Pope goes to first base as he reaches out to the people in US

Published on Thursday 17 April 2008 10:50

AFTER spending the first day of his US journey sharing a platform with President George Bush, Pope Benedict XVI will meet the people today.

He will preside over an open-air Mass at the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium, a gold curtain and crucifix providing the backdrop for the largest stage yet on his six-day US visit.

A crowd of 46,000 is expected, and the demand for tickets was double the number available, organisers said. It is a setting his charismatic predecessor, John Paul II, would have adored. Benedict's substance is similar – it's his style and personality that sets him apart, observers say.

"He's not the great actor and performer that John Paul II was," said the Rev James Martin, editor of America, a Jesuit magazine. "But he's a brilliant theologian and a sterling preacher."

Before Benedict's arrival this week, polls showed most Americans knew little or nothing about him. Those who have watched him so far have found a German-born pontiff who speaks excellent English, appears vigorous for his 81 years, mostly prefers script to spontaneity and displays a keen sense of the critical issues facing his 65-million-member American flock.

One of the larger questions hanging over Benedict's first US trip as pontiff was whether and how he would address the clergy sex abuse scandal, which has claimed thousands of victims, cost the church more than 1 billion in court costs and settlements.

In an address to US bishops last night at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Benedict called the scandal a "deep shame".

He decried the "enormous pain" that communities have suffered from such "gravely immoral behaviour".