Dying And Rising: John Paul II To Benedict XVI

Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of Milwaukee

How’s your Latin? Mine is rusty – I usually have to walk down the hall to confer with Bishop Sklba whenever I have to translate. But, here’s a Latin sentence I know by heart: Ubi Petrus, Ibi Ecclesia. “Where Peter is, there is the Church.” It’s a nugget of Catholic wisdom with a vintage of 1900 years, so, we best take it seriously.

And we sure have these last ten weeks or so. Ever since it became clear that the late, great, beloved, John Paul II was embracing his death, through the moving, emotional days the Church and the world grieved his passing, through the period of waiting for a new Pope, during the conclave, watching the white (or black? or gray?) smoke, hearing the bells peal in jubilation rather than mourning, seeing our new Holy Father, Benedict XVI, for the first time, and getting to know him these opening weeks of his pontificate, the eyes of the whole Church and the world have been riveted on Rome.

This has been an exhilarating time for us as Catholics. Shortly after the death of Pope John Paul II, I had the honor of meeting in Madison with some state political leaders who are Catholics. “We’re proud again to be Catholic,” was their refrain, to a person. “The world loved our Pope. The world is united around the passing of this great man. He was a ‘unifier,’ a real ‘bridge builder.’” Lord knows we sure needed a chance to hold our heads high again, for we have recently been bowing them in shame over sin, scandal and shock in the Church. For a season at least, the Church was indeed “the light to the world,’’ the sign of “hope and joy” Jesus wants it to be. As a good Lutheran buddy of mine ribbed me, “You lucky Catholics, a billion dollars could not have brought you the positive publicity you got during April.”

Yes, it was what educators call a “teachable moment.” Now that the smoke has drifted away and the bells stopped tolling, I ask, “and just what did we learn?”

I. We learned that the Church is a family.

We call our Pope, “Our Holy Father” and, he is indeed. The Italians call him il Papa, which is even closer to “Dad.” He is our earthly, spiritual father, who brings cohesion, identity, focus, memory, and warmth to our supernatural family, the Church. Like any other family, we’ve got big problems. Sometimes the word “dysfunctional” even comes to mind! So, yes, there are some divisions and disagreements, jealousies and hurts, memories which can be embarrassing or painful, and even at times, anger at our spiritual family for being either too rigid or not strict enough. But, for all its woes, we love this family we call “the Church.” We cling tenaciously to our membership in it, we return to it once a week for our Sunday family meal (Eucharist), throughout life at pivotal events such as the birth of new members (baptism), maturity (confirmation), love (marriage), sickness (anointing), and death (funerals), and at holy days such as Christmas and Easter. While some of us might drift from our family of faith, the Church, we rarely leave it, and still identify ourselves proudly as “Catholics.” And we look forward to the greatest family reunion of all, heaven.

This beautiful notion of the Church as a family was so evident these recent months. Our Holy Father was dying, and we as the Church gathered around his deathbed. We grieved and we waited for renewal as a family, and the Lord did not disappoint; we have a new Papa.

One of the most moving notes I received in April put it this way. “I’m jealous of you Catholics,” the correspondent wrote. “I’m not a member of your Church, but I so admire your sense of unity as a family, a bond of love so evident in your solidarity around the chair of the Successor of St. Peter, the Pope.” Thank You!

So, we have learned to be proud of and grateful for our spiritual family, the Church. The Church is one.

II. The most important person in the Church is not the Pope, but Jesus.

The day John Paul II died, April 2, a reporter asked me, “Who’s in charge of the Church now that the Pope is dead?” “The same person who’s in charge when the Pope was alive,” I replied, “who happens to be the second Person of the Blessed Trinity: Jesus Christ.”

Our unity and identity in the Church comes through our union with Jesus – that’s called holiness. Our love for and loyalty to the Holy Father is only because he represents Jesus – that’s why we call him the “vicar of Christ” — however unworthily, here on earth. One of the earliest titles given the Pope is pontiff, which comes from the Latin word for a “bridge builder.” Yes, he is a bridge between Jesus and us. He helps us be united with Jesus as our Lord, Savior, the way, the truth, and the life.

So, a second lesson we have learned these glorious days is that the Church is holy.

III. The Church is at its best when she welcomes all, includes everyone, and unites the world into her tender embrace.

That’s why John Paul II was so great: he was seen as the pastor, the evangelizer of the world. A good Jewish friend chided me the day after John Paul II died, “Don’t forget, he was our Pope, too!” One of the more touching moments in our local mourning over John Paul came when Rabbi Ronald Shapiro chanted the Kadish, the traditional Jewish prayer of grief, at the conclusion of our archdiocesan Memorial Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

That’s why Pope Benedict XVI has been so insistent about his sacred duty to reach out to all, to unite, to bring people together.

That’s why Bernini designed St. Peter’s Square the way he did: the historic colonnades come out as long arms from St. Peter’s Basilica, like a mother embracing the whole world, “hugging,” as it were, all of humanity, inviting them into the loving bosom of Jesus and His Church.

To be Catholic, then, means we are ever-sensitive to the needs of the whole world. I worry when I hear from people that, for instance, they are unwilling to be generous to the wider Church because their own needs come first. That’s simply not Catholic. We are not “Congregationalists;” we are Catholics and that means universal, all-embracing. As the Irish novelist James Joyce observed, “The Catholic Church means, ‘Here comes everybody!’ ”

We learned that the Church is Catholic.

IV. Finally, we have been reminded that the Pope is the Successor of St. Peter.

Over and over again, journalists would ask me, "Just who is the Pope? Just what is his role?" The only response I could give was that the Pope does today what St. Peter did in the early Church.

• That's why a new Pope changes his name: because Jesus changed the name of the first Pope from "Simon" to "Peter" which means, "Rock;"
• That's why the Pope wears what's called "the fisherman's ring," because he takes the place of Peter, who was a fisherman;
• That's why the symbol of the papacy is the crossedkeys, because Jesus said to the first Pope, Peter, "I give to you the keys of the kingdom;"
• That's why the Pope is the bishop of Rome, because Peter the Apostle left Jerusalem, went to Antioch, and finally settled in Rome where he established the Church, where he was martyred on a hill called "the Vatican," and buried on the spot over which the Basilica bearing his name now stands;
• That's why the Pope's most sacred and driving duty is not to change the essence of the Faith, but to preserve it, safeguard it, and hand it on. (Latin again! The Latin word for "hand it on" is traditio, from which comes our word tradition.) As recorded in Matthew 16, Jesus appointed Peter "the rock" not because he was adept at giving the then current popular "opinions" circulating about "who Jesus was," but because he gave the correct answer, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The unending speculation during the overwhelmingly positive coverage of the events in Rome about whether or not a new Pope would "change" Church teaching on certain controversial matters was way off the mark, for the Successor of St. Peter has the duty of conserving the Deposit of the Faith, not altering it. The Pope is not omnipotent; he is the servant of God's word and the timeless tradition of the Church, as well as the servant of the servants of God;
• That's why we look to the Holy Father's authority not as a burden, but as a gift; that's why for us the teaching of the Pope is not just an opinion but is normative, because he is the Successor of St. Peter. From the first Easter and Pentecost, Peter was looked upon as holding the community together in love and unity, as teaching the truth in the name of Jesus, as the one to whom believers went to find clear, definitive teaching when matters were confused and controversial.
• That's why we had a tear in our eye and a lump in our throat when we heard the words Habemus Papam (Sorry, Latin again!), "We have a Pope," because we need him, we love him, we listen to him, we obey him. We learned that the Church is apostolic, and that the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, is the Successor of St. Peter, the "Prince of the Apostles."

We have learned a lot, my friends: our gratitude for the Church has been deepened; our love for the unique and essential role of the Successor of St. Peter has been intensified; our confidence in the future of the Church has been strengthened, because, as Jesus assured the first Pope, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!"

As I respond to the young people who renew their baptismal promises and profess their faith at Confirmation, "This is our faith! This is the faith of the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church! We are so proud to profess it with you, in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

Ubi Petrus, Ibi Ecclesia! "Where Peter is, there is the Church!"