A bit of healthy clarification re: the Pope's upcoming U.S. visit

Jim Lackey of CNS notes some potentian snags:

But there was a little hint last week that the trip may not be the six-day, Tuesday-to-Sunday pilgrimage up and down the East Coast that previously might have been anticipated.

In a regularly scheduled meeting between top officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the pope, plans for the trip were discussed but “just in general,” according to Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., conference president. The story by our Cindy Wooden added, “He did say, however, that he expected the trip to be brief, in keeping with Pope Benedict’s practice.”

Certainly no one anticipates this pontiff will match the grueling trips that a younger Pope John Paul II embarked on in the 1980s. After all, if the trip really takes place next April 15-20, as Rocco reported, Pope Benedict will turn 81 during the pilgrimage.

A Tuesday-Sunday U.S. papal trip would be even longer than last spring’s Wednesday-to-Sunday visit to Brazil to open the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. Rocco’s report that the U.S. trip would end on Sunday, April 20, in Boston also raised eyebrows beyond the symbolism of a visit to the center of the sex abuse scandal — April 20 is also the day before Patriots’ Day, when thousands of runners descend on the city for the running of the famous Boston Marathon.