Posted on 01/28/2006 3:24:19 PM PST by NYer
In the words of the old soul singers, all I have to say is "People, get ready."
Several months ago, a source with excellent contacts told me that Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore was lobbying heavily for a papal visit to the Primatial See to mark its 200th anniversary and the rededication of the Basilica of the Assumption, the first American cathedral.
As this was given to me "absolutely off-the-record" and simply as something to look out for, I could say nothing about it.
But now Keeler is speaking, and I can break my own silence along with it.... In a statement to a Baltimore radio station today, he said:
"When I was in Rome two weeks ago, I inquired and I already had the suspicion that the pope's schedule was filling up so much that he would not be able to respond positively to my invitation to come this year. When I inquired, they said that this is exactly right -- he has a very full schedule of commitments hither and yon in Europe, responding to various invitations that were extended to him, but that he is planning to come to the United States next year, and that the visit to Baltimore was part of the program that he looked forward to participating in."People, get ready....
Palmo offers additional information on the main page of his blog but I am having difficulty downloading it on dial up. Perhaps one of you can post it.
When a cardinal-elector from a far country approached Pope Benedict XVI to give his post-electoral homage, he invited the new pontiff to come to his homeland. Benedict is said to have replied, "I will neither travel east nor west."
Apparently, that statement has been rethought.
Yesterday's announcement by Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore that Pope Benedict XVI "is planning to come to the United States next year" has kicked off a flurry of discussion in church circles about the timing and possible dynamics of this pontificate's prospective maiden voyage to a country which boasts one of the world's largest, most enthusiastic and well-financed Catholic populations, but also one which, especially in recent years, has found itself painfully divided and notably restive in the wake of traumatic and seemingly endless revelations of sex abuse by clergy and cover-up by church officials.
First, a clarifier: it seems the Baltimore press is trying to downplay Keeler's report, working from the line that the Pope will not be coming to rededicate the Basilica of the Assumption, the first American cathedral whose $32 million restoration will be completed in November of this year. However, the simple fact that Keeler -- known for his diplomacy and discretion -- has announced publicly that a trip is in the planning stages is enough to suggest that it's in the bag. (Those briefed over the past few months were sworn to secrecy so as not to disrupt the considerations.)
Due to all its political and economic exigencies and the the nation's visibility on the world stage, in multiple ways, a papal trip to the US "kills two birds with one stone." This is especially true due to the presence of the United Nations in New York, which John Paul II addressed on three occasions (1979, 1987, 1995) and whose General Assembly in 1965 precipitated the first papal visit to the American continent, when Pope Paul VI spent 15 hours in New York.
Initial soundings taken over the last 24 hours indicate that the timing for this visit, if it indeed goes forward, will most likely be in the fall -- October to be precise -- so that the Pope could address the General Assembly of the UN. As his two predecessors are the only heads of state to have ever used all of the Organization's seven official languages in their addresses to the plenary meeting of the world body, one would expect that Ratzinger the Linguist will let his colors show in delivering what would be one of the keystone geopolitical messages of his pontificate.
Being in New York will, of course, allow a visit with the Catholic community there. When the particular churches of New York, Newark, Brooklyn and Rockville Centre are taken into account, four of the ten largest American dioceses -- comprising approximately 15% of US Catholicism's 60 million faithful -- are in the city's metropolitan area, all within an hour's drive. Further sweetening the deal is that New York is one of the four American dioceses which will mark the 200th anniversary of its founding six months later, in April 2008, a historical note which is seeming to play an important part of the backdrop for the thinking behind this prospective visit.
It is important to remember, however, that the Pope who will be visiting next time is a very different man from the one who bounded off the papal plane and routinely conducted 19 hours of public events on the five US trips which he made in the time of his good health. Benedict XVI will be halfway through his 80th year in the fall of 2007, and the shape of the schedule will undoubtedly reflect both this Pope's strengths and his personal preferences, which are quite different than those of his predecessor. Many prospectives have come up in that realm, but fewer Mega-Masses and fewer wide-scale events on the whole appear to be the most certain of those.
For more on that, look at the template set in Cologne -- the Pope had lunch with the youth delegates, had several semi-private meetings with political leaders, ecumenical representatives and members of the hierarchy, but celebrated Mass privately every morning and the only full public events of the four day calendar were the Welcome in the Cathedral Square, the meetings with seminarians and the Jewish community at Cologne Synagogue, the Saturday Vigil and Sunday Mass at Marienfeld.
Alongside Baltimore, New York and the likely inclusion of Washington, a certain watershed stop is also being considered.
Yes ... and thank you!! I'm too conservative (read - cheap) to expend $30/mo for RoadRunner at home. Dial up works for most situations :-)
How exciting!
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Pope to visit US in 2007?
Baltimore, Jan. 27 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) plans to visit the United States in 2007, Baltimore's Cardinal William Keeler told a radio audience on January 27.
Cardinal Keeler, who recently returned from a visit to Rome, said that he had invited the Pope to visit for the rededication of the city's Assumption basilica in November of this year. He told a WBAL radio audience that Vatican officials had said the Pope would not be able to accept that invitation.
However, the Pope did point to a visit the following year, Cardinal Keeler said. "He is planning to come to the United States next year," he told the radio audience; the cardinal said that a visit to Baltimore would likely be part of the Pope's travel schedule.
Pope Benedict has made it clear that he will generally avoid lengthy foreign trips. On the other hand, he has told several prelates that he plans to attend a meeting of the Latin American bishops' conference (CELAM) in Aparecida, Brazil, in May 2007. Vatican officials have indicated that, if he makes a trip to the Western hemisphere, the Pope might choose to include other stops on his itinerary. Thus a May 2007 visit to the United States would be possible.
Any travel plans for 2007 would naturally be contingent on the Pope's continued health. Pope Benedict will celebrate his 80th birthday on April 16, 2007.
YES! I hope I can see him.
Way cool!
I'm Orthodox but I think I still might like to see the Pope when he comes to America.
Maybe a stop in Saint Louis? JPII came here twice..
One of the really NICE photographs in the post-Katrina South - which photos I found on the Yahoo/AP page and on none of the network webpages - was of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I - walking side by side with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans, Alfred Hughes (and I think another Orthodox bishop - maybe the Archbishop for North/South America? I'm sorry I don't know). And I thought: "Beyond all of our divisions and difficulties, isn't THAT a wonderful picture? Shepherds walking together, discussing how best to provide relief resources for their flocks."
And of course no pictures in any papers around here (or on network news that I could find!).
The second time by invitation. Has Burke invited him?
Any idea what the "watershed stop" would be?
Verizon had DSL for $14.97.
No. I can guess it will not be a major metropolitan area of concentrated Catholics but will be a location central to many Catholics allowing many to travel there... It may be that such a location was already visited by Pope John Paul II...
ping
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