The Pope is in the House

There was a stir today at Andrews AFB, as the Pope's plane landed. President Bush met with him there. Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate his 81 birthday tomorrow at the White House, amid hoopla and all sorts of Roman Catholics who wish to see his pontiffness and others who are curious to see him. From DC he will move on to NYC where he will lead Mass at Yankee Stadium (where worship in a ballpark ALWAYS seems to go well).


There will be many who will make the trek from all over the world to see his Popeness. I was one (yes, I'm Lutheran) who walked from point A to point B to see PJP II zip down Lindell (in the Popemobile at 40mph) from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to wherever it was he was going--the Cathedral? The Edward Jones Dome?--when he made his appearance in St. Louis in 1999. There's nothing wrong with wanting to see such an important figure.


There will be others who will wish to see the pope to carry forth an agenda. Take, for example the two excommunicated priestesses who "will join other aggrieved Roman Catholic activists drawing attention to their causes on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI's visit." I'm sure that Pope Benedict will just be eager to speak with them; after all he is the man who said, " An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties."

Frankly, I'm weary of these two women as well as Father Marek Bozek of St. Stanislaus Kostka who (all three) are being held up by St. Louis media as martyrs for going contrary to church teaching. Way to go Archbishop Burke for holding to the teachings of your church! Father Bozek can speak all he wants of the difference between doctrine and dogma, but the point is, sir, that what you say can be changed can and should not. Otherwise, find yourself a church that teaches what you belive. My guess is that the Roman Catholic church is not that. Same for you two priestesses. Join a church that ordains women if you feel the need.

Which makes me jump back to the quote Pope Benedict XVI: "An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties." Here are these three people who are trying to change their church for the waves of fashion and latest novelties. On the flip side is a program like Issues, Etc. that was trying to hold fast to whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—namely, Christ, on whom our faith is built--this gets shut down and replaced with words that follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties. So, why isn't the St. Louis media all over this instead of one 1/4 page article on the back of the third section of the newspaper? Something just doesn't seem right to me. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.