NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT

When Ratzinger Last Visited New York

By Sewell Chan
New York Times
July 17, 2007, 1:32 pm

Pope Benedict XVI, who is expected to visit the United Nations next year, last visited New York in 1988, according to the archdiocese here. Back then  17 years before he was elected pope, in 2005  he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the churchs top theologian. Cardinal Ratzinger was harassed by noisy demonstrators and snubbed by rabbis during that visit, in January 1988, according to an Associated Press account from the time. That visit drew out some of the major doctrinal controversies that have dogged Pope Benedict, who has long been one of the staunchest defenders of Roman Catholic orthodoxy.

The A.P. reported that on Jan. 26, 1988, several prominent rabbis refused to attend a meeting with Ratzinger because he maintains that Judaism finds its fulfillment in Christianity. The following day, gay demonstrators, angered by Cardinal Ratzingers contention that homosexuality is a moral disorder, heckled him during his talk at the St. Peters Church, a Lutheran congregation in Midtown.

The demonstrators  some shouting Hes no man of God, inquisitor and Nazi  interrupted a talk by Cardinal Ratzinger for about 10 minutes. The A.P. reported that Cardinal John J. OConnor, the archbishop of New York at the time (he died in 2000), sat somberly beside him during the disruption at the presentation. Six demonstrators were arrested.

Cardinal Ratzingers talk, and a closed-door conference on Jan. 28, 1988, were organized by the Center on Religion and Society at the Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal foundation based in Charlottesville, Va.

The Vatican announced recently that Pope Benedict is planning trips next year to New York to address the United Nations at the invitation of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; to Sydney, Australia, to mark World Youth Day; and to Lourdes, France, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Madonna.

The popes visit would be only the fourth in New York Citys history. Pope Paul VI visited in October 1964, during the first-ever papal visit to the United States. Paul John Paul II visited New York in October 1979 and October 1995.

Today, Peter Kiefer of The Timess Rome bureau spoke with the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. Father Lombardi said there is no plan or a stable date for the popes visit to New York, but confirmed that any papal visit to the United Nations would probably be accompanied by a pastoral event. It is true that if he passes through he would not just be visiting the building of the United Nations, Father Lombardi said. It is likely that there would be some other event, other carpets to touch.

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, said today: We are expecting the Holy Father to come. Were still waiting on a date.

Practically the first thing Cardinal Egan did after Pope Benedict was elected was to invite him to New York, Mr. Zwilling said, referring to Cardinal Edward M. Egan. We had been hoping he would be willing to come. We first got word of this several months ago that the pope had accepted the invitation to Ban Ki-moon to address the United Nations. A few days later the Holy See made it clear it would not be in 2007, so from that point on we anticipated it would be in 2008. Mr. Zwilling added that the visit to New York could occur as early as the spring, but cautioned that no firm date had been set.

About a week and a half ago, Cardinal Egan was in Rome and expressed to the pope the enthusiasm of New Yorkers for a papal visit, Mr. Zwilling said.