To say of Pope Benedict XVI that “he came, he saw, he conquered” would be true, even spectacularly so – but still only part of the truth. For he was conquered too during his state visit to Britain, as he seemed to admit in his Wednesday general audience this week when he spoke of “the intense and very beautiful four days” in which he found the Christian faith strong in every level of society.

The visit had been preceded by vehement and sometimes malicious personal attacks, and while Pope Benedict spoke politely during the plane trip from Rome of Britain as a tolerant society, there was a nervousness in the Vatican about what was perceived as its aggressive secularism – as Cardinal Walter Kasper so dramatically articulated in a German magazine just before the visit.

What the Pope and his entourage actually found is well reflected in the figures confirmed by the Metropolitan Police after Saturday’s events in London. The enthusiastic crowds who lined the streets to watch him pass on his way down the flag-lined Mall grew to 200,000 while there were 6,000 on the anti-papal march to Downing Street, although the organisers claimed that it was several times that figure. Even those parts of the national media that had been most critical of the visit beforehand, had changed their tune by the time he left.

The Pope’s response to Britain has been greatly influenced by Britain’s response to him and that was due in no small part to his preparation for the visit, as well as his demeanour. While there had been apprehension about the country, Pope Benedict turned his formidable intellect to the question of what makes Britain tick, and the subtle and complex nuances of British society and history were both understood and appreciated and in many respects applauded. It was recognition of this that earned his address in Westminster Hall, arguably the centre piece of the entire visit, such a warm reception. The questions ...

Pope Benedict XVI comes to Britain at exactly the right time. The country has a new government which preaches a new kind of politics, whose content is still largely unspecified. The former government, now in opposition, has gone in search of a new leader and a new ­philosophy. Thus many questions whose answers were once taken for granted about priorities and values in British society have been opened up afresh – ...

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger chose his title of Benedict XVI upon his election as Pope in 2005, it was widely seen as imparting a distinctly European mission to his papacy. St Benedict is the patron saint of Europe, the cradle of the Catholic faith. But Benedict XVI is a highly complex man, and this is a highly complex mission – and modern secular Europe is a highly complex phenomenon. His critics seem to think ...