No word yet on who gets to go to the papal Mass at the new Nationals stadium April 17, but if you are a registered Catholic and want to go, sign up with your parish tout de suite.

Archdiocesan parishes get blocks of tickets according to their Mass attendance percentage. I still don't see how 45,000 people are going to squeeze in there. At last count, 55 dioceses have also asked for tickets. One of the interesting stories of this papal visit will be which VIPs get to go.

I talked with Sean Caine, communications director for the Archdiocese of Baltimore about all this. Baltimorians were allowed to sign up off the archdiocesan web site starting at 9 a.m. Ash Wednesday.

The 3,500-person limit was reached one hour later. Requests for some 1,000 tickets for the New York Mass at Yankee stadium filled up by the end of the day.

The pope's visit is in honor of Baltimore's elevation to archdiocesan status in 1808; the same time the dioceses of New York, Boston, Louisville and Philadelphia were created.

Baltimore got requests from as far away as California.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these people," he said. "People are clamoring to get these tickets and are trying everything to get them."

Also, take a look on a recent column by columnist George Weigel on the diplomatic dance between the Holy See and Islamic leaders which is right here.

A meeting between the two may occur in March.

— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times