Pope to visit Holocaust memorial, Marian shrine in Austria

Published: 2007-08-03

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- During his visit to Austria, Pope Benedict XVI plans to stop at a Holocaust memorial in Vienna and to celebrate the 850th anniversary of Austria's most important Marian shrine in Mariazell. The Vatican Aug. 3 released the official schedule of the pope's Sept. 7-9 visit to Austria. It will be the seventh foreign trip of his pontificate. After his arrival in Vienna, the pope will pray at a 17th-century monument marking a victory of the Catholic Habsburgs during the Thirty Years' War and stop at a Holocaust memorial in Jews' Square. He will meet the country's president and diplomats in the Hofburg Palace. Pope Benedict will celebrate Mass Sept. 8 outside the basilica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariazell, 80 miles southwest of Vienna, and lunch with Austria's bishops. He will hold an evening prayer service with priests, deacons and members of religious orders. The pope will lead a procession in Vienna Sept. 9 and celebrate Mass in the city's St. Stephen's Cathedral, after which he will recite the Angelus prayer in the square outside the cathedral. He will visit the 12th-century Cistercian Abbey of the Holy Cross outside Vienna and meet with volunteers before returning to Rome.

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