The real purpose of the pope

On Sunday the pope leaves America after spending six days on our shores -- all of it in the New York and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas. I am not a Catholic, but Benedict XVI's visit is of real interest to me. More than nine years ago I was present for a papal Mass at the former TWA Dome in St. Louis. Benedict's legendary predecessor, John Paul II, officiated.

It was a fascinating experience. A friend of mine, a priest at a next-door parish in St. Louis County, called me up one day and said, "Hey, do you want to go see the pope? I have four tickets."

This is not an invitation one receives every day; my immediate answer was yes. Three of my high school youths accompanied me.

We met school buses at a suburban parking lot at 3:45 a.m. the day of the Mass. The buses, full of groggy people grousing about the early hour, made their way directly to the Dome. We sat in our seats in that cavernous building for five hours before the pope arrived. Security concerns were given as the reason for the need for our pre-dawn arrival. (And remember, this was two-and-a-half years before Sept. 11.)

The pope is the international leader of the largest Christian denomination on Earth. That status alone is impressive. Followers that reach the count of 64 million. The pope is also head of state of the smallest principality (109 acres) on Earth, Vatican City. My wife and I visited the Vatican in 2003 and attended a papal audience.

Papal audiences are held late on Wednesday mornings when the pope is in town. When we were there, the audience was held indoors due to the July heat and John Paul II's frail health. A papal audience is basically a spiritual pep rally. A prelate reads out greetings to various groups in attendance and the group responds by singing, chanting the pope's name, dancing and holding up homemade banners and cheering. The pope does speak, offering greetings in various languages. He concludes with an apostolic blessing. When he does so, you are encouraged to hold up items you wish the pope to bless. I had a pocketful of commemorative coins purchased at a Vatican shop. I held them up at the appropriate time. When I got back home, I gave them to Catholic and ex-Catholic friends.

As a lifelong Protestant, I see the pope as a head of state and the worldwide leader of a Christian denomination. My regard for his office is rooted in respect but not in devotion.

As I looked around, though, on that January day in 1999 in St. Louis, as the pope made a circuit in his popemobile around the TWA Dome, I saw radiant, almost rapturous, faces. All around me were Catholics who were seeing the man whom they believe to be Christ's representative on Earth. That was the most arresting memory of all: the thrill on those countenances.

There is a desire, in a world grown increasingly coarse, for human beings to be in proximity to the divine. Although I am not one of them, many people believe the pope to be a sacred person. In the final analysis, the pope is important because of who he represents. Not a nation. Not even a church. He represents Christ. Christ is always what matters. Being close to him is what counts. Best wishes to you, Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI. Safe journey home.

Jeff Long is pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. Married with two daughters, he is of Scots and Swedish descent, loves movies and is a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.