Vice President to Join Papal Departure Ceremony

Pope Benedict XVI will be joined by Vice President Richard and Mrs. Lynne Cheney for the Farewell Ceremony at JFK Airport when the Holy Father concludes his Apostolic Journey to the United States on Sunday evening, April 20.

Confirmation of the vice president’s participation in the ceremony as the representative of President George W. Bush was confirmed this week.

Both the Holy Father and Cheney will deliver brief remarks during the 30-minute ceremony, which will begin at 8 p.m. After it, the pontiff will board the Alitalia craft that will take him back to Rome.

More than 4,000 members of the faithful from the Diocese of Brooklyn, which is coordinating the ceremony, the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Rockville Centre will gather for a two-hour religious program of sacred and classical music and prayer, including a recitation of the Rosary in several languages. It will precede the civil ceremony at which the Holy Father and the vice president will speak.

The guests will greet the Holy Father in a space being created at an indoor airport facility that will provide the proper setting for such an auspicious event, said Father Anthony M. Hernandez, coordinator of the two events in which the Holy Father appears in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Pope Benedict will arrive at JFK on Friday morning, April 18, and will be greeted by Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United Nations, and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio.

According to the wishes of Bishop DiMarzio, the departure ceremony will have an ethnic flavor reflecting the diversity of the people of the New York metropolitan area.