THE Pope may not be visiting Oxford when he comes to Britain next month but Catholics from the county will be visiting him, it was confirmed last night.

Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in the the UK on September 16 to visit Edinburgh, Glasgow and London before heading to Birmingham to attend a beatification ceremony for Cardinal John Henry Newman, a 19th century convert to Catholicism, who had been a leading Anglican cleric in Oxford.

The ceremony, on Sunday, September 19, which is part of the process towards a person becoming a saint, will be attended by hundreds of Catholics from Oxfordshire.

Father Daniel Seward, a priest at the Oratory Church, in Woodstock Road, said it was important for the city’s Catholics to see the beatification of a leading Oxford figure.

He said: “We will be sending seven coaches of worshippers up to Birmingham, about 300 people.

“John Henry Newman was the founder of the Oratory, so it means a lot to see him honoured in this way, especially as he actually had to leave Oxford for being a Catholic.”

Fr Seward said 10 parishioners from Oxford would also have the honour of receiving Holy Communion from the Pope.

The first Pope ever to visit the UK was John Paul II, in 1982.