Pope's American visit: What now?

In the wake of Pope Benedict XVI's visit, as his image, words and gestures fade from the media, it is time to ask: What-now? As we digest the texts of his speeches and homilies, will there be any accompanying shift in attitude or policy in the American church? Already disappointment is being voiced by some who wanted an explicit rejection of the Iraq war or full and immediate accountability for the sex-abuse scandal, and by others eager for more papal clout applied to politicians who support abortion rights, or to strengthening Catholic identity or assuring doctrinal clarity.

In one sense, the pope's general remarks on a wide range of topics transcended partisan needs, offering instead bedrock Catholic principles such as protection of human rights and dignity. These he applied to each area he addressed, calling for a balance of freedom and truth for academia, family preservation in immigration policy, multilateralism and the common good in international affairs, and unity amid great diversity within the church.

But in another sense, because the pope came as the exemplar of the church's commitment to human dignity, some of his gestures and words were a direct challenge to the American church. His repeated mention of the sexual-abuse scandal and his personal meeting with a small group representing some 13,000 known victims were prominent among these challenges. It revealed what was closest to the pope's heart, and it set a new benchmark for the American hierarchy, whose response to the crisis, in the pope's own words, has often been "badly handled."

How did this pope, who dismissed the crisis in 2002 as an American problem, and as statistically insignificant, come to this crucial emphasis for his first American visit?

Some say it was his struggle as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to get at the truth in the high-profile case of the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the late Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, accused of abusing his own seminarians. A personal friend of Pope John Paul II, who essentially ignored the abuse crisis for the better part of 20 years, Maciel denied the accusations, but in 2005 was censured and removed from active ministry under Pope Benedict XVI.

Some say it was the 2004 visit to then-Cardinal Ratzinger by Judge Anne Burke and other members of the National Review Board appointed by the American bishops after their 2002 Dallas meeting. Burke reportedly made the call out of concern that U.S. bishops were not conveying the depth of the scandal to the Vatican.

What clearly has had a deep effect on Pope Benedict was what he once referred to as "our Friday penance," time he spent every Friday morning reading from the thousands of abuse fries sent to him as head of the doctrinal congregation. The fries and the record of the official handling of cases disturbed Ratzinger deeply. (Anyone wishing to replicate the pope's "Friday penance" is forewarned that the files and court records available at www.bishop-accountability.org are shocking.) His determination to get the church through and past this scandal reflects both his intellectual consistency and apparent willingness to let this issue be the keynote of his visit. How otherwise could he dare speak to those outside the church about human dignity?

In the end, Benedict chose from among the many personas his long career has assigned to him--professor, enforcer, supreme pontiff--to come to America as a humble pastor who sought out those who were suffering, not to preach to them, but to listen, to let their tears touch him. It made his visit successful in ways that can be measured only by what happens now.

Will other bishops likewise act as pastors? In his meeting with victims, the pope offered a credible sign of compassion and accountability that can move this protracted and destructive scandal beyond outrage and intransigence toward truth and reconciliation. The pope has shown his brother bishops the next step toward healing.

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