Given the orgy of hostility that preceded his arrival, Pope Benedict might have been forgiven if he had chosen to stay at home, contemplating the glories of the Sistine Chapel, rather than boarding his Alitalia plane for Edinburgh. Fortunately, in the circumstances, he was not arriving at Heathrow, so any warnings about landing in a "third-world country" – thank you, Cardinal Walter Kasper – were superfluous. All in all, proceedings got off to a quiet and rather leisurely start: less state visit, more pensioners' day out.
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