terms of the miraculous’. Generally, medical cures are the easiest to verify according to scientific, measurable criteria.
The Verdict
The final verdict depends on an examination (theological) by nine theologians who give their vote. If the majority of the theologians are in favour, the cause is passed on for examination by cardinals and bishops who are members of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints. If their judgment is favourable, the Prefect of the Congregation presents the results of the entire course of the cause to the Pope, who gives his approval and authorizes the congregation to draft the decree.
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