Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews pictured by the front door of his home where he will welcome Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday 16 September.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, hopes Pope Benedict XVI will remind Catholics how they should live their Christian faith today.
Speaking at his home in Edinburgh on Wednesday 4 August, the eve of his Silver Jubilee as a Bishop, 1985-2010, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, said: “I should particularly like the Holy Father to remind Catholics in Scotland of the basics of our Catholic Faith and how we should be living it in these challenging times.”
Asked what had been most precious to him during his 25 years as a bishop, Cardinal Keith O’Brien said: “My relationship to my priests and my people. I succeeded Cardinal Gordon Gray and now after 25 years as a bishop in this Archdiocese I have inherited that fatherly mantle which he passed onto me.”
Cardinal O’Brian, now aged 72, added: “I was ordained Archbishop at St Mary’s Cathedral here in Edinburgh on 5 August 1985. It has been a very happy 25 years in this wonderful diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.”
Pope Benedict XVI is due to fly from Rome to Edinburgh on Thursday 16 September at the start of his four-day State Visit to the United Kingdom. He will travel directly from the airport to the Palace of Holyroodhouse where he will be met by HM The Queen.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien's private chapel where the Holy Father will pray before the Blessed Sacrament on the first day of his State Visit to the United Kingdom.
During an exclusive interview Cardinal O’Brien said: “The people of Edinburgh will have an opportunity to see the Holy Father when he is driven from Holyroodhouse in the Popemobile along Princess Street to my home here in Morningside on the Feast of St Ninian, the first acknowledged missionary to Scotland.”
The Cardinal said that while the crowds are waiting for Pope Benedict to pass by they will be entertained by a procession of pipe bands and a pageant about St Ninian by schoolchildren from the Archdiocese.
Cardinal O’Brian said: “After his arrival here the Holy Father will go to my private chapel for a few moments of quiet prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.”
In the chapel the Cardinal pointed out the two stained glass windows depicting two great Scottish missionaries – St Ninian who brought the Gospel to Scotland and St Columba who founded of the monastery of Iona. St Columba died on 9 June in 597.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien and Peter Jennings pictured holding the special stamps to be issued by the Isle of Man Post Office on Wednesday 11 August to mark the State Visit of Pope Benedict XVI and the Beatification of Cardinal Newman at Cofton Park Birmingham on Sunday 19 September.
Cardinal O’Brien pointed out the words on altar cloth: “Serve the Lord with Gladness”. He explained: “This is the motto that I choose in 1985 when I was appointed by Pope John Paul II as Archbishop of this diocese.”
Cardinal Keith O’Brien said: “I will entertain the Holy Father and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and other close aides at a private lunch. After a rest the Pope will be taken by motorcade to Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, where he will celebrate a late afternoon Mass for the Catholics of Scotland.”
Twenty-eight years ago, on 31 May 1982, during the six-day Pastoral Visit of Pope John Paul II to Great Britain, this correspondent travelled in the motorcade with the official Vatican party behind the Popemobile as it travelled along Princes Street. The Polish Pope had just been given a rapturous reception when he addressed more than 40,000 young people from all over Scotland at Murrayfield Stadium.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien marked the anniversary of his Episcopal Ordination by celebration of a special Mass for his staff.
A number of further religious celebrations are due to be held to mark Cardinal O’Brien’s 25 years of devoted service to the Catholic Church in Scotland. These include a Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral on 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption, and also on 8 September, the Feast of the Birthday of Our Lady.
A souvenir booklet: ‘His Eminence Keith Patrick Cardinal O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh’, illustrated with black and white and colour photographs has been published to commemorate the occasion.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien's home in Edinburgh.
