The Vatican today released Pope Benedict’s video greeting to Americans, a few days before his visit to the United States. You can read the text here. (The video is not up on the Vatican site yet, but look for it soon on YouTube.)

Sitting at his desk in his private library, under a panel painting of the Madonna and Child, Benedict reads his brief text in heavily accented English. His pronunciation of the Spanish greeting at the end is much better. Must be all those years of speaking Italian in the Vatican.

John Paul II started the practice of sending advance video greetings to the nations he was about to visit, but according the pope’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, this is the first time that Benedict has taped one specifically for a papal trip. (Maybe because he knows Americans are all glued either to the tube or the Internet.)