The head of the Roman Catholic Church arrives in Prague shortly before the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, a peaceful coup that toppled Communist rule in former Czechoslovakia in 1989.
Pope Benedict XVI starts his three-day visit to the Czech Republic on Saturday with the hope of restoring faith in the largely secular ex-communist nation where religion was stifled for 40 years.
Religious belief was suppressed throughout the communist regime, which labelled the Church the people's enemy, put priests under secret police surveillance and banned the Catholic press and Catholic associations.
But the fall of communism failed to bring a religious revival, and in 2001 almost six in ten Czechs said in a census they did not identify with any religion, up from 39 percent a decade earlier.
Meanwhile, the percentage of believers tumbled from 43.9 percent to 32.2 percent between 1991 and 2001.
Religious belief was suppressed throughout the communist regime, which labelled the Church the people's enemy, put priests under secret police surveillance and banned the Catholic press and Catholic associations.
But the fall of communism failed to bring a religious revival, and in 2001 almost six in ten Czechs said in a census they did not identify with any religion, up from 39 percent a decade earlier.
Meanwhile, the percentage of believers tumbled from 43.9 percent to 32.2 percent between 1991 and 2001.
During his first visit to the Czech Republic as pope, Benedict XVI will visit the capital Prague, the south-eastern city of Brno, and Stara Boleslav just outside Prague.
In the Czech capital, Benedict XVI will first go to the Our Lady of Victory Church to donate a golden crown to the Infant Jesus of Prague (Bambino di Praga), a wax statuette worshipped since the 17th century.
The pope will then meet Czech politicians and serve an evening prayer at Prague's St Vitus Cathedral before travelling to Brno where he will serve a Holy Mass for an expected crowd of 150,000 at an airport on Saturday.
The visit will symbolically end with a mass for an estimated 35,000 people in Stara Boleslav on Monday, which is the feast of St Wenceslas, the martyr and patron saint of the country who was murdered in the town on September 28, 935.
In the Czech capital, Benedict XVI will first go to the Our Lady of Victory Church to donate a golden crown to the Infant Jesus of Prague (Bambino di Praga), a wax statuette worshipped since the 17th century.
The pope will then meet Czech politicians and serve an evening prayer at Prague's St Vitus Cathedral before travelling to Brno where he will serve a Holy Mass for an expected crowd of 150,000 at an airport on Saturday.
The visit will symbolically end with a mass for an estimated 35,000 people in Stara Boleslav on Monday, which is the feast of St Wenceslas, the martyr and patron saint of the country who was murdered in the town on September 28, 935.
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