Why Benedict won't visit Boston in April | Philip F. Lawler

A Shrewd Move: Why Pope Benedict XVI won't be visiting Boston in April | Philip F. Lawler | Catholic World Report

Last April the director of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, confirmed reports that Pope Benedict XVI would travel to the US in 2008. Immediately the rumor mills began to churn.   The Holy Father had accepted an invitation to address the UN at its headquarters in New York, the papal spokesman disclosed. Other stops, particularly along the east coast, could easily be added to the trip. So when would the Holy Father make the trip and which American cities would he choose to visit?  

By September enterprising reporters, calling on their best sources in Rome, had accurately established the timing for the Pope's trip: mid-April 2008. Speculation about the cities on the papal itinerary was a bit more varied.

In my native Boston, reporters were convinced that the Pope would make a stop there. They had several good reasons for reaching that conclusion. Boston is just a short hop from New York, they reasoned: an easy addition to the papal travel schedule. During his first visit to the US in 1979, Pope John Paul II had made back-to-back stops in Boston and New York, and it seemed reasonable to expect that Pope Benedict would follow the same pattern, reviving the happy memories of that first papal visit.

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Comments

[MMajor Fan]

Well said and reasoned. Pope Benedict is wisely engaging in restoration through setting the moral and pastoral example and not by scheduling appearances.

[Ed Peters]

Ditto.