Beyond sound bites

On March 17, St. Patrick's Day, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, set out on a week-long apostolic journey to Africa, specifically to the West African countries of Cameroon and Angola. Eighteen moments were highlighted in his itinerary when Pope Benedict would be delivering a major address or statement or homily. As is typical in these trips, there are large gathering for Mass and Vespers, and then smaller gatherings such as those with bishops or non-Catholics (in this case, Moslems), and always a very special meeting with the young people of the area.

On the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, our Holy Father used the occasion of the Mass celebrated that day in a stadium in Yaound‚, Cameroon, to highlight the publication of the working document for the upcoming special assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops. On his last full day in Luanda, Angola, before returning to Rome, he took part in a special meeting with Catholic movements for the promotion of women in Africa.

The continent of Africa is filled with so much potential and promise. At the same time, it carries a legacy of ages of exploitation, violence and poverty. Just in the past decade, the number of Christians in Africa have grown enormously.

To review the speeches and exhortations of Pope Benedict on this colorful journey is to see the successor of Peter addressing all of these opportunities and challenges in very great detail. But if you are under the impression that the Pope really only spoke about one problem, AIDS-HIV and attempts at its prevention, it means that you have only received your information from our public secular media. Every television and radio news item that I have encountered has led with one sound bite from Pope Benedict's conversation with reporters in the airplane on the flight to Africa. The sound bite? "One cannot overcome the problem (of AIDS) with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem."

This intro is usually followed by "experts" loaded with the "conventional wisdom" that has always claimed condoms are the answer to this problem. From one angle or the other, they perfunctorily hector the Pope.

Ever since the misguided reaction of some Moslems to Pope Benedict's speech in Regensburg, Germany, it seems that this pattern of reacting to papal teaching has been rising to almost the level of a feeding frenzy. For many such issues of moralilty and human life, the media find that there is only one acceptable message (not ours), and everything else has to be immediately marginalized.

As I write this column, in fact, I only heard one supportive reference. It was on CNN and was attributed to someone who I believe they said was from Harvard involved in public health. It was reported that this individual claimed that actually, the Pope got it exactly right. Something tells me that things will be cleaned up and we won't be seeing anything like that anymore.

Fortunately, in this age of the Internet, anyone with a computer can follow the news developments in the Church as thoroughly as he or she wishes. If you want to go right to the source, there's the Pope's own website at (www.vatican.va). Just click on Pope Benedict XVI and then on his travels.

Another good source is www.catholicnews.com.

Of course, these sources would only deepen the coverage that you can read right here in our own Catholic Missourian.

Similar to Pope Benedict's visit to the United States last year, this trip to Africa will be important in the continuing work that we all share in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Chrism Mass, April 2

Finally, let me take this opportunity to invite you to participate in the annual Chrism Mass on Thursday, April 2, at the Cathedral of St. Joseph.

At the Chrism Mass the holy oils that are used to administer the sacraments of the Church are blessed and consecrated. Traditionally, this celebration takes place on Holy Thursday morning. Due to the fact that people travel longer distances here, we have the Chrism Mass during the fifth week of Lent.

In anticipation of Holy Thurday, which follows on April 9 this year, the priests of our diocese, gathered around their bishop, renew their commitment to priestly service at the Chrism Mass. This can be a very good way to prepare to celebrate Holy Thursday, when we recall that Jesus gave us the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood at the Last Supper, on the night before He died.

It can also be a special way for confirmation candidates to prepare to receive their anointing in the Holy Spirit later in the year. I hope to see you there.