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Pope Benedict XVI state visit: Day one: mass at Bellahouston Park; Mario Conti (Archbishop of Glasgow) speaking SOT - Welcome to Glasgow, entitled by one of your predecessors Specialis Filia Romanae Ecclesiae - the Special Daughter of the Roman Church.Welcome to Scotland, to the whole of which another of your predecessors extended that coveted title. Welcome to the United Kingdom, whose monarch earlier today in the name of all its citizens welcomed you. We, Holy Father, echo that welcome; we form a community of faith obedient to the Gospel, which has been preached in these islands for over fifteen centuries - before the land to our south became England, and that on which you stand Scotland. You come to us on the actual feast of our first-named missionary Saint Ninian, who, according to a reliable tradition, received his education in Rome and came back ordained to proclaim the Gospel of Christ and to establish His Church. From Rome also came Saint Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory the Great,your predecessor, whose arrival in Kent coincided with the death on the Holy Island of Iona of Saint Columba, who, with his fellow Celtic missionaries, evangelised our Scottish Highlands and Islands. Already a British missionary had taken the faith from these shores to those ofI reland whose citizens recognised in St Patrick their great apostle. Monastic life flourished in our lands, giving us such great saints as Aidan of Lindisfarne and the Venerable Bede. Centuries later, at the time of the Reformation, devoted men and women were martyred on account of their faith. In this very city Saint John Ogilvie was hanged for his allegiance to the Holy See. Holy Father, in addition to Saint Andrew its patron, Scotland holds dear the memory of a saintly queen, Margaret, whose son David revived the ancient bishoprics. In England, and well beyond, men and women admire St Thomas More, Chancellor of the Realm, who suffered death for obedience to his conscience; while another great Engli...