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FILE – Traffic on the Brent Spence Bridge passes in front of the Cincinnati skyline while crossing the Ohio River to and from Covington, Ky., Oct. 7, 2014. According to a recent announcement by Kentucky and Ohio they will receive more than $1.63 billion in federal grants to help build a new Ohio River bridge near Cincinnati and improve the existing overloaded span there, a heavily used freight route linking the Midwest and the South. (AP Photo/Al Behrman, File)

CHRISTIANSTED, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) — President Joe Biden and top administration officials will open a new year of divided government by fanning out across the country to talk about how the economy is benefiting from his work with Democrats and Republicans.

As part of the pitch, Biden and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will make a rare joint appearance in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky on Wednesday to highlight nearly $1 trillion in infrastructure spending that lawmakers approved on a bipartisan basis in 2021.

The Democratic president will also be joined by a bipartisan group of elected officials when he visits the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati area, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, the White House said.

Biden’s bipartisanship blitz was announced two days before Republicans retake control of the House from Democrats on Tuesday following GOP gains in the November elections. The shift ends unified political control of Congress by Democrats and complicates Biden’s future legislative agenda. Democrats will remain in charge in the Senate.

Before he departed Washington for vacation at the end of last year, Biden appealed for less partisanship, saying he hoped everyone will see each other “not as Democrats or Republicans, not as members of ‘Team Red’ or ‘Team Blue,’ but as who we really are, fellow Americans.”

The president’s trip appeared tied to a recent announcement by Kentucky and Ohio that they will receive more than $1.63 billion in federal grants to help build a new Ohio River bridge near Cincinnati and improve the existing overloaded span there, a heavily used freight route linking the Midwest and the South.

Congestion at the Brent Spence Bridge on Interstates 75 and 71 has for years been a frustrating bottleneck on a key shipping corridor and a symbol of the nation’s growing infrastructure needs. Officials say the bridge was built in the 1960s to carry around 80,000 vehicles a day but has seen double that traffic load on its narrow lanes, leading the Federal Highway Administration to declare it functionally obsolete.

The planned project covers about 8 miles (12 kilometers) and includes improvements to the bridge and some connecting roads and construction of a companion span nearby. Both states coordinated to request funding under the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal signed in 2021 by Biden, who had highlighted the project as the legislation moved through Congress.

McConnell said the companion bridge “will be one of the bill’s crowning accomplishments.”

DeWine said both states have been discussing the project for almost two decades “and now, we can finally move beyond the talk and get to work.”

Officials hope to break ground later this year and complete much of the work by 2029.

Biden’s visit could also provide a political boost to Beshear, who is seeking reelection this year in his overwhelmingly Republican state.

In a December 2022 interview with The Associated Press, Beshear gave a mixed review of Biden’s job performance. Biden had joined Beshear to tour tornado- and flood-stricken regions of Kentucky last year.

“There are things that I think have been done well, and there are things that I wish would have been done better,” Beshear said of Biden.

Other top administration officials will also help promote Biden’s economic policies this week.

In Chicago on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris will discuss “how the President’s economic plan is rebuilding our infrastructure, creating good-paying jobs – jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, and revitalizing communities left behind,” the White House said in its announcement.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was delivering the same message in New London, Connecticut, also on Wednesday.

Mitch Landrieu, the White House official tasked with promoting infrastructure spending, will join soon-to-be former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday in San Francisco, which she represents in Congress.

Biden was scheduled to return to the White House on Monday after spending nearly a week with family on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The president opened New Year’s Day on Sunday by watching the first sunrise of 2023 and attending Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Christiansted, where he has attended religious services during his past visits to the island.

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French-born artist Delphine Poulain attends the funeral service of a friend at the Holy Cross Catholic church, in Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, Chile, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022. Rapa Nui – the remote Chilean territory in the mid-Pacific – is home to a Catholic church featuring artwork that reflects that islanders’ ancestral culture as well as Christian beliefs. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

RAPA NUI, Chile (AP) — Rapa Nui – the remote Chilean territory in the mid-Pacific widely known as Easter Island – is home to a Catholic church featuring artwork that reflects that islanders’ ancestral culture as well as Christian beliefs. Among the eye-catching works are stained glass windows — created by a French-born artist – that portray figures resembling Rapa Nui’s inhabitants.

The artist, Delphine Poulain, was born in Paris 52 years ago and has been in love with Rapa Nui since she first visited in 1994. She smiles at the memory.

“I was riding a horse through the beach when I first I thought ‘I want to live here,’” she said.

At the time, Poulain lived in Tahiti, working as a professional sailor and often traveling to other islands of Polynesia. One trip to Rapa Nui was enough to envision a future home in this land of extinct volcanoes and monolithic statues called moai, though almost three decades passed before that dream came true.

At times, Poulain worked as a nurse. She became a boat decorator. She occasionally returned to Paris, but her fascination for Polynesia repeatedly brought her back to the Pacific.

On one of those trips back to France, she fell back in love with the man who had been her teenage boyfriend. Now they have two children of their own, and the four of them have made a home in Rapa Nui since 2014.

Poulain says she treasures the freedom and the tranquility provided by the remoteness of the island, home to about 7,700 people.

Last year, thankful for the blessings that Rapa Nui has bestowed on her, Poulain offered a gift: stained-glass windows representing the 14 Stations of the Cross in Holy Cross church, located in Hanga Roa, the island’s main city.

Nowadays, the Rapanui community is mostly Catholic, but its religious practices are intertwined with its ancestral beliefs.

The musical themes that devotees sing during Mass narrate biblical passages translated to the Rapanui language. The wooden statues that portray the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit were not inspired by Western iconography, but by the physique and legacy of the islanders’ ancestors.

The statue of Mary, near the altar of the church, resembles a moai. Close to the main entrance, the third symbol of the Holy Trinity is not a dove, but rather a manutara — a bird that was considered sacred during the 19th century.

Adapting Catholic iconography to the ancestral culture of Rapa Nui has been key to maintaining adherence to the religion that European missionaries came to spread during the 18th century.

The Rapanui are protective of their identity, tending to fully welcome foreigners only if they strive to embrace the islanders’ culture. On a tomb outside Holy Cross church, where the remains of beloved missionary Sebastián Englert are kept, the epitaph reads: “He lived among us and spoke our language.”

Poulain said that winning acceptance from the locals was not easy, but she has been patient. Her stained glass windows were another step along the way: Since she began placing them in the church on December 24, 2021, some Rapanui who did not greet her before now wave their hand when they see her pass.

“I have so much respect for the island and the people,” she said. “Before I was alone, but now people know my husband and my children.”

Poulain’s commitment to integrate with the island is part of her daily life. Her family lives by the beach where, long ago, she dreamt about moving here. The color of their house resembles the area’s volcanic rock, so as not to alter the landscape. The water used at home is collected from rainfall. They rely on a solar panel for electricity.

When they moved here, the family only had a tent to protect themselves. Now their house is a repository of what the island has given them.

The roof was built with sheet metal and the rest with wood. The dishes are washed on what used to be the bottom of a bathtub; above the dining room is a lamp that was once a metal trash can.

“There has been a lot of difficulty, but also a lot of happiness. This was my dream and living your dream is incredible,” Poulain said.

Inside her studio, there is a tree next to the makeshift desk where the artist finds inspiration. Her work begins with sketches on a blank sheet. Then she takes her images to the canvas with acrylic paint.

For the stained glass windows promised to the church, she requires a pigment that can only be found in France, so getting it takes time and she still has 10 of the 14 windows to finish.

Poulain never formally studied art. But her parents had books at home and she remembers reading one about the mysteries of the world, where she first learned about Rapa Nui. Her artistic style has varied over the years, but the aesthetics of Polynesia have been a constant

In addition to her artwork, Poulain has seven horses, earning some income by offering horseback riding for tourists.

She sometimes sits outside her home, sipping wine, watching as her horses approach for their evening meal. The scene could be an imaginary landscape from one of her paintings; instead, it is her long-ago dream come true.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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FILE – Pope Francis, second from left, watches Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI enter St. Peter’s Basilica accompanied by Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, right, at the Vatican, on Dec. 8, 2015. Pope Benedict XVI’s 2013 resignation sparked calls for rules and regulations for future retired popes to avoid the kind of confusion that ensued. Benedict, the German theologian who will be remembered as the first pope in 600 years to resign, has died, the Vatican announced Saturday Dec. 31, 2022. He was 95. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — There was no tolling of the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica, no solemn announcement by a Vatican monsignor to the faithful in the square. A fisherman’s ring did not get smashed and the diplomatic corps were not mobilized to send official delegations to Rome.

The death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed in an entirely un-papal-like manner Saturday, with a two-sentence announcement from the Vatican press office, making clear once and for all that Benedict stopped being pope a decade ago. The rituals of his passing were less like the ones of a pontiff, monarch or Vicar of Christ on Earth and more akin to those of a retired bishop, even if he will be buried in the red vestments of a pope.

In a way it was fitting, and drove home that the new chapter in the history of the Catholic Church that Benedict began writing in 2013 when he became the first pope in 600 years to resign had ended, and that it’s now up to Pope Francis to follow up with how future popes might retire.

Will Francis issue new protocols to regulate the office of a retired pope, after Benedict largely winged it on the fly? Will he feel more free to consider his own retirement, now that the main impediment to resignation — having two emeritus popes at the same time — has been removed? How does a reigning pope celebrate the funeral of a retired one?

“I think that his death will open problems, not close problems,” said Massimo Franco, the author of “The Monastery,” a book about Benedict’s revolutionary retirement.

According to preliminary information released by the Vatican, Benedict’s funeral Thursday in St. Peter’s Square seems designed to be low-key, in keeping with his wishes for “simplicity” but also making clear that his status as an emeritus does not merit a pomp-filled papal sendoff.

When John Paul II died in 2005, presidents, prime ministers and kings from more than 100 countries attended the funeral presided over by none other than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become Benedict XVI after his election as pope 10 days later.

For Benedict’s funeral, the Vatican only invited Italy and Germany to send official delegations, and advised foreign embassies that any other leaders who wished to attend could do so but only in their “private capacity.”

Benedict’s body will lie in state in St. Peter’s Basilica starting Monday, but the three-day window for the faithful to pay their respects suggests a limited outpouring is expected. After John Paul’s death, an estimated 2 million people lined up for four days and nights to say a final farewell, with some camping out on the cobblestones.

Italian security officials estimate some 60,000 people could attend the funeral, a fraction of the 300,000 who packed the piazza and surrounding streets in 2005.

Francis, for his part, offered a first word of tribute Saturday during his New Year’s Eve homily, after having paid his respects Saturday morning immediately after Benedict died with a visit to the converted monastery where his predecessor lived. Francis praised Benedict’s nobility and faithful prayers in his final years, but otherwise stuck to a previously prepared homily about the need for kindness and dialogue in today’s world.

Francis will have the final word on Thursday, when he eulogizes Benedict, whom he has praised for his courage in “opening the door” to letting other popes retire.

But Francis himself has said protocols are needed to guide future papal retirements, saying the situation had worked out well enough in Benedict’s case because he was “saintly and discreet.” The death of Benedict now removes the key obstacle to any new law or procedures that could never be promulgated while he was still alive.

While a future pope could change any decree Francis issues, canonists, cardinals and even rank-and-file Catholics have argued new norms are needed because Benedict’s decisions in retirement impacted his successor from the very start.

From the title he chose (pope emeritus) to the cassock he wore (white) to the occasional public comments he made ( on sex abuse and priestly celibacy), even Benedict’s supporters felt his choices left too much doubt about who was really in charge, especially for those Catholics nostalgic for his doctrinaire papacy.

Throughout Benedict’s 10-year retirement, many traditionalists continued to consider Benedict a point of reference, and some even refused to respect the legitimacy of Francis as pope.

“I am convinced that the most appropriate ways will be found so as not to engender confusion in the people of God, even though this doesn’t seem to me to be the right time for proclamations and clarifications,” Geraldina Boni, a professor of canon law at the University of Bologna, said.

Thanks to Benedict’s “meekness and discretion,” and Francis’ “strong and affable temperament,” any possible rivalry was avoided, she said. But that may not be case in the future.

The work to clarify how things would work the next time there is both a sitting and a retired pope has already started. A team of canon lawyers launched a crowd-sourcing initiative in 2021 to craft a new church law to govern how a retired pope lives out his final years.

The project, explained at progettocanonicosederomana.com, includes proposals on everything from his title to his dress, pension and activities to make sure they “don’t interfere directly or indirectly” with his successor’s governance.

According to the draft proposals, which were the subject of an academic conference in October, a future retired pope should be referred to as the “bishop emeritus of Rome” not a “pope emeritus.” While he could still wear the white cassock of the papacy, his fisherman’s ring must be destroyed, as Benedict’s was in 2013, and his insignia must remove “all symbols of his Petrine jurisdiction.”

He should promote the unity of the church but cannot participate in any meetings of bishops or cardinals, and should consult the reigning pope before publishing anything on the doctrine and life of the church, social questions “or anything that can be considered as competing opinions with the pontifical magisterium.”

“There was a time when we were accused of having imprudently chosen a theme that was too controversial,” given Benedict was still alive, said Boni, who spearheaded the initiative. “On the contrary, the need for norms covering a pope who resigned has been affirmed repeatedly by high-level church figures.”

While it’s unclear if the proposals will be taken up by the Vatican, Francis regardless will find it easier to resign himself and to regulate the process for future popes since Benedict took the first step.

“We have to get used to the idea that popes will live long lives and that, in the end just like my grandfather or your grandfather and everyone’s grandfathers, they can’t continue,” Luis Badilla, who runs the popular Vatican blog Il Sismografo, said. “But they are still part of the family, and this is something beautiful. It gives us a normal church, not a martian or other-worldly one.”

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Trisha Thomas contributed.

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