Hellacious Berlin Party: The Pope Comes!
Eleven people injured and seven arrests:
The protest rally in Madrid against the papal visit for World Youth Day was carefully registered in Berlin. Upon his arrival in Madrid, the Pope was cheered. But the night before, there had been violent protests by opponents.
Starting on September 22 in Berlin, the pope will now visit his German homeland - the usual price for a papal visit: Between 25 and 30 million euros. Berlin is pretty much the place, where enthusiasm and refusal to Benedict XVI are going to clash. On one hand, the pope will address at a packed Olympic stadium audience (Church expects 80 000 Believers) and in the German Bundestag. At the same time an alliance of dozens of anti-papal initiatives will protest against the pontiff. Lesbian and gay organizations, radical leftist groups, but also representatives from the Greens, Social Democrats and "The Pinks" (Die Linke / Die Roten - alleviated child of the old times GDR Socialist Unity Party) appeal to the public to demonstrate against the "inhumane gender and sexual politics" of the Catholic Church.
Right now, it is still unclear, if and where the demonstration of the network "The pope comes" - advertising slogan: "A hell-of-fun instead of agony" - may happen, the routes are negotiated in these days between police and opponents of the Pope. The police are currently working on a security concept, to keep the estimated 20 up to 50 000 participants (might be even as much as the People Of Faith) away from the Brandenburg Gate hot spot. For safety concerns, despite that it is assumed by insiders the protests will remain peaceful. Even at the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1996 protests were largely nonviolent ... disregarding that the Popemobile was pelted with tomatoes.
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