UNITED STATES
Toledo Blade

BY PETER SMITH
BLOCK NEWS ALLIANCE

Expect the unexpected.

After 18 months of agonizingly meticulous preparation and a crescendo of anticipation, Pope Francis prepares to touch down on Tuesday outside Washington for six days of visits to the high and mighty, the down and out, and the multitudes of biblical proportions.

He’ll be the fourth pope to visit these lands and the first since Pope Benedict in 2008. But Francis’ arrival is more highly anticipated than any since the epic first visit of a charismatic, young Pope John Paul II, in 1979.

The Argentine-born Francis rocketed almost immediately from his relative obscurity as Cardinal Jorge Bergolio upon his election in March, 2013.