State visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom

[1] Pope Benedict's visit included meetings with Elizabeth II (Queen of the United Kingdom and Supreme Governor of the Church of England), First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron, and leaders of the other main political parties.

[2] Anjoum Noorani of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was originally a key contact between the British Government and the papal visit team.

However, he was suspended from overseas postings and given a final warning, to last for five years, after approving the sending of a memo written by Steven Mulvain, a 23-year-old Oxford graduate, mocking the visit.

In contrast with the previous Papal visit to Britain, that of Pope John Paul II in 1982, where anyone could attend open-air events, there was tight security for the 2010 Papal visit, with all attendees required to register in advance through their parish and to attend in a group with a 'Pilgrim Leader' from that parish, who as leader had the responsibility to vouch for all members of his group.

[8] The planned event at the airport, which had seen 350,000 attend the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982,[9] was the subject of an Isle of Man commemorative stamp.

It was announced in July that attendees at events would be charged for a compulsory 'Pilgrim Pack', including commemorative items, in order to fund transport costs.

[27][28][29][30] The Pope said: 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.

[36] After Mass, the Pope used the middle part of the day to meet five victims of child sex abuse at the Apostolic Nunciature, apologising to them and describing the Church's measures to protect young people.

[citation needed] In the evening the Pope visited St Peter's Residence for Older People, run by Little Sisters of the Poor.

The Pope travelled to the day's main event, the ticketed Hyde Park Prayer Vigil on the Eve of the Beatification of Cardinal Newman, by Popemobile.

[38] The Pope's speech described Newman's life's work "as a struggle against the growing tendency to view religion as a purely private and subjective matter, a question of personal opinion", stating that it was a lesson for today, in which "an intellectual and moral relativism threatens to sap the very foundations of our society".

British Airways, as UK flag carrier, would have been the usual choice for a state Papal visit, but they were reportedly rejected due to concerns about strikes.

[46] On 17 September 2010 the Metropolitan Police arrested five street cleaners under the Terrorism Act 2000 in a pre-dawn raid at a London cleaning depot, in a suspected terrorist plot against the Pope on the second day of his state visit; a sixth person was arrested later in the day at his home "on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism".

[citation needed] An Imperial College physics graduate (philosopher in his spare-time) was routinely stopped, searched and security-ordinanced by the police as a terrorism-suspect for wandering around aimlessly with a beard.

The President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK, Rafiq Hayat, stated that "Religious leaders have a pivotal role to play in promoting peace and serving humanity.

"[50] Vivian Wineman, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: "In an age where scepticism and ill-will towards religion is rising, it will be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that there is much to unite people of faith and much that can be achieved when we work together for the greater good not only of our members, but for society as a whole.

A BBC News correspondent noted that 'there was a tangible sense of relief, even of euphoria, among Pope Benedict's entourage during the return flight to Rome from Birmingham'.

[52] The visit was opposed by a range of people and organisations including some Protestants, LGBT, and secular groups due to a number of reasons, such as the Church's policies on the ordination of women, homosexuality, contraception and AIDS, as well as complaints over historical sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.

[63][64] Dawkins had previously supported a call for the Pope's arrest for "crimes against humanity", an idea first proposed by Christopher Hitchens[65] and described by a former editor of the Catholic Herald as "lunatic",[66] and human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson was reported to have looked at options to charge the Pope over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.