Welcoming Pope Francis, the People's Pope, To St. Augustine, Florida

Pope Francis will come to St. Augustine, Florida next year for our 450th birthday.
I have no doubt.
Even if Pope Francis celebrates Masses in the county outside the territorial limits of the St. Augustine -- at the fairgrounds, at a farmer's field, on vcant land clear-cut by developers -- the world will see it as St. Augustine.
The first Roman Catholic Mass in America was here on September 8, 1565.
So were the first Hispanic-Americanss, first Roman Catholic Americans, first Jewish Americans, first free African-Americans and first ensaved African-Americans.
So was th first Thanksgiving.
America began here -- not at Jamestown, not at Plymouth.