Pope Benedict XVI's trip home this week -- his third pastoral visit to Germany as
Pope and his first state visit -- will be uniquely intense. The 84-year-old Pontiff
will give 17 addresses and have nearly two dozen meetings in four days. According
to the director of the Vatican press office, this richness can partly be attributed
to the fact that the Holy Father will be at home -- "in his language and without a
need for translators" and in "an atmosphere of esteem and appreciation." This was
one of the observations made by Vatican’s spokesperson Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi
last Friday as he met with journalists to present the Pontiff's Thursday through Sunday
journey. Father Lombardi suggested concentrating on the theme, "Where God is, there
is a future," so as not to overemphasize details such as the, which suggests people
walking toward the cross. He also pointed out that the Pontiff was invited by the
president of the German Federal Parliament, the Bundestag, and, therefore, would give
his first address to Parliament. Regarding the flight that will take the Holy Father
from Berlin to Erfurt, a Luftwaffe A-340 plane, the spokesman specified that "it is
the one used by the authorities on official visits," and therefore there was no wish
to change anything.