Pope Benedict XVI has announced his first state visit to his native
Germany, but not everyone in Berlin is pleased.
Parliamentarian Rolf
Schwanitz has launched a mission to block the pope's speech before the
Bundestag.
The pope's
scheduled state visit to Germany has sparked infighting among the
country's Social Democrats, after a member of their ranks petitioned to
boycott his Bundestag address.
Bundestag
representative Rolf Schwanitz sent a petition Saturday to 146
parliamentarians in a bid to block Pope Benedict XVI's speech, set to be
held in the lower house of German parliament, during his visit in
September.
He said the speech was
"irreconcilable" with the German state's religious neutrality, adding
that the Bundestag was no place for proselytization.
Schwanitz called the
pontiff Europe's "last absolute monarch," saying that he was complicit
in the AIDS epidemic, as well as the "oppression, exploitation and
stigmatization of millions of people."
The Social Democrats'
parliamentary leader Thomas Oppermann rejected Schwanitz's proposed
boycott, telling tabloid Bild am Sonntag that the pope would "not hold a
church service, but rather talk about current political issues."
Pope Benedict is
scheduled to visit his native Germany on September 22-25.
It will be the pontiff's first official state visit. Since taking the Catholic Church's helm, he visited Cologne in 2005 for World Youth Day and made a private visit in 2006 to his home state of Bavaria.
It will be the pontiff's first official state visit. Since taking the Catholic Church's helm, he visited Cologne in 2005 for World Youth Day and made a private visit in 2006 to his home state of Bavaria.