Pope Benedict receives Official Record of His State Visit to Britain

Pope Benedict with Peter Jennjngs

Pope Benedict XVI was presented with a copy of the Official Record of his State Visit to the United Kingdom by Peter Jennings, its author, at the end of the Pontiff’s weekly audience in the Vatican recently. The Pope also received a special prayer card for the Canonisation of Blessed John Henry Newman, produced by the Catholic Truth Society.

Earlier, the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Francis Campbell, (who has two contributions in the book) hosted a reception to launch the book. During the evening Ambassador Campbell paid a special tribute to Mrs Stella Jennings, who, he said, had done “a remarkable job” in securing more than 30 post-visit reflections in time for the book to be published and launched in Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 9 October, the Feast of Blessed John Henry Newman - less than three weeks after the Visit.

Guests at the launch including senior members of the Roman Curia, most Rome-based correspondents and many organisers of the Papal Visit.

Mr Jennings said: “I am extremely grateful to the Bishops’ Conferences of England, Wales and Scotland for entrusting me with writing and editing the Official Record of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. I should like to say a very special thank you to my wife Stella for her work, encouragement and support.

“I pay a special tribute to the other co-workers on this challenging, complex but amazing project including Philip Bonn, Associate Editor and Kevin Grant, and also to Fergal Martin, General Secretary of the Catholic Truth Society and his unflagging team: Piero Finaldi, Richard Brown, Stephen Campbell, Glenda Swain and Llima Cole. Thank you all.”

Copies of the book may be ordered online: www.cts-online.org.uk