Pope Benedict XVI has travelled abroad 13 times to date, not including pastoral visits in Italy.He has been to Germany, his homeland, twice.
-- GERMANY (Aug. 18-21, 2005): Benedict's first foreign trip as pope is to his native Germany. Two appearances on the Marienfeld, a former coal mine near Cologne, are the high points. On August 20 at the 20th World Youth Day, he calls on some 700,000 young people from around the world to show kindness and compassion. The pope celebrates an open-air Mass before one million pilgrims the following day, urging them to be guided in their lives by the Christian faith.
-- POLAND (May 25-28, 2006): The first visit to Poland by a German pope begins in Warsaw, where Benedict is cheered by tens of thousands of people. In Krakow, he urges about a million people gathered for an open-air Mass in a park to devote themselvesmore fully to justice and solidarity. In a moving speech at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz, he calls for reconciliation and forgiveness.
-- SPAIN (July 8-9, 2006): While celebrating a Mass, Benedict stresses the indissolubility of marriage and criticizes what he says is the exaggerated notion of freedom in contemporary Western culture.
-- GERMANY (Sept. 9-14, 2006): The pope visits Bavaria. High points are Masses that draw hundreds of thousands of people in Munich and Regensburg. Remarks that he makes in a speech at Regensburg University on religion and violence are taken out of context and spark angry protests in the Islamic world.
-- TURKEY (Nov. 28 - Dec. 1, 2006): The focus during Benedict's first visit to a Muslim country is on dialogue with Islam and further rapprochement with Orthodox Christians. He prays together with the grand mufti of Istanbul in the city's Blue Mosque, a gesture of reconciliation that attracts much attention.
-- BRAZIL (May 9-14 2007): Benedict travels to the city of Aparecida, site of Brazil's holiest shrine, for the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. A main theme, besides poverty and violence in Latin America, is the large number of people in the region leaving the Roman Catholic Church. The pope warns against evangelical Protestant churches, urges a "new evangelization" of Latin America and condemns Marxism and globalization.
-- AUSTRIA (Sept. 7-9, 2007): Describing himself as "a pilgrim," Benedict visits Vienna, the pilgrimage site Mariazell and Heiligenkreuz Abbey in the Vienna Woods. He deplores the disorientation of Western society and underscores Europe's Christian roots.
-- UNITED STATES (April 15-20, 2008): The pope addresses the child sexual-abuse scandal involving American Catholic priests and meets with several victims. Speaking in New York before the United Nations General Assembly, he calls for the promotion of human rights and emphatically advocates the right of the international community to intervene in conflicts around the world.
-- AUSTRALIA (July 12-21, 2008): Speaking at the 23rd World Youth Day in Sydney, Benedict condemns "erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the worlds mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption."
-- FRANCE (Sept. 12-15, 2008): In Paris, Benedict warns against avarice and false idols. The high point of his visit is a Mass on the 150th anniversary of apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the south-western French town of Lourdes. The pope affirms the power of love.
-- ANGOLA and CAMEROON (March 17-23, 2009): On his first visit to Africa, Benedict says that condom use could make Africa's AIDS problem worse. The comment draws criticism from people around the world, including German politicians. In Luanda, Angola's capital, the pope celebrates an open-air Mass before a crowd of one million.
-- JORDAN, ISRAEL and the PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (May 8-15, 2009): Benedict repeatedly calls for a dialogue among religions and in particular for reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.
-- CZECH REPUBLIC (Sept. 26-28, 2009): High points of the visit are two open-air Masses, in Brno and Stara Boleslav, that draw nearly 200,000 people in total.
Next scheduled trip: Malta, April 17-18, 2010.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to the CW Team or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that the CW Team agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
CW Team
SIC: ET