Pope Benedict: the Church joins us to Christ!

In a colorful outdoor mass Thursday evening at Berlin's historic Olympic Stadium, Pope Benedict XVI urged Germany's faithful not to abandon the Church despite "the sad experience that the Church contains both good and bad fish...and if only these negative aspects are taken into account, then the great and deep mystery of the Church is no longer seen." Our correspondent in Berlin, Veronica Scarisbrick tells us more:

On Thursday evening Benedict XVI made his way to Berlin’s Olympiastadion to preside over the first of the three holy masses of his Apostolic visit to Germany. And there were crowds, over 70.000 faithful from Berlin, from all the German dioceses and from Poland as well. It’s only 80 kilometres away .And there were cheers. And there was song .
The last time a Pope was here it was to preside over the beatification of two Germans martyred at the hand of the Nazis. Their names Karl Leisner and Bernhard Lichtenburg. It was in June 1996 , 50 years after Nazi Germany had hosted the Olympic Games and the Roman Pontiff in question was now Blessed John Paul II .
Symbolic if you think this was once the Third Reich’s ‘Reichssportfeld’, the infamous propaganda set for Hitler to showcase the Arian race.
Perhaps Holy Mass here presided over by a German Pope who lived through that era might just provide an occasion to further dispel this dark chapter in German history.
And on this occasion, a joyful one, in his homily he had words of hope as he picked up on the parable of the vine:” Jesus he said , does not say:”You are the vine”, but “I am the vine, you are the branches”. This belonging to each other and to him is not some ideal imaginary, symbolic relationship, but – I would almost want to say – a biological, life-transmitting state of belonging to Jesus Christ”.
The Pope then further developed the idea developed the idea that in Christ we belong together: “Those who believe are not alone . We do not believe alone , but we believe with the whole Church.”
And the atmosphere at the Olympiastadion was one of prayer and song…
With the Pope in Berlin, I’m Veronica Scarisbrick

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