THE PAPAL VISIT : Speeches May Discomfort Some Americans : Pope’s Call to U.S.--Behave Responsibly

Pope John Paul II will bring a message of praise for what he calls the “providential” U.S. Constitution when he arrives Thursday for his second major papal journey in the United States. But he will also bring a challenge to the world’s richest people to behave more responsibly, according to Vatican sources.

They say that although his comments on the Constitution should strike a popular chord with most Americans, his speeches also may have an edge that will make some uncomfortable, not only because of the essentially conservative religious content but for their implicit plea for responsibility.

“He won’t talk to you in the same avuncular way that he talks to the people of Central America or Central Africa,” one Vatican official said. “Why? Because you have a greater responsibility. Being responsible is being aware of what you have received from God. Americans have received many things, and the Pope wants to stress the responsibility they owe to the world.”

John Paul, 67, will be challenged himself during his 10-day pilgrimage to Los Angeles and eight other cities in the South, West and Midwest by American Catholics restive with church doctrine and by a variety of demonstrators along the papal route.

Vatican officials involved in planning the trip said they were delighted when they learned that the pontiff’s visit will coincide with the 200th anniversary of the Constitution.

“The Pope has called the American Constitution ‘providential’ because it is a document of such a great quantity of religious content,” said Joaquin Navarro Valls, the Vatican spokesman. “He has a high esteem for the Constitution, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he mentions that at the outset on his arrival in Miami.”

He is likely to say more in California around the time of the actual bicentennial of the signing, Sept. 17.

But John Paul has also called the United States “the country of the distracted affluent” and, although he will address a different theme in each of the cities he visits, the underlying message in roughly 50 speeches, some in Spanish, will be one of responsibility.

“The Pope wants to confront people with themselves,” an official said, “not just to confront them with himself. It’s something they must confront in their own consciences. He will be saying, ‘I’m trying to face you with yourself, your own conscience--then you must answer your own questions.’ ”

“For better or for worse, you (Americans) are now the focus of everyone,” said a ranking member of the Vatican Curia, or bureaucracy. “The Pope knows that millions of people all over the world are looking at all aspects of American life. You are in a shop window, so you should feel responsible from a moral point of view, a political point of view and a spiritual point of view.

“Does he dislike the American way of life? No, no, not at all. It’s a matter of responsibility. ‘How nice if these people behave properly and what a pity if they don’t’ is what he’s saying. If he has a chance to stimulate the sense of responsibility of the American people, he’s going to do it.”

Included in his message will be responsibility to uncompromising doctrinal fidelity on the part of the nation’s 53 million Catholics, a topic the Pope is sure to underline in a dozen different and nuanced ways in his speeches.

That theme, however, may not sit well with his American flock, for the pontiff will be confronted with a feisty church that at times seems to be asking a brash question: Is the institutional papacy that he represents even relevant in late 20th-Century America?

He will find abundant signs of diversity and pluralism in a church that only 22 years ago, when Pope Paul VI made a whirlwind 14-hour visit to address the United Nations, was still monolithic and mostly loyal to the teachings of Rome.

Today, however, the Vatican crackdown on dissent, its continuing resistance to the ordination of women and its widely ignored teachings on sex have deepened the divisions between the Pope and the American church. Even the bishops in the United States have been straining for greater independence from Rome.

For the first time, there are many who say, “I’m a Catholic, but I won’t accept everything the Pope teaches. But I’m not leaving (the church),” observed Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, 82, a professor who lectures on church history at Catholic University in Washington.

A Los Angeles Times Poll conducted last month showed that U.S. Catholics, by a ratio of 10 to 1, believe a member may disagree with some church teachings and still be considered a loyal follower.

However, a high Vatican official on Friday denounced “pick and choose” Catholicism, saying American Catholics cannot “tailor one’s church to one’s own desires.”

Archbishop Jan Schotte, a Belgian who is secretary-general of the World Synod of bishops, said at a news conference here that during his U.S. tour John Paul would address the “gratuitous assumption . . . that being a Catholic has little to do with adhering to all the church’s teaching. The Holy Father will not shy away from presenting that teaching in its full integrity, without compromise.”

To many, the man Catholic tradition regards as the Vicar of Christ is, regardless of his admiration for the Constitution, socially and spiritually at odds with American values and the spirit of democracy.

Tension Noted

“There’s no doubt that there is tension between American political tradition, which is individualistic, non-hierarchical and democratic, versus the church’s, which is hierarchical and non-democratic,” observed Father Joseph Fessio of San Francisco, who heads Ignatius Press, a Catholic publisher of conservative scholarly works. “There is a desire on the part of many people to democratize the church and make it more like the government.”

The pontiff is acutely aware of American trends away from his central authority, but he believes that unity will be achieved only by firmly asserting papal supremacy and sticking loyally to the fundamentals of Catholic faith that he will stress throughout the visit, according to his aides.

John Paul also intends to stimulate greater loyalty among his 380 bishops in the United States when he holds a closed-door, four-hour meeting with them in Los Angeles on Sept. 16, according to sources in the Curia. Ever since Vatican Council II broadened the concept of collegiality among the national and Vatican hierarchies in church decision-making, the U.S. bishops have been politely but firmly asserting their right to consult on the church’s policies rather than meekly obey Rome’s central authority.

This clash over how local bishops should implement directives from the Holy See reached a peak recently when the Vatican limited the authority of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen over his Archdiocese of Seattle because of Hunthausen’s liberal views on sexual and social matters. Many American bishops were shocked. Monika Hellwig, president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and a theology professor at Georgetown University, said the resulting face-off between “royal power” and collegial tradition had “immense theological implications.”

On the recommendation of a commission of American bishops, the Vatican early this summer backed off, restoring Hunthausen’s authority, but appointing a coadjutor of the pontiff’s choice to succeed Hunthausen upon retirement. While the “compromise” pleased the bishops, some were skeptical that it really signaled a better understanding of the dynamics of U.S. Catholicism by the Pope. Critics said it was only a papering-over of differences meant to defuse dissent by liberal Catholics before the papal visit.

“The Hunthausen affair should have been settled here (by U.S. bishops) first. There is a recognition (by the Pope) for the need of diversity and pluralism, yet there are no structures to bring this about by giving more voice to the local church,” said Father Charles Curran, whose license to teach theology at Catholic University was revoked by the Vatican because his views on sexual and moral issues ran counter to Catholic teaching.

‘Just Got Posturing’

“Collegiality is never going to come into existence until bishops can say to the Pope, ‘We respect you . . . (but) we think you’re wrong on this . . . issue.’ Otherwise there is no dialogue; you’ve just got posturing,” Curran said.

Noting that the issue of collegiality is equally important to the laity who are demanding a greater voice in the management of their church, Hellwig said, “The role of the laity in leadership and decision-making threatens Rome the most--and it interests the local churches the most.”

The Pope will meet with 3,000 lay leaders and respond to their concerns--raised in speeches by two West Coast representatives--during a meeting at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco on Sept. 18.

Although John Paul will speak in America about strengthening the non-clerical role of women, no one expects him to bend even slightly his stance against women as priests. His answer to critics, repeated many times on previous occasions, is that Christ did not invite any women to the Last Supper; he intended his priests to be men only.

There are numerous other issues that place many American Catholics at odds with their Pope as he sets out on what he hopes will be an inspirational pilgrimage to their shores. Although the American church has grown by more than 5 million new members since he last visited, 40% of young Catholics stop going to Mass and drift away from church life in their years between 15 and 29.

Catholic schools, enrollments and funding are declining. Vocations for the religious life as priests, nuns and brothers also have declined in the United States despite a worldwide rise, and although ordinations of priests have risen slightly, there are still not enough to make up for annual losses due to deaths and departures from the active ministry.

Divorce rates among American Catholics now approximate the national average, and increasing numbers of Catholics now accept their church’s teachings only selectively, if at all.

According to a study of parish life done at Notre Dame University in 1985, Catholics and Protestants in the United States are looking more and more alike, with the same levels of education and income but, oddly, fewer children among Catholic parents under 40 than among Protestants, most of whom face no religious inhibitions concerning birth control.

Political Implications

U.S. Catholicism also has taken on a significantly Latin cast, with important political implications. Church members of Latino origin, most of whom vote Democratic, account for almost a third of the American Catholic population--as many as 17 million to 21 million, according to church and census officials. More than half of all Catholics in California and Florida are Latino, and they total as many as 1.6 million of the 2.6 million Catholics in Los Angeles, the largest archdiocese in the nation.

The Pope’s Mass in the Los Angeles Coliseum on Sept. 15 will be in Spanish as well as English, and special emphasis will be placed on Latinos at a huge outdoor Mass in San Antonio next Sunday. Later that day, John Paul, speaking in Spanish, will discuss parish life with Latinos in a San Antonio barrio plaza. And at a Mass in Monterey on Sept. 17, the pontiff will deliver a major message on agriculture and farm workers.

Vatican observers see political implications, too, in the fact that the pontiff will devote a special effort to meeting black American Catholics when he speaks at predominantly black Xavier University and to black Catholic bishops and lay leaders in the New Orleans Superdome on Saturday.

Many doubt that this special effort will have a major impact on the U.S. black community because it is overwhelmingly non-Catholic. Blacks make up an estimated 11% (26 million) of the U.S. population, but only about a million of them are Catholic and only 300 of the nation’s roughly 34,000 diocesan priests are black.

But John Paul, who is as politically adept as any statehouse politician in America, is aware that the blanket American media coverage of such spectacles as his visit reaches Africa, Latin America and the rest of the world almost instantly and his seemingly symbolic gestures in New Orleans will have both religious and political ripple effects elsewhere.

Assessing the Pope’s political savvy after his meeting with President Jimmy Carter during the 1979 papal pilgrimage, veteran political analyst Richard Scammon observed, “This guy could win anything. He’s in charge.”

Role of a Campaigner

In one sense it could be said that John Paul is coming to the United States in that role, as a campaigner, as much as he is coming in his pastoral role as the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Aides say that he grieves over the increasingly secular drift of all materialistic societies. While particularly caustic concerning Communism, with its official ideology of atheism, he is equally pained by the loosening of moral anchors in wealthy, consumerist, nuclear-armed America.

Like many campaigners, wherever the Pope goes--Miami; Columbia, S.C.; New Orleans; San Antonio; Phoenix; Los Angeles; Monterey; San Francisco and Detroit--he will find those who want an angry confrontation. The divisive issues are as widely disparate as Jewish outrage over his controversial meeting in June with Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, accused of deporting Jews to concentration camps during World War II, to gay anger over the Vatican’s condemnation last year of homosexuality as an “evil” and a “disorder.”

Although many American Jewish groups apparently were mollified by the results of John Paul’s unprecedented meeting with Jewish leaders at his summer home in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, last week and no longer plan to boycott the papal visit, some have announced an intention to go ahead with demonstrations against the pontiff.

Elements of fundamentalist Protestant groups have also said that they will demonstrate against “papism” at his stop in the Bible Belt city of Columbia, S.C., and Vatican officials expect to face other small groups of demonstrators elsewhere along the trip, culminating in major gay rallies in San Francisco where John Paul will meet with 100 AIDS sufferers and their families at Mission Dolores.

“We have not fashioned or tailored the trip to avoid any issue or to avoid any demonstrations,” Father Rober Lynch, the U.S. bishops’ coordinator for the trip, told reporters here last week. “What we hear is that there are not going to be any large demonstrations; there are going to be a lot of small ones.”

“The Holy Father expects demonstrators; he’s used to them, and he will listen to them up to a point,” said a Vatican official. “But while many of the controversies and the people--homosexuals, for example--are important, don’t forget the majorities he has come to talk to. The demonstrators are never the focus of his concern.”

At heart, aides say, his travels are the equivalent of a universal political campaign for a restoration of the fundamental moral values that are the foundation of Christianity.

“He will stress unity in the church, of course,” said a senior Vatican official, “but he will place particular stress on the ethical dimension of every human problem. His aims are the traditional Christian one of salvation and the pragmatic one of bettering the condition of life of every human being.

PROFILE OF U.S. CATHOLICS

1960 1980 1986 Catholic Pop. 40,871,302 49,812,178 52,654,908 % of U.S. Pop. 22.3% 22.5% 21.9% Archdioceses 27 33 34 Dioceses 109 138 150 Parishes 16,896 18,794 19,313 Cardinals 5 10 10 Archbishops 43 56 61 Bishops 224 357 388 Priests 53,796 58,621 57,183 Deacons 0 4,093 7,562 Brothers 10,473 7,941 7,429 Nuns 168,527 126,517 113,658 Colleges 265 239 243 College Students NA 505,076 545,461 High Schools 2,433 1,527 1,418 Students 1,147,207* 846,559 766,744 Elem. Schools 10,372 8,149 7,865 Students 4,285,896 2,317,200 2,099,379 Hospitals 945 720 737 Patients NA 34,728,822 37,181,154 Homes for Aged 326 497 615 Residents NA 63,245 76,900 Orphanages 279 207 168 Children 25,589 13,628 12,484

* Combined high school and college enrollments Sources: Catholic Almanac and the Official Catholic Directory Thursday, Sept. 10

After a 2 p.m. arrival at Miami International Airport, Pope John Paul II will receive representatives of U.S. priests, meet with President and Mrs. Reagan and travel through downtown Miami in a motorcade.

Friday, Sept. 11

A meeting is scheduled in Miami between the Pope and 200 U.S. Jewish leaders. Afterward, the pontiff will open the Vatican Judaica exhibit at the Dade County Cultural Center and celebrate mass at the Dade County Youth Fairground. John Paul flies to Columbia, S.C., for an ecumenical service at the University of South Carolina, then flies to New Orleans.

Saturday, Sept. 12

After a morning prayer service at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, the Pope will travel via motorcade to the Superdome for successive meetings with black Catholic leaders and Catholic educators and for a rally with young people. Later, a Mass is scheduled at the University of New Orleans and the Pope will meet with Catholic education leaders at Xavier University.

Sunday, Sept. 13

The Pope arrives in San Antonio via a morning flight, then celebrates an outdoor Mass. Moving from the Mass to downtown San Antonio via Popemobile, John Paul will meet with representatives of Catholic Charities USA and with Texas seminarians. He will give an address in Spanish at Our Lady of Guadalupe Plaza, then greet Polish-Americans of Texas at the archbishop’s residence.

Monday, Sept. 14

After flying to Phoenix, the pontiff will visit St. Joseph’s Hospital, meet with the Catholic Health Assn. and visit Saints Simon and Jude Cathedral. Evening activities include a meeting with an estimated 16,000 Native Americans and Mass and anointing of the sick at Arizona State University Stadium at Tempe.

Tuesday, Sept. 15

After a 9:55 a.m. arrival at Los Angeles International Airport, John Paul will travel in a motorcade through Los Angeles in his Popemobile, arriving at St. Vibiana’s Cathedral downtown at about 11:20 a.m. After a prayer service at the cathedral, the Pope will hold a dialogue with selected young people at the Universal Amphitheater and make an invitation-only address to communication-industry leaders at the Registry Hotel. His day will conclude with 6:15 p.m. Mass at the Memorial Coliseum.

Wednesday, Sept. 16

The morning will be devoted to a closed meeting between the Pope and U.S. Bishops at Our Lady Queen of the Angels Seminary in Mission Hills. At 3 p.m. John Paul will visit Immaculate Conception School in downtown Los Angeles, followed at 4:20 by a dialogue with representatives of non-Christian religions at the Japanese Cultural Center. Mass will be celebrated at Dodger Stadium at 6:15 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 17

After departing Los Angeles at 8:40 a.m., John Paul will fly to Monterey, where he will celebrate Mass at Laguna Seca Raceway and visit the Carmel Mission Basilica. From Monterey, the pontiff will move on to San Francisco, where he will view the Golden Gate Bridge, travel via motorcade through the city and visit Mission Dolores, where he is expected to meet with AIDS patients. That evening, he is scheduled to meet with nuns and brothers.

Friday, Sept. 18

After a morning meeting with representatives of Catholic lay groups, John Paul will celebrate Mass at Candlestick Park. Then he flies to Detroit and visits Blessed Sacrament Cathedral.

Saturday, Sept. 19

John Paul, the first Polish pontiff, will visit the Polish-American community of Hamtramck, Mich., for an address in English and Polish. Afterward, the Pope will meet with representatives of Catholic deacons and give an address on social justice at Hart Plaza in Detroit. An evening Mass at the Silverdome is scheduled. At 8 p.m., he leaves the United States for Fort Simpson, Canada.

Don A. Schanche reported from Vatican City and Russell Chandler from Los Angeles.