New York in particular, and the USA in general, has just spent a week in full papal sighting mode. Friends working and living in Manhattan who normally complain about the closure of streets and tightened security for Presidential or other diplomatic sojourns, were literally gushing poetic about Pope Francis I and his visit to our fair city.
New York is not new to papal events, John Paul II and Paul VI both came to our town.
Back in my high school days, Paul VI's arrival at JFK International Airport had all of the Catholic High School students, and several elementary schools with in the Diocese of Brooklyn lined up on the Van Wyck Expressway waving and enjoying a day without classes. For those of you from out of town...New York City is divided into two dioceses in both the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church...this is because Brooklyn and Queens were part of the City of Brooklyn until the city was united into one municipality on January 1, 1898. The Brooklyn Bridge was the symbolic point of that union as the mayors of both cities strode to the middle and shook hands. When one lands at JFK, one is in either the Diocese of Brooklyn...Roman Catholic, or the Diocese of Long Island...Episcopal. Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and assorted counties north of the city are in either the Archdiocese of New York ( RC) or the Episcopal Diocese of New York(self explanatory).
So Francis straddled two separate dioceses with two separate sets of clergy in his visit to my home town.
Francis had several special New York moments: he addressed the United Nations; he visited a Roman Catholic Elementary School in Spanish Harlem, he drove through Central Park and waved to thousands, and finally, he said Mass at Madison Square Garden, a venue that has seen its share of famous personages from Bruce Springsteen and George Harrison to the L.A. Lakers. Roman Catholic parishes had lotteries for tickets, as did the city of New York and St. John's University, one of the largest Catholic universities in the nation.
The Pontiff spoke in both English and Spanish...depending on his audience. The best news coverage was really on Telemundo, the Spanish language network, and his Spanish, I must say, was impeccably Latin American, which was good for me since I am trying to master the language before a trip to Cuba in February...I think I should thank Il Papa for easing my way into Havana, but I digress.
Everyone loved him, until today....
It seems the Pope had a brief meeting with Kim Davis, the Rowan, Kentucky county clerk, who was recently jailed for refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple in violation of
the Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal in all fifty states. This is, of course, a 'hot button' political issue for many in the media. This evening many in the media who previously gushed and swooned over the Pontiff and his entourage, are now weeping and wailing over their disappointment over this perceived slap in the communal US face. And even though I personally agree with the Supreme Court, I can certainly understand that Francis has the freedom to meet with whomever he chooses during his personal 'down time'.
Just to remind everyone out there: Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners; he performed miracles on the Sabbath; he interacted with women and Samaritans; he threw the money changers and sacrificial salesmen out of the temple; he rattled the cages of the Pharisees and Sadducees; he cured Gentiles; he had a radical ministry.
So, what do we have here? A Pope who is doing what a pope is supposed to do. Stop framing his actions with your personal political agenda...he answers to a different authority. Can we just respect that, even if we do not agree with his decision on this one?
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