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.”

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)

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.

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.

But it would take a real film buff to remember the other “holy” roles Heston played, including St. Thomas More in a 1988 TV remake of “A Man for All Seasons,” St. John the Baptist in 1965’s “The Greatest Story Ever told,” Sistine Ceiling painter Michelangelo in “The Agony and the Ecstasy” (also made in 1965), Cardinal Richelieu in the 1973 film version of “The Three Musketeers,” and Judah Ben-Hur in 1959’s “Ben-Hur,” for which he won the Oscar for best actor.

But he topped all of those characters by playing God in an uncredited appearance in the 1990 movie “Almost an Angel.”

In an interview with Catholic News Service to promote the movie, Heston said he told Paramount Pictures, which produced the film, that he didn’t want any billing: “It really is ridiculous to say ‘God — Charlton Heston.’”

In negotiating with studio execs, Heston added, he told them, “God doesn’t need billing.” Heston said the studio replied, “God doesn’t need to be paid either.” Ultimately, Heston and Paramount worked out a deal in which the studio didn’t have to pay the actor an almighty sum.

The blue balloons on this Google map show you just some of the places they all traveled from.

I talked to several people in the square about why they came and what they thought of the late pope. You can read more of what they told me by clicking on some of the balloons below. Or, click here to bring the world map up on a separate page to view what these pilgrims of the world said.

View Larger Map

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.

1. St. Patrick’s Day falling during Holy Week prompts parade dilemma.

2. Maryland couple hopes son’s medical case will help Toussaint’s cause.

3. Vatican spokesman calls rumors of rehabilitation of Luther groundless.

4. Vatican statement on baptisms not meant to cause panic, priest says.

5. Cardinal: Liberalized use of Tridentine Mass already is bearing fruit.

6. Security requirement to keep Sikhs from interreligious papal event.

7. Nuncio says pope comes to strengthen faith, hope, love of U.S. church.

8. Closing the doors of limbo: Theologians say it was hypothesis (Dec. 2, 2005).

9. Social effects of sin greater than ever, says Vatican official.

10. Upcoming book links parishioners’ politics with their priests’ views.

But a group of hardy young Nazarenes — and one Israeli Jew — believe in the potential of the city and refuse to abandon it. The group of young business-minded Nazarenes are taking over their family’s shops or renting abandoned properties and revamping them, offering new restaurants and cafes for tourists, simply because they love their city and want to make it better.

They want tourists to stay longer than the traditional one-hour dash through the city to see the Basilica of the Annunciation and across the city to the church where the Greek Orthodox say the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary.

Three years ago, Maoz Inon, a 32-year-old Israeli Jew, rented and renovated an abandoned house, retained the name of the original owner and opened the Fauzi Azar Inn in the heart of the Old City for pilgrims and travelers who like to take the unbeaten path. Together with his friend David Landis, Inon has also mapped out a pilgrimage trail along the footsteps of Jesus in the Galilee — starting, of course, from Nazareth.

Nearby, Wissam Abu Saleem, 31, offers thick Arabic coffee in a shop his family has run for three generations. Just on the outskirts of the Old City, Amin Zayyad will soon open a restaurant he says will offer “Middle Eastern fusion” cuisine.

If traditional fare is what a visitor craves, there is a choice of traditional restaurants, including the landmark Diana, where the salads are endless and the meats legendary.

But lunch can also be a simple warm pita-pizza with melted cheese and a slightly sweet tomato sauce at a little hole-in-the-wall place near White Mosque Square in the middle of the open-air vegetable market.

Nazareth is not only about food and in addition to the charming outdoor market, Nazareth Village, located near the French Hospital, will transplant a visitor to Nazareth as it was in biblical times.

“Ahaallaan Waasaalan” (Welcome),  says Abu Saleem. Old, new, traditional, fusion, Jew, Muslim, Christian, pilgrim, tourist, trekker – everything and everyone is welcome in Nazareth.