Pope Shows Adeptness With Spanish

For those of us living in the United States, it isn't all that common to hear someone speaking Spanish with a German accent. But Pope Benedict XVI's Spanish pronunciation is, not surprisingly, quite good and easily understandable, as he showed during a Mass this morning in Washington, D.C.

I'm not sure what it is about popes that makes them so adept at languages — maybe it's a divine gift. Benedict is said to be fluent in seven languages, and that pales to what his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, could comfortably handle.

Because a large part of the U.S. Catholic population, and certainly the fastest-growing part, is made up of Spanish-speaking immigrants, it's a sure bet that portions of events that pope is taking part in during his visit to the United States this week are in Spanish. You can follow the pope's travels in Spanish on television on the EWTN Spanish feed, but even the English version of EWTN is carrying the Spanish-language portion of events without talking over them in English.