GERMANY took a much-needed breather this week from its unsought role as eurozone saviour to engage in some painful soul-searching on faith and religion. The reason for the change in gear? The first official visit to his home country by German-born Pope Benedict XVI.

Hopes that the brief tour would provide his countrymen and women with good cheer and comfort were soon dashed as Germany engaged in an acrimonious debate on the role of the pope and the Catholic church. I normally pay scant attention to the pontiff’s travels. Europe today with its multiple crises offers plenty to mull over. The pope grabbed my attention because I landed in Berlin on Sept 21 just as the city was gearing up for his visit.

Actually, that’s not quite correct. There was no excitement — just lots of moaning about the disruption the pontiff was going to cause to the lives of ordinary Berliners. My young taxi driver was the first to inform me that “tomorrow is going to be a very busy day”. Many roads would be closed, he said, as the police mounted a massive security operation to ensure the pope’s safety. “Not a good day to be on the roads — or to try and attend a conference,” he warned.

At the pre-conference dinner that night, my hosts were equally concerned about the impact the pope would have on traffic in Berlin. But they also conceded the visit had highlighted deep divisions among Germans on the role of the church and religion in the country’s daily life. “We are a secular nation,” said a German friend. The pope with his conservative views was not popular, even among Catholic Germans. The visit was therefore divisive and likely to lead to discord and disharmony, he said gloomily.

Another pointed out that plans for the pope to speak at the Olympic Stadium were much too ambitious as it would be difficult to fill up the place — in contrast to the huge crowd that went to listen to Indian guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s lecture at the same venue in July. Yes, certainly, Germany, like most of Europe, is decidedly secular, although for one painful moment Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to get a reference to the divine in the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty. It’s this disregard for religion — at least the public display of it — which makes many Europeans wary of Islam and Muslims. Religion is private and personal, say Europeans, although many still attend church services.

Despite the ironic comments, however, the papal visit seems to have gone off without too much discord. Having made it to the Berlin airport with no traffic problems, I saw that all TV channels were broadcasting reports on the pope’s speech to the German parliament and at the stadium. There is no denying, however, that the white-haired pope in his famous armoured ‘pope-mobile’ was an unusual sight in the streets of uber-hip Berlin.

This is Germany’s coolest city — multicultural, tolerant and avant-garde. And German Catholics don’t often play by the rules.

President Christian Wulff is a Catholic who, because he is divorced and remarried, can be barred in some cases from taking the communion. Berlin’s mayor Klaus Wowereit is an openly gay Catholic. (German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the daughter of a Protestant preacher).

My German friends said there are demands that the pope change his message on a range of controversial issues including the celibacy requirement for priests, the role of women in the church, gay rights, birth control and aid for victims of sexual abuse by the clergy. It was demands for such reform that led to protests against the visit in Potsdamer Platz, just a mile from the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, where Pope Benedict addressed parliamentarians. Police estimated that 9,000 gathered to register their disapproval of church policies. Dozens of members of parliament boycotted his address. Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, had addressed the Italian parliament and several others, and last year Benedict spoke before the British political establishment in Westminster Hall, but the address on Thursday was his first before a legislative body and the first by any pope before Germany’s parliament.

Those expecting a controversial address were probably disappointed. As press reports indicated, in comments that verged at times on the academic, the theologian pope spoke about the importance of responsibility of political leaders, and touched on several themes at the heart of his papacy: the fight against secularism and relativism. He also called for opening a debate on ethics.

Some of the leading voices opposing his appearance came from the Green Party. Hans-Christian Ströbele, a Green Party parliamentarian, stood up and left as the speech began. Dozens of members of the far-left Left Party as well as some Social Democrats boycotted the event. Ironically, enthusiasm in Germany abounded when then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005, but in the years since, disenchantment with the church has taken hold in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal and the perception that an increasingly conservative Catholic church is unlikely to change its ways.

As newspapers underlined, the pope faces an uphill struggle to mend fences in his homeland: according to Der Spiegel magazine, more than 181,000 Catholics have left the church since the child abuse scandal broke. Candidates for priesthood have dropped 62 per cent since 1990, according to the German Bishops Conference. In a poll for Stern magazine, 86 per cent of Germans said they thought the papal visit was unimportant.

Despite all the cynicism, however, who knows: in secret and for only a fleeting moment, Chancellor Merkel may have turned to the pope and asked for a special prayer for the embattled eurozone.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Brussels.