Papal Visit

Papal Visit: A Blog By KDKA's David Highfield

KDKA's David Highfield is covering Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit to the United States – traveling to both Washington, D.C. and New York City with some of the faithful from our area. In addition to his live reports, David will be documenting the trip with daily updates on KDKA.com!
Slideshow:  Behind The Scenes: Covering the Papal Visit
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Going Home! (The Final Entry)
Posted: Monday, April 21, 2008 at 2:21pm

The Pope is back at the Vatican, and we're on our way home (I-80 near State College to be exact). I'm really glad we were able to meet up with so many people from our area during our coverage.

I have to thank everyone who agreed to be interviewed. Several of those people called me or put up with me calling them (sometimes repeatedly) to find out where they were at the two masses in baseball stadiums. We had to deal with security issues and meeting up with everyone wasn't always easy. In particular, at Yankee Stadium, things got tricky; if we left a certain area, we might no have been allowed back to where we needed to be to do our story on the 6:30pm news.

Bishop David Zubik and Archbishop Donald Wuerl were both wonderful. For Archbishop Wuerl, this was a particularly busy time, yet he made space in his schedule for KDKA. Bishop Zubik made our jobs so much easier, by always looking for ways to help us. Twice we found ourselves racing around to meet him for interviews, and I believe his thoughts and comments added a lot to our coverage. By the way, the bishop tells me he's going to write an article about the Pope's visit.

I also want to mention some names of people you probably don't know, but who worked very hard to bring you the stories we aired. Dave Colabine was with me in both New York and Washington.  Not only is he a great photographer, but he understands what it takes to overcome logistical obstacles and make the impossible possible. It was also a pleasure to work with photographer Mike Regan in Washington, D.C. He helped us iron out a plethora of wrinkles that popped up, and he also operated the satellite truck which allowed us to send those stories back to you. I also want to mention my colleagues back at the station, especially Assistant News Director Anne Linaberger, Executive Producer Vicki Bigley, Digital Media Manager Jennifer Pollard and Business Manager Adeline Weissert.

Finally, I know from the people we interviewed, how seeing the Pope in person and hearing him speak impacted them. I hope our coverage gave people watching at home the chance to experience a little of what it was like.

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The Wait To Get To Yankee Stadium & Talking With Bishop Zubik
Posted: Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 11:30am

Ok, it's the last day of the Pope's trip. We've just stood with hundreds of other reporters and photographers waiting for security dogs to sniff our camera, tripod and editor. So far, it's been a three and half hour process. We chatted with Soledad O'Brien from CNN and a CNN producer who grew up in Churchill. Now, we've been loaded on a bus that will leave soon (I hope) to take us to Yankee Stadium for the Papal Mass this afternoon.

Yesterday, we visited the seminary in Yonkers where 25,000 young people we're screaming and yelling for Pope Benedict XVI. We did our live shot at 11 o'clock from there while crews were cleaning up all of the garbage left behind.

Earlier, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik made time to talk to us about the Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. He believes people's reactions to the Pope are even stronger than he anticipated. We were on 5th Avenue as the Pope left St. Patrick's in the Popemobile, and there was a crowd of people up and down the street for blocks. There's a reputation of New Yorkers as being unphased by anything, but this created a lot of excitement.

Today, we hope to meet up with two buses of Pittsburghers, headed to the Mass, as well as some Duquesne students and possibly some Saint Vincent students.

We go home tomorrow.

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On The Way To New York City
Posted: Friday, April 18, 2008 at 12:53pm

My photographer Dave Colabine and I are on the road right now. We just passed Philadelphia on our way to New York City. Pope Benedict is already there and addressed the United Nations this morning. He flew up to New York on "Shepherd One."

This is a good time to talk about the importance of sleep. Simply because we want to cover as much of the Pope's visit as possible, we've had very little sleep of late. Five hours one night, only three the next. Last night, thankfully, I had seven hours so I feel energized and ready to go.

Once in New York, we hope to interview a woman originally from Jefferson Hills who is going to sing at two masses: one at Yankee Stadium and the other at St. Patrick's Cathedral. We also know there are Duquesne University students videotaping the Pope's journey as well as students from St. Vincent College in New York City for the Pope's trip. We're hoping to meet up with Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik again after the mass at St. Patrick's tomorrow. We'd also like to do a story on the souvenirs that are being sold during the Pope's visit.

I'd better go now. I'm the navigator on this trip. More to come. 

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Pittsburghers Are Easy To Find!
Posted: Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 9:41 am

Here I am at Nationals Park for the Papal Mass. I had collected cell phone numbers of all of the people we've interviewed from the Pittsburgh contingent to insure that we'd be able to find them at the mass. Well, it turned out not really to be necessary: 48,000 people – 250 of them from Pittsburgh – but we immediately began finding them!!  What made it particularly easy, is that they're all wearing black and gold windbreakers (they also have 'Let's go Pens' towels to wave).

Although they tell me they're sleepy (which I can very much relate to), the young people I've interviewed say they're very excited. They rode down on buses that left just after midnight; and with the exception of one bus hitting a deer and a young girl telling me she slept on the bus floor, it sounded like a pretty good trip.

Last night, we caught up with Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik. We actually interviewed him before he walked into the Basilica at Catholic University where the Pope was addressing bishops from across the US. He called me on his cell phone to say he was on the first bus of bishops who were arriving, but then he called back to say that they were pulling up to what appeared to be a very restricted area – and wondered if we'd be allowed in. I told him we were already heading towards his bus – and, in fact, I could see him on his cell phone and waved him over. It was so nice of him to stop and talk to us (although he told me later that he took some ribbing from the other bishops for having to do a television interview as the rest of them walked inside!).

After this morning's Mass, we'll interview more Pittsburghers about what it was like to attend a Mass with Pope Benedict. Watch for those stories tonight on KDKA.

More later! 

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Franciscan University Students Document Visit
Posted: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 1:01 pm

We're standing outside the security gate at Catholic University, waiting for our equipment to be scanned, so I thought I'd take time to make an entry.

First off, I want to tell you about a woman named Susan Gibbs. She's the spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Washington, and works with Archbishop Donald Wuerl. I wrote last night about the ever-growing number of reporters, and Gibbs fields questions and requests from all of them. She's helped us numerous times already in covering the Pope's visit, so I wanted to mention her.

It's funny that wherever you go, you run into Pittsburghers. It's true when I go on vacation, and it was true this morning as we boarded a media bus. A group of Franciscan University students are making a documentary of Pope Benedict's visit (Franciscan University is in Steubenville) and I wound up interviewing one of the students, who is from outside Apollo.

The students sort of turned the tables on me by interviewing me about covering the Pope. Then, my photographer took pictures of them, interviewing me.

They, like thousands of others, are headed to Catholic University – hoping to catch a glimpse of the Pope as he heads into the Basilica for a meeting with US Bishops. Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik will be there and we hope to meet up with him afterwards. He told us beforehand how he wants to tell the Pope about how faithful the people of Pittsburgh are.

More later.

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The Pope Has Arrived
Posted: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 11:54pm

The Pope is now in D.C. He arrived this afternoon at Andrews Air Force Base; and when the Pope comes to America, it makes sense to expect a large swarm of reporters.

Proof of that came today when my photographer, Dave Colabine, satellite truck operator Mike Regan and I stood in line for credentials. We spent two hours at the Secret Service building to get one badge, and then had to get two other passes at two other locations.  Reporters everywhere. From all over. Catholic University of America has been invaded by news vans and satellite trucks. That's where we've been doing our live shots, and where Pope Benedict the 16th will address U.S. Bishops Wednesday evening.

The best part of our day was meeting Thomas Stehle. He's directing the music for the mass on Thursday at Nationals Park, and he's a bundle of energy. He grew up in Butler and spent time at several parishes in our area before moving to D.C. But the most impressive part was that he fit us in right before he had to meet with Placido Domingo. It turned into a nice story of a local guy (at least orginally) who's contributing his talents for the Pope's visit.

Security, as you can imagine, is tight. Not only are there a host of credentials the press needs, the Secret Service will sweep all of our equipment before events. That means getting everywhere extra early.. and getting up early tomorrow. So I'm going to call it a day and sign off. 
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Seeing A Familiar Face:
Posted: Monday, April 14, 2008 at 11:57pm

Today we traveled to D.C. and immediately went to work. After taking pictures of various sites Pope Benedict the 16th will visit, we met up with Archbishop Donald Wuerl as he toured National Stadium. You can see how excited he is about hosting the Pope, although he smiled and admitted that these are not his calmest days.

We also saw the Archbishop on Saturday when we drove down to interview him at length, and both times, he gave us such a warm welcome.  It seemed as though he was especially excited to see some Pittsburghers. He, in fact, has a message for Pittsburghers that we're only showing here on the web.  

(Watch It Now:  Special Message From Archbishop Donald Wuerl)

In the evening between shows, we listened in as one of the choirs which will perform at Pope Benedict's mass on Thursday practiced. It's led by a Butler native who we're profiling on the 5pm news Tuesday.

Must go now, we have to get up early to pick up press credentials.  Just as they were flooded with requests for tickets to the masses, they also got a flood of media interested in covering different events, and already we're seeing other reporters from all over.

More to come!