Posted on 08/06/2002 5:10:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
One picture told it all: At Toronto's airport, the world's eye caught little ten-year-old Georgia Rae Giddings as she emotionally burst into tears after Pope John Paul II embraced her. For the next hour, she recalled the moment repeatedly before crowds of journalists. "When I stood in front of the Pope, I just got dizzier and dizzier," she said.
"Out of Step" with the Contemporary World
She's not the only one. Many of the million or so attending the World Youth Day celebrations reported the same phenomenon.
Most people would be astonished to hear that the Holy Father might be the most beloved person in the world among young people. After all, we're always told the Catholic Church's message is irrelevant, outmoded and - worst of all - square. Cynics charge it has nothing meaningful to say to today's fun-loving, hedonistic youth.
According to the press, polls repeatedly show the Pope's relentless opposition to contraception, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, pre-marital sex, easy divorce and other fruits of the sexual revolution is anathema to the modern and fashionable. (It goes without saying that no one knows the mind of the modern and fashionable like the media.) The Holy Father, they conclude, is out of step with the contemporary world.
A Rebuke to the Modern Age
Okay, then how do you explain nearly a million kids at the Pope's World Youth Day? And where else would the gathering of that many youngsters be termed a "disappointing" turnout?
Perhaps it's because young people's love for the Holy Father is a direct rebuke to the modern age, and thus to its primary megaphone, the modern journalist. No institution has been a more powerful force for secularism, materialism or sexual freedom than the media.
Most reporters today are alienated from religion, looking at faith as little more than an ancient superstition. They don't understand it, so they don't cover it - unless a "religious" story involving scandal or human weakness pops up. That they comprehend.
In listening to World Youth Day participants speak, their deep affection for the Holy Father is clear. The same words keep popping up over and over to describe him - "radiance," "hero" "world's role model," "leader of youth," "our rock," "following in St. Peter's footsteps," and "the person closest to Jesus."
Thus, reasons for the Pope's youthful legions are quite simple: When young people see the weary, lined, rugged, leathern visage of the Holy Father, they see the face of love. Not love the way Hollywood loves them - as walking wallets, rear ends in movie theaters, pairs of ears to listen to the latest CDs - but real affection, from someone who sees them rightfully as precious individuals with eternal souls. And when the Vicar of Christ's deep, aged, honeyed voice is intoned, it seems they're hearing the very Words of God.
An Inexhaustible Treasure of Grace
This, then, is the Papal appeal to the young: faith, as the steadfast leader of the Church, the eternal Bride of Christ; hope, offering refuge for the restless heart; and love, from a elderly man walking in persona Christi. Of these, as St. Paul says, the greatest is love.
This is what Georgia Rae Giddings reacted to. After telling the Pope she loved him, he tenderly stroked her head and whispered gently that he loved her too, the perfect personification of Cardinal Newman's great motto of "Heart Speaketh to Heart." It's hard to imagine any other world leader reacting this way to the presence of an unexpected young stranger - so fearless, so compassionate, so Christlike.
No wonder kids love him.
Catholicism may be known as the Old Faith, it's the Young Faith too, with a remarkable, time-tested ability to outlive every fad that mocks it as passe. Each Catholic generation discovers anew the richness and power of their ancient religion, finding within it an inexhaustible treasure of grace and beauty, boundless as the sea. Once that discovery is made, as a million young pilgrims recently learned, no worldly interest can ever again quite satisfy.
Kind of shows how many people go out of habit, doesn't it? My brother-in-law usually annouces just before Communion that those Catholics who are not 'ready' to receive can still come up and just cross their arms across their chests and he'll give them a Blessing. And he invites those who are Baptized in other Faiths to do the same, pointing out that he cannot give them Communion because that would mean that they've accepted the teaching of the Catholic Church, and he doesn't 'shanghai' anyone into the Catholic Faith. And he invites them and anyone who is not baptized to come forward for a blessing as well. It is beautiful to see folks who are willing to come up for a Blessing.
Since you reject the supremecy of the pope, would you consider yourself the adherent of a false religion?
Well duh. Guess I'm just a little slow on the uptake my friend. You shoudda just said so, and spared me a whole lot of angst.
Thank you kindly for the direct answer. That sort of thing is (unfortunately) quite rare these days.
Still, I don't want our reformed brethren to feel they are beyond the pale. I'll stand by my allegation that they are Christ's own, too.
Thank you truly for writing, Bud. May God bless you and yours.
I didn't receive Communion at Mass for years until I finally reconciled myself to God through the sacrament of Confession. I was the ONLY person in the parish to remain kneeling during Communion. 100% of our parishioners receive and yet when I go to Confession (held each Saturday for one hour in late afternoon), the Church is almost always empty. Something is wrong with the message we are getting!
We would agree that you don't idolize the pope. However, I would argue that you also don't recognize the pope's supremacy. You give supremacy to Bishop Lefebvre and the men he ordained as bishops against the pope's express wishes. You give supremacy to the propaganda of the SSPX that contradicts the faith that the pope lives and teaches. Therefore, by your own definition you practice a false religion. That you don't see that is tragic. I will pray for your conversion.
Bud's religion is not false, Chuck. I'll lay may neck on the chopping block, for the one, true religion before I kiss a koran.
In pointing out the errors of the Orthodox he included an error he also happily and proudly indulges. If he can claim that the Orthodox practice a false religion, then he is free to admit that he, too, shares in their apostacy. You should talk to him about that. I bet that he would include you as hellbound as well.
Of course you do. How can it be possible to be a follower of Lefebvre and Williamson and Pope John Paul II? The faith as expressed in the actions, prayers, and liturgies of the pope are anathema to you, if I am to take your numerous posts seriously. I would suspect that you would not assist at a mass said by the pope, but you would if Williamson said it. where does your fidelity lie? The pope? Or the man who disobeyed the pope? The man who says the N.O. is valid, licit, and holy, or the man that says anything other than the Tridentine is modernist revision.
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