Church officials on Tuesday outlined the
programme for Pope Benedict XVI's first state visit to Germany, during a
bishop's conference in western Germany.
Benedict is set to visit Germany September 22-25, visiting Berlin, Erfurt and Freiburg, among other German cities.
'We bishops truly hope and believe that we will gain strength from
this visit. We have a very hard time behind us,' said Robert Zollitsch,
head of the German Bishop's Conference, tacitly referring to a year of
scandals revolving around child abuse at church facilities.
Although the native German has visited his home country since his
ascension as pope in 2005, this will be his first visit as a head of
state, as opposed to just as a religious figure.
As such, the pope is set to speak before the parliament, or Bundestag, and meet multiple politicians during his stay.
However, there will also be a religious component to the visit. Aside
from visits with church leaders, Benedict is also set to meet with
leaders of the Jewish, Muslim and Orthodox Christian faiths.
The pope is also set to celebrate a mass in Berlin.
Church leaders in the eastern city of Erfurt said the visit there
would be especially significant because so many Catholics there called
upon their faith in God during the existence of Communist East Germany,
when many people were repressed due to their faith.
Organizers said many details of the visit would be filled in during the
months leading up to the visit.
Updates will be available at the
website (www.papst-in-deutschland.de).
Tickets for various events will
be available starting May 16.
Church leaders also presented the logo and motto for the visit: Wherever God is, there is the future.
The announcement came on the same day that a February study released
by the research group Forsa in Hamburg showed that 29 per cent of
Germans have 'great faith' in the pope, while only 21 per cent trust
the Catholic church as an institution.
Of Catholics polled, 52
per cent trusted the pope while only 45 per cent trusted the church.
The data was released in the Christ & Welt section of the newspaper
Die Zeit.