Papal nuncio to Great Britain: A visit from Pope Leo is ‘likely’

The pope’s representative in Great Britain is hopeful that Pope Leo XIV will visit England and “awaken the conscience of the West.”

A papal visit to England 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 it is logical that 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 was Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

Maury said that, as the first English-speaking pope in more than eight centuries, the welcome for Pope Leo would be “extraordinary and his message amplified throughout the English-speaking world.”

“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.

“The spiritual vacuum of recent decades is giving way to a quiet…