Papal Fascination

I have long wondered about the fascination by journalists with the Papacy and the current Pope(s). The passage of Benedict has reminded me of this phenomenon. May he rest in peace, flawed like all of us, but it was notably remarkable how little reference there was in his obituaries to his (mis)handling of the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. Not to mention precious little real reporting on the economic effect the judgements have had on the financial ability of the church to retain buildings and operate schools and hospitals.

I don’t mean to be hard on reporters. I’m as much of a labrador retriever as anyone, bouncing off after whatever shiny ball just got tossed that caught my attention. But for a group of people notoriously hard-boiled and cynical, and, in my experience, mostly not religious and deeply skeptical of religion, this uncritical fascination with all things relating to the Papacy has always left me puzzled and annoyed.

In Benedict’s case this is especially true because of his very troubling history as the head of the church during some of the worst years of covering up what eventually emerged as an avalanche of abuse, including in the Regensburg Domspatzen choir run by his brother. Too little of the coverage of his death is remembering that, and it cost too much to too many to be forgotten.

In the 21st Century, when men put on mitres and chasubles and march about swinging censers we should ask what they are attempting to preserve. Such a confident projection of Medieval anachronistic power hopes to slide by without question. Somehow it does.

As a woman ordained in a low-church congregational tradition, I’ve had every opportunity to observe journalists making up un-nuanced straw-man arguments about a kind of religious belief that almost no-one trained in modern Protestantism holds and then knocking them down as ridiculous (which of course they are). But somehow when the white smoke blows out of the Vatican chimney, it’s 24-hour uncritical Pope Watch. 

In Chicago we are still a very Catholic city, so perhaps this is a little understandable as being important to many of my fellow citizens. WIth 1.8 Billion Catholics in the world the opinions or demise of a Pope are not without relevance. But at this point in history every reference to the magisterium of the Catholic Church should be followed by a reference to the shame of massive abuse and cover-up. Nothing should be accepted uncritically. We can be kind and forgiving of one another in the hour of our death, but that doesn’t mean that our sins should be forgotten. I don’t expect to get out of here without criticism (only with very little note).