The God Squad: What I want from the new pope?
Q: What do you as a rabbi want from the new pope? – (From F)
A: As it turns out, I want the same things from a new pope that I would want from a new rabbi – plus the ability to run a worldwide, multicultural, multi-billion-dollar institution representing more than a billion Catholics.
I want a pope who believes that Christ was the messiah sent by God to atone for the sins of the world.
There are enough important spiritual leaders who can give speeches that sound like political op-ed pieces. There are enough of them who think that the only mission of the Church is to help the poor. There are enough of them who can speak about the culture wars. Now while all these topics are fine and have their place, the main reason for the Church and the main message of the new pope must be that the Church is here to save souls through belief in the atoning death of Jesus as the Christ. I want a pope who is a third-rate pundit but a first-rate Christian.
Too many people admire doubt. They consider doubt in a spiritual leader to be a sign of understanding and compassion for those who struggle to believe. There is nothing wrong with doubt, but what helps people climb out of the pit of existential uncertainty is not more uncertainty but a loving and compassionate and yet firm statement of belief that some things are undeniably true.
The Church stands for things and those things must be offered to people who may not even know that they need them. They need a compass that points to moral and spiritual north. They need a compass that points to Christ. This certain faith can be stated and offered up to the world without a harsh or judgmental tone. The word gospel means good news. Religions with a strong spine have the ability to say, “This is what we believe and this is what we teach. I offer it to you to save yourself from a world where hope and meaning and salvation are crushed by a materialistic world. Join us as we walk toward the way to the truth and light.
I want a pope who feels deeply that women in the church should have the same spiritual horizons as men.
I know that the dream of women as priests is not going to become real with the next pope or maybe even the pope after him, but things do not change unless the reason for the change is acknowledged and respected. The first step is to acknowledge that not all changes are a surrender to the secular world and its spiritually corrosive beliefs. Some of the changes proposed for the church are a bracing diagnosis of cancers affecting the body of the church that need to be treated and expunged. As a Jew I can say clearly that for almost 2,000 years the cancer of antisemitism infected the body of the church. The sociologists Glock and Stark in their studies revealed the sad statistics that the more religious a Catholic person was, the more likely he or she was to harbor some level of hatred against Jews. Then, from 1963 to 1965 the greatest theological change of my lifetime occurred with the papal encyclical Nostra Aetate that turned the great ship around in a collective act of repentance.
Textbooks were changed and visits to synagogues and holocaust sites and Israel (and I humbly add, efforts like The God Squad) all combined in the powerful greeting of John Paul II echoing Genesis, “I am Joseph, your brother.” What I believe is that the future of women as priests cannot be blocked forever. Perhaps this pope will begin another earthshaking change with another line from Genesis, “Male and female he created them.”
I want a pope who is joyous.
You could just tell that John Paul II was joyous by looking at his face. It was wrinkled by a life of smiling. I want that in the new pope. I want a man who knows that people are not brought to Christ or to any other religion with fire and brimstone jeremiads. People are brought to God by joy. I want a pope who wakes up every morning and prays the words of the Psalmist, “This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it.”
These are the things I want from the new pope. Write to me and tell me what you want.
God bless the conclave.
(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)
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