Along the roads of the world

Three apostolic journeys of Pope Benedict XVI have so far been officially confirmed: to Verona for the 4th national ecclesial Meeting, to Poland in the footsteps of John Paul II, and to Brazil on the conclusion of the 5th General Conference of the Latin-American episcopate. The visit to Verona will be the Pope’s second journey in Italy, after that to Bari for the national Eucharistic Congress in May 2005. The pilgrimage to the homeland of Karol Wojtyla will represent, in turn, the second international trip of the Pope, already “embraced” by the young at the last World Youth Day (Cologne, August 2005), which inaugurated the journeys of Benedict XVI outside Italy. But the “list” of the apostolic journeys of the Holy Father doesn’t stop there: for others are already in the pipeline: Spain (from 3 to 9 July 2006), Germany (September 2006); Turkey (November 2006, at the invitation of Patriarch Bartholomew I; the places to be visited also include the parish of Father Andrea Santoro, the Roman priest assassinated by a Turkish youth on 5 February this year); and the Holy Land (first half of 2007, at the invitation of Shimon Peres, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, and by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert). Lastly, the Pope will visit Sydney, Australia, in July 2008 for the 23rd World Youth Day. IN POLAND, IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JOHN PAUL II. The programme of the Pope’s journey to Poland was announced by the Vatican Press Room on 8 April. It will have six stages. The Pope will leave from Fiumicino Airport bound for Warsaw, capital of Poland, on Thursday morning, 25 May. On the following day he will go to Czestochowa, site of the famous sanctuary of the Black Madonna of Jasna Gora, and thence to Krakow, where Karol Wojtyla was archbishop. On Saturday 27 May, Benedict XVI will be at Wadowice, birthplace of John Paul II, and then at the nearby Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, another well-known Marian sanctuary famous for its “Via Crucis”, where Karol Wojtyla went on pilgrimage as a boy. Following his return to Krakow, in the afternoon, the Pope will have a meeting with the young at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy at Lagiewniki, consecrated by John Paul II during his last visit to the country in 2002 – after the visit made here during his pilgrimage in June 1987 – and dedicated to Sister Faustina Kowalska, a figure closely linked to the spirituality of John Paul II and mysteriously also to the date of his death, 2 April 2005, vigil of the feast of Divine Mercy (which he himself introduced into the church calendar on the Sunday after Easter). The Pope – predict the organizers – will be greeted by some 100,000 faithful, including many invalids. On Sunday 28 May, the Holy Father will visit the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. On the evening of the same day he will leave from Krakow Airport and fly back to Rome (arriving at Ciampino). Benedict XVI himself spoke of his forthcoming journey to Poland in the footsteps of John Paul II during his visit to Vatican Radio on 3 March. “In May – he had said – I will go to Poland. I am very happy to be visiting the country of my great and beloved predecessor, Pope John Paul II. To get to know Wadowice, the town where he was born, to return to these places, refresh my memories of this great man, and see the Polish people, who in difficult times have given proof of a strength of faith, an example for Europe as a whole and an example for all of us, is a source of great joy to me”. During his almost 27 years of pontificate, John Paul II made four apostolic journeys to his native Poland, the last of them in 2002. TO VERONA, TO “BEAR WITNESS TO HOPE”. Benedict XVI, accepting the invitation of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, will address the 4th national ecclesial Meeting at Verona on 19 October 2006. The national meeting is held every ten years by the Italian Church; this year it is being held in Verona (16-20 October) on the theme: “Witnesses of the Risen Jesus, hope of the world”. The programme of the visit, communicated by the prefecture of the Pontifical Household on 22 April, is as follows: the Holy Father will arrive in Verona by a flight from Rome in the morning. He will meet the participants at the conference venue (the trade-fair grounds in Verona) and, after the welcome given to him by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, President of the Italian episcopate, and the presentation of the work of the meeting, will then address the delegates. In the afternoon, the Holy Father will go to the city stadium of Verona, where he will officiate a Mass at 4.00 pm. He will fly back to Rome in the evening. IN BRAZIL, TO REFLECT ON “MISSION”. “Brazil loves all the Popes and the late John Paul II visited it many times. So I do not exclude a journey by Benedict XVI to Brazil, where he is sure to meet with an extraordinary welcome”, declared Cardinal Claudio Hummes, archbishop of São Paulo, a year ago, in expressing his hope that the new Pope would visit the country of the “favelas”. The hope was seconded on 23 April by the Most Rev. Raymundo Damasceno Assis, bishop of the diocese in which is situated the sanctuary of Nuestra Senora de Aparecida, 129 km from São Paulo. It is there in fact that the Holy Father will go on 31 May 2007, to close the work of the 5th General Conference of the Latin-American Conference (CELAM), which brings together all the Catholic bishops of the continent (together they represent some 43% of all Catholics in the world).