According to the Dziennik daily, Pope Benedicts trip to Washington will be one of the hardest, as the leader of Catholic Church will have to face the problem of an internal split within the Catholic Church in the USA and try to bring together the flourishing Latino and stagnant Anglo-Saxon Catholic parishes. The global future of Catholicism is at stake, writes the daily, dramatically.

The broadsheet Rzeczpospolita daily mainly focuses on the warm welcome the Pope enjoyed at the Andrews Air Force Base in Florida on arrival (above). The crowds sang Happy Birthday to the Catholic Church leader as April 16 is his 81st birthday.

Three quarters of the American Catholics have a good opinion about Benedict XVI, the newspaper writes.

Paedophilia is not the main reason for [his] visit in the USA, Professor Zbigniew Lewicki from the American Studies Department at Warsaw University commented on TVN24 news television Wednesday morning.

He was commenting on Pope Benedicts words uttered on board his plane while travelling to USA, that the Church was deeply embarrassed about the accusations against some members in the US and would do its best to eradicate it by 'excluding paedophiles from priesthood'.
 

Of course, [problems such as this] mustnt be associated solely with Catholicism or the US Catholic Church, Lewicki told the TV channel. (mj)