For pope's birthday, bishops give him check for $870,000

Published: 2008-04-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. bishops presented Pope Benedict XVI with a birthday gift from Catholics across the country -- a check for $870,000 to support his charitable works. At the end of a vespers service at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the pope the bishops were privileged to be sharing his 81st birthday with him. He presented him with the check without specifying how the money had been collected. Earlier, in the shrine's upper church, employees of the USCCB and the Archdiocese of Washington sang "Happy Birthday," as did members of the crowd outside the shrine. The pope's 81st birthday, celebrated on his first full day in the United States, included multiple renditions of "Happy Birthday" -- in English, German and Spanish. At the White House, at the papal nunciature, everywhere the pope went, the crowd sent along birthday greetings.

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