Notes from the Red Line:

Posted: 04.18.08

The photographers from the “Parade 2” position just across the street from the headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops asked the Secret Service agent for permission to move to the center of the street after Benedict XVI passed in the popemobile. The picture straight down the street would have been perfect, with the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception directly in the background. From our position on the side of the street, trees obscured our view of the exterior dome.

The Secret Service agent onsite not only explained that we could not leave the riser while the pope was in motion, but also explained why, which was very helpful (and not all that common in a week during which sometimes directions didn’t make much sense or even the people in charge didn’t know which bus was heading where).

After the motorcade, the problem got worse. We were allowed to leave the riser once the pope was inside the Basilica. The challenge was that we wanted to head toward the basilica, the Catholic University campus and the closest Metro station (all in the same direction). We could get some pictures and quotes along the way and catch a train. But, no! Since the pope was in place, people along the motorcade route were allowed to exit, but no one else was allowed into the area, even with proper credentials.

So we had to trek a mile up Fourth Street NE to Rhode Island Avenue to catch the Red Line Metro there. As I boarded the train, I immediately saw several people engrossed in looking at the small displays on their digital cameras.

“I know where you all were,” I said. “You just saw the pope.”

Their beaming faces assured me I was right.

Anna Marie Conroy of Manassas, Va., said it was very exciting, and she only got a glimpse of him. She was right in front of the doors where the pope went into the basilica.

It was her second time to see a pope; she saw Pope John Paul II twice during his visit to Philadelphia in 1979.

Nancy Rodriguez of Washington, D.C., got two chances to see Pope Benedict April 16, in both public motorcades. She’s a grad student working at George Washington University, near Pennsylvania Avenue where the morning’s motorcade passed. Her boss had a lunch appointment and knew Rodriguez wanted to see the pope, so she allowed her to go.

“I didn’t think I was going to come this afternoon, but after seeing him this morning, I had an overwhelming sense of optimism and peace. The Holy Father blessed us just by being there.”

She said that although she’s only 26 years old, she may not get another chance to see any pope again, so she took the opportunity to see the second motorcade as well.

Robin Tutt, also of Manassas, where she is a member of All Saints Church, was thrilled to get a great photograph of the pope spreading his arms out to greet the crowd. As a convert from the Methodist church, Tutt said she wants to tell anyone who has been raised Catholic, but doesn’t appreciate the church, they should study more and they should go back to the sacraments.

“The Mass is the key. In the Catholic Church, everything means something,” she said, noting for example that when you enter the church for Mass and make the sign of the cross, you recall your baptism.

The Virginians got off the Metro, still babbling with enthusiasm for their brief encounter with the pope.

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Ambassador impressed

Posted: 04.18.08

Francis Rooney, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, said the papal Mass April 17 at Nationals Park was appropriate because it was reflective of what the United States is about and reflective of the church in the U.S. The display of diversity and inclusion in the Mass — a number of languages in the prayers of the faithful and presentations of the gifts, for example — are hallmarks of both the church and our country, Rooney said.

“The Holy Father reflected thoughts similar to what he said to the president” the day before at the White House, the former ambassador, a Naples, Fla., resident, told the Florida Catholic.

“Hopefully everyone in the church will be as uplifted as we (who attended the Mass) were.”

Rooney also had the opportunity to be at the White House April 16 when Pope Benedict XVI met with President George W. Bush, a meeting he called “spectacular — that’s the only word to describe it” with the pope quoting George Washington and the president quoting the pope himself. He called it powerful imagery of the alignment of the values of the United States and the Holy See for its leaders to be quoting ideals important to each other’s traditions.

“I hope it’s clear to most Americans how warm and engaging the Holy Father is,” said Rooney, who served as ambassador from November 2005 to January 2008. “I hope it’s clear how personally warm and strong the relationship is between the Holy Father and the president.” He said that relationship was fostered during Bush’s visit to the Vatican last year.

In a phone interview just after the Mass April 17, Rooney said, “So far the trip has been a real victory for the church in American, for the Holy Father and for the values our country stands for. Now it’s on to New York!”

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25 yards from the pope

Posted: 04.17.08

For Father Anthony Palmese of St. Jude Parish in Ocala, getting around a papal visit Mass site with 46,000 other people might not have been an easy task, since the Florida priest is using a wheelchair these days. But with the help of the Archdiocese of Washington’s Ministry With Persons With Disabilities office and seminarian Richard Nichols, who escorted Father Palmese wherever he needed to go, the task was much easier.

“I’m so excited,” Father Palmese said about an hour after the April 17 Mass at Nationals Stadium in Washington. He and his seminarian escort were on the outfield (covered in plastic) with the concelebrants for the Mass. They ended up about 25 yards from Pope Benedict XVI as he came out from behind the altar in center field for a trip around the warning track and made a circuit of the field in the white Mercedes Benz popemobile.

“We had a beautiful view of the altar and the chair. … It was just fabulous, extremely moving.”

He said the response from the people to the pope was incredible and his message was “extremely pertinent.” He thinks Catholics will respond to the pope’s message because it “was simple and direct.”

Reflecting on the pope’s references in the homily to the theme of the visit, “Christ our Hope,” Father Palmese said people will listen and respond to the pope. “People in the United States have always been people of great hope.”

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Mass for 46,0000

Posted: 04.17.08

Major League Baseball stadiums are often referred to as “cathedrals of baseball,” but today the new Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., became a Catholic cathedral, transformed for a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI for 46,000 of the faithful, including many Floridians fortunate enough to obtain tickets distributed through their dioceses.

Those attending the Mass were encouraged to arrive early. Once inside the stadium they were provided a live show called “Morning Glory” featuring music, interviews and video greetings from dioceses around the country. Also available were confessions and concessions. Priests were on hand to offer the sacrament of reconciliation, and the stadium’s food vendors offered hot dogs (at 6 a.m.?!), Danish, muffins, juice and soft drinks‚ but no beer. Lines were long for the hot food, but smart folks hit the shorter lines for quick pastries and drinks. One vendor, Curtis Benson, arrived for his shift at the park at 2:45 that morning and expected to be on duty until about 3 p.m. The food stands reopened when the Mass ended at noon, hoping that some attendees would linger, so the crowd would not all exit at the same time.

One Florida family arrived early and took advantage of confessions first, and then the concessions. Teri Mueller of St. Michael Catholic Community at Eglin Air Force Base in the Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese told the Florida Catholic the pope’s call to sacramental confession in his homily was very moving. That is one of the reasons she was glad her whole family was able to receive the sacrament before Mass. “I’m glad the church provided that,” she said.

Mueller, along with her husband, Bill, a lieutenant colonel, and her sons Paul and Mark who are home-schooled, arrived around 6:30 and were able to roam the stadium concourse by around 7 a.m. having already been absolved in reconciliation.

“The crowd at the Mass was very reverent throughout the whole Mass, even though it was a stadium of 46,000 people,” Mueller said. She cited the pope’s call to renewal and forgiveness as highlights of the homily.

“The day was marvelous,” she said of the part pilgrimage/part home- school field trip for her boys.

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Waiting for the motorcade

Posted: 04.17.08

Pope Benedict XVI had two motorcades in Washington, D.C., April 16. The first lengthy drive in the popemobile tracked from the White House to the Vatican’s nunciature (equivalent of an embassy). The second, much shorter public trip, was to take the pope from the headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

A beautiful spring day greeted the folks who waited for the pope. Cloudless blue skies and temps in the high 60s made it fairly comfortable to wait for the pontiff’s arrival. And wait. And wait.

Organizers encouraged everyone to arrive via public transportation, as streets would experience closures and parking would be limited. Everyone was encouraged to be in place early. Those of us scheduled to photograph the beginning of the shrine motorcade (designated “Parade 2”) outside the USCCB HQ had to be in place on the risers by 3 p.m., even though the pope wasn’t expected to arrive until 5, for the motorcade to start at 5:15. Guests for a  special reserved area on the steps of the basilica had to be in place by 4:30, an hour before the pope was set to appear there.

But some people came even earlier than that. Maria Calba and her family arrived at 6:30 a.m., after leaving New Jersey by bus around midnight. Around 2 p.m., Calba was making sandwiches, complete with ham and mayo and a loaf of Wonder Bread from a backpack. “This is worth it to see the pope, to bring our children. It’s to see Christ on earth. He’s the Good Shepherd.”

Michele Bernich was ready early for the pope to arrive as well. A member of Neo-Catechumenal Way, as is Calba, Bernich and a busload of 50 folks from Eatontown, N.J., had already seen Benedict along the popemobile route earlier in the day. Since they were from Jersey, why didn’t they just go see the pope in New York, since that’s closer? Oh, they’re doing that, too, on Saturday. And they’re going to see him in July at World Youth Day in Australia. Why follow the pope around? “He’s the head of the church. He’s our hope. We just go to support him and see him wherever we can.”

This was not Bernich’s first time to see this pope, as evidenced by the shirt she wore in D.C. On the back, it said “Benedikt” with a large number 16. She had gotten the shirt in a trade with a Neo-Catechumenal Way member from Croatia at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany in 2005. Bernich, herself half-Croatian, had sought out Croatians in Cologne, and traded her WYD shirt for the one she ultimately wore to honor Benedict in the USA.

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A nice touch

Posted: 04.15.08

It was a nice touch from the pilots of the Alitalia flight carrying Pope Benedict XVI to the United States. Upon landing, as they taxied Shepherd I to the arrival area at Andrews AFB, they put a U.S. flag and papal flag out the cockpit windows.

Among the few people gathered inside the door of the plane once the doors were opened and the steps were brought up was Helen Osman, secretary for communications for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Osman, former editor of the Catholic Spirit in Austin, Texas, took over the post as chief communicator for the bishops conference in 2007, just a few months before Pope Benedict’s visit was announced. As one who helped plan the communications and credentialing for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Phoenix in 1987, I have some idea the headaches Osman and her team went through, and she had only about six months to prepare, while we had 18 months to plan for the 1987 visit.

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Leave the driving to them

Posted: 04.15.08

Metro, the public transit system covering the D.C. area, wants to encourage people to use buses and Metro trains as much as possible while the pope is in town, especially Thursday, April 17, when nearly 50,000 will attend Mass at the new Washington Nationals stadium. To spur ridership, Metro issued a special all-day papal visit pass. They were available online in advance and at a few select locations. On the day of the pope’s arrival, they were selling like hotcakes. One location had no more, but expected a new shipment later in the day. Another location which was rumored to have them had sold out of the 50 it received; apparently one man bought 25 for a group with whom he was traveling.

The peculiar thing was, one Metro saleswoman said, the week before the visit, the papal passes were just sitting around the sales offices and no one was buying them. It took the urgency of the visit and the realization that traffic would be horrendous to get folks to buy the passes.

“Regular Metro fare cards will work that day as well; it’s just that the $9 papal day-passes make a nice souvenir and go into effect a little earlier than the normal single day passes (they’re also a little more expensive). The Mass begins at 10:00 a.m. and most attendees will be in place hours before that.

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Today?

Posted: 04.15.08

News coverage in Washington isn’t quite “all pope, all the time” but it’s darn close. And to hear some people tell it, you wouldn’t know there’s anything else to the trip. In fact, one communications professional I ran into Tuesday morning (April 15) was not aware until today that the pope was also visiting New York on this trip to the United States.

It wasn’t until she saw the “Today Show” that morning and saw preparations in New York that she realized the pope was going anywhere else. (If it’s on the “Today Show,” then it’s real, I guess.)

She was surprised when I mentioned that the visit to New York was actually the primary reason for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States, since he was invited to speak to the United Nations. Washington was a logical add-on, as long as he was on this side of the Atlantic.

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