Leave aside that it is crazy for them to think we hate them. People hate smoking but not smokers. People hate over-eating but not over-eaters. People hate religiosity but not religious people. (I hope?) We can hate sin but not sinners.

But leaving aside that we don’t hate them, when every statement we make is answered by “You are a hater,” what can we talk about?

Our Symposium for the New Evangelization had three keynote speakers who had three answers.

1. They will still listen to beauty.

“Beauty will save the world,” said Pope John Paul II, echoing Dostoevsky, and Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wis. —a speaker of humor, passion and depth — echoed both.

The way he argued the point was this: “If your mind and your body are at war, you cannot be free,” he said. “We share passions with the animals but we have feelings that are higher — hope and love, for instance.” To be free is to be able to act in accordance with those higher feelings, he said, and “Beauty is the primary educator of feelings.”

So we must evangelize with beauty. …. By  Promoting Sacred Art? Recycling? The good bishop didn’t say, but symposium speakers took up the challenge and made suggestions. The most compelling answer: witness. To see a Catholic life well lived is the only compelling argument people will believe. (Besides, that’s what Emily said to do, isn’t it?)

2. Truth is a person and he can reach the world, if we let him.

The next morning, Curtis Martin made another compelling case for “the way we can still be heard.”

He made the point that the “bad guys” in the world weren’t our biggest problem. The “good guys” in the Church are. He said too many Catholics had gotten the wrong message from the old adage attributed to St. Francis: “Evangelize always and when necessary use words.”

In fact, proclaiming the Gospel — using words — is a fundamental duty of the Church. “Do not presuppose the faith, but propose it,” he said.

His message: Stop wringing your hands and tell people about Jesus. He hears lot of excuses for why people don’t evangelize — they say they lack training, for instance. “But I never hear people say they don’t tell others about their favorite restaurant because they lack training. When it comes to Evangelization, the difficulty isn’t in the end, it’s the first step.”

3. Only by serving the poor do we gain the right to be heard.

Last was the answer given by Dr. Jonathan Reyes, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Justice, Peace and Human Development Department.

“Modern people in our pluralist democracy may disagree on just about everything, but there is vast consensus, particularly among young people, that we are all supposed to help the most vulnerable in our society,” he said. “ This is good news for Catholics, because such a commitment is actually part of the very essence of the Church.”

Citing the actions of Pope Francis and the words of Pope Benedict XVI, he made the point that serving the poor is both the right thing to do and an “argument” people will listen to. Mother Teresa won a hearing by serving the poor. So can we — or, at any rate, we can take away a really good excuse for blowing us off.

So there you have it, three ways to reach the world. They just happen to be the three transcendentals that Pope Francis has been stressing (as George Weigel also pointed out): Beauty, truth and goodness.

Beauty — When faced with something beautiful, people don’t question, put up defenses or push back. They accept.

Truth — As Benedict XVI put it in his U.S. visit: “Truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust …. Truth is a person: Jesus Christ.”

Charity —  First, we lost control of the culture; then we lost the culture war. But we can still be effective missionaries if we put our energies at the service of those in need.

The bad news: None of these is a short cut; each answer requires work. The good news: They are each natural expressions of an authentic relationship with Christ.

Damien Thompson at the Telegraph is reporting that concerns have emerged for Pope Emeritus Benedict’s apparently rapidly fading health.

Thompson writes:

I think all of us were distressed by the fragility of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI when we saw him greet his successor, Pope Francis. The footage was almost too painful to watch. Now, according to the excellent Fr Ray Blake, a Spanish newspaper says he is suffering from something “very severe”, and that “we won’t have us with him for very much longer”. His condition has apparently continued to decline. I thought twice about repeating this, but I’m sure Catholics and others would wish to pray for the man many of us regard as the most inspiring pope of modern times. No pontiff for centuries has written and preached so brilliantly about the relationships between liturgy, evangelism and the shape of history. If only he had been a younger man when he was elected to the chair of St Peter!

Personally, despite the doubts voiced by a number of Catholics about Pope Benedict’s abdication, I always sensed that he was too keen of mind and faithful to his duties to make such a decision without a very good reason. I find myself now wondering if he has been aware all along of some ailment that would bring him swiftly toward his eternal repose.

And really, how fitting it would be for a man of his character to keep the attention away from himself and on the office he would be leaving vacant? I don’t know about you, but I can’t resist trying to get sympathy from those around me when I have a common cold, let alone something serious. And I don’t have access to the prayers of billions. Pope Emeritus Benedict is arguably the most well-loved and recognized figure living in the world today, and if it were true that he knew of a rapidly developing illness and chose to keep that silent, what an impressive witness of personal humility it would be.

If it were so, then he has allowed his successor, Pope Francis, to begin his papacy free of the shadow of the impending illness — or even death — of his beloved predecessor. Pope Francis has now had time to establish himself, to “settle in” to the job, as Benedict has faded quietly into the background.

Of course, the media has already made much of the humility and personal piety of Pope Francis. Many of these reports are published by those who seem giddy in their attempts to contrast these virtues with the character of Benedict, who for his detractors was a symbol of all the pomp and circumstance and rigor and tradition in the Church that they wish to see swept away under the auspices of “reform”. Others have argued that by Pope Benedict’s adoption of the traditional trappings of the papacy, he simply demonstrated that he was personally submissive to the office that he held, and the symbolism in which it is steeped.

If it turns out that the Holy Father left his post without mentioning that he knew that the end was near, I believe it would prove this latter assertion. His dedication to the “hermeneutic of continuity” remains, even until the end. I should hope that even the cynics would give him credit for the dignity and selflessness with which he facilitated this transition.

Please pray for Pope Emeritus Benedict. I am certain he is praying for us.

Dear Benedict, Emeritus Pontiff;

There is so much to thank you for after your decades of service to the Church, but today, on your name day, the feast of St. Joseph, we owe you thanks for the amazing weeks we are living through right now.

Today is the day of the Inaugural Mass of Pope Francis, and though you were not present at the celebration, you were very present in spirit. After all, it was you who made this celebration possible.

In your first message as Pope, you called it “very significant” that your pontificate began halfway through the Year of the Eucharist. You called for more “love and devotion to the Eucharistic Jesus … above all through the solemnity and the correctness of the celebrations.”

An amazing phrase, that. You told us to love Christ liturgically, through the Church.

You certainly did that this year. You timed your resignation with the liturgical calendar in mind, and that means you timed it with us in mind.

You  made the Lenten season all the more penitential with the sadness of preparing for your departure, and you made Lenten prayers all the more intense, because we were praying for you and for the Church.

Then, when we experienced “sede vacante” in the middle of Lent, it was as if Peter had entered the desert with Christ. But you reminded us that we were supposed to join him there, too.

I think you knew what would happen. And as former dean of the cardinals, you probably guessed that around the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we would experience the joy of the arrival of your successor — connecting our “Habemus Papam” with Laetare Sunday’s “O be joyful, Jerusalem!”

You also foresaw what this new Pope will do for the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter. Celebrating with a new Pope means we will be paying very close attention to his Mass of the Last Supper, the Stations of the Cross, and the Easter Vigil. It will mean the media will pay attention this time, too.

In short, the way you stepped down will end up riveting the world’s attention to Christ, deepening the world’s experience of the Passion, and heightening our joy at Easter.

You, who saw such significance in changing Popes halfway through the Year of the Eucharist, made sure that when we changed popes this time, it was halfway through the Year of Faith.

Were you already planning this when you announced the Year of the Faith? Here’s what you said in October, four months before you announced your resignation:

“I wish to invite my brother bishops from all over the world to join the Successor of Peter, during this time of spiritual grace that the Lord offers us, in recalling the precious gift of faith. We want to celebrate this Year in a worthy and fruitful manner. Reflection on the faith will have to be intensified, so as to help all believers in Christ to acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to the Gospel, especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing.”

What you did this February made sure we united with the Successor of Peter to reflect intensely on the faith amid profound change.

Nicely done, fellow pilgrim. Thank you.

This morning, like most everyone else in the Catholic world, I’m living my life half focused on my own duties and responsibilities, and half focused on a somewhat wobbly camera shot of an old smokestack on a Vatican roof. That smokestack has become just about the most important thing in my world today, and so it will remain until it brings the news we all wait to hear.

As I wait, I’ve been thinking about Benedict and John Paul and all the popes who came before them, shepherds whose own papacy began with puffs of white smoke. What a motley crew they’ve been. Saints and sinners, celibates and cads, petty, power-hungry little men and holy, humble servants of the Lord.

Through the centuries, the Holy Spirit certainly has had his work cut out for him. Keeping some of those popes from sinking the Barque of Peter was an accomplishment only God himself could pull off. But you and I have never known those popes. And in that, we are blessed.

Being Catholic—fully and passionately Catholic—is no mean feat in this day and age. We live in a world unmoored, adrift in a sea of relativism and half-maddened by sin. In some places, the persecution of Catholics is public and bloody. In others, it comes in more subtle forms. Regardless, Catholics have much to mourn, much to protest. Our sorrow and our complaints are not unmerited.

But in the midst of that sorrowing and complaining, it’s far too easy to forget just how lucky, how blessed, we are. This generation of Catholic faithful doesn’t know what it’s like to look at a pope and feel anything less than love. Not love for the office. But love for the man. Deep, abiding, overwhelming love.

For at least the past century, the Holy Spirit has gotten into the habit of one-upping himself. Just when we think he can’t give us a pope any more bold or brilliant or brave than the last, a puff of smoke heralds a new holy father who proves us wrong.

The past 35 years have been particularly blessed ones.

We’ve had two of the greatest minds the Church has known on the Chair of Peter, men who have not only defended and explained the Church’s teachings with unusual brilliance, but who also made their own significant contributions to the Church’s rich intellectual patrimony: John Paul II with the Theology of the Body and Benedict XVI with his biblical theology.

We’ve also had two of the holiest men our Church has known on the Chair of Peter, men who bore the cross Christ placed on their shoulders with such humility and love that to see them was to see the face of their Master.

Many Catholics have known popes who were saints. Many more have known popes who were brilliant scholars or fearless princes of the Church. But precious few have known life under a pope so wise and so holy that future generations would remember him as a Doctor of the Church. None have known life under two successive popes remembered in such a way.

Save, perhaps, for us. We may be the happy few.

What will the next puff of smoke bring? Maybe a saint. Maybe a sinner. Not a sinner on any grand scale of course. I think we’re pretty well protected from orgies in Castel Gandolfo. Those days, for now, have passed. But another Wojtyla? Another Ratzinger? It’s possible. The Holy Spirit is well practiced in defying expectations.

All I know, in this moment, staring at the smokestack in the corner of my computer screen, is that I am blessed to have lived during these times. We all are. We’ve walked with saints. We’ve been led by legends. For all our troubles, we’ve known what it’s like to look at the successor of Peter and weep with love.

This morning, for me, that inestimable privilege outweighs all the complaints I have about the culture. I wouldn’t trade my place in such an age with most anyone. And when my day of judgment comes, for this privilege alone, I owe God my greatest thanks.

In certain Catholic circles, there has been no small amount of alarm over Pope Emeritus Benedict’s abdication, and the possible circumstances that precipitated it. Those who have always looked to Benedict as a dauntless pillar of strength in a very tumultuous period for the Church found it suspicious that he would step down from his duties unless in some way, his hand was forced. To many, he always seemed to be the sort who would carry that cross until his dying day, come what may.

Personally, I’ve never doubted that the Holy Father acted in good faith and of his own volition. Whatever else the world may think about him, there are few who would argue that he is not a man of keen intellect and tenacious adherence to principle. But this does not mean that his decision was not influenced by forces that he feared might overwhelm even his capacity to forestall.

Dr. Robert B. Moynihan, founder and editor-in-chief of Inside the Vatican magazine wrote yesterday of an encounter he had with a member of the curia that lends credence to this concern. After recognizing a certain unnamed cardinal of his acquaintance dressed in the manner of a simple clergyman on the streets of Rome, Moynihan approached him to speak a concern that had been on his mind.

“Your eminence,” I said.

In his eyes he was saying to me that he could not answer any questions.

But he was not excluding all conversation. And so I ventured…

“I only wanted to tell you one thing,” I said. “That I loved Pope Benedict.”

He stood still.

“I did too, and I do love him,” the cardinal said.

“And so I have been troubled and a bit off balance since February 11,” I said.

And then, as if filled with a sudden emotion, I saw the cardinal’s face grow dark and sad, and he said, forcefully: “I love him, but this should never have happened. He never should have left his office.”

I was silent.

“It is like a man and a woman, a husband and wife, a mother and father in relation to their children,” he said. “What do they say?” It seemed he was asking me the question.

I was silent.

“They say, ‘until death do us part!’ They stay together always.”

So I understood him to be saying that he felt a Successor of Peter should not step down from the throne, no matter how weary and tired, but continue until death.

I felt the words he was speaking were the words of an argument that may have been used even among the cardinals, but of course, that may not be the case.

But I felt that I was catching a glimpse of how at least one cardinal was thinking about the Pope’s renunciation.

“Your eminence,” I said, “I’ve forgotten. Are you already above age 80, or not?

“I am not yet 80,” he told me.

“So you will be voting tomorrow.”

He nodded, and a look passed over his eyes which seemed filled with shadows and concerns. I was surprised at his intensity. I was surprised by the whole conversation.

He squeezed my hand. “Is there anything else I can do?” I asked.

“Pray for us,” he said. “Pray for us.”

He turned as if he needed to go.

“I have to go.”

He took a step away from me, then turned again.

“It is a dangerous time. Pray for us.”

I think we should do as he asked.

It is good that we trust in the wisdom of Benedict’s decision, that we believe that whatever the reason, he knew what he was doing. But this should not put us at our ease. I believe in the very core of my being that the cardinal is right. It is a dangerous time for the Church. I can feel it. The forces of darkness are alert, and there is something afoot. What it is, we may never know. But this is far from an ordinary conclave.

In any conclave, Catholics who love the Church pray for the election of a good and holy pontiff. In this conclave, we should pray all the more, and invoke St. Michael’s intercession. Remember the reason for the prayer’s composition:

Pope Leo XIII (reigned from 1878-1903) composed the now famous “Prayer to Saint Michael” after celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with a group of cardinals. During the Mass, the Holy Father fell to the floor at the foot of the altar. It seemed that the Holy Father had died or suffered from a stroke. Suddenly, the Pope revived and said, “What a horrible vision I was allowed to see.”

Apparently the pontiff saw a future influx of demonic forces into the Catholic Church. He subsequently authored the following prayer to Saint Michael, seeking to gain further protection for the Church. Pope Leo XIII also ordered this prayer it be prayed by the priest and faithful at the end of every low Mass.

Latin
Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio; contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperat illi Deus; supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae coelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.

English:
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle, be our safeguard and protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

As a Catholic attached to the Traditional Latin Mass, I have had the privilege of seeing the old practice of praying the St. Michael prayer at the foot of the altar after every low Mass. Here in Northern Virginia, many parishes that celebrate the Novus Ordo have restored the tradition of the St. Michael prayer at the conclusion of the liturgy. If you are a pastor, I urge you to pray it with your parishioners. If you are a parent, pray it with your family. If you believe that the Devil is at work both in the world and in the Church, pray it on your own. Every day. If you want to really stick it to the Devil, pray the longer version of the prayer.

May God grant us a holy and wise pontiff. May He grant us a strong pontiff. May He grant us a better pontiff than we deserve.

EDITOR’S NOTE: CV is happy to include a new entry in our “Five Questions” series. This interview features author, columnist, television host and former presidential speechwriter Colleen Carroll Campbell, who spoke with CV’s Stephen Kokx about her new book My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir. We hope you find this a helpful addition to our ongoing conversation about how to best live out our Catholic faith in the modern world.

Motherhood for some is seen as an obstacle to a meaningful life. Time spent changing diapers and feeding ungrateful children could be better spent being a lawyer or advocating for pro-choice initiatives. That’s not how Colleen Carroll Campbell sees it.

Her latest book My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir takes you on a 15-year journey that begins at Marquette University and continues to the White House, a visit to the Vatican with then-Pope Benedict XVI, and motherhood itself.

Written in a straightforward yet gentle manner, My Sisters the Saints illustrates how Colleen drew inspiration from the likes of Thérèse of Lisieux, Teresa of Avila, Faustina of Poland and Edith Stein of Germany during the most challenging years of her life.

My Sisters the Saints is a touching, accessible, and heart-stirring memoir Catholics of all stripes will enjoy, as it reminds us about the importance and power of prayer and how we must trust in God even when we might not want to. I give it my full endorsement.

Polls show many young adults are lukewarm about the Church hierarchy. Though you never apostatized from the Catholic faith when you were in college, it was challenging for you to be as devout as you once were. Eventually you turned to Teresa of Avila for spiritual guidance. What are some ways we can reach out to those who are not practicing their Catholic faith, in particular young adults? 

Much of my first book, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola, 2002), is devoted to answering this question, by telling the stories of hundreds of young adults who found their way back to an enthusiastic practice of their faith. In the case of my own journey, which I share in My Sisters the Saints, women saints were my way back. Their lives, their writings, their example of living holiness despite their own flaws and worldly obstacles – all of this resonated with me as a young woman searching for flesh-and-blood models of Christian discipleship. Like many young people, I was not as interested in arguments and proofs for God as in stories of those whose lives had been transformed by Him.

Not long ago there was an essay published in The New York Times on the end of courtship. You make a point in My Sisters the Saints to mention the various failed relationships you had and how you met your husband John. What effect has the hookup culture and feminist mindset had on society, especially when it comes to how we perceive marriage and children?

The decline of courtship and rise of the hook-up culture certainly hasn’t benefited women. I don’t think it’s done favors for either sex, but women have particularly borne the brunt of the low expectations and fear of commitment it encourages. Studies consistently show that most young men and women still dream of having happy, lifelong marriages, complete with children. But our culture gives them almost no encouragement or tools to realize that dream. Instead, young people – and especially young women – are admonished not to even think about marriage and children until they have earned every degree, hit every career benchmark, sown every last wild oat, paid off every college loan. So a tension develops between a young woman’s innate desire for lasting love and motherhood and her culturally conditioned view that she should distrust those desires, lest they lead to her oppression. It’s a serious problem that Catholic parents, educators and pastors need to address in a more intentional way.

You mention that your time spent as a speechwriter in the Bush White House was not easy. That it was a sort of old boys’ club and that you never “encountered such chauvinism on the job before.” What words of wisdom do you have for women who work in similar environments?

First, I should make clear what I did in the book: that I loved working directly with President George W. Bush and the chauvinism I encountered was not from him. As for working in an old boys’ club, that’s still a reality for some women today – especially in rarefied environments like some corners of the White House – and sadly, it’s sometimes even more pronounced in conservative circles. Not always, but sometimes. My advice for women who face chauvinism on the job would be to cultivate camaraderie with female coworkers instead of regarding them as rivals; charitably but firmly assert your ideas and principles when it counts, even if doing so ruffles a few feathers; and remember that if God has called you to use your gifts for Him in the public square, you have an obligation to do just that – whether or not the old boys’ club approves.

You are not shy about describing the ups and downs of your pregnancy. Was it your intention to show women that becoming a mom is not something they should fear, but embrace? Also, do you think giving birth brought you closer to your own mom, who was not mentioned a whole lot in the book?

The personal story that I tell in My Sisters the Saints focuses heavily on a few major themes that were dominant in my life during that 15-year time period. Chief among them were my struggles with infertility and with my father’s descent into dementia. As a result, I spent a lot more time in the book talking about my father than my mother, because his Alzheimer’s disease – and the inspiring way he coped with it – figured so prominently in my own spiritual journey. As for my intentions in sharing my struggles with infertility and motherhood, I did not aim to make motherhood look easier or harder. I just wanted the book to be real. I wanted to tell my story as honestly and transparently as I could because that’s where I had found the most grace and where I figured readers would find the most grace: in the truth, in life as it really happened, apart from my expectations or pretensions to perfection and control.

The book is titled My Sisters The Saints but you devote a large portion of it to your relationship with your father, whose Alzheimer’s disease progressively worsened over time. If you could, speak more about that relationship and the special bond daughters have with their fathers. Finally, are there any male saints or popes you feel a strong connection with? 

First, to answer your question about popes and male saints: I have many favorites. Blessed John Paul II and his teachings figure very prominently in this book and in my own spiritual journey. I have particular affection for St. Joseph, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis de Sales, St. John of the Cross, and St. John the Evangelist. And there are many others, too – new ones I discover and grow to love every year.

As for my father, he was truly a beacon to me in the midst of his suffering. The heroic way he faced his greatest trial – the result of a lifetime of prayer and leaning on God amid smaller trials – enriched me beyond measure. He and my mother introduced me to many of the saints I profile in My Sisters the Saints, and they had great devotion to the saints themselves. Dad loved Scripture and gave my brother and me a solid grounding in the fundamentals of our Catholic faith. But in the end, my father taught me his greatest lessons not in word but in deed, by truly living amid Alzheimer’s his favorite passage from Romans: “Everything works together for good for those who love God.” (Romans 8:28) That wasn’t always easy to believe as I watched the disease ravage his mind and body. But Dad believed, and his luminous faith helped me believe, too.

As a bonus question, I thought I would ask Colleen about the resignation of Pope Benedict.

In 2008, you were one of 250 female delegates worldwide chosen to attend a three-day Vatican Congress at the Apostolic Palace in Rome on the role of women in the Church and society. You later wrote about how Pope Benedict addressed the conference on the threats to women’s dignity. Looking back over his eight-year reign, what do you think his legacy will be, especially in regards to women in the Church? 

Colleen with then-Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican

Pope Benedict XVI has had a busy and fruitful eight years in the Chair of Peter. He will be remembered as a brilliant and humble teacher of the faith and as a surprisingly effective evangelist on the world stage. His effectiveness derived not from a dramatic stage presence but from an unusual gift for offering fresh new insights on ancient Christian truth. By frequently connecting contemporary challenges to the eternal wisdom of Christ and His Church, Benedict proved a winsome witness to faith in a skeptical age.

With regard to women, Benedict built on the solid foundation of his predecessor by underlining the crucial role that women play in the Church and public life as well as the home. He has repeatedly emphasized both the beauty of a woman’s distinctively feminine outlook and gifts and the importance of ensuring that, as he put it in his 2008 address to the Vatican congress on women, “it be … possible for the woman to cooperate in the building-up of society” using her “feminine genius.”

Benedict has underscored this message with a strong focus on women saints. Over the past two years, the pope devoted nearly 20 Wednesday audiences to singing the praises of the great women saints and explaining how their experiences and insights can still speak to us today. He inaugurated the Year of Faith last fall by canonizing four new women saints and naming a new woman Doctor of the Church, German mystic Hildegard of Bingen. Benedict’s attention to the Church’s holy women of ages past, and his outspoken support for the role that women play in renewing the Church and culture today, make his legacy one for which women can be grateful.

Jackson’s speech, however, wasn’t the only sign of American support at the funeral of a man deceased Venezuelan Bishop Eduardo Herrera Riera once said was responsible for the “painful river of blood that flows daily through [the streets of Venezuela].” Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY), former Congressman William Delahunt (D-MA) and James Derham were also in attendance as the official U.S. delegation to the ceremony. Chavez’s number one American ally, actor Sean Penn, was also there, as were Cuba’s Raul Castro and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

News of Chavez’s death was carried by the major media networks, and even though Jackson’s kind words were completely ignored, it felt like some outlets were taking marching orders directly from him.

In a segment on NPR titled “Any praise for Hugo Chavez?” host Michel Martin was careful not to bring up Chavez’s history of abuse or condemn his socialist views. Outlets like PBS and the BBC similarly portrayed Chavez as a fighter for the oppressed and marginalized.

It’s interesting to note that in the last days of Pope Benedict’s Pontificate the press handled itself in a completely different manner. Even though the Catholic Church educates more children, has more hospitals and serves the needs of the poor more than any institution on the plant, the chattering classes focused on a handful of abusive priests and the Church’s “intolerant” teachings on priestly celibacy and gay marriage.

I’d like to think that the media simply failed to mention all the good things the Catholic Church does because they’re waiting to talk about it when the new pope is elected, and that Reverend Jackson thinks the former pope helped the poor more than Mr. Chavez did, but I’m not holding my breath.

The Chair of St. Peter is empty. And the period of sede vacante has begun. Now we wait for the College of Cardinals to select the 266^th successor of St. Peter. 

While the papal conclave won’t begin until sometime between March 9 and 11, Cardinal Angelo Sodano just announced that the College of Cardinals will begin preliminary talks about what they are looking for in the next pontiff on March 4.

What they want in a pope, however, is probably at odds with what a growing number of U.S. Catholics want in a pope.

According to a recent Pew study, 46% of U.S. Catholics think the next pope should move the church in a “new direction,” especially when it comes to social issues like women’s ordination and gay marriage.

My hunch is that these people are more influenced by the “fair and flattering words” they hear on cable news and progressive media outlets than the Catechism itself, but I could be wrong.

Regardless, it’s good that a large number of people are interested in Benedict’s retirement. It’s unfortunate, however, that the majority of those people, the media in particular, don’t have a clue about basic Catholic doctrine or are downright hostile to it on a daily basis.

In an effort to calm your nerves over the countless number of attacks and misstatements put forth by the press over the past several days, I encourage you to read New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s blog, as his clear-tinking perspective should serve as a calming antidote, especially if you’ve been paying attention to the heretical demands of prominent left leaning Catholics like E.J. Dionne and Chris  Matthews.

I also urge you to tune into NBC, as it appears Fr. Robert Barron has been hired by the network to share his insight during the conclave.

Furthermore, I ask that you pray that the College of Cardinals be guided by the Holy Spirit. Too often, as this post from Jimmy Akin explains, Catholics think that the Holy Spirit simply “takes over” the conclave and hand picks the next pope. That’s not completely accurate, says Akin, and it’s something we need to realize is not entirely true.

Finally, in an effort to re-familiarize ourselves with the way the pope is elected, I’ve uploaded the video below. To most Catholic Vote readers it won’t be anything new, but for the 46% of Americans who want to move the church in a “new direction,” it probably will be. Enjoy

The phrase didn’t occur to me as the bell of St. Benedict’s Abbey  tolled over and over again for 10 minutes starting at 1:00 pm (8:00 pm in Rome) to mark the resignation of the Pope.

The phrase occurred to me when the bell stopped tolling and the Abbey grew silent.

St. Benedict’s Abbey tolled its bells as the Pope stepped down.

There is no pope. There is no pope. There is no pope.

Benedictine College is on the Kansas bank of the Missouri River, and when we cross the bridge into Atchison, the kids like to say “We’re in Missouri. We’re in Missouri. We’re in Missouri,” until we get halfway across, and then say, “We’re in Kansas. We’re in Kansas. We’re in Kansas.” We jokingly planned to do the same at the hour of the Pope’s retirement: “There is a Pope. There is a Pope. There is a Pope … There is no pope. There is no pope. There is no pope.”

But now, when the bell stopped tolling and there was no pope, I remembered the phrase — and it wasn’t funny anymore.

We are in the interregnum. The chair of Peter is vacant. The Vatican Twitter account is revoked. The Vatican website weirdly says Apostolica Sede Vacans next to an umbrella.

The Universal Church feels like my parish church on Good Friday when the tabernacle is empty.

There is no pope.

Kneeling there with the students (and the TV cameras; we were a “local angle” on the historic “Pope retires” story) the moment was far more emotional than I expected. The whole thing reminded me of Acts:  “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.”

Only now Peter wasn’t in prison. He was rising up out of the Vatican Gardens in a helicopter. He had grown old and frail and had stopped being Pope. I don’t fault him for it, I don’t consider it a Great Refusal, I don’t think he is stepping off a cross. In fact I think he shows compassion and magnanimity greater than his critics can even conceive. In his method of ending his papacy, he has shown himself to be a man of the beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek.

What he is doing is truly great.

But that doesn’t make it any less weird.

Back at my office, I took down the picture of the Pope from my wall. Colleagues suggested that that this was unnecessary, and I appreciate their point.

I almost kept the picture up there, too. I still greatly admire him. I still feel grateful that I lived at the time when he was Pope, and I still think that the most thorough, affordable postgraduate theological education you can give yourself is to read his deep and clear writing every day.

But though I love his writing, that wasn’t the reason I had him on my wall. I had him on my wall because he was the Pope. And he is not the Pope anymore.

I remember during the Jubilee Year I briefly stayed in an apartment across the street from the colonnade of St. Peter’s. I was a father of five, but I was all alone in Rome. I loved it. I loved hearing a commotion in St. Peter’s Square and rushing out to see what was going on and finding myself a part of a celebration of one aspect of the faith or another.

I also loved going on early morning walks through the colonnade. It was on one of those early morning walks that I found myself face to face with a figure in an overcoat headed toward a side door at St. Peter’s. It was Cardinal Ratzinger. I stopped dead in my tracks and gaped, foolishly starstruck. It was obvious to him that I recognized him. He smiled shyly, nodded, and walked purposefully out of my way.

I believe Jesus Christ chose Peter to be the rock, and that he gives us his successors. And though I like the charming stories of the Galilean fisherman who was Andrew’s brother, absent Christ from the story I wouldn’t give Peter a second thought.

I believe God gave the Church the continuity of a magisterium and the grace of a vicar of Christ at its head. I think Pope Benedict XVI did a wonderful job in the role God gave him there, and I am grateful for his openness to God’s grace.

But now I can’t help but think of him as that shy, retiring man ducking into St. Peter’s through a utility door. A great man, I am convinced. But not the pope.

There is no pope.

I pray God we will have one soon.

And now we call him His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus.

Benedict XVI has been a faithful shepherd of the Church for the past eight years. In his own humble way, he has carried on the much-needed work of faithfully defining and implementing the often misunderstood teachings of the Second Vatican Council. His evangelical witness along with that of his predecessor John Paul II is what inspired the founding of CatholicVote.org!

The critics of our Church continue to unfairly attack him, yet his eyes have always been on Christ. And so must ours. Christ always wins.

This week we began mailing free copies of Pope Benedict XVI’s bestselling book: Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week. If you are looking for a book to read this Lent, this is it.

We have a limited number of copies available. If you want your own, this is your last chance!

Donate $40 or more now to the work of CatholicVote.org and receive a FREE copy of Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus’ book on Holy Week.     (Link updated)

What a moment to be a Catholic!

Thank you Pope Benedict. And thanks be to God for sending us this faithful man.

Come Holy Spirit!

May thy will be done.