Friday, May 26, 2006

The Pope Goes to Poland...

...where it's hoped that he'll:
  • Indicate that the process of beatification for John Paul II will be accelerated
  • Speak words of reconciliation to Holocaust survivors, the Jewish people, and to Poland itself, a nation with chilly feelings toward the Pope's native Germany
Benedict is avoiding any unpleasantness by speaking to the Poles mostly in Italian and some in Polish.

A few other things:
  • The Washington Post characterizes this foreign trip by Benedict as "rare." It's his second foray outside the Vatican since his elevation to the papacy last April. But this description can only be used by way of comparison to his peripatetic predecessor, who traveled more widely than all of his predecessors combined.
  • John Paul II broke with precedent in another way, as the article pointed out: He elevated more to sainthood than all of the previous popes together. As a Lutheran, I view this with a certain amused ambivalence. On the one hand, I think that more people should be celebrated as "saints": The Bible teaches that all who turn from sin (repent) and trust in Jesus Christ as their God and Lord are saints. This is not a term meant for the special few. I'm also disagree with notions that saints intervene for us in heaven. As I read the New Testament, Christ Himself is our intermediary and we need no other. On the other hand, if one is going to recognize particular Christian saints as being exemplary, a perfectly legitimate thing for the Church to do, one wonders if the criteria for the designation of sainthood shifted under the beloved John Paul or if they were applied with greater charity. In any case, Benedict is apparently intent on elevating persons to sainthood with less frequency and greater reticence than his predecessor.
It seems to me that in the matter of saints, the two popes may be reflecting some of their national characters. Poles are often seen as a gregarious, warm-hearted people. Germans, though no less warm-hearted, are often reticent and more orderly. Both John Paul and Benedict have been incredibly intelligent men. But as Benedict's papacy continues to unfold, differences in their personalities and emphases are becoming more apparent.

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