The Pope In NYC
It has been 13 years since the pope last descended from his plane, Shepherd One, on U.S. soil; robes billowing, arm raised in a half wave to the devout who came to welcome him.
But the pope is back, a different pope, but a pope. He is here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Archdioceses of Washington, D.C. and New York in a historic moment for the nation’s 61 million Catholics. The pope is spending a long weekend in New York, from April 18th - 20th.
Since the pope last visited the United States, the number of Catholic worshipers and parishes has dwindled and hundreds of Catholic churches and schools closed. In addition, the church has been plagued by scandal, fiscal crisis and political and religious views that, to some, seem dangerously out of step with the times. The pope has also been considered very conservative and behind on the issues that affect believers today. This is Pope Benedict XVI first visit to New York City.
Born Joseph Alois Ratzinger. on April 16, 1927 in the Bavaria region of Germany. His birth coincided with Easter Saturday and he was christened right away. The pope always believed his birth was a sign of his religious calling.
The pope was educated at the University of Munich and completed his doctoral studies at the university’s higher school in Freising. He became an ordained priest in 1953 and appointed cardinal in 1971 by Pope Paul II. His academic career spans fifty years during which he was a professor of theology at the University of Regensburg, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Dean of the College of Cardinals. Pope John Paul II called him to the Vatican in 1981 and the two had weekly 90-minute meetings and lunch until he was elected pope on April 19, 2005.
Pope Benedict XVI’s short time as head of the Catholic Church has not been without its share of conflict. Early in his papal term, there was controversy over his service in the German army during World War II, although he had deserted and became a U.S. prisoner of war. Though he had forged good relations with the Jewish community, supporting Israel and recognizing the role of the church during the Holocaust, he found himself, in 2006, embroiled in a debate over his reading of and comments on a 13th century text regarding Mohamed as a violent prophet. He is also the head of a church plagued by a priest sex abuse scandal.
A quiet, older man, the pope has not traveled as extensively as the wildly popular Pope John Paul II, who preceded him. Still, New York City’s Catholics are anxious for the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI, on his first and probably last, visit to the U.S.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Archdiocese of New York- one of the two oldest in the country, second only to the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., which includes Baltimore, where the Catholic Church of America was founded two centuries ago. There are approximately 4.1 million Catholics combined in the Archdiocese of New York (The Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and the lower counties of New York State) and the Brooklyn Diocese (Brooklyn and Queens), who have been preparing over the past year for the pope’s visit and the church’s bicentennial.
Nuns have spent months restoring a 90-year-old cope, a liturgical vestment, for him to wear; schoolchildren have raised over $100,000 dollars and 1 million hours of community service for the church and the church has raised a birthday gift of $980,000 dollars for the pope to use toward charitable causes.
Many are expected to attend his events across the city, which has the nation’s largest number of Catholics. An estimated 150,000 people will be in attendance at events commemorating the pope’s visit at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and at Yankee Stadium, not to mention the thousands expected to line his route, clambering for a closer look at His Holiness.
Pavement Pieces is on the scene for the pope’ s historic visit to New York with on-the-ground coverage of the nuns, the devout, the poor, the passerby and the protestors to find out more about their faith, the church and what they think about the man himself.