VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) – Pope Benedict XVI, in his first trip as pontiff to the homeland of his predecessor, will meet with clergy and religious, visit shrines and cathedrals and participate in an ecumenical service and a prayer service for concentration camp victim.
The Vatican release of the May 25-28, 2006, apostolic trip to Poland, was made public April 26, and includes papal visits to: Warsaw; Czestochowa, the site of shrine of the Black Madonna; Krakow; Wadowice, the birthplace of Pope John Paul II; Kalwaria Zebrzydowska; and the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
Officials of Poland’s television public broadcaster, TVP, announced that it will ban television advertisements containing erotic and violent scenes during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the country next month, reported Agence France-Presse.
The station officials said that broadcasts of Masses will not include advertising, and other programming associated with Benedict’s visit will include only advertising that will be religiously sensitive. Beer and intimate hygiene items will not be advertised during the pope’s visit, station officials said, according to AFP.
The pope will leave Rome's Fiumicino airport on Thursday morning, May 25, arriving in Warsaw. He will return from Krakow's Balice airport Sunday evening, May 28.
The travel schedule for Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to Poland includes:
- Thursday, May 25. Following the welcome ceremony, he will hold a meeting with clergy in the Cathedral of St. John, before paying a courtesy visit to the president of Poland in the presidential palace and participating in an ecumenical gathering at the Lutheran Church of the Most Holy Trinity.
- Friday, May 26. Benedict XVI will celebrate morning Mass in Warsaw's Pilsudski Square. In the afternoon, he will travel by helicopter to Czestochowa where he will visit the Shrine of the Virgin of Jasna Gora and meet with religious, seminarians and representatives from Catholic movements and institutes of consecrated life. He will then travel to Krakow where he will spend the night in the archbishop's place.
- Saturday, May 27. The pope will celebrate a private Mass in the archbishop's palace in Krakow before traveling to Wadowice, where he will visit the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and the house in which John Paul II was born, and later meet local inhabitants in the town's Rynek Square. He will then visit the shrine of the Virgin of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, and upon his return to Krakow, visit the shrine of Divine Mercy and Wawel Cathedral, and, meet with young people in the city's Blonie Park.
- Sunday, May 28. Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass in Blonie Park, and pray the “Regina Coeli,” before traveling to the former concentration camp and the center for dialogue and prayer at Auschwitz and participating in a prayer meeting in memory of victims in the former concentration camp of Birkenau.
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