US Visit Casts Pope in New Light, by David O'Reilly, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 22, 2008

U.S. Visit Casts Pope in New Light

By David O'Reilly
Philadelphia Inquirer
April 22, 2008

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/religion/20080422_U_S__visit_casts_pope_in_new_light.html

By all accounts, Pope Benedict XVI's six-day tour of Washington and New York was a transforming event for a pontiff few Americans knew.

In his 12 public appearances - and especially with his private meeting Thursday with victims of clergy sex abuse - Benedict presented himself to the nation as a compassionate, sometimes ebullient pastor to the nation's 67 million Catholics.

The trip, which ended Sunday, "devastated the caricatures that have plagued him for over two decades," said historian Brennan Pursell, author of a new papal biography, Benedict of Bavaria.

"After this past week, I can't imagine anyone here seriously comparing Benedict XVI to a rottweiler, a German tank, or calling him an 'enforcer,' " said Pursell, citing some of the harsh nicknames that befell Benedict when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's chief theologian.

The trip "was definitely a huge success for Benedict in terms of introducing himself to the American [Catholic] church and the American public," said David Gibson, another Benedict biographer.

According to Gibson, author of the 2006 biography The Rule of Benedict, the Vatican and Benedict had been deeply concerned that the clergy sex-abuse scandals here would "overshadow the message" of evangelization and hope he wanted to bring to the United States.

"If he had tried to avoid the topic, or treat it in a glancing fashion, it would have backfired," Gibson said yesterday.

"So the paradox is that by addressing sex abuse so directly, and by meeting with victims, Benedict showed himself as the very pastor - the kind of pope - they wanted to show. It was good for Benedict and for the American church."

Benedict first discussed his concern for abuse victims at a news conference during his flight last Tuesday to Washington. He echoed those sentiments in public remarks Wednesday, and again in his homily at the Nationals Park stadium Mass on Thursday. Two hours later he met with the six abuse victims.

"He took a risk that paid off," said Peter Steinfels, codirector of the Fordham Center for Religion and Culture at Fordham University. "I can see very well his advisers, maybe even me, telling him: 'This is going to be such a hot item; anything else you say is going to be overshadowed.'

"But I don't think it was. At the end, he had the U.N. speech [on Friday], the youth rally [Saturday], and the Mass Sunday at Yankee Stadium to address other matters."

For Pursell, an associate professor of history at DeSales University in Allentown, "his overarching theme is evangelization, which means the conversion of the heart of the individual. This is very important."

"He's not saying individualism is bad, but that it can lead you into the dead-ends of loneliness and isolation. So he's exhorting everyone to make a choice on an every-day basis to surrender themselves and follow the God who is love, in the person of Jesus Christ."

"He came as an exhorter," Pursell said, "not an enforcer."

Gibson agreed but wondered if Benedict perhaps "pulled his punches" during the trip by avoiding the many other topics on the minds of American Catholics, such as the church's ban on artificial contraception, divorce and remarriage, the role of women, and the accountability of bishops in the sex-abuse scandals.

"And look at the joint statement the White House and Vatican put out" after Benedict met in private Wednesday with President Bush, said Gibson, noting that the two had discussed education, human rights, poverty, pandemics in Africa, terrorism, immigration, the Israel-Palestinian conflicts, Lebanon and Iraq, among other matters.

"It's too bad he didn't talk to us about all that," Gibson said.

But Steinfels said he was not surprised that Benedict avoided other hot-button topics. The strategy might have been tactical, he said, because Benedict wanted to present his pastoral side.

At his core, Steinfels said, Benedict believes "we have lost our foundations, and that if you get the foundations right - grounding reason and faith in the encounter with Jesus - all other things will follow."

Addressing all the other sensitive topics might have been a distraction, said Steinfels, "and I think he delivered the message he meant to deliver. And I can't believe he won't take back with him a very positive view of the church in America. He's not going home thinking, 'That's a church that's really limping.' "

What concerns Steinfels more, he said, is that the smiling throngs, the well-executed meetings, and the sense of mutual affection might leave Benedict with too positive a view of the Catholic Church in America, "and that he may become complacent about some of its serious problems."

Contact staff writer David O'Reilly at 215-854-5723 or doreilly@phillynews.com