Pearl Bailey sang and basketball star Patrick Ewing reminisced, adding a dash of glamour to an event that was beamed by satellite to 37 cities around the country. But the 3,000 other alumni, dignitaries and Catholic clergy who crowded into Washington's cavernous Constitution Hall on Oct. 1 did not come for the stargazing alone. Their purpose was to kick off a yearlong celebration of the 200th anniversary of Georgetown University, the nation's oldest Catholic institution of higher learning. The festivities were a bit early: Georgetown was actually founded in 1789. But that hardly seemed to matter to Pope John Paul II,...
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