A royal welcome for Pope Benedict

Thursday morning a visibly moved Pope Benedict XVI returned to his homeland on his first State visit as pontiff, receiving a ‘royal welcome’ as Veronica Scarisbrick reports from Berlin:

It may have taken him six years to return to his homeland on a State visit as Roman Pontiff, but when the first German to be elected to the See of Peter since the eleventh century , finally arrived in the nation’s capital Berlin, on Thursday 22nd September he received a royal welcome .

First there was a twenty one gun salute at Tegel military airport where he was welcomed, as protocol dictates, by Church and civil authorities. For Germany the President Christian Wulff and the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. For the Church the Apostolic Nuncio to Germany Jean Claude Périsset and the bishops of the three cities he’s set to visit.

Then a 10 kilometre drive and there was a Castle, the Schloss Bellevue, the royal residence of Frederick the Greats’ younger brother and since the reunification of Germany in 1990, home to the German President. A rather grand stark white neo-classical building caught between a bend of the River Spree and the great Tiergarten Park,one time the hunting ground of a Prussian Prince. And there in a garden in front of the Castle , the British Royal family had re-designed in 1952 , there were guests to welcome the Pope. A thousand of them, and the sound of the national anthems filled the air, the Pontifical first and then the German. Its music composed by Haydn. Its lyrics written by Hoffmann with a line: “ Unity, Justice and Freedom for the German Fatherland”,which reflected the theme of freedom touched on by the Holy Father in his speech : “Freedom, the Pope said, requires a primordial link to a higher instance. The fact that there are values which are not absolutely open to manipulation is the true guarantee of our freedom”. And he added in human coexistence, freedom is impossible without solidarity and cannot be lived in the absence of relationships.

The Holy Father looked moved as President Wulff welcomed him back to his homeland . And when all was over he left the Schloss Bellevue which he described as having like many of the buildings in Berlin a dramatic history specifying: “ how a clear look at the past, even at its dark pages, enables us to learn from it and to receive an impetus for the present”.

Inevitably my thoughts turned to the prime symbol of Berlin architecturally: the Brandenburg Gate, until 1989 behind 'The Wall'. The very place where President John Kennedy once pronounced the famous speech: “Ich bin ein Berliner”, "I am a Berliner".

But on Thursday, twenty one years after reunification of Germany it’s the Pope to make headlines, invited as he is to deliver a key note address to German Parliament, a privilege reserved to Heads of State. A royal welcome indeed on this first official visit back home. Even the normally aggressive press has suddenly taken on a more reflective and positive approach to Benedict XVI’s presence here, who on his arrival remarked: “I have come primarily to meet people and speak about God”. Listen: