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The Pope is greeted at a Berlin airport AP Photo/Markus Schreiber

Pope Benedict lands in Germany for official visit

More than 250,000 people have signed up to attend Mass delivered by the pontiff during his trip.

POPE BENEDICT XVI arrived in Germany today on his first state visit to his homeland, where he is expected to be greeted by large protests and even larger crowds of Catholic faithful.

The Bavarian-born pontiff was met on a red carpet at Berlin’s Tegel airport by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff at the start of his four-day visit.

Howitzers fired a ceremonial salute as the pope stepped off his plane, and Eurofighter jet escorts flew overhead. More than 250,000 people are registered to attend his Masses, including about 70,000 who plan to be at the open-air service Thursday night in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

Merkel introduced the pope to members of her Cabinet. He then greeted members of the German Catholic Church and children who stood waiting for him with small yellow-and-white Vatican flags and presented him with a bouquet of flowers.

Benedict blessed the children before moving on, accompanied by Merkel and President Wulff to his car.

A tiny group of about 20 protesters stood outside the airport, holding banners with slogans like “against anti-Semitism, sexism and homophobia” and “my body, my choice.”

The pope was to speak later in parliament, which many lawmakers have vowed to boycott in protest over what they consider a violation of Germany’s separation of church and state. Another 10,000 people are expected to demonstrate outside.

The Vatican’s views on contraception, the role of women, homosexuality and its handling of the sexual abuse scandal that rocked Germany last year are seen by many in Germany as outdated and out-of-touch.

On the plane, the pope told reporters that he found demonstrations were acceptable as long as they remained civil.

They are “normal in a free society and in the secularised world,” he said.

The pope plans meetings with leaders of Germany’s Jewish and Muslim communities, three Masses, an ecumenical service with Lutheran church members and possibly meetings with victims abused by priests.

He told reporters on the plane that there needs to be an examination of why people have been leaving the church recently, and the part that the abuse scandals played in the phenomenon. “I can understand that some people have been scandalised by the crimes that have been revealed in recent times,” he said.

Read: Berlusconi said meetings with Pope interfered with partying>

Read: Abuse victims ask International Criminal Court to prosecute Pope>

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26 Comments
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    Mute Jams O' Donnell
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    May 12th 2019, 5:09 PM

    I always thought with communism when the shop’s were empty, nothing but Soviet B.S. on the state run telly, There was nothing to do but screw.! ( At least it was free).!

    84
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    Mute Del Teeling
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    May 12th 2019, 5:14 PM

    @Jams O’ Donnell: How crass

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    Mute Gav Brosnan
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    May 12th 2019, 5:38 PM

    @Del Teeling: back to Russia with you.

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    Mute Tony Donoghue
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    May 12th 2019, 6:07 PM

    @Jams O’ Donnell: nothing but babe station u say, there’s a lot to be said for communism perhaps

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    Mute Red Pirate 71
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    May 13th 2019, 1:39 AM

    @Jams O’ Donnell: wage equality, abortion. Divorce. Free access to education. Free housing. Free healthcare. Free holidays. Sounds space age? No. That’s the Soviet Union. Certainly not modern Ireland.

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    Mute Pamela K Sztyblewski
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    Jul 28th 2019, 10:49 AM

    @Jams O’ Donnell: Well that would account for a higher birth rate than they have. Then again, no place has a birth rate like the Irish. (My father had 15 brothers and sisters….)

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    Mute Pamela K Sztyblewski
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    Jul 28th 2019, 10:54 AM

    @Red Pirate 71: Irish people get that stuff in England.

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    Mute Tony Donoghue
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    May 12th 2019, 6:04 PM

    Russian ladies, the sweetest taboo

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    May 12th 2019, 6:27 PM

    Take that story with a grain of siberian salt.
    A Russian colleague once summed up her country’s attitude to sex as follows: ‘in Russia we have no God, no hell or heaven and no concept of sin. If we have an itch, we scratch it.’

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    May 12th 2019, 9:56 PM

    There again, anyone who hoped to escape probably wouldn’t want to risk leaving hostages behind. I’m fairly sure that no one was allowed to travel abroad in the past, unless their husband, wife or children stayed behind.

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    Mute Red Pirate 71
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    May 13th 2019, 1:40 AM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald: totally incorrect. Along with most American generated propaganda about Russia.

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    Mute Maggie O'Connor
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    May 12th 2019, 7:22 PM

    I don’t think its too far removed from the old Irish Catholic view about sex.. it was deemed inappropriate and shameful even to talk about it. Thankfully that has changed but, i still won’t covet my neighbour’s wife.

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    May 12th 2019, 7:32 PM

    @Maggie O’Connor: unless for

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    Mute rusty
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    May 12th 2019, 9:29 PM

    @Maggie O’Connor: why not ?

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    Mute Jumperoo
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    May 12th 2019, 11:05 PM

    @rusty: I don’t covet my neighbour’s wife either. She’s puck ugly, and painful to listen to.

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    Mute Aine O Connor
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    May 13th 2019, 8:04 AM

    @Jumperoo: who says she would be bothered with you either.

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    Mute Aine O Connor
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    May 13th 2019, 8:11 AM

    @Maggie O’Connor:
    The Irish did not talk much about sex but had plenty of it judging by the numbers of unmarried Mothers, Shotgun marraiges and very large families. Follow the evidence.Sex is like most activities, the more you practice the more you learn and the more you learn the better it gets.

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    Mute Joey Roche
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    May 12th 2019, 5:48 PM

    Russian man found with three testicles, Whodyanickthebollockoff.

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    Mute Me_a_monkey
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    May 13th 2019, 7:13 PM

    @Joey Roche: in soviet Russia, sex has you….

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    Mute Jonny
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    May 12th 2019, 6:40 PM

    We like beans, we like sauce, we like sexual intercourse

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    Mute anthony o cathain
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    May 13th 2019, 12:07 AM

    @Jonny: haha hahaha hahaha. Spastic

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    Mute anthony o cathain
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    May 13th 2019, 12:08 AM

    A scary society

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    Mute The decline of Manchester United
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    May 13th 2019, 6:20 AM

    Horrible small minded Government, even today Putin would have a new Soviet Empire all the way across Europe but he knows the Americans would wipe them off the map if he tried

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    Mute Pamela K Sztyblewski
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    Jul 28th 2019, 10:55 AM

    @The decline of Manchester United: How, Russians aren’t allowed outside Russia without Visas even in Europe, while Americans are allowed everywhere visa-free “for 90 days”

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    Mute Guilherme Taffarel Bergamin
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    May 14th 2019, 2:20 PM

    Might be true for older people (40+), but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case with the young. I know a few Russians and I’d say they are pretty open about the subject. Homossexuality though I think it is still a taboo like it was in my country (Brazil) 20 – 15 years ago

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