Pope celebrates Mass in Washington

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Tens of thousands of faithful crammed into a baseball stadium here Thursday to give a joyful welcome to Pope Benedict XVI as he appealed for a new spirit of evangelism in America.

The pontiff, on his first papal visit to the United States, was met by a huge roar from about 48,000 people as he rolled into the new Washington Nationals ballpark on a brilliant spring morning in his "pope-mobile."

The usual cheers of the baseball fans were replaced by a deafening wall of sound from the crowds who had flocked into the stadium from dawn, turning it into a cathedral for a day.

Four choirs led by tenor Placido Domingo then began singing a Hallelujah chorus in unison, as the pope re-entered the stadium on foot and proceeded to the altar.

The...