Hour of Discernment: Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates 200th Anniversary in America

            Pope Benedict XVI  Celebrates 200th Anniversary in America

History happened April 16, 2008, when Pope Benedict XVI met with President Bush at the White House. Never before has such an event taken place. An event of “Tremendous religious significance”, CNN declared as it began. (CNN, 4-16-08). By the time his visit was over the Catholic media was in a swoon, and the Roman Church was ecstatic, euphoric, wildly energized. Pope Benedict repeatedly made it brazenly clear that he was celebrating in this visit to America the Jesuit John Carroll, first Roman Catholic bishop in America, and the establishment of the first American archdiocese in Baltimore, with its dioceses in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Louisville.

Like a ton of bricks did the Pope's visit hit my consciousness. Amid the outrage over the incredible betrayal of once-Protestant America by the White House of the representative of that power which murdered hundreds of millions of souls, I asked as I watched the ceremony at the White House, Why the Revolutionary War marching fife and drum (U.S Army old Guard) display with tri-corner hats, emphasizing the American Revolution? What did that have to do with the pope's visit? There had to be a reason. What is it? Why is the pope repeatedly referring to the first Jesuit bishop, John Carroll? Why is the pope repeatedly speaking about how Britain banned the Mass, but religious liberty is written in America's Constitution, granting freedom to celebrate the Mass?