In thanking the president of the French Republic Nikolas Sarkozy for his "warm reception" at the welcome ceremony at the Elisée, after his arrival at Orly airport, in Paris, Benedict XVI recalled that "he has set foot for the first time on the ground of France since the Providence has called him to Peter’s Chair". Then the Pope greeted "all those who live in this country that has a millennium-old story, an eventful present and a promising future", stating that he joins, with this apostolic trip on the 150th anniversary of the Apparitions of the Virgin in Lourdes (12-15 September), the "crowd of numberless pilgrims from all over the world" who "converge to the Marian sanctuary, driven by faith and love". "It’s a faith, a love, the one I come to celebrate here, in your country", stated the Pontiff, who is back in Paris, a city "he knows well", where, "during his studies and earlier positions" before being elected to Peter’s Chair, he "made good human and intellectual friends", where he is given "the opportunity" to "pay tribute to the huge wealth of culture and faith that splendidly shaped up France over the centuries and gave the world so many great figures of servants of the nation and the Church". (continued)
