Across the long arc of history, at least some things change for the better. Even so, as the 266th Bishop of Rome becomes the first Pope to ascend the rostrum of the House Chamber on Thursday to address a joint meeting of Congress – a moment capped by an appearance before crowds outside the Capitol's West Front (indeed, the very spot where presidential inaugurations are held) – just because the path that won the day is largely forgotten doesn't diminish its significance. And with it, great as time's progress has been, the nation's full embrace of its 70 million Catholics and their Universal Pastor does not accordingly mean that – both for the Stateside church and a society the faithful now dominate in numbers – no unfinished business remains.
Against this infinitely rich backdrop, welcome to some of the most intense and meaningful days this beat will likely ever see: a wild ride from the nation's capital to the place Rome still considers the "Capital of the World," then finally to America's Cradle of Liberty, where high hopes await that "a new birth of freedom" is in store for a once vaunted, now fallen bastion of the faith, one whose internal failure has succeeded at accomplishing a destruction that, by comparison, makes the past era's torching of our churches seem almost benevolent.
The schedule is set, the stages are being built – and, yes, there will be surprise stops added to an already brimming agenda. But for now, all that can wait. In the meantime, amusing as the ongoing game of "Pin the Talking Points on the Pope" might be, the irony of the exercise is that precious little of the speechifying's come from Jorge Mario Bergoglio, himself... and putting "Who am I to judge?" on repeat doesn't count.
To be sure, there are any number of ways to cover a papal visit, and no lone approach can capture the sensory overload of the experience. Still, when you've watched every day of these last 30 months from a specialist's vantage, two elements of the scene rise to the top: image and message, and the space that exists between the two.
See, for all the stabs at parsing him, it bears recalling that the clearest exegete of the phenomenon known as Francis is what created it: the man and his mind... an existence inexorably rooted in and sprung from what, ever the good Jesuit, he ceaselessly refers to as "Our Holy Mother, the Hierarchical Church." In that light, as curtain-raisers go, the path here leading up to Tuesday's late afternoon arrival in Washington will bring a mini-compendium of the Pope, himself – a dozen moments from the Whispers archives, mostly turning-point talks given in different settings over his pontificate to date, but all of them touching upon the key threads to be raised over the coming nine days before church and civil audiences alike.
As an early tip on how to "read" what's coming, it seems best to start in fitting form. During his last in-flight press conference following July's trip to South America, the Pope gave the traveling media an impromptu primer on how he's best understood....
Allow me, though no one asked me this, to give you five extra minutes, if they are helpful. In your line of work, the interpretation of a text is very important. A text cannot be interpreted through a single statement. The text as a whole has to be understood. Certain phrases are key for that interpretation but others are said only ‘in passing’ or ‘superficially’. So, one must look at the context as a whole, see the situation, see even the historical context. To see the evolution of a situation or, if we are talking about the past, to interpret an event with the hermeneutic of that time. For instance, the crusades; let us interpret the crusades with a hermeneutic of how they thought then. It is essential to interpret an address, or any text, with an interpretation which is comprehensive and not isolated.Along these lines, the kicker should be self-evident: on the eve of his arrival in Washington, you can pretty much bank it that the pilgrim's mind won't be taken up with questions of polarization, protocol or "pelvic issues," but the events of 21st September some 62 years ago – the day of the conversion experience which changed the now-Pope's life.
For everything else you'll see over these days to come, folks, just be reminded again: miss these things, and you miss everything... because without the core of it all, none of the rest could ever possibly make sense.
As for what'll ensue here, let's just say that the plans are as ambitious as they've already proven to be expensive. To cite the lead example, after a decade of covering the Vatican from a house in Philadelphia, when the Big Show finally comes home, the security gauntlet that's been put in place for it means that this scribe won't be able to cover it from said house... and candidly, simply on an emotional level, I was really looking forward to that.
Bottom line: mostly thanks to the ridiculously expensive hotel room we've had to pick up for the climactic hometown leg, the cost of the days ahead is already running close to $4,000... and as always, the expense budget comes solely by means of your support...
As ever, all thanks... and please God, may nothing need to be canceled at this point.
Lastly, and most of all, no words could say how much all the prayers, notes, calls and all-around good wishes from a good many of this crowd have meant over these last weeks – it's been a priceless gift in itself. Since that the most frequent question has been some variation of "So, how excited are you?," well, it's worth keeping in mind that at this stage of things, it's never so much "exciting" as simply daunting: facing down the hoops of scheduling and logistics is always a challenge, and as one of the few ops who could compare this week's setup from last time put it, the security for the coming go-round is "infinitely, infinitely" more stringent than it was over B16's memorable trek in April 2008. Yet even when the planning descends into levels of disarray that serve as an embarrassment and prods folks to stay away at the moment when these should least exist, the truth remains that when the day finally comes, it's all beautiful... it always is, because what finally takes center stage is the thing that counts most: "the bishop and people together" – that is, Francis' Election Night definition of this Church at its purest best.
With that, the first half of the key message-points are below (in reverse chronology), the rest to follow late in the weekend. So to one and all, Happy Reading, send prayers... and, at long, blessed last, it's finally time – let's just enjoy it.
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by Rocco Palmo via Whispers in the Loggia
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