LONDON — On Sept. 19, Pope Benedict XVI completed a four-day state visit to Britain. This was the first state visit by a pope to a country that had abjured allegiance to the papacy nearly 500 years ago and had played an important role in the Protestant Reformation.
Two days earlier, the archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Anglican Church) and the pope had led a joint service in Westminster Abbey, in which the moderator of the protestant Church of Scotland also took part and which was attended by representatives of other faiths. This was unprecedented as the Vatican does not recognize the Church of England as part of the Catholic community and does not accept the claim that Anglican bishops and priests have been properly ordained.
The pope was also asked to address both Houses of Parliament in the ancient Westminster Hall, built in 1097, where the Catholic martyr Thomas More had been tried and condemned. He expressed his deep concern about the extent of secularization of British society and the marginalization of religion, particularly Christianity. He also criticized aggressively atheistic elements in Britain.