The papal visit is in jeopardy

5 June 2010

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Damian Thompson reveals the turmoil behind the scenes in the preparations for Pope Benedict XVI’s keenly awaited visit to Britain — and how the trip has been hijacked by a Blairite cadre

Last week, the Catholic Arch-bishops of England and Wales were summoned to a private meeting in London where they were given astonishing news about Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain. The pontiff is due in four months’ time (16-19 September), yet preparations were going badly wrong. Some of the major venues, while announced, had still not been booked. And worse, the Church’s share of the cost of the four-day trip had veered wildly out of control, from £7 million to a figure nearer £14 million. They later concluded that the centrepiece — an open-air Mass at Coventry airport — was probably going to have to be cancelled. It was a disaster.

There were ‘gasps from the archbishops’, I’m told. This was the Mass at which the Pope would beatify John Henry Newman. The organiser of the visit, Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, outlined their backup plan: hold the Mass in St Mary’s College, Oscott, a sprawling, clumsily modernised neo-Gothic seminary near Sutton Coldfield that Benedict is scheduled to visit anyway. ‘We can blame the change of plan on the era of austerity’ was the proposed excuse.

Crucially, only 10,000 worshippers could be accommodated at Oscott. Coventry airport can take 200,000 — a figure which is actually much smaller than the number of people who want to attend the beatification of Newman. The archbishops at the meeting immediately grasped the implications of this. They had already collected money for the Coventry Mass — how would they explain that it had been cancelled?

Relations between the members of the team organising the papal visit were tense enough before this disaster. Mgr Summersgill is something of a divisive figure — regarded by his critics as an ambitious, mitre-hungry protégé of the previous Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. Sources close to Archbishop Vincent Nichols, his successor, say he had never wanted Mgr Summersgill to take charge of the papal visit. He certainly did not want the task he had last week: to inform the Vatican that the budget had spun out of control and that the centrepiece of the visit — the Mass at Coventry — might have to be cancelled.

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Castpod

June 4th, 2010 5:55pm Report this comment

I fully support shining a light wherever there are shadows - everything should be done openly and by consensus of all Catholics. Catholic beliefs are clearly laid out for everyone to read, but all Catholic decision-making processes, large and small, should be equally public. This should apply to Catholic committees on parish life, education, finances, charitable works etc. etc. There should be no feeling that there are 'powerful' people within any area of Catholic life, if it is to be accepted as a religion based on humility.

Curious

September 12th, 2010 1:08pm Report this comment

I see from the Pope's itinerary that: "He will then go and meet 3,000 young people - schoolchildren, students..."

Has the Pope been required to produce an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau check by the organizers of this event. What steps have been taken to protect Britain's Children during this visit?

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