Hitching a REALLY first-class ride
When you’re preparing for a visit by the pope, sometimes even mundane tasks like checking the logistics at an airport take on larger-than-life aspects.
For Msgr. David Malloy, general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, that meant hitching a ride on Air Force One from Washington to New York to check on details for the pope’s departure from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff, described Msgr. Malloy’s unconventional shuttle trip at an April 9 background briefing on the papal visit for members of religious media.
Hagin said he and Msgr. Malloy were in one of a series of meetings about Pope Benedict XVI’s April 15-20 U.S. visit when they concluded neither one of them was clear on some details about the JFK airport departure. The only solution, he said, was for them to make a trip to New York to see the site for themselves.
“I usually travel with the president,” Hagin explained, and he realized that the very next day he was scheduled to accompany President George W. Bush on a trip to New York, using JFK airport. He suggested Msgr. Malloy tag along for the ride.
So March 14, Msgr. Malloy made a same-day round trip to New York aboard the president’s Boeing 747.
Before the president arrived for departure from Andrews Air Force Base, Msgr. Malloy got to tour the plane, then he went to sit in the back where staff members and the press pool are usually seated.
Msgr. Malloy told CNS in an e-mail that the White House staff was “most gracious.”
Hagin said that on the flight back to Washington, the president asked him who was in the back of the plane. When he mentioned Msgr. Malloy and explained their mission related to the pope’s visit, the president told Hagin, “Get him up here.”
Msgr. Malloy said he and Bush chatted for about five minutes, during which the president “expressed his esteem for Pope Benedict. He said that he had given the instruction to the White House staff that he wanted every effort made to make the Holy Father feel most welcome.”
Souvenirs at the ready for pope’s visit
When Pope Benedict XVI comes to town April 15, very few people will get the chance to be up close and personal with him.
But that has not stopped hundreds of snapshots from circulating around Washington that show people posing happily alongside the pope before he even sets foot in this country.
At closer look, the pope, in red and white vestments, appears, well, flat.
That’s because a life-size cutout of Pope Benedict is on display in Washington outside the gift shop at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Adjacent to the cash register, the cardboard pontiff lures those passing by, who happen to have a cell-phone camera, to snap away.
The shrine is not charging for photos, as some places do with life-size cutouts of famous people. It also is not selling that particular cut out, although plenty of folks have inquired about buying it. There are plenty of smaller, desk-size versions available.
And just because the life-size image isn’t for sale, it hardly means papal images are too sacred to market. The separate kiosk outside the shrine gift shop is currently selling all kinds of Pope Benedict merchandise including: coffee mugs, rosaries, magnets, bumper stickers, T-shirts, postcards and books.
Those who can’t make it to the shrine bookstore can purchase souvenirs of Pope Benedict’s U.S. visit online. And while browsing, Web users might want to visit another site that sells religious items for an unusual, although not official, papal souvenir.
Tucked in between a book on religious sisters in the United States and a book of contemplative prayer by Trappist Father Thomas Merton, is a two-ounce bottle of “The Pope’s Cologne.”
The site, which sells products from monasteries around the world, offers a lot of fruitcakes, cookies, jams and religious books, but only one papal scent which is advertised as the “private formula of Pope Pius IX.”
PHOTO: Father Ray Wadas poses with a life-size cutout image of Pope Benedict XVI outside the gift shop at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington April 6. The pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Takoma Park, Md., said he wanted to have his photo taken with the cutout because it was “as close as I’m going to get” to the pope. Pope Benedict arrives in Washington April 15 for his pastoral visit to the United States. (CNS/Nancy Wiechec)
Papal parties and more details about his visit to the U.S.
VATICAN CITY — Yes, at least one rendition of ”Happy Birthday” and a formal celebration of Pope Benedict XVI’s 81st birthday April 16 are part of the program for the pope’s trip to the United States. More solemnly, but still personally, the schedule also includes a public acknowledgement April 19 of the third anniversary of his election as pope.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s communications czar, spent 45 minutes today going over the papal schedule with Vatican journalists and photographers, including most of the 70 media-folk who will be on the papal plane.
The theme for the visit, the major speeches and the plans for the liturgies were all reviewed before Father Lombardi played the video message the pope prepared for the trip.
On matters of substance, for example, the Jesuit suggested reporters prepare for the trip by reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which turns 60 years old this year and likely will be the central focus of Pope Benedict’s talk to the U.N. General Assembly.
But he also guaranteed the papal anniversaries will be marked. Pope Benedict will be the guest of honor at a “birthday luncheon” April 16 at the apostolic nunciature in Washington. The invitees include the 17 U.S. cardinals (although age and fraility may keep one or two away), the officers of the U.S. bishops’ conference and the papal entourage.
Father Lombardi did not mention a cake. And, unfortunately no one thought to ask.
Before the birthday lunch, the pope is expected to be greeted with a 21-gun salute — but Father Lombardi said that is part of “the rather serious” White House protocol for welcoming a foreign head of state, not a birthday honor.
Pope Benedict will be in New York on the April 19 anniversary of his election and will begin the day celebrating Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral with a congregation of priests and religious. Father Lombardi said the Mass will feature prayers for the universal church specifically to coincide with the papal anniversary. In addition, he said, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, will offer greetings to the pope in the name of Catholics around the world.
That same evening, the papal spokesman said, Pope Benedict will be treated to another chorus of “Happy Birthday” when he meets young people at St. Joseph’s Seminary.
On the curiosity page: Father Lombardi said the trip — with two 10-hour flights across the ocean and a 6-hour time difference between Rome and the East Coast — has raised questions about the exact dates of the papal trip. For people in the United States it is April 15-20, but for the Vatican and its keepers of papal statistics, the trip is April 15-21 since the pope is not expected to land at Rome’s Ciampino airport until 10:45 a.m. on the 21st.
If you look at the Vatican information about the trip, you will see that all the references are to an April 15-21 visit.
Prayers for the papal trip from across the ocean
ROME — Pope Benedict XVI joined members of the Rome-based Sant’Egidio Community for an afternoon prayer service today. Although the visit marked the 40th anniversary of the community — committed to serving the poor, to dialogue and to peacemaking — it also focused on the example of Christians who gave their lives for the Gospel in the 20th century. The service was held in Rome’s Basilica of St. Bartholomew, where the Sant’Egidio Community has set up little chapels dedicated to the “new martyrs.”
In the prayers of the faithful, Marco Impagliazzo, president of the community, turned the focus away from the martyrs and away from Sant’Egidio.
”Lord,” he prayed, “accompany with your love the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, at the beginning of a new year of Petrine service (his anniversary of his election is April 19) and bless his apostolic trip to the United States and United Nations. Sustain him with your Holy Spirit while, with frankness and generosity, he proclaims the joy of faith to the world.”
People in the United States will get a bit of that proclamation even before Pope Benedict lands in Washington next Tuesday afternoon; the Vatican announced today that he had prepared a video message for the people of the country.
Unlike video messages released by the Vatican for Pope Benedict’s trips to Brazil and to Austria, this one is custom-made. The others were clips pulled from remarks the pope made at a general audience in the days before the trips.
However, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi — head of the Vatican press office, Vatican Radio and the Vatican television center — said it’s not a totally new invention. On several occasions Pope John Paul II recorded video messages for broadcast before his arrival in a country.
Navigating coverage of Benedict’s trip
Buckets of ink — both real ink and cyberink on blogsites — are being spilled these days on what the media coverage of Pope Benedict’s U.S. trip will be like. One of the better commentaries that I’ve seen on how to navigate that coverage appears in an unsigned editorial in the national Catholic newspaper Our Sunday Visitor, which says that “efforts to turn him into a kind of Catholic Jerry Falwell or Jesse Jackson are doomed to fail.” Read on for the full editorial.
Washington Metro subway system offers ‘Mass Pass’
A lot of special events in Washington these days are drawing big numbers and keeping Metro subway operators on their toes, what with a shiny new ballpark now open and the spring’s annual cherry blossom festivities in full bloom. Add to that Pope Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit to the nation’s capital April 15-17.
So Metro wants people to know it can move a crowd. Passengers dashing for a train or waiting on the platform for the next one likely will hear a periodic announcement with an invitation to take the subway to special events happening in Washington, including the pope’s April 17 Mass at Nationals Park. “We’re ready. Are you?” intones the voice on the public address system.
To make Massgoers lives easier, Metro is issuing a commemorative “Mass Pass,” good for unlimited travel April 17. ”It will be a great keepsake of this special day,” a Washington archdiocesan spokesperson told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Washington Archdiocese. It costs $9 and features the event logo. Metro has created a special Web site on the papal trip and has even produced a commemorative brochure. Metro plans to add extra trains and extra staff too.
More nightmares about covering papal events
Tim Drake, who runs the National Catholic Register’s Pope2008.com blog, has a few nightmares of his own to tell about covering papal events. It’s a follow-up to our post last week.
Pope to see ballgame in D.C.
I don’t usually blog on the weekend, but this is too good to pass up. Did you know that Pope Benedict is going to catch a ballgame at the new Nationals Park in D.C. when he’s here in just over two weeks?
Benedict is scheduled to visit the White House on April 16, a Washington Nationals game on April 17, then New York, where he will speak at the United Nations on April 18, visit Ground Zero and finally Yankee Stadium on April 20.
Which journalist wrote that blooper of a sentence? I’m not naming names, but the story appears to have originated on the Web site of Folio magazine. It then got picked up almost word for word on The Huffington Post. (I found it innocently enough when I clicked on a link on the Benedict in America site, though the latter didn’t repeat the ballgame error.)
I’m upset that Pope Benedict is going to get to see a game at the new stadium before I do — unless he’s got an extra ticket and can take me along.