How the media can help understand Pope Benedict XVI

From Good advice, courtesy of reporter Sheila Liaugminas:

Recently, I was on a teleconference with the bishops tasked with informing the media of the particulars of the pope’s visit to America in April, and Bishop Donald Wuerl started it off well with a commentary on “the thought of Benedict XVI”, to help journalists get to know him better. During the Q&A afterward, one reporter said Pope Benedict is arriving in an election year between a pro-life candidate and two “pro-choice” candidates, “and he’s arriving in the world capital of soundbites”. So, she asked the bishops, “what can be done that he won’t be taken out of context?”

“A soundbite answer,” said Wuerl, goodnaturedly, to much laughter.

It’s the media’s responsibility to practice sound and truthful journalism, to do their homework and when that requires some extra reading and study and background research, then do that and be prepared to not put Pope Benedict into soundbites. Like they did with his Regensburg address.

Amen to that.

Archbishop Donald Wuerl: Americans will meet "the living link to the Apostle Peter"

Archbishop Donald Wuerl: Americans will meet "the living link to the Apostle Peter" Archbishop Donald Weurl spoke with Washington Post editors & staff today about Pope Benedict's visit, commenting that Americans will be expecting something different from what they saw in his previous occupation as the Vatican's doctrinal enforcer (Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith):

Back then, Wuerl said, one of Benedict's key responsibilities was "to throw a flag if someone went out of bounds. If you're going to have intellectual ferment, intellectual discussion, you also have to have someone who throws the flag."

As pope, Wuerl said, Benedict has a different role - to be the living link to the Apostle Peter, to the earliest days of Christianity and to spread a message of hope to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, "that we are capable of a personal relationship with God." That, Wuerl says, is something many Americans want to hear, particularly at a time when religious practice and belief are in dramatic flux. He believes recent data showing one in ten Americans is an ex-Catholic simply reflects normal American "drifting," and "shopping around." The history and truth of Catholicism, he says, will bring them back eventually.

"In our country we are so taken up with the individual. Everyone wants to realize their greatest potential, and that's good, but there are some things we do as a family," he said. People want to know: "How do I verify that what I believe is more than just what I think about things? Our function is to make people realize it's in this 2,000-year-old family that you find that verification."

More of the Wuerl interview here.

AXcess News' Jennifer Rios reports on Washington Archbishops' preparation for the papal visit (March 14, 2008):

The city's Catholic leader hopes Pope Benedict XVI will see a "little slice of the church" that represents the rest of the United States when he makes his first U.S. visit as pope next month.

"If we ever get all the tickets distributed," Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl said, laughing at a news conference Thursday.

An estimated 45,000 people will need those tickets to attend Mass April 17 at Nationals Park, the first non-game event to take place at the new baseball stadium. He will speak to Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America, and to interfaith leaders at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, after the Mass.

On April 16, his 81st birthday, the pope will meet with President Bush. He will also meet with U.S. bishops at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The archdiocese is still sorting out seating arrangements for the Mass, but "for every seat available we have at least three requests" from people in the area and from across the country, Wuerl said.

Tickets for the Mass will be mailed two weeks in advance, Wuerl said, in part to cut back on time recipients could use to sell the free tickets. Individual churches are deciding how to distribute their ticket allocations. Blocks of tickets are slotted for high school students and for nursing home residents.

Wuerl said the archdiocese wants to make sure that every aspect of the community will be represented.

Archbishop Donald Wuerl on the Pope's appeal to young Catholics

Young Catholics will be some of Pope Benedict XVI's most enthusiastic fans when he visits Washington in two months.

David Coyne, 30, Silver Spring, aims to be at the April 17 papal Mass at the new Washington Nationals ballpark.

"I will get a ticket somehow and be there," he said.

Mr. Coyne joined nearly 320 other young people in Ireland's Four Fields pub in Northwest this week to discuss the upcoming papal visit with Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and to get a chance to win tickets to the Mass. . . .

"These are young people who really do have great questions: How shall I live? What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose of life? ... I think they see in the pope answers to those questions because the pope reflects the voice of Christ," Archbishop Wuerl said.

During a question-and-answer session with the young adults, Archbishop Wuerl described his experience with Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, when he served as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He described Benedict as "extraordinarily learned" and "just a very gentle and kind person" who would greet people at the end of meetings. . . .

He predicted that the papal message in the United States would be the standard Gospel, tracing back to the beginnings of Christianity.

"I look forward to the message he's going to bring. It's going to be rejuvenating. It's going to be a whole renewal of the faith of the people in this community," he said.

Young Catholics eager for pope's visit, by Matthew Cawvey. Washington Times February 22, 2008.

The Tidings: "Pope has finger on pulse of U.S. church"

According to Carol Glatz of The Tidings, Pope Benedict's venture to the United States will not be "stepping into the unknown":

Through his many personal contacts with American church leaders and papal diplomats, his past trips to the U.S. and his ability to remember much of what he hears and reads, Pope Benedict has his finger firmly on the pulse of the church in the United States.

Bishops from around the world coming to Rome consistently have expressed awe and admiration for the pope's remarkable depth of knowledge, his familiarity with everyday events worldwide, and his recollection of minute or even obscure facts and past events.

"He has always been amazingly well-informed on the U.S.," said U.S. Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, who studied under the future pope in the 1970s.

According to Carol, the Pope's prior occupation as Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith presented him with many opportunities to acquaint himself with the challenges facing the Catholic Church in America:

The congregation has weekly meetings with experts on current prominent topics --- such as advances in medicine --- and it also receives regular reports from the world's bishops. . . .

As head of the doctrinal congregation and as pontiff, Pope Benedict has always had Americans on his staff. For instance, U.S. Archbishop James Harvey is one of his private secretaries, and the former San Francisco archbishop, Cardinal William J. Levada, is now head of the doctrinal congregation.

People who know Pope Benedict say he is a good listener and accessible, and it made meetings with him as head of the doctrinal congregation a positive experience.

"Not only was he present, as opposed to having just someone from the office meet (us), but he would listen, he would respond to questions, and he would seem to already have considerable knowledge of whatever the issues we brought to discuss," said Archbishop [Donald W. Wuerl of Washington].

He said bishops' group talks with Cardinal Ratzinger began with a prayer and with him asking participants what their issues and concerns were "rather than give a talk to us first."

"He didn't come to the meeting with an already formed vision of what was happening. He listened, and he responded across the board," the archbishop said.

The pope's ability to see things from so many points of view is also a sign of his having "a very wide vision" and sources of information that "were of considerable breadth," the Washington archbishop said.

Now that he is pope, the Holy Father can rely on a vast array of resources on the United States, from papal nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, in Washington and Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's observer at the United Nations in New York, to talks with U.S. Bishops themselves during their ad limina visits to Rome -- not to mention the reporting of L'Osservatore Romano and correspondence from thousands of faithful.

As Cardinal Ratzinger, the Pope has visited the United States "at least 5 times."

(On Ratzinger's prior visit to New York city, where he spoke at a conference on "biblical interpretation in crisis" arranged by Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus (then a Lutheran pastor) and tangled with ACT-UP gay rights demonstrators (as recolleded by Alice von Hildebrand) see: Pope Benedict XVI: Grace Under Fire Against The Grain August 31, 2007).