Hot Off the Press: Papal visit editions

I've always been fascinated by the Vatican, and whichever pope happens to be sitting on the throne of St. Peter. (Maybe it's my Roman Catholic heritage.) Benedict XVI is all the more interesting because he's so political -- and so media-savvy. "The Pope of the Internet Age," the Detroit Free Press says today.

Benedict's White House visit this morning, followed by a trip to New York City before his Sunday departure, couldn't be more carefully orchestrated by his own press office. "The pope is not expected to stray from a tightly organized schedule,'' the Associated Press says. "The Vatican well remembers Pope John Paul II's first visit to the United States in 1979, when a nun caused a stir by publicly questioning the pontiff about whether women could become priests."

The current pope's public appearances will be super-controlled. Benedict held a rare press conference aboard his flight to the U.S. yesterday, although reporters' questions were selected in advance by Vatican officials. And he won't appear at a dinner in his honor tonight -- it's his 81st birthday -- because popes rarely eat in public.

The Arizona Republic:

And the official Vatican newspaper:

[Images: Newseum and Vatican press office]

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