"America ... is truly the country where everything can happen," said a front-page editorial in the official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. "America is truly the country of the new frontier ... able to overcome fractures and divisions that until only recently could seem incurable."

In a telegram sent to Obama via the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Mary Ann Glendon, Benedict assured Obama of his prayers that God would assist him in his "high responsibilities in service to the nation and to the international community" and "sustain you and the beloved American people in your efforts, together with all men and women of good will, to build a world of ...