(17 Apr 2010) SHOTLIST
En route from Rome to Malta
1. Wide of Pope Benedict XVI on board chartered Alitalia plane, Vatican spokesman Reverend Federico Lombardi speaking into microphone
2. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Pope Benedict XVI:
"Let''s hope for a good trip without this dark cloud that is covering part of Europe."
3. Pan of media
4. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Pope Benedict XVI:
"I know Malta loves Christ and his church that is his body and knows that even if this body is wounded by our sins, God still loves this church and his gospel is the true force that purifies and heals."
5. Pope returning to his plane seat
Valletta, Malta
6. Various of pope being greeted by officials at Malta International Airport
7. Wide of onlookers
8. Pope and Maltese President George Abela shaking hands, AUDIO: applause
9. Security looking on from top of building
Valletta, Malta
10. Wide of crowds cheering as pope mobile arrives in Saint George square, enters presidential palace
11. Mid of crowd
12. Wide of crowds cheering, zoom in to Pope on balcony, UPSOUND children singing ''Happy Birthday''
13. Various of crowd cheering
14. Pope leaving balcony
15. Pope greeting sick people in crowd, pull out to wide
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Vox pop, Elizabeth Saliba, Malta resident:
"It''s a good thing yes, it''s a good thing if he speaks to them."
17. Wide of crowd
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Raggio, Malta resident, Vox pop:
"He is addressing the problem as best as he can and there are a lot of people who are trying to take advantage."
Rabat, Malta
++NIGHT SHOTS++
19. Close up of crowd waving flags
20. Various of pope arriving at Saint Paul church in pope mobile
21. Pope waving, taking seat
22. Tilt down interior of Saint Paul church
23. Pope walking in church
24. Close up of pope listening
25. Wide interior of church
STORYLINE
Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday began a pilgrimage to Malta, with tens of thousands of residents on the heavily Catholic Mediterranean island turning out to greet him.
The overnight trip is the pope''s first foreign travels since the full force of the worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal that has rocked the church and threatened to engulf his papacy.
The visit was long planned as a pilgrimage among the faithful to commemorate the 1,950th anniversary of St. Paul''s shipwreck.
Tradition holds that St. Paul stayed three months on Malta after being shipwrecked on the way to Rome.
Benedict made no direct comments on the scandals during a five-minute appearance to reporters aboard the flight that took him from Rome, nor in his formal arrival remarks before Maltese officials and foreign diplomats at the airport.
Maltese President George Abela said it would be wrong to try and use the "reprehensible indiscretions of the few" to cast a shadow on the church as a whole.
Some pilgrims waiting to see the pope in Valletta apparently agreed.
"He is addressing the problem as best as he can," said Joe Raggio. "A lot of people are trying to take advantage."
Benedict, for his earlier roles as an archbishop in Germany and later in his long tenure at the helm of the Vatican morals office, has been accused by victim groups of being part of systematic practice of cover-up by church hierarchy for paedophile priests.
The groups are demanding he take responsibility for the Vatican as an institution.
On the island, ten men who testified that they were allegedly sexually molested by priests at an orphanage here during the 1980s and 1990s have asked to meet with Benedict so what they call a "hurtful chapter" in their lives can be closed.
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