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	Pope in Germany on First Official Visit The Aljazeera September 22, 2011 http://english.aljazeera.net/video/europe/2011/09/201192284918481839.html [with video] Benedict due to address parliament while thousands are expected to demonstrate outside over church sex scandals. Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Germany on his first state visit to his homeland where he is expected to be greeted by large protests and even larger crowds of faithful Catholics. The Bavarian-born 84-year-old pontiff was met on a red carpet at Berlin's Tegel airport on Thursday morning by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff, at the start of his four-day visit. He will speak in parliament later in the day, which many politicians have vowed to boycott in protest. Another 10,000 are expected to demonstrate outside. German Christians are almost exactly divided between Catholics and Protestants and official statistics show that members of both faiths are leaving the Church in droves. Observers put this down in part to revelations last year of widespread child molestation by German priests over the last several decades, with top archbishop Robert Zollitsch admitting the Church had "failed" in its response. Benedict said on Thursday he could understand those leaving the Roman Catholic Church due to the sexual abuse scandals of recent years, as he arrived for his first state visit to Germany. "I can understand that in the face of such reports, people, especially those close to victims, would say 'this isn't my Church anymore'," he told reporters on his plane from Rome. He also said he had nothing against the planned demonstrations during his German visit as long they remained "civil". "It's normal in a free society marked by strong secularism," he said. "I respect those who speak out." Before his departure, Benedict called for an "ethical renewal" in Italy as the country struggles to stave off a financial crisis amid fresh sex and corruption scandals in the government. He said he wished for "an increasingly intense ethical renewal for the good of beloved Italy" in a telegram to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, sent as the pontiff set off on a four-day trip to Germany. It is a tradition for the pope to send a message to the Italian president when leaving on international visits.
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