Dr Michael Straiton has presented the Birmingham Oratory with a fine painting of Blessed Pope Pius IX on behalf of the Friends of the Holy Father.

The portrait will hang in the new shrine of Blessed John Henry Newman in the Birmingham Oratory church. Pope Benedict XVI will be the first pilgrim to pray at the new shrine when he visits the Oratory immediately after beatifying John Henry Newman at Cofton Park in Birmingham on September 19.

Blessed Pius IX was one of two beati closely associated with Newman during his life.