POPE Benedict XVI is to come to the UK next year in the first official visit by the Pontiff. It is thought the trip will be announced shortly by the Vatican.
Mr Brown extended a formal invitation to the Pope to come to Britain during a private audience in February.
If confirmed, it would be the first papal trip to the UK since John Paul II’s pastoral visit in 1982. A spokesman for the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, said: “Any announcement about a possible visit by the Holy Father to this country we would expect to come from the Holy See.”
And a Number 10 spokesman added: “There is no official Downing Street confirmation.”
