Pope to make four foreign trips in 2011

Pope Benedict XVI plans to make four foreign trips in 2011, including one to his German homeland and a three-day visit to the African country of Benin.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, told reporters Dec. 14 that the pope would also make four trips to Italian cities. In all, the pope will spend 18 days on the road next year.

The pope will visit Croatia June 4-5 and travel to Spain Aug. 18-21 to preside over World Youth Day Celebrations. He will visit Germany Sept. 22-25, the third trip to his native Germany. German bishops have said the pope is likely to visit the capital city of Berlin, as well as Freiburg and Erfurt.

The pope’s trip to Benin Nov. 18-20 will be his second trip to Africa. In Benin, a small country in West Africa, Catholics make up about 30 percent of the population, and Muslims about 25 percent.

Pope Benedict, who will turn 84 in April, has to date made 18 trips abroad, 12 of them in Europe.

The pope’s travels inside Italy in 2011 will take him to the northern cities of Aquileia and Venice May 7-8, to Montefeltro and the tiny Republic of San Marino June 19, to the Adriatic city of Ancona Sept. 11 for the National Eucharistic Congress and to the southern cities of Lamezia Terme and Serra San Bruno Oct. 9.

Base on Mizzima news Pope told Myanmar Bishop in 2008 that he want to visit Myanmar if he visit Asian countries. But in 2011, Pope will have only four trips.

Wednesday, 05 November 2008 21:27 Mizzima News

New Delhi - His highness Pope Benedict XVI told the Burmese Archbishop Charles Maung Bo that he is prepared to visit military-ruled Burma if he ever undertakes an Asian tour, reports said.

The Union of Catholic Asia News (UCA), said the possibility of the Pope's visit to Burma came up at an audience the archbishop had with the Pope on October 23.

"The Holy Father at once pointed out that I had invited him to Burma during my synod intervention," Archbishop Charles Maung Bo told UCA News, "He would be ready to make a short visit to Myanmar [Burma] if he chooses to visit one of the countries in Asia."

But the Press Office at the Vatican City said they had no knowledge of immediate plans by the Pope of making a visit to Asia.

"We are not aware of any near future plan of the Pope to visit Asia," an official at the Vatican Press Office told Mizzima on Tuesday.

The Burmese archbishop, Charles Maung Bo last month met the Pope privately during his visit to Rome as part of the ad limina visit every bishop is expected to make once in five years to report to the Pope and Vatican officials on the situation in his diocese and country.

Pope Benedict has visited 10 countries since his election in April 2005—six European countries and Turkey, which straddles Europe and Asia, as well as Australia, Brazil and the United States.

A visit by the papal, the UCA, citing diplomatic sources in Vatican, said requires an invitation from the local bishops' conference and the national government's invitation or willingness to receive him, since he is a head of state.

Burma has three million Christians, comprising about 6 per cent of the more than 50 million people of the country. And about 700,000 of the Christian population belong to the Catholic Church.


source
http://satodayscatholic.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/pope-to-make-four-foreign-trips-in-2011/

http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/1250-pope-not-averse-to-visit-burma.html