Welcome Papa

Pope Benedict's first trip to the United States as pope begins in about 2 hours. His five-day visit to Washington and New York, will including a speech at the United Nations. Fr. Jonathon Morris will join us on the show Wednesday to tlak about the Holy father's trip.

His message should touch even non-Catholics. Benedict will deliver a message that society needs religious values. He will attempt to re-ignite the faith of America's 65 million Catholics.

"He has a way of helping us see what the Gospel and what the Catholic faith tradition asks of us that is challenging and not frightening," Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, Benedict's host in the first leg of the five-day trip, told The Associated Press.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, notes that "religion is deeply rooted in American life despite the separation of church and state."

A March poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found nearly three-quarters of U.S. Catholics viewed Benedict positively. Among the U.S. public at large, 52 percent viewed the pope favorably, but about one-third said they didn't know enough about him to answer.

Nearly three years after he assumed the papacy following the death of John Paul II, the pope's trip to America will change that. "The intention behind my visit ... is to reach out spiritually to all Catholics in the United States," Benedict said in a video greeting to the U.S. ahead of the trip.

Benedict will begin the trip with a visit with President George W. Bush at the White House. Like his predecessor, Benedict was sharply critical of the war in Iraq but shares with Bush a deep concern over the plight of Iraqi Christians.

The pope also will turn 81 while in the United States, and all American cardinals have been invited to a birthday lunch Wednesday at the Vatican embassy in Washington.

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