Pope Benedict and Mass at Nationals Park

I'm here in Wisconsin but I've been personally moved by Pope Benedict's visit to America.

The Mass this morning was incredible.

WASHINGTON -- Pope Benedict XVI praised America as a land of opportunity and hope Thursday as he celebrated the first public Mass of his U.S. pilgrimage, but he lamented that the nation's promise fell short for blacks and Indians. Hope for the future, he said, "is very much a part of the American character."

Tens of thousands of worshippers filled Nationals Park on a clear spring day and cheered Benedict as he arrived in a white popemobile, standing in the back and waving. The crowd grew to 46,000, and the demand for tickets doubled the supply, organizers said.

I've never been at a Mass that large, but I have been at Mass with thousands in attendance. There's something so special and inspiring about celebrating Mass and being among such large numbers of people, united in our faith, praising God.

I can't imagine how I would feel if I had been among the 46,000 to be at Mass with Pope Benedict. Just seeing it on the Internet was so moving for me.

Although 46,000 of the faithful were at Nationals Park, millions more were there in spirit. Watching the Mass literally was a spiritual experience.

...The pope, wearing scarlet vestments, led the service from an altar erected in centerfield of the recently inaugurated baseball stadium. Rows of red-robed church leaders joined him.

In brilliant spring sunshine, the pope walked down from the altar to distribute Holy Communion near the end of Mass.

"Americans have always been a people of hope," he said during his homily. "Your ancestors came to this country with the experience of finding new freedom and opportunity.

"To be sure, this promise was not experienced by all the inhabitants of this land; one thinks of the injustices endured by the native American peoples and by those brought here forcibly from Africa as slaves."

He turned for a third day to the clergy sex abuse scandal that rocked the American church, saying "no words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse."

He called for healing and reconciliation and assistance to the victims.

At the end of the two-hour Mass, Benedict blessed the cheering crowd, some of them waving Vatican flags. Worried-looking papal bodyguards stood close and cleared a way for him as he walked out, while many worshippers tried to shake his hand or touch his robes.

It was such a beautiful Mass!

I truly cherish the Catholic Church.