Published Apr. 21, 2008 in "The Oklahoma Daily"
Viewable Online Here
Last week, Pope Benedict XVI began his first visit to the United States. The significance of the occasion also was apparent in the group assembled on the tarmac to greet the Holy Father — President George W. Bush himself. This is believed to be the first time an American president has greeted a visiting foreign dignitary directly upon arrival. The White House has pulled out all the stops for the pope’s visit — with a 12,000-person dinner and lawn birthday commemoration, among other things.
Most visiting foreign leaders are not accorded this sort of pomp. In fact, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s concurrent visit to the U.S. has barely been mentioned by either the White House or the media. The papal visit, on the other hand, dominated virtually all news sources during the entirety of his stay.
That widespread coverage has revealed a side of the pope that has heretofore been rarely seen. Benedict XVI became pontiff after the death of his predecessor John Paul.
Paul had a magnetic and extremely charismatic personality. He became famous for his widely televised and often fiery speeches. He was the man who stood up to the mafia in Sicily and railed against Cuba’s state-imposed atheism. His more than 1.1 million miles of travels took him to far reaches of the globe that previously had never been visited by any Pope. Paul also made an effort to reach out to other religions, by hosting the Dalai Lama, and visiting Jerusalem’s Western Wall and the Umayyad Mosque in Turkey. The much-beloved “JP Two” frequently ranked among the most admired figures of his era.
As with any such office, holders of the papacy are often compared to their predecessor. The current pope is not, by most accounts, nearly as effortlessly charming as Paul, nor does he command as much media adulation. He is considered a shy man who is extremely well-studied in Catholic doctrine. He certainly is a traditionalist in most respects. His knowledge of Catholic religious writings and philosophy is reputedly second to none. His academic and eloquent speeches sometimes inadvertently offend other groups — evidenced by Muslims taking offence at his quoting an anti-Muslim emperor from the Middle Ages. To many people, Benedict was an eminently qualified pope who, nevertheless, seemed a little cold and distant.
The U.S. visit partially was an effort to change that, and it seems to have succeeded.
The warm welcome the Holy Father received from the Washington elite was echoed by the tens of thousands of Catholic faithful who came to his mass at a baseball stadium. Leaders from more than a half-dozen different religions met with him in a dialogue aimed at bettering interfaith relations. He also was joyously received in New York, the only other city he visited. There, he became the first pope to visit an American synagogue. He led a large public mass in the Big Apple as well.
Conspicuously absent from his tour agenda was Boston, arguably the most Catholic city in America and also the center of the clergy sex-abuse scandal. Benedict still addressed the issue, however, and said he was “deeply ashamed” by the scandal, and privately met with several victims to apologize. This display of humility and understanding certainly meant a lot, and likely will go a long way to bolster his standing with the victims and the public in general.
In the fourth visit to the United Nations by a pope, Benedict delivered a well-received speech extolling multilateralism and warning against the dangers of consensus being “subordinated by the decisions of the few.” This easily can be interpreted as alluding to the Iraq War, of which he is a vocal critic on humanitarian grounds. In his meeting with Bush, the Holy Father also urged the use of diplomacy rather than war to solve international problems and crises.
Of course, no such visit usually is with universal acclaim. Many have charged that the unusually prominent ceremony surrounding the papal visit is an effort by Bush to court the sizable Catholic vote in favor of Republican candidates, particularly Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in this fall’s election. The timing of the visit was specifically chosen to not coincide with the elections, but the above charge is not entirely implausible.
Another prominent criticism has been Benedict’s choice to not privately meet with American Islamic leaders. Several Islamic leaders, while applauding and attending the joint meetings with leaders of all religions, consider the lack of even a short private meeting somewhat insensitive.
In the aftermath of the widely publicized conversion of an Egyptian Muslim to Catholicism during the Pope’s globally televised Easter mass, such a meeting might not have been a bad idea. Many people also have taken particular note Benedict visited a synagogue on his trip, but not worship places of any other faith — Muslim, Hindu, or otherwise.
Granted, the visit probably was not universally considered perfect or even ideal. But it was notable and significant for a number of reasons — one of which he became only the third pope to visit the U.S. Regardless of the official consequences, the visit was successful from a public relations standpoint. Catholics came out in droves to see and pray with their leader. And people of all faiths finally had a chance to see Benedict as the gentle, pious and scholarly orator he truly is.
Now that we have seen a lot more of the pope as he really is, maybe all those off-color comparisons with Emperor Palpatine finally will be laid to rest.
