Clinton 2, Obama 0

If you were wondering how many times the Democratic presidential aspirants would mention Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the U.S. during back-to-back interviews about their religious faith on CNN's "Compassion Forum," that's the tally.

The interviews were held at Messiah College, an evangelical Christian college in heavily Catholic Pennsylvania. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has been winning the Catholic vote in most states and is relying on it in next week's hotly contested Pennsylvania primary, managed to insert two references to the pope's upcoming visit.

At one point, she noted that "His Holiness the pope" is visiting this week, and added, "He’s been a strong voice on behalf of what we must do to deal with poverty" and "our obligations to the least among us."

Later, she cited the Vatican as an example of good leadership, saying, "In preparation for the pope's visit, I was reading that the Vatican is the first carbon neutral state in the world now,” she said. (The Vatican announced a plan last year to become the world's first carbon neutral state by planting trees in Hungary to compensate for Vatican City's carbon dioxide emissions.)

Sen. Barak Obama didn't mention the pope. He did manage to insert, however, that he went to Catholic elementary school like Sen. Bob Casey, a prominent Catholic supporter in Pennsylvania.

Photos: Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barak Obama at "Compassion Forum." From CNN.com.

What will the pope wear?

Ever since Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected to be pope in 2005, pope-watchers have been watching his wardrobe. You may remember that the cassock he was hastily given to wear in his initial appearance was a little short. Much was subsequently made of his decision to switch tailors, from Gammarelli's - which had dressed the popes for more than 200 years - to Euroclero, located across the street from his former office.

In what some have taken as a theological fashion statement, Pope Benedict XVI has on occasion gone retro in his liturgical vestments. For example: the extra-tall, bejeweled mitre at left, a style reminiscent of the 19th century.

David Gibson, author of "The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World," analyzes what it means in today's Newark Star-Ledger and on his blog at Beliefnet.com. He writes:

With increasing regularity, Benedict has been reintroducing elaborate lace garments and monarchical regalia that have not been seen around Rome in decades, even centuries. He has presided at mass using the wide cope (a cape so ample it is held up by two attendants) and high mitre of Pius IX, a 19th-century pope known for his dim views of the modern world, and on Ash Wednesday he wore a chasuble modeled on one worn by Paul V, a Borghese pope of the 17th century remembered for censuring Galileo.

On Good Friday he donned a "fiddleback" vestment dating to the Counter-Reformation era of the 16th century, and he has used a tall gilded papal throne not seen in years. And that's not to mention the ermine-trimmed red velvet mozzetta, a shoulder cape, or the matching camauro, a Santa Claus-like cap that art students will recognize from Renaissance portraiture. "

Conservative Catholic bloggers are pleased with this, he notes, while liberal Catholics fear an attempt to return the church to the pre-Vatican II era. For more on the politics of the pope's threads, see the LA Times.

Should the pope's sartorial choices matter to anyone? Shouldn't we be writing about weightier issues?

Actually, some of the most heated disputes among Catholics are about liturgical matters - whether to stand or kneel at various points in the Mass, to receive communion in the hand or mouth, and so forth. So how the pope dresses for his Masses in Washington and New York will be something more than a fashion statement.

Pope Benedict and Immigrants

Martin Marty, one of the country's leading commentators on religion in public life, suggests that Pope Benedict XVI could have an impact on the immigration issue if he addresses it in his visit to the United States.

Church officials have said Pope Benedict will avoid hot-button political issues in a presidential election year, but it is hard to see how he can stay away from this one, since the Catholic Church in America is again becoming an immigrant church. The American bishops have a vigorous advocacy campaign to call for justice for immigrants - see the campaign's logo above.

Benedict has spoken with affection for the plight of immigrant families, expressing special concern for college students. And he signaled his appreciation for the diversity in American Catholicism by sending a message about his upcoming trip that included a passage in Spanish.

Latino media have been wondering if the pope will speak out for immigrants during his visit, and some church officials close to the Latino community predict that he will. Immigrant advocates in Virginia reportedly have gone to the Vatican's office in Washington to seek the pope's help in stopping federal raids that enforce immigration laws.

But will Pope Benedict give the Catholic advocates for immigrants something they can use to help themselves across a very difficult political terrain? The U.S. Catholic bishops have issued many statements decrying immigration law as too tough on immigrants, but polls find Catholic opinion on the issue divided. If the pope frames the immigration debate in terms of his teaching on the dignity of every human being, it might matter, especially to Catholics. He would have the pulpit to put it front and center as a moral issue.