BishopAccountability.org
	Where's the Beef, Pope Benedict? By Rick Harris Bay Windows April 24, 2008 http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=columnists&sc=keeping_the_faith&sc2=&sc3=&id=73491 Pope Benedict XVI has made his first visit to America. It is clear this man knows his way around the public relations business. During his visit it was hard to turn on a television or open a newspaper without seeing his outstretched arms. I am sure that the presidential candidates were annoyed by all the airtime he was getting, especially right before the Pennsylvania primary. He played to thousands at venues all along the eastern seaboard. He met with the president, spoke at the UN, celebrated mass with thousands of pilgrims and met with some victims of clergy sexual abuse. But as I reflected on his visit, that old Peggy Lee song kept playing in my head: "Is that all there is?" After all this is the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Italy and Servant of the Servants of God. Shouldn't I feel something more, perhaps some kind of spiritual renewal, as a result of his being on American soil? Well, I don't. In fact, he hardly even registers on my church-o-meter. Benedict is a man, chosen by other men out of a community of men. He lives tucked away behind the walls of the Vatican and no longer, if ever, gets his hands dirty in the messiness of the whole human condition. And perhaps that is it. I find the pope so far removed from my own spiritual life that it is hard for me to see what all the fuss is about. It's just another man in a dress. I can see those at Jacque's Cabaret any night of the week. When I was in the seventh grade Fr. John, a retired priest, took us off on retreat. It was the middle of winter and we had a full, structured weekend planned as the final step in our preparation for confirmation. We sat and listened (a lot), prayed (or at least pretended to) and did a few work projects to help out the camp where we were staying, when we were not throwing snowballs at each other. By bedtime, after such a structured day, we were active and clearly not ready to sleep. We told jokes, had pillow fights and made enough noise to keep everyone within a mile of us awake. At 2 a.m. there was knock on the door. We ran for our beds and pretended we were asleep but to no avail. It was Fr. John and he asked us all to get dressed and come with him. We followed him to a nearby building where there was a roaring fire in the fireplace and some blankets on the floor. There we waited for the axe to fall, but to our surprise Fr. John pulled several bags of marshmallows, boxes of graham crackers and chocolate bars out of his bag. We curled up close to the fire and made s'mores and then Fr. John asked us what we thought about God. From 2 a.m. to sunrise he sat with us while we spoke about our concepts of God, the church, sex, relationships, family and even sexual orientation. He listened, answered our questions and even expressed his doubts about virgin birth, the prohibition of women clergy and told Brady that his brother was not going to hell just because he liked to wear his mother's dresses or kiss boys. I remember him saying, "God loves love in all its forms." I hung on to those words dearly as I grew up. He talked a great deal about faith not being about words but being about deeds; about living our lives to reflect the love that God had for us. That night was the first time a person of faith was willing to engage me and speak to me, not as part of some doctrinal curriculum, but as another person of faith openly and honestly. I have never forgotten it. It is that engagement of me and the world that I most respect in spiritual leaders. Positions of authority are not of interest to me, nor are ancient successions of western white men. I am not impressed by the size of provincial oversight anymore than I am by the size of someone's genitalia. What I am interested in is how that individual lives out the spiritual path they have set for themselves. In his visit to the White House, Benedict called for "a more just society," yet the Catholic Church still treats women as second-class citizens, refusing to let them live out a full life in the church. And its treatment of the LGBT community is legendary and appalling. If Benedict wants to lead the way to a more just society he will need to look inward first. The misdirected anger of Roman Catholics towards the LGBT community here in the U.S. far surpasses their concern for the poor, the hungry or the war in Iraq. That is what makes the pope irrelevant to me. To me, his position, power and relevance are from a bygone era. The world does not need an ecclesiastical monarch. What it needs are people of faith, bound in love that will engage with this 21st century world to make it a place all God's creation can call home. What we need are more Fr. Johns. At the very least, if Benedict wants to be relevant at all during his reign as pope we will need less Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church and much more Servant of the Servants of God. Rick Harris can be reached at rharris@baywindows.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.