My audience with Pope John Paul II followed his service in the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, built over the burial place of St Paul in Rome, at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The trouble for me was that whilst the good Catholics in the huge congregation participated in the Mass, those few of us representing other Christian denominations, despite sitting up front and close to His Holiness, were excluded.
I was involved with the Anglican Centre in Rome and my boss, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visiting the Pope in Rome a few months later, was treated very hospitably - but actually as a layman. But then, back in 1953, at the Coronation Service in Westminster Abbey, whilst the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Professor James Pitt-Watson, shared with Dr Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the presenting of a Bible to the Queen he was refused communion by the Archbishop.
Pope Benedict’s visit to Edinburgh for the day on 16 September 2010, on his arrival in the United Kingdom for a four day stay, is first and foremost so that he can be received by the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Our city has been chosen because the Queen will be on holiday at Balmoral and because Buckingham Palace is not available. It is open to the public during August and September - to raise badly needed funds for its upkeep.
Roman Catholics in Edinburgh have every cause to be delighted that the Pope is visiting and will line the streets in adoration. Those with no particular faith or none at all will be curious to see him, if only because they have heard about him and the visit might be controversial. But for those Christians of other denominations, none of which are formally accepted by the Roman Catholic Church, there is a real dilemma. Do we pretend for that day we are merely bystanders interested in a spectacle? Do we put to one side for the one day all we have been taught to make our type of church just that little better than all the rest?
Of course the Pope will be welcome by all the churches of our city, whatever denomination. Nothing less would be good enough. But will it be skin deep? There are questions to be asked. We’ll need some helpful sermons over the coming weeks to guide us. Are Edinburgh’s Roman Catholic churches preparing for an influx of worshippers as a result of the papal visit? Will some Protestants worshippers be told to ignore the visit, or even make protest?