Islamic Republic News Agency
September 22, 2011
http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=30576548&SRCH=1
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Berlin, Sept 22, IRNA - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday arrived at Berlin's Tegel airport for the first day of a four-day state visit amid anti-Vatican mass protests in the German capital.
Looking visibly exhausted, the 84-year-old German pontiff was greeted at the airport by Chancellor Angela Merkel and her cabinet as well as President Christian Wulff.
Later in the day, the Pope is scheduled to address the German parliament, the
Bundestag, and hold mass at the Olympic Stadium, where 70,000 worshippers are
expected.
During his trip, he is to meet reportedly with Protestant leaders and representatives of
the Muslim and Jewish faiths.
The pontiff is also expected to hold talks with the victims of sexual abuse by priests, although this has not been announced on the official schedule.
The pontiff's visit is overshadowed by not only mass protests against the German Catholic leader but also a planned boycott of the Pope's speech by more
than 100 German opposition lawmakers.
Numerous lawmakers were to participate in a major demonstration in Berlin later in the day, protesting the Pope's visit to his native country.
Dozens of opposition legislators of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Greens
and The Left party expressed their readiness to join the protests in Berlin's city
center.
Tens of thousands are anticipated to rally in Berlin against the four-day papal visit
(September 22-25), estimated to cost German taxpayers up to 30 million euros.
Thousands of police are on top alert in Berlin to maintain order and control the
protests.
Many Germans regard the Pope as 'dogmatic and reactionary.'
Grappling with a major crisis, Germany's Catholic Church was rattled by a huge
child abuse scandal going back several decades.
Hundreds of former Catholic students have come forward with claims of clerical sex abuse, many dating back to the 1950s and 60s.
The revelations have even dragged the Pope into the affair as he has been linked directly and indirectly to the sex scandal in Germany's Catholic church.
Several institutions where sexual abuse or harassment took place are in south German state of Bavaria and well-known to the pontiff when he was Archbishop of Munich.
His proximity to the crime scene has deeply shocked the Catholic leadership.
Meanwhile, an American-based group with around 12,000 members worldwide
representing victims of sexual abuse by priests held a small demonstration outside Berlin's Catholic St Hedwig's Cathedral on Wednesday.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) last week filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, charging high-level church officials with concealing and enabling the sexual abuse of children, according to German Press Agency (dpa).
The group's president, Barbara Blaine, demanded that the pope cancel a meeting he is widely thought to be planning with victims of sexual abuse by priests in Germany.
The Catholic Church should stop 'lofty statements' and 'hollow gestures' which were a 'public relations manoeuvre' and take measures which would protect children today, she said.
There were around 300 paedophile priests in Germany, none of whom had been stopped, the group alleged.
'The Church should have a policy that any priest who has abused a child should be ousted, he should be turned over to police and put in jail. That would be the appropriate response but Pope Benedict does not make such a statement,' she continued.
'In fact he allows these predators to continue for the most part, even the few who are removed are given a punishment of being sent for a prayer and penance. So they live in a very comfortable position where they live in retreat centers in beautiful settings with three meals a day, housekeepers that make their beds for them.'
'So why wouldn't a predator continue? If someone wants to molest a child it seems like the best profession is to become a priest,' she said.
Pope Benedict has repeatedly expressed shame and sorrow over sex abuse within
the church and has called on bishops around the world to come up with common guidelines against paedophiles by May 2012.
A record number of Germans have left the Catholic Church in 2010 in the wake of revelations about massive abuse cases.
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