• A beaming Benedict XVI returns to his Bavarian roots • Hundreds of thousands attend papal Mass in Munich

FROM EDWARD PENTIN IN MUNICH
Po pn BENEDICT xvi received a hero's welcome from a congregation of a quarter of a million people when he celebrated Mass in his native Bavaria on Sunday. In a-mOving aria higEry personal pilgrimage to his old diocese of Munich the Holy Father hinted ' that, at the age of 79, he may never find the time or the energy to return.
He therefore underlined once again that he does not intend to follow the example of his globetrotting predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who made many foreign trips in the grip of severe illness.
Pope Benedict was clearly elated to find himself back on his home turf. "My heart beats Bavarian," he told reporters on the plane from Rome on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning, the popemobile rolled down Munich's Ludwigstrasse. "That street was infamous for Nazi parades," said one old man. "So this is an incredible moment of healing."
Even so, the Pope's homily — delivered at a huge outdoor Mass in a fairground — was tinged with anxiety at people's inability to hear God amid the sound and nay of the western world.
"There are too many different frequencies filling our ears," he said, going on to focus on the obstacles that prevent men and women from hearing the Word of God in a sceptical and greedy era.
"What is said about God strikes us as pre-scientific, no longer suited to our age." he told worshippers. "Along with this hardness of hearing or outright deafness where God is concerned, we naturally lose our ability to speak with him and to him." The Pope said that this "weakening of our capacity" to hear the truth about salvation "drastically and dangerously curtails the range of our relationship with reality. The horizon of our life is disturbingly foreshortened."
The Pontiff journeyed to Bavaria to give thanks to those, both living and dead, who had assisted his intellectual and spiritual growth as a young man. He also wanted to use the trip to reawaken the faith in a nation that he feels is slumbering in materialism.
Hundreds of pilgrims greeted the Pope as he arrived at Munich's Franz Josef Strauss airport, but for many their first glimpse of the Pontiff came as the popemobile drove down Ludwigstrasse, the street leading to Marienplatz, Munich's main square.
Pilgrims gave the Pope a tumultuous welcome, and as the motor
cade turned the corner into the square they erupted with cheers, whoops and the now ubiquitous chant of "Ben-e-dett-o!". The Pope offered prayers at the Mariensaule — the column of the Madonna and spiritual symbol of Bavaria.
He wged the faithful to pray together and to build a spiritual community.
"Prayer does not only bring us nearer to God but also nearer to one another," he said. "It is a powerful source of peace and joy."
In his homily at the Nene Messe, the Pope spoke of how people in Africa and Asia admired the scientific and technical prowess of the West, while at the same time fearing a rationality that totally excludes God from man's vision, "as if this were the highest form of reason, and one to be imposed on their cultures, too".
He condemned the "contempt
for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom". He added: "Dear friends, this cynicism is not the kind of tolerance and cultural openness that the world's peoples are looking for and that all of us want."
To loud applause. he appealed for a rebirth of faith, but stressed that it cannot be imposed forcefully. "Such proselytism is contrary to Christianity," he explained. "Faith can develop only in freedom."
He called for the Lord to renew His Ephphatha (opening) to give both sight and healing to mankind. "Let us ask his help in rediscovering prayer... to which he invites us in the liturgy and whose essential formula he has given us in the Our Father."
The Pope concluded with a question for Bavaria.
"The world needs God. We need God. But what God?" he asked. The answer, he said, is a God who is "healing goodness", offering "a 'no' to violence and a 'love to the end'. This is the God we all need."
Fr Thomas Brei, a diocesan priest from Munich, welcomed the Pope's words.
"The message the Pope gave today in his homily was very important for Germany," he said. "Here, we tend to be happy doing good works for the poor, working for human rights, but we are reluctant to speak about our faith. We need to hear this message."
Fr Paul Habsburg, a priest from Cologne, said: "It's a very beautiful thing for people who are far away to come back, open themselves up to what he says and read what he writes.
"He's not a pope who says you have to do this or that, but speaks about things people can accept,
and from there he tries to lead people as far as they can go. His humble and serving ways were and are extremely inspiring for young people."
But one Franciscan sister, waiting to see the Pope in Marienplatz, said that her nephew and niece had refused to attend the celebrations. "The young, sadly, no longer believe in God," she said.
On the plane from Rome to Munich Benedict XVI suggested to reporters that this visit could be his last to Bavaria. "I am an old man," he said. "I don't know how much time the Lord will grant me ... At least one more time, I am getting to see my homeland."
The motto for the Pope's visit to Bavaria was: "Whoever believes is never alone."
Full homily: Page 4 Further reports: Pages 2-3 Editorial comment: Page 13