The papal visit

OPINION:

On April 15, Pope Benedict XVI, the 264th successor to Saint Peter and Sovereign of the Vatican City State, will arrive in Washington.

After the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, the assembled College of Cardinals needed only four ballots to decide upon his successor. For many, it was somewhat of a surprise to see Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger emerge from behind the scarlet curtain. But for any student of Vatican politics, the cardinal from Bavaria was the clear choice to maintain continuity with the pontificate of his great predecessor.

When I served as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, I knew Cardinal Ratzinger to be the most influential colleague of Pope John Paul II. I was also aware that Cardinal Ratzinger was not the “Rottweiler” of caricature in the media. Indeed, during my tenure at the Vatican, Cardinal Ratzinger inspired some of Pope John Paul’s most popular initiatives. He gave steady, balanced and far-sighted counsel to the pope during tumultuous times.

The day after Pope Benedict arrives in the United States for his inaugural two weeks from now, he will turn 81. When one considers that Pope John Paul II, by far the most traveled pope in history, visited the United States only five times in 27 years, this may be the only chance for 80 million U.S. Catholics to welcome this pope to their country.

Why is he coming to Washington and then New York? In addition to being the leader of more than one billion Catholics worldwide, he is the influential head of the government of the Roman Catholic Church. He has no military and he cannot threaten to cut off economic assistance. But like John Paul II and Paul VI, he can set the tone and the framework for the discussion. He has two issues that he will be discussing with the president. They are the Iraq War and how it can be brought to a close that leads to a period of tranquility in this war torn area; and the problem of Iraqi refugees, a good number of whom are Christians. This is a vexing problem which the Holy See believes must be ameliorated.

What can be done to re-establish a cordial relationship with the leaders and peoples of the predominantly Muslim and Arabic countries? In Washington, Pope Benedict will meet with leaders from all principal faiths including Islamic leaders. The conversation will take place at the John Paul II Cultural Center, which is symbolic of the church’s interest in dialogue and conversation.

Pope Benedict specifically requested to visit the Catholic University of America, where he could meet the presidents of Catholic colleges and universities. He will speak with more than 200 heads of these institutions. The guests will also include representatives of the Catholic elementary and secondary schools.

The pontiff’s visit to Catholic University of America clearly indicates his fundamental persona. For many years he headed the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, which gave him the public reputation of being the enforcer of church discipline. Now he has returned to his original role as a theologian and teacher. This has been his public portrait in the first three years of his pontificate. I expect that Pope Benedict will set forth his vision of Catholic education: faithful to core Catholic beliefs while open to all in the pursuit of truth.

On his second day in Washington, seven former ambassadors to the Holy See arranged a reception in honor of Pope Benedict’s 81st birthday. Six of these ambassadors served with John Paul II; one worked with Pope Benedict.

The pope will depart Washington on Friday, April 17th, and travel to New York. He will carry out two wishes, which he explicitly expressed: first to visit Ground Zero, second to speak before the United Nations. Both requests reflect what is in his mind. He understood the horror inflicted in the terrorist attack. As a young man of high-school age, he saw the horror of war in Europe. His visit to Ground Zero will be a symbolic expression of solidarity with the victims of the attacks. But in his UN address, we can expect that he will call for political solutions to the problems of terrorist extremism, for preventing the formation of new terrorists is not to be done by military means but by instruments of statecraft that address the hearts and minds of people driven to extremism.

Thus he will continue in the tradition of Pope Paul VI, who in his 1965 address to the UN General Assembly gave the challenge of “war: no more war.” Several weeks ago in Rome, Pope Benedict issued a similar appeal: to end the bloodbath and hatred tearing Iraq apart. Indicating his unease on Iraq, the words were very clear: “Enough with the bloodshed, enough with the violence, enough with the hatred in Iraq.” Pope Benedict will be sending a message of peace — which is not based on some mostly utopian hope that man’s capacity for evil will somehow end, but is instead rooted in a very realistic strategy that there exist nonviolent ways to change people’s hearts. Our competing presidential candidates would do well to heed his message.

Again, this may be the only time that Pope Benedict XVI will visit the United States or the United Nations. These visits will set the framework of future papal relationships with the United States and the world’s leading international organization.

Thomas Patrick Melady, professor and senior diplomat at the Institute of World Politics, is the former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.