As the United Kingdom braces to receive one of the best-known and most controversial figures on the planet, Pope Benedict XVI, a question hangs over the state visit: Why is he coming?<\/p>\n
The leader of the world’s 1 billion-plus Catholics does not particularly like to travel, Benedict biographer David Gibson says.<\/p>\n
Since a high-profile visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories nearly a year-and-a-half ago, he’s gone only to a handful of small countries not far from Rome — racking up nothing like the number of air miles logged by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.<\/p>\n
And the United Kingdom is not a Catholic country. On the contrary, Britain’s break from Rome in the 16th century echoes, if faintly, to the present day, with laws on the books forbidding the heir to the British throne from marrying a Catholic.<\/p>\n