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His holiness Pope Benedict XVI - Source: Reuters
Pope Benedict will visit Britain next year following an invitation from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a British government source said.
The visit is expected to coincide with a beatification ceremony for Cardinal John Henry Newman, one of the most prominent English converts from Anglicanism to Catholicism.
Church sources in Rome confirmed a visit was likely in the spring but there were no firm details for the moment.
It would be the first visit to Britain by a pontiff since Pope John Paul came in 1982. About five million Catholics live in England.
Newman, who converted to Catholicism in 1845, was a key figure in the Oxford Movement, which tried to move the Church of England closer to its Catholic origins.
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