Saturday at St. Patrick's

April 19, 2008 07:46 AM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

Today is the penultimate day of Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the US, and, after a day focused on geopolitics and interfaith relations, he's turning his attention back to internal church audiences. Today is also the third anniversary of Benedict's election as pope.

I'm blogging from a chapel to St. Therese of Lisieux on the left side of the altar in the grand St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. There are about 3,000 people gathering here for a 9 a.m. Mass that the pope is going to say for priests, deacons, and nuns; he's expected to touch on the impact of the abuse crisis on clergy. The Cathedral of Saint Patrick Choir is singing a Bach composition, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,'' as the congregation works its way through security and takes its seats.

Among those who just walked by: Rudy Giuliani. And in the press box: the writer Peggy Noonan.

"It's a tremendous blessing, to just walk from the West Side over, to see all the people on Fifth Avenue waiting to see the pope, and to see the people, music playing, praying, banners for the pope,'' said Deacon Don Gray of Holy Family parish in New Rochelle, N.Y., who is vested, like the other clergy here, in a white alb with a stole representing the Archdiocese of New York. "It kind of spurs you on in your faith, to see so many people that follow the Lord. It's an unbelievable experience.''

After the Mass, the pope is to take his one spin through Manhattan in the popemobile, along Fifth Avenue, and big crowds are already lining the route. And then this afternoon, the pope heads out to Dunwoodie, a neighborhood of Yonkers, where the New York archdiocesan seminary is located. There he is to bless a group of about 50 youth with disabilities, and their caregivers. And then he is to attend a "rally" with seminarians and young people, also at the seminary; among the crowd are expected to be about 150 from Boston, many of them from either St. John's Seminary in Brighton or Blessed John XXIII Seminary in Weston.

More later.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.