The Pope and the Queen

The Pope goes to Britain, and not too many have much to say about it, missing what is noteworthy. The Jurassic Press has the predictable response; more about that later.

What’s noteworthy is the Queen of England, who came of age during the WWII era, and Pope Benedict XVI, rooted in that time, meet in Scotland. The last Papal visit, not an official one, happened thirty years ago. The last official visit was about 500 years ago. There’s been a bit of dissention between the Catholic and Anglican churches, and it’s lasted a while. Things are on the mend now.

Both of these extraordinary people come from an age with values and beliefs that have been turned upside down. When Joseph Ratzinger was a teenager, the Nazi’s took his disabled cousin and killed him as part of their eugenics campaign. Ratzinger was conscripted by the Nazi’s to serve in the Hitler Youth. When it disbanded he fled and was captured by Americans and put in prison.

Queen Elizabeth served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a driver and mechanic in WWII. The real deal, on the front.

These two bring together a wisdom brought on by the horrible experience of war and its aftermath. They know first hand the face of evil, the terrible things that war brings on, especially one founded in race hatred and religious hatred. They come together with this great knowledge and wisdom; a return and coming together after 500 years. We see the reaching out to each other of the Church of England and the Catholic Church at this time in history. Queen Elizabeth II is Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and is meeting the Vicar of Christ, the descendant of Peter. To me, the historical and religious import of this visit is profound.

What the Jurassic Press sees is a chance to attack the Catholic Church with its usual dribble of pedophilia and the rest of that mess, as if Pope Benedict was there and egged the perverts on, and more dribble about how out of touch the Pope and Catholic Church is with modernity, and of course saying Ratzinger was a Nazi without telling the true story. As if heterosexual marriage, the sanctity of life, loving one another, charity and the accomplishments of Christianity and the Church is of no merit.

Of course, coming from a mindset that there are many truths or no truth, there is no God, morality is situational and selective, this is expected. Being rude and boorish is expected also. The Pope is a great man deserving of respect, and these sad sacs are incapable of honoring these extraordinary people and their history of truth and honor.

Novelist Günter Grass (at the time proud Nazi and later a Communist) met Ratzinger in a prison camp in WWII. In his memoirs, Grass wrote of a conversation with Ratzinger: “I said, there are many truths.” “He said, there is only one.”

This visit, to one of the most secular of nations, brings that one truth. Let’s pray that some hear it.