Pope to begin 4-day UK visit with Scotland stop

[September 16 2010]

After months of preparation and controversy, Pope Benedict XVI arrives in the United Kingdom on Thursday for a four-day visit overshadowed by sex abuse scandals that have shaken confidence in the church.

Thousands of tickets to papal events remain unclaimed in an increasingly secular country even as many of the faithful express joy about his imminent arrival.

The trip is the first state visit by a pope to the U.K., and he will be received by Queen Elizabeth II at her official residence in Scotland, symbolically significant because of the historic divide between the officially Protestant nation and the Catholic Church.

The queen is head of the Church of England, which split acrimoniously from Rome in the 16th century, a division followed by centuries of anti-Catholic sentiment. The visit also coincides with the 450th anniversary of the Reformation in Scotland.