Lorena Gonzalez, of Silver Spring, Md., cleans the seating area in the upper deck Monday at the Washington Nationals baseball park for the upcoming outdoor Mass of Pope Benedict XVI later in the week. The pope arrives today on his first U.S. visit.

In an era saturated with entertainment and politics, a key question looms as Pope Benedict XVI arrives Tuesday in Washington: Is his style too dense to get Americans’ attention?

Certainly, tens of thousands of American Catholics have been jockeying for tickets to his Masses in Washington and New York, some 5,000 members of the media will cover him and Catholics across the spectrum are touting points in which he agrees with them. For traditionalists, that means Catholicism’s superiority and the revival of centuries-old prayer, music and clerical garments in church. For those to the left, it means his comments against the Iraq war, global warming and nuclear arms.

But Benedict, in making his first trip as pope to the United States, brings an agenda, and it’s more the stuff of a theology lecture than a mass-media event. He lands at Andrews Air Force base this afternoon, where he will be greeted by President Bush and first lady Laura Bush.

Clear set of goals

To be sure, there are tangible goals: Ramp up frank interfaith dialogue. Return Catholics to regular, traditional worship that reminds them of their long history. But his biggest aspiration for his six-day trip is to encourage Christians to believe in Jesus – to really believe in him, not as a metaphor, but as a real miracle meant to deliver human beings from misery and war. The challenge, experts say, is trying to sell this message in a culture dominated more by reason than faith.

Benedict feels that Western, secular societies don’t take profound, supernatural religious faith seriously, a condition he believes leads to rampant consumerism and nonchalance about such things as poverty. Religion-inspired terrorism shows, he believes, the opposite phenomenon: faith unhinged from reason.

Many in Rome predict he will expand that idea at his address Friday to the United Nations by talking about the link between freedom and religion. He believes, essentially, that that there is such a thing as right and wrong, that it comes from God and that it is the basis of free societies. He is worried that people have lost the larger point of religion, experts say.

Some Catholics have expressed disappointment that the pope isn’t visiting the Archdiocese of Boston. The clergy sex abuse crisis erupted there in 2002 with the case of one predator priest, then spread nationwide and beyond. Abuse-related costs, including massive settlements with victims, have surpassed $2 billion for American dioceses since 1950.

However, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone – the Vatican secretary of state – told The Associated Press that Benedict will address the scandal during his trip and “will try to open the path of healing and reconciliation.” A likely forum could be when Benedict speaks to priests during a Saturday morning Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

Provocative style

It’s not that Benedict’s theology never gets applied to daily hot-button issues. In fact, the man who took office three years ago with the nickname “God’s Rotweiller” has wound up oft-quoted.

“He’s to the left of the Democratic Party on global peace and security. He’s been a wonderful moral leader when it comes to those issues,” said Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United, a group that focuses on social justice issues.

Obscure theology aside, it’s possible the pope will let loose a zinger like the few that have brought his generally dull persona into the limelight. Greatest hits include a 2006 lecture quoting a source calling Muhammad inhuman (which led to riots in the Muslim world and the killing of a nun), a document last year in which he said other Christian churches are “defective” and his decision to personally baptize a famous Italian Muslim journalist on Easter. Some called the baptism incendiary; others said he was trying to make a point to Muslim countries about religious freedom for minority Christians.

“If that wasn’t provocative, I don’t know what is,” said the Rev. Thomas Williams, a theology professor at the Regina Apostolorum University. “Some think he’s being naive, but I’m convinced he has a very good idea what will come from his statements and actions. … He wants to stir up a debate, but he’s not a showman, he’s not charismatic, not going to be fun to watch – but he’s going to be thought-provoking.”