Thousands of young people will attend a rally tonight at the Kiel Center as part of Pope John Paul II’s two-day visit to St. Louis. Despite a widening gap between what the Catholic Church teaches and what many American Catholics practice, the pope remains a highly respected figurehead who brings unity, faith and coherence to the entire religion.
John Paul II is one of the most paradoxical popes the Church has ever seen. He is at times extremely progressive – his harangue against capitalism in Mexico City on Saturday is one example – while at other times his views are arcane. He, and therefore the church, are part of the opposition against several controversial issues. John Paul II and the Catholic Church are long-standing advocates against birth control. The pope has also demonstrated open contempt for homosexuality, urging gays and lesbians to get therapy for their “condition.” In addition, he has upheld a Church ban on women receiving priestly ordination, and he scorns divorced Catholics for the “moral disorder” their separation entails.
This list of edicts that many practicing Catholics have or will violate goes on. But their non-doctrinal practices do not make them bad or evil people and they should not, as John Paul II has suggested about divorcees, be barred from receiving Christ’s body at the communion rail, nor be denied a priest’s exoneration in the confessional. Rather, they should be recognized as willing participants in a society that has grown more tolerant of other-than-puritanical norms.
Young Catholics in particular, of which the Washington University campus contains more than a few, are probably the biggest constituency within the Church that disagrees with some of the pope’s views. Particularly at a school like Wash. U., most students do not embrace many of the pope’s views. During this exceptional period of newly-found freedom and experimentation, many choose to engage in acts the Church finds objectionable, including premarital sex and the use of birth control.
So why is the pope able to create the biggest buzz in St. Louis since the 1904 World’s Fair? He is, after all, a man whose values many Catholics support.
As much as he is looked to for his ecclesiastical guidance, the pope is also a symbol of universal unity in the Church. He evokes a desire for discussion, reminds followers of the importance of faith, and tries to foster a sense of community.
Over 600 WU students are expected to attend his rally at the Kiel Center because he helps create a forum that they and other young Catholics across the world have found to share their religious feelings. The pope, like no other authority figure in the world today, is revered simply because he embodies spirit and faith and emotion, aspects of the human condition that even today many young people remain eager and excited to share.