Papal visit attracts modest crowds and controversy

Pope Benedict XVI with Polish President Lech Kaczynski during his visit to Warsaw. Picture / Reuters

POLAND - Pope Benedict XVI is now in Warsaw on the first pastoral visit of his papacy, which will conclude with a visit to the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Before leaving Rome the German Pope, who belonged to Hitler Youth at a time when it was compulsory, commented: "We will finish the journey at the extermination camp of Auschwitz, thinking of the many dead, but also to learn how it was possible for man to fall so far beneath his dignity."

Thousands of Catholics and a large part of the Polish Government turned out to welcome him at Warsaw's airport. Speaking of his Polish predecessor John Paul II, with whom, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he worked closely for many years, the Pope said, "I have come to follow in the footsteps of his life."

Poland was chosen for Benedict's first trip because of his commitment to the late Pope's rapid canonisation.

The visit, he said, was "no mere sentimental journey ... but rather a journey of faith, a part of the mission entrusted to me by the Lord."

Children were given the day off school to see the Pope, but the crowd watching the Popemobile go by was far smaller than the vast throngs John Paul attracted.

"There are fewer people on the street today than when John Paul visited," said a street vendor selling Vatican and Polish flags.

"Business is not as good."

Benedict marched straight into controversy, telling the congregation in St John's Cathedral that priests "should stay out of politics. The priest is expected to be an expert in the spiritual life."

A Catholic radio station, Radio Marya, supports the ruling Euro-sceptic conservatives, dividing views within the Church. Back in Rome, Benedict's intervention raised wry smiles: in Italy the Church shows no inhibitions about influencing politics.

- INDEPENDENT