Call for unity

The first three days of Pope Benedict XVI's first state visit to his home country of Germany were filled with official and ecumenical visits, but on Sunday, the last day of his trip, the pope celebrated mass for some 100,000 in Freiburg, a Catholic stronghold in the country's southwest.

The pope returned to Rome on Sunday evening, after calling on German Catholics to challenge themselves to form a closer relationship with God. He urged them to remain faithful and obedient to Rome in "this time of danger and radical change" and a "crisis of faith."

"The Church in Germany will continue to be a blessing for the entire Catholic world if she remains faithfully united with the successors of St. Peter and the Apostles," he said, referring to himself and Vatican leadership.

The speech was an affirmation of the pope's conservative principles, asserting that the answer to Germany's shrinking congregations is holding strong to the church's traditional beliefs rather than modernization or reform.

Disappointment in speech

Some German Catholics had hoped that Benedict XVI would be more open to the more liberal views many of them hold.

"I had hoped he might rally people more to the church, especially young people," said Martine Kircher, 50, who came from Heidelberg with her two children to see the pope. "But he didn't show a path of renewal. Instead he seemed to be rowing back to the old values."

A record 181,000 Germans quit the Catholic Church this year - for the first time more than those who joined, and more than those leaving Protestant churches.

Dissent among the faithful

In the mass, he only indirectly referred to the crises the Church currently faces, including dropping church attendance and an ongoing sex abuse scandal.

On Friday, the pope held a closed-door meeting with five victims of clerical abuse. In the Sunday mass, he mentioned "other painful scandals on the part of the preachers of the faith."

Church teachings on priestly celibacy, contraception, homosexuality and a ban on women becoming priests are all heavily contested in Germany. The Church's handling of the string of sex abuse scandals has further angered many in the country.

Benedict alluded to the dissent in the Church on Saturday night, saying that "damage to the Church comes not from opponents, but from uncommitted Christians."

"The Church in Germany will overcome the great challenges of the present and future and it will remain a leaven in society, if the priests, consecrated men and women, and the lay faithful… work together in unity," he said.

First state visit

Before leaving for Rome on Sunday, the pontiff held a lunch with religious leaders, a meeting with judges from Germany's Constitutional Court and a session with a group of lay Catholics. He also took part in a farewell ceremony before returning to the Vatican.

Before this trip, Benedict had visited Germany twice since becoming pope, but this is his first state visit. The pontiff was born Joseph Ratzinger in southern Germany in 1927. He was elected pope in 2005.

Authors: Holly Fox, Andrew Bowen (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Kyle James