America prepares for the Pope

And his host, Cardinal Francis George, is ‘ready to roll’.

As president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Chicago archbishop Cardinal Francis George will accompany Pope Benedict XVI to a slew of events public and private when he visits Washington, D.C., and New York City April 15-20…

“[The pope] is 10 years older than I am. So, if he can keep the pace, I guess I can,” George added with a hearty high-pitched laugh.

George is the right man to ask these advance questions about the pope, because he cuts through some of the silliness and nonsense that persists in some media who….don’t know the Church.

Is the pope coming here to talk about politics? Is he going to scold anyone for getting out of line? What’s he going to do about the restless flock, hmm??

“The Church’s mission is to convert the world to Jesus Christ,” he said, “not to create a spiritual club where people can feel good about themselves. So, that creates tensions. Some people live in such a way that it creates resentments. ‘Who are you to judge me?’ ”

What, then, can the pope say during his visit to ease those tensions and resentments? Or as a recent edition of U.S. News & World report put it, can he “calm his troubled flock?”

“His primary rule is to strengthen the faith of that flock, troubled or untroubled,” George said. “So, it’s not just a question of calming people. I’m not sure what that means. If it means keep them settled in their ways, well, he’s not going to do that. He’s going to call us to conversion, and that’s his job.”