Next week, the pope is coming to America.

He will visit Washington and New York. Most important, he will speak at the United Nations.

Boston, however, does not get to receive him. Presumably, he prefers not to call further attention to the scandal of sexual abuse by clergy.

What significance does this visit of Benedict XVI have for American Catholics and others?

I would like to think that this pope, who will observe his 81st birthday on April 16th, will share some of the spiritual insights gathered from his long life.

Widely recognized are his powers of intellect and his learning. Less clear are the deep motivations of the man and the goals of his tenure as pope.

As columnist Peter Steinfels has written: “Almost three years after his election, the world still hasn’t much of a fix on his personality or his papacy.” If this visit succeeds, Americans will have the opportunity to find out.

Still, thanks to modern communications, Catholics tend to know much more about the leader of their church than they used to.

When my maternal grandmother was a girl, the pope was a remote Italian whose actual voice was never heard by his worldwide flock. At her birth in 1864, the pope still commanded an army as ruler of the Papal States.

My father, in his role as reporter for the Boston Post, had the good fortune, in 1939, to sail to Rome with the cardinal archbishop of Boston for the election of Eugenio Pacelli as Pius XII. But to most American Catholics the sights and sounds (and politics) of a papal election seemed far off.

Despite knowing more about the pope nowadays, many Catholics pay less attention to his words and actions than most non-Catholics imagine. Our spiritual life goes on without immediate reference to what the pope does.

But at least one Catholic organization does care intensely about this visit. Voice of the Faithful, which started in 2002 in response to the clergy abuse crisis, has raised money for a full-page ad in the New York Times.

VOTF’s main effort is to promote active participation by laypeople in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church. More concretely, they want the pope and the American bishops to treat the survivors of sexual abuse with justice and compassion.

They also urge the pope to call for the resignation of those bishops who assigned predator priests.

I, for one, would be amazed (but gratified) if the pope were to respond to these demands. Benedict has given little or no indication, this far in his papacy, of taking radical action to promote a heightened role for the laity nor has he spoken out forcefully about sexual abuse.

Among the issues I would like to see him take on, while in the United States, are our federal government’s consistent disregard for human rights and international law. Already this pope, like his predecessor John Paul II, has decried the invasion of Iraq and the terrible consequences that have followed.

Benedict could certainly speak out against the holding of prisoners for years without trial or other chances to prove innocence. I realize, of course, that he has to tread softly in the land of his hosts, but, in expressing solidarity with the oppressed, he could lift the spirits of many.

On church matters, I would like to see him announce that the church will begin training married men for ordination to the priesthood. Given that this is the longtime practice of the eastern rites and the Orthodox churches, it would be the easiest way to deal with the acute shortage of clergy.

To allow priests to marry, and to ordain women, could also be excellent ideas, as many other Christian churches have shown. But few expect the Roman communion to reverse the custom of centuries at this point. My proposal is a modest one: It would simply add to the number of married men already serving as Roman Catholic priests in the United State and elsewhere.

I would also welcome an announcement that the pope expects to retire on a specific date. In the modern era, when life can be extended long after one’s vital powers have declined, I regard it as necessary for the pope to join his brother bishops in serving a limited term of office.

As to the subject of sexuality, I hope Benedict avoids it entirely. There is no other topic on which the leader of a mainly celibate clergy has less credibility.

Finally, I would welcome him speaking about the letter that was addressed to him last fall by many Muslim leaders from around the world. Their purpose was to point out the many beliefs which Muslims and Christians hold in common. The world needs to hear this in order to refute the assumption that the two religious communities must be at odds with one another.

Richard Griffin