VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI in Bavaria - “I have come first of all to express my gratitude to all those who helped to form my personality in the different decades of my life. But I am also here as Successor of Peter, to reaffirm and confirm the profound ties that exist between the See of Rome and the Church here in our homeland”

München (Agenzia Fides) - On Saturday 9 September on his arrival in Munich for a five day stay in his native Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI explained the reason for his visit “I have come first of all to express my gratitude to all those who helped to form my personality in the different decades of my life. But I am also here as Successor of Peter, to reaffirm and confirm the profound ties that exist between the See of Rome and the Church here in our homeland”. At the airport the Pope was welcomed by the president Horst Köhler, the chancellor Mrs Angela Merkel of Germany, by the first minister of Bavaria Edmund Stoiber, the Archbishop of München and Freising, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Germany Cardinal Karl Lehmann, and numerous other church, civil and political dignitaries. In his address in reply to the welcome address by Mr Köhler, the Pope said: “Today with deep emotion for the first time since my election to the Chair of Peter I set foot on German-Bavarian soil. I have come back to my homeland, among my people, with a programme which includes visits to the places which have been of fundamental importance in my life.”
The Pope then recalled the close “centuries old” ties between the See of Rome and the Church in Bavaria based on “unswerving loyalty to the values of the Christian faith”, and said he was aware that “the social context today is in many aspects different from that of the past”. His said his visit also intends to encourage “my country men and women of Bavaria and the whole of Germany to take an active part in the handing on to the citizens of tomorrow the fundamental values of Christian faith which sustains all, which does not cut off but instead opens and brings together peoples of different peoples, cultures and religions”.
After the welcome ceremony the Pope went to pray in front of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary set on Munich’s famous Mariensäule (Mary’s Column) in the city’s Marienplatz. In his address Pope Benedict XVI recalled the legend about Saint Corbinian, whose successor he was as Archbishop of München and Freising, which tells how “a bear devoured the draught animal the saint was riding on a journey in the Alps. Corbinian severely scolded the bear and as a punishment made it carry his bags until they reached Rome. So the bear, loaded with the saint’s burden, had to walk all the way to Rome and only there was set free by Corbinian”. The Pope recalled that in 1977, he reflected deeply when faced with the decision to accept the appointment as Archbishop of München and Freising which would have taken him away from his university teaching activity. “And then I remembered the bear and the interpretation of verses 22 and 23 of Psalm 72 [73] developed by Saint Augustine, in a situation very similar to mine in the context of his ordination as a priest and a bishop, and later expressed in his sermons on the Psalm”.
Augustine saw in the Psalmist’s words "before you I stood like an animal " (iumentum in Latin) a connection with a draught animal used in North Africa to work the land, and saw himself as as God’s "iumentum" draught animal, one who bears his burden. “On the basis of this thought by the Bishop of Hyppo, - the Pope said -, St Corbinian’s bear has always encouraged me to carry out my service with joy and trust - thirty years ago and now in this new responsibility - as day by day I say to God "yes": I am your draught animal, but in this way ‘I am with you always’”.
At the end of his address the Pope said he had come once again to pray at the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary and he prayed the Bavarian pray to the Mother of God to whom these people have always turned in times of trouble and he invoked the intercession of Our Lady with these words: “Teach us - old and young, leaders and servants- to our responsibilities in this manner. Help us to find the strength for reconciliation and forgiveness. Help us to become patient and humble but also free and courageous as you were in the hour of the Cross.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 11/9/2006 - righe 48, parole 732)