After warm Scottish reception, London welcomes Pope

The Pope is in London today to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior Anglican and Catholic bishops at Lambeth Palace.

The London leg of his four-day visit to Britain follows on from his hugely successful first day in Scotland, where some 200,000 people turned out to see him in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Planned protests by atheists and those unhappy with the Catholic Church’s handling of child abuse failed to impact the festival feel in the cities, with only a few dozen protesting in a designated area in the Scottish capital.

Security was high as the Pope headed through the streets in his Popemobile, waving to the crowds of pilgrims and stopping twice to bless babies.

During his flight to Edinburgh yesterday morning, the Pope admitted to journalists that the Catholic Church had “not been vigilant enough” in regards to paedophile priests and said that the revelations of the abuse “were a shock to me”.

He was received in Scotland by the Queen before delivering a speech in which he said he held out the hand of friendship to Britain and urged the nation to “maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate”.

Later in the day, the Pope celebrated an open-air Mass in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park where thousands cheered and waved white and yellow Vatican flags, and Scottish singer Susan Boyle realised her dream of singing before a pope.

The Pope appealed to youngsters in the crowd to "lead lives worthy of our Lord and yourselves”.

He said: "There is only one thing which lasts: the love of Jesus Christ personally for each one of you. I pray that many of you will know and love Jesus Christ."

The Pope also defended religious freedom: "There are those who now seek to exclude religious belief from public discourse, to privatise it, even to paint it as a threat to liberty and equality. Yet...it leads us to look upon every person as a sister, or a brother."

Among those present at the Mass were First Minister Alex Salmond and his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon.

The Pope is in Britain for the first official state visit to these shores by a pontiff and the first visit by a pope since John Paul II made a pastoral visit in 1982.

He is due to deliver an address to British society at Westminster Hall this afternoon, before ending the day with Evening Prayer in Westminster Abbey, accompanied by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Christian leaders.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims are expected to line the streets of the capital for another chance to glimpse the Pope in his Popemobile. Thousands more will gather in London’s Hyde Park tomorrow for another open-air Mass to be celebrated by the Pope.