In an era saturated with entertainment and politics, a key question looms as Pope Benedict XVI leaves here Tuesday for Washington: Is his style too dense to get Americans’ attention?
Certainly, tens of thousands of U.S. Catholics have been jockeying for tickets to his Masses in Washington and New York; about 5,000 members of the media will cover him; and Catholics across the spectrum are touting points on which he agrees with them. For traditionalists, that means Catholicism’s superiority and the revival of centuries-old prayer, music and clerical garments in church. For those to the left, it means his comments against the Iraq war, global warming and nuclear arms.
But Benedict, in making his first trip as pope to the United States, brings an agenda, and it’s more the stuff of a theology lecture than a mass-media event. He lands at Andrews Air Force base Tuesday afternoon, where he will be greeted by President Bush and first lady Laura Bush.
To be sure, there are tangible goals: Ramp up frank interfaith dialogue. Return Catholics to regular, traditional worship that reminds them of their long history. But his biggest aspiration for his six-day trip is to encourage Christians to believe in Jesus — to really believe in him, not as a metaphor but as a real miracle meant to deliver human beings from misery and war. The challenge, experts say, is trying to sell this message in a culture dominated more by reason than faith.
“But his biggest aspiration for his six-day trip is to encourage Christians to believe in Jesus — to really believe in him, not as a metaphor but as a real miracle meant to deliver human beings from misery and war. The challenge, experts say, is trying to sell this message in a culture dominated more by reason than faith.”
This really says it all about the press’s condescension towards religious belief. One only has to read about 10 pages of anything this Pope wrote (including from before his election) to be aware that a major theme of his writings is that faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, in fact that faith guides reason, and reason illuminates faith.
It’s really true — the press doesn’t get religion.
“Did we in our own strength confide…
Franz (#1), I agree.
This Washington Post piece is damning even in its attempts at faint praise. It is one more example and illustration of the strong anti-Catholic bias that pervades the liberal organs of the mass media. Once again, I enoucrage readers of T19 to check out the admirable recent book by Philip Jenkins called, “The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice.” It is sobering, eye-opening, and very well-documented.
David Handy+
Passionate advocate of High Commitment, Post-Christendom style Anglicanism of a decidedly sectarian, Christ-against-culture sort
What about Bill Maher’s so called funny remarks about B16 and his visit yesterday on Larry King’s show, I believe? Worse even than the remarks was the constant laughing and giggling of the audience at the anti-cathoolic beyong-the-pale remarks.