[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 59 (Tuesday, April 15, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2985-S2986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             POPE BENEDICT XVI'S VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this week we welcome his Holiness, Pope 
Benedict XVI, for his first visit to America as Pope.
  Here in Washington, Pope Benedict will meet the President at the 
White House, marking only the second time in America's history that a 
pontiff has visited the White House. He will offer Mass at the newly 
opened Nationals Park, and deliver an address at Catholic University.
  Pope Benedict will then travel to New York, where he will address the 
United Nations, visit Ground Zero, site of the devastating 9/11 
terrorist attacks, and say Mass at Yankee Stadium.
  During his visit, the Pope will also champion a brotherhood of faith 
between the religions, by meeting with leaders from the Buddhist, 
Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and other faiths.
  The Pope's visit observes some important anniversaries. Wednesday, 
April 16, will be his 81st birthday, and Saturday, the 19th, will mark 
the third anniversary of his election as Pope.
  His visit also coincides with the 200th anniversary of four of the 
oldest dioceses in the United States, one of which was established in 
my own State of Kentucky. Two hundred years ago this month, Pope Pius 
VII carved the Diocese of Bardstown from one of the oldest dioceses in 
the New World.
  The territory of the Bardstown Diocese once covered a giant swath of 
land, including what are now the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, and half of 
Arkansas.
  The Bardstown Diocese was established alongside the dioceses of 
Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. Its seat was eventually moved to 
Louisville, KY, and made an archdiocese. But its place in the history 
of American Catholicism continues to be a point of pride across 
Kentucky.

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  Kentuckians celebrate this bicentennial throughout the year at the 
St. Thomas Church, considered the ``Cradle of Catholicism'' in the 
Bluegrass State and still located in Bardstown. A two-story log house 
that stands on St. Thomas' property is the oldest structure related to 
the Catholic faith in our region of the United States.
  Built in 1795 by Thomas and Ann Howard, the property was willed to 
the church by Mr. Howard in 1810, and it became the first home of the 
St. Thomas Seminary, the first seminary west of the Alleghenies. It 
later served as the residence of Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, first 
bishop of the Bardstown Diocese.
  Bishop Flaget and others who worked to establish the Bardstown 
Diocese were pioneers of the land as well as of the spirit. Kentucky 
was the western frontier of the young United States at that time, and 
frontier life posed many hardships.
  Yet Bishop Flaget successfully made his work and presence felt 
throughout the diocese, and the St. Thomas Church still cites his 
influence today, two centuries later.
  The resolve and faith displayed by the founders of that Bardstown 
Diocese are the same resolve and faith that have enabled so many other 
Catholic missionaries to attract more than 1 billion adherents to the 
Catholic faith.
  As the Bishop of Rome, the Pope's leadership inspires millions with 
confidence that mankind can find God's will amidst the chaos of this 
world.
  Yet, for all the obvious affection people show him, Pope Benedict 
would be the first to recognize that he is merely ``a simple, humble 
laborer in the vineyard of the Lord.''
  We are honored by his visit. And in Bardstown, Washington or 
elsewhere, we welcome Pope Benedict VXI to bring his labors to America.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.

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