Sorry, media, the Papacy does matter

Posted by Jim on March 14, 2013

By Matthew Bunson senior correspondent for Our Sunday Visitor as it appeared in the NY Daily News Mar. 14th, 2013

There were more than 6,000 accredited journalists in Rome watching a narrow smokestack protruding from the roof of the Sistine Chapel for signs of white or black smoke.

And every rooftop was packed with reporters craning for a view.

There was a profound contradiction in all of this, of course. The media that decamped in Rome was the same powerful megaphone that claims the Catholic Church is not relevant in a modern world.

“Do the Popes matter?” English writer Peter Hebblethwaite asked a generation ago — the question is with us anew.

The answer? The Pope matters.

And he matters not just to the 1.2 billion Catholics who will call him the Vicar of Christ.

The head of the Catholic Church — now known to the world as Pope Francis — oversees the world’s largest charitable effort, feeding millions, caring for the homeless and providing medical care for literally hundreds of millions.

Despite the recent travails of the church, the Pope is still viewed almost universally as a voice for peace, justice and human dignity at a time when the planet confronts thundering drumbeats of war and new crises caused by transnational capitalism, fast-moving globalization and profound ethical questions raised by advances in science and medicine.

Francis’ writings and homilies will provoke study and also criticism — but they will be read. And a pilgrim Pope like Paul VI or especially John Paul II will take his presence and his teachings to the corners of the globe.

Francis will have a voice in the great debates of our time, and even those who disagree with him will nevertheless be unable to dismiss him.

The Pope still matters. Anyone who doubts that only needed to look at the rooftops of Rome.