Big attendance may be behind Pope's visit to Brno in end-Sept

Participants in the conference also said the Pope may want to appreciate the diocese that is dynamically developing and the fact that neither Benedict XVI nor his predecessor ever attended the second largest city in the Czech Republic.

Benedict XVI's predecessor, John Paul II, visited Prague, Olomouc, north Moravia, Velehrad, south Moravia, and Hradec Kralove, east Bohemia.

Jaroslav Sebek, from the Czech Science Academy Historical Institute, said participation in the mass in Turany may be one of the highest.

Cardinal Miloslav Vlk told today's issue of daily Mlada fronta Dnes that the idea to visit the Czech Republic was born in 2005 already.

"In our country there is a low number of believers and the Pope is coming to encourage us," Vlk said.

Benedict XVI will arrive in the Czech Republic at the invitation of President Vaclav Klaus on Saturday, September 26.

On Sunday 27 he will celebrate an open-air mass in Brno.

On Monday, September 28, the Pope will take part in the celebrations of St Wenceslas Day in Stara Boleslav, central Bohemia, the place where Wenceslas was murdered in 935.

St Wenceslas is the saint patron of Czechs.

Organisers of the Turany mass expect some 100,000 people.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz