Pope to Raise Church"s Popularity in the USA by Barbora Kasparova

Pope Benedict XVI. has announced his first visit to the USA. It will be the first time in tvelwe years the head of the Catholic Church sets his foot on "the new continent". His predecessor, John Paul II., had visited the country seven times, as enjoyed popularity among the members of the Church as well as the rest of the population. Benedict XVI. has already met with George Bush Jr. earlier this year, during Bush's visit to Italy.With the majority of the USA being Christian & that is over 80 per cent of the population, according to the Association of the Religion Data Archives (www.thearda.com) & only 26 per cent of the U.S. citizens claim to be adherents of the Roman Catholic Church, and, in fact, the church is loosing its popularity due to the child abuse scandals in 2002 and a rather conservative approach to many controversial issues (namely homosexuality and birth control), not forgetting that only JFK, out of all the American presidents so far, was a member or the Roman Catholic church.As the statement of Pietro Sambi, the papal ambassador in the United States, revealed, one of the purposes of pope's visit is evident : "We should make the visit of the pope a moment of assurance to those who have left the church in the last year, an invitation to return," (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-pope_tuenov13,1,2172260.story)

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071112/ap_on_re/catholic_bishops;_ylt=AmxFcTP_Sg2v3HQH65ONnXKs0NUE

by Barbora Kasparova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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Edited by Zuzana Tylkova