The Pope in Berlin

The Pope is in Berlin. And many Berliners are not happy about it.
Many do not understand why he is here. Berlin is not a very religious city, let alone Catholic. {That beautiful "Berliner Dome" y'all have seen on my FB? Ya its a Protestant church.}
To be honest, when I first saw an advertisement of his arrival, I was confused. "What is he going to do here?" I have also seen some anti-Pope signs throughout the city within the last few weeks.

Huge projected picture I saw in the city.

Nonetheless, on this beautiful evening of September the 22nd, he is making his speech about God.
I was talking with Christine about the situation. She thought that no one was going to show up tonight and it would have been an embarrassment. She told me Berlin spent a huge amount of money to host him; let's not forget Berlin is a poor city (I learned recently that Berlin is about 
€ 6 million in debt). 
Last weekend I witnessed a situation that made me a little uncomfortable. Christine and I were having breakfast and Anna, Christine's Polish house cleaner, came over. She started telling Christine that she bought a ticket to see the Pope and I couldn't understand everything she said, but I could tell she was very excited. All Christine said was, "Anna, der Papst ist sehr konservative", and continued eating her breakfast. Light-hearted Anna just smiled and went back to mopping. 
I know that Catholicism is still prominent in Poland. And I know that Berliners are not fond with Catholicism. Christine told me that East Berlin did not even have a religion for 50 years. I did not know what to think, nor could I offer my own opinion. Moreover, seeing two people interact with opposing passions made my Saturday morning a bit exciting. 
Then today in Philosophy, our teacher actually made an announcement that he had to leave early. He was to speak at a rally against the Pope at Potsdamer platz, along with thousands of other people including gays, other Christians, and just pissed off Germans. 


Interesting current events. Apparently roads and public transportation will be shut down and hectic until he leaves tomorrow. Good thing I leave for Oktoberfest early tomorrow ;) 
Tschuss!