“Quem queris? Whom do you seek?” No words pierce more deeply than those of Christ, spoken personally and uniquely to each soul, but in our noisy streets and noisy minds, it’s easy not to hear or notice. It is not as though Christ climbs a stage amid flag-waving fanfare, picks up a microphone, and calls to us in a rich, sonorous voice. It’s not as though his speech is projected on a jumbo-tron and recorded on YouTube. Christ may not directly address us this way–but, as the participants at the recent St. Jospeph’s Seminary youth rally know, Pope Benedict XVI does:

Have courage! You too can make your life a gift of self for the love of the Lord Jesus and, in him, of every member of the human family. Friends, again I ask you, what about today? What are you seeking? What is God whispering to you? The hope which never disappoints is Jesus Christ. The saints show us the selfless love of his way. As disciples of Christ, their extraordinary journeys unfolded within the community of hope, which is the Church. It is from within the Church that you too will find the courage and support to walk the way of the Lord. Nourished by personal prayer, prompted in silence, shaped by the Church’s liturgy, you will discover the particular vocation God has for you. Embrace it with joy. You are Christ’s disciples today. Shine his light upon this great city and beyond.

The youth–some twenty-five thousand students, young professionals, seminarians, and religious–crowded around the electric-blue stage in rapt attention. “Have we perhaps lost something of the art of listening?” the pope asked, and no doubt the answer is yes. But that afternoon, no matter about claustrophobic crowds and beating sun and a five-hours’ wait. They were listening, and listening eagerly. “Do you leave space to hear God’s whisper, calling you forth into goodness?” the pope gently prodded. “What about today?”

What indeed about today? Judging from the response Fr. Luke Sweeney, Vocations Director for the New York Archdiocese, has received, the pope’s message has had rapid effect. As the New York Daily News reported, within just three days he’d received dozens of queries and application requests, a seminarian tsunami after an unprecedented drought:

For the first time in 108 years, St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers was preparing for a year with no new students. But, after the Holy Father’s whirlwind city tour, dozens have heard the call. “It’s been like a tsunami, a good tsunami of interest,” said the archdiocese’s vocations director, the Rev. Luke Sweeney. “I’ve been meeting people all week and have a lot of e-mails I haven’t had the chance yet to respond to. It has been incredible. . . . One said he came, saw the crowd, heard what the Pope said and then called us,” said Sweeney. “He said his questions and concerns were answered when he heard him speak.”

“The world needs heroes,” Fr. Sweeney tells young men; “You have to be a real man if you want to become a priest.” The response to his challenge–the pope’s challenge–Christ’s challenge–certainly gives the Church reason to hope. Reason to hope, and reason to pray for the future fathers and shepherds of the Faith.

The blogosphere and op/ed pages have been abuzz the past few days discussing Obama and the Catholics, especially after Hilary Clinton took 70% of the Catholic voters in the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary. One of the key issues that has come up again and again has been abortion, on the assumption that abortion is a Catholic issue.

Well. What about Obama and the atheists—-the pro-life atheists? Consider the recent Washington Times op/ed (which has gone surprisingly unnoticed in the blogosphere) by Nat Hentoff (who, you’ll remember, wrote for us on the 2008 election here).

Here’s a taste of the Hentoff column:

My initial inclination to support Sen. Barack Obama’s road to the White House came from his work as a Chicago community organizer and his record in the Illinois legislature. He actually worked to rescue school dropouts from a lifetime dead end as well as provide job training for the unemployed. Later, in the Illinois state Senate, he was able to get a law passed requiring police to electronically record interrogations and confessions in homicide cases. But my view of him changed as I learned his record on abortion.

I am a nonreligious pro-lifer, my only religion being the Constitution. And I am not a single-issue voter, having often supported candidates who are pro-choice because I knew their civil liberties and civil-rights records. For one example, I was a great admirer of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. (New York, where I live, has had no senators of his quality and principles since.) Although Mr. Moynihan was pro-abortion, he strongly opposed partial-birth abortion, which he described as “only minutes away from infanticide,” since the fetus (whom I regard as a human being) was already clearly among us.

I oppose extremists on all sides of issues, having, for instance, argued for hours with and against some so-called pro-lifers who considered part of their mission to commit violence, even homicide, where abortions were performed.

I admire much of Mr. Obama’s record, including what he wrote in “The Audacity of Hope” about the Founders’ “rejection of all forms of absolute authority, whether the king, the theocrat, the general, the oligarch, the dictator, the majority… George Washington declined the crown because of this impulse.” But on abortion, Mr. Obama is an extremist. He has opposed the Supreme Court decision that finally upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act against that form of infanticide. Most startlingly, for a professed humanist, Mr. Obama in the Illinois Senate also voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. I have reported on several of those cases, when, before the abortion was completed, an alive infant was suddenly in the room. It was disposed of as a horrified nurse who was not necessarily pro-life followed the doctors’ orders to put the baby in a pail or otherwise get rid of the child. (emphasis added)

Nathaniel, at least Coolio had the good sense of keeping some of the original phrasing—No, “And even though I walk through the Hood of death,” here.

From the 1995 movie “Dangerous Minds”:

Today a friend pointed me toward The Hip Hop Prayerbook, designed by an Episcopal church in the South Bronx as “a powerful evangelism tool” designed to offer “a means to worship that will draw in the young and speak to those not generally spoken to by the Church.” I have no doubt that these folks have the best of intentions and I have no idea how effective their hip hop Eucharists are, but take a look at the adaptation of Psalm 23.

The Lord is all that, I need for nothing.
He allows me to chill.
He keeps me from being heated
and allows me to breathe easy.
He guides my life so that
I can represent and give
shouts out in his Name.
And even though I walk through
the Hood of death,
I don’t back down
for you have my back.
The fact that you have me covered
allows me to chill.
He provides me with back-up
in front of my player-haters
and I know that I am a baller
and life will be phat.
I fall back in the Lord’s crib
for the rest of my life.

To me, this screams of a white guy trying so hard to reach out to inner city youth, but not realizing that no one actually says “I know that I am a baller and life will be phat.” A Village Voice article on the HipHopEMass in which Psalms like this appear only confirms these suspicions. Furthermore, if you go to a black Baptist church, you’re probably not going to hear a hip hop translation of the Psalms; “He provides me with back-up in front of my player-haters” will be rendered in the original King James English.

The book’s website offers a quotation from the Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam, who notes that “If Jesus walked the earth today, he would be a rapper.” Perhaps. But if he were a rapper, I’m guessing he’d sound a little more like Fr. Stan Fortuna (see below) and less like someone falling “back in the Lord’s crib.”

Bob Novak chastised the archbishops of Washington and New York in his Washington Post column today. Novak argued that the bishops invited pro-abort politicians to attend the Papal Mass, which implicitly included a welcome to the communion rail. And in doing so they had subverted Benedict’s teachings.

Turns out, out least in the case of New York’s Cardinal Egan, that this isn’t the case. And for those who have been critical of Egan’s lack of public repudiation of pro-abortion Catholic politicians, this statement may provide some helpful context. Egan has gone about things with Guiliani in private, in a primarily pastoral, not political, vein. And so, while Mayor of New York, Guilliani was asked not to receive communion. Egan assumed that understanding would continue at the Papal Mass.

Egan released the following today:

“The Catholic Church clearly teaches that abortion is a grave offense against the will of God. Throughout my years as Archbishop of New York, I have repeated this teaching in sermons, articles, addresses, and interviews without hesitation or compromise of any kind. Thus it was that I had an understanding with Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, when I became Archbishop of New York and he was serving as Mayor of New York, that he was not to receive the Eucharist because of his well-known support of abortion. I deeply regret that Mr. Giuliani received the Eucharist during the Papal visit here in New York, and I will be seeking a meeting with him to insist that he abide by our understanding.”

One of the groups that performed for Benedict XVI in DC sent us their promotional material and some free CDs, and I was intrigued the moment I saw their name. The Suspicious Cheese Lords is an all-male a cappella group from DC, where they sing and record early music, more specifically, Renaissance music, and even more specifically, Renaissance music from composers we’ve barely (or never) heard of. Their three recordings are all world premieres, and feature the works of Elzéar Genet (Carpentras), Ludwig Senfl, and Jean Mouton. It’s not unusual for a composer like these to have a motet or two sung at a concert, but not an entire CD of their music alone. Having listened to them, it’s a good thing that now we have CDs of these musicians’ works, especially ones with the Lords’ solid singing and helpful liner notes.

The Lords are not on the level of the kings of contemporary early music performers, but they make for good, well, lords. Their basses and baritones are particularly well-blended, and Senfl’s Te Deum highlighted this with its rich energy. If you’re interested in early music at all, check out the Lords on their website or listen to some of their recordings here.

Oh, and if you were wondering why they call themselves the Suspicious Cheese Lords, their website provides an explanation:

The Suspicious Cheese Lords’ name is derived from the title of a Thomas Tallis motet, Suscipe quæso Domine. While “translating” the title, it was observed that Suscipe could be “suspicious,” quæso is close to the Spanish word queso meaning “cheese,” and Domine is, of course, “Lord.” Hence, the title of the motet was clearly “Suspicious Cheese Lord”—which in time became adopted as the group’s name. Although their name is humorous, the group appreciates the literal translation of Suscipe Quæso Domine, which is, “Take, I ask, Lord.” Suspiciously, the Cheese Lords have yet to perform this motet.

In today’s St. Louis Platform there’s an excellent article with interviews from two of the victims of clerical sexual abuse who met with the pope in Washington, DC. Here are some excerpts, but the whole thing is worth reading:

Olan Horne, 48, a survivor of clerical sex abuse, believes that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States marks a turning point in the way victims of sexual abuse are treated in the Catholic Church.

“I saw it in his face, heard his voice. He understands,” said Horne, one of six survivors who met Thursday with the pope. He spoke with the St. Louis Beacon from his Massachusetts university food service office. . . .

“Benedict told the bishops to meet with survivors as he had; this pope gets it,” said Horne. “I like to say that I’m from Missouri and you are going to have to Show Me. Benedict showed me.” . . .

A woman on the Boston archdiocesan victims’ assistance staff handed the pope a book with 1,600 first names written on its pages. Cardinal Sean O’Malley explained to the pope that the list was of all victims of clerical sexual abuse in the Boston archdiocese who had asked its bishops for pastoral care. Pages were left blank to symbolize those victims who had never voiced their tragic complaints, O’Malley explained.

“The pope was shocked at the number,” Horne said. “You could see the sincerity of the shock on his face. Benedict had never known that there was that many in Boston. He was stunned. So was the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Pietro Sambi. That was a moment. They do have a tough role.”

Via Whispers in the Loggia

The exciting news of the the day does not come from Pennsylvania, but from Rome, where it was announced that John Henry Cardinal Newman will be beatified. A leader of the Oxford Movement, a catholic reform movement in the Anglican Church, Newman later converted to Catholicism and founded the Birmingham Oratory. He is seen by most Anglican converts to Catholicism as a spiritual forebear, and his writings, especially his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, have helped bring many across the Tiber. Those interested in reading his works can consult this website or Google Books.

Via the Catholic News Agency

In October, I wrote about dying languages–languages whose use is declining–and why they are worth saving. In today’s New York Times, there was a small article on Syrian villages where Aramaic, the language probably spoken by Jesus, is still used, but by increasingly fewer people. Part of it is the usual story of children not learning the language of their parents, but another part is due to the general decline of Christianity in the Middle East. If you’re interested in matters linguistic, give the article a read.

That’s the title of a recent article in MercatorNet by Maggie Gallagher. Gallagher, the President of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, is quite simply the most effective spokesperson making public arguments in defense of marriage today. Not surprisingly, she’s also a First Things contributor.

In her article, Gallagher describes a new report she has just released:

A new analysis carried out by myself and Joshua Baker entitled Pope Benedict XVI on Marriage: A Compendium and published by the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy on the eve of Benedict’s historic U.S. visit, finds that in less than three years of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI has spoken publicly about marriage on 111 occasions. His pronouncements connect marriage to such overarching themes as human rights, world peace, and the conversation between faith and reason.

Over and over again he has made it clear that the marriage and family debate is central — not peripheral — to understanding the human person, and defending our human dignity.

Her short article and the report are well worth reading.

A sensible word from the Wall Street Journal on the Pope and how his celebration of immigration is the right and Christian thing to do, in contrast to virulent rumblings from the some corners of the American political scene:

“You know the restrictionists have gone head-first into the fever swamps when they denounce a Christian religious leader for sounding like a Christian. The pope welcomes immigrants because he’s Catholic, not because they are. He isn’t ‘marketing’ his faith. He’s practicing it.”

Arguably the most literate, witty, and truly “adult” Britcom ever broadcast was Yes, Minister and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. Like any good satire, it skewered both right and left, as this ongoing saga of British political hijinks is told from a bureaucrat’s point of view, played with supernatural ease by Nigel Hawthorne (The Madness of King George). The minister he tries mightily to keep diverted and in check is James Hacker, played with just the right combination of cluelessness and devotion by Paul Eddington (Jerry on Good Neighbors).

As the career bureaucrat Sir Humphrey sees it, parties, parliaments, and prime ministers come and go, but the civil service is here to stay. And the primary goal of any good civil servant is to maintain the status quo and ensure the smooth processing of their next pay rise.

The dialogue typical of this series was stage-worthy, and there was no political topic it was afraid to tackle.

In one episode, Hacker, now prime minister, must choose between two Church of England candidates to recommend to Her Majesty to fill a bishopric. Of course, the C of E, and the bureaucracy, has already decided who Hacker should be manipulated into picking. Between a low-church disestablishmentarianist and a modernist radical, well, the radical will cause the least amount of problems in the long run, especially as his wife is the daughter of the Earl of Chichester.

Herewith are snippets of dialogue:

Hacker: Being a bishop is just a matter of status? Dressing up in cassocks and gaiters?

Sir Humphrey: Yes, but gaiters are generally worn only at significant religious events, like the royal garden party.

Hacker: Why?

Sir Humphrey: Well, the church is trying to be more relevant.

Hacker: To God?

Sir Humphrey: Oh, of course not, Prime Minister. I meant relevant in sociological terms.

Hacker: So the ideal candidate from the Church of England’s point of view would be a cross between a socialite and a socialist.

Sir Humphrey: Precisely.

************

Bernard: (Of the modernist candidate for bishop) He designed a new church in South London and among the plans was a place for dispensing orange juice, family planning, and organizing demos. But no place for Holy Communion. . . .

Hacker: And the church approved his?

Sir Humphrey: Of course. You see the church is run by theologians.

Hacker: How do you mean?

Sir Humphrey: Theology is a device for enabling agnostics to stay within the church. . . . You could turn both candidates down, but that would be exceptional and not advised.

Hacker: Even though one of them wants to get God out of the Church of England and the other one wants to get the Queen out?

Sir Humphrey: The Queen is inseparable from the Church of England.

Hacker: What about God?

Sir Humphrey: I think He’s what’s called an “optional extra.”

Well, the Right Reverend Dr. N.T. Wright, Bishop of Durham, is neither an disestablishmentarianist nor a modernist, but is instead one of the premier biblical scholars in the world. His three-volume Christian Origins and the Question of God series, especially volume three, The Resurrection of the Son of God, continues to perform the inestimable service of undoing the bad work of the Jesus Seminar and radical historical critics, as well as providing one of the most important theological and apologetic aids any Christian could ask for.

And he paid us a visit today here at the First Things office.

Off the top of my head, I don’t remember Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, or Harris ever alluding to Wright’s work in any of their respective atheist tracts. Either they are unfamiliar with it—which wouldn’t surprise me; what they know about serious Christian theology and a MetroCard will get you on any bus in New York—or they couldn’t begin to deal with its level of scholarship, and so realized they were in over their heads.

I told Bishop Wright that I was still struggling to come to terms with his teaching on justification and the atonement. He said he hoped his planned “big book on Paul” would help sort things out. I will be scanning Amazon regularly…

Last week Jonathan Last pointed to an article on Church music in the Washington Post. It’s a great find, all about the generational change from the older Catholics to the new.

The “Swallows of Capistrano” are what I’ve come to call this younger generation of Catholics, but the piece in the Washington Post left me a litlte depressed. Why did I need to write 10,000 words on the topic? In the Washington Post, we get the point about the Swallows in a single sentence: Says Jeffrey Tucker, a choir director in Alabama, “The young priests and the young people just can’t seem to get ‘hep’ to the whole 1970s thing, and the old people just don’t understand why.”

“Just can’t seem to get hep”—you can’t do better than that for a description of today’s Catholic youth.

In her New York Times column this morning, Maureen Dowd sets out to defend Senator Obama against the claim that he is an elitist snob. Along the way, though, she admits he has some problems relating to the common man: “Asked about his friendly relationship with the former Weather Underground anarchist William Ayers,” she notes, “Obama defended him with a line that only the eggheads orbiting his campaign could appreciate. Ayers, he said, is ‘a professor of English in Chicago.’”

Dowd is right that this is what Obama said, though, in fact, Ayers is a professor of education—which, in eggheady circles, is a little less boastworthy than being a professor of English. And it’s interesting the direction in which Obama misremembered: unconsciously promoting his friend to higher intellectual bracket. Is that what she means by a line that only eggheads could appreciate?

Via Argent by the Tiber, here’s the musical line-up for the Mass in Yankee Stadium. Note the musical difference between this and the Mass in Nationals Stadium, which involved less traditional music and more music from the many peoples comprising American Catholicism. To me, it also seems to be the difference between John Paul II’s liturgical sensibilities and those of Benedict XVI. Pulling off a multicultural celebration in a baseball stadium has been done before; I’m looking forward to hearing what Palestrina’s “Sicut Cervus” sounds like in Yankee Stadium with 55,000.

Entrance of concelebrants

Symphony No. 9 in D minor – Ludwig van Beethoven
I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
II. Molto vivace

Entrance of the Holy Father

Hymnus Pontificius – Charles Gounod, arr. Alberico Vitalini

Dixit from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Music for Mass

Jesus is Risen/ Cristo Jesús Resucitó – arr. John Rutter

Tu es Petrus – Dom Lorenzo Perosi

Kyrie, from Litany of the Saints - adapt. Richard Proulx

Gloria, from Missa O Magnum Mysterium – Tomás Luis da Victoria

Psalm – Dr. Jennifer Pascual

Alleluia (VICTORY) - arr. Wm. Glenn Osborne

Credo III

Trilingual Intercessions – Michael Hay, orch. Wm. Glenn Osborne

How Lovely is thy Dwelling Place – Johannes Brahms

Sanctus from German Mass – Franz Schubert, adapt. Richard Proulx

Christ Has Died/ Amen - Franz Schubert, adapt. Richard Proulx

Agnus Dei from Missa O Magnum Mysterium – Tomás Luis da Victoria

Panis Angelicus – Cesár Franck, Marcello Giordani, Tenor, Metropolitan Opera

Sicut Cervus – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Ave Verum – Alexandre Guilmant, orch. Deborah Jamini

Amén. El Cuerpo de Cristo - John Schiavonne, orch. Carl Maultsby

Let Us Break Bread Together – arr. Carl MaultsBy

This is the Feast – Richard Hillert, arr. Richard Kidd

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee/ Jubilosos te Adoramos – from Hymn to Joy Fantasy – Bruce Saylor

Symphony No. 9 in D minor – Ludwig van Beethoven
IV. Presto

of the pope’s U.S. visit can be found here.

Raymond Arroyo and our own Fr. Neuhaus preside over the coverage.

(It may take a few seconds to load fully. Remember the words of St. Augustine: “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” He also contended that the damned will not demerit by their perverse will, for, if they did, their damnation would be augmented. So, plenty to think about on all fronts . . .)

Update: Fr. Neuhaus has just supplied us with fresh commentary on the day’s events.

Also: If you have not already done so, you may want to read Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1988 Erasmus Lecture.

One of the best bits of reporting I’ve seen during the coverage of the Holy Father’s visit is this fantastic Hank Stuever piece in the Washington Post. It’s an exposé on the giant clash within the American Catholic Church–is schism too strong a word?–over . . . liturgical music. Nearly every observation and quote Stuever makes rings true and while it might surprise non-Catholics, the divide is between older Catholics who cling to casual, guitar-and-tambourine ’70s music and young Catholics who want Latin, Palestrina, and Gregorian chant.

Some highlights:

“You know, just today I received a publication from a mainline Catholic music organization, and there are aspects of it that seem like the musical version of the AARP quarterly, if you know what I mean,” says Jeffrey Tucker, 44, a choir director who lives in Auburn, Ala., and is the managing editor of Sacred Music, a journal of the Church Music Association of America. “There is no question that we are talking about a generational issue here. The young priests and the young people just can’t seem to get ‘hep’ to the whole 1970s thing, and the old people just don’t understand why.”

Tucker encounters this all the time, and blogs about it frequently. At a recent conference, a jazz pianist confided to Tucker that he’d been playing at church, but there was a new, young pastor who had taken over and “he said, ‘You know what that means.’ [And] I said, ‘Well, I’m not entirely sure.’ So he added, surprised that he would have to clarify, ‘That means he wants Gregorian chant!’

The kids these days!

For those in the New York area this weekend, here are two events to put on the calendar:

1. Friday: Papal Candlelight Vigil, 9:00 pm - 12:00 am, 5th Ave at 72nd Street.
The Archdiocese will provide 1000 candles for the faithful outside the Pope’s window. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pokes his head out to say hello.

2. Saturday: Popemobile Procession, 1:15 pm, 5th Avenue from 54th - 72nd Street.
Join 50,000+ to welcome the Holy Father to New York.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release April 16, 2008

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT BUSH
AND HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
IN ARRIVAL CEREMONY

South Lawn

10:38 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Holy Father, Laura and I are privileged to have you here at the White House. We welcome you with the ancient words commended by Saint Augustine: “Pax Tecum.” Peace be with you.

You’ve chosen to visit America on your birthday. Well, birthdays are traditionally spent with close friends, so our entire nation is moved and honored that you’ve decided to share this special day with us. We wish you much health and happiness — today and for many years to come. (Applause.)

This is your first trip to the United States since you ascended to the Chair of Saint Peter. You will visit two of our greatest cities and meet countless Americans, including many who have traveled from across the country to see with you and to share in the joy of this visit. Here in America you’ll find a nation of prayer. Each day millions of our citizens approach our Maker on bended knee, seeking His grace and giving thanks for the many blessings He bestows upon us. Millions of Americans have been praying for your visit, and millions look forward to praying with you this week.

Here in America you’ll find a nation of compassion. Americans believe that the measure of a free society is how we treat the weakest and most vulnerable among us. So each day citizens across America answer the universal call to feed the hungry and comfort the sick and care for the infirm. Each day across the world the United States is working to eradicate disease, alleviate poverty, promote peace and bring the light of hope to places still mired in the darkness of tyranny and despair.

Here in America you’ll find a nation that welcomes the role of faith in the public square. When our Founders declared our nation’s independence, they rested their case on an appeal to the “laws of nature, and of nature’s God.” We believe in religious liberty. We also believe that a love for freedom and a common moral law are written into every human heart, and that these constitute the firm foundation on which any successful free society must be built.

Here in America, you’ll find a nation that is fully modern, yet guided by ancient and eternal truths. The United States is the most innovative, creative and dynamic country on earth — it is also among the most religious. In our nation, faith and reason coexist in harmony. This is one of our country’s greatest strengths, and one of the reasons that our land remains a beacon of hope and opportunity for millions across the world.

Most of all, Holy Father, you will find in America people whose hearts are open to your message of hope. And America and the world need this message. In a world where some invoke the name of God to justify acts of terror and murder and hate, we need your message that “God is love.” And embracing this love is the surest way to save men from “falling prey to the teaching of fanaticism and terrorism.”

In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred, and that “each of us is willed, each of us is loved” — (applause) — and your message that “each of us is willed, each of us is loved, and each of us is necessary.”

In a world where some no longer believe that we can distinguish between simple right and wrong, we need your message to reject this “dictatorship of relativism,” and embrace a culture of justice and truth. (Applause.)

In a world where some see freedom as simply the right to do as they wish, we need your message that true liberty requires us to live our freedom not just for ourselves, but “in a spirit of mutual support.”

Holy Father, thank you for making this journey to America. Our nation welcomes you. We appreciate the example you set for the world, and we ask that you always keep us in your prayers. (Applause.)

POPE BENEDICT XVI: Mr. President, thank you for your gracious words of welcome on behalf of the people of the United States of America. I deeply appreciate your invitation to visit this great country. My visit coincides with an important moment in the life of the Catholic community in America: the celebration of the 200th anniversary of elevation of the country’s first Diocese — Baltimore — to a metropolitan Archdiocese and the establishment of the Sees of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Louisville.

Yet I am happy to be here as a guest of all Americans. I come as a friend, a preacher of the Gospel, and one with great respect for this vast pluralistic society. America’s Catholics have made, and continue to make, an excellent contribution to the life of their country. As I begin my visit, I trust that my presence will be a source of renewal and hope for the Church in the United States, and strengthen the resolve of Catholics to contribute ever more responsibly to the life of this nation, of which they are proud to be citizens.

From the dawn of the Republic, America’s quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the Creator. The framers of this nation’s founding documents drew upon this conviction when they proclaimed the self-evident truth that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights grounded in the laws of nature and of nature’s God.

The course of American history demonstrates the difficulties, the struggles, and the great intellectual and moral resolve which were demanded to shape a society which faithfully embodied these noble principles. In that process, which forged the soul of the nation, religious beliefs were a constant inspiration and driving force, as for example in the struggle against slavery and in the civil rights movement. In our time, too, particularly in moments of crisis, Americans continue to find their strength in a commitment to this patrimony of shared ideas and aspirations.

In the next few days, I look forward to meeting not only with America’s Catholic community, but with other Christian communities and representatives of the many religious traditions present in this country. Historically, not only Catholics, but all believers have found here the freedom to worship God in accordance with the dictates of their conscience, while at the same time being accepted as part of a commonwealth in which each individual group can make its voice heard.

As the nation faces the increasingly complex political and ethical issues of our time, I am confident that the American people will find in their religious beliefs a precious source of insight and an inspiration to pursue reasoned, responsible and respectful dialogue in the effort to build a more human and free society.

Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience — almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad. The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good, and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate.

In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good. Few have understood this as clearly as the late Pope John Paul II. In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in Eastern Europe, he reminded us that history shows time and again that “in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation,” and a democracy without values can lose its very soul. Those prophetic words in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent “indispensable supports” of political prosperity.

The Church, for her part, wishes to contribute to building a world ever more worthy of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God. She is convinced that faith sheds new light on all things, and that the Gospel reveals the noble vocation and sublime destiny of every man and woman. Faith also gives us the strength to respond to our high calling and to hope that inspires us to work for an ever more just and fraternal society. Democracy can only flourish, as your founding fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth and bring the wisdom born of firm moral principle to decisions affecting the life and future of the nation.

For well over a century, the United States of America has played an important role in the international community. On Friday, God willing, I will have the honor of addressing the United Nations organization, where I hope to encourage the efforts underway to make that institution an ever more effective voice for the legitimate aspirations of all the world’s peoples.

On this, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity — as brothers and sisters dwelling in the same house and around that table which God’s bounty has set for all his children. America has traditionally shown herself generous in meeting immediate human needs, fostering development and offering relief to the victims of natural catastrophes. I am confident that this concern for the greater human family will continue to find expression in support for the patient efforts of international diplomacy to resolve conflicts and promote progress. In this way, coming generations will be able to live in a world where truth, freedom and justice can flourish — a world where the God-given dignity and the rights of every man, women and child are cherished, protected and effectively advanced.

Mr. President, dear friends, as I begin my visit to the United States, I express once more my gratitude for your invitation, my joy to be in your midst, and my fervent prayers that Almighty God will confirm this nation and its people in the ways of justice, prosperity and peace. God bless America. (Applause.)

END 10:52 A.M. EDT

Kenneth Woodward, a contributing editor on religion for Newsweek, has an editorial in the New York Times on what Benedict might say on Catholic education tomorrow. One notes first that Mr. Woodward has added his name to the list of people who are eager to tell Benedict what he should be saying to the Church and the country, though unlike some on that list Woodward also seems eager to listen to what the pope actually says. Furthermore, the tone of the article seems unnecessarily antagonistic; Benedict is a thoughtful scholar and pastor, not a partisan crank. This comes through in the text of the address the pope would have given at La Sapienza in Rome. But despite his tone, Woodward’s point is a sound one: More American Catholics are attending public universities and secular private universities than Catholic ones, and it would be good if Benedict’s speech took that into consideration. “What these students and their teachers need is a vision of what it means to be an educated Catholic, not just a lecture on preserving Catholic institutional identity,” Woodward writes. “If Benedict can manage that, his words will be worth remembering.” Given the content of his other speeches and given the intellectual force of his mind, I imagine that whatever Benedict says, it will be worth bearing in mind and remembering.