POPE FRANCIS AND LADY GAGA

“It is OUR Catholic Church. Nobody is leaving it. What happens in Rome is, well, distant.”

I hope Paul Kennedy’s article that I quoted in my last blog as well as the media focus on all things Vatican this week have got some thinking about what it means to be a Catholic in 2013.

If indeed the Catholic Church is our church as Paul Kennedy asserts above, then it shouldn’t be true that what happens in Rome is distant.

If the Catholic Church is our church, then why do I see that so many people leaving it? Due to declining attendance, my parish is currently considering reducing the number of Sunday masses from three to two.

If the Catholic Church has a history of sex abuse, then why has Mr. Kennedy implicitly relegated these crimes to the footnotes of mankind’s story?

I fully realize that anyone like myself who has Lady Gaga’s on their car CD player does not qualify as a theologian.

However, I sincerely hope that our newly elected pope is more than just a manager for the Catholic Church. We need a man who will evangelize by serving: who will take down walls rather than build them up: who will bring people together with faith rather than separate them with edicts: who will guide us from the desert of I to the promised land of we.

Lady Gaga certainly is not a role model for Christian living. However, she has provided hope for countless people who live on misfit island. Just maybe Pope Francis will do the same and more.