PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
David O’Reilly
POSTED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015
The Religion Newswriters Association met in Philadelphia this weekend. I stuck my head in for part of it on Friday. On Saturday I was a panelist to talk about covering papal visits like the one Francis is making to Cuba and the U.S. in September.
I’m not sure I can do justice to my co-panelist’s remarks, since I was not taking detailed notes, but here I thought I’d share a summary of my own remarks.
I was invited to speak because I’ve covered three papal visits since becoming The Inquirer’s religion reporter in 1995, and because I’ll be traveling with Pope Francis on his planes, and with the media pool, during his travels next month. …
When I look back on that whole adventure now, I’m struck by two things: how plain-vanilla my reporting was, and how plain-vanilla these papal appearances were. Crowds would gather at Giants Stadium, Aqueduct Race Track, Central Park, and Oriole Stadium in Baltimore. And with as much grace and dignity and warmth as he could summon, John Paul would appear, celebrate Mass in the company of many bishops and cardinals, speak to the crowd, and withdraw.
In preparing for my RNA remarks I looked up only one of those stories, JP’s appearance at Aqueduct, and could only shake my head. It described the wind blowing his cassock, the weather, the fact that the race track was so muddy from overnight rains that they cancelled the popemobile circuit, and that the water fountains weren’t working, so people got bottled water instead. John Paul spoke on familiar themes about choosing life, and I interviewed several in the crowd who spoke of how touched they were to see him.
Hmmm.
I suspect the other stories were equally bland, and ask myself now what I could have done better, but frankly I don’t have an answer. Apart from the celebration of Mass, the reason-for-being of these papal appearances was… the papal appearance. The Catholic Church talks about a thing called the “theology of presence” that’s supposed to help explain the why of these things, but looking back I am now of the opinion that John Paul’s public appearances were also intended as assertions of his authority and the authority of Rome. I failed to note it in my stories at the time, but at each venue the attending cardinals and host archbishops were required to read a public statement of loyalty – almost a medieval declaration of fealty – to John Paul. Looking back, these appearances – with John Paul seated on what can only be called thrones — were even reminiscent of a Roman emperor touring his provinces.
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