The Shadow
of Peter Fell on America Last Week
Pope Brought Words of Hope and Healing
By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
TORONTO, APRIL 23, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Last week Benedict
XVI made his first visit as Pope to the United States of
America, and many were concerned about the impact the
German Pontiff would have on a rather beleaguered
Church.
They asked if Benedict XVI would be able to “connect”
with people as his predecessor Pope John Paul II had
done. After all, Benedict XVI arrived in America at age
80 while John Paul II was a mere 59 when he visited for
the first time in 1979.
Up until last week many people both within and outside
the Church in North America simply didn’t know Joseph
Ratzinger, and some didn’t want to know him. They knew
only half-truths about a former Vatican watchdog who was
often portrayed as a strict, scholarly bookworm who
lacked the charisma and flair of his predecessor on the
throne of Peter. Last week something changed
significantly in peoples’ perception of Benedict XVI.
The carefully orchestrated American pilgrimage was
replete with a White House royal welcome for his 81st
birthday on Wednesday, a major lecture to Catholic
university presidents and educators, a private and very
moving meeting with victims of clergy sex abuse at the
Vatican embassy in Washington, an address to leaders of
many faith traditions, and a mega Mass at Washington
Nationals Stadium.
Moving over to the Big Apple for the final leg of the
journey, the Pontiff gave a major address to the U.N.
General Assembly only to be followed by another major
address to the people behind the scenes at the United
Nations: secretaries, janitors, interns and the support
staff. (Not many political leaders acknowledge the
little people who make the big organizations work!)
The German Pope also visited a Manhattan synagogue on
the eve of the first day of Passover. He celebrated mass
marking the third anniversary of his election as Pope on
April 19 in what many consider the symbolic seat of
Catholicism in the United States -- New York’s St.
Patrick’s Cathedral.
"New spring"
During that Mass he issued a rallying cry for the “new
spring” in a Church that he said was so divided and
wounded in many ways, especially by the clergy sex-abuse
scandal. As our Salt and Light cameras covered the
event, we saw many priests and religious men and women
in tears during that Mass.
At the end of Mass celebrated on the Pope’s third
anniversary of election, he spoke personal and
unscripted words: “At this moment I can only thank you
for your love of the Church and Our Lord, and for the
love which you show to the poor Successor of St. Peter.
I will try to do all that is possible to be a worthy
successor of the great Apostle, who also was a man with
faults and sins, but remained in the end the rock for
the Church. And so I too, with all my spiritual poverty,
can be for this time, in virtue of the Lord’s grace, the
Successor of Peter.”
On Saturday evening the grandfatherly Benedict XVI
stunned the world, and even himself, with a grand
performance of humanity, compassion, conviction, sheer
joy and very stirring words at the youth events at New
York’s seminary in Yonkers. Prior to entering the World
Youth Day atmosphere outside, the Pope met with dozens
of disabled children in the seminary chapel -- most of
them in wheelchairs. The Pope walked slowly down the
aisle, along which the children were lined up. He took
each by the hands, or kissed a child on the head.
Parents and caregivers nearby wept openly.
At the outdoor rally for nearly 30,000 young people,
Benedict XVI made a rare reference to his upbringing in
Nazi Germany. “My own years as a teenager were marred by
a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers;
its influence grew -- infiltrating schools and civic
bodies, as well as politics and even religion -- before
it was fully recognized for the monster it was,” said
the Pope, who deserted the German army near the end of
World War II.
Throughout the week the Vatican took great care in
articulating the Pope’s immigration position, stating
the need to protect family unity and the human rights of
immigrants, but pointedly avoiding any specifics of the
American immigration debate, such as the issue of
whether to grant legal status to illegal immigrants. For
sure, Benedict XVI’s words last week stirred the
crosscurrents of the debate at the heart of a
presidential election in the United States.
There is the Church
An ancient Latin expression, first used by St. Ambrose
in the fourth century, came to my mind last week during
several moments of the historic papal visit to the
United States: “Ubi Petrus ibi ecclesia,” which is
translated, “Wherever Peter is, there is the Church.”
Peter was in America last week, on the South Lawn of the
White House, and at the Catholic University of America.
Peter’s great smile and obvious serenity ignited a
nation, a Church and a continent with hope in the midst
of cynicism and despair, and while many would like to
hasten death for a Church that is alive and young.
Peter’s words addressed to representatives of more than
190 member nations of the United Nations spoke of human
rights, dignity, dialogue and peace to a world at war in
so many places. Peter’s eloquent silence, prayer and
gestures at ground zero brought healing and peace to
victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on a
nation.
The New Testament’s Acts of the Apostles tells us “that
they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid
them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at
least his shadow might fall on any one of them. Also the
people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were
coming together, bringing people who were sick or
afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being
healed."
Benedict XVI came to America last week to bring healing
and hope. His words and simple gestures were desperately
needed in a nation torn apart by terrorism and wars, and
in a Church split by many divisions. Only time,
reflection and prayer will reveal if the healing of U.S.
Catholics, begun last week, will bear fruit for the
Church in America.
One thing is certain, however: Last week the shadow of
Peter fell on millions of people in America and far
beyond. And many received hope and experienced healing
from our many diseases. And one more thing happened last
week: Joseph Ratzinger came into his own.
Though elected and installed as Pope three years ago, I
think his Papacy really began in the minds and hearts of
North Americans last week when “Peter was among us.”
* * *
Basilian Father Thomas Rosica is the CEO of the Salt and
Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network.
He is also a member of the General Council of the
Congregation of St. Basil. He can be reached at rosica@saltandlighttv.org.
