Spiralling costs
When the Pope's plane, Shepherd One, touches down in Edinburgh's airport on September 16 it will be the first ever State visit by a Pope to Britain. Pope John Paul II's 1982 visit was pastoral in nature and while he met Queen Elizabeth II, he was in Britain at the invitation of the Church. Benedict, however, will visit Britain as the guest of the state. It's that fact that is causing some controversy across the water. The cost of the visit appears to be spiralling out of control with the most recent estimate standing at £20m (€23.7m). The Church is expected to make up around £8m of this cost with the rest falling to the government. Worryingly for the Church, so far they have raised just over £5m and fundraising efforts are intensifying in coming weeks.
Scots get free pass
Scots attending the papal Mass at Bellahouston Park near Glasgow will not have to pay a fee towards transport costs, the Scottish bishops have said.
Unlike their counterparts in England and Wales, Scottish pilgrims to the big papal event in Scotland, an open-air Mass at Bellahouston Park, will not be charged a £10 or £25 fee.
A spokesman for the Scottish Catholic media office said: ''Scottish pilgrims travelling to the papal Mass at Bellahouston Park will not be expected to pay a charge to attend.
''Instead, parishes will be asked to contribute to the overall cost of the event, including transport costs. We hope that spreading the costs in this way will ensure that all those who wish to attend can do so regardless of their means. At the same time, parishioners who are able to make individual financial contributions can of course do so''.
Pilgrims - as those attending the public papal events in England and Wales are called - will be expected to pay £25 towards travel costs to the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham, and £10 for the prayer vigil in Hyde Park in London.
The Bellahouston Park event on Thursday, September 16, will be attended by about 100,000 Catholics - more than half of Scotland's Mass-going population.
It is expected that another 140,000 people will line the streets of Edinburgh and be able to welcome the Holy Father as he travels by popemobile through the city.
The biggest event of the trip is likely to be the Hyde Park vigil, which may be attended by up to 130,000 people. The beatification Mass at Cofton Park, meanwhile, is expected to accommodate a crowd of about 80,000.
Anti-visit campaign
A campaign against the Pope's visit to Britain, promoted by a coalition of militant gay rights activists, aggressive secularists and opponents of the Catholic Church, attracted just 12,000 signatures on the British government's official website. In contrast, a petition on the same website to allow the 'Red Arrows' aerobatic team to perform at the 2012 Olympics in London attracted more than 1/2 million signatories. However, undeterred, the campaigners are planning a series of protests during the historic tour by the Pope. Lord Chris Patten, the man drafted by Prime Minister David Cameron to help coordinate the four-day visit, said demonstrators should be free to express their opinions, but should not fall into the trap of intolerance.
''I hope that [the protests] will be done with restraint, and that it will be done with a show of tolerance,'' he told a news conference.
''It would be an extraordinary irony if those who polemicise past intolerance by Churches are to become themselves the proponents of intolerance towards Churches.''
SCHEDULE
Thursday, September 16 (Scotland)
When Pope Benedict arrives in Scotland he will meet Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and other senior members of the Royal Family and people representing British society in the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh.
The Pope will travel via helicopter to Glasgow where he will celebrate an open-air Mass at Bellahouston Park in the evening and then fly from Glasgow to London.
Friday, September 17 (London)
On 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 and students - to celebrate Catholic education. From there he will then meet with religious leaders and people of religious faith.
The Pope is then scheduled to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury. He has been invited, as part of the State visit, to address British society in Westminster Hall before finishing off the day by celebrating ecumenical vespers in Westminster Abbey.
Saturday, September 18 (London)
On 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.
Later in the day he will visit a home for the elderly, giving the Pope an opportunity to go to those who cannot meet with him, and then he will be present at an open air Vigil of prayer in London's Hyde Park.
Sunday, September 19 (Birmingham)
The final day of the visit is focused on the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, and the Pope will celebrate that beatification in Cofton Park in Birmingham. The Pope will conclude the day by meeting with the bishops of England, Scotland and Wales in Oscott College before returning to Rome from Birmingham Airport.
(A more detailed itinerary will be published closer to the time)
