Heart speaks unto heart

A few days before the Papal Visit begins, the schedule of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the U.K. illustrates the details of the four-day itinerary (from Thursday 16 to September 19) to England and Scotland. The theme for the Holy Father’s seventeenth international visit is “Cor ad cor loquitur” (“Heart speaks unto Heart”). Cardinal John Henry Newman chose the words as the motto to go on his coat of arms. The Pope will visit four cities: Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Birmingham. The Holy Father will deliver sixteen speeches, including homilies and addresses. Day one. His Holiness will depart from Ciampino Airport Thursday, 16 September at 08:10 and will arrive at Edinburgh International Airport for official welcome. Follow State Welcome and audience with Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Holyrood House. At the end of the audience the Holy Father will deliver the first address to the Country’s authorities. The morning session will close with a private lunch in the Archbishops’ House. In the afternoon Benedict XVI will preside at the celebration of the first Mass of his Visit in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. It will be a significant moment of prayer and spirituality for English Catholics, also in view of the feast of Saint Ninian, the Patron Saint and evangelizer of Scotland, which recurs that same day. At the end of the celebration, the Pope will leave from Glasgow Airport for London, where he will land in the evening. Day Two. The private celebration of Mass in the Chapel of the Apostolic Nunciature in Wimbledon opens the second day of the Papal Visit to the U.K. At 10:00 the Holy Father will celebrate the Country’s Catholic education in the chapel and in the Sports arena of Saint Mary’s university college, in Twickenham. Then the Pope will address religious leaders and people of faith in Waldegrave Drawing Room, located in the College’s premises. The visit to the archbishop of Canterbury, in Lambeth Palace, will open Friday’s afternoon itinerary. Soon after, at 05:00 p.m., is scheduled one of the highlights of the visit, when the Pope will meet with the personalities of civil society, of the academic, cultural and entrepreneurial world, with the members of the diplomatic corps and with religious leaders in Westminster hall. It will be an occasion for reflection for all the most active and authoritative representatives of English society, to whom the Pope will address a wide-ranging speech, broaching topical cultural and social themes in the United Kingdom. Also the ensuing ecumenical celebration, held in Westminster Abbey, will constitute a significant moment for the dialogue and the relations between the Catholic community and the Anglican Communion. Day three. The Courtesy Call from Prime Minister David Cameron in the Archbishop’s House is the first of a series of meetings of Benedict XVI with English political dignitaries (Saturday 18). After the Premier, His Holiness will meet with deputy Prime minister Nick Clegg and with the leader of the opposition. At 10:00 the Pope will celebrate Mass in the Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Westminster. In the afternoon, at 17:00, after visiting the St Peter’s Residence for Older People, the highlight of the visit – the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman – will be preceded by a prayer vigil, which Benedict XVI will preside at in Hyde Park. In his address the Holy Father will anticipate the spiritual and pastoral themes of the homily he will deliver the following day, after having taken leave from the Apostolic Nunciature, when a helicopter will bring him from Wimbledon park to the Cofton park of Rednal, in Birmingham, where he will celebrate Mass and will proclaim the Beatification of the great thinker and theologian. Day four. Sunday morning will close with the visit to the Oratory of St Philip Neri, Edgbaston, followed by lunch with the Bishops of England, Scotland and Wales and the Papal Entourage, in the refectory of Francis Martin House, Oscott College. To the same prelates His Holiness will address a speech during the meeting scheduled in the early afternoon, before the transfer to the International Airport in Birmingham, where the departure ceremony will take place. Departure for Rome’s Ciampino Airport is scheduled at 18:45, where the Pope will land at 22.30. The Visit of Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom takes place almost thirty years after the previous Visit of John Paul II, held May 28 to June 6 1982. “This year’s visits of the Holy Father, the ones in Malta, Portugal, Cyprus – explains Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office – were very positive visits. We hope that also this visit will be a true manifestation of the beauty and the positivity of the service rendered by the Holy Father across society, especially in moments marked by dissension. Our hope is to effectively represent the Church’s positive and fundamental contribution to contemporary society: a modern, plural, and even secularized society. Lest it forget, and hoping that instead it will appreciate the new positive contribution offered by the faith”.