It's a story that Vice President Vance formally invited Pope Leo to attend America's 250th Birthday party, but Pope Leo declined. Some versions have Pope Leo instead going to stand with immigrants on July 4th. I don't know. Most places I've seen this are merely social media outlets, or other sites that don't seem entirely credible, like this one.
I've not found it in the MSM, Vatican or other official Catholic outlets. I don't know if Catholics on either side of the pope debates have mentioned it. Again, blacking out on Lent over these things does make it tough to get to the bottom of things, since you'll sometimes find links you don't when following the modern press.
I hope it's not true. In my protestant days, one of the endearing stereotypes was that Catholic clergy prefer a world where God makes kings and popes and peasants to grovel before them. That's why the Church has always chafed at this new American Experiment hoopla.
So imagine my delight when I encountered such places as The American Catholic, or Mark Shea, or countless others who assured me that being Catholic does not mean having to say you're sorry about being an American. Imagine how nice it was to learn that was a stereotype, and the Church has not always preferred any other reign of terror to God Bless America. Of course that has changed on many fronts, especially within the vaunted Protestant Converts to Catholicism club.
Nonetheless, I'd like to think that as an American, Pope Leo will demonstrate the same pride in his own country as we saw with Pope Francis and Argentina, or Pope John Paul II and his native Poland. I'm still holding out hope for Pope Leo, and that this is just some partisan hackery. After all, we almost have to. This is the twentieth anniversary of our entering the Church. A few weeks back, one of our sons made the poignant, and devastating, observation that we entered the Church twenty years ago this year. In that time, however, we have yet to hear a sitting pope suggest there was a pressing need for us to do so.
Given what our family went through over the years, that's tough. I think if anything else was a problem, it would be easier to swallow. But the idea that we could have happily stayed where we were (and me, subsequently, getting close to a nice retirement), and simply supported the proper political and ideological narratives and agendas, makes it go down rather bitter, I must admit. And Pope Leo living up to everything you expect from that approach to the modern world - better anything but the West - will go a long way toward convincing the gang that my son's observation continues to be affirmed.
(Tom New Poster)
ReplyDeleteAs I said on Don's site, it depends on the why of "no". If Pope Leo wants to be seen dealing cautiously with a Great Power in the world (especially as a citizen of such a power) to safeguard Vatican neutrality (and avoid a possible Trump showboating of his presence), OK , just send a nice, supportive message. I'd respect that.
But if he does it to protest the current administration (perhaps warned off by our own dear USCCB?), that would set a really bad modern precedent, especially if he still chooses to visit unfree nations (and JPII was not put off by the Reds ruling Poland). We do not need a replay of Guelfs v Ghibbelines.