Advertise in this spot on CatholicCulture.org. View all ads.

Catholic World News News Feature

Plans in place for September papal trip to Bavaria? May 23, 2006

Even as Pope Benedict prepares for his May 25-28 trip to Poland, plans for his visit to Bavaria in September are also taking firm shape.

The Pope's trip to his native land will stretch from September 9 to 14, with stops in Munich, Altötting, Regensberg, Freising, and Marktl am Inn, according to the program sketched out by the Italian Korazym web site.

The September trip will be Pope Benedict's 2nd visit to Germany since his election, the first being his August 2005 trip to Cologne for World Youth Day. It will be the 4th foreign voyage of his pontificate, after the visit to Poland and a July trip to Spain. His next scheduled trip, in November, will be to Turkey.

The Korazym web site, basing its overview on reports from German local newspapers, says that the Pope will leave Rome early in the afternoon on September 9, arriving in Munich, the Bavarian capital, at 3:30. After an arrival ceremony with local political and religious leaders, he will go to the Marienplatz, the park in central Munich, where he will pray before an image of the Virgin Mary. Later he will meet German President Horst Köhler, Chancellor Angela Merketl, and Bavaria's president-minister Edmund Stoiber. He will spend the night in the resident of Cardinal Friedrich Wetter.

On Sunday, September 10, the Pope will celebrate Mass in Munich, where he was Archbishop from 1977 to 1982; organizers expect 300,000 to attend. Later in the day he will lead Vespers in the city's cathedral, and visit the tomb of Cardinal Julius Döpfner, his predecessor as head of the archdiocese. On Monday, September 11, the Holy Father will travel by helicopter to the Marian shrine at Altötting, about 55 miles southeast of Munich. He will celebrate Mass there, with delegations from the shrines at Loretto, Fatima, Czestochow, and Mariazell in attendance. That afternoon he will meet with religious and with seminarians. In the evening he will travel to Marktl am Inn, the town where he was born, near the Austrian border, stopping to pray in the parish church where he was baptized, before continuing on by helicopter to Regensberg.

On Tuesday, September 12, the Pontiff will again celebrate Mass outdoors. That afternoon he will visit the University of Regensberg, where he once taught theology, to meet with faculty there. Later he will lead an ecumenical service at the city's cathedral.

On Wednesday, September 13, the Pope will celebrate Mass privately in the Regensberg seminary, then spend the morning with his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger. In the afternoon he will visit the tombs of his sister Maria and their parents at the cemetery in Pentling, just outside Ratisbon.

Finally on Thursday, September 14, Benedict XVI will travel to Freising, meeting with seminarians and permanent deacons there. Around midday he will leave for the Munich airport, a farewell ceremony, and his return flight to Rome.

The Vatican has not yet confirmed plans for the Pope's trip to Bavaria. Ordinarily, the schedule for a papal voyage is not disclosed until about one month prior to the trip. Until that time, local officials coordinate preparations with Alberto Gasbarri, the Vatican's "advance man" for papal voyages.

Although the Pope has not spoken openly about his plan to visit Bavaria, he has indicated on several occasions that he would like to travel to his native region. Bavaria's President Edmund Stoiber issued a formal invitation immediately after the Pope's inaugural Mass, and renewed that invitation during a visit to the Vatican last November. In August 2005, after a separate visit to Rome, the mayor of Regensberg announced that the Pope had accepted their invitation. Last December 8, Cardinal Wetter confirmed to the press that the Pope would make his trip to Bavaria in 2006.