Vatican declares Pope’s visit to Britain a success

Birmingham: The Vatican declared ‘s four-day visit to Britain a “great success” today, saying the pontiff was able to reach out to a nation wary of his message and angry at his church’s sex abuse scandal.

On his final day, Benedict praised British heroics against the Nazis to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and moved an Englishman a step closer to possible sainthood.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the important thing was not so much the turnout — crowds were much smaller than when Pope John Paul II visited in 1982 — but that Benedict’s warning about the dangers of an increasingly secularised society had been received “with profound interest” from Britons as a whole.