Looking ahead: What American Catholics can anticipate in 2008

Published: 2007-12-28

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Those who put stock in the expression "an idle brain is the devil's workshop" can take heart that American Catholics won't give the devil much to work with in a very busy 2008. Four archdioceses -- Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Louisville, Ky. -- will be celebrating their 200th anniversaries with special events slated throughout the year. The archdioceses were erected from the Baltimore Archdiocese in 1808. Catholics will also have major church events April 15-20 when Pope Benedict XVI visits Washington and New York on his six-day visit to the United States. Another foreign trip the pope has scheduled for 2008 is for World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 15-20. By mid-December 100,000 pilgrims -- including 38,000 from the U.S. -- were registered for the event with large contingents also attending from Italy and Germany. A few weeks after World Youth Day concludes, the Summer Olympics will begin in Beijing, and once that coverage wraps up everyone will be narrowly focused on the 2008 elections -- if they weren't already.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .