Pope Will Visit D.C. In April

Benedict will arrive in Washington on April 15. The next day, his birthday, he will be officially welcomed at the White House, and that afternoon he will address a special meeting of the bishops' conference. On April 17, he will celebrate Mass at the new Washington Nationals stadium. Wuerl said he expects that all 41,000 seats will be filled but said he did not yet know how admission will be handled.

The pope also will meet with educators at Catholic University that day before leaving for New York City. There, he will address the United Nations, hold an ecumenical meeting and visit Ground Zero before returning to Rome on April 20.

There are about 1 million Catholics in the area of the Washington and Arlington archdioceses. The Washington Archdiocese includes the District and suburban Maryland counties; the Arlington Archdiocese stretches to Shenandoah County, Va., to the west and the Northern Neck to the south.

William D'Antonio, a sociologist at the Life Cycle Institute at Catholic University, said surveys of U.S. Catholics since 1987 show they are increasingly distancing themselves from Vatican teachings, but he did not see that as a plain rejection of the pope.

"I think they are looking to their consciences versus obedience to authority," he said yesterday. They will probably want to see and hear Benedict when he visits because "they look to his personal holiness" and his teachings on social justice. "To the degree which he'll speak about poverty, conflict and war, he'll receive a very positive reception."

Benedict has provoked great debate in the past year, including this spring, when he said during a news conference in Brazil that he agreed with the excommunication of Mexican lawmakers who legalized abortion. During the U.S. presidential campaign in 2004, U.S. bishops debated how to characterize pro-choice candidates, and this week in Baltimore they will again debate it -- this time in public -- as they vote on a document meant to give American Catholics voting guidance.

The bishops and Benedict are very cautious about this subject, Gibson said, so they don't tie one another's hands. Wuerl, in particular, is in a complex spot, Gibson said, because he is in effect the bishop for all Catholic politicians on Capitol Hill -- both supporters and opponents of abortion rights.

Last fall, Benedict suggested that Islam was prone to violence, igniting furor in the Muslim world. He said later that his comments were misunderstood and has worked toward dialogue with Muslims. This summer, he repeated his belief that Catholicism is the only true church, a statement some worry will hurt relations with other denominations.

Staff writer Howard Schneider contributed to this report.