Thunderstruck by B16

Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The success of the papal visit this week to the US has to be far beyond what planners hoped for or even imagined. Everywhere Pope Benedict went on this apostolic journey drew more crowds, who usually waited for hours and hours to be with him.

When his footsteps landed at the event Saturday evening at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York, the huge crowd of young adults went wild. Though American Idol celebrity Kelly Clarkson was part of the warm-up musical act, the real rock star had arrived.

The pope got a hero’s welcome at the youth rally from a festive crowd of 25,000, which burst into wild cheers when Benedict first acknowledged them from the stage. The shy theologian took time to reach out and shake hands with the ecstatic faithful in the front rows. The youngsters, meanwhile, sang “Happy Birthday” to him — he turned 81 on Wednesday — in his native German.

Actually, they burst into wild cheers when the jumbo video screen showed Benedict arriving on the property, before he even pulled into the area around the stage. They waited for up to five hours for this moment. It was a love fest from the time he hit the stage, the pope clearly enjoying himself. After the long and spontaneous eruptions of chants and greetings, Benedict delivered the message he came for. It continued the theme of hope and faith.

Have you noticed how often the call for freedom is made without ever referring to the truth of the human person?  Some today argue that respect for freedom of the individual makes it wrong to seek truth, including the truth about what is good.  In some circles to speak of truth is seen as controversial or divisive, and consequently best kept in the private sphere.  And in truth’s place – or better said its absence – an idea has spread which, in giving value to everything indiscriminately, claims to assure freedom and to liberate conscience.  This we call relativism.  But what purpose has a “freedom” which, in disregarding truth, pursues what is false or wrong?  How many young people have been offered a hand which in the name of freedom or experience has led them to addiction, to moral or intellectual confusion, to hurt, to a loss of self-respect, even to despair and so tragically and sadly to the taking of their own life?  Dear friends, 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.  In seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ.  That is why authentic freedom is not an opting out.  It is an opting in…

He confronts the truths of modern society, and then points the way to hope, truth, faith and freedom. That’s been the theme of the whole week.

It came to a brilliant climax with the Mass in Yankee Stadium in New York, filled to capacity with an animated crowd. The love fest only intensified.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at Yankee Stadium on Sunday afternoon, calling the gathering of nearly 60,000 people in the stadium “a sign of the impressive growth which God has given to the Church in your country in the past 200 years.”…The pope entered the stadium to sustained applause from a capacity crowd, many of whom waived white or gold towels — the colors of the papacy. As did his previous Mass in Washington’s Nationals Park, the celebration showed the diversity of the church, with readings in a variety of languages throughout the service.

Diverse crowd, but one message for one Church body.

The pope said American Catholics needed to unite behind church teachings and resist the challenges of living in a society that increasingly values secularism, a theme he has repeated throughout his six-day visit.

“It means overcoming every separation between faith and life, and countering false gospels of freedom and happiness,” he said. “It also means rejecting a false dichotomy between faith and political life.”

This New York Times piece is pretty good. Fox News provided the best weeklong coverage in the secular media, hands down. The events and messages of the week have still to be unpacked by the media, the Church, Catholic educators, the lay faithful and scholars. But its resonance was immediate and lasting for the people who encountered the pope.

Christa Rivers-Caceres, 37, who drove from Bushkill, Pa., with her husband, Enrique, 32, said being at Yankee Stadium made her feel like part of the family of Catholics, who number more than one billion worldwide. “You were proud to be Catholic,” she said. “It helped reaffirm our faith.”

Efrem Menghs, a phone company salesman from Columbus, Ohio, said the experience had made him a better person. “I will look back and say I’m glad I came to this event,” he said. “I did something for God.”