Fr Alexander Master is the chaplain to Westminser Cathedral Choir School and director of liturgy for the Pontifical Mass in Westminster Cathedral.

What will be your particular involvement in the Papal visit?

Every site that has a Papal mass or Papal liturgy has two people who have a certain responsibility, one is director of music and the other is director of liturgy. I am the precentor here at Westminster Cathedral which means that I care for the liturgy of the cathedral and for the Papal visit they've asked me to be the director of liturgy.

How do you think this year will differ from the visit of 1982?

Well the theme or the focus of the pastoral visit in 1982 was celebrating the sacraments wherever the Holy Father went as well as baptising people, confirming and of course distributing Holy Communion. At Westminster Cathedral I think there will be less of a state focus and people involved will see it as it is – both normal people and representatives from every diocese of England, Wales and Scotland coming together with the Holy Father. I think that will be a very significant moment for us all. So in that sense the semantics of state / pastoral visit will be irrelevant when events begin to take place. I believe the feeling of joy and celebration from having the Holy Father here will be much the same. I think that we are very privileged to have the Pope here twice in thirty years.

Do you have any idea what the general reaction might be from secular society as well as religious?

Looking back to 1982, it seemed that there was a tremendous interest from everyone involved (religious or not) so I can only guess that the Pope's arrival this year will bring a similar reaction. We are in a very different world now in terms of the media and the internet so there will be a general understanding across Britain as to what he will be doing. I think it is safe to say there will be some opposition; how that plays out, we will have to wait and see.

Are you at all aware of the security issues for the Mass at Westminster Cathedral and / or elsewhere?

Obviously, the security of the Holy Father is a huge concern as he is after all a head of state as well as head of the Catholic Church. I think that, in a way, we are lucky that when the Pope comes to the cathedral, he will be inside for the most part. This makes things much easier to control so we are very aware of security and it is a great concern of ours and of paramount importance. 

Security nationwide will no doubt be much tighter than in 1982, as will general health-and-safety checks. In fact, I recently heard that when there was first talk of the beatification of Cardinal Newman happening at Coventry airport, they were saying the number they could fit into Coventry airport was much less than in 1982 just because of the more stringent measures for health and safety.

How do you see this affecting you personally?

Well, I think for any Catholic it is an enormous privilege for the Holy Father to visit the country so for me it will be immensely exciting. I think that he is such a person of vision, a clear thinker and he has such important things to say, not just to Catholics but to society at large in terms of place of faith and the importance of Jesus Christ. To have him here on such a platform for Christian belief and for witnessing such a good man you can't help but be excited by that. What an opportunity! On a more general note, I am confident that this visit will help promote a better understanding of what the church has to say and the place of the church in the twenty-first century. 

Could you give some information about the Mass at Westminster Cathedral?

The Mass is at ten o'clock in the morning and it is a 'Mass of the Precious Blood'  - which in fact Westminster Cathedral is dedicated to - so it is linked quite nicely. There will be around 1500 people in the cathedral and these will be the people selected from each diocese across the UK. Our own choir will be singing which again is a great honour. 

An important component of this Mass is that there will be representatives in the piazza of around 3000 people and we will try to get Holy Communion to everyone. At the time of Communion, select priests will come out of the cathedral and position themselves at strategic points so hopefully it will be done as efficiently and quickly as possible. The cathedral regularly has 1000 people in it so in a sense three-thousand isn't much of a departure – as long as we have enough ministers we should be fine!

When the Mass is finished, the holy father will come down the aisle and come out through the front doors to greet the people in the piazza and say a few words. I am very hopeful that there will be good quality screens outside the cathedral so that people outside can be involved too.

Interview with Laurie Taylor