NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II hopes that his upcoming visit to Austria will help to promote "the unity of the Church in truth and love" in that country.

      Along with his usual catechetical talk, the Pope today addressed his weekly public audience in German, speaking about the trip to Austria which he will make this weekend. Vatican Radio has acknowledged that he will encounter a "delicate" situation within the Church there, because of widespread dissent over Church teachings and because of the revelations about child abuse by the former archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer. The Pope said that he and the Austrian bishops should "work together to overcome the difficulties." And he said that the suffering which the Church has undergone could be a means of spiritual growth.

      Finally, the Pope mentioned the most unmistakably positive aspect of his trip: the beatification of three Austrians, Fathers Anton Maria Schwartz and Jacob Kern, and Sister Restituta Kafka. Those beatifications, the Pope said, were "a sign of the liveliness of the Church in Austria."