Crowd burst into song for Benedict
The pontiff turned 81 yesterday, on his first trip to the United States as leader of the world’s Roman Catholics. His 90-minute stay at the White House — only the second ever by a pope — was accompanied by the kind of pomp and pageantry rarely seen even on grounds accustomed to routinely welcoming royalty and the world’s most important leaders.
Lampposts fluttered with flags in the red-white-and-blue of America and yellow-and-white of the Holy See. The vast South Lawn was filled with the largest crowd of Bush’s presidency, requiring a huge television screen so those further back could see. Groups of boy and girl scouts in their uniforms and members of the fraternal group the Knights of Columbus wore their traditional brightly coloured feather headgear. Thousands unable to get inside filled Washington DC’s streets, playing music and waving banners as they waited for a hoped-for glimpse of the pontiff passing by later in his popemobile.
