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22/05/2009
Thatcher To Meet The Pope
Former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is to have a private audience with His Holiness the Pope in Italy, it has been announced.
Lady Thatcher will meet Pope Benedict XVI at Vatican next week.
She will leave for Italy today accompanied by her daughter Carol.
The 83-year-old peer plans to stay with the wife of former Downing Street adviser Lord Powell, who lives on the outskirts of Rome.
It is more than 30 years since Lady Thatcher's first audience at the Vatican, when she met Pope Paul VI as Leader of the Opposition.
In 1980, the then Prime Minister visited Pope John Paul II, and asked His Holiness to intervene in the IRA hunger strikes at the Maze prison.
Earlier this year, Gordon Brown was received by Pope Benedict. It was Mr Brown's second meeting with the Pope since 2007, and lasted 35 minutes.
Tony Blair had a number of audiences with the Pope during his tenure as Prime Minister, and converted to Catholicism soon after leaving office.
Lady Thatcher has often spoke of the influence the Methodist church had on her upbringing.
She grew up in the town of Grantham, where father was a Methodist lay preacher.
(PR/JM)
Lady Thatcher will meet Pope Benedict XVI at Vatican next week.
She will leave for Italy today accompanied by her daughter Carol.
The 83-year-old peer plans to stay with the wife of former Downing Street adviser Lord Powell, who lives on the outskirts of Rome.
It is more than 30 years since Lady Thatcher's first audience at the Vatican, when she met Pope Paul VI as Leader of the Opposition.
In 1980, the then Prime Minister visited Pope John Paul II, and asked His Holiness to intervene in the IRA hunger strikes at the Maze prison.
Earlier this year, Gordon Brown was received by Pope Benedict. It was Mr Brown's second meeting with the Pope since 2007, and lasted 35 minutes.
Tony Blair had a number of audiences with the Pope during his tenure as Prime Minister, and converted to Catholicism soon after leaving office.
Lady Thatcher has often spoke of the influence the Methodist church had on her upbringing.
She grew up in the town of Grantham, where father was a Methodist lay preacher.
(PR/JM)
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