Sette milioni di sterline. Circa 8 milioni di euro. E’ il costo della visita del Papa in Inghilterra poco tempo fa, in settembre. Solo la Papamobile è costata 34.400 sterline. I conti sul Guardian del 16.2.2011:
Pope’s visit cost taxpayer £7m
£1.67m went on open-air mass in Birmingham, £18,735 on dinner with foreign secretary and £34,440 on the Popemobile
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 February 2011 18.45 GMT
The Pope’s state visit to the UK last September cost the taxpayer at least £7m before security, the Foreign Office has disclosed. This included an £18,735 dinner for the papal delegation with the foreign secretary and £22,530 on helicopter flights.
Pope Benedict XVI‘s four-day visit was the first visit to the UK by a pontiff to be designated as a state visit, as he was invited by the Queen rather than the Catholic church. An estimated 500,000 people attended the events.
The £6.98m costs of the state-organised events are being met by the public purse. The Catholic church has been asked to reimburse the taxpayer another £6.35m for pastoral events. Direct costs already met by Catholic organisations in the UK are estimated at about £3.8m.
Policing and local authority costs were “met within existing budgets”, the Foreign Office said, but it could not supply a total figure.
The main bill was split between seven Whitehall departments – including the Department for International Development – each paying £1.25m.
Among the costliest items on the bill were £3m for media facilities and £1.67m for an open-air beatification mass in Birmingham.
Airport arrivals and departures came in at just over £60,000, transporting the Popemobile and official baggage cost £34,440 and £17,546 went on accommodation for senior members of the papal delegation.
The figures were published in a written ministerial statement by the junior Foreign Office minister, Henry Bellingham.
