Friday, April 18, 2008 Editorials: Pope’s visit to the US
THE Catholic world is watching with curiosity and awe the first visit of Pope Benedict XVI, now on its third day, to the United States.
He follows in the footsteps of his footloose predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who visited the Philippines twice.
The visit of Pope Benedict to the US is considered significant as he turned 81 last Wednesday.
The Pope arrived in the US Tuesday (Wednesday in Cebu) “to a presidential handshake and wild cheering” only hours after he admitted that he is “deeply ashamed” of the clergy sex abuse scandal that has devastated the American church.
President George W. Bush greeting the Pope upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base was the first time “he greeted a foreign leader there.”
They met again the following day at the White House.
President Bush’s birthday present for the Pope included a 21-gun salute and a famed soprano’s rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Issues
Expected to be part of the two leader’s agenda are subjects where both share common ground, “particularly in opposing abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research.”
The two disagree “over the Iraq war, the death penalty, and the US trade embargo against Cuba.”
The Pope had reportedly planned to take up with Bush such problems as the US’ punitive immigration laws and policy.
Sexual abuse
The Pope’s six-day trip to the US is clearly designed not only to nurture his Catholic flock, but also to tackle “the most painful issue facing the US Catholic Church—clergy’s sex abuse.”
The US church has paid $2 billion in abuse costs since 1950, mostly in the last six years.
Sex scandals, though, are not alien to Philippine Catholics.
“It is a great suffering for the church in the United States and for the church in general, and for me personally that this could happen,” the Pope reportedly said, referring to the sex scandals.
“It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission…to these children,” he added.
Challenge
The US clergy’s problem is pedophilia and homosexuality; in the Philippines the problem is priest-woman relation, which is still frowned upon by the Church.
This should be as much a challenge to us and our priests, as it is to Pope Benedict.
