Prayer service at historic German church part of pope's New York stop

Published: 2008-01-07

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI will lead an ecumenical prayer service for national and local Christian leaders April 18 at St. Joseph's Church, a historic German parish in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. The German-born pope will conduct the late afternoon service at St. Joseph's on the first day of his April 18-20 visit to the archdiocese, after a speech at the United Nations in the morning. The pope also will celebrate a morning Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral April 19 for priests, deacons and religious, becoming the first pope to celebrate a Mass in St. Patrick's. In New York, the pope also will celebrate a Mass at Yankee Stadium April 20, after a morning visit to ground zero where he will attend a ceremony with responders to the 2001 terrorist attack and victims' family members. On April 19 he will meet with disabled children in the chapel of St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, then he will address a large gathering of young people and seminarians on the seminary grounds.

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