c. 2008 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ When Pope Benedict XVI stops by the John Paul II Cultural Center here next month, the visit will be broadcast into the homes of hundreds of millions of people around the globe.

It’s the type of publicity the center desperately needs, and could mark a clean break from its financially troubled past.

Benedict will meet with about 200 religious leaders from the Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths on April 17. Guests will hear a papal address on world peace, provide greetings of their own, and present symbolic gifts to the pope.

The pope’s visit will also help the center reinvent itself after years of dwindling attendance.

“We’ve shifted our focus from destination museum to place for interreligious dialogue,” said Hugh Dempsey, deputy director of the John Paul II Cultural Center, “and we look at the Holy Father’s visit as a confirmation of that shift.”

Conceived by Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit, the center opened its doors in 2001 as a think tank, research center and religious art museum. It also features interactive exhibits and a room containing unique artifacts that belonged to John Paul II, such as his snow skis and running shoes.

Abundant with exhibits and critically acclaimed architecture, the museum seemed to have everything but visitors.

“At first, it was kind of hard to define,” said Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Washington. “It never quite took off as a museum.”

The center’s early struggles were partly a result of location and timing, Dempsey said. A brisk 10-minute walk from the nearest subway stop, the center, near Catholic University, did not attract the kind of downtown foot traffic on which other museums thrive, he said.

Plus, months after the center opened in March 2001, the 9/11 terrorist attacks reduced tourism to the nation’s capital to a trickle.

After a period of financial difficulty and layoffs, the center stopped advertising itself as destination museum in 2006. It has since billed itself as a place for interfaith conferences and meetings.

“They’ve found a great niche as a place of conversation,” Gibbs said. “And Pope Benedict XVI giving the interfaith address there is really a great fit.”

In a partnership that builds on this transition, the Eternal Word Television Network, a Catholic cable channel, will broadcast its news shows from the center’s fourth floor starting in early April. The Alabama-based network transmits to 140 million homes throughout the world and 80 million in the United States, said Raymond Arroyo, news director.

It will televise its live talk show, “The World Over,” every Friday night at the center, and will provide live coverage of the papal visit, said Arroyo, who hosts “The World Over.”

“Rome is increasingly looking to the Cultural Center as a crossroads of the world, and a place to engage,” he said.

KRE/LF END TROTTER

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