Apr 20, 2008 / 12:46 pm
Sixty thousand people on Sunday attended the papal Mass at Yankee Stadium, where Pope Benedict explained in his homily that true freedom is found in self-surrender and turning away from sin. Asking Americans to “use wisely the blessings of freedom,” he proclaimed that Christ sets mankind free.
The Pope also noted the history of the Church in America, exhorting American Catholics to follow their predecessors’ social work. He challenged his American flock to enrich their society with the Gospel and “hasten the coming of God's Kingdom in this land!”
He began his homily by saying, “Christ is the way that leads to the Father, the truth which gives meaning to human existence, and the source of that life which is eternal joy with all the saints in his heavenly Kingdom.”
He noted that at this Mass is dedicated to celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of the creation of the Sees of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Louisville from the mother See of Baltimore , which itself was elevated to an archdiocese in 1808. The celebration of the papal Mass, Pope Benedict said, was a sign of the “impressive growth” of the Church in America over that time.