Pope Benedict at Nationals Park: The Event in Photos
The final blessing of the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI at Nationals Park is shown on the ballpark's massive scoreboard video screen. All photos by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post
ABOUT 46,000 PEOPLE crowded Nationals Park today for the premier public event of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Washington — his first Mass on American soil.
The pope pressed for peace, urged his audience to search for hope and "acknowledged the damage done by the church's sexual abuse scandal" in the United States, The Post's Petula Dvorak, Jacqueline L. Salmon and Michael Ruane report.
Said the pontiff:
No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. ... Yesterday, I spoke with the bishops about this. Today, I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt.The service itself was grand in scale and expansive in size. The chorus included "570 voices singing in 10 languages," The Post reports, and Benedict was accompanied by 14 cardinals, 250 bishops and 1,300 priests.
Long lines had already formed before sunrise, when Sister Robert Francis and Sister Joseph Miriam of the Little Sisters of the Poor order in Brookland were captured in the photo at left while they were snapping cell-phone pictures themselves.
Later in the day, the response to the pope's arrival — with crowds swarming his Popemobile — impressed even some of the D.C. police officers assigned to guard him.
"I'm excited to see the pope and I'm not even Catholic," Officer Anthony Christian told The Post. "We all believe in the same God. It's just a wonderful thing to see the pope."
Maximiliano Soc polishes a row of chalices as dawn starts to lighten the sky before the Mass begins.
Crowds form around Pope Benedict XVI as he arrives in his Popemobile.
A wide view of the standing-room-only crowd at Nationals Park as the pope delivers his Mass.
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