Editorial

By Paul Schratz

Three years ago, when Pope Benedict took centre stage - or "centre see," if you will - most people seemed to have a certain expectation of him, for better or worse.

Liberals shuddered. Conservatives rubbed their hands with glee. The Rottweiler had entered the building, and it was going to be a bumpy ride for those who got in his way.

The Pope, however, was full of surprises. Instead of concerning himself with the hot button issues, he focused on deeper matters that he saw underlying the concerns of the day.

When Pope Benedict came to the U.S., he continued to defy expectations. Instead of weighing in on the war in Iraq or global warming, as some hoped, or on cleaning house at the seminaries or lambasting the culture of death, he reached out to the victims of the sexual abuse scandal and to special needs people.

He also drove home the fact that Christ is our hope. That was the theme of his visit, and it was one that drew applause from crowds who heard his words.

In the final words of his homily at Yankee Stadium, he told the crowd, "Jesus is the way that leads to eternal happiness ... and the life Who brings ever new joy and hope, to us and to our world."

He urged Catholics to work for the coming of the kingdom here and now "in every sector of society," saying that way lies happiness.

In a world that says have a good time by achieving more, having more, and doing more, Pope Benedict said true happiness comes from "overcoming every separation between faith and life and countering the false gospels of freedom and happiness."

He had similar words when he spoke at St. Joseph's Seminary, reminding the seminarians of "activities and mindsets which stifle hope, pathways which seem to lead to happiness and fulfilment but in fact end only in confusion and fear."

This is a message that non-Catholics or non believers might be inclined to view cynically. Our culture tells us that true happiness comes from absolute freedom to do what we want.

True freedom, however, is a "delicate value. It can be misunderstood or misused so as to lead not to the happiness which we all expect it to yield but to a dark arena of manipulation in which our understanding of self and the world becomes confused or even distorted by those who have an ulterior agenda."

Far from being a message that only Catholics or Christians can appreciate, the news that happiness and spirituality are linked is borne out even in secular research. For instance, a recent study by a UBC professor of psychology found that spirituality accounts for a significant portion of children's sense of happiness.

Mark Holder, an associate professor of psychology at UBC Okanagan, and graduate student Judi Wallace tested children 9 to 12 to measure their spirituality as well as factors such as temperament and social relations that can affect one's sense of happiness.

The researchers expected a relationship, but what they didn't expect was how much. According to their findings, up to 16.5 per cent of children's happiness can be accounted for by spirituality.

"From our perspective, it's a whopping big effect," said Holder. "I expected it to be much less: I thought their spirituality would be too immature to account for their well-being."

Next, Holder plans to look at families to see the relationship of parents and their children's spirituality on family happiness.

The researchers shouldn't be surprised when it turns out that no matter who they sample, the Pope is still right.