Veteran journalist to offer insight on Pope Benedict XVI, preview upcoming papal visit

Veteran journalist to offer insight on Pope Benedict XVI, preview upcoming papal visitMarch 31, 2008Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

The Religion and Media Minor of the Religion and Society Program in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences will present a discussion with veteran journalist, author and filmmaker David Gibson on Tuesday, April 1.

“When Church is State: The Vatican, the Holy See and the United Nations” will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons — located on the first floor of E.S. Bird Library — and is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU’s pay lots.

Gibson, whose coverage of the Catholic Church has garnered numerous national awards, will delve into questions about who Pope Benedict XVI is and what Americans can expect to hear from him during his first papal visit to the United States, April 15-20.

“For a generation, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI was one of the most prominent and controversial men in Roman Catholicism,” says Gibson. “Now he is the Supreme Pontiff, arguably the most visible and influential religious leader in the world. Yet on the eve of his first visit to the United States as pope, American Catholics — and everyone else — know little about him.”

Gibson is author of “The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World” (HarperCollins, 2006) and “The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism” (HarperCollins, 2003).