CANADA.COM: LOURDES, France - Pope Benedict XVI, despite having little of his predecessor's charisma or popularity, arrives in France on Friday, hoping to inspire renewed interest in the Catholic Church in an adamantly secular and increasingly faithless country known as the church's oldest daughter.
His four-day visit begins with a meeting at the Elysee Palace with President Nicolas Sarkozy who, despite his status as a twice-divorced man, has spoken openly of loosening up France's strict rules that keep religion far from the public square.
That will be followed by several public events in Paris, capped by an outdoor celebration of mass Saturday afternoon, expected to draw more than 200,000.
He then flies to Lourdes to mark the 150th anniversary of apparitions of the Virgin Mary experienced by Bernadette Soubirous, a poor, sickly teen who experienced 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary that were eventually recognized by the Vatican.
"France is the oldest Christian nation in Europe, the most important country in Western Europe and, traditionally, a centre of Catholic thought and art," Pierre Bellemare, a professor and self-described "pope-watcher" at St. Paul's University in Ottawa, said in an interview Thursday.
"So, naturally, he would like to see Catholicism thrive and be more present there - free to express itself in public debates."
He said Benedict's ultimate hope would be that the French secular model, based in a 1905 law once so harshly enforced that priests were arrested for wearing their clerical clothing in public, move closer to the more "tolerant and open" American model. Pope Hopes to Use Visit to Loosen France's Secularism >>> Peter O'Neil, Europe Correspondent , Canwest News Service | September 11, 2008
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