Editorial

By Paul Schratz

Whether or not Pope Benedict XVI was aware of Barrack Obama's recent guns and religion remarks, the Pontiff's arrival at the tail end of the controversy couldn't have been timelier.

The Democratic contender's remarks on residents of small town America, who, he said, "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them," illustrated the tension between religious freedom and public secularism in the Land of the Free.

The controversy was also a reminder that Pope Benedict knows what he's talking about when he warns Americans against imitating Europe in shedding their religious history.

In a press conference on board the papal aircraft as it made its way to Washington, the Pope complimented the U.S. for its vibrant embrace of religion and its positive approach toward a secularism that would be open "to all confessions, for all the types of religious exercise...."

In Canada we're a little bit here and a little bit there, not quite as fervent in religious practice as the Americans, but less jittery than the Europeans who seem to be trying to inoculate themselves into religious amnesia.

One thing becomes apparent when listening to the Pope take on issues of the day: it's like getting a crash course in priorities and perspective. The Pope understands that what's happening in flashpoint topics like "gay marriage" and abortion is more due to loss of religious culture than it is to outright hostility.

This has surprised many. When he replaced Pope John Paul II, some observers feared (or hoped) that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would rule as an uncompromising autocrat, brandishing the Catechism and the weight of the Magisterium, overhauling dysfunctional seminaries, reproaching homosexual behaviour, admonishing abortion supporters, and all but stretching yellow police tape across the Communion lines to bar miscreant politicians who support any of the above.

It was not to be. In the past three years, and indeed on this visit, it's been clear that the world and Pope Benedict look at issues from different perspectives. While most of us see the tip of an iceberg, the Pope addresses the substance, the underlying principles, below the outcrop.

On the plane from Rome he was asked about immigration. He immediately got to the root of the issue: justice and how Americans can help Mexico become a country whose citizens don't need to flee to a better way of life.

Questioned on the clerical abuse crisis, he focused not on the issue of homosexuality in the seminary but on the demand that "only sound persons can be admitted to the priesthood and only persons with a deep personal life in Christ and who have a deep sacramental life." He called on bishops and seminary directors to do everything possible "to have a strong, strong discernment because it is more important to have good priests than to have many priests."

Every Catholic has a personal wish list they'd like the Pope to focus on. Most of us forget that although all our issues are important, they tend to be symptomatic of bigger concerns such as underlying loss of religious faith in our culture. Listening to the Holy Father and his appeals to faith and reason, for instance, one is reminded of his deeper perspective.

Addressing the symptoms without recognizing that they are indicators of more serious problems is like a teacher getting annoyed by inattentive students while overlooking the fact many of them don't eat breakfast.

Restoring a religious culture won't happen overnight. It requires long-term efforts and evangelization, a priority the Archdiocese of Vancouver identified many years ago. Now, like Benedict's arrival, it couldn't come at a better time.