State visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom
The state visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom was held from 16 to 19 September 2010 and was the first visit by a Pope to Britain after Pope John Paul II made a pastoral, rather than state, visit in 1982. The visit included the beatification of Cardinal Newman as a "pastoral highlight".[1]
Pope Benedict's visit included meetings with Elizabeth II (Queen of the United Kingdom and Supreme Governor of the Church of England), First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader David Cameron, and leaders of the other main political parties.
The Pope's itinerary included open air Masses in Glasgow and Birmingham, a youth vigil in Hyde Park in London, and Mass at Westminster Cathedral in London, attended by over 200,000 people.
Anti-terrorism arrests[edit]
On 17 September 2010 the Metropolitan Police arrested five street cleaners under the Terrorism Act 2000 in a pre-dawn raid at a London cleaning depot, in a suspected terrorist plot against the Pope on the second day of his state visit; a sixth person was arrested later in the day at his home "on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism".[47] The men, aged between 26 and 50, had been working as street cleaners for contractors Veolia Environnement, on behalf of Westminster City Council, and were based at the Chiltern Street depot in Marylebone.
The suspects were questioned at an unidentified London police station. The police did not uncover any hazardous items during an initial search of the business premises and other properties.[48] According to police some of the suspects were thought to be immigrants to Britain, from a variety of nations including a number from Algeria.[49]
All the men were released without charge before the Pope's visit ended. It turned out they were arrested after joking about how the Popemobile could not withstand an RPG attack.
An Imperial College physics graduate (philosopher in his spare-time) was routinely stopped, searched and security-ordinanced by the police as a terrorism-suspect for wandering around aimlessly with a beard.