Habemus Papam!

We have a pope!

Pope Francis I, in fact. In his native Argentina, he'll be spoken of as Papa Francisco. What's cool about that sentence is that the artist formerly known as Cardinal Bergoglio is from Argentina -- the first pope from the Americas! Admittedly, he's the son of Italian immigrants and so is not exactly a stretch from the usual, ethnically, but we'll take what we can get! He's also the first Jesuit pope! I love Jesuits!

So far, my favorite thing about him is that, while he served as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he did not ride in his limousine but rather took public transportation. And he said this:

"Jesus teaches us another way: Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit," Cardinal Bergoglio told Argentina's priests last year. "In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don't baptize the children of single mothers because they weren't conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today's hypocrites. Those who clericalize the Church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it's baptized!"

That's certainly unusual. 

I am torn between my unbridled idealism that says we're in for a new era of the papacy and my knowledge of history that says a whole lotta otherwise. 

Yes, he is outspokenly against the liberation of women and of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters--this cannot be denied or overlooked. But since he has even one drop of liberation theology in his blood, I believe we're in for a treat, y'all. I can't really explain why I feel so good about him. I heard the announcement in Latin on NPR and could not control my tears. I had never heard his name (he was not on any pundit radars, which is another reason why he rules so hard) and so had now way of knowing that he was going to be pretty rad, as far as cardinals go.

There's something at work here (Holy Spirit, blah blah blah) that has allowed this relatively unlikely man to hold the seat of Peter (a total goofball of a disciple, when you think about it) and suddenly be the shepherd of 1.2 billion Catholics around the globe.

What's a major bummer is that a bunch of people I love and respect are running their mouths all over the internet about how it doesn't matter that there's a new pope because the church is a "joke" (expletive deleted), and that there cannot be progress because "all priests are child rapists." I'm pretty disgusted by that claim and that attitude in general. Doing what you believe to be the work of Jesus in the world is never easy, and humans do terrible things. I would not ever apologize for the crimes against humanity that have been committed by an as-yet-unknown number of priests. But to assert that there has never been any good work done in the name of Jesus is so deeply offensive to me. 

This pope has important work to do. (All popes have important work to do.) This pope has to step out in front of an unprecedented scandal and put it right. Simultaneously, this pope has to reform the largest institution on the planet. There are a lot of people to pray for and a lot of oppressed to liberate and a lot of children to raise and a lot of masses to celebrate and a lot of sermons to preach and a lot of beautiful vestments to wear...and, frankly, I'm glad he's the one in the red velvet slippers, now. 

Whatever way you stack it, this is a historic day, and I hereby refuse to apologize for my excitement.

The pope, mostly.

Hey, remember that time the pope resigned?

Neither do I.

That's because it was in 1415 -- or maybe 1294, depending on which questionable papal resignation you think was least questionable. And there was that one guy in the 1050s who sold the papacy.

The point is that there has never been a papal resignation in modern time. It's a literal lifetime appointment kind of a thing, where the only way you stop being the pope is in death. That's kind of amazing.

So Pope Benedict XVI has done something unbelievably unprecedented -- particularly from within an organization who has a millennia of precedents.

Did you read his statement? I thought it was beautiful. Read it here.

His commitment to the ministry to which he has been called is so deeply faithful. I mean, really, you guys, he's the Pope. Of course it is. To read his words of feeling that he cannot fulfill the important work that the ministry of Peter requires chokes me up a little. This statement tells us that he is not there to be the most powerful Catholic; he's not there to issue a bunch of decrees and be detached from his people.

It's possible that we've never had a pope resign because, in the past, having a pope become less and less publicly visible wasn't as obvious. Our insatiable desire for 24-hour information has led us to feel entitled to exactly what's happening at all times and in all places. So when a pope was dying and his camerlengo was running the office, it was fine. Now, we'd likely be up in arms that someone other than the man elected to the office could possibly be doing the things required of that office. There's a certain dignity to allowing the pope to remain the pope in his last days. That the faithfulness and even holiness associated with his position do not end when he's no longer physically able to keep up appearances.

That being said, there's also dignity in Pope Benedict XVI leaving this office at the time he feels is most appropriate and best honors the office itself. Being the pope is much more physically taxing than it once was -- the first 262 popes never boarded an airplane, and the last four popes have criss-crossed the globe. I mean, the first pope to visit The Holy Lands was Paul VI in 1964! They've come a long way. Certainly some popes commanded armies (which is a whole separate story, really) and did all sorts of physically taxing things. But they also weren't 87 years old when they did.

I think this is a fascinating time to be alive.

I could really just post that every day, frankly, but I think that this is a particularly fascinating time to be alive as a person of faith. That in one decade we are electing two leaders of the ancient Roman Catholic Church is still not seeming fully real to me. I'm not Catholic, of course, but that's where this man unintentionally transcends denominations.

When I stood in St. Peter's Basilica in March 2003,  I wept. It was Palm Sunday, and I was 15 years old, and I was in this place that had been held as holy by people for hundreds of years, upon a tradition that spans thousands. In that moment, it didn't matter that the man for whom my Church is named objected to the construction of the building in the first place, and in particular to the fundraising strategy (blah blah blah selling of indulgences). It just mattered that I stood where millions of pilgrims had stood, touched what millions of pilgrims had touched, breathed what millions of pilgrims had breathed.

That human connectedness is why we do what we do. And Pope Benedict XVI showed incredible humanness yesterday when he tendered his resignation to his cardinals. Politics and ideological differences cast aside just for this one moment, I find myself deeply affected by his departure.

Peace be with you, Holy Father.