British government representatives in Rome have been investigating the possibility of a simultaneous visit to Northern Ireland by Pope Benedict and Queen Elizabeth, probably in the spring months of next year, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent in Rome .
It is understood preliminary inquiries have been taking place in Rome about the feasibility of such a visit, which is being presented as a culmination to the current Northern peace process.
The British prime minister Tony Blair, an Anglican, his Catholic wife Cherie and their four children, had a private audience with Pope Benedict last June. Details of what was discussed were not released.
On Thursday night the British ambassador to the Holy See, Francis Campbell, hosted a dinner for some of the Northern Ireland Catholic bishops, including the Catholic primate of all-Ireland, Archbishop Seán Brady.
Irish bishops from both sides of the Border are currently in Rome to take part in the ad limina visit by the Irish Bishops' Conference to the Vatican.
Also present at Thursday's dinner was the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr John Magee, a native of Newry, Co Down, home town of Mr Campbell. However, it is believed the prospect of a simultaneous visit by the pope and the queen to the North was not discussed at the dinner.
But confirming that such inquiries were under way, sources indicated last night that if such a visit by the pope was to take place in March or April of next year, it would have to be brief as his schedule for 2007 is already full.
Meanwhile, the Irish bishops' ad limina visit to Rome ends today when the pope will meet them in final, general audience.
By then he will have met each bishop individually in private audience.
He will be addressed briefly by Archbishop Brady and will then deliver a much-anticipated response.
Archbishop Brady will invite the pope to visit Ireland. He will also ask him to make the Irish saint, Columbanus, co-patron (with St Benedict) of Europe.
Columbanus was born in 543 AD, the year St Benedict died. He himself died at Bobbio, Italy, in 615 AD. He founded a number of monasteries in Europe, notably at Luxiel and Bobbio, and became something of a trail-blazer for Irish missionary activity on the Continent in the early medieval period.
Archbishop Brady is also expected to speak about the clerical child sex abuse issue in Ireland, the Northern Ireland peace process, growing secularism in Ireland, its increased prosperity and the attendant effects, including immigration.
Accompanying the Irish bishops on their ad limina visit has been the former Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell. He is in Rome in a personal capacity, but was granted a private audience with the pope on Thursday.
Most of the Irish bishops will have returned to Ireland by tomorrow.