During his visit to Mexico and in his travels around the globe, Pope John Paul II has been encouraging the world's Catholics to embrace a kinder, gentler capitalism. But for his arrival in St Louis, Missouri today, the city is planning a capitalist extravaganza.
St Louis' glory days are well behind it. Many feel the city has been in a slump since the 1904 World Fair. Many downtown stores are boarded up, and the city is still struggling for an identity. It is for that reason the city is hoping the Pope's visit will allow it to shine and show the world the new St Louis.
Millions of people around the world will watch the Pope's visit via satellite TV, and via live video feeds broadcast on the Internet.
Businesses are expecting some $25 million in sales of tourist items related to the Pope's visit. Official Papal souvenirs include T-shirts, key rings, John Paul teddy bears and rosaries.
Some 3,000 reporters from around the world are set to cover the visit, which will include a welcoming ceremony at the airport presided over by President Clinton. That photograph alone is stirring anticipation; the iconography of an impeached US President who has admitted to extra-marital activities shaking hands with the Holy Father in the midst of a trial in the US Senate.
Then the Pope-mobile will lead a motorcade through the city, along a route that is expected to be lined by some one million people. This evening, the Pope will hold a prayer service and youth rally.
Tomorrow, the Pope will celebrate Mass at the Transworld Dome, an arena that is expected to draw as many as 120,000 people, making it one of the largest indoor stadium events held in the US. An evening prayer will be held at the Cathedral. While St Louis might seem an unlikely venue for an American Papal visit, the city is a Catholic stronghold, dating back to its first days. About one in four people are Catholics, and the St Louis archdiocese is one of the largest in the US, with 236 parishes.
The visit will also be rather nostalgic. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla visited St Louis in 1969 before he became Pope. One man, Mr Ken Piekutowski, remembers the visit well. The cardinal enjoyed Mr Piekutowski's Polish sausage from his butcher shop.
Last week, Mr Piekutowski got a call from the nuns who are preparing the Holy Father's meals. They put in an order for Polish sausage.
"It's an honour," Mr Piekutowski told the Los Angeles Times.