Pope Benedict XVI will visit the United Kingdom from 16 – 19 September. This will be the first ever official Papal Visit to the United Kingdom – the last visit by Pope John Paul II in 1982 being purely pastoral. He will be visiting both as a Head of State, and as the head of one of the world’s great churches.
As well as an opportunity for pastoral teaching and religious ecumenicism (the Pope will visit HM The Queen, official Head of the Anglican Church, and use the occasion of the visit to beatify the great English Cardinal, Cardinal Newman), the visit will also help to cement an important alliance between the government of my country and the Holy See in our common work against poverty, global warming, and in international development. We have a shared vision of working towards a successful Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit in New York later this month. Success will help keep the international community on the road to achieving the MDGs in 2015.
Bolivian readers can learn more about the visit from on our website UKinBolivia. I also invite you to read an article by my Prime Minister, David Cameron, which is published in La Razon and Los Tiempos on 16 September. Religion is sometimes seen as a force for division in this world. This visit, by contrast, should allow people of all faiths to join together in the common endeavour to work for a better world against physical and spiritual poverty.