Berlin's Cathedral misses out

Just hours ahead of Pope Benedict's arrival in Berlin on Thursday, our correspondent Veronica Scarisbrick explored the city and found out more about the city's past and present when she visited its Catholic Cathedral. Here's her report:
"Tough to see tangible traces of Benedict XVI’s imminent arrival here in Berlin .
If there are, I haven’t seen any . That’s beyond roads being cordoned off, the endless controversial debates in the media surrounding the Pope’s invitation to address the Bundestag, the Federal Parliament’s Lower House on Thursday afternoon. And beyond the photographs on national newspapers of the German Pope , bumper screens with images of the Pope or postcards even .
In an effort to find out something more tangible , I ventured out to the City’s Cathedral, the first post -Reformation Catholic Church in Berlin. First consecrated in 1773 It’s called St Hedwig and looks a bit like Rome’s Pantheon, lay -out, dome and all. Intentionally of course
I’m bound to find something in there, I thought . And what did I find ? One single poster and a Catholic weekly with a five page spread inside, informing us on the four day visit: details regarding the Holy Mass the Holy Father will be presiding over in the Olympia Stadion in the city , information about the liturgies, fanciful images of the Pope donning all kinds of headgear and a biography of his early days in Bavaria. Also I noticed well-timed publicity for his brother, Monsignor Georg’s new book by the title of “My brother, the Pope”. Not much .
But my disappointment didn’t last long, I may not have found the tangible presence of the Pope’s imminent arrival here on the first leg of a four-day visit which takes him on to Erfurt and Freiburg. Not even in the Cathedral. But what I did find was something precious , the witness of one of those Catholics who kept the faith alive behind “The Wall” during the years of the communist regime. Her name Roswitha Sauer.
She belongs to that tiny nine per cent of Catholics in Germany’s capital Berlin and she acts as guide to the Cathedral, which I forgot to tell you was until 1989 on the other side of ‘The Wall”. It’s there that she grew up . I asked her how the Cathedral fared in those dramatic days .
Roswitha quoted article 143 of the Constitution of the DDR, the German Democratic Republic and told me that at the time of the communist regime, free choice of religion was guaranteed, so Church doors were open .
But she added , you had to be careful , making me understand it was a tight rope walking act: ”I was lucky, she said there was only one Catholic School in East Berlin,” for girls only” with no male equivalent . And I went to it. The idea was to stop Catholics studying so they would have no future."
But she insisted we fought for our future , for our freedom, determined to eliminate the 162 kilometre wall surrounding us and in the end we won . We used to come here and pray.
Only then did we go outdoors and and join demonstrations. And eventuall y, as we know, the Wall did come down .
It’s amazing how the past lingers on here in Berlin, it seems easier to find traces of that than tangible traces of the Pope’s imminent arrival here, beyond as I said media controversy .
I asked Roswitha if it bothered her there were so few signs, also whether she was upset the Holy Father would not visit the City’s Cathedral as he will do in the two other venues of his four day visit.
“This Pope, she replied, has taught us clarity, to look at God’s work from the inside , no need for outward signs. In the same way I’m not upset he’s not coming to the Cathedral, at the Olympia Stadion on Thursday he’ll be able to reach out to far more people. “ I don’t view this as a State visit , she added quietly, Benedict XVI is the Pastor of the Universal Church.”
Awaiting the Pope in Berlin , I’m Veronica Scarisbrick"
Listen to the audio of her report: