I’m happy to report there were no injuries among the news-nerds boarding the papal flight this time.

When we were going to Turkey, one of them tripped another coming out of the bus that took us to the plane, sending him rolling on the tarmac. But the fallen nerd got right back up, and despite a sprained wrist still made it to the front of the press section, just to prove that he may be a news-nerd, but he’s not a total nerd.

There aren’t a whole lot of scuffles on papal trips, although once the photographer from Time Magazine did deck a guy who was crowding his space. The judges awarded the Time guy a TKO, but I think he eventually lost the lawsuit from the guy who lost his teeth.

Pope Benedict came to the back of the plane to answer a few questions, on the sex abuse crisis, on immigration, on the United Nations and human rights, and on United States as a model of religious freedom and a secular state.

On sex abuse, Benedict said it was time to heal the wound, and the crisis has meant much suffering for the Church in the U.S. “and for me personally,” adding that on reading the cases that arrived in Rome it was difficult for him to understand how priests betrayed their mission. “We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry,” he said.

Photographing the Pope; Papal headrest

The Pope looked liked he was in good shape, slightly tanned and patient as usual with all the flurry around him. Benedict XVI said he was making the trip in a spirit of joy: “I know this great country, and the liveliness of the Church there, despite the problems.”