Report: Pope Benedict will attend several "unofficial" events during U.S. visit

The source for this report is the Washington Times.

Take note:

Pope Benedict XVI has two schedules for his upcoming U.S. visit: A jampacked list of official events and an unofficial schedule of evening meetings, including a huge birthday party at the Italian Embassy starring world-famous tenor Placido Domingo.

Not a sure thing in this case, but maybe:

The splashy April 16 party — in celebration of the pope turning 81 — is sponsored by all eight former and current U.S. ambassadors to the Vatican. Several hundred people are invited.

The pope — who will meet that afternoon with U.S. Catholic bishops at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast, is not expected to make the party's 6:30 p.m. kickoff time.

In fact, he's not even been officially invited, said Thomas P. Melady, ambassador to the Vatican from 1989 to 1993. But the papal nunciature on Massachusetts Avenue Northwest — where the pope will be spending the night — has been notified of the event in case he wishes to drop by. The embassy is on Whitehaven Street, within walking distance of the nunciature.

Talk about the best party in town:

"It's really not in his tradition to attend parties," explained Mr. Melady, now senior diplomat in residence at the World Institute of Politics. "His happiest days were when he was a young priest and teaching at the seminary."

But just in case, Mr. Domingo will be singing some of Benedict's favorite songs. He, along with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, will also be performing the following day during the Nationals Stadium Mass.

Several hundred people, including a wide range of local Catholics and Vice President Dick Cheney, have been invited. Many are hoping Benedict will show.

The closest thing to a confirmation:

[Raymond Flynn, ambassador to the Vatican during the Clinton administration] said there will be several off-the-record gatherings with the pope during his six days in the country.

That's the way it always is when the pope comes," he said. "There are private conversations and discussions with people here. I think they want to keep those meetings as private as they possibly can. They [the Vatican] will release an official schedule, but they'll leave a lot out."

Inquiries around the Catholic community seemed to bear this out. Robert George, a leading Catholic scholar at Princeton University, implied he'd be meeting privately with the pope in Washington but refused to divulge details.

The Rev. Dennis McManus, a consultant with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Benedict has "a full evening at the nunciature" planned for him after an April 17 meeting with interfaith leaders at the John Paul II Center near the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He also would not divulge details.

This report seems plausible to me, if for no other reason than it explains the long periods of "down time" scheduled into the pope's visit, where he only has one brief official appearance.

Nonetheless, we should keep in mind that Pope Benedict is turning 81 during his visit, and that he does not keep to the same extreme schedule of events that his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, would pull off during his early years as pontiff. I seem to remember Rocco Palmo saying in a recent TV interview that Pope Benedict has been ordered to take a three-hour nap/break each day of his visit.

Darn, now I have to figure a way to get an invite to these events as well.