Pope Benedict XVI lands in UK for historic visit

The Pope has arrived in Britain for an official four-day visit (first-ever as a Pontiff since 1982). 

Benedict XVI flew into Edinburgh International Airport from Rome Thursday morning, and was met by the Duke of Edinburgh and his cardinals as well as a guard of honour by Scottish troops.

The pope’s first appointment on Thursday was with Queen Elizabeth II in Edinburgh, before officiating at a mass in Glasgow. The highlights of his visit will include a mass in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow this afternoon and the speech tomorrow in Westminster Hall. Benedict will lead a prayer vigil in Hyde Park on Saturday and on Sunday will conduct the beatification service for Cardinal Newman, the Victorian convert from Anglicanism, in Cofton Park in Birmingham.

However, Pope’s visit goes amid the criticism of more than 50 public figures who had added their names to a letter in the Guardian newspaper saying the Pope should not be given the "honour" of a UK state visit.

“We reject the masquerading of the Holy See as a state and the pope as a head of state as merely a convenient fiction to amplify the international influence of the Vatican,” they wrote.

Protesters cited a litany of reasons to oppose the trip. Among those reasons are: the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to contraception, its loathing of abortion, its resistance to gay rights, and finally, its slowness to deal with cases of child abuse by priests and bishops.

Authors Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman and actor Stephen Fry are among critics and protesters against Pope’s visit to Great Britain.