In historic British hall, Benedict’s call for resurgent religion echoes

There was never any danger inside the great hall where Roman Catholics before him were once tried and sentenced to death. But as Pope Benedict XVI prepared to give an address there Friday, there was a frisson of risk in the air.

Not because he’d kept an audience including four former prime ministers waiting for at least an hour. Or because police had arrested five men earlier in the day on suspicion of plotting a terrorist act against him.

Rather, this was the speech billed as the most important of Benedict’s historic four-day state visit to Britain. And not everyone would necessarily like it.

Religion isn’t “a problem for legislators to solve,” Benedict said. Rather, in a country that increasingly does without, it’s something that lawmakers and others ought to encourage at all levels of national life.

“I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity, that is taking place in some quarters, even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance,” the pontiff said in cavernous Westminster Hall inside the Houses of Parliament.

He congratulated Britain on its illustrious democratic history, but also held up the example of the man condemned to death inside the great hall nearly 500 years ago, Thomas More, who refused to countenance Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church, saying he served God before the king.

It was a gentle call to arms, part of the pope’s campaign to “re-evangelize” Europe and restore traditional values.

The audience applauded warmly after the 15-minute address, but signs of Benedict’s uphill battle sat in the front row. He shook the hand of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has converted to Catholicism but whose government spokesman once famously declared, “We don’t do God.” The pope also shook the hand of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is an avowed atheist. ( Prime Minister David Cameron sent his apologies to the event, because he was attending his father’s funeral.)

Outside, among crowds of well-wishers, were protesters who blame the Catholic Church for supporting policies that they say have helped spread AIDS and covered up the abuses of pedophile priests.

There was also a reminder earlier in the day that some might actually wish the pope physical harm. Scotland Yard announced that it had arrested five men in London after receiving intelligence of a potential threat against the pontiff.

The five men, who range in age from 26 to 50, are street cleaners who work for a company contracted by a local government body. British media reports said the men were Algerians.

A sixth man was arrested later in the day, and searches of various premises were being carried out. However, police released no details of any suspected plot.

The pope also met with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, despite the tension in relations between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. In the evening, the two men prayed together in Westminster Abbey in a show of Christian unity.

But it was the speech at the Houses of Parliament that was the focal point of the day.

The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, introduced the pope with what initially sounded like a bad attempt at a religious joke but turned into a declaration of the need for dialogue.

In 1354, he said, a Franciscan, a Dominican and a Benedictine came to Westminster Hall to debate the proper relationship between the papacy and temporal affairs.

“Suffice to say that no consensus was reached on that occasion,” Bercow said. “Nevertheless, it is the right to ask such questions, and to deliberate on the merits of alternative answers, that makes for freedom.”

henry.chu@latimes.com