c. 2005 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ On the eve of his installation Mass, Pope Benedict XVI thanked journalists, photographers and television crews in four languages Saturday (April 23) “for all you have done” for society and the Roman Catholic Church.

The 18-minute audience with the Vatican press corps came one day after the pope met with the College of Cardinals and on the eve of Sunday’s outdoor Mass that will formally inaugurate his reign. Rome geared for the arrival of an expected 500,000 pilgrims, 100,000 of them from the pope’s native Germany.

“It can be said that thanks to your work, for several weeks the attention of the entire world remained fixed on the (St. Peter’s) basilica, on St. Peter’s Square and on the Apostolic Palace, inside which my predecessor, the unforgettable pope John Paul II serenely closed his earthly existence and where later, in the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals elected me as his successor,” the pope said.

Some 3,000 journalists assembled in the Paul VI Audience Hall inside the Vatican walls to hear Benedict express his thanks in Italian, English, French and German. There was no explanation for why he omitted Spanish, the language spoken by the largest number of Catholics.

The occasion was clearly an audience, not a news conference. It started and ended with prayer, and no one tried to ask a question.

The new pontiff entered to a four-minute standing ovation. Smiling broadly, he threw his arms wide in what is becoming a characteristic gesture.

“In my own name, and especially on behalf of Catholics living far from Rome, who were able to participate in these stirring moments for our faith as they were taking place, I thank you for all you have done,” he said in English.

Speaking in German, he underlined the need for journalists to understand events and report them accurately. He stressed “the ethical responsibility” of journalists, “especially regarding the sincere search for truth and the safeguarding of the centrality and dignity of the person.”

Benedict noted that the Second Vatican Council, which met in the mid 1960s, devoted its first decree, “Inter Mirifica,” to “the great potential of the media” and that John Paul’s last apostolic letter, issued on Jan. 24, underlined the importance of collaboration between the church and the news media.

“I hope to pursue this fruitful dialogue,” he said in French.

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Benedict will concelebrate the Mass on Sunday with 150 cardinals on the broad, flower-banked steps of St. Peter’s Square where he had presided 16 days earlier over the funeral of John Paul.

Many of the 200 world leaders who attended the funeral will return to see the new pope installed.

Authorities said that of 140 foreign delegations coming, 36 will be led by heads of state or government or royalty. The Vatican announced that 16 Orthodox and Eastern churches and 15 Anglican and Protestant churches and organizations will send representatives.

President Bush flew to Rome for the funeral, but the White House said that Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, his brother, would head the U.S. delegation to the inaugural Mass.

Security was as tight for the Mass as it had been for the funeral. Italian authorities ordered the skies over Rome closed to private and commercial planes, deployed AWACS surveillance aircraft, guided-missile destroyers, a 5,000-member police and military force, 2,000 plainclothes agents and 2,000 civil protection volunteers, including several hundred German speakers from northern Italy.

Vatican officials said that Benedict will either drive or walk through the square to greet pilgrims after the Mass and then will receive heads of visiting delegations, probably at the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica.

At the two-hour Mass, the new pope will receive the woolen stole made from the wool of specially bred lambs, called a pallium, and the ring that symbolizes his pastoral and spiritual authority. Monsignor Crispino Valenziano, a consulter of the Office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations said there will be three innovations in the ceremony.

The most important, he said, is that before the procession into St. Peter’s Square, the pope and cardinals will walk down the steps under the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica to pray at the tomb of the Apostle Peter.

In addition, he said, both the pallium and the ring have been redesigned and for the first time will be bestowed on the new pope in a ceremony following the reading of the Gospel. The ceremony will replace the act of crowning him, which John XXIII did away with.

The pallium, which goes over the shoulders and has bands hanging down in front and back, has been modeled on a design not used since the Middle Ages, Valenziano said. He said the white bands will be longer than the modern version and embroidered in red silk with five red crosses, three of them pierced with pins to symbolize the nails used to crucify Jesus.

The papal ring will carry a replica of the papal seal instead of a gem, the prelate said. Known as the fisherman’s ring, it refers to the Gospel in which Jesus tells the fisherman Peter, who had caught no fish, to cast his net again, and the nets come up full of fish, symbolizing the task of building the church that Peter was to have as the first pope.

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