THE Pope last night warned Britain against “aggressive forms of secularism” at the start of the first state visit by a pontiff to that country since 1534.
Welcoming Benedict XVI to Edinburgh, the Queen said she hoped the visit would deepen ties between the Catholic and Anglican churches, and thanked the Vatican for its role in ending sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
“Your presence here today reminds us of our common Christian heritage,” the Queen said.
“I am pleased that your visit will provide an opportunity to deepen the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Established Church of England and the Church of Scotland.
“In this country we deeply appreciate the involvement of the Holy See in the dramatic improvement of the situation in Northern Ireland.”
Speaking at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where he flew in at the start of his four-day trip to Scotland and England, the Pope paid tribute to Britain’s efforts to mould 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,” he said.
“Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms.”
The Catholic Church in Britain was recently the loser in a battle to force all adoption agencies, including church-run ones, to allow gay couples to adopt children. The church, which runs the largest adoption network, protested that its faith-based tenets were being crushed by civil, anti-discrimination concerns.
The Pope last night praised the UK as a “force for good”.
He said: “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.”
He cited anti-slave activists William Wilberforce and David Livingstone, and campaigners such as Florence Nightingale, as examples of that force for good.
And he praised Britain’s fight against Hitler’s “atheist extremism”, saying that “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.
“Your government and people are the shapers of ideas that still have an impact far beyond the British Isles,” he said.
Pope Benedict’s visit was always going to be dogged by the issue of child abuse, and he told reporters aboard his plane en route to Scotland that the church “had not been vigilant enough” on the issue of pedophile priests, and that the revelations had been “a shock to me”.
The historic trip – the only other was made by John Paul II in 1982, and it was not a state visit – was overshadowed before the Pope even left home when one of his closest advisers claimed that arriving at London’s Heathrow airport was like landing “in a Third World country”.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, 77, who recently stepped down as head of the Council for Christian Unity, pulled out of the tour of Scotland and England at the last moment, citing health reasons – he reportedly suffers from gout.
But his remarks, in an interview with the German magazine Focus, left the Vatican scrambling to contain a major PR embarrassment.
A spokeswoman for Lambeth Palace, where Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will meet the Pope today, said: “We have known for a few days that, very sadly, Cardinal Kasper was not well enough to travel.”
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