UK > History > 2010 > Faith (I)

Tensions Linger

Between Pope and Anglicans

September 21, 2010
The New York Times
By RACHEL DONADIO

LONDON — The pope and the archbishop prayed together last weekend, a rare event at Westminster Abbey meant to show the fundamental closeness of Catholics and Anglicans, their churches separated in doctrine by few degrees and each battered by secularism and division. The signal sent was that, someday, a more formal union would strengthen both.

But beyond the smiles, the prayers and the self-conscious focus on the things the two spiritual leaders share, Benedict XVI’s four-day visit to Britain was more than a moment of reconciliation, underscoring that the two churches that split during the Reformation over issues of papal authority are as divided as ever.

Everyone was polite, including the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, not allowing the dissent to show much publicly. Still, it did not go unnoticed that Benedict broke his own rules and personally presided on Sunday over the beatification Mass of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a 19th-century thinker and writer who left the Church of England to convert to Catholicism. He had said earlier in his papacy that he would celebrate Mass only for canonization, the final step of sainthood.

The beatification came a year after the Vatican angered many Anglicans, not least Archbishop Williams, when it announced that it would facilitate the conversion of groups of traditionalist Anglicans. This again pointed up differences and accusations that the Roman Catholic Church was aiming to lure away those no longer comfortable in a church that ordains female and gay priests — something the Catholic Church does not allow.

For its part, the Vatican has said it created the new rite, which would allow Anglicans to preserve some liturgy and traditions, including married clergymen, after joining the Roman Catholic Church, in response to repeated requests from a handful of groups of traditionalist Anglicans.

Benedict made a rare acknowledgment of the tensions on Friday, telling Archbishop Williams that he had not come to visit the headquarters of the Church of England — becoming the first pope to do so — “to speak of the difficulties that the ecumenical path has encountered and continues to encounter.”

In the service at Westminster Abbey on Friday, Benedict smiled when Archbishop Williams, with devastating understatement, said that “Christians have very diverse views about the nature of the vocation that belongs to the See of Rome.”

Tapping into longstanding, vexed questions of papal authority, the pope further stirred the waters two days later, telling the Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland that they should regard the conversion offer as “a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to the developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics.”

“It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion,” he added.

Yet reality might not be on the pope’s side. Both Anglicans and Catholics say that dialogue aimed at full communion — in which the two churches work toward mending the rift of the Reformation — has grown nearly impossible since the Church of England opened the way for female bishops. It first ordained women as priests in 1994.

“Full communion was and still remains the goal,” said Christopher Hill, the Anglican bishop of Guildford, who has been involved in Catholic-Anglican dialogue. “How distant the goal is another matter.”

Full communion would mean that Anglican and Catholic clergy members could administer the sacraments — like the Eucharist, marriage and baptism — in one another’s churches without being reordained, and that parishioners could receive them in each church without formally converting.

In the coming years, the Church of England is on track to ordain the first female bishops, a move that is expected to divide the Anglican Communion even further, including pitting more liberal communities in England and elsewhere against more traditional ones in Africa.

Once women become bishops, more Anglican traditionalists are widely expected to leave — although it remains to be seen whether they will join the Roman Catholic Church, which recently ruled that ordaining women as Catholic priests is a crime against the faith, punishable by excommunication.

So far, Anglican and Catholic officials say few have shown interest in the Vatican’s conversion offer, which seems to have raised more tensions than it has converts. “We don’t expect it to be very many at all,” said Marie Papworth, a spokeswoman for the archbishop of Canterbury.

Takers include the Traditional Anglican Communion in Australia and the Anglican Church in America, traditionalist groups that have already split from the Anglican Communion or have never been part of it, meaning that they adhere to the Anglican traditions without having a formal relationship with the See of Canterbury.

Some traditionalists are drawn to the Roman Catholic Church’s top-down model. “The trouble with the Anglican Church is that it has adopted a parliamentary model and one that presumes change and presumes everyone can have a say,” said the Rev. John Broadhurst, a traditionalist Anglican. “I think it’s become a kind of fascist democracy.”

Father Broadhurst works closely with Britain’s three so-called flying bishops, Anglican bishops appointed to minister to Anglican communities not comfortable with women as priests. He said he would neither confirm nor deny reports that he and the flying bishops had been in talks with the Vatican about converting.

The Rev. Geoffrey Kirk, the parish priest of St. Stephen’s Church in Lewisham, in South London, said that he and his parish hoped to move to the Catholic Church for reasons “related to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate,” but also out of “a sense that the Church of England is moving in a direction of liberal theology in all sorts of areas that we think is unfaithful to the Gospel basically.”

Father Kirk, who is also the national secretary of Forward in Faith, a traditionalist group, said that his Sunday parish of 150 largely consisted of West African and West Indian members. “We are eagerly awaiting the details of the announcement and we hope to take advantage of the pope’s generosity,” he added.

Many questions remain about the new rite, not least what becomes of Anglican parish members who do not want to join Rome, and the role of laity, or nonclergy, in the new structure.

Because of the open questions, “Even those who are taking it seriously are taking their time,” Bishop Hill added.

For his part, Father Kirk said that the Vatican’s offer of fast-track conversion had revealed the “latent anti-Catholic sentiment” among “some quite distinguished Anglicans.”

“We are a country of Protestant atheists,” he added. “Most people don’t take religion very seriously. The one thing they do take seriously is how dreadful the Catholic Church is.”

Tensions Linger Between Pope and Anglicans, NYT, 21.9.2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/europe/22pope.html

Pope meets victims of child abuse

and expresses 'deep sorrow and shame'

Strongest language so far  but victims' groups say
comments do not add up to an apology

John Hooper and Riazat Butt
Guardian.co.uk
Sunday 19 September 2010
01.31 BST
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 01.31 BST on Sunday 19 September 2010.
It was last modified at 02.41 BST on Sunday 19 September 2010.

British victims of sexual abuse by priests met Pope Benedict XVI yesterday and were told that the Roman Catholic church was doing all in its power "to bring to justice clergy and religious [people] accused of these egregious crimes".

In a statement, a church spokesman said the pope was "moved by what they had to say and expressed his deep sorrow and shame over what victims and their families had suffered. He prayed with them and assured them that the Catholic church is continuing to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people."

The meeting with five people, who were described as "a group of persons who had been sexually abused by members of the clergy", was at the Apostolic Nunciature, the residence of the pope's ambassador to Britain. Bill Kilgallon, of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission, said the group "had anger within them" before the discussion.

After the meeting, in what a Vatican spokesman described as a first, the pope met child protection officials from the Catholic church. He thanked them for their work and told them: "We have all become much more aware of the need to safeguard children, and you are an important part of the church's broad-ranging response to the problem."

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the five victims, who he said had not signed confidentiality agreements, comprised four women and one man, aged between 40 and 50 with three from London, one from Yorkshire and a Scot. They were not chosen by the Vatican, the local church had "presented" them.

A statement from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap), gave a cautious welcome to news of the meeting. "Every time clergy sex crimes and cover-ups are discussed, it can be positive. We hope each of these brave individuals feels better as a result of the meeting, both now and years from now."

Earlier yesterday Benedict said that he and the entire church felt shamed by the behaviour of priests who had caused "immense suffering". Using his strongest language so far, the pope said: "I express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes".

But victims' representatives said his comments did not, in fact, add up to an apology. Colm O'Gorman, from the Irish victim support group One in Four, said: "I feel deep sorrow about the suffering I see on the news, but there's an enormous difference between an expression of sorrow and an apology and acknowledgement of responsibility. "

Peter Isely, of Snap, said: "Why, if the pope feels so much remorse, won't he take action? Showing remorse isn't leadership. Taking decisive action is leadership."

The pope's remarks were made at the most solemn service of his visit, in Westminster cathedral. He spoke of the sufferings of "all those individual Christians who daily unite their sacrifices to those of the Lord for the sanctification of the church and the redemption of the world".

He added: "Here, too, I think of the immense suffering caused by the abuse of children, especially within the church and by her ministers. Above all, I express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes … I also acknowledge, with you, the shame and humiliation which all of us have suffered because of these sins; and I invite you to offer it to the Lord with trust that this chastisement will contribute to the healing of the victims and the purification of the church and the renewal of her age-old commitment to the education and care of young people."

Benedict began the penultimate day of his trip with visits from leading politicians – and was given a mysterious book by the prime minister. Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, an atheist, had brought pictures drawn by his children.


• Early this morning Scotland Yard said all six people arrested on Friday in connection with an alleged terrorist threat to the pope had been released without charge.

    Pope meets victims of child abuse and expresses 'deep sorrow and shame', G, 19.9.2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/18/pope-victims-child-abuse-sorrow

Protest the Pope rally sees 10,000 march through London's streets

Crowd carries messages condemning papal stance on condoms, homosexuality, women's rights and child abuse scandal

Tracy Mcveigh
Guardian.co.uk
Saturday 18 September 2010
16.33 BST
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 16.33 BST on Saturday 18 September 2010.
It was last modified at 16.40 BST on Saturday 18 September 2010.

Day three of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Britain and it was a day for protests and anti-papists under bright blue skies in central London. Around 10,000 people took to the capital's streets for a Protest the Pope rally and march against what the organisers called "papal intolerance" and to condemn the state funding of the visit.

They came in red cardboard papal hats scrawled with the words "bigot" and "homophobe" and carrying placards, rainbow flags, pledges of atheism and balloons made of condoms. One giant banner showing the Pope carrying a swastika was later taken down after offending many of the protesters, who went as far as complaining to the police officers lining the route of the march to Downing Street.

Although a good-natured crowd, the force of feeling against the presence of Pope Benedict in the UK was clear in the messages condemning his stance on homosexuality, the use of condoms, segregated schools, women's rights and, most of all, the child abuse scandal for which so many hold the pontiff personally responsible for both accelerating it and then covering it up.

"He is a symbol of all that is wrong with this terrible church, but he is more than that, he is also steeped in guilt at the cover-up," said Paul Stevens, a 35-year-old lawyer on the march with friends in exuberant "leftover gay pride suits". The first speaker to the rally was Sue Cox, 63, who was abused by a priest as a young girl and who told the crowd: "All I have ever experienced from the Catholic church is fear, disgust, lies and shame."

She concluded her speech by warning the Vatican that they would no longer be able to get away with overlooking clerical sex abuse. "We will continue to watch and shout out and work towards change. This is not over," she said.

The protest organiser Peter Tatchell told the Observer the event was held both to send a message to the Pope that child abusers had to be brought to account and to call on the British government not to tolerate the Pope's "harsh, intolerant views on women's rights, on gay equality and on the use of condoms which is so vital to stopping the spread of the HIV virus".

If the pope's key message during his visit has been to warn against atheism and secularism, then this rally was the chance of those with those views to present their view of Benedict. "An enemy of humanity" was the unminced words of prominent atheist Richard Dawkins, who gave a strong speech to the rally on its arrival at Downing Street.

Comedian Al Murray also figured among the crowd. He said: "Like a lot of people I am a perplexed that it is a state visit. The pope's opposition to condoms kills people. It is all very well him lecturing us on morals, but he should look at his own organisation's view."

Asked how his alter ego, the Pub Landlord, would react to the visit, Murray replied: "He doesn't like it either, but that is because he is a fan of Henry VIII, because of his marriage arrangements."

    Protest the Pope rally sees 10,000 march through London's streets, G, 18.9.2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/18/pope-benedict-xvi-protest

Pope's visit: Six held by counter-terror police hours before historic address

Arrests of London street cleaners under Terrorism Act 2000 made on basis of 'overheard conversation'

Friday 17 September 2010
20.12 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Vikram Dodd, Sam Jones, Richard Norton-Taylor and John Hooper
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 20.12 BST on Friday 17 September 2010.
A version appeared on p1 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Saturday 18 September 2010. It was last modified at 20.24 BST on Friday 17 September 2010.

Police arrested six men today over an alleged terrorist plot against the pope hours before he delivered one of his trip's key addresses to four former prime ministers and hundreds of parliamentarians and religious leaders in Westminster Hall.

Five London street cleaners were arrested at gunpoint by counter-terrorist officers in a dawn raid at the depot where they worked in Westminster, London. The sixth man was arrested this afternoon in north London.

Searches by officers at up to 10 addresses were continuing tonight, but no equipment linked to bomb-making or anything that could obviously be used to stage a terrorist attack was recovered.

Some of the men arrested are believed to be of Algerian heritage. They were being held and questioned by detectives who are also trying to establish their identities.

Security sources described the arrests as "precautionary" and Scotland Yard officers are understood to be bracing themselves for criticism if their suspicions are unfounded and the men are released.

News of the arrest came hours before Benedict arrived at Westminster Hall, where he delivered an address to several hundred of the most prominent people in British public life, among them Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Sir John Major, Lady Thatcher, Nick Clegg and the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

One knowledgeable source said the arrests were made because of concerns including conversations overheard between some of those arrested, the fact their jobs gave them access to areas to be visited by the pope, and the difficulty in gauging the threat in a very short time.

Other sources said that the level of alarm in Whitehall was "low key". There was no meeting of the government's emergency committee, Cobra, and the terrorism threat level remained unchanged, indicating that there was no credible evidence pointing to an imminent attack.

Despite the scare, the 83-year-old pope continued with the second day of his four-day state visit. He was told of the arrests at his first engagement of the day – a visit to Britain's biggest Catholic teacher training establishment, St Mary's University College in Twickenham.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's head of press, said that the visit would carry on with "courage and joy" despite the arrests, adding: "We are calm … We are totally confident in the work of the police and Scotland Yard."

Scotland Yard said the policing plan had been reviewed, but the pope's itinerary would remain unchanged.

The six men – who are aged 26, 27, 29, 36, 40 and 50 – were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000, on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. Searches were carried out at their work and home addresses in north and east London. Other locations were searched later in the day with police seizing computers for evidence of terrorist planning or signs of extremism.

A spokesperson for Westminster council said the first five to be arrested worked for Veolia Environmental Services, a contractor employing 650 on-street staff.

Sources said the men were not known to counter-terrorism officials.

The information that led to the arrests was not the result of intercepts or undercover work, but was, sources said, more akin to an overheard conversation that could be interpreted as posing a threat.

It came to police on Thursday as the pope prepared for a round of public events in London. His schedule was a key factor in the decision by senior officers to act and thereby quash any potential threat.

The timing of the arrests will expose Scotland Yard to criticism if the men are released without charge. However, the former head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, Bob Quick, said police had little choice. "You don't have much time to evaluate the information, and you cannot take the risk," he said. "The duty on the police is to err on the side of caution, even if someone is not charged, rather than not acting and finding out you had a real plot which came to fruition."

Quick added there was a public misconception about the purpose of arrests in terrorism cases: "An arrest is a means of investigation, it does not mean someone is guilty of an offence."

Counter-terror sources said M15 was also investigating the men's background.

A huge security and public order operation swung into action on Thursday when the pope touched down in Britain. Thousands of officers are involved in the operation from forces including the Met, Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders, West Midlands and British transport police and the cost of policing the papal visit could reach £1.5m

Senior police officers said last week that there was no information to suggest any specific group wanted to attack the pope, but warned against underestimating the "passion and the fervour" the visit would evoke.

Police also interviewed mentally unstable people who they feared could pose a threat to the pope.

Today, the pontiff faces a slightly less gruelling day, beginning with a meeting with the prime minister and ending more than 12 hours later after a prayer vigil in Hyde Park.

    Pope's visit: Six held by counter-terror police hours before historic address, NYT, 17.9.2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/17/pope-visit-terror-police-arrests-street-cleaners

Pope: Catholic church too slow to tackle clerical sex abuse

Pope condemns vigilance of church authorities over paedophilia,

and attacks 'aggressive secularism' as he begins UK visit

Thursday 16 September 2010
12.51 BST
Guardian.co.uk
John Hooper, Sam Jones and Stephen Bates
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 12.51 BST on Thursday 16 September 2010.
It was last modified at 14.19 BST on Thursday 16 September 2010.

Pope Benedict XVI has begun his state visit to the UK with an admission that the Catholic church was too slow to tackle paedophilia by priests, and an attack on "aggressive secularism" and "atheist extremism".

Speaking to invited guests after his first meeting, with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the pope wasted no time in appealing for a role for religion in society, while laying into what he termed "the more aggressive forms of secularism". And in what appeared to be a swipe at some of his most vociferous critics, he linked "atheist extremism" to the Nazism that Britain had fought in the second world war.

On the flight from Rome, the pope used his strongest language to date on the church's involvement in sex abuse, saying he deplored its failure to act swiftly and decisively in the past and that the Catholic church was "at a moment of penitence" over its record on clerical sex abuse.

The papal flight touched down at Edinburgh airport just after 10.15am, where the pope was met by Prince Philip.

Sex abuse scandal
The pope told reporters on board the plane that paedophilia was an "illness" whose sufferers had lost their free will.

Answering previously submitted questions during a 15-minute briefing, he said: "It is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly mission was possible". He said he had learnt of the recent cases with sadness: "Sadness also that the church authorities were not sufficiently vigilant and insufficiently speedy and decisive in taking the necessary measures".

He said the first priority was to help the victims recover from the trauma they had undergone "and rediscover too their faith in the message of Christ".

Priests at risk of sexually abusing the young should be "excluded from all possibility of access to young people because we know that this is an illness and free will does not work when there is this sickness".

"We must protect these people against themselves."

The 83-year-old pope, who held his weekly audience the day before leaving for Britain, spoke with a noticeably hoarse voice in some of his replies.

A Vatican source said this was not the first time the pope had referred to paedophilia as a sickness, but that in the past he had more often described it as a sin or a crime.

It is expected the pope will meet victims during his tour of Britain, as he has done on visits to the US, Australia and Malta. The Vatican is maintaining as strictly confidential the identity of the people the pope will meet as well as the place and time of the encounter.

The pope praised British bishops for the way they had tackled the problem of clerical sex abuse.

'Aggressive secularism'

In a speech at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the pope also praised Britain for its role in fighting Nazi Germany and forging the postwar consensus, but warned again of the dangers of what he termed "aggressive secularism".

The pope said that even in his own lifetime, "Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live".

Driving home a point that is expected to be central to his four-day visit, Benedict went on: "As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the 20th century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a 'reductive vision of the person and his destiny'."

The quote was from his own encyclical on social and economic issues, Caritas in Veritate, published last year.

In what might be regarded as a less than warm endorsement, the pope noted that the UK strove to be a modern and multicultural society. "In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate. Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms."

His choice of words echoes controversial comments made yesterday by a senior Vatican adviser who claimed Britain discriminated against Christians, and likened arriving in multicultural Britain to visiting "a third-world country".

The pope called on the British media to remember its global power and behave responsibly.

"Because their opinions reach such a wide audience the British media have a graver responsibility than most and a greater opportunity to promote the peace of nations."

He urged Britons to "continue to operate by the values of Cardinal [John Henry] Newman of respect, honesty and fair-mindedness". He was referring to the 19th century clergyman who will be beatified in a ceremony on Sunday.

Controversies

The visit itself has been criticised by a number of groups, including gay and women's rights organisations, and demonstrations are expected.

However the pope brushed aside the controversies that have preceded his arrival, saying he had also faced anti-clericalism and anti-Catholicism on his visits to France and the Czech Republic, where he had also had a "warm welcome" from the Catholic community.

"Naturally, Great Britain has its own tradition of anti-Catholicism. That's obvious. But it's also a country with a great history of tolerance," he said.

This afternoon the pope will celebrate mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow before flying to London tonight.

The papal trip will include a meeting with the prime minister, David Cameron, and a prayer vigil in Hyde Park, culminating in Newman's beatification ceremony in Birmingham on Sunday.

Up to 100,000 people were expected to line the streets of the Scottish capital as the pope was driven in the "popemobile" to the home of the leader of the Catholic church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien.

A state car will later be used to take him to Glasgow's Bellahouston Park, where about 65,000 pilgrims are expected to attend a mass, which will be preceded by a musical performance from Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle.

    Pope: Catholic church too slow to tackle clerical sex abuse, G, 16.9.2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/popes-visit-benedict-arrives-uk

Pope Benedict XVI flies in amid row over aide's race remarks

Cardinal dropped from entourage after saying UK is like 'third world country'


John Hooper in Rome, Riazat Butt and Sam Jones
Guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 15 September 2010
21.56 BST
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 21.56 BST on Wednesday 15 September 2010.
A version appeared on p1 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Thursday 16 September 2010.
It was last modified at 09.06 BST on Thursday 16 September 2010.

The pope's visit to the UK is mired in controversy after one of Benedict XVI's senior advisers dropped out after comparing an arrival in multicultural Britain to landing "in a third-world country".

Cardinal Walter Kasper – the Vatican's leading expert on relations with the Church of England – also accused the UK of discriminating against Christians.

The cardinal's remarks, made hours before the papal party was due to land in Edinburgh this morning, came in an interview with the German news magazine Focus, in which he noted that Britain was a "secular, pluralistic" country.

Asked by the magazine whether Christians were discriminated against in the UK, Kasper replied: "Yes. Above all, an aggressive new atheism has spread through Britain. If, for example, you wear a cross on British Airways, you are discriminated against."

Kasper appears to have been referring to events in 2006, when BA was embroiled in a bitter row after taking disciplinary action against an airport worker who refused to cover up a necklace carrying a cross which she wore outside her uniform.

The cardinal's comments on "aggressive" atheism drew an angry response from secular campaigners who said the UK did not need a "lecture" on religious freedom and belief from the Vatican – but were welcomed by some Christians.

They also came after an article today in the pope's own newspaper by Tony Blair, in which the former prime minister appealed to the Roman Catholic leadership to listen to the views of ordinary priests and churchgoers on doctrinal issues and show greater interest in ideas dismissed as secularist.

The pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said tonight that the cardinal "had no negative intention, nor [a] lesser appreciation for the United Kingdom", but had been referring to Britain's multi-ethnic composition. He said the pope's former adviser recognised "the great values of British culture".

In a statement, Lombardi said Kasper "had meant to refer to the fact that from the moment of arrival in London airport – as happens in many big metropolises of the world today, but in London particularly because the unique role played over time by the UK's capital – you realise from the outset that you are in a country in which many human realities of the most diverse provenances and conditions meet and mingle; a crucible of today's humanity, with its diversity and problems".

Lombardi added that, in speaking about atheism, the cardinal "was obviously referring to the positions of certain well-known authors who put themselves forward particularly aggressively and dress themselves up in scientific and cultural arguments, but who do not in fact have the value they show off".

Last night the Catholic church in England and Wales distanced itself from the cardinal's comments, which a spokeswoman said "do not represent the views of the Vatican, nor those of bishops in this country". The spokeswoman added: "Clearly they are personal views … Catholics play a full part in this country's life and welcome the rich diversity of thought, culture and people so evident here. This visit marks a further development of the good relationship between the United Kingdom and the Holy See. We are confident that it will be a huge success."

A government spokesman said the cardinal was expressing his own views: "As a church spokesperson has said, his comments do not represent the views of the Vatican, nor of bishops in this country."

Despite the timing of the comments, the Vatican insisted that Kasper had withdrawn from the trip "for health reasons".

Lombardi told the Guardian that the 77-year-old prelate's absence from the four-day visit "had absolutely nothing to do with anything else". The cardinal's reference to British Airways has also revived questions about why, in a departure from the norm, the pope will not return to Rome aboard a plane from the country he has visited – normally that country's national flag carrier.

At a briefing last week, Lombardi said the decision to fly there and back with the Italian airline Alitalia had been taken for reasons of "simplicity".

He added: "In any case, British Airways is no longer state-owned." Alitalia was also privatised two years ago.

BA issued a statement today saying that Kasper had been "seriously misinformed. It is completely untrue that we discriminate against Christians or members of any faith. Allegations to the contrary made by one individual have been repeatedly rejected by the courts."

In February this year, Nadia Eweida lost her appeal against a ruling that cleared BA of discrimination by stopping her wearing a cross visibly at work. She had wanted three judges to overturn a decision by the employment appeal tribunal that she was not a victim of indirect religion or belief discrimination.

Commenting on the cardinal's remarks, Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, which has opposed the papal visit, said Britain had little to learn from the Vatican.

"The UK is fully signed up to treaties like the European convention on human rights," he said. "It is not hostility to religion that characterises the negative reaction of many to the pope's state visit, but hostility to the Holy See's bigoted position on so many issues. We should be proud that – unlike the Holy See – the UK is a place of liberalism and tolerance."

Clifford Longley, from the Catholic newspaper the Tablet said Kasper was "obviously talking nonsense". Longley told the BBC: "I don't think he believes Britain is in the grip of secular atheism, and he shouldn't have said so."

Simon Woolley, a founder of Operation Black Vote, said Kasper's remarks were "shocking and ignorant".

"If he's complainting about Britain being multicultural, it's ignorant because of Britain's slave and colonial past. In reality, most black people are here because Britain was there," said Woolley. "It's shocking because it's so disparaging. The remarks are really unhelpful."

The group had voiced no particular opinion on on the Pope's visist until now.

Darcus Howe, the broadcaster and writer, said: "What's he talking about, it's crap."Others, however, praised Kasper for speaking up. "We do have to become aware of the fact that Christians are finding it increasingly difficult to live out and express faith in the public sphere," said Andrea Williams of the Christian Legal Centre, which works to protect and promote freedoms of Christians in the UK. "This aggressive secularism amounts to privatisation of faith."

The country, she said, would do well to remember the good that its Christian heritage had done "not just for Christians, but for the whole of society".

The last-minute withdrawal of the cardinal led to a flurry of activity in the Vatican. He was to have played a central role in the ecumenical aspects of the pope's visit.

Until July, Kasper was the head of the department that deals with relations with other Christian denominations, where he had worked since 1999.His successor, a Swiss archbishop, Kurt Koch, speaks English, but he is not as fluent as Kasper. He also has far less experience of dealing with what Kasper in his Focus interview called the "difficult dialogue" with the Church of England.

This is not the first time Kasper has invited controversy. Last year, after the pope lifted the excommunication of an ultra-traditional British bishop who had questioned the extent of the Holocaust, Kasper raised eyebrows in the Vatican with an interview in which he criticised a lack of consultation and said there had been "misunderstandings and management errors" in the papal bureaucracy.

Tony Blair's front-page article in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's semi-official daily, is also likely to focus attention on the Catholic hierarchy's attitude to secularism. Although Blair specifically excluded the pope from the scope of accusations, his piece marked a rare instance of the church leadership being upbraided on its own turf.

Blair praised the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman, an earlier notable convert whom Benedict will beatify at a service in Birmingham on Sunday.

In particular, he singled out Newman's idea that church doctrine was constantly developing and acknowledged that church teaching was about defining what constituted "true" development.

But, he added: "Newman defined the consent of the entire 'body of the faithful' on doctrinal questions as '[the] voice of the infallible church'. I ask myself whether this voice is still taken seriously enough, or if we have fully understood the implications of these ideas."

The former prime minister, whose Faith Foundation aims to promote understanding between religions, added: "The tendency of some religious leaders to put a great number of different ideas into a single envelope with the label 'secularism' and then consider it as something sinister creates divisions in pluralistic societies. This rules out for the Church the possibility of new developments in its thinking."

Taken in isolation, his comment might be interpreted as a rebuke to Benedict, who has frequently inveighed against the secularisation of modern Europe. But Blair said: "The pope's dialogues with important secular thinkers [represent] … a very different example."

It was announced in May that Benedict had ordered the setting up of a foundation to reach out to atheists and agnostics. The Vatican hopes to stage a series of debates in Paris next year. But a senior official said the Catholic leadership was only interested in engaging with "noble atheism or agnosticism, not the polemical kind".

Benedict's visit, the first state trip to the UK by a pope, has attracted considerable criticism. Today, more than 50 public figures signed a letter to the Guardian arguing that the pope should not be given the "honour" of a state visit. The signatories, including Stephen Fry, Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman and Richard Dawkins call for "Pope Ratzinger" to be stripped of the right because of the Vatican's record on gay rights, abortion and birth control.

    Pope Benedict XVI flies in amid row over aide's race remarks, G, 15, 9.2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/pope-benedict-xvi-aide-remarks