Column

Pope Benedict's visit to America invites us
to a renewal of faith

Guest column by Archbishop Timothy Dolan

	Related article this week: • Editorial -- Welcome Pope Benedict

The star of the Easter season liturgy - after our risen Savior, of course - has to be St. Peter.

We see him "in charge" in the Gospel episodes, and in most of our readings from the Acts of the Apostles. In the latter, he is the proto-preacher, the premier evangelist of the tiny apostolic community.

I find myself asking, as I hear these powerful passages, is this the same guy that three times denied even knowing Jesus that first Good Friday? The same apostle who could not run-away fast enough from his Lord in need? The same man who tried to talk our Lord out of the cross, who had a bad temper, whose faith was so weak he began to drown in the lake, who was too proud at first to allow the Master to wash his feet?

Is this the same guy who now is boldly preaching, who takes on the religious leaders and Roman authorities, who risks arrest, jail, and scourging for "the sake of the Name"?

Yep! Same guy!

What happened? The resurrection, of course. The power of our Lord's rising from the dead transforms Peter from fear to faith, from cowardice to courage, from pride to prayer. Life was never the same for Peter, who became the leader, the chief pastor, the first of the apostles, in the nascent church.

Since apostle means sent out, Peter of course joined the rest of the apostles in their evangelization of the world, going first to Antioch, then, finally, to Rome, where he established the church as the first bishop there, to be ultimately arrested and crucified by Nero's thugs across the Tiber River on the hill called Vaticanus.

Of course, the Office of Peter continues in the church, and, a week from today, Catholics in America, and their fellow-citizens, will welcome the Successor of St. Peter, Pope Benedict XVI.

Think back to three years ago. The church - indeed, the world - was mourning the passing of the pope who will probably be only the third in two millennia to earn the title "the Great." It was, the commentators agreed, the most phenomenal funeral in world history, attended by millions, watched by most of the world.

Who could possibly take his place, we asked? We're in for years of let-down, of disappointment, we concluded.

How wrong we were, we are glad to admit now, as we prepare to welcome our Holy Father.

This six-day pastoral visit, to Washington, D.C. and New York, has not yet generated the electricity that the journeys of Pope John Paul II did in 1979, 1987, 1995, and 1999.

As Pope Benedict is the first to admit, he does not have the flair and the magnetism of "the Great." Besides that, thanks to the peripatetic JP II, papal trips are now somewhat expected, even routine, which is perhaps not such a negative thing.

The visit of the Successor of St. Peter invites us Catholics to a renewal of faith. We welcome Peter among us, and, as the classic, ancient dictrum has it, ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia - "Where Peter is, the church is!

We acknowledge with humility and gratitude that allegiance to the teachings of the Successor of St. Peter, and belief that his office provides the church its earthly unity in faith and morals, is normative for our Catholic identity. His teaching office, his magisterium, tethers us to Jesus, to Peter and the apostles, to the deposit of our faith.

This shy yet sturdy, scholarly but simple, bashful yet bold, professorial yet pastoral pontiff ("bridge builder") will speak as Peter did. Many will be converted or renewed, as they were when they heard Peter. Many will scoff at and dismiss him, as they did in reaction to Peter.

God willing, as we listen to him and pray with him, we will whisper what we heard at the Easter Vigil after our renewal of baptismal promises and cried: "This is our faith. This is the faith of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. We are proud, Holy Father, to profess it with you, in Christ Jesus Our Lord!"