"You Have Really Challenged the Whole Country to Sit Up and Think"

And, well, 'nuff said.

Whatta PopeTrip, gang -- hope it was as enjoyable for you lot to watch as it was for your narrator to cover.

And now, with this season's Big Story already in the books after a year of prep, time to recover and -- freed of the deadline pressure of these days -- take a better read of the texts and a less crazed watch of the Game-Day Film.

Along these lines, expect a quiet few just ahead... then again, anyone looking for anything new too quickly hasn't taken this journey in as it's deserved.

That said, we'd be hard pressed to find a better close this historic weekend than how how these pages began it -- the words "placed on the lips of the choirs of angels in heaven" by Blessed John Henry Newman, quoted by no less than B16 in this morning's climactic beatification homily:


PHOTO: AP(1); Reuters(2)

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