Apr 15, 2008 8:18 am US/Mountain
Regis President Ready To Meet Pope Benedict
DENVER (CBS4) ―
Catholic leaders from across the United States will be in Washington, D.C. and New York this week for the papal visit by Pope Benedict XVI. The president of Regis University in Denver will be among the people at a meeting with the pope when he addresses Catholic university presidents on Thursday.
Father Michael Sheeran was at Regis when John Paul II visited Denver for World Youth Day in 1993 and met President Bill Clinton.
"It was one of those things that I never had imagined," Sheeran said.
He doesn't expect the same spectacle from Pope Benedict during his visit to America.
"No, no, no, he's not a rock star," Sheeran said. "He obviously doesn't think of himself as one. If anything, I think he's a little dumbfounded that he's in this job."
Sheeran says Benedict is more solemn, even a little shy. At his first World Youth Day gathering, he quieted the crowd that chanted his name.
"Because, 'no, no, it's not me, it's Jesus you're supposed to be after,'" Sheeran suggested Benedict was thinking. "So I'm going to be looking forward to seeing how this man comes through in person."
The Regis president expects the pontiff will ask university presidents to reinforce a theme.
"That the secular world alone is not enough," Sheeran said. "A life without God at its center is a dead life."
Both fallen and devout Catholics will identify with the man and the message because Benedict is sincere, Sheeran said.
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