Pope wins friends on first U.S. trip: praise for straight talk on abuse crisis; others call for action to back up words

After specific memories of public events during Pope Benedict XVI's April 15-20 visit to Washington and New York fade--the huge public Masses in Nationals Park and Yankee Stadium, the elaborate reception on the White House lawn, the address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, the somber visit to Ground Zero--it is just two words, kindness and candor, that capture impressions likely to linger in America's collective consciousness.

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The man deplaning at Andrews Air Force Base April 15 was something of an enigma for most Americans. A Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey on the eve of his arrival found that 80 percent of Americans, including two-thirds of the country's almost 70 million Catholics, knew "just a little or nothing at all" about Benedict, despite his having been their pope a full three years.

If nothing else, Benedict's six-day trip afforded him a massive opportunity to introduce himself. The trip drew near-saturation coverage, with most events carried live on national networks and accompanied by extensive commentary in newspapers, on TV and in cyberspace. Though ratings are still being compiled, it's safe to assume that tens of millions of Americans caught at least some of the pope's act.

By and large, what people saw was a figure who came off as gracious and surprisingly humble.

For example, the pope celebrated Mass inside St. Patrick's Cathedral April 19, the first time a pope had done so. This event, occurring within the walls of America's most storied Catholic church, had the effect of cutting the papacy down to size, creating a more intimate feel for the roughly 3,000 priests, and religious gathered there. The Mass took place inside St. Patrick's because, as Benedict himself explained it, a proper liturgical space puts the focus where it belongs--on God rather than the person of the pope.

On at least two occasions, Benedict set aside the persona of a global celebrity to become a simple, caring pastor. Those were his unprecedented April 17 meeting with five victims of sexual abuse, and his April 20 visit to Ground Zero, where he met 24 first responders, survivors, and family members of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Benedict reached out in other ways, such as his moving visit to Manhattan's Park East Synagogue on April 18, the eve of Passover.

At the level of content, Benedict offered a welter of messages over the six days, including some of his classic themes. He expressed appreciation for the vital public role of religion in the United States. He strongly endorsed multilateralism in foreign affairs and human rights. And he insisted on the necessary bonds between reason and faith, truth and freedom.

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Pope speaks of hope, joy

More than Benedict's words, it was his tone that left the deepest impression. During 16 occasions when he made public remarks, totaling almost 30,000 words, the word "hope" appears 101 times, the word "joy" 34. Meanwhile, two words commonly associated with images of this pope in his former role as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the doctrinal enforcer--"error" and "discipline"--are conspicuous by their absence.

One striking note of the visit is that at least three times pro-choice Catholic politicians received Communion during a papal Mass, although not directly from the pope. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. John Kerry, both Democrats, took Communion at the April 17 Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, while former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani did so at the April 19 Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's not that Benedict shrank from laying down challenges. His opposition both to abortion and to Catholics who support abortion rights were made unmistakably clear. But he apparently preferred to leave his visit unmarred by the spectacle of people turned away from the sacrament.

In his address to America's bishops April 16, he lamented "the scandal given by Catholics who promote an alleged right to abortion" and insisted that the Gospel be preached "integrally" against what he has termed a "dictatorship of relativism"; in an April 17 session with Catholic educators, the pope demanded consistency about "the essential moral categories of right and wrong"; in perhaps his toughest speech of the trip, he told a group of other Christian leaders April 18 that an ecumenism not based on "the purity of normative doctrine" would be a sham.

The pope's inattention to gay and lesbian Catholics was disappointing to some. Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, an organization that works for justice and equality for lesbian and gay Catholics within the church, said he thought the pope, in his strong defense of heterosexual marriage in his talk to bishops, and by linking human rights and natural law in his talk at the United Nations, had indirectly targeted homosexuals, and missed an opportunity to make a welcoming gesture to lesbian and gay Catholics.