Reflections on our Holy Father’s Pastoral Visit
By
Cardinal Justin Rigali
When we have been involved in a particularly beautiful event, we delight
in discussing it afterwards. This is probably an unconscious effort
to prolong the reality of the event and ensure that we appreciate its
significance. We have recently experienced the Pastoral Visit of Pope
Benedict XVI to the United States. The Church of Philadelphia was very
much a part of that visit since we are one of the four dioceses celebrating
our Bicentennial, along with the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which celebrates
the Bicentennial of its elevation to a Metropolitan See. As a way of
prolonging our joy and of benefitting as much as possible by our Holy
Father’s visit, I would also like to add some of my own reflections
on the wonderful days we have recently experienced.
He came to strengthen our faith
The First Vatican Council, in its document on the role of the successor
of Saint Peter in the Church, teaches: “It was upon Simon Peter
alone that Jesus after his Resurrection bestowed the jurisdiction of
chief pastor and ruler over all his fold in the words: ‘Feed my
lambs; feed my sheep’” (Pastor Aeternus, chapter 1). Just
as your own local pastors feed you with the Bread of Life and the Word
of God in your parishes and just as I have that same responsibility
over this entire local Church of Philadelphia, so Pope Benedict XVI,
as the successor of Saint Peter, is the chief pastor of the entire Church
throughout the world. This is why, in each of the Eucharistic Prayers,
we pray “in union with” Benedict, the chief pastor of the
Church, along with the bishop of the local Church. This should express
for us both a guarantee and a desire: a guarantee of the purity of the
faith, transmitted through Peter and his successors and the apostles
and their successors and an expression of our desire to join ourselves
with that same faith that “comes to us from the apostles.”
One of the primary reasons for the Holy Father’s visit was to
fulfill the mission of Peter to confirm us in that faith. Did we not
experience that confirmation during the Pope’s visit? As we heard
or read his words, spoken in several different places and always appropriate
to the situation, did we not feel our own faith strengthened as it was
preached to us by Pope Benedict, who is “Peter” for us?
This is not, or certainly should not be, merely an emotional reaction.
Emotions are good but they are not an end in themselves. Enthusiasm,
excitement and acclamation are all good but only if we are reacting
to the substance of the message and resolve to be challenged by it in
our lives.
At the very beginning of his homily at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, April
20, the Holy Father specifically referred to the faith he came to confirm
us in. He said: “In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus tells
his Apostles to put their faith in him, for he is ‘the way, and
the truth and the life’ (John 14:6). Christ is the way that leads
to the Father, the truth which gives meaning to human existence, and
the source of that life which is eternal joy with all the saints in
his heavenly Kingdom. Let us renew our faith in him and put all our
hope in his promises! With this encouragement to persevere in the faith
of Peter (cf. Luke 22:32; Matthew 16:17), I greet you all with great
affection” (Homily, April 20, 2008).
The rock on which the Church is built
Quite a number of years ago, a large American company used the Rock
of Gibraltar as its symbol. Their slogan for a time was even: “solid
as the Rock of Gibraltar.” Those who were in charge of advertising
knew the value of comparing themselves to a rock. They knew that this
would inspire confidence in the company and its stability, just as the
great Rock of Gibraltar, coming up out of the ocean, is a symbol of
permanence and strength.
Almost two thousand years before that advertising campaign, Jesus used
that same image for Peter, the first Pope. “You are Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my church.” He continued to instill
confidence in Peter, and his successors, and in his hearers, and their
successors by saying: “The gates of the netherworld shall not
prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). I have told you before of
the thrilling experience we Cardinals had when, immediately after the
election of Cardinal Ratzinger and his acceptance and choice of the
name Benedict, this very Gospel was proclaimed before him and all of
us. We were living out in time, in our own time and place, this promise
of Jesus. How could this not fill all of us with great confidence? How
can we not find reassurance that the faith of the Church is what Jesus
has taught and what has been handed down to us? This remains as a solid
rock of truth, even when assaulted by the waves of the sinfulness of
its members and the attacks of its enemies.
We know that a rock has many facets and layers that make up its stability.
It is the same with Peter, the rock upon whom the Church is built, and
his successors. We saw during Pope Benedict’s visit that he exercised
his role in many different ways. He confirmed the faith of Catholics
especially during the homilies he gave when celebrating the Eucharist
at Nationals Stadium and Yankee Stadium. He exercised his role as Head
of the College of Bishops when he addressed the Bishops of the United
States at the National Shrine in Washington. He answered some questions
which expressed some of our pressing needs and concerns as pastors of
our own local Churches with great clarity and insight.
Even on the airplane on his way to our country he spoke for the first
of several times about the abuse crisis the Church is enduring. The
words he used on the airplane concerning this tragedy, “I am ashamed,”
were elaborated upon several times during his journey. However, he also
called upon all of society to recognize its responsibility for halting
this terrible scourge. He said: “Children deserve to grow up with
a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships.
They should be spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation
of sexuality so prevalent today. They have a right to be educated in
authentic moral values rooted in the dignity of the human person. This
brings us back to our consideration of the centrality of the family
and the need to promote the Gospel of life. What does it mean to speak
of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so
many homes through media widely available today? We need to reassess
urgently the values underpinning society, so that a sound moral formation
can be offered to young people and adults alike. All have a part to
play in this task” (Address, Celebration of Vespers and Meeting
with the Bishops of the United States, 16 April 2008).
Christ our Hope
Pope Benedict did not hesitate to challenge us. However, throughout
all that he said and did there flowed a constant thread, which was the
theme of his pastoral journey to the United States: Christ our Hope.
He reminded all of us that we never stand defenseless in the presence
of temptation or evil or a highly secularized world. Our faith does
not mean that we deny reality but it does mean that we can meet even
its most serious challenges with the serenity of faith, a serenity that
our Holy Father gives forth from his person as what we might call “a
constant homily” of joyful sincerity and hope.
The theme of our Holy Father’s Pastoral Visit was an extension
of his recent encyclical letter Spe Salvi (“Saved in Hope”).
In that letter, while acknowledging the challenges of the modern world,
Pope Benedict makes an appeal for Christian hope: “Confronted
by today’s changing and complex panorama, the virtue of hope is
subject to harsh trials in the community of believers. For this very
reason, we must be apostles who are filled with hope and joyful trust
in God’s promises. In contemporary society, which shows such visible
signs of secularism, we must not give in to despair.” This is
why he has also reminded us that as Christians, “the future belongs
to us.” This is because the Cross tells us that we are both loved
and forgiven, that we have a pattern of life that we are called to follow,
along with the grace necessary to do so and the promise of eternal life
as the everlasting reward for our fidelity.
“May God bless America!”
We were all thrilled to hear our Holy Father use the familiar “God
bless America” on the day of his arrival and to hear his last
words on our soil: “May God bless America!” The enthusiasm
with which he used these phrases certainly made us proud to be Americans.
Indeed, Pope Benedict praised the many wonderful characteristics of
our country, especially our freedom. However, like a good father and
teacher, he also pointed out the dangers of some of the characteristics
of our country, especially our freedom. In the very stirring talk he
gave to young people on the grounds of Saint Joseph’s Seminary,
he not only showed his complete awareness of the challenges to young
people today but also stirred up in their hearts what the response of
a Christian should be, especially in the area of freedom. He said: “Freedom
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.
Have you noticed how often the call for freedom is made without ever
referring to the truth of the human person?”
In this same talk, when Pope Benedict spoke of Jesus as the Truth, and
therefore our true source of hope, the crowd cheered. At least in our
hearts, so many of us have cheered the stirring words and challenge
of our Holy Father. It now remains for us to live them out.
May 1, 2008