Papal nuncio says Pope Leo visit to Great Britain will most likely include Scotland

A papal visit is “likely, desirable, and I would even say unavoidable,” Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, apostolic nuncio to Great Britain since 2023, told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.

A visit to Great Britain is “likely, because King Charles III paid a state visit to the Vatican last year, and, logically, the United Kingdom would now invite Pope Leo XIV to return the visit,” he added.

The last pope to make an official visit to the United Kingdom, which took in Glasgow and Edinburgh, was Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

“The bishops of England and Scotland also hope that a papal visit will reinvigorate the proclamation of the faith in one of Europe’s most secularized societies — one which, I would say, is currently experiencing a time of grace,” the papal representative said.

A large number of local people were in the crowd at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow for the visit of Pope Benedict to Scotland in 2010.

“The spiritual vacuum of recent decades is giving way to a quiet Christian revival among younger generations,” the archbishop continued. “Religious practice is increasing among Catholics, thanks in part to the thousands of immigrants and children of immigrants who are revitalizing parish life and contributing to the growth of Catholic communities.”

“Everything suggests that the pontificate of Leo XIV is called to awaken the conscience of the West just as that of St. John Paul II once stirred the conscience of the East, so that the Church may once again breathe fully with both of its lungs,” he said.

The book “Faith, Life, Diplomacy,” published in Spanish and Italian, reflects on Maury’s nearly four decades of diplomatic service in countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Romania, and Moldova.