Gary Stern: "Pope appeared to cover all his bases during U.S. visit"

Pope appeared to cover all his bases during U.S. visit, says Gary Stern, wrapping up the papal visit in an article for the Westchester Journal News April 22, 2008:

Reviewing Pope Benedict XVI's American journey with hindsight, the papal agenda could have looked like this:

A. Introduce Benedict to America as warm, friendly and gracious - without going overboard or trying to make him into something he's not.

B. Celebrate the success of Catholicism in America and of America itself, but warn of the dangers to faith that are presented by relativism, secularism and materialism.

C. Face the fallout from the clerical sex-abuse crisis directly and on his own terms.

Through three days in Washington and three in New York, Benedict repeatedly hammered home points B and C and, through it all, appeared to accomplish point A with little trouble. ...