The Pope Prays For Us Too

2015 Time Magazine Cover

This gracious letter was sent from Pope Francis to President Trump at the time of his inauguration. The Pope promises his prayer not only for the president but also for his family, for us and all the world. I've filled out the scripture reference at the letter's end, suggesting we might read the Gospel passage in its entirety. It's that important.

Upon your inauguration as the forty-fifth President of the United States of America, I offer you my cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office.

At a time when our human family is beset by grave humanitarian crises demanding farsighted and united political responses, I pray that your decisions will be guided by the rich spiritual values that have shaped the history of the American people and your nation's commitment to the advancement of human dignity and freedom worldwide.

Under your leadership, may America's stature continue to be measured above all by its concern for the poor, the outcast and those in need who, like Lazarus,* stand before your door.

With these sentiments, I ask the Lord to grant you and your family, and all the beloved American people, his blessings of peace, concord and every material and spiritual prosperity.

* Pope Francis is referring here to the story Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus, found in Luke 16:19 and following. It begins:

Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor. And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores and longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores...

The Pope Said What?

More than a few people said during the recent papal visit that the pope should avoid politics and stick to church concerns: sexual morality, liturgy, prayers, kissing babies and charity. 

In this country we have a policy of separating church and state because history has shown (even to today) that when religion and the state are wedded, things often get ugly and dangerous - at least for some. 

But the pope has to speak to the world's problems best he can because our consciences become lax or power and greed take over.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. (Psalm 24:1 ~ New Living Translation)

Mahatma Gandhi said: "Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is." 

So as Pope Francis addressed Congress and spoke about a Seamless Garment of Life he said:

"Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout the world. Here we have to ask ourselves: why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade." 

Now more than a week later I've yet to hear a commentator-priest or newscaster draw our attention to this paragraph from the pope's thoughts. Why is that? Too busy talking about the Fiat, the pope's clothes, what he ate and who he met privately. 

My Ukrainian priest-friend, Father John, said of Catholicism in the world today: "It is like a great ship trying to navigate a narrow and cavernous ice flow."

Even The Pope's Hands Teach

While watching the Pope's motorcade from the White House to Saint Matthew's Cathedral this past Wednesday I paid close attention to his hands. As he drove by the crowds he made small crosses in the air, he raised his hands up and down just a little (his gestures are not grand) and at times he gently drew his hand back and forth over the people palm down. Then, maybe when he got tired, he switched to using his left hand.

In a number of media interviews, priests were asked, "What do you think the Holy Father will say to the assembled bishops?" And almost always the priests answered, "He won't be finger wagging." 

In speaking to about three hundred bishops, Pope Francis referred to his own hands as, wrinkled with age. He then shook hands with each of those bishops and along the way to wherever he was going next, he picked up children and caressed the faces of the elderly and those with special needs. 

Even as Pope Francis walked along the lined up crowds someone dropped a little souvenir card. The Pope bent down, picked it up, and in great courtesy returned it to the person who'd dropped it. 

Hands matter. Saint Mark tells us five times of Jesus taking people by the hand and leading them or raising them up. 

Hands speak their own language, don't they? Hands can dismiss and object; hands can invite and console. Hands can bless and clap; hands can insult or curse. Hands can give and hands can receive. Hands can twitch and thump, "I'm in a hurry," or hands can rest at peace. 

We might pay attention to our own hands this week and what they're saying. 

What was Francis thinking?

The dried blood of San Gennaro, has been kept in a crystal vial in the cathedral of Naples for centuries. It periodically liquifies as it did when Pope Francis recently visited Naples (an organized crime capital). The Neopolitan bishop at once took the vial from the pope's hands, turned it this way and that, proclaiming that a liquification miracle had happened.

Judge Judy says that you can never bring into the courtroom "what a person was thinking." OK. But having watched and listened to Pope Francis for two years, I'm going to venture he wasn't thinking about San Gennaro's blood while the bishop held up the vial and led the applause. Francis might more likely have been thinking about...

• The blood of Gaza's 844 bombed civilian deaths
• The blood of the Downs Syndrome boy aborted; the little girl    unwanted
• The blood of the mafia-murdered
• The blood shed by the child-victims of corporate desire
• The cold-blood of haters
• The shed blood of enslaved boy-soldiers
• The life-blood drained where the Church has become moribund
• The solidified blood of politicians and leaders who fail to    legislate for the common good
• The bloody ground beneath the new-martyrs murdered by  terrorists
• The blood of the rich nations dried up by greed and indulgence
• The anemic blood of Christians who content themselves with  externals, superstition and non-reflection
• The malignant blood of those who reap huge profits at  everyone else's expense
• The dirty blood of those who are so eager to send other  people's sons and daughters into war
• The poisoned blood of those who believe death is the solution to the nation's problems

"I no longer believe in words..."

It's been reported that the bishop of the cathedral where Saint Francis stripped off his stylish clothing, renouncing inheritance and status, asked the pope to visit that cathedral while at Assisi and at least "Lead the people in the Our Father." The pope responded, "Lead the Our Father?! I want to teach the Church how to repeat the gesture and to undress itself." Then at Assisi the pope expressed a desire for the Church to strip itself of all worldliness - vanity, arrogance and pride. He called these a cancer in the world and an enemy of the Church.

I was hoping for a powerful papal gesture to that effect. The pope's team of eight cardinals accompanied him on the day-pilgrimage, and so I thought that might be a good time and place to begin this new gospel approach to life in the Church: the cardinals appearing with the pope - not naked - but surely without all the costume.

It's time for the Church to undress and be done with all the titles: Your Holiness, Your Eminence, Your Excellency, Monsignor, Your Grace, Your Lordship, Reverend, Very Reverend, Most Reverend. The highest title in the Church should be brother and sister. 

It's time to undress and put away the colored hats, caps and crowns, the jewelry, the piping, the colored sashes, capes and buttons. And the lace - Oh God, please make us brave and give up all the lace. 

In 1972, many of us watched the Zeffirelli film about the life of Saint Francis titled: Brother Sun, Sister Moon. Kind of sentimental, still there was the scene where in a snowy winter we see a barefoot Francis laying stone to repair the half ruined church of San Damiano. One of Francis' rakish friends, covered in jewelry and furs makes his way through the snow to see what's going on, having been told that Francis has "gone off". When the friend tells Francis that he'd like to join the saint's efforts, Francis says, "I no longer believe in words, only actions." Even if the historical Francis never said it - he could have.

Indeed, the Church needs to undress: stripping off the royal and antique world of fashionable aristocracy and court that keeps the Church striated and distracted. When depicting the crucified Jesus we almost always give him a little cloth to safeguard his modesty. The artist who created the crucifix here was more realistic. And Francis, in stripping off his high style outfit and the attendant privileges and insurances, modeled himself on this naked Savior.

It is indeed a savage world, the pope says. And the Church needs to be freed up in every way to stand more closely and believably in solidarity with that world of pain.