Warsaw, Poland - Pope Benedict began a four-day pilgrimage to Poland on Thursday to retrace the steps of his predecessor John Paul and help banish lingering ghosts of Germany's wartime occupation.
Reflecting sensitivity about his German background, he said before leaving Rome that he would end his trip at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz as a Catholic paying homage to the victims.
Benedict, 79, will visit cities and shrines that were central to John Paul's life in Poland and his many visits as pope. A major challenge will be to overcome the unease some Poles feel that John Paul's successor comes from Germany.
A crowd of several thousand cheered and applauded at the airport as they heard him read the beginning of his speech in clear Polish with a slight German accent.
"I have come to follow in the footsteps of his life, from his boyhood until his departure for the memorable conclave of 1978," Benedict said of his "beloved predecessor".
Continuing in Italian, he stressed the trip was "no mere sentimental journey...but rather a journey of faith, a part of the mission entrusted to me by the Lord".
Tens of thousands lined the streets of Warsaw, waving yellow and white Vatican flags, waiting for the Pope to drive by while office workers gathered around television screens for a glimpse of the Pontiff and to hear him speak Polish.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and other leading politicians greeted Benedict at Warsaw's Frederic Chopin airport under overcast skies.
"We are becoming closer and we have seen the greatest model of cooperation between a German and a Pole," Kaczynski said, presenting Benedict's years working with John Paul as a blueprint for Polish-German friendship.
"We feel that true reconciliation is taking place in the realm of faith, of Christianity and love."
Benedict, 79, who was involuntarily enrolled in the Hitler Youth during the war and briefly served in an anti-aircraft unit, will meet survivors and Jewish leaders at Auschwitz.
About 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were killed at Auschwitz, a pillar of the Nazi's "Final Solution" designed to eliminate European Jewry.
"Together we pray the wounds of the past century will heal, thanks to the remedy that God in his goodness has prescribed for us by calling us to forgive one another," he said.
Before leaving Rome, Benedict said he was making the trip as a Catholic more than a national of any country. "We always have to learn we are above all Catholic and our nationalities have a relative place in the global community of Catholicism."
Poles waiting at Warsaw airport to greet him said his role as Pope outweighed any distrust they felt towards Germans.
"He is a Pope, our Pope now, no matter whether he is Polish or German," said Alina Baczkowicz, 73, a Warsaw pensioner.
John Paul died on April 2, 2005, after 26 years as pope.
Benedict's outdoor masses in Warsaw and Krakow and visits to popular shrines are certain to be compared with similar appearances by John Paul, whose visits challenged the pre-1989 communist governments and inspired millions of his compatriots.
As an indicator of how strongly Poles feel about John Paul, a survey in the daily Gazeta Wyborcza said 85 percent of those polled wanted Benedict to speak Polish during his trip and 83 percent wanted him to refer to John Paul often.
Benedict will read a few prepared comments in Polish but will mostly speak Italian, the Vatican's language. His only words in German will be a prayer at the Auschwitz death camp.