Austria prepares to welcome Pope

BBC ^ | September 7, 2007

[Ghayyour]

Pope Benedict XVI is due to arrive in Austria for a three-day visit, where he will join Jewish leaders to pay tribute to victims of the Nazi Holocaust. The pontiff, brought up in the German province of Bavaria, will also visit a Catholic shrine to the Virgin Mary.

The Vatican says the Catholic leader will travel as a pilgrim, although correspondents say his trip will have more of the trappings of a state visit.

It is the Pope's seventh foreign trip in the past two years.

It comes after a week of high-profile meetings with leaders including Israeli President Shimon Peres and Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara.

Deep roots

The pontiff is due to join Vienna's chief rabbi in silent tribute at a memorial to the 65,000 Viennese Jews who perished in Nazi death camps, and others who died in earlier purges.

Austrian Archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said the Pope's silence during the ceremony "will say more than words".

The BBC's David Willey, in Rome, says the Church has deep roots in Austria, but it is suffering from a growing number of defections.

Almost one third of Austrian Catholics have left the Church since the late Pope John Paul II visited Austria in 1983, he says.

Cardinal Schoenborn said a key goal of the Pope's visit was to encourage faith "in a time when many are saying that faith has no meaning and is unreasonable".

The Austrian Catholic Church has been shaken by widely-reported sex scandals involving two high-ranking prelates in recent years.

[CarrotAndStick]

Pope to Tour Austria in Custom Poped-out Blackhawk Helicopter

Screw the popemobile; that was for sissyboy John Paul II. Welcome to the reign of badass Benedict XVI, who will be touring Austria this month in a custom poped-out Blackhawk helicopter (pictured), complete with custom seats emblazoned with the papal insignia. While flying around in his heli/hoopty, he'll be accompanied by some Northrop Grumman F-5E fighter jets supplied by the Austrian air force. Apparently, people really have it out for the pope in Austria. Check pics of the custom seats after the jump.

 

[Ares via DangerRoom]
 

10:53 AM ON THU SEP 6 2007
BY ADAM FRUCCI
4,799 views

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/religion/pope-to-tour-austria-in-custom-poped+out-blackhawk-helicopter-296961.php

 

[dsutah]

Sissy Boy eh? How did you come to that conclusion? Pope John Paul 11 went through some pretty dangerous situations and survived them. Could you go through some of the same? Both of these men survived dangerous situations.

The two of them were both pretty tough fellows. They had to be to survive the times they grew up in and what they went through!! There’s nothing ‘sissy’ about that. I don’t know where you get this Pope JP11 being a sissy boy stuff, but this says more about you than him. Maybe you’re just full of it, eh? I think you are full of it, and that’s just my own opinion!

[CarrotAndStick]

Hey, I just cut-copy-pasted it from Gizmodo! Those comments aren’t mine!!

[dsutah]

Uh yeah, I’m afraid you’re right. Sorry about that. I guess I didn’t read it closely, and jumped on you. Again, my apologies!

[CarrotAndStick]

Actually I was wrong to have posted that here. I shouldn’t have, given that it was highly inappropriate.

Sometimes my sense of humour is messed up. I apologise!