Why is Benedict XVI in Great Britain?

Why is Benedict XVI in Great Britain?

This is state visit at the invitation of the Queen of England who head of state and head of the Anglican Church. This the first state visit of a Pope to the United Kingdom. All of this is being shown on EWTN, TV for the next 4 days beginning today, Thursday, September 16, 2010. papalvisit@EWTN.com

We follow with excerpts of the editorial by Robert Moynihan, “Inside the Vatican” Aug. /Sept. issue.

“He is in Great Britain to preach the Gospel, to call the British back to the faith which one shaped their culture, their law, their art & architecture, their hopes & aspirations – faith in Christ, and in his cross…

“What is immediately clear is that he wishes to personally beatify the remarkable 19th century Christian scholar and convert to Catholicism, John Henry Cardinal Newman – a man he has studied and admired for nearly 60 years. And around that beatification, he wishes to visit Scottish and English flocks in hopes of strengthening them in their faith.

“In the eyes of some observers, the legitimacy of these pastoral purposes is compromised by Benedict’s stated concern for those “high church” Anglicans who have openly asked to be received as a body into the church…

“Then there are the liberal Christians, accusatory secularist and militant atheists who have depicted Benedict as visiting England and Scotland to campaign against human rights – specifically, against new British laws that reject Christian teachings on marriage and promote same-sex relationships. These accusers are so fired up at the prospect of the Pope’s presence in Great Britain that they have openly called for his arrest and deportation as a human rights offender and a man criminally responsible for the sexual crimes of priests…

“Let’s state as clearly as possible what has moved Benedict to visit Scotland and England. Yes, Newman’s beatification; yes, the situation of British Catholics: yes, Anglicans longing to join the Catholic Church: yes, the hope of maintaining ties with Anglicanism. But the heart of the journey is the belief that God is in charge of His world, that nothing happens without a purpose, that men can take part in God’s plan for the world.

“Like his predecessors, he believes there are no accidents in history, only events we cannot fully grasp or explain convincingly, but events God will one day allow us to understand…

“His initial attraction to Newman may have been to Newman’s theological writings, but his strongest attachment to him is surely to the man of faith, a man who could say of himself” “I understood …that the exterior world, physical and historical, was but the manifestation to our senses of realities greater than itself. Nature was a parable, Scripture was an allegory, pagan literature, philosophy and mythology, properly understood, were but a preparation for the GOSPEL. The Greek poets and sages were, in a sense, prophetic.” …

George H. Kubeck, “There is also a message for America in the Pope’s visit to England. It is equal or greater to the message of the Tea Party to the American political scene.” (In pursuit of the truth, www.cinopsbegone.com )