Haven't had a chance to check out the sources cited yet, but here's a brief bulletin.
Report: Pope won’t visit Germany
next year, German bishops say
By Jana Randow
FRANKFURT, Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- German-born Pope Benedict XVI won’t visit Germany next year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of reunification of east and west after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the newspaper Bild reported, citing the German Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Pope had been invited, it said.
Here's the BILD report:
Great disappointment:
The Pope isn't coming to Germany in 2010
Translated from
Pope Benedict XVI is not coming to Germany next year. The German Bishops' Conference said Thursday through the KNA news agency in Bonn that Pope's travel plans for 2010 do not include Germany.
"It's been delayed but that does not mean it won't happen," said spokesman Matthias Kopp. [In German, the statement is a nice play on words, "Aufgeschoben ist aber nicht aufgehoben“.]
In the past few months there has been much speculation that the Pope would make a state visit to Berlin for the 20th anniversary of German reunification.
The chairman of the German bishops' conference (DBK), Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, has invited the Pope to his diocese, Freiburg, as did other bishops in east Germany (Erfurt and Goerlitz).
Benedict XVI has visited Germany twice - for World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005, and to his Bavarian homeland in 2006.
There have been no definite foreign travels announced for 2010, but an Asian visit has been speculated, since it is the only continent he has not yet visited as Pope.
Also speculated is a possible trip to Great Britain for the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, as well as Ireland.
Unfortunately, I can't check out the original KNA report because it's a subscription-only service.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/08/2009 18:08]