St. Blog's Parish Roundup on the Papal Visit

• This is a nice birthday present: learning that Pope Benedict XVI is a devout believer in Jesus Christ. The news is provided by The Baltimore Sun, which seems somewhat put out by the revelation ..." - Carl Olson Insight Scoop.

• Pope2008.com reports that a group of Hispanic Catholics were subjected to insults by anti-Catholic fundamentalists (click for video). How did they respond? -- "the Catholics sang "Allelulia," "Be-ne-de-to," and other songs."

• With the Holy Father in Washington D.C. - a nice photo post from Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, MA. (Yes, he's a blogger too).

• New York loves the Pope (Pope2008.com):

  The Neocatechumenal Way crowd across from the United Nations ... were a lively bunch. As some stood at the front of the police pen that had been set up in an area known for U.N. protest rallies (I remember covering one concerning Sudan once), others behind them danced in a big circular motion as guitars and drum kept a lively tempo. The music, the warm spring sun, the buzz of the city streets, the anticipation of the arrival of the Pope seemed to have a kind of hypnotic effect. Banners in front proclaimed people's warm sentiments for the guest who was about to arrive.

  Samuel Gonzalez, who I was interviewing, told me that the empty pen next to them had been set up for those who wished to express opposite sentiments. The pen was empty. "There was a guy there a little while ago, but he just left," Gonzalez said. A policeman confirmed that the empty pen was there for protestors.

• Recalling Benedict's homily at the UN Assembly, and later during the ecumenical service, Amy Welborn is "was very much struck by the Pope’s twice-repeated articulation of his presence among us as “the successor of Peter:

  What is he communicating? It’s pretty clear, and it’s actually, I think, pretty strong.

  We know all about the Catholic identity crisis. We live it, day to day. Every Catholic has a different definition of what they mean when they identify themselves that way. What defines our Catholicism? Our ethnicity? Simply the fact that we were baptized and confirmed? That we belong to a parish?

  Benedict reminds us that our faith as Catholics is faith in Christ but its visible unity is rooted in Peter, the office of Peter’s successor and the faith preserved and taught through that office. In other words, it’s not anything you want, folks. We don’t self-define.

• Papal onlookers beg Pope to ‘offer up’ poor musical selections from Papal visit for them Catholic News.org:

  WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Patti Renfroe said she knows that when the Holy Father hears “One Bread, One Body” played this week during his historical trip to the United States, it has to hurt his aesthetical nature, but she is hoping that the pain it causes him may mean she will spend less time in Purgatory.

  “As he rode by, I yelled out, ‘Pope Benedict, please offer up ‘One Bread, One Body’ for me and my kids, for our salvation!” He kind of gave me a knowing, but pained smiled and nodded. “What that man has to suffer for us,” said Renfroe, a music teacher at Our Lady Queen of Heaven School in Arlington, Virginia. “People just don’t appreciate it.”