Former Canterbury schoolboy and now journalist Edward Pentin meets Pope Benedict at the Vatican.

by Gerry Warren

The Pope is unlikely to visit Canterbury when he comes to the UK later this year, according to the son of a former Lord Mayor who is now a journalist based in Rome covering Vatican affairs.

Edward Pentin, whose parents, David and Alicia Pentin live in the St Dunstan’s area of the city, works for the The Catholic Herald and is close to Vatican sources. They have told him Canterbury is not on the Pontiff’s itinerary in September which currently includes London, Oxford and Birmingham and Scotland.

The revelation will be a disappointment to Catholics in east Kent, many of who remember Pope John Paul II’s visit to the city in 1982.

It prompted a huge security alert which was months in the planning and included police lifting drains covers to check for bombs.

Mr Pentin, 38, said: “At the moment a visit to Canterbury isn’t being discussed by officials responsible for organising the trip. It’s still possible but the question is whether the Pope will be able to fit it into his itinerary which is already filling up fast.

“He may well just have time for a visit to Lambeth Palace, but it’s anyone’s guess at the moment.”

The main purpose of Pope Benedict’s visit is to preside over the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, which will probably take place in Birmingham or Coventry.

Mr Pentin said the Pope was due to give speeches at Oxford University and in London and then spend two days in Scotland.