Pope's Visit Draws Near, Details Announced

Final preparations are being made for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the nation's capital, Washington, D.C, and New York City. The Pope is scheduled to spend three days in Washington this week, followed by three more days in New York. According to a web site set up for the papal visit, the Pope will arrive Tuesday, April 15 at Andrews Air Force Base where he will be met by President George W. Bush. The Pope will be accompanied by several Catholic dignitaries, including Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, April 16, the Pope will meet with President Bush at the White House before traveling by "popemobile" along a route through the District of Columbia on his way to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where he will address bishops from around the United States. On Thursday, April 17, the Pope will lead a Catholic Mass at Nationals Park before traveling to Catholic University for an evening address. On Friday, the Pope will fly to New York City where he will address the United Nations, participate in an ecumenical prayer service, hold mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral and Yankees Stadium, and visit ground zero, the site where terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Details of the Pope's motorcade routes can be found at the USCCB web site.

The Council on Foreign Relations, an independent and nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., says in a backgrounder by assistant editor Lee Hudson Teslik, says that relations between the Vatican under Pope Benedict XVI and the United States have not always been trouble free. This first visit by the current Pope, Teslik says, brings to the forefront important issues between the U.S. government and the Catholic Church. Significant differences exist between the Bush administration and the Vatican when it comes to fighting the global war on terrorism, Teslik says, but those differences are generally concerned with methods and not goals. Pope Benedict, who was known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time, was opposed to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Pope Benedict was born in Germany in 1927 and was ordained into the priesthood in 1951. According to a biography of the Pope, he earned a doctoral degree in theology in 1953 and wrote his thesis under the title "People and House of God in St. Augustine's Doctrine of the Church." Pope Benedict has previously served as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and of the International Theological Commission.

Sources: USCCB, CFR, Vatican