The Pope has arrived in Scotland at the start of the first papal visit to the United Kingdom for 28 years.
The plane carrying Pope Benedict XVI and his entourage touched down at Edinburgh airport on Thursday morning and flew Britain's Union Jack flag and the yellow and white Vatican flag.
The trip is the first to the UK by a Pontiff since John Paul II in 1982. It is also the first to be designated a state visit because the Pope has been invited by the Queen rather than the church.
Pope Benedict was officially welcomed at Holyrood House ahead of a parade through Edinburgh and an open-air Mass in Glasgow, the BBC reports.
Tens of thousands of people are set to lining the streets to greet him, although protests are also planned against Vatican policies on birth control, gay rights and abortion. Police have said they do not expect large-scale demonstrations.
During the flight, in response to a question from the BBC, the Pope said the scandal surrounding the abuse of children by Catholic priests had come as a great personal shock to him.
He said he wanted to offer the victims "material, psychological and spiritual" help and to protect other children from dangerous priests in the future.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said it will be "a very special four days, not just for our six million Catholics, but for many people of faith right across Britain".
It is the first ever state visit to Britain by a pope since King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic church in Rome in 1534 and founded the Church of England.
One of Pope Benedict XVI's aides, Cardinal Walter Kasper, pulled out of the trip after reportedly saying arriving at London's Heathrow Airport was like landing in a Third World country.
