Upon this rock . . .

Habemus papam. We have a Pope.

*sigh*

I tell you true. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was not my first choice. In fact, he wasn't in my top 50. His reputation has changed over the years; and not, in my view, for the better. Once upon a time, in those heady days of Vatican II when Blessed John XXIII's "fresh air" was blowing through the Church, Ratzinger was in the forefront. He believed in the reform of the liturgy. He found theological justification for the bishops having a greater voice in the governance of the Church. He was, in short, one of the "good guys."

And now?

Now his reputation is not just conservative, but borders on the reactionary. Collegiality? No justification. Altars? Turn 'em back around. Don't think my way? Take the highway, bud.

I tell you true. My heart sank when his name was announced. This is the man who thinks the priest-abuse scandal is a bunch of media hype. Who ordered a Sister here in the US to stop her ministry to gays. Who said that Turkey doesn't belong in the European Union because it's not a Christian country (and how many of the European countries are, anymore?). And this in the midst of all the overtures John Paul II was making to other faiths!!!

Worst-case scenario: he gathers a core of hard-liners around him, and together they fracture the Church even further. America continues to drift away; Europe continues to de-Christianize; the Asian church feels more and more abandoned; and South America says "We told you so! Should've elected a Latin!" And that way lies schism.

OTOH --
Best-case scenario: he grows into his office, as did the late, great Oscar Romero. Being responsible for the entire Church gives him a wider view, a greater concern for the welfare of souls than the technical points of doctrine. The compassionate side of him that his students loved comes back to the forefront. His universally-acknowledged excellence in theology leads him to a discovery entirely new to some in the hierarchy: the Sermon on the Mount. And he takes, as his choice of names indicates he may, the lead of Pope Benedict XV, who's first encyclical basically said: "Cut out the name-calling, guys, we're all in this together."

Actually, I don't think either scenario will play out entirely. I think it will be something between the two. I suspect many of us won't be happy with some of his stands, just as we weren't with JPII's. But Benedict doesn't have the charisma to make us love him anyway.
But if the reactionaries start complaining that he hasn't brought back the Counter-Reformation; and the radicals start complaining that we don't have a completely different church yesterday, then perhaps he will be on the right track, and can keep things together for the five or six years he probably has.
He is, after all, 78 years old.
So, I will hope. Hope that we have more of scenario 2 than scenario 1. Hope that the promise holds true: ". . . the gates of Hell will not prevail against it [the church]." Hope that the Cardinals listened well, and that Benedict XVI indeed is the choice, for whatever reasons, of the Holy Spirit.

I tell you true. I love this country, not because of it's leadership, but often in spite of them. The same holds true for the Church. Pope Benedict XVI, may he reign wisely, is not "The Church," any more than George W. Bush is the United States. The
Roman Catholic Church has survived worse, and probably will again.

The People of God remain.

So Long, Farewell, Goodbye

One more time, John Paul II has drawn the world together.

The man who, in life, was seen in the flesh by more people than any other one person in history; in death, brings us together again for the largest funeral in history.

And some do not understand why. Why did people stop their lives to board a plane, a train, a bus; travel hundreds or thousands of miles; stand in line for up to 24 hours; all to spend a few seconds in the presence of (strictly speaking) a dead body?

Because he was John Paul II. John Paul the Great.

---

One more time, Pat Buchanan has it all wrong. He was on TV the other night, rambling on about how the crowds this pope drew in life and in death prove that the mass of people are more conservative than we think -- that they were there because they agreed with John Paul on birth control, on female priests, on homosexuality.

Wrong again, PB. Your record continues unstained.

We loved John Paul no matter the issues on which we agreed or disagreed with him. We loved him because he didn't tell us what the latest polls said he should, or what would keep him in good favor with somebody or other, or what would make him a place in history.

He spoke the truth as he saw it. And he spoke that truth in love.

In a world that shrugs off genocide; where expediency rules; where the idea of a person's word being their bond is laughable; where horrors beyond the belief of our grandparents are routinely part of the evening news -- in this world, so barren of love and so hungry for it, he loved us. Mistakes he made, of course, and errors in judgement, as do all humans; but they were not errors of self-interest, or of the easy way out. And how many of us can say that?

Here is what the Pat Buchanans of the world do not, will not, cannot understand: love speaks louder than any doctrine, than any political philosophy, than any pundit's opinion. Love speaks to love, heart speaks to heart, and in so speaking, sweeps away all else.

And now that Love that is the underpinning of the universes, has called a bit of its own back to Itself. And burns the brighter for it.

---

One more time: John Paul Two, we love you.

Ora pro nobis.

Requiescat in Pace

John Paul II is the only Pope I've ever known.

He was already Pope when I entered the Catholic Church. I live in a parish founded by Polish settlers; still made up largely of descendants of those settlers; and served by a priest born and raised in Poland.

There is a hole in our hearts today.

But not just ours. Friday, after it became evident that he was sinking fast, several Protestants mentioned to me how much it was affecting them. In St. Peter's Square on Saturday, Jews came to pay their respects. Muslims prayed for him on Friday, their sabbath.

The pundits will spit out reams, I'm sure, telling us why he was so important, why his death affects so many outside the Church. They will talk about world leaders, and about Communism, and about the balance of power. But I have a very simple explanation.

He loved us.

By "us," I don't mean just Catholics. He loved people, all people; and they knew that, and responded to it. People lined up by the hundreds of thousands to see him pass by in the distance; no matter how he or they felt about birth control, celibacy, female priests. It was his love for them that brought them out. Brought them out in the heat, in the cold, in the rain; brought them out to sing "JP 2, we love you!"

One of the titles of the pontiff is "Servant of the Servants of God." Few popes, unfortunately, have truly embodied that title.
John Paul II did.

Karol Wojtyla
laborer, author, priest
Servant of the Servants of God
1920 - 2005

" . . . and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."