Pope Benedict in Brazil: One Week Away

Updates:

• Sunday: Benedict preparing to visit the "continent of hope"
• Media characterization of Benedict's visit to Brazil predicted

Original post: In one week's time (from May 9th-14th) Pope Benedict will visit the most populous Catholic nation on earth: Brazil.

It will be his most distant Apostolic journey by far, as is very evident from this map of the countries he has visited so far as Pontiff. AmericanPapist will be trying to give you the very best coverage St. Blogs has to offer. To help me do that, please feel free to email me links (especially to video and multimedia content). So, let's get to the expected highlights of Pope Benedict's visit:

• He will canonize the first Brazilian-born saint, Antonio Galvao.
• He will meet with President Luiz Inacio da Silva
• He will celebrate two open-air Masses, one expected to draw over 1 million people
• He will address 30,000 Catholic youth in the Pacaembu soccer stadium
• He will commence the once-a-decade meeting of the Latin America and Caribbean Episcopate

Important topics/issues in the spotlight:

• Stem cell research & abortion laws in Brazil [source]
• The inroads being made among Catholics in Brazil by evangelicals [source]

Other blogs covering the story:

• The Benedict Blog has excellent pre-coverage here.
• Update: Maria-Teresa kindly reminded me that the Papa Ratzinger Forum has a whole thread dedicated to this journey as well as another thread for texts, translations and pictures. Theirs is an excellent resource that I regularly use for my coverage.

Sources/news articles:

• Associated Press: Pope expected to draw 1 million-plus in Brazil
• Brazil has a website dedicated to the Pope's visit (in Portugese).
• CathNews: Pope prepares for Brazil
• CWNews: The Pope's travel itinerary as released by the Vatican
• CNS: Papal trip to Brazil turns spotlight on Latin America (perhaps the most comprehensive coverage thus far. A very good, albeit extended, read.)

The Pope has already demonstrated his ability and willingness to speak in Spanish and Portugese at this week's Wednesday audience. We should keep the 80-year-old Pontiff in our prayers as he prepares for his journey, and pray that the entire trip accomplishes the will of God.

I'll finish this post with a picture (credit: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia):

He's coming!