Pictures of the pope at yankee Stadium

Pope confident he'll be safe during his US visit

VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Pope Benedict XVI is confident that the US government has done enough to protect him during his upcoming visit to the United States, the Vatican's number two said Sunday.
The pope is "very calm before this trip," Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state and Benedict's top aide, said on Vatican Radio when asked about the risk of a terrorist attack.
The head of the Roman Catholic Church arrives in Washington on Tuesday for a five-day visit that will also take in New York.
"Do you remember his trip to Turkey? There were threats before and during (the trip)," said Bertone.
"This time around there have been threats too, no doubt," he added but did not elaborate.
"We have trust in the protection that the (US) government will put in place wherever the Holy Father will pass, as happened in Turkey," during his visit in late 2006, he said.
That four-day visit came a mere 10 weeks after Benedict outraged Muslims by appearing to equate Islam with violence in a speech in his native Germany.
Police in the United States are expected to mount one of their biggest security operations of the year during Benedict's visit.
It is the first papal trip to the United States since the September 11 attacks of 2001, involving far higher security precautions than during visits by Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II.
Police will work with the Secret Service and the papal Swiss Guard during the visit, which kicks off on April 15, but have declined to say how many officers will be on duty, or divulge what special measures are being taken.
The New York police department has said only that it is working closely with the Secret Service "to provide the highest level of protection possible for the pope during his visit to New York."
Among the now routine security precautions being deployed for the visit will be the use of metal detectors and identity checks for those attending events on the pope's itinerary.
Unlike John Paul II's visit to New York in 1979, when he held an outdoor open-admission event at a park in southern Manhattan, attendance at Benedict's public events is being more strictly controlled.
John Paul's visit to New York in 1995 -- his first to New York after the 1981 assassination attempt against him in the Vatican -- was also relatively open, with a mass in Central Park attended by more than 100,000 people.
This time the pontiff is to attend a reception at the White House on Wednesday and scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.
Other events on the schedule include a visit to Ground Zero, the site of the September 11 attacks in New York, a meeting with Jewish leaders in Washington and a short stop at a synagogue in New York.
But it is his two showpiece events at baseball stadiums in Washington on Thursday and in New York on April 20 that are causing the biggest security challenge.
Access to the pope's appearance at New York's Yankee Stadium, where he is to celebrate mass on April 20, is being strictly controlled with the help of bar-coded, non-transferable tickets and hours-long security procedures.
Federal agents were carrying out background checks on everyone attending the New York event, who were being asked to arrive at their parishes six hours before the service to allow enough time for security, according to reports.
The New York press said agents were also conducting background checks on volunteers from church groups who had signed up to help during the visit.
The numbers of those attending the public events look to be far smaller than in the past. The archdiocese of Washington handed out 46,000 tickets for the mass on Thursday, compared with the 175,000 who attended a mass there by John Paul II in 1979.
The increased security is partly due to specific threats. Last month, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused the pope of being deeply involved in a "new crusade" against Islam.
Jewish leaders meanwhile have criticized him for his refusal to abolish a prayer in the Latin mass in which Roman Catholics pray for the conversion of Jews.
And Sikh leaders have refused to meet the pope after the Secret Service denied them permission to wear their ceremonial dagger, or kirpan -- one of the five items male Sikhs are required to carry.

Dismay and anger as Pope declares Protestants cannot have churches

Protestant churches yesterday reacted with dismay to a new declaration approved by Pope Benedict XVI insisting they were mere "ecclesial communities" and their ministers effectively phonies with no right to give communion.
Coming just four days after the reinstatement of the Latin mass, yesterday's document left no doubt about the Pope's eagerness to back traditional Roman Catholic practices and attitudes, even at the expense of causing offence.

The view that Protestants cannot have churches was first set out by Pope Benedict seven years ago when, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he headed the Vatican "ministry" for doctrine. A commentary attached to the latest text acknowledged that his 2000 document, Dominus Iesus, had caused "no little distress".

But it added: "It is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to [Protestant communities], given that they do not accept the theological notion of the Church in the Catholic sense and that they lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church."

The Pope's old department, which issued the document, said its aim was to correct "erroneous or ambiguous" interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965. Quoting a text approved by the Council, it said Protestant churches, "because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood", had not "preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery".

However, other Christians saw the latest document as another retreat from the spirit of openness generated by the Council, which laid the basis for talks on Christian unity. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, head of the Protestant umbrella group Evangelical Church in Germany, said: "The hope for a change in the ecumenical situation has been pushed further away by the document published today."

He said the new pronouncement repeated "offensive statements" in the 2000 document and was a "missed opportunity" to improve relations with Protestants. The president of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, pastor Domenico Maselli, called it a "huge step backwards in relations between the Roman Catholic church and other Christian communities".

A statement from the French Protestant Federation warned that the internal document would have "external repercussions".

The Church of England reacted more cautiously than seven years ago when Dominus Iesus was issued and the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, denounced it as unacceptable. The spokesman for the current archbishop, Rowan Williams, said: "This is a serious document, teaching on important ecclesiological matters and of significance to the churches' commitment to the full, visible unity to the one church of Jesus Christ."

The Vatican's statement had fewer misgivings about the Orthodox Church, which had "true sacraments" and a genuine priesthood. But their failure to acknowledge the Pope's authority meant they suffered from a "defectus", politely translated from Latin as "a wound".

On Saturday, the Pope freed Catholics to ask for masses to be celebrated according to the Latin rite abolished by the Second Vatican Council. This meant the reinstatement of a Good Friday prayer describing Jews as blind to the Christian truth.

The president of the Italian rabbinical assembly, Giuseppe Laras, yesterday called it "a heavy blow". He told the daily Corriere della Sera: "We are going back. A long way back."

Why does Lent last forty days?

The duration of the season of Lent is based on the ancient church custom of requiring catechumens to undergo a forty-day period doctrinal instruction and fasting before being baptized on the evening before Easter. This probationary period was called the quarantine (from the Latin word for forty). The number forty occurs frequently in both testaments of the Bible. It signifies the time that is required for discipline, testing, and separation prior to achieving a goal or new beginning. For example, we read in the Old Testament that it rained forty days and nights during the Great Flood (Genesis 7:12), Moses communed with God on Mount Sinai for forty days before receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:18), the people of Israel were forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years (Numbers 14:33-34), Elijah journeyed for forty days before he reached the cave at Horeb and had a vision of God (1 Kings 19:8-9), and the inhabitants of Nineveh fasted and repented for forty days in response to the preaching of Jonah (Jonah 3:4-5). The outstanding instances of the number forty in the New Testament are the account of Christ's ordeal in the desert fasting, praying, and being tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; and Luke 4:1-13) and His various appearances to the apostles and others between His resurrection and ascension during which He strengthened their faith and prepared them for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3).

What does the word "LENT" mean?

The word Lent is apparently derived from the Old English lencten, which means "lengthen." It refers to the lengthening of the daylight hours that occurs in the northern hemisphere as spring approaches. It is in this period of transition from late winter to early spring that the season of Lent falls.

WHAT IS LENT?

Lent is a forty-day liturgical season that initiates the most sacred part of the Christian year. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on the Great Vigil of Easter. Sundays are not included in the forty-day count because every Sunday is a joyful celebration of our Lord's resurrection. During Lent, Christians meditate on the great paschal mystery -- the salvation God won for us sinners by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.