Pope Benedict XVI came to America. His visit was not what anyone expected. And then, it was very different than most expected.
To listen to the modernists, there were plenty of reasons to believe that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States would be a giant thud. After all, how could the increasingly secular modern America hold any regard for the 81 year old leader of the Catholic Church?
Shortly after his ascendancy as the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church (and Sovereign of the Vatican City State), his critics attempted to diminish him by commenting that he is no John Paul II. By setting such a standard, they hoped to destine his papacy to inevitable failure by comparison.
After all, together with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II helped change the world. With a soft spoken word and a charismatic presence, Pope John Paul II forgave a would-be assassin, stood firmly behind Solidarity (the Catholic, pro-democratic/anti-Communist Polish workers' movement), and traveled the world to reach out to people. Above all, like Reagan and Thatcher, John Paul II never wavered from his principles.
Yet, Pope Benedict XVI has never pretended to be John Paul II; instead, he has set out on his own historical course as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. With “the look and feel of a monumental and historic event" (as one reporter put it), President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush greeted the Pope on his arrival on Shepherd 1 at Andrews Air Force Base - the first time an American president has done so and the first visit by a Pope since September 11, 2001.
As opposed to the predicted non-event (characterized as an old pope meeting with an unpopular president), President Bush’s welcome of Pope Benedict XVI was headline news for every major news organization in the country. The pictures were impressive.
Best estimates are that there are approximately 70 million Catholics in the United States. Approximately 13,500 American Catholics and their friends came to watch the White House South Lawn arrival ceremony. Approximately 46,000 attended a Mass led by the Pope at Nationals Park (the Washington Nationals’ baseball stadium). Add to that an address to the United Nations General Assembly and another Mass at Yankee Stadium in New York City and the Pope’s visit was in fact momentous. Pope Benedict XVI has embarked on his own course in world history.
Modernists and television pontificators still cannot quite figure out what is going on here. After all, in Jesse Ventura style, they view any organized form of religion as a crutch for the weak minded. Worse yet, they see the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church on issues like abortion and stem-cell research as outdated and out-of-touch with contemporary America. Faith is such a foreign concept that the mere idea of a spiritual leader is frankly incomprehensible. Yet, as they continue their steady move to drive God from America’s public square, there was Pope Benedict XVI riding in his “popemobile” right into the public square. But his visit did not end there.
Something else happened on the Pope’s way to the park. Pope Benedict XVI made his way to meet with some of the victims of the sex abuse scandal that had rocked his church. He publicly acknowledged that the scandal was a “deep shame.” Of course, these are not the actions that critics had expected from what they had described as the inflexible and antiquated Roman Catholic Church. The fact is that nothing about the Pope’s visit has been what they expected.
CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry candidly acknowledged that “[c]overing the White House is a thrill for a political junkie like me, but nothing prepared me for the euphoria of reporting on Pope Benedict XVI's Mass at Nationals Park for about 46,000 worshippers here on Thursday.”
There is a reason for that. Somehow the pundits thought that Americans were too busy and distant to engage or pay attention to the Pope’s six day tour in the United States. They were wrong. Contrary to the perceptions of (and portrayals by) Hollywood and the elitists, faith and God have not yet been completely driven from the hearts and minds of Americans.