Pope Benedict XVI Planning a Busy Trip Home

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.