Date set for Pope's visit to UK (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Date set for Pope's visit to UK

5:21pm Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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The Pope is to meet the Queen and take part in an ecumenical service at Westminster Abbey as part of the first official Papal visit to Britain, it has been confirmed.

Pope Benedict XVI is to start his four-day trip in Scotland on September 16 where he will be received by the Queen at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh before travelling to Glasgow for an open air Mass at Bellahouston Park.

The Pontiff will travel to London where he will meet the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams at Lambeth Palace and pray with other church leaders at Westminster Abbey, organisers of the trip have confirmed.

His itinerary will also include an address at Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament and the beatification of the 19th century Roman Catholic convert Cardinal John Henry Newman at an open air Mass at Coventry Airport.

The move will bring the revered clergyman, who died in 1890, one step closer to becoming England's first non-martyred saint since the Reformation.

Further details of the trip will be disclosed closer to the date but his visit will not include Northern Ireland or Wales, it was confirmed.

Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy, who is the minister leading preparations for the visit, said police costs of the trip would be met from existing budgets.

He said the non-police costs, including state and pastoral elements of the visit, would be around £15 million for four days.

He said that by comparison, the cost of a G20 gathering - without police costs - would be around £19 million for one day.