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.
I think that's a fair assessment. But given his reaction to our strike against Iran - and I'm fine with people having problems with it, as long as those problems are based in some type of reality - I'm not optimistic. If the response of Pope Leo I'm seeing is accurate, it's far removed from any notion of reality. Like most things today, it's this idea that nothing beyond this world matters, so anything disrupting the world can't be good. We'll just rest on our superior thinking and morals to win the day.
DeleteIt's still good you came into the Church, Dave. Catholicism is true whether or not the Pope properly declares it. Blessed are those who suffer for Truth, and you've probably suffered more than most of us for it, but I do understand the sentiment somewhat.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I to married, had a baby the first year we were married and now have children from 22 down to 15 months. The 15 month old came 5 years after the last one. Hubby is now 50. We've been doing this a LONGGGG time with a long time to go yet. When we started out it was still in the JPII years where the beauty and sacrifices of motherhood were extolled, by him and the online community. It was a bit of a status symbol to have regular pregnancies. Somewhere around the financial crisis of '08 there was a definite vibe shift. Suddenly all these Millennials were coming out of college heavily in debt with a "man-cession" and the "working mom" was extolled. Little by little, the moms I had started off with stopped having babies and started going back to work. I remember wondering at the time if I'd been sold a bad bill of goods when I found myself pregnant again after trying to avoid yet again! Sometimes it still crosses my mind that if we had been slightly more normal we might have had 4 or 5 kids, still "big" family zone by modern standards, but that would make our youngest 16 or 14 depending on where we drew the line. If we were super normal and had only 3, all our kids would be adults by now. I'd probably be back to work, and we'd probably be driving better vehicles. Maybe we could even spend regular time together without kids! Heck, we could probably even take a few actual vacations and my waistline might be less vexing. I might have been able to give adequate time to a daughter with learning disabilities sooner than I was able or we might have been able to do more educational or fun activities with our oldest kids instead of always "just" making it. Sorry, that went on longer than I meant, LOL ... I guess my point is that we all have to suffer without encouragement at times, but what ultimately matters is if we are faithfully following what we perceive to be God's Will in the moment.
I hardly follow Church matters anymore. It distracts me from the present moment when I do. On the ground I am surrounded by faithful filled and faithful people, Praise God! Both lay and clergy. I pray you are surrounded by them as well!
That was nicely said. I read it a few days ago and have read it a couple times since. That's the sort of thing we've had to cling to. Like you, I'm finding myself following fewer and fewer, especially within the Church. I still follow some, who I think have managed to keep their feet firm and still can point to some good insights and reflections. But so many - and I hate to say, so many (though not all) of those converts have shown themselves incapable of being what they imagined they were going to be for the Church. At this point, I see them more as threats to growing in the Catholic Faith than even neutral parties. So like you, I'm moving on. And yes, I think the 2008 crash followed by the Obama years was that time when more and more people began to see the status quo as something that was increasingly content being good for an ever shrinking number of people. Hence the jadedness I see among younger folks.
DeleteI'm glad you were able to take something from my comment. I just re-read it and realized in my haste and back and forth in typing it out due to corralling a busy toddler...I'm seeing all the typos, and I feel like I gave the impression I dislike my children, LOL Which is definitely NOT the case, and I hoped you assumed not :)
DeleteThat's quite a good observation actually, about the converts not being what they imagined they were going to be for the Church. And sad. But I think everyone thought we'd all be online evangelists in the early 2000s not really understanding how internet communication actually works. Most of us have had delusions of grandeur regarding our own online importance at some point. But if you insist on having a viably large platform you will have to brand yourself eventually, which is often compromising unfortunately.
Anyway, I was thinking. Even if you had stayed in a pastoral position, there's no guarantee you'd have sailed smoothly into retirement. DJT broke the evangelical political world much like his rise broke the online Catholic community. There's no way around it regardless of where you fall...there would have been some uncomfortable fractures somewhere.
Leo can avoid these finicky controversies with one weird trick: stop traveling.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps if he must travel, avoid public speaking while he does.
Delete