Elite Austrian
police commandos and bomb squads were checking venues and
equipment Thursday, the eve of Pope Benedict XVI's arrival
in the nation, and authorities said more than 3,500
police officers and soldiers were being deployed to
secure the pope.
Although security
was heavy for the three-day visit, which begins Friday,
the precautions were not a response to this week's thwarted
terrorist plot in Germany, Interior Ministry spokesman
Rudolf Gollia said.
About 150 members
of Austria's elite Cobra police unit--including what
Gollia described as a ''counterterrorism
component''--were to provide personal security
for the pontiff this weekend.
Explosives
experts used bomb-sniffing dogs to screen Benedict's convoy
and the sites he will visit, and 50 aircraft including
military attack helicopters and interceptor jets were
being readied, Defense Minister Norbert Darabos told
reporters.
Officials said
they had no information on any threat targeting the
German-born pope, whose Austria trip will be the seventh
foreign pilgrimage of his two-year papacy.
Darabos said the
Austrian army would use a Blackhawk helicopter to fly
Benedict on Saturday from Vienna to Mariazell, a famous
shrine to the Virgin Mary where the pope will preside
over an open-air Mass to commemorate the 850th
anniversary of its founding.
Officials with
the archdiocese of Vienna said 33,000 pilgrims were
ticketed to attend that event, and that 70 bishops from
abroad--most from Eastern Europe--planned
to converge on the shrine 60 miles southwest of
Vienna.
Cardinal
Christoph Schoenborn told reporters Thursday that despite
many Austrian Catholics' displeasure over recent
clergy sex scandals and a hugely unpopular church tax,
he thought criticism of the pope's visit was
overblown.
''Criticism,
whether warranted or unwarranted, has its place, but it
should not detract from the joy of this visit,'' he said.
''Shouldn't
celebrations be a part of life?'' he added, saying the pope
was coming as a humble pilgrim on a simple mission ''to
encourage the faithful.''
Schoenborn,
Austria's top churchman, also played down news reports
suggesting the pope was suffering from a bad cold and might
need to cut short some of his speeches during the
visit, which runs through Sunday. Benedict is not
seriously ill, the cardinal said, dismissing the reports
as ''exaggeration.''
At the Vatican,
chief spokesman Reverend Federico Lombardi told reporters
that Benedict was hoarse on Wednesday, but said, ''There's
no concern for the health of the pope.''
Police said they
were bracing for three demonstrations against the pope,
the largest Friday afternoon in central Vienna by Socialist
youth organizations protesting the pope's conservative
stance on homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and other
issues.
''He doesn't want
us to marry, to live in legal partnerships,'' said
Christian Hougel, a leader of Vienna's gays. ''He is against
homosexuals within the Catholic Church, who are not
allowed to become priests.''
On Friday
afternoon the pope will pay silent tribute to Jewish victims
of the Holocaust and other pogroms, and later
he will deliver what the Vatican described as a
major address to Austrian authorities and diplomats
serving with the U.N. nuclear agency and other international
organizations in Vienna.
Benedict's visit
concludes Sunday with a Mass at Vienna's St. Stephen's
Cathedral and a visit to the Heiligenkreuz abbey outside the
capital. (AP, William J. Kole)