Catholic News Service: In his homeland, pope to face growing secularism, some protests

Cindy Wooden of CNS reports on the climate Pope Benedict will find during his upcoming Apostolic Voyage to Germany. Germany is much changed since he left for Rome: East and West have reunited, and the culture has become more secular. There will, indeed, be protests:

Several groups have announced they will protest the pope's visit, including a group that believes the pope's speech Sept. 22 to the Bundestag, the German parliament, violates church-state separation. Some deputies have announced they will leave the hall in Berlin's Reichstag Building to protest.

Archbishop Rainier Woelki of Berlin told reporters Sept. 7 that the church is not worried about possible protests, considering that Germany is a democracy. But, he said, it would be better if people heard what the pope had to say before reacting.

The pope, of course, is very aware of recent trends in European culture:

Pope Benedict's pastoral visits are designed to strengthen and confirm Catholics in their faith and the statistics clearly illustrate why the theme chosen for the pope's visit to Berlin, Erfurt, Freiburg and Eichsfeld is: "Where there is God, there is a future."

As with Pope Benedict's visits to other European countries -- particularly to France in 2008 and to Scotland and England in 2010 -- secularism is expected to be a key theme during the pope's trip.

"The Holy Father knows the situation of the church in Germany," Jesuit Father Hans Langendorfer, secretary of the German bishops' conference, told reporters Sept. 7.