Looking back on the Pope's visit

Just two weeks ago, I was sitting in front of a TV, fascinated by the words and images of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, known globally as Pope Francis, during his 3-day tour of the US. Had I blogged about this fairly soon afterwards (a habit I’m trying to develop), I would have focused on this fascination. Puzzling to friends perhaps, as I’ve long since left the Catholic culture I grew up with. Still, watching the Pope speak about climate change and poverty and peace and acceptance and many other things coming from the heart of Christian teachings, I felt tears brimming. Whatever reasons I could have come up with were overshadowed by emotion: relief that finally the right man was in the right job at the right point in history--and hope that he could make a difference.

Much of the time my feelings about the future are quite the opposite. My reoccurring image is that we—humans one and all—are orphans, strapped into the back seat of a car, while the grown-up drivers have wandered off to quarrel among themselves. They've failed to notice that the car is moving and the brakes don’t work. Finally, in Francis, I saw an adult leader who got the quarreling grownups to listen, who said important things, and who said them in a way that made all of us look at what we need to do to survive in this world. We were not lectured; rather we were inspired to connect with our best selves. Even so, I realized then that the experience might be what I call “the Christmas Effect”: business as usual comes to a standstill for a short time and we all focus on what we say are the really important things in life. Then the date passes and business as usual returns--or almost business as usual. Sometimes, some of us really do change if only in small ways. The image of House Speaker John Boehner crying as the Pope spoke and then resigning his position the next day is still with me. No doubt there are countless others in the crowd who cheered Francis and then went home and started to do things just a little bit differently. In the photo below, it's interesting that the word "honeymoon" from another story seems to extend to this event.

After the Pope returned to Rome, it didn’t take long for the honeymoon to disappear, especially among a number of people in the LBGT community. The Vatican confirmed that Francis had met with Kim Davis, the notorious Kentucky official who refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. At that point, my fascination shifted to curiosity and reflection. (How did the meeting with her--she was one of a group-- really come about? Was the Pope “set up” by a loyalist to a previous pope? What did he actually say?) I thought about the crucial question of freedom of conscience—something every religious leader should uphold. I decided that if Francis had indeed conveyed approval of Kim Davis’ choice to honor her own conscience, he was only doing his job. If he had lobbied for a change in the law, that’s another matter—a matter best left to Caesar, not to God. Likewise, his visit with the Little Sisters of the Poor, who are opposing the birth control coverage provision of Obamacare, was another example of the same thing. For those of us who feel strongly that same sex marriage is a right, as is affordable birth control for women, our job remains what it’s always been: supporting political efforts to make those things happen.

In watching the coverage of the Pope’s visit, I also became fascinated by the story of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the man he was before and after he became the head of the Catholic Church. Here is a man who has truly practiced what he preaches—who rejects the trappings of luxury, who has a human touch, who washes the feet of prisoners. I was also intrigued to learn that he considered himself an arrogant person at one point in his early Jesuit years. Demoted by his superiors and sent off to another city, he prayed and meditated—and emerged as a man who had learned to appreciate humility--the quality that has most characterized him during the past two years.

Nevertheless, you can argue that all admiration of Francis should be tempered by the fact that he heads a religious organization still mired in medieval doctrines. Birth control, euthanasia, priestly celibacy, ordination of women, all are at the top of the list. This week Francis is enmeshed in the politics of the Synod of Bishops on the Family. A key issue is whether divorced and remarried people should be allowed to participate in holy communion, which Francis supports. As of today, however, it looks like the conservatives will win on that. My admiration—now mixed with sympathy—for Francis continues. My own parents were affected by this issue, after my Dad, a divorced man, married my mother. They were excommunicated—a deep loss for my mother—until years later, when a sympathetic priest blessed their marriage. (Dad’s first wife had died by then). No doubt there are many couples today who are affected by the synod vote this week. Thanks, Francis, for fighting the good fight.

Today, with Francis still on my mind, I listed to the Democracy Now interview with musician/writer Patti Smith. Smith—who is not Catholic—talked about her admiration of St. Francis of Assisi—“truly an environmentalist saint” of the 12th century. Two years ago, when the College of Cardinals was choosing a new pope, Patti watched the coverage with her daughter Jessie. How wonderful it would be, Patti remembers saying, if the new pope took the name Francis and became an environmental pope for our century. Mother and daughter hugged each other when the decision was announced that the new pope would be Francis I. “We were like jumping up and down as if we were at the Kentucky Derby and our horse came in. So, I was quite happy, because I knew anyone who took on this name was taking on a great mantle of responsibility,” Patti told DN's Amy Goodman.

Today, Jessie Smith is involved with a huge concert to be performed as part of Pathway to Paris, the lead-up to the international climate talks in Paris, France, this December. Patti Smith will be performing there too, most likely including her signature People Have the Power song. She and everyone else will know that even if there’s no such thing as having God on your side, the next best thing is having Francis there. Maybe the Christmas Effect will work some magic too.

Top photo: photo credit: the way were love ourselves : magazine covers, san francisco (2015) via photopin (license)