Pope Benedict to be received by queen on UK visit

Pope Benedict XVI waves at the end of his visit at Rome's Lutheran church March 14, 2010.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth will host Pope Benedict at her official residence in Scotland during his first visit to Britain in September, the government said on Tuesday.

Benedict will meet the queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, a baroque landmark that was the home of Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic monarch executed for treason in 1587 after Elizabeth I signed her death warrant.

The four-day trip, from September 16 to 19, will be the first papal visit since Pope John Paul II's pastoral visit in 1982 and is the first official papal visit to Britain.

Benedict will also meet the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the world's 77 million Anglicans, and will hold a public mass in Glasgow and a prayer vigil in London.

A Vatican initiative to welcome conservative Anglicans who want to convert to Catholicism has been criticized by some Anglicans who see the move as an attempt to capitalize on deep divisions in Anglicanism.

Relations between Christian churches and major faiths will be a theme of the visit, the British government said.

"The papal visit represents an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen ties between the UK and the Holy See on action to tackle poverty and climate change as well as the important role of faith in creating strong and cohesive communities," said Scotland Secretary Jim Murphy, who is leading the preparations for the visit.

The cost of the state side of the visit will be around 15 million pounds ($22.49 million). The Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Scotland, England and Wales will contribute to the cost.

During his trip, Benedict will perform the beatification -- a step on the path to sainthood -- of 19th century theologian and educationalist Cardinal John Henry Newman, at a public mass in Coventry, central England.

Newman, who lived from 1801 to 1890, was one of the most prominent English converts from Anglicanism to Catholicism and was a key figure in the Oxford Movement, which tried to move the Church of England closer to Rome.

Coventry's cathedral was destroyed by German bombing during World War Two and the ruins still stand next to the modern church which replaced it.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Matt Falloon)