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Pope Francis expected to surprise in U.S. visit
By Peter Smith
Expect the unexpected. After 18 months of agonizingly meticulous preparation and a crescendo of anticipation, Pope Francis prepares to touch down on Tuesday outside Washington for six days of visits to the high and mighty, the down and out, and the multitudes of biblical proportions. He’ll be the fourth pope to visit these lands and the first since Pope Benedict in 2008. But Francis’ arrival is more highly anticipated than any since the epic first visit of a charismatic, young Pope John Paul II, in 1979. The Argentine-born Francis rocketed almost immediately from his relative obscurity as Cardinal Jorge Bergolio upon his election in March, 2013. He dispensed with many of the papal perks and comforts and asked for the prayers of the people in St. Peter’s Square before his blessing on them. He brazenly took the name of the most beloved saint in history, a tribute to the medieval St. Francis of Assisi’s work for peace, the poor, and the protection of nature. Pontiff of impact The 78-year-old Francis has gone on to fiercely denounce the world economic system that has left many in poverty in a “globalization of indifference,” and he has stunned — and often delighted — many in his own church for his blistering denunciations of clerical privilege. He’s a devotee of the Virgin Mary and an old-school believer that a wily devil is ever seeking to deceive Christians, yet somehow he’s hip enough to earn the cover of Rolling Stone. He’s coined phrases that surface in many discussions, and debates, about his impact. “Who am I to judge?” he said of gays seeking to live a holy life. Be “shepherds living with the smell of sheep” he told fellow priests. “How I would like a church that is poor and for the poor,” he once said, lamenting a church obsessed with “small things” and strict rules. Many of his most memorable moments have come when he’s spoken — and acted — off-script. His embrace of a severely deformed man, and his visit to the slums of Rio de Janeiro in 2013 have spoken volumes to his emphasis on mercy toward those at the margins of society. “A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just,” he has said. And in responding to the scientific consensus that the world is getting warmer in the literal sense, Francis issued a recent encyclical or teaching document calling for global cooperation against man-made climate change. The Rev. William Wuenschel, a newly ordained priest in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, will be among those seated on the Capitol’s West Lawn for the papal address to Congress. “I love Pope Francis,” said Father Wuenschel. “He’s bringing a new light to many of the teachings in a new way. He stretches people’s comfort zones, and he’s bringing about a view from South America and a global view of Catholicism that some people are uncomfortable with, but the majority of people are very open to and find him to be a great blessing to the Church.” Francis will be arriving directly from a weekend visit to Cuba, a reminder of his role in helping thaw long-estranged U.S.-Cuba relations, one of several aggressive diplomatic outreaches. At the Capitol For all of Francis’ stances on economic and ecological matters, he might seem to be an unpleasant visitor to the U.S. Capitol when he speaks Thursday to a joint session of Congress, whose Republican majority has championed free markets and often opposed tighter environmental regulations. And his meeting with President Obama on Wednesday could also be fraught over disagreements over gay marriage and abortion rights, even with Francis’ more conciliatory tone on those subjects. “I don’t expect he’ll come in and criticize them in their own house,” said Nick Cafardi, a law professor at Duquesne University and expert in canon law who has represented Catholic institutions. “I think he’ll be a very hospitable guest. Not that he’s going to back off anything he’s said, but he’ll find a way to say it that is not confrontational. He can be very charming. After he leaves, when we reflect back on what he said, then it might sink in. But while he’s here, there will be a certain level of euphoria.” That euphoria has been evident on the streets of Philadelphia for weeks. Outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Francis will be presiding at Mass on Sept. 27 at an altar on the massive outdoor steps made famous in the Rocky movies, vendors of T-shirts, papal bobbleheads, and myriad other keepsakes are hard at work. A temporary grotto outside the city’s cathedral contains thousands of handwritten prayers. Francis is building his trip around the World Meeting of Families, a triennial international Catholic gathering focused on family issues and being held in Philadelphia this year, its first time in America. More than 18,000 people have registered, the most since the meetings’ launch in 1994. Francis also will be meeting with the U.S. church hierarchy at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, facing bishops who were mostly appointed by his predecessors and who have put a premium on combating abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Francis has called on bishops to be more pastoral than ideological, while American bishops contend that some federal mandates on faith-based institutions threaten their religious freedom and ability to care for the poor. ‘Time of grace’ Guzmán Miguel Carriquiry Lecour, vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, urged against trying to squeeze Francis into one or another conventional political category. “If we do not leave ourselves open to being surprised, challenged, changed, and even converted during this time of grace,” he said last month at the Religion Newswriters Association conference in Philadelphia, “we run the risk of reducing his message, of wanting to place him within the confines of our own categories, to fit him within our own political or ideological interests, to enlist him as one of our own. Pope Francis goes far beyond the polarization of conservatives and liberals.” Francis also will be visiting with the homeless at a Catholic Charities meals program in Washington, with students at a Catholic school in East Harlem, and with inmates at a Philadelphia correctional center. While it’s not on his official itinerary yet, bishops predict the Pope will meet with American victims of sexual abuse by priests. “That’s always important,” Mr. Cafardi said. “These are people who have had their lives destroyed by the sins of our priests and bishops.” As head of the church, he said, Francis has to “apologize over and over and over. And then also do as he has done, which is to say, ‘Under my watch, this will be treated extremely seriously.’ ” Francis has begun to heed calls to discipline bishops who shield abusive priests, not just ousting the priests themselves. Contact: petersmith@post-gazette.com
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