VATICAN CITY, MAY 18, 2004 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon the official program of the Holy Father's apostolic trip to Bern, Switzerland for a national gathering of Catholic youth on June 5 and 6 was made public.
John Paul II will leave Rome's Fiumicino Airport at 9:45 a.m. on June 5, arriving at Payerne Airport in Switzerland at 11:30 a.m. After meeting with Joseph Deiss, president of the Helvetic Confederation, he will proceed to Bern and the Viktoriaheim residence, the house of the Sisters of Charity of the Holy Cross, for lunch. At 6:15 p.m., he will meet with young Swiss Catholics in the Ice Palace in the same city and later will retire for the night at the Viktoriaheim residence.
On Sunday, June 6 at 10:30 a.m., the Holy Father will celebrate Mass outdoors in Allmend, followed by the recitation of the Angelus. At 1:45 p.m., he will meet with bishops from the Swiss Episcopal Conference and with the cardinals and bishops in his entourage in the residence. At 5:15 p.m., he is scheduled to meet with members of the Association of former Swiss Guards. At 7 p.m., he will depart from Payerne Airport for Rome with arrival scheduled for 8:45 p.m.
On the occasion of his third apostolic trip to Switzerland, following those in 1982 and 1984, we offer our readers statistics about the Catholic Church in Switzerland taken from the latest Statistical Yearbook of the Catholic Church with data relative to December 31, 2002.
Switzerland has 7,290,000 inhabitants, of whom 3,183,000, or 44 percent of the total, are Catholic. Currently, there are 22 bishops, 3,109 priests, 6,117 religious and 248 seminarians in the country.
The Catholic Church runs 50 primary schools, 46 middle and secondary schools and 13 universities attended by 12,000 students. There are 11 hospitals, 45 rest homes for the elderly, invalid and disabled, 57 orphanages, 35 family counseling centers and other pro-life centers, and 72 centers for education and social rehabilitation which are owned or administered by the Catholic Church.
JPII-TRIP/STATISTICS/SWITZERLAND VIS 20040518 (350)
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