WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI meets with religious leaders of non-Christian faiths in Washington April 17, five young people representing major non-Christian faiths will give him gifts representative of their traditions. The pontiff also will speak privately with 10 leaders of those traditions, after a delivering a speech on the Catholic Church's interreligious relations, said Father Dennis McManus, a visiting professor of theology at Jesuit-run Georgetown University and a consultant on Catholic-Jewish relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. During a press briefing at USCCB headquarters in Washington March 27, Father McManus and Paulist Father Ronald Roberson, a specialist in Catholic-Orthodox relations for the USCCB, discussed Pope Benedict's interfaith meeting in Washington April 17 and his New York session with other Christian leaders the next day. Of the interreligious meeting, to take place at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center near The Catholic University of America, Father McManus said, "It's customary, beginning with Pope John Paul II, that when the pope travels on an apostolic visit outside of Italy, he meets with heads of significant religious communities in those countries he visits." In Washington he will be meeting "with religious leaders of Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Jain communities," he said.