Since last week, the English service of Vatican Radio has been lagging in reporting papal news, so this post is from the Italian service.
German bishops confirm
Sept 22-25 dates for
the Pope's visit
Translated from the Italian service of
14 DEC 2010 (RV) - The German bishops' conference has confirmed that the Holy Father will be in Germany on Sept. 22-25, 2011, for his third visit to his native land since he became Pope.
The confirmation completes the calendar for Benedict XVI's apostolic visits in 2011. Alessandro Gisotti reports:
In 2011, Benedict XVI will make three apostolic visits abroad and four pastoral visits in Italy.
It will start with his visit to Aquileia and Venice on May 7-8, 2011 - 26 years since the last visit by a Pope (John Paul II) to the Queen City of the Adriatic.
Announcing the event last October, the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola, expressed joy and gratitude for this 'gift from the Holy Father' which coincides with the end of his own pastoral visits to the parishes of his diocese that he began in 2004.
On June 4-5, the Pope will visit Croatia, during which he will pay homage to Blessed Stepinac.
On June 19, he will make a pastoral visit to the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro, which straddles the independent Republic of San Marino and the Montefeltro diocese of central eastern Italy.
Announcing this visit, Bishop Luigi Negri said the Holy Father "will be visiting a Church which is making significant strides in recovering the traditions of a Christian people" in the midst of difficult times for society.
August will bring the much=anticipated World Youth Day in Madrid, which will be the third international WYD for Benedict XVI, after Cologne in 2005 and Sydney in 2008.
He will be making his third visit to Spain as Pope on Aug. 18-21 to take part in WTD Madrid, whose theme is "Rooted and founded in Christ, firm in the faith". He visited Valencia in July 2006 for the V World Encounter of Families, and was in Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona on Nov. 6-7 for a pilgrimage to the Tomb of St. James during the Jubilee Year of 2010, and to dedicate the Basilica of La Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's spectacular contribution to the city of Barcelona and chruch architecture.
There will be two trips in September: On Sept. 11, to Ancona, on the Adriatic coast of central Italy, to close the 25h National Eucharistic Congress; and on Sept 22-26, his visit to Germany, where he will be going to three cities - Berlin, Erfurt and Freiburg.
His last pastoral visit in Italy for 2011 will be to Lamezia Terme and the Carthusian monastery of San Bruno in southwestern Italy, on Oct. 9. The Bishop of Lamezia, Mons. Cantafora, said that the faithful of Calabria, one of the poorest regions in Italy, look forward to the Holy Father's visit to strengthen them in a time of great difficulty.
Lastly, the Pope will make his second visit to Africa to Benin (formerly the French colony of Dahomey) in central western Africa, on Nov. 18-20, to mark the 150th anniversary of the country's evangelization.
He will avail of the occasion to deliver to the African bishops his Post-Synodal Exhortation on the Special Assembly for Africa held at the Vatican in October 2009.