Joachim Meisner, Cardinal of Cologne, Germany, has called the visit of Pope Benedict to his homeland in mid-August as being "highly symbolic".

Cardinal Meisner was speaking at a press conference in Rome on Tuesday when he said that the return of the Pope to his native Germany had particular symbolic value just sixty years after the end of the Second World War.

Cardinal Meisner particularly welcomed the visit of the Pope to the Synagogue in Cologne, saying that the visit signalled to the Jews, their "older brothers and sisters", that the events of the past would not be allowed to repeat themselves.

Katholisch.de reported that, "The Pope is coming to a country that is still carrying the wounds of the Holocaust to this day."

Cardinal Meisner commented, when the Pope makes such a visit then it sends a "clear and highly symbolic message, that we are committed to making sure that such a thing never repeats itself."