Pope to speak Italian
and English during Czech visit
PRAGUE, July 22 (Translated from SIR) - There has been discussion over the language that Pope Benedict XVI will use when he visits the Czech Republic in September.
The news agency Kathpress said that the Pope has decided not to use German for any of his public events, and some quarters in the Czech media have questioned this.
The Czech portal idnes.cz quoted one of the Czech organizers for the papal trip as saying that the decision was made in the Vatican in view of delicate Czech-German relations at the moment.
Thus, the Pope will be using Italian and English when he speaks in public. However, he will be speaking in German with Czech President Vaclav Klaus during their meetings.
However,the liberal Prague newspaper
Mlada fronta Dnes criticized the caution as unnecessary saying that friction between German and the Czech Republic has been dissipated by now.
It points out that German politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Koehler have not hesitated to use German even when visiting Israel.
In an editorial, the newspaper said that by speaking German when he comes to visit, the Pope would confirm that the 'dark days' are over.
Benedict XVI will be the first Pope
to pay tribute to St Wenceslas
PRAGUE, Pope Benedict XVI will be the first Christian church leader head to pay tribute at the shrine of St Wenceslas, the patron saint of Czechs, during his visit to the Czech Republic in September, church representatives told journalists Friday.
The Pope will visit Stara Boleslav in central Bohemia, on September 28, the day when Czechs commemorate the martyr death of St Wenceslas who was killed there in 935.
Two of Benedict XVI's predecessors visited Stara Boleslav, one of the oldest and most important places of pilgrimage in the Czech lands, but it was before they became Pope, journalists were told.
In 1588 Stara Boleslav welcomed cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini who later become Pope Clement VIII. And in 1929, Angelo Roncalli came to Stara Boleslaw as a priest. In 1958 he became Pope John XXIII.
[I wonder why John Paul II, who visited the Czech Republic three times, did not go to Stara Boleslaw which is just outside Prague.]
Pope Benedict XVI will visit the 11th-century Basilica of St Wenceslas before saying Mass in an open square on September 28.
He will then address pilgrims of the annual St Wenceslas pilgrimage that is expected to attract some 30,000 people this year.
The thousand-years old tradition of Stara Boleslav pilgrimages was interrupted during the Communist era. The pilgrimages resumed as soon as teh Communist regime collapsed in 1989.
The Pope will stay in the Czech Republic on September 26-28.
"The Holy Father must take care of all the people - this is the nature of his work. This means he must take care even of the 'sinners' - that is us," former Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who is planning to go to Stara Boleslav, told CTK.
He was alluding to the fact that majority of post-Communist Czechs consider themselves atheists.
120,000 expected
at Brno Mass
Brno, June 29 - The space at Brno-Turany's airport at which Pope Benedict XVI will say Mass on September 27 will look from teh air like a carpet with a network of diagonal paths that divide the area into sectors, Brno bishopric representatives told journalists today.
The space with a capacity of 150,000 people was designed by architect Marek Stepan who specialises in sacred architecture.
The area will be bisected by an axis that connects an old wayside shrine and a ten-metre anchor depicting hope, journalists were told.
The wayside shrine is the sole historical element in the airport complex, Stepan said.
The statue of the Virgin Mary from the pilgrimage church in Turany will have a place of honour on the altar, Stepan said.
It is believed that the statue was brought to Moravia by the missionaries Cyril and Methodius in the 10th century. Their followers who were persecuted had to hide it. It was allegedly found by a man working in a field near Turany in 1050.
This will be the first visit by a Pope to Brno. The bishopric expects some 120,000 believers, including Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians and other foreigners, to attend the Mass.
Also participating will be some 1000 priests and dozens of bishops from various parts of the world.
About 1300 journalists are expected to cover the event.
Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Czech Republic on September 26-28. Besides Prague and Brno, he will also go to Stara Boleslav, central Bohemia, where St Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia, was killed on September 28, 935 (or 929, according to some sources).