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Why This Pope Doesn't Connect
The Rev. Gerald Fogarty decided not to go to the pope's mass in Washington because he's busy teaching that day at the University of Virginia. The Rev. John Dufell considered joining him at Yankee Stadium, but he's got a couple of weddings to do, so he also passed. Paul Kane, a retired lawyer who goes to church in Georgetown, actually laughed at the idea, and Barbara Breshcia, who prays at St. Patrick's Cathedral several mornings a week, didn't even know the Holy Father was coming. Buttonholed on Fifth Avenue the week before Benedict XVI's arrival in New York, Breshcia was perplexed. "He's coming when? This week? Oh, next week. Is he coming to St. Patrick's?" Well, yes, and celebrating mass there, but never mind.
The cameras will begin to roll on Tuesday, and despite what's sure to be wall-to-wall coverage of ceremonial events, punctuated by mind-numbing dissections of the pontiff's veiled pronouncements, the truth is that among American Roman Catholics, excitement about this pope and his trip is remarkably low. It's not just that Benedict pales in comparison to his predecessor John Paul II in almost every respect, including looks, vitality, charisma, showmanship, tenure and popular appeal—facts so obvious that even Benedict's defenders concede them immediately before trying to spin their man's "timid" temperament and essential "humility" as spiritual assets. It's that Benedict himself has done very little to win the hearts of his American flock at what may be the most critical moment in their history.
Ever since the Second Vatican Council, the gap between what the church teaches and what the American laity practices has been growing ever wider. According to a 2005 survey by Catholic University sociologist William D'Antonio and his colleagues, 58 percent of American Catholics believe you can be a "good" Catholic and disregard the church's teachings on abortion. Sixty-six percent believe you can ignore its position on divorce and remarriage. Seventy-five percent believe you can disregard the ban on birth control. Seventy-six percent think you don't have to go to church every week.
These statistics are bad but not fatal for Benedict; after all, religion has a long history of conflict between what the authorities command and what people actually do. (Moses told his people not to worship idols because they were worshiping idols.) But in 2002, an already troubled church (with a radically declining number of priests) was traumatized by revelations that a single priest in Boston had sexually abused 150 children and that his cardinal had covered it up—revelations that set off a chain reaction of more revelations and a nationwide sense of betrayal and disgrace. In 2005, the number of Catholic laypeople who said their leaders' credibility had been hurt "a great deal" by the crisis rose to 42 percent from 33 percent two years earlier. What American Catholics want now—to generalize for a minute—is to feel something, a catharsis, a connection to their tradition, a sense that their leaders see and hear how difficult it can be to be a Catholic in this imperfect and chaotic world.
Benedict is not the man for this job. His defenders know this, or his advance team of bishops, archbishops and theologians wouldn't have been out there spinning in the weeks before the papal visit, telling anyone who would listen how very, very kind and gentle the Holy Father really is. Feeling is not Benedict's strong suit. It's not just his unfortunate visage that puts people off, or his predilection for the more outré aspects of papal fashion (antique chapeaux and ermine-trimmed capes), or his decades employed as John Paul's theological enforcer. It's that Benedict is a Christian believer first and an intellectual second, a man who shows little comfort on the global stage with the messiness of human life and politics. The Rev. Keith Pecklers, a professor at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, recalls Benedict's early efforts to connect with the masses in St. Peter's Square. "He didn't know what to do with his hands," Pecklers says. "He doesn't naturally reach out and touch babies or anything."
In fact, one could argue that Benedict has been engaged in a lifelong battle against the supremacy of feeling—against the idea, so popular in America today, that feelings about God come from within. "If the church … is viewed as a human construction, the product of our own efforts, even the contents of faith end up assuming an arbitrary character," Joseph Ratzinger told an interviewer in 1985. For Benedict, God is Truth with a capital T and exists before and outside humans and institutions. That Truth is the only authority, and that authority requires obedience. Benedict's fans say he is at his most eloquent and inspiring when teaching about that Truth. His theology is hardly radical, but it is orthodox. It's not that he doesn't care about people, it's that he wants people to care more about Jesus.
John Paul believed in the same truth, of course. His genius lay in his ability to inspire and lead a billion Catholics—in all their various and contradictory permutations—with his own humanity. He hiked, he skied, he grew infirm and then more infirm before our eyes. "When he prayed it was physical," a Dominican priest in Poland told NEWSWEEK after John Paul died. "He sighed deeply and made grunting sounds like a lion." No matter what Benedict's defenders say about his sense of humor or his love for Mozart, no matter how they explain away his impolitic comments at Regensburg, they cannot convince the American church that he, in any but the most abstract way, resembles the people he was chosen to serve.
The majority of American Catholics are not naive. They don't actually believe that Benedict will overhaul church teachings on birth control, on the ordination of women or the celibate clergy—many of them don't want him to. What they want, at the communion rail and in the person of their Holy Father, is the unity their church promises them, a sense of connectedness through God with all the other Catholics—indeed, all other people—in the world and in heaven. This is not a shallow or frivolous desire but an urgent one, and when it comes to Benedict, so far these Americans aren't feeling it.
By
Lisa Miller
|
April 15, 2008; 5:55 PM ET
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Posted by: Thomas Baum | April 21, 2008 11:24 AM
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You wrote..."the truth is that among American Roman Catholics, excitement about this pope and his trip is remarkably low."
The Holy Father's plane left tonight making you either a fool or a liar. I don't know of a third option.
Posted by: Hugh Wilson | April 20, 2008 10:57 PM
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You wrote..."the truth is that among American Roman Catholics, excitement about this pope and his trip is remarkably low."
The Holy Father's plane left tonight making you either a fool or a liar. I don't know of a third option.
Posted by: Hugh Wilson | April 20, 2008 10:56 PM
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What is in your heart comes out at the most delicate situations, such as Regensburg. Or to smile, or touch someone in need. This can be done even non-physically.One could easily have relayed the same message Benedict intended at Regensburg without hurting the feelings of others necessairly.
This is the reason that in either a corporation, factory, or a country, the head is selected not by hereditary or dictatorial methods, but by transparent methods to find the most capable individual for the job.
The problem really is not Benedict, but those who chose him. If the pool of applicants is of such poor quality now, God help us when the next pope has to be selected because we all know that the quality of priests has been progressively declining
Posted by: Jack Smith | April 19, 2008 8:45 PM
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TO LISA MILLER:
You wrote, " It's that Benedict is a Christian believer first and an intellectual second,".
He is the Pope, isn't the Pope suppose to be a "Christian"?
Actually being a Christian, rather than just believing that Jesus is Who He Is, is what makes sense of the world.
You also wrote, " It's not that he doesn't care about people, it's that he wants people to care more about Jesus.".
Since he believes that Jesus is God-Incarnate and probably believes that God has the best in mind for us, doesn't this seem to flow naturally?
You then wrote, " they cannot convince the American church that he, in any but the most abstract way, resembles the people he was chosen to serve."
Trying to be a Christian is trying to do what God wants us, individually, and as a community to do, it is not to be a bunch of cookie-cutter people, or parrots or puppets on a string.
God made us all different and we are to use whatever God has given to us, not to be clones of each other, but each an individual and hopefully to let God's Image shine thru us.
Take care, be ready.
Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.
Posted by: Thomas Baum | April 19, 2008 12:12 PM
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Speak for yourself Lisa Miller! From what I've seen of the live television coverage and news reports of the comments by people who met him, I can see for myself that the Pope does connect, even with the abuse victims whom he met with personally who were understandably hating the Church since their abuse.
Posted by: Joseph | April 18, 2008 1:26 PM
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"My sheep hear my voice..." - J.C.
It is not the pope who does not connect. The pope in the estimation of fair-minded people in this culture, is spot on with his observations and with what Americans and others need to hear, and does his half of the connecting job just fine. It is those who will not listen to him, who will not challenge their preconceived notions by trying to understand the faith beyond their elementary school understanding of it, using all religious "discussion" as a pretext to trot out their own agendas instead of to learn something, who prevent themselves from connecting and betray their ignorance. I know, because I am intelligent person who used to be there, and who used to think that liberal objections to the Church were the end of all discussion.
Posted by: Karen | April 17, 2008 2:03 PM
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where is the hyper-text link to report idiotic comments?
Posted by: ccollins | April 16, 2008 10:15 PM
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Catholics don't need a charismatic, all-things to-all-men, showman. They need a Pope who not only speaks the truth and personally attempts to live it, but they need someone who does more than talk about those things that the Church teaches which many Catholics reject.
Souls are being lost through the misuse of charity and pastoral practices that enable Catholics to "feel" part of the Church, even participating in it almost completely and sometimes completely, as they live an active life that causes scandal, even persecuting innocent people like maliciously abandoned spouses and their own children. The Church must do more to govern and to use its authority to defend the abandoned, even if it means asking their tormentors to leave the Church in hopes they cease their scandalous selfishness that is at the heart of the pervasive disunity in the Catholic Church in America.
Benedict and his predecessor have done precious little in this regard but talk. Their approach is a failure even though their spoken message rings mostly true. It seems they "do not know what they do".
A former Catholic
Posted by: Karl | April 16, 2008 9:39 PM
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I pray that your are wrong on your opinionated assessment.
Posted by: BR | April 16, 2008 5:05 PM
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Thank be to God that the truth never changes and that his Church will never change.
What a whiny article and another MSM hit piece.
In the Catholic blogosphere we are overjoyed with the Pope's visit and love our faith even the parts that hit piece reporters don't like
Posted by: Jeff Miller | April 16, 2008 1:38 PM
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The cruelest joke the cardinals played upon the faithful was elevating the ultra defender of orthodoxy, Ratzinger, to the throne of Peter. JP 2 was orthodox but people forgave him because of his kindness, his humanity. It was having John 23 back without that beloved man's courage. But John Paul exuded love. As far as I am concerned the papacy is dead.
Posted by: Silvia Pena | April 16, 2008 1:18 PM
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Things must be changing. When the pope did mass in LA back in the 80's tickets were at a premium. I know someone who paid $1,000 for a seat -didn't have the heart to ask if he got his money's worth. At least the president isn't too busy or preoccupied.
Is the president going to mass or just doing the diplomatic, head of state to head of state kind of thing? I wonder if the pope's crew will pass the plate like when Mr Bush went to Billy Graham's, what do you call that, not mass but whatever it was they did pass the plate.
Posted by: BGone | April 16, 2008 12:54 PM
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Benedict is caught between a rock and reality!!!
A synopsis of the realities of these last 200 years of historic Jesus studies for those who have not been paying attention:
Jesus was an illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/ simple preacher man who suffered from hallucinations and who has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.
The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics. earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html
For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".
Luther, Calvin, Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingie thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).
These realities will slowly crumble Christianity as the rock and reality merge. Benedict will survive his reign. The papacy will not.
Posted by: Concerned The Christian Now Liberated | April 16, 2008 10:18 AM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
TO JACK SMITH:
You wrote, "One could easily have relayed the same message Benedict intended at Regensburg without hurting the feelings of others necessairly.".
Are we so "politically correct" today that we should be afraid to speak?
Jesus said some things that seemed to "hurt the feelings of others" to the point where some wanted to silence Him, did He not and did they not?
Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.