POPE John Paul II arrives in Germany tonight for a three day visit amid fears that protests against church teaching on sexual morality could turn violent.
Police leave in Berlin has been cancelled for the weekend and a planned demonstration in the city has been rerouted to prevent a confrontation.
The Pope's visit, his third to Germany but the first since unification, will begin today in the northern seminary town of Paderborn where he will be met by President Roman Herzog. One hundred thousand people are expected to attend an open air Mass at a nearby British military airfield tomorrow morning and the Pope will take part in an ecumenical service later in the day.
The high point of the visit will "be on Sunday when the Pope visits the German capital for the first time, celebrating Mass ink front of 130,000 people in Hitler's 1936 Olympic stadium and "beatifying two priests who were persecuted by the Nazis. The visit has reopened a bitter debate about the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Nazis during the war, with Jewish groups calling on the Vatican to publish an official document on the Holocaust.
The Pope's visit coincides with Berlin's annual lesbian and gay, street festival and thousands of protesters are expected to take part in an "Anti Pope Procession" against the church's teaching on sexuality. A black American lesbian and a Berlin prostitute will be crowned Anti Popess Joy Anna II and Anti Popess Domenica I.
Berlin's Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky has accused the protesters of stirring up hatred, declaring that they put him in mind of "the very worst period of the French Revolution".
But AIDS activist Mr Michael Lenz said yesterday that the protesters did not wish to offend the religious feelings of Catholic believers and were only protesting against church teaching. He acknowledged that people with AIDS are treated with kindness and without discrimination by many Catholic organisations.
Although the Pope received a warm welcome during his visits in 1980 and 1987, his conservative teachings have become increasingly unpopular among German Catholics. One and a half million of them signed a petition last year calling for sweeping reforms, including the abolition of compulsory celibacy for priests, the admission of women to the ministry and greater influence for the laity within the church. The Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, last month called on the Pope to rethink his absolute opposition to artificial contraception.
German Protestants are disappointed that the Pope will not mark the 450th anniversary of Martin Luther's death by visiting any of the places associated with the reformer.
