Pope John Paul II on Friday began his third visit to this Alpine nation, arriving this time in the midst of a crisis in the Austrian Roman Catholic Church that critics say is partly the Vatican's fault.
The frail, 78-year-old pope was welcomed at Salzburg's Maxglan airport by President Thomas Klestil and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, who has been mentioned as a possible successor.About 100 spectators, mostly schoolchildren, cheered the pontiff and held up greeting signs, including one saying "We are with you."
A military salute of cannon shots startled the pope, who slowly moved down the gangway, then used a cane to walk along a red carpet rolled out in his honor.
Speaking from a podium, he mentioned the construction of Europe "from the Atlantic to the Urals, from the North Sea to the Mediterranean" - a reference to European integration planned in the years ahead.
He lauded Austria, a neutral country of 8 million people, as "a mirror and model for a united Europe, which does not marginalize but has room for all."
In his welcome address, Klestil recalled how much the pope had "contributed to overcoming Europe's partition and to the liberation of our neighbors in the East from the slavery of a totalitarian regime."
Only a small number of people lined the route on which the pope was driven into downtown Salzburg, a center of European culture.
Many Austrian Catholics have been annoyed with the Vatican in recent years for its refusal to institute what they consider badly needed reform.
Since the pope's 1988 visit, Austrian Catholics have led a movement demanding the church drop its requirement that priests be celibate, allow women into the priesthood and give greater voice to lay Catholics.
The "We are the Church" movement gathered half a million signatures in Austria in 1995 and spread elsewhere in Europe and to the United States. Demonstrations by members of the movement were expected during the pope's visit.
The Austrian church also has been rocked by sexual scandal. The pope forced Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, accused of sexually molesting young boys, to relinquish all his duties in April. Groer had to go into exile in Germany but likely will be allowed to return soon after the papal visit.
Austrian church leaders had been eager to resolve the Groer case before the pope's visit to avoid potentially embarrassing demonstrations while John Paul was in the country.