Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher, who looks at the latest news with a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.

Today's Column: Getting Close to the Pope Runs in the Family

From Catholic Schools to Charters: What's Left? ( Raw Fisher, April 2)

Fisher was online Thursday, April 10, at Noon ET to look at the pope's visit to Washington, the Supreme Court decision on lethal injections and the banning of tag at a McLean elementary school.

Check out Marc's blog, Raw Fisher.

In his weekly show, Fisher veers wildly from serious probing to silly prattle, and is open to topics local, national, personal and more.

Archives: Discussion Transcripts

A transcript follows.

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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard on a sparkling Washington day, a day of pageantry and, well, yes, mystery, as the pope leads the services at Nationals Park before the first really overflow crowd ever at the city's new baseball stadium.

We'll bounce around as usual among many topics in the news, but the main focus today is on Pope Benedict's visit to Washington, and on his words so far. The Mass just wrapping up now has been a splendidly majestic affair, with an inspiring range of high-quality music, a reminder of the Catholic Church's extraordinary influence through the centuries on the sacred and popular musics of the western world. Sadly, that's not a tradition that has been kept alive in our times, and so much of the modern sounds associated with the church's services tend to leave contemporary listeners flat, if not fleeing for the exits.

The people who've been lining the streets of the District for a glimpse of the passing Popemobile so far seem to come away fulfilled and pleased to have waited hours for a few seconds of watching a car go by. I can't say that I quite understand this phenomenon, anymore for the pope than for the pop celebrities or royals for whom people similarly queue up.

Placido Domingo is singing at the ballpark as I write this, and he is one of this city's insufficiently recognized jewels. But it is the words of the pope that are most carefully examined today, and they are the subject of today's special papal edition of the Yay and Nay of the Day:

Yay to the pope for going farther than some senior church officials thought he might in airing out the church's sexual abuse scandal, both in his comments on the way to Washington and again this morning in his homily at the stadium. Benedict not only offered his regrets and spoke of the deep hurt that men of the church have created, but devoted a fairly lengthy chunk of his talk to the idea that Catholics must all reach out to the victims of abuse and must seek ways to assure that children are protected and that the church finds a way to restore its standing. He called on all Catholics also to support their priests, who indeed occupy a sometimes lonely place in a society in which ever fewer are called to that life of abstinence.

But as frank and open as the pope was on the sex scandal, he has thus far remained silent on some of the other issues pressing on the spinal cord of the American church. So a tentative Nay to the pope for not forthrightly addressing questions such as the morality of U.S. policies toward immigration, torture and capital punishment. For centuries, governments and the church have been at odds over just how intimately involved in matters of state a pope ought to be.

This pope spoke eloquently this morning of the alienation in American life, of the distortions created by an undue emphasis on consumerism. But he left his remarks quite broad and vague and he has declined, as popes often do, to get into policy disputes with his hosts. That's the polite and diplomatically proper path, but in a world that craves moral leadership, in a nation in which politicians succeed primarily based on their ability to avoid intimate engagement in the real stresses of people's lives, a pope or other religious leader has an obligation to wade in, to bring his moral clarity to bear on the issues that divide and plague us.

That's how I see it; how about you?

And if you'd rather get into the latest changes proposed in the D.C. schools, the GOP Senate campaign in Virginia, the Supreme Court's ruling on lethal injections, the slots debate in Maryland or anything else, that's cool too. Your turn starts right now....

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Falls Church, Va.: The Pope's travel routes were published for April 16, so that observers could see him pass by, but I have not been able to find his routes anywhere for today, April 17.

Following Mass today at the National's Stadium, what will the Pope's travel routes be prior to his appearance at Catholic University at 5:00 p.m., and approximately what are the times that will he be in transit?

Many thanks.

Marc Fisher: There's a map in today's paper, on page A11, that shows the areas around Catholic University where the motorcade will pass. As for his path on the way across town, that the security folks try to keep a bit less public.

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No ID: What with all the adulation over the Pope visiting town, some of us long for the days of JFK's famous 1960 speech to Baptists when he promised he would NOT be beholden to the leaders of his religion. Nowadays it seems that politicians leap to wrap themselves in their faiths. Do you think an avowed skeptic could ever get elected even senator, let alone president? (Rep. Pete Stark has taken a lot of flak for such an announcement).

Marc Fisher: Well, certainly the comments that got Barack Obama in hot water last week were a nod in that direction. He didn't mean for them to get out there in the public light, but he did seem to want a small audience of his donors to see that he's a modern, secular guy who believes that people resort to religion to find relief from the strains of hard times. Of course he denies that now, but it seemed like a breath of fresh air to know that a politician would say that even in a place he thought was far from public scrutiny.

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Washington, D.C.: I hope those directing the crowds attending the Pope's Mass at the Nationals Stadium do a better job of directing people towards the entrances with more metal detectors than was the case at last month's Opening Night.

Marc Fisher: Dr. Gridlock is reporting that things have been going smoothly both on Metro and on local roads, with the obvious heavy traffic as people came into the ballpark early this morning, but no major tangles.

And the security on the way into the stadium seemed to gum things up less than for the president's appearance at Opening Night.

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Bethesda, Md.: I'd like to return to a discussion topic from last week, the Fairfax County Schools report on morality, and respond to the poster who said that right and wrong were easy to determine. A number of years ago, my husband did a study of suspenison rates for a local public school district. He, too, found higher suspension rates for black students. But when he looked further he discovered that the same behaviors that got black students suspended only merited a slap on the wrist for white students. So if you think discerning right and wrong is black and white, so to speak, you are wrong. It's subjective, and that determination is "colored" by race.

Marc Fisher: Yes, quite a few critics of Fairfax's decision to categorize moral and ethical behavior measures by race argue that teachers of all races tend to view the same behaviors differently depending on who's doing the misbehaving. That may of course be true in some instances, but teachers black and white alike routinely tell me that the behavior problems in their classrooms tend to be kids who have insufficient parenting, kids who are too much on their own, who get too little sleep and whose role models are dysfunctional.

Many of those problems correlate with income level and in many parts of our region, the poor are disproportionately black and Hispanic, which could also explain the numbers in Fairfax's surveys. But again, I just don't see what value that information provides the teachers who must deal with the misbehaving kids. Teachers need good and caring strategies for making their classrooms peaceful yet exciting places in which to learn, and those strategies have nothing to do with race or ethnicity. It's irrelevant info, plain and simple.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Hi, Marc, I can't participate live so this is in response to one of last week's themes.

I was born in 1947, entered 1st grade in St. Bernadette's R.C. School in Silver Spring in 1953. The same nun taught 75 1st graders from 9-1 and a similar group from 2-6. My second grade class had 94 students! We envied our California cousins who "only" had 65 kids in each class. We have the class pictures to prove this.

Of course individualized attention was lacking! All teaching was done by rote. However, to this day, I can recite multiplication tables up to the 20's; know the capital and what was then the leading economic product (farm or industrial) of each state; the presidents and vice presdents, in order, and their home states. Other than a sister who was widowed and has remarried, my six sibs and I are still married to our first spouses. We are all financially responsible; a couple of us have never had a credit card and one paid cash for his home. None of us has ever been in trouble with the law. I live less than 2 miles from the house where I grew up, am still in touch with several of my classmates, and they tell pretty much the same story.

It's a different story with our children and grandchildren. They are in smaller classes, get much more individual attention and all sorts of enrichment, but they have also had problems with the law, with responsibility, many are still drifting in their 20's. I know life wasn't perfect in our day, opportunities for women were not that great, alcoholism was a problem for some family members. I also recognize that society overall has changed, and in my view, not for the better.

Of course, even the most neglectful parent would go beserk today if his or her child were placed in a class of this size. However, I'd take my education experiences over much of what passes for education today. Too bad we don't have the means -- or the nuns! -- to bring this about today.

Marc Fisher: I hear this often--hey, we had 70 kids in our classes and we turned out just fine! I too grew up going to school with classes of 42, 45, 40, and while I can indeed multiply, I also know that much of my time in elementary school was an utter waste, just marking the hours while teachers screamed and flailed and utterly missed out on making any connection with kids.

Small classes are no panacea, and nothing can replace the value of a home in which kids are read to and driven from the start to learn and achieve. But schools are being asked to carry a far larger burden today than they were decades ago, and while teachers aren't social workers, society often demands that they pretend to be. Forming close relationships helps in that pursuit, as does having high expectations and standards. There's no contradiction between the two.

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Kent, Ohio: Was the Popemobile flown over from the Vatican City or was a new one constructed in the U.S. for the visit?

Marc Fisher: As I understand it, yes, the Popemobile is flown over from church HQ for each papal trip. I didn't see it yesterday but people who did said it was bit underwhelming, like a pick-up with a strange booth plopped on top. It's the man inside that wows them, not the vehicle itself.

Local advantage: Repaving of many of the streets on which the Popemobile is traveling. Hey, come on back, Benedict, we could use you in my neighborhood.

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washingtonpost.com: Watch for Noontime Congestion ( Get There Blog)

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Arlington, Va.: Marc, I'm not sure where to direct this, but here goes anyway. I've suubscribed to The Post, daily and Sunday, since I arrived in D.C. in 1965. I also read it on-line, but can't imagine ever foregoing the paper version.

However, I read The Post primarily for "hard" news and opinion. Thus I am not pleased by the page and a half spread in today's Sports section on the death by cancer of a teenage athlete and his grieving girlfriend. In addition, the flowery, overblown prose was more appropriate for a tabloid or a romance magazine. Of course I feel sorry for all concerned, but such stories are not the reason I subscribe to The Post and could, in time, make me rethink my decision.

washingtonpost.com: A Lifetime of Undying Devotion To a Life Tragically Cut Short ( Post, April 17)

Marc Fisher: Matthew Stanmyre's compelling story on today's Sports front may not be your taste, but it's exactly the kind of story that many Sports readers clamor for--a deeply reported, nicely written narrative that takes us into the heart of what sports and life are all about, the root emotional ties that compel us to achieve more and to be more human. Sports is about winning and losing, and that's in this story, and sports is about character and purpose, and that's very much in this story.

You can find scores and stats anywhere these days. What makes a great newspaper is the value it adds to those numbers.

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Washington, D.C.: I was fortunate enough to purchase a bobblehead Pope Benedict -- the one that everybody made a big stink over -- and I carried him with me on the Metro this morning. Shockingly, nobody said a word! I guess I expected at least one crazy person to say something. Perhaps they thought I was the crazy one and were afraid to say anything?

Marc Fisher: Given the array of souvenirs the church itself is hawking, it would be hard to imagine objections to such icons being sold on a freelance basis. (Though the archdiocese did bring to the attention of Metro the fact that the pope is improperly dressed in that bobblehead depiction.) Amazingly, the first 10,000 folks to enter the stadium today did not receive free bobbleheads. They didn't even get fridge magnets!

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No Escape: The other night I went to the Pentagon City Mall for the first time in a few months. I thought you might like to know there's a Dippin' Dots stand there -- and it's not even down in the food court, it's right in the middle of the first level of the mall.

Marc Fisher: God save us all.

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Alexandria, Va.: Fisher: "It's irrelevant info, plain and simple."

I agree completely. I am very tired of the increasing amount of public dollars spent on "research" that is not of use. Don't get me wrong, I support spending on academic research, but I don't support all of these studies and commissions whose sole purpose seems to be to validate or invalidate a political argument or public assumption. I wish we could stop cutting important services government provides to pay for all of this pointless point/counterpoint arguing.

Marc Fisher: Agreed--this illness is especially common in matters of education. I could paper the entire newsroom--floor, walls and ceilings--with the accumulated reports, studies, action plans, blueprints and white papers that roll into my office from people whose job it is to produce words that purport to tell us why kids aren't learning or what should be done to fix the schools. Yet not a whole lot changes, does it?

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Calvert County, Md.: Let me preface this by stating, I am a bleeding heart liberal. I feel badly for people who make bad choices, I seek to help those less fortunate, the death penalty makes me weep and I make my Republican father shake his head wondering where I came from. When I read about one of the fathers in the Bonita Jacks case suing the city I became totally outraged. This man cared not a wit about his daughter, paid no support, never saw her and was completely negligent in her care. She was abused, left with a mentally unstable mother and ultimately murdered. And now this man wants to climb up on his daughter's dead body to reach out and grab millions of dollars. I have never felt this type of visceral anger towards a stranger before. Truly I like to tell this man just what I think about him.

Marc Fisher: You just did, perhaps. At least you told the rest of us.

And you're right--I hope the judge in the case dismisses that suit with a stern reminder that those who failed to make a difference on the front end, but then swoop in after the tragedy to try to collect a few big ones deserve nothing but a kick on the way out the door.

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Annapolis, Md.: I'm not sure why you give the pope a Yay for speaking about the sex abuse scandal. He said it was sad and shameful that it happened, and that the church will endeavor not to admit pedophiles into the priesthood in future. (How will that go? Are you a pedophile? Yes? Then no ordainment for you!) But he did not address the response of the church to the scandal, which was to protect the guilty priests and repeatedly transfer them to new parishes for fresh victims, without ever warning anyone that the new priest had problems with children. Further, Exhibit A of this disgusting trend, Cardinal Law, is living and working at the Vatican, with no public reprimand and no apparent ill effects from his contemptible behavior.

So why the Yay?

Marc Fisher: Of course there's always more a leader such as the pope can do or say to address such a scandal. And this pope will be judged eventually in this country on how well he is able to restore the moral authority of the church and to heal the wounds created by wayward priests. But you have to judge each circumstance according to its natural limits: This is a visit of ceremonies in which many in the church expected little or nothing from the pope about the sex scandal. The fact that he seems determined to confront the issue head on, every day so far of the trip, is an important symbolic statement, and thus the Yay. Of course the damage remains, and this can only be one small step toward showing that the church is committed to fixing itself and healing those it hurt.

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Rockville, Md.: So WMATA has sold the "$9 commemorative Mass Pass" which "is a paper farecard that can be used for unlimited travel on Metrorail all day long on April 17 only".

Now, many of the Mass Pass users have parked in Metro-operated lots. Most of the lots require SmarTrips to exit. Is it going to be parking exit hell later today? Do you think WMATA has even thought of this problem?

Marc Fisher: Maybe someday I will understand why Metro insists on the SmarTrip cards at its garages. A more antagonistic policy toward riders would be hard to construct. It's as if the system wants to send the message that only everyday passengers are desired; yet we are often told that it's the marginal riders, such as those who jam onto trains for special events like today's, that make an essential difference in winning Metro the income it so desperately needs. Seems like quite a disconnect.

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It's the man inside that wows them, not the vehicle itself. : The only thing that wows me is his red shoes. Wow.

Marc Fisher: And how about the hats? Michelle Boorstein's terrific piece in Style today explains how this pope has moved the Vatican back in time to an era of far more elaborate vestments--I love the vocabulary of the pope's wardrobe: the mitres, mozzetta, chasubles. Great stuff--check out the story.

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washingtonpost.com: Vintage Vestments: The Philosophical Threads Woven Into Papal Garments ( Post, April 17)

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Crystal City, Va.: A letter published in the Saturday Post made a compelling case for classifying you as a sexist for comments in one of your recently published columns. How do you plead?

Marc Fisher: Not guilty, with an explanation.

Yes, I am guilty as charged in having written about the power of baseball and the way in which it binds fathers and sons. The letter writer said that I am therefore sexist because I did not include the many mothers and daughters who also love the sport.

My own daughter is a lifelong baseball nut, a splendid pitcher from an early age straight into her teens, a coach at a summer baseball camp who has taught skeptical young boys year after year, a fan whose knowledge of the game I'd put up against any of her male peers. Baseball is one of our most important ties, father and daughter.

But in tradition and in fact, sports tend to bond fathers and sons. That may not be as the letter writer wishes, and it doesn't reflect the reality in my own family, but it is a statement of fact about the majority of folks, and that's why I phrased it the way I did.

And the verdict of the court is?

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RE: Thus I am not pleased by the page and a half spread in today's Sports section on the death by cancer of a teenage athlete and his grieving girlfriend.: Then don't read the article. There's plenty of other "hard news" in the paper.

Marc Fisher: Exactamente.

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Potomac, Md.: I am a long-lapsed Catholic who nevertheless strongly supports the church's views on the death penalty, torture, immigration and, of course, the nefarious war in Iraq. I might be more tempted to return to the fold if the pope were to push these and similar issues with President Bush et al.

Marc Fisher: Yeah, just making a lame reference to the wonders of the United Nations doesn't cut it. Benedict's predecessor was a good deal more in-your-face on these matters than this pope has so far shown himself to be, but again, we don't know exactly what the pope and the president spoke of yesterday.

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Kingstowne, Va.: re: "For centuries, governments and the church have been at odds over just how intimately involved in matters of state a pope ought to be."

In my opinion, the pope is no different than any other head of state, and as such he should not be involved in the affairs of this country any more so than the head of state of a any other foreign country.

re: Tag

Instead of banning these activities piecemeal, perhaps it's time to just post a list of the few permitted activities on a post-it note on the door to the playground.

Marc Fisher: But doesn't the pope's role transcend national boundaries? After all, his flock lives throughout the globe. I wouldn't want him to try to run any country, but isn't his moral and religious authority standing enough for him to make his voice heard to the powers that be in any land?

Re Tag: Perhaps the children will be permitted to sit in a circle and think about the games they enjoy playing.

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College Park, Md.: Do you have an opinion on the deference shown by our president to the head of state of Vatican City? Especially when considering that the president has never before met any visiting HOS at the airport?

As a non-Catholic, I feel very negative about this. Can you explain it to me in soothing terms?

Marc Fisher: This president seems to have a particular interest in this pope. Perhaps the president sees in the pope someone who has been able to translate his own moral certainties into a message that persuades rather than browbeats, unlike Bush, who never quite got that part of what leadership is all about.

Or perhaps Bush, like many presidents before him, is just clinging to someone more popular than himself.

I don't mind the show of respect involved in Bush going to the airport. I could do without the expenditure of public monies to put up banners and welcome messages on lampposts, public transportation and other such places.

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M Street NW, Washington, D.C.: Marc,

The pope may not have dealt with issues such as torture directly, but it is being discussed on a local level. I'm sure this community focus is due to a policy from higher up, so to speak.

Our priest has condemned torture in his homilies and had discussion groups to more fully discuss the topic.

Not everything needs to be by Papal Decree.

Marc Fisher: True, but this is a golden opportunity to send a clear message, no? After all, a pope travels not only to serve his flock, but to minister to all, and part of that job is to send clear moral messages, no?

The D.C. region is not one of the more Catholic parts of the country. Maryland is 17th in the nation in Catholics, and Virginia is 21st. So the pope is speaking here to an audience very much made up of non-Catholics, and they too look to him as someone who has something to say about how we live and what we should be focused on.

By the way, here's your top 10 states ranked by Catholic population:

1. California, 11.51 million.

2. New York, 7.44m.

3. Texas, 6.04m.

4. Illinois, 3.84m.

5. Pennsyl., 3.31m.

6. New Jersey, 3.22m.

7. Massachusetts., 2.84m.

8. Florida, 2.31m.

9. Michigan, 2.28m.

10. Ohio, 2.15m.

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Bethesda, Md.: Pope's vestments: Sorry, but it's those excessive vestments and the "royalty-like" treatment that turn this church-going Catholic off when it comes to any pope. That is not a symbol the church should represent. Jesus washed people's feet. This man needs someone to take his hat off?

Marc Fisher: And to turn his pages for him. I was watching all that and thinking I really need to get back to finding someone who can delete my emails for me. He or she would have to wear special newsroom vestments, however.

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McLean, Va.: Have you given yourself a deadline on deciding whether you will take the buyout?

Marc Fisher: Ah, well, maybe I won't be getting that email-deleting assistant after all. The Post's deadline on the buyout is May 15, so you'll be hearing the decisions of many of your favorite (and most loathed) columnists and writers around then.

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Tag: Perhaps the children will be permitted to sit in a circle and think about the games they enjoy playing.: No, no, no, Marc! Their fannies might get cold or dirty on the playground. The germs! The dirt!

Marc Fisher: Good god, you're right. I guess they're going to have to each bring in their own special mat, but that's a problem too, because it's quite conceivable that one of those mats might come in from a home where there was once a...heaven forfend!...a peanut! But surely the new nut detectors that schools are installing next to their metal detectors will take care of that horrible possibility.

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Tag?: Wouldn't the answer be in the Tag situation to ACTUALLY SUPERVISE THE CHILDREN? Then remove the offenders, don't just eliminate the game. Kids are smart, once the bullies are taken out of the game, others will play by the rules. It's all about not supervising the kids enough.

Marc Fisher: Well, there is that, but more than that, there's another issue: Letting the kids be kids, and if that entails someone losing the game or getting pushed around a bit or even being excluded from the game (story of my life), so be it. A superb teacher once told me her rule of recess: If it's not bloody, I didn't see it happen. Sounds right to me.

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Banning Tag: Seems like the school may have missed a really good teaching opportunity here. Can't we play tag and teach the kids to be respectful of others while playing? You miss this chance if you just ban the game altogether. Kids aren't going to learn anything from that.

Marc Fisher: Oh yes, they will. They will learn to suppress their feelings and opinions, to avoid confrontation until no one's looking (and then to lash out even more harshly), and to resent the hypocrisy of their elders and those in authority. Such lovely lessons we teach.

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Wasn't Placido Domingo divorced from his first wife?: Isn't it inconsistent for Placido Domingo to be allowed to sing for the Pope when he (Placido) was divorced from his first wife?

Marc Fisher: Tough crowd.

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Pennsylvania Ave.: While this has nothing to do with last weeks "study" it seems to mirror a lot of your sentiments towards useless "scientific studies."

Teen Sex Linked To Drugs And Alcohol, Reports Center For Figuring Out Really Obvious Things ( The Onion, May 1)

Marc Fisher: I'm thinking I need a fellowship at the institute that creates those studies.

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Re: Arlington: Like traffic court -- guilty, but with an excuse. You are sentenced to watch last night's debate twice, no let's make that once -- we don't want to get into any cruel or unusual punishment arguments.

Marc Fisher: Ouch, rough sentence. I listened to much of last night's debate on the radio in the car and that was more than enough. Hasn't this show long outlasted its welcome? Are we condemned to a spring and summer of reruns?

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Baseball doesn't have hail Marys???:"But in tradition and in fact, sports tend to bond fathers and sons. That may not be as the letter writer wishes, and it doesn't reflect the reality in my own family"

Yeah, that tradition's dead. The article would have been more compelling if you wrote what you just shared about your daughter...

"This president seems to have a particular interest in this pope."

Um, and the last pope too. He knealt down before JP at the Vatican. I read about it in the Washington Post. You should subscribe.

Marc Fisher: Yes, quite right about Bush and John Paul. There are those who see Bush as a closet Catholic (you can read about it all over the web.)

I've written often about baseball and my daughter and I hope to have occasion to do so again in the future--but the story that day was the new ballpark and I chose to write about what I saw there that night. There's even a name for it: reporting. And what I saw was a whole mess of fathers and sons taking in the new park together. Yes, some daughters too, but not nearly as many.

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Bethesda, Md.: Marc, what should I do?

My XM subscription ends this month and I'm not quite sure what my next step should be. Do I suck it up and pay for a year and see what happens with the merger? (And hope they don't force me into having to buy some new contraption for it to work?) Do I try to finagle a couple of free months in hopes that more information comes out about the merger between now and then? Do I just cancel my subscription until the merger goes through?

Any thoughts?

Marc Fisher: If you like what you're hearing, might as well stick with XM. On the whole, I come down slightly more for XM than for Sirius (I wrote a lengthy piece on why--lemme see if we can get a link up.) But my advice on which satellite carrier to choose generally comes down to which of the category killers you're passionate about: If it's baseball, XM. Football, Sirius. Howard Stern, Sirius. Bob Edwards, XM. Because the differences in music programming between the two are real, but not big enough to surpass those exclusive programming categories in making the choice.

As for the merger, it will be several years before the two blend programming in any really serious way. And the first phase will bring listeners the chance to add the best of the other guy's programs to your existing service. So you're pretty safe reupping with XM.

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washingtonpost.com: XM-Sirius Merger Made Simple: One Is Always Less Than Two ( Post, Nov. 11, 2007)

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Washington, D.C.: Any thoughts on Steve Pearlsteins column/chat on newspaper yesterday? Is he retiring?

washingtonpost.com: Newspaper Publishers Chasing the Wrong Story ( Post, April 16)

Marc Fisher: I don't know anything about Pearlstein's plans, but his column was anything but a valedictory. He's deeply involved in thinking about the future of journalism. I disagree on parts of his conclusions. I think there's a fair chance that this country will pretty effectively dismantle much of its newsgathering capacity in the coming years and will then face the prospect of having to reinvent the wheel, obviously in some new and technologically different manner.

I don't agree that consolidation is an answer. To the contrary, I think that the rebirth of journalism will come from the place where it is most thriving and growing today, at the very local level, where community weeklies are the only print papers that are still expanding. In a web-inspired media landscape where the whole concept of mass media is very much in question, it is microreporting by disconnected, local sites and papers that will begin the process of rebuilding the reporting infrastructure.

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Silver Spring, Md.: So, a long lapsed Catholic from Potomac, Md., "might" consider coming back to the fold if the pope makes certain concessions on issues that aside from the death penalty are fairly new. Number 1, I'm sure the pope is ready to take a fresh look at these issues now that Potomac, Md., has made known his demands. Number 2, Potomac, Md., claims to have been a lapsed Catholic, is his lapse longer than the 5-year-old Iraq war? We didn't even have time to miss you, Potomoc. Being Catholic is a little bit different than claiming to be an undecided voter after a year of primary elections.

Marc Fisher: Another side heard from.

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Alexandria, Va.: Any Chance the Pope threw in a few blessings for the Nationals? They REALLY need it.

Marc Fisher: Can prayer make the Chief's fastball fast again?

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Papacy v. State: The centuries-old conflict between the pope and national rulers gets even more complex when you realize that rulers in the Middle Ages wielded a great deal of spiritual power...many of them did, after all, claim divine right as their justification. So they clashed with the pope not just on the papacy's secular role, but on a head of state's spiritual role as well. The whole notion of a secular/spiritual divide has its origins here.

Marc Fisher: Quite right, and that's hardly a piece of history that's behind us. Communist leaders very much claimed the role of spiritual leaders everywhere from the Soviet Union to Cuba to China. They don't use the same terms as the English kings did half a millennium ago, but the effect was the same. And looking at the role that religious expression now plays in our presidential politics, it's hard to argue that we haven't retained in our system a sense of the political chiefs as spiritual leaders as well.

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Olney, Md.: Here's a funny thing: Two years ago when my daughter was living in Italy, we were in Rome on Ash Wednesday, so we took the Metro over from the main railroad station at 10 a.m. to the Vatican, walked into Piazza San Pietro and saw and heard the pope speak to a medium-size crowd (someone said it was 50,000) with no difficulties, took pictures, saw him up close on the Jumbotrons they set up, and after hearing him speak in a couple of languages went to lunch. It was the easiest thing in the world. I didn't realize how normally difficult it is to see and hear the pope.

Marc Fisher: I think your experience there was more the norm than the hypersecurity we see in this visit. Anyone can show up on an average Sunday in Rome and see the pope do his thing. It's the away games, and especially here, with our humongous security infrastructure, that things get complicated.

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Do you think Bush will convert?: Jeb Bush converted to Catholicism years ago, Tony Blair just did a few months ago. Do you think George W. Bush will convert, say, not long after leaving office?

Marc Fisher: I doubt it, but it's an intriguing idea.

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Arlington, Va.: Quote: Re Tag: Perhaps the children will be permitted to sit in a circle and think about the games they enjoy playing.

No, no, no. You can't let the kids think about the games 'they'd' like to play. You need to 'tell' them what games they'd like to play, and make them think about those.

Hope that helps.

Marc Fisher: Ah, thank you. An important correction.

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Richmond, Va.: Huh? You must be Catholic Marc. Who else could think other people are interested in your religion? This is the grandaddy of people who think everyone else wants to see their vacation slides or hear about their hemorrhoids? You may adore the pope, but other people don't. I'm so so so so stunned, to see the degree of delusion you're exhibiting. You're usually so good at calling out hype and saying the Emperor is wearing no clothes, but you've done drank the Kool Aid dude.

Marc Fisher: Sorry, not Catholic, nor do I adore the pope. But it's rare that you get a good close-up of an institution that has been so powerful and influential on this planet for a good millennium-plus, so that's worth spending some time watching and trying to figure out.

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Another side heard from. : Another side? They're BOTH Catholics! How about a real other side? How bout posting thoughts from an atheist, or any number of people who don't worship the pope literally or figuratively.

Marc Fisher: Having posted your comment, I have now depleted the supply of such posts sitting in the incoming queue.

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Alexandria, Va. I just finished reading the storyabout Justin Whitaker and his girlfirned Courtney Crews. Anyone who's not touched by this story needs to have his/her heart checked (to see if there's a heart present). I lost my second child when she was just 5 weeks old to an extremely rare and undiagnosed congenital heart condition. This happened almost 6 years ago. I know what Justin's father is going through, and I hope he, Courtney, and any of Justin's other friends and family will reach out for the support they so desperately need to get through this. Capital Hospice was my savior during my grief.

To the Post, please continue with stories like these. I'm often disappointed when a story about an athlete doesn't delve enough into the athlete's family (though I realize this may be the athlete's choice). It completes the picture for me.

Marc Fisher: And here's the other view on that story....

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McLean, Va.:"Then don't read the article. There's plenty of other "hard news" in the paper."

I didn't read the article when I sat down with my morning coffee to read today's hard copy edition. I read it after the reference in this discussion.

The original poster is right. The quality of the article is about right for a newspaper with circulation of 20,000 or so. It is sub-par for The Washington Post. Rather, it used to be sub-par for The Post.

The article is a good example of trends in the newspaper industry that you and Steven Pearlstein have recently discussed. Cutting reporting and editing staff leads to a decline in the quality of the stories. When the quality of the paper -- either hard copy or electronic -- gets to the point where the reader finds himself bypassing more than half the stories because they are poorly written, then the paper is into its death spiral.

People like me and the first poster help support The Post by subscribing, which is something that can't be said for most of the people who log in here. If the quality of The Post continues to decline, we'll stop subscribing and freeload on the .com site like the masses (not to be confused with the Pope's Mass).

Marc Fisher: You're of course free to despise that story, but one thing should be made clear: Whether or not this was the right story to devote reporting resources to, it reflects a commitment to pump major reporting time and energy to stories--exactly the opposite of the cutbacks you decry. Yes, shrinking budgets and staffs are diluting the quality of American journalism, and you ain't seen nothing yet in that department. But the challenge is to see if editors and owners will carve out important areas in which to devote more resources and do more challenging reporting, even as we shrink the boundaries of what we produce.

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Crofton, Md.: Regarding Virginia's school restrictions on "Tag" and, in another case, calling the police when a 5-year-old slaps another kid on the behind during recess -- who's the Nanny-state now?

Marc Fisher: Maryland-Virginia food fight! Film at 11!

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Alexandria, Va.: Do you think the CAPS will be able to grind out a win tonight or the series?

Will you be there Saturday?

Marc Fisher: I certainly hope so, but it's not looking terribly good. The Caps looked a bit lost this last game.

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Lapsed Catholic but interested: Even though I stopped going to Mass years ago (except for "required" family functions) I was still interested in seeing the Popemobile. It helped that my office is on Penn. and I didn't travel far. How often do you get to see a Popemobile?

Despite my feelings for the Church, I have no qualms about the religion -- my fervor for social justice, my ethics and values all stem from my upbringing in the church.

I am distressed, however, by the pomp and circumstance and money being spent for this trip. I don't see how the church (and the U.S.) can justify it with people going to be hungry every night and foot riots looming throughout the world. Feed the hungry sound familiar, Benedict?

Marc Fisher: Fair point, though the pope, like politicians and artists, has to find the right blend of harsh truth and frilly, alluring stuff to bring in the audience.

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Metro's SmartCard Plan and Parking: The real plan is to tell everybody to buy the cards and collect the initial cost. And in 2 years, right when the last person buys a card, they'll let you pay by credit card everywhere, but they'll have your fee for the SmarTrip card.

Marc Fisher: Then why do they make it so complicated to obtain one of those magical cards?

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Alexandria, Va.: Marc -- You want to know why Metro instituted the SmartTrip card for parking -- I remember it clearly -- it was because some of the contractors they hired at a few of the lots were stealing the cash. Meto could not control it, so they did away with cash! We should have seen that as the beginning of some very poor management by Metro.

Marc Fisher: Saves money too, I'm sure. But what it does best is alienate customers.

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D.C. Crosswalks: Hi Marc,

Happy Sunny Spring Day. I am hoping this question makes it to your online chat because I am really hoping Fenty aides are truly reading it as you have claimed before.

What's up with D.C. crosswalks? I'm talking about the ones placed in the middle of congested streets (i.e. Chinatown on 9th St, Calvert Street leading to Adams Morgan)?

Cars CONSISTENTLY FAIL to stop for pedestrians crossing, even when there is a sign there which clearly states that the D.C. law is to in fact STOP.

I've had cars whiz by and flip me the finger for assuming I have the right of way.

I am close to really dislking the suburbanites who drive through my city and think they are on a highway in Fairfax.

What gives? I have never seen a cop ever stake out these spots or ticket these gross offenders. In fact, I've seen plenty of cops in Chinatown, but they are too busy parked outside of the Starbucks to notice cars whizzing by pedestrians by less than a foot.

Can you please post this in hopes that Fenty or Lanier aides read it?!

Marc Fisher: Your wish is my command.

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Dippin' Dots stand there -- and it's not even down in the food court: It shouldn't be in the food court, because it's NOT FOOD.

Marc Fisher: Is there a part of the mall dedicated to industrial plastics?

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Washington, D.C. bobblehead owner again: When I get my Dmitri Young bobblehead on May 1, would it be in poor taste to display it with my Pope bobblehead?

Marc Fisher: There are some accuracy problems with those bobbleheads too. 1) Young is larger than the doll makes him appear to be. 2) Young is not actually a Nationals player right now and it's a bit doubtful that he will be by month's end. Still, I want the bobblehead.

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Alexandria, Va.: In the Middle Ages the Pope used to spend 80 percent of his days parading to various churches in Rome, where he would hold a mass. I miss those days.

Marc Fisher: The Live Online chats were better back then too.

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Food Fight: Maryland and Virginia both need to understand that unruly behavior in the cafeteria will result in a 15-day suspension.

Marc Fisher: Unless they're also engaging in unkind thoughts or are scheming to possess a peanut, in which case nothing short of expulsion is in the cards.

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Washington, D.C.: I went to the opening exhibition game at the stadium and LOVED it and nothing but positive things to say. However, last Friday on a whim a friend and I went to the game, showed up late, like the 4th inning hoping to get $10.00 seats. We were told they were sold out and so we got $18.00 seats. Imagine my surprise that the 18.00 seats were the TOP row of the 400 section.. If that is $18.00 then where the heck are the $10.00 seats? Out on Half street. More distressing was that we were looking down on entire empty sections (140 I believe)...I mean NO one in them. Seat behind home plate empty. And we couldn't move anywhere because they were checking tickets. Couldn't they be a bit more fan friendly?

Marc Fisher: The pricing is by section, not by row. So someone a couple of sections over from you could have been 30 rows closer to the field and yet pay dramatically less than you.

Advice: Buy the tix online before you head to the stadium. The ticket windows there are woefully inadequate and slow. Or buy from the scalpers who work the back of the lines at the ticket windows--tickets last weekend were going for less than half face price. We got $45 seats for $20. Go for it.

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Section 308, Nats Park: Marc,

The new stadium has the possibility of quickly turning into a joke. To have the area behind homeplate vacant every game is an embarrassment and I don't see it get better anytime soon. Also the ticket prices for lower level seats are at NYC level for an AAA caliber team. Also, making every Saturday game a premium game is not family-friendly. The Lerners are quickly beginning to look like rip- off artists.

Marc Fisher: The Lerners are building up a world class farm system, which is the right way to build a winning team. Of course on the way there, they should be liberal with the checkbook, but that comes later. No point in spending on free agents now when you'd have a superstar sitting among mediocrities.

But you're right about those seats behind home plate. The team needs to do what every theater in the world does and paper those seats--move people up, give the extras away, whatever it takes to have a full crowd in that TV shot of the seats right behind the catcher.

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Arlington, Va.: So after having been to a few games, have your thoughts on the Nats stadium changed at all? I loved the place after the home opener but it has not held up very well on repeat trips. Granted, there haven't been large crowds and the bands all over the park, like at the home opener, but it still is falling flat in my opinion. It just feels very sterile without an atmosphere. I hate to bring it up again, but those garages are a colossal failure. You likely would not see the Capitol if they weren't there, but they still feel like they are overwhelming the site.

Marc Fisher: The garages are a horrorshow, an architectural and spiritual atrocity. But I like the stadium more with each visit. It's got all sorts of neat little doodads and touches. I just wish more folks would walk around to its oddly placed "front" entrance and see it the way the designers wanted it seen. And get on up to the upper deck to take in those views.

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McLean, Va.: If you take the buyout, will you promise to write us when you get work?

Marc Fisher: Indeed. And hang by my thumbs.

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Marc Fisher: We're way over our alloted hour, so time to skidoodle. Thanks for coming along. Back next week, and along the way, every day on the big blog, Sunday in Metro and Style/Arts, and on Tuesday on Raw Fisher Radio.

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