Papal Mass in glorious Erfurt Domplatz

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated a big outdoor Mass in the Domplatz of Erfurt in eastern Germany on Saturday morning. Our correspondent Veronica Scarisbrick is traveling with the Holy Father and filed this report:
On a bright Saturday morning Benedict XVI drove past Erfurt's neatly preserved medieval quarter. Past the colourful burgher mansions which line the streets and on to the “Domplatz”, the striking square which takes its name from the word “Dom” meaning Cathedral. The “Mariendom” dedicated to Our Lady, where he was to preside over Holy Mass in the open air.
He' d already visited here on his arrival in Erfurt the previous day. Setting off from here on a personal Luther trail which had begun within this great Church, in the very place where the Father of the Reformation had begun his priestly life.
But on Saturday morning it was time for a more Catholic celebration and when the Pope appeared, so loud were the cheers of the faithful gathered there, they must surely have echoed right inside the great nave of the “Mariendom”.
Let's recall for a moment how this trading centre was first founded by Saint Boniface as a Bishop's residence.This 'Apostle of the Germans', in reality an Anglo Saxon monk, who in his letters to Rome in 742 had requested from the German Pontiff’s predecessor to the See of Peter,Pope Zacharias, the permission to reside in this spot which he deemed perfect. Not just because of the meadows and the rippling river but also because of its geographical position at a crossroads in the routes of commerce between East and West.
A significant factor as it entailed that centuries later this city would turn eastwards, siphoned up by the German Democratic Republic .
And in this square in former Eastern Germany then, when Holy Mass began the atmosphere was one of quiet recollection and prayerful song .The backdrop to the square lent to the event a timeless majesty with the Cathedral and the nearby Severikirche” Church, buttressed by steep stone steps seemingly projected towards the skies.
And when it was time for the homily the Holy Father began by placing Erfurt in an historical context, pointing to the effects of first the Nazi and then the communist dictatorships which acted here on Christian faith like he remarked, acid rain”.
Highlighting how at the time, amid hardship and pressures from the regime, many committed Catholics had kept the faith. In a special way he praised the patient trust in God’s guidance of those Catholics who in the nearby Eichsfeld region, resisted the Communist ideology sowing the seed for a fruitful future .
Reflecting, I thought, the motto of this journey :”Where God is, there is the future” as well as the logo of this visit which in an image in the national colours of Germany, shows stylised figures on a path leading upwards, towards the future, towards the Cross.
But getting back to the Pope’s words, while he praised those who’d kept the faith during times of hardship he also alluded to the fact that the new found social freedom has not led to a strengthening of faith.
And when the Mass dedicated to Elizabeth of Thuringia, a Saint also esteemed by the followers of Luther came to an end the Pope, using a poetic image, invited the 30.000 faithful gathered around him to discover the fullness of the Good News. Only then he said will we resemble the famous bell of the Cathedral of Erfurt, thought to be the largest Medieval free swinging bell in the world, the “Gloriosa” bell, a living symbol of our Christian roots, but also a summons to set out upon our mission.
And when the Mass ended the glorious ring of the bell filled the air and the faithful set out on their way home.
With the Pope in Germany, I’m Veronica Scarisbrick
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