Benedict wows America

Today, it was Mass appeal, the heart of the Church in the heart of the nation’s capital.

After days with the powerful of church and state, Pope Benedict XVI turned to the laity Thursday morning, with a huge open-air Mass where he called on Catholics to renew their faith. Benedict presided over Mass at the new Washington Nationals stadium, with a congregation-for-a-day of 46,000 people looking on. It was held on a beautiful, sun-splashed spring morning, with early cheers turning to silence from the faithful as the service began in earnest.

Once again, the day here in Washington was almost indescribably glorious.

On a picture-perfect spring day, with warming temperatures and brilliant sunshine, a crowd of some 46,000 greeted the pope as he arrived in the brand-new Nationals Stadium. Some of those witnessing the event had been in the stadium for hours…

“This is the most breathtaking experience of my life,” said Joanie Tolnay, a 48-year-old homemaker from McDowell County, W. Va. “I just thank God for it.”

Jane Lindsay, an eighth-grade teacher from Monrovia, Md., was so overwhelmed by the experience, she cried during the service.

“Who am I to be in the presence of hope? I’m a schoolteacher from Maryland,” she said.

Hope is the theme of Benedict’s apostolic journey to America, “Christ Our Hope“, which he repeats with compelling references in every address and homily he has given here since arriving. Even the New York Times headlined that. You can see and hear them all at the official site, and hear ongoing coverage we’re giving it here on Relevant Radio all this week.  

Plenty of blogging on this ahead….after the radio shows. The more I study the pope’s words and talk with scholars, clergy and other analysts about it, the more gold we mine from Benedict’s message to America.