Decided: Pope Benedict won't attend Quebec's Eucharistic Congress

Canwest News Service:

QUEBEC - Pope Benedict XVI will not come to Quebec City this summer for the 400th anniversary celebrations, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec said Thursday.

Marc Cardinal Ouellet, archbishop of Quebec and primate of the church in Canada, has been lobbying for weeks for the pontiff to attend the International Eucharistic Congress slated for June, one of the biggest events of the city's 400th birthday bash.

But Ouellet said in a brief press release that the Pope has chosen to send a representative to the congress that will bring together some 15,000 delegates and 50 cardinals from 60 countries.

A group of Quebec citizens had also launched a petition to encourage the Pope to attend the event that will culminate with a giant outdoor mass on the historic Plains of Abraham.

This news must be disappointing to Catholics in Canada, I'm sure. The trip had been on the table for a very long time. Still, with the Pope's mid-April visit to the states, turning around and coming back in June might have proven too challenging for him, especially considering his expressed reservations about cross-atlantic trips.