Pope (full edit)
76 images Created 20 Sep 2010
Pope Benedict XVI's Popemobile is transported to Lambeth Palace during the Pontif's papal tour of Britain 2010, the first visit by a pontiff since 1982. Two specially-adapted cars were brought over, modified from a Mercedes M-Class and each costing £75,000. SCV1 stands for Stato della Citta del Vaticano. Taxpayers footed the £10m bill for non-religious elements of the tour, which largely angered a nation still reeling from the financial crisis. Pope Benedict XVI is the head of the biggest Christian denomination in the world, some one billion Roman Catholics, or one in six people. In Britain there are about five million Catholics but only a quarter of Catholics regularly attend Sunday Mass and some churches have closed owing to spending cuts.