"Vive Papa!" and "Benedicto!" filled New York Yankees' Stadium this past Sunday as I sat in section 53, Row G in left field. Thousands waited patiently through the "Concert of Hope" to see the successor of St. Peter and Pope John Paul II.
This is the Pope that I was hesitant to accept after I grew up with John Paul II and knew of his overflowing love for the Church. John Paul was a saintly man who tried to pave new paths for the Catholic Church.
The "new" Pope was said to be a conservative who would change the church back to the older ways. However, the more I learned about Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Ratzinger, the more I realized he wasn't the scary German guy that I originally thought he was.
The first thing I learned was his love for cats (courtesy of this blog). I am a cat lover myself, so we have something in common.
Second, he did not come to the United States stressing the evils of abortion, contraceptives, homosexuality or other on-the-fence ideas that American Catholics face every day. Instead, he spoke a lot about the clergy sexual abuse scandals and how they "shame" the Catholic Church.
In his homily during Mass at Yankees' Stadium, he talked about finding hope in Jesus Christ, living out the faith in public and being prepared for the Second Coming.
He seemed to want to continue breaking down the barriers of religion by visiting an American Jewish synagogue during his trip and baptizing a Muslim convert on Easter. Unfortunately, some people did not buy that and proceeded to protest outside the stadium on Sunday, trying to stir the hearts of the thousands of Catholics waiting to see the Pope. They said things such as Catholics are focusing on the present world, not the world to come, and that the priesthood was an "evil sect" of the Catholic Church.
But it did not seem to stop anyone from going in to see the Pope on Sunday.
"In the short term, the trip was an enormous success, probably beyond anyone's expectations, including those of the Pope himself," said Russell Shaw, a Catholic writer and former spokesman for the U.S. bishops' conference, according to The Associated Press. "Whether the trip is going to have a significant outcome regarding the large problems facing American Catholicism, that's anyone guess."
Suddenly, this man I was afraid of looked gentile, docile and full of love. Benedict, playfully called the German Shepherd, came to America to revive the Catholic Church and as he left on the "Shepherd One" Italian jet, he put the responsibility back onto American Catholics. What will happen next I will patiently wait, and pray, for.
--Bethany
