The fifth-grade class at All Saints Catholic School stole the thunder from Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, but he didn't seem to mind.

The retired leader of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond -- and the man responsible for the creation of All Saints 26 years ago -- was on hand yesterday to help the North Side school's fourththrough eighth-graders celebrate the arrival in the United States of Pope Benedict XVI.

In the moments before the 2 p.m. assembly, he confided to Principal Ken Soistman his plan for the day: speak briefly, then make the students tell him about Benedict.

Then the fifth-graders filed to the front of the room and beat him to the punch.

"I was going to ask you what you know about the pope, but you already told me," he said.

The change in direction didn't seem to faze him a bit. He opted instead for 40 minutes of give-and-take, speaking for a few minutes, then entertaining questions. The talk ranged from the pope to Sullivan's travels to what he does in retirement ("I wish I knew," he told the students).

"I think it was nice for him to come," said fifth-grader London Burke.

Her classmate, Loreal Williams, agreed.

"He's a big deal to our school," she said. "Without him, our school wouldn't have been made."

Fellow fifth-grader Jasmine James offered a simple message for the pope. "I would tell him it's good to make peace through the world," she said.

Joshua Faulks said he "learned a lot of stuff. It was good."

Soistman said the pope's trip created a buzz throughout the school, even among the non-Catholic students.

"They're just as excited," he said.

Sullivan, too, spoke of the excitement of the papal visit.

"There is something about this man," he told the students. "Love reaches out. That's why the pope is coming. He's coming to reach out to the people in the U.S."

Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or zreid@timesdispatch.com.