What is the impact of Pope Benedict’s pastoral visit to the United States?

By all external measures it was a great success, an inspiring and joyful event. As one who personally participated in the events in Washington, I found renewed energy and encouragement in the Holy Father’s presence among us and in his words. I am sure that the same can be said for the throngs of people who came out for the various papal events or who participated by means of television and radio.
As more than one Catholic commentator has noted, the ultimate impact of the papal visit depends on how the Catholics of the United States respond, or fail to respond, beginning on the Monday morning after the Pope returns to Rome.

The visit was ultimately not about Pope Benedict, as he would be the first to admit. He came as the Apostle Peter in our day to bear witness to Jesus Christ our Hope (the theme of the visit); to preach gospel truths about conversion and faith; and to strengthen Christ’s body and bride, the church, in bonds of unity and communion.

So the measure of the trip is not external success, but spiritual fruitfulness.

I am reminded of the parable of the Sower in the gospel. What is sown is the Word of God. Some seed falls on the path and the devil snatches it away. Some falls on rocky ground and withers in time of temptation and trial. Some falls amid the thorns and is choked by earthly cares, riches and pleasures. Finally, only at the end of the parable, does some seed fall on good ground and bear fruit.

The genius of Pope Benedict, like Pope John Paul before him, is to sow the seeds of the Gospel in a way that is appealing and at the same time uncompromising in the face of the spiritual, cultural and social challenges of our time. During his visit the Holy Father developed several themes, three of which I would like to highlight as follows.

In the United States, which is marked by a genuinely religious spirit, but also a growing secularism, Pope Benedict says Christian faith is not about professing beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the week promoting business practices or medical procedures contrary to those beliefs, or ignoring or exploiting the poor and the marginalized, or promoting sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or adopting positions that contradict the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death.

The Holy Father was clear on this point: “Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted. Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel.”

Another Gospel theme of the pope’s message had to do with the subtle influence of materialism. He said, “It is easy to be entranced by the almost unlimited possibilities that science and technology place before us; it is easy to make the mistake of thinking we can obtain by our own efforts the fulfillment of our deepest needs. This is an illusion. Without God, who alone bestows upon us what we by ourselves cannot attain (cf. Spe Salvi, 31), our lives are ultimately empty. People today need to be reminded of the ultimate purpose of their lives. They need to recognize that implanted within them is a deep thirst for God. They need to be given opportunities to drink from the wells of His infinite love” that are to be found in Jesus Christ.

Finally, in a society that values personal freedom and individualism, Pope Benedict repeats constantly that there is no freedom without God. True freedom is not the human ability to do whatever we want, rather it is the God-given ability to overcome the shackles of human weakness and sin so that we can do what is right and good. The Holy Father also says it is easy to lose sight of our dependence on others as well as the responsibilities that we bear toward them.

This, he says, gives rise to a form of piety, which sometimes emphasizes our private relationship with God at the expense of our calling to be members of a redeemed community. The reality is that we are created as social beings who find fulfillment only in love — for God and for our neighbor.
This last point, that we are “members of a redeemed community” calls to mind some other aspects of the papal message.

Of great significance was Pope Benedict’s repeated expression of the deep shame that we bishops and our clergy, in particular, feel as a result of the sexual abuse of minors in our country, and his assurance of the church’s commitment to promoting healing and prevention. This too is motivated by the Gospel, and has to be seen in light of the Gospel message of sin, repentance and forgiveness.

Catholic belief in the Church as “a redeemed community” — and not just so many individuals relating to God in their own way — also calls to mind the decreasing Sunday Mass attendance in our country, together with the crisis of marriage and family life to which the practice of the faith is closely tied. There is no easy answer to these problems, and the Holy Father did not give one. We are to work and pray, to look for the “straying sheep,” and search out the lost, just as the Gospel says.

What is the impact of Pope Benedict’s pastoral visit to the United States? “A sower went out sowing the seed….” This Gospel image is, I believe, the key to answering the question. The seed falls on all kinds of people, and to paraphrase St. Paul, “one apostle sows, another waters, but wherever the seed takes root, it is God who gives the growth.”

+MOST REVEREND LEONARD P. BLAIR
       BISHOP OF TOLEDO