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Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates Mass in Washington, D.C.

More than 46,000 people attended Pope Benedict's papal Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., on April 17. Benedict is on his first papal visit to the United States this week.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

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Despite gaggles of anti-Catholic protesters and an unpleasant crush when a number of stadium exits were closed after the Mass, the mood was largely jubilant.

The pope "is the holiest guy in the world," said Tommy Castiello of Bethesda, who brought his two daughters to the Mass.

As thousands streamed toward the stadium before the Mass, knots of desperate ticket-seekers formed outside. "Need one miracle," read a small sign held by one man.

Trevor Rodrigues, 43, in town on a work trip from Santa Monica, Calif., held a sign that read: "From Calif. Need 1 Ticket."

When the Mass began, hundreds of people who did not have tickets gathered in the middle of N Street SE, just outside the park's centerfield entrance, to watch the Mass on an electronic screen.

Protesters with signs and bullhorns stationed themselves nearby, shouting so loud that they drowned out some of Benedict's softly spoken homily.

"You have shed the blood of God!" yelled one protester, who declined to give his name.

"Shut up!" someone in the crowd shouted back.

Eventually, mounted policemen surrounded the loudest protesters.

"Look!" Christie Powell yelled from the sidewalk as the gleaming black limousines emerged from the underpass on South Capitol street after the Mass.

"Look at the papal flags!" she screamed to her friends from an "itty-bitty" church in North Little Rock, Ark. "Y'all wave! He's gonna be in one of them!"

And there, visible through the translucent car windows, Benedict indeed was, clad in white.

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