DC Filams set to welcome Pope
February 20, 2008
The Popes first stop in his April 15-20 six-day visit is Washington D.C. after which he goes to New York. He is tentatively scheduled to meet with President Bush April 16, which is also his 81st birth anniversary. The public mass will be held at the stadium on April 17.
The church hopes the visit to the nations capital will deepen the faith of Catholics not only in the Archdiocese of Washington but in the United States which has been buffeted by scandals the past few years.
The Filipino American ministries in Virginia and Maryland are reportedly marshalling their members to the Pope a rousing welcome during his three-day stay in the nations capital.
“There is so much renewal going on, among our young people, in the whole church,” he said. His visit will be a reaffirmation of that. But also Id like to think its going to be a way of just re-energizing us,” a church official said.
Archbishop Ietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, said it is an apostolic visit to the United States of America and to the seat of the United Nations.
The mass at the baseball stadium will be the only main public event for the Pope.
Archbishop Wuerl told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Washington Archdiocese, that the visit will be an opportunity for all of us in the church in Washington to show the Holy Father our affection, to show him our profound loyalty, but also to demonstrate to him how alive the church in Washington is, how profoundly faith-filled the church is.
He said he and other church officials have been laying the groundwork for the visit since August, but he did not know for sure if it would happen until the nuncio officially announced the planned papal itinerary.
After the meeting with Bush, the Pope is expected to address the US bishops, probably at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Archbishop Wuerl said.
After the stadium Mass April 17, the pope is to meet with heads of Catholic colleges and universities and diocesan education leaders at The Catholic University of America, followed by a meeting with leaders of non-Christian faiths at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center.
Archbishop Wuerl had said that in visiting the nations capital the Holy Father is attempting to speak to the church throughout the United States.
He said that when it was first announced last summer that the pope was considering a U.N. visit next spring it seemed appropriate to invite him to Washington.”
The fact that the pope would make Washington his first stop says to me that he sees this as a center representing the entire church in the United States,” he said.
Besides being the home of Catholic University and the national shrine, Washington is the location of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters.
He added that the popes plan to address representatives of Catholic higher education highlights the importance of faith formation and Catholic education in the life of the church.
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