Many experts claimed that it would be very difficult for Pope Benedict XVI to match Pope John Paul II's expertise in using the media. Given some questionable situations such as the remarks made during Pope Benedict's presentation in Regensburg, one could claim that the experts were right.
The two issues that I felt had the biggest potential to derail the message of Pope Benedict's visit to the U.S. were the priest sexual assault crisis and the demands of some for the ordination of women.
Pope Benedict addressed the priest sexual assault crisis even before he landed in the U.S. Once he arrived, he continually adressed the issue from many perspectives. In one presentation, he suggested that the integrity of the priesthood was a victim of the hierarchy's inability to effectively respond to victims of sexual assaults by priests. One of the key moment of the Pope's visit was one we did not see - the meeting with victims of sexual abuse by priests. Insider's report that, while the invitation to meet with the victims was aggresively presented by Cardinal Sean O'Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston, it was the Pope that insisted in accepting the invitation - much to the objections of key advisors. Initially, it appears that the Vatican and the Pope have addressed this sensitive issue in a very effective manner during the trip to the U.S.
During the Pope's visit, there was apparently a protest liturgy that was led by leaders from the women's ordination movement. I say apparently because there was very little media coverage of the event. The leaders of this movement might want to to look at how the Vatican handled the priest sexual assault issue during the U.S. visit. They might have better results in drumming up publicity in the future.
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