The True Lesson In Humility

Alessandra Stanley wrote in the New York Times:

For American viewers, the pope's funeral was also a rare lesson in humility; the ceremony at St. Peter's Square was one of the few momentous, televised political events in which the United States played almost no role. The fact that the American president and his two predecessors attended a pope's funeral for the first time was ho-hum news overseas. The official five-member United States delegation led by President Bush was seated not by geopolitical importance but in alphabetical order, in French: "États-Unis," right after "Espagne."

So now I understand. I also noticed that not much, if any, of the ceremony was spoken in English.