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	Pope's US Visit 'A Huge Success' The Mercury (South Africa) April 22, 2008 http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4367011 VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI more than met his goals for his just-ended trip to the United States of encountering Americans and encouraging the US Catholic Church in the wake of its paedophile sex scandals, the Vatican said yesterday. The success of the 81-year-old pope, who returned home from the six-day journey yesterday, was "almost unexpected in its manner and degree", Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said on Radio Vatican. The first goal was "the encounter between the pope and the American people as an encounter of friendship, respect, recognition of the positive characteristics of this people and its vocation of service to the entire world," he said. The pope also achieved his goal of "encouraging the American Catholic Church, which has experienced difficult periods, especially after the well-known scandals of recent years", Lombardi said. The pope went "beyond the painfulness of recent years, turning the sad and painful experience of sin into a point of departure for a renewed responsibility and for a great hope of being able to give again," he said. The pontiff took the unprecedented step of meeting victims of predator priests. Lombardi also praised the pope's appearance before the UN General Assembly on Friday, saying he sent "a message to all of humanity, a very important message" on the "foundations of human rights".
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