Opinion: Faith
With the Pope at Nationals Park
1:30 p.m. I’m just back to St. Stephen Martyr from the Pope’s mass at Nationals Park. Without a ticket to get inside the stadium, I watched the mass on a giant TV screen set-up just outside the security gates. (My homemade sign reading “Prayers for a Ticket” didn’t land me any supernatural luck – just what I get for trying to use… READ MORE >
Opinion: Faith
The Pope’s Birthday Party
11:50. am In roughly fifteen minutes the popemobile will pass by. I walked down Pennsylvania Ave. towards the White House this morning and the mood is electric. Thousands of people line the sidewalk behind the barricades, holding aloft the Vatican flag and chanting “Viva il Papa!” Praise music is the soundtrack (and lots of ‘Happy Birthdays’):… READ MORE >
Opinion: Faith
America: Encounter the Pope
The Pope is coming to America. I’ll be with the crowds in D.C. and New York this week, live-blogging my experience of the pope’s visit, and the experiences of the pilgrims and bystanders around me. Secular media coverage has positioned America front-and-center of the trip. I’d like to do the reverse. In my mind, the pope… READ MORE >
Opinion: Faith
After the Pope: Time to Hit the Books?
It’s going to take a while for all (or any) of us to absorb the significance of Benedict XIV’s first apostolic visit to the United States. Unlike his predecessor, the larger-than-life John Paul the Great, who from the first displayed an actor’s genius for what one observer described as “the symbolic gesture”,… READ MORE >
