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Pope ends U.S. trip with Yankee Stadium Mass

RNS' Daniel Burke covers the Pope's final Mass of his US trip, held at Yankee stadium, in this week's full text article, linked above.

Quote:

As in previous addresses during his visit, Benedict's homily tackled a number of themes, including the place of religion in the public square, the need for young men in the priesthood, the dangers of relativism and "the false gospels of freedom and happiness." He made a passing reference to the sexual abuse scandal, but not with the depth of previous days.

Presbyterian Property Dispute Settled

We blogged earlier this year about how a Presbyterian Church in the Pittsburgh area had been in a property dispute after it chose to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) and align with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Well, Memorial Park Presbyterian Church has announced that it has reached a settlement with the Presbyterian Church's Pittsburgh Presbytery and agreed to pay $575,000 to move on. As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, this means the church gets to maintain its property despite leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Tancredo & Dobbs versus the Pope

What did they expect from a foreigner in charge of the world's biggest multinational?

The "Unchurched" Like Traditional Church Buildings

People who haven't darkened the door of a church, mosque or synagogue in the last six months prefer churches that look like a medieval cathedral over more contemporary buildings, an online survey by LifeWay Research finds.

The survey, conducted for a group of facilities development firms, was based on respondents looking at four photos of church exteriors and saying which they preferred.

“While multi-use space is the most efficient, we need to ask,`Are there ways to dress up that big rectangular box in ways that would be more appealing to the unchurched?’’’ said Jim Couchenour, director of marketing for Cogun Inc., a founding member of the Cornerstone Knowledge Network.

Ed Stetzer, LifeWay Research’s director, said he was surprised by the survey results. “We expected they’d choose the more contemporary options, but they were clearly more drawn to the aesthetics of the Gothic building than the run-of-the-mill, modern church building.’’

Adieu to His Eminence?

The pope had barely taken off from JFK airport when speculation started to mount that one of his first official acts upon landing in Rome would be to send New York's Cardinal Edward Egan into retirement.

It seems to fair to say that Egan will probably be out sooner rather than later, but not quite that fast. Some had even speculated that an appointment could come Tuesday, since that's when the Vatican typically announces such things.

Egan had said he wanted to stick around for the conclusion of the 200th birthday of the New York Archdiocese, which officially wrapped up with the pope's visit this past weekend. He's also already reached the mandatory retirement age of 75, so he could go at any time. This pope hasn't seemed to share John Paul's willingness to let cardinals serve until age 80 -- just look how quickly he retired Theodore McCarrick in Washington, just barely past his 75th.

And it's been no secret that while Egan has enjoyed the prominence of the pulpit at St. Patrick's, he's not been universally loved by his New York flock. The word "aloof" comes to mind, perhaps even haughty.

Initial speculation, as repeated by The Times, has centered on Archbishop Tim Dolan from Milwaukee, Auxiliary Bishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford (an auxiliary bishop in New York under the late great Cardinal John J. O’Connor); and Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of Puerto Rico. There's also been some chatter about Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Walsh from within New York, but my money's on Dolan, who has the larger-than-life media presence that would make an excellent fit for the Big Apple.

Renewing Colbert's Faith in His Faith

Our pal Jim Martin sat down with Steven Colbert last night to assess the pope's first trip to America. Jim's secret confession: when Benedict strolled out on the balcony after his election, Jim wanted to jump off his own balcony in desperation. But like many American Catholics, Jim has warmed to the new pope.

About that modern music: Would Benedict approve?

Among the locales Pope Benedict's limousine passed Saturday evening on Manhattan's Upper East Side was the Park Avenue Armory, a large 1881 building whose Drill Hall, reminiscent of a huge, cavernous European train shed, is slowly being turned into a performing arts space.

As it turns out, a concert of sacred music by the great 20th century master Igor Stravinsky was on tap and the performance by the Gotham City Orchestra and the Vox Vocal Ensemble was delayed a few minutes to allow concertgoers outside the chance to watch the pope and his large police escort go by. (The concert organizers also presumably wanted the police sirens and helicopters out of the way before the performance began.)

Outside, it was something of a typical New York scene: one older woman shook her head at seeing the surrounding blocked off streets and kvetched about "how much this is all going to cost." Meanwhile, two hirsute gay men, one in leather pants, greeted each other with a kiss on the lips.

In short, this wasn't exactly Benedict's crowd.

Or maybe it was. Benedict is known to love classical music, though it's not known if the musical tastes of the pope, an accomplished pianist who unwinds by playing Mozart, extend to the moderns, including the music of Stravinsky, best known for his riotous 1913 ballet, The Rite of Spring, a depiction of pagan Russia. As it turns out, in early middle age Stravinsky returned to the Russian Orthodox faith of his youth, though the text of his sacred music – including the Symphony of Psalms, the Mass and the Requiem Canticles, all performed Saturday evening – were in Latin.

As the program notes pointed out, most of Stravinsky's sacred music "would be for the church of the ear, designed to address matters of praise, penance, and mortality without regard to any ecclesiastical authority." Hmmm….

Then there's the matter of sound: if the music of Benedict's beloved Mozart and the other German-Austrian masters sound like the musical equivalent of well-burnished wood, Stravinsky's astringent and biting harmonies are the musical equivalent of angular, glimmering steel.

Even so, as the last chords of Stravinsky's Mass slowly drifted away to the words "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem" (O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace), the audience was transfixed, momentarily forgetting that it was listening to sacred music in a peculiarly non-sacred space.

Would Benedict have approved? Call it a draw. Maybe.

"You Rock!"

As more than one commentator has pointed out, Pope Benedict – German intellectual, scholar and theologian -- may never match his charismatic predecessor's claim on public affection. However, that may be changing, at least in the city hosting the pope this weekend.

The New York Post, that bell-weather of New York tabloid coverage, today features a full, front-page cover photo of a smiling Benedict being warmly greeted by long-time interfaith advocate Rabbi Arthur Schneier at the Park East Synagogue, with the headline "Shalom: Pope's Passover greeting" emblazoned on the page.

Inside, a story on the Manhattan crowds greeting the pope on Friday contain quotes from by-standers saying that Benedict is the "closest thing to God," and "the most recognizable, and most beautiful person, in the world." (!) One sign greeting the pope proclaimed: "You Rock!" Today on a subway train I saw a young Spanish-speaking woman wearing a colorful t-shirt with Benedict's visage done up in a colorful pop-art style.

An amazing public makeover for the man born Joseph Alois Ratzinger.

Was the pope talking about Darfur?

Pope Benedict did not venture into the minefield of specifics –- and more to the point, specific nations -- when he spoke Friday at the United Nations about human rights and their violators. None of us can be sure which countries the pope had in mind when he spoke about “the principle of the responsibility to protect” – a topic that has been much discussed in recent years in human rights and humanitarian circles. However, to anyone who has followed, say, the long and often sad story of the international community’s slow, laggardly response to the situation in Darfur, the pope’s remarks bear scrutiny.

After stating a clear and defining principle that every state “has the primary duty to protect its own population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made,” Benedict went on to say that if states “are unable to guarantee such protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the United Nations Charter and in other international instruments.”

Any action, the pope argued, so long as it “respects the principles the underlie international order, should never be interpreted as an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty.” He concluded: “On the contrary, it is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage.”

In short, the international community has a legally sanctioned duty to do something in the face of, say, acts of gross human rights violations (read: genocide) and that the duty to protect can override what have long been thought to be the impenetrable walls of state sovereignty. Of course what that “something” (action) might look like -- military intervention? "peace-keeping"? -- wasn’t clear, though Benedict went on to say that humanity needs to do more in finding “ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring every possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation.”

A reference to Darfur? Iraq? Iran? Rwanda? Tibet? Colombia? Afghanistan? We can’t be sure. But it was nice to hear one of the world’s most prominent religious leaders remind the UN of the international responsibility to protect those victimized by gross acts of violence, often state-sanctioned.

Fort Worth Pastor Takes New Job After Gay Debate

The Rev. Brett Younger, the embattled pastor of the Fort Worth, Texas, church that debated how to picture gay members in its photo directory, has accepted a new job. Younger, pastor of Broadway Baptist Church, will join the faculty of Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta as an associate professor of preaching.

While "delighted" to join that faculty, Younger said in a statement: "I'm also sad at leaving Broadway. The church has taught me so much about following Christ, and it is one of my hopes in this new ministry I can teach young people to lead their congregations to be as faithful as Broadway has been."

The church opted not to feature gay members in any family photos but also took a vote about whether Younger should remain pastor. The March vote to retain him was 499 to 237, but The Dallas Morning News reported that opponents issued a statement after the vote that declared, "300 members have or want to leave because of the turmoil."

Of headlines and assistant principals

New York City's tabloid media, which always love a mega-event, are already enjoying Benedict's visit; today's New York Post features a story about a taxi cab with a faulty transmission that caused it to go up in flames Thursday in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, giving "cops a big-time security scare" and a Post caption writer the chance to pen this groan-inducing headline: "Hell On Wheels."

Meanwhile, Benedict is winning accolades for meeting the sexual abuse scandals head-on, though he still has a bit of an image problem when compared with his predecessor. In a column that appeared today in AM New York, Ellis Henican writes: "Clearly, Benedict XVI is not a cuddly pope. He doesn't have the charisma or the common touch that his beloved predecessor, John Paul II, was so famous for. If JP2 hadn't been pope, he'd have probably been a movie star."

"If Benedict weren't pope, he might have ended up a university professor or the assistant principal for discipline at a Catholic high school. 'Detention!' he'd be growling at some miscreant sophomore. No, you don't get nicknamed 'God's Rottweiler' for no reason at all. But give this pope his props, as he finally reaches the large stage of New York. His message isn't all finger-wagging and doctrinal purity."

Henican goes on to praise the pope for his Thursday meeting with sexual abuse survivors.

For the full column, see: http://www.amny.com/news/opinion/am-ellis0418,0,3595244.story

Oh, those were the days...

Flipping through the memoirs of the late foreign correspondent Edward Behr reveals the media crush with popes was once a little more intimate. Behr describes a memorable moment when a photographer colleague, George Menager, covered Pope Paul VI's 1969 visit to the Holy Land. Because of the complexities of crowd control, the pope and Menager, Behr recalled, found themselves "isolated from the crowd and the rest of the press corps, (and) eyed each other warily. Finally, the pope said, in his fluent but heavily accented French, 'What an interesting life you must lead." Menager stared back and grunted, 'You haven't done so badly yourself.' "