Pope Presides Over Mass In Washington

(17 Apr 08 - RV) Pope Benedict has just finished presiding over an open-air Mass at the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium in the capital of the United States.

Over 46,000 people crowded into the stadium, and a choir of hundreds participated in the Mass. In his homily the pope spoke about his mission in the country.

Pope Benedict remarked on the 200th anniversary of the Diocese of Baltimore being raised to an archdiocese and the of 4 suffragette sees in the United States. He said that in reflecting on this history, the Church is called to the unity of faith, the faith of the apostles.

The Holy Father called for cultivating a mindset, an intellectual “culture”, which is genuinely Catholic, confident in the profound harmony of faith and reason, and prepared to bring the richness of faith’s vision to bear on the urgent issues which affect the future of American society.