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The Pope and the Pennsylvania Primary
The Pope’s recent visit to the
U.S. offers us a glimpse into what our society
so desperately needs at this moment, and which
is so glaringly absent from the current
Pennsylvania primary campaign. If only the
presidential candidates would address the
so-called “regular people” of Pennsylvania with
the same forthrightness that Pope Benedict
chose to handle the Catholic Church’s child
abuse scandal during his recent visit.
From the outset of his visit, the Pope
answered the call to address the explosive
issue of child abuse which came at the hands of
Catholic priests. Now, I know many people
believe the Pope’s visit was a triumph of
public relations and spin over truth. They
argue that the Pope sought to masterfully
manipulate public opinion to blot out a stain
on the Catholic Church. They rightfully point
out that he was merely here for a handful of
days, and that many skilled public figures
could manage the maladies he had to confront.
Time will tell.
But I see a leader who
never ducked this issue; rather, he chose to
speak out. He started this process before he
touched down on U.S. soil, with a press
conference aboard his plane after take-off from
Rome. His actions came as the Pennsylvania
Primary heated up, and turned increasingly
nasty and sadly irrelevant. Here’s how Pope
Benedict approached his challenge:
• The Pope spoke out
on a taboo issue we all know exists.
• He talked about the
issue directly from his heart to our hearts. He
spoke in human (and deeply personal) terms
about shame and regret, rejecting the safety of
putting forth convoluted proposals intended to
make us think he was “taking
action.”
• His words
were relatively few. He didn’t drone on with
long speeches, seemingly written by someone
with little or no relationship to the topic. In
this case, fewer words translated into deeper
meaning, because we were able to actually see
and hear the Pope.
•
He talked directly to whomever he was
with, instead of talking to cameras or some
intended audience. This was not about doing yet
another event; or about being cajoled into
showing up (like a politician who holds a press
conference after getting caught in a
compromised position); or about winning
converts; or about using people as props. The
Pope sought to be with others. This seldom
happens with leaders in public life.
• He spoke out over
the course of his entire visit, even if it was
only for a handful of days. His comments were
less a smattering of one-off speeches or
events, and more of an unfolding of a “public
conversation” that took on increasingly deeper
meaning as it evolved.
•
Lastly, the Pope met with the aggrieved,
in private, and with purpose. Yes, he did not
meet with a large group of victims. But he did
reach out, and by all accounts the event was
genuinely about love and healing, not
persuasion or photo ops. For me, the meeting
turned into an example of what can become – of
how other Catholic leaders and victims can come
together.
Think, then, of the
Pennsylvania primary, where people are being
clumsily categorized into clusters of “rural,”
“urban” and “suburban” voters, and little more;
where there is a fight over how “bitter” people
are and various stereotypes; where issues such
as “race” and “closed factories” and “poor
schools” are raised one day, only to be
forgotten the next; where the personal stories
of candidates and their mistakes overshadow the
stories of Pennsylvanians and their concerns;
where candidates talk incessantly about
policies, as if having a “position” is the same
as speaking directly to someone’s hurt and
aspirations.
Just at the time when the
Pope vigilantly sought to address the
inescapable realities of a very tough issue,
the candidates in the Pennsylvania Primary seem
to be spinning beyond any reality we recognize.
I know some people will wonder if I
have amnesia, that somehow I have forgotten the
history of the Catholic Church, and its slow
dealings with the child abuse scandal. I see
the shortcomings and failures, but I am not
blind to the ways in which this Pope has chosen
to step forward at this time.
In the
Keystone State, votes will be counted tonight
and someone will be declared the winner and
another the loser. Then the candidates will hop
on their chartered jets and leave for some
other town, in some other state, looking for
some other voters. And yet, it is not another
speech or policy position that I seek from
these candidates. I wish for them to engage us
in real ways about our individual and
collective lives.