Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was no stranger to New York, speaking at the United Nations and celebrating Mass at Yankees Stadium as pope, following an earlier visit to the city as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1988.

2008 Papal Visit

During a five-day visit to the United States in April 2008, Pope Benedict spent almost three full days in the New York area, after two days in Washington, D.C.

His first stop was at the United Nations. In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, where the pope spoke at the invitation of then-Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, Pope Benedict emphasized the mandate that the United Nations must protect human rights, and that religious freedom was an important part of those rights. “Removing human rights from this context (natural law) would mean restricting their range and yielding to a relativistic conception,” the pope said.

On Friday, April 18, after a meeting with Jewish representatives at Park East Synagogue in Manhattan, the Bavarian-born Pope Benedict visited St. Joseph’s Church in Manhattan’s Yorkville section, founded by German-speaking Catholic immigrants in 1873, for an ecumenical prayer service.

The following day, Saturday, April 19, in an historic first, Pope Benedict celebrated Mass in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Later, he also visited Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, where 20 years earlier as Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, he had addressed the seminarians, and, in a seminary tradition, planted a tree. During his 2008 visit, Pope Benedict met with special needs individuals and their families, before holding a youth rally on the large athletic field on the seminary grounds.

“’I think he was continuing blessed John Paul II’s legacy about really reaching out to young people and the need for vocation to the priests that especially having this venue in a seminary location, in a seminary venue, and the need to reach out to young people as not necessarily the future because young people are an integral part of the church as they are,’ [former archivist for the Archdiocese of New York Father Michael] Morris told WCBS 880 reporter Sean Adams,” in a February 2013 report.

The emotional highlight of his stay in New York was a visit on Sunday, April 20,  to Ground Zero, where he offered a prayer for those who had perished on 9/11, after which he met with a group of family members who lost loved ones in the attack.  It was the last event held at “bedrock” where the Twin Towers had stood.

The most public event of Pope Benedict’s visit to New York was a celebration of Mass at Yankee Stadium later that day, to mark the 200^th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of New York, along with the Dioceses of Boston, Philadelphia, and Bardstown (now Louisville) and the elevation of Baltimore as the country’s first archdiocese. 

“Pope Benedict XVI crowned his visit to New York with a Mass at Yankee Stadium on April 20 in which he challenged American Catholics to remain true to their faith, to bring their values into secular society and “to use wisely the blessings of freedom, in order to build a future of hope for coming generations,” Catholic New York’s Claudia McDonnell wrote at the time. 

“The crowd of about 57,000 broke into a roar when the Popemobile appeared and began rolling along in front of the stands. The pope, accompanied by Cardinal [Edward] Egan, waved and smiled as thousands of people waved squares of cloth in gold or white—the papal colors—and cheered wildly; some chanted ‘Benedict’ and repeated ‘We love the pope.’ Louder cheers went up when the pope stepped out of the vehicle and entered the dugout to vest for Mass,” McDonnell wrote.

“At the beginning of Mass, Cardinal Egan welcomed him and noted that people were present from each of the country’s 195 dioceses, four of them celebrating bicentennials this year: Baltimore, marking 200 years as an archdiocese, and what are now the archdioceses of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Louisville, marking 200 years since their founding. As the cardinal mentioned the bicentennial archdioceses, in turn, cheers broke out from each one’s contingent,” McDonnell wrote.

“I was blessed to be chosen as a volunteer during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the 50 disabled children and their families in Yonkers. The presence of His Holiness along with the incredible faith of the families and the volunteers will forever inspire me. It was one of the most memorable moments of my life,” wrote Jen Berger of Sacred Heart Parish in Monroe to Catholic New York.

The papal visit to New York is commemorated by a plaque at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a plaque in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park, and the tree that Pope Benedict planted at St. Joseph Seminary.

1988 Visit as Cardinal Ratzinger

His previous visit, in 1988 visit as Cardinal Ratzinger, was more controversial. As the Church’s leading theologian at the time, Cardinal Ratzinger faced protestors who decried his upholding of Catholic teaching, and the refusal of some rabbis to meet with him during his visit to the United States.

Pope Benedict and Four Archbishops of New York

As both cardinal and pontiff, Pope Benedict had a strong relationship with four cardinal-archbishops of New York. Along with Cardinal Terence Cooke, he participated in the conclave that led to the elections of both Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II.

Cardinal John O’Connor, Cardinal Cooke’s successor, was host to Cardinal Ratzinger during his 1988 visit to New York and remained in close contact with him until Cardinal O’Connor’s death in 2000.

Cardinal Edward Egan was a participant in the conclave that elected Pope Benedict in 2005, and the Archdiocese of New York welcomed Pope Benedict from the moment of his election. Cardinal Egan wrote of his return from the conclave in Rome that chose him.

“The flight home the next day was altogether different from the flight to Rome. ‘You cardinals did a great job,’ a man from New Jersey told me as the two of us were stowing our hand luggage in the overhead bins. ‘We did indeed,’ I answered with pleasure and without a moment’s hesitation,” Cardinal Egan recalled.

Pope Benedict also had a close relationship with Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York. It was Pope Benedict who appointed the then Archbishop of Milwaukee to serve as the 10^th Archbishop of New York, and who, on February 18, 2012, elevated Archbishop Dolan to cardinal. Cardinal Dolan introduced his mother, Shirley Dolan, to the pope following the ceremony.

“’You heard what the Holy Father said to mom, right?’ a beaming Cardinal Dolan said following the audience. ‘He said you are too young to have a son (who is) a Cardinal, and she said, ‘Is that an infallible statement?’” Catholic New York reported.