Is the pope Catholic? That used to be a sarcastic way of saying, could anything be more obvious? Is fire hot? Is water wet?
Now, however, that nothing in the world is obvious, when Pope Benedict XVI arrives in the United States on April 15 there will surely be voices in the media apparently disconcerted to discover that, yes, the pope is Catholic.
Yes, he disagrees with Richard Dawkins that atheism is necessary for salvation. Yes, he believes that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God and the center of human history. Yes, he thinks that Catholic Christianity is truer than Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism or even Protestant Christianity. Astounding. What next?
This will now be the eighth or ninth papal trip to the United States, depending on whether one counts John Paul II’s several hours of layover in Anchorage in 1981. What is surprising about every papal visit, at least after 1965, when Paul VI addressed the United Nations, is what so many people find surprising. Each time they are surprised, for example, that the pope hasn’t abandoned the notion that all human lives, even in their earliest, embryonic phases, deserve protection and that therefore abortion is wrong.
They are similarly surprised that many American Roman Catholics honor the pope yet disagree with papal positions, whether about using contraception, restricting legal access to abortion, ordaining married men or women to the priesthood, or recognizing same-sex relationships.
This kind of disagreement may signal, as some argue, a severe crisis in church authority. Or it may be more of a norm throughout Catholic history than is widely realized. But whatever it is, it is not new.
Has the pope informed KJS? Otherwise, we might have some major ancient tradition violations!
This is absolutely the best article on the subject so far. It’s sort of the newspaper version of that “buzzword bingo” commercial.
A reasonably good article … (aside from the usual reference to the Regensburg remark where the context was omitted leading to a complete mis-interpretation of what he said)… but the underlying assumptions about world-wide communication are amazingly out-dated.
Anyone who is remotely interested in the Roman Catholic Church and/or the Holy Father can be kept informed on almost a minute by minute basis through cable TV and the internet. Regularly, EWTN’s cameras bringing viewers directly to papal Masses and audiences in real time. It creates a sense of familiarity. For Catholics, the Pope is no longer “removed” or “exotic” .
This is not the 1980s or even the 1990s, for heaven’s sake! The drama is greatly diminished … and rightly so. The substance, however, is not, and is more understood by Catholics than this article would imply.
Am not sure that KJS even warrants mention alongside his Holiness. She is the leader of a tiny group of mainly (sadly) heretical thinkers. He is father in faith to millions and a chamipon of orthodoxy.
Anyone who wants to know Pope Benedict’s views would be well advised to read his book, “Jesus of Nazareth.” It is a wonderful work written by a true man of faith. I await volume two with great eagerness.