BishopAccountability.org
	Pope to Visit U.S. for First Time Benedict Will Go to New York City and Washington in April By Ann Rodgers Pittsburgh Post-Gazette November 13, 2007 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07317/833373-85.stm WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate his 81st birthday and the third anniversary of his election on an April 15-20 visit to New York City and Washington, D.C. It will be his first to the United States. It includes a stop at Ground Zero in New York, where terrorists crashed hijacked jets into the World Trade Center on 9/11, killing more than 2,700. He will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In Washington he will visit President Bush in the White House, meet with Catholic educators, interfaith leaders and hold a large stadium event at the yet-to-be-completed Nationals Park. "His visit will be a sign of the ongoing renewal that is part of the faith and church life in the United States," said a beaming Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., who heard the official announcement on his 67th birthday. Although the visit had been rumored for months, the cities the pope would visit were unknown until yesterday's surprise announcement by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, papal nuncio to the U.S., at the meeting of the U.S. Catholic bishops in Baltimore. Pope Benedict will fly into Washington on April 15. On the 16th — his birthday — he will visit President Bush and meet with the U.S. bishops. On the 17th he will celebrate Mass at Nationals Park, then go to the Catholic University of America to address Catholic educators from across the nation, ranging from university presidents to directors of diocesan education departments. Afterward he will visit the adjoining Pope John Paul II Cultural Center to speak to leaders of non-Christian faiths. He goes to New York on April 18, speaking to the United Nations that morning and to leaders of other Christian bodies in the afternoon. On the 19th — the anniversary of his 2005 election — he will celebrate Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral, then speak at a youth event at the archdiocesan seminary. The final day of his visit will be April 20, when he is scheduled to visit Ground Zero "in solidarity with those who have died, with their families and with all those who wish an end of violence and the implementation of peace," Archbishop Sambi said. After an afternoon Mass at Yankee Stadium, he will return to Rome. Archbishop Sambi spoke of the visit as an invitation to fallen-away Catholics to return to the church — "a new Pentecost, a new spring" that would show the "youthfulness" of the church. He called on Catholics "to think less of the suffering of the past and more to the program of the future. According to my information, the Holy Spirit is ready. The answer depends on us," he said. The reference to "the suffering of the past" likely was the sexual abuse crisis of recent years, which had its epicenter in the Archdiocese of Boston. Earlier speculation about the pope's visit had suggested that he might go to Boston to promote healing, but it was not on his schedule. Bishop William Skylstad, president of the bishops' conference, said only that many archdioceses had vied for the pope to visit, but at 81 years of age he needed to limit his travel to two cities. Archbishop Wuerl, the former longtime bishop of Pittsburgh, attributed the choice of Washington to "the power of prayer" but added that selecting the nation's capital was the pope's way of addressing all Americans. The archbishop and his staff had worked hard preparing the invitation. Members of his staff had taken Archbishop Sambi, wearing a hard hat, to visit Nationals Park in mid-construction. It is scheduled for completion in early April, and archdiocesan spokeswoman Susan Gibbs expressed confidence that it would be ready. "They just laid the Kentucky bluegrass this week," she said. Archbishop Wuerl discouraged media efforts to link the election year visit to papal concerns about Catholic politicians who support abortion rights — or to the election in any way. He pointed out that every papal visit to the United States has included a meeting with the president. In meeting with the president, "I think that the Holy Father is probably going to focus on some wider issues ... issues of peace, issues of justice," he said. Bishop Skylstad, who had a recent meeting with Pope Benedict, said the pope knows it is an election year, and that they had discussed his concerns about Iraq. Last Easter the pope said that "nothing positive comes from Iraq," mourning the violence there but steering clear of policy directives. The more recent meeting "was a free-flowing conversation, without any directives being given to us" on any political or ecclesiastical subject, Bishop Skylstad said. Pittsburgh's Bishop David Zubik was elated about the visit. "This will be my first time [attending] as a bishop," he said. He believes it expresses "the pope's love for the United States." It's too early to speculate about diocesan pilgrimages to the events because it is unknown how many seats at the events may be reserved for specific groups, he said.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.