Even With Misgivings, Teenagers in St. Louis See the Pontiff as a Beacon

He is still their Father. Their Holy Father.

They may disagree with his teachings on birth control, on the death penalty, on abortion. And they do. They may disagree with his refusal to ordain women. And they do. They may think he’s too old-fashioned, too severe--and, again and again, they do.

But he is still their Holy Father.

And they love him.

The thousands of teenagers who gathered here Tuesday for a papal youth rally said it over and over: The stooped, trembling old man who guides the Roman Catholic Church inspires them in a way no one else could.

“This,” high school senior Brandon Reetz said as he staked out a spot from which to watch Pope John Paul II’s motorcade, “is the closest to God you’re ever going to get until you die.”

The pope insists on a youth rally in every city he visits, and it’s easy to see why: Even as he draws strength from the crowds, he energizes young people with a bouncy, boundless enthusiasm for their faith.

Waiting in the chill morning for a one-mile youth march to begin--hours before the pope even arrived in St. Louis--teens from across the Midwest launched into spontaneous prayers expressing their devotion.

“John Paul II, we love you!” one group chanted. Another sang: “Our God is an awesome God.” And in between trying to start the wave and handing out religious medals, another group picked up a theme dear to John Paul’s heart. “We want peace,” they called out. “We want peace.”

“I’m just awe-struck to see everyone here, to see everyone so excited about being Catholic,” said John Stevenson, a Missouri teen with glasses and cropped hair who could hardly stop grinning as crowds pressed close around him during the daylong rally.

“The pope gives us an example to live by,” Ashley Miller, 16, added, shouting to be heard over the pounding beat of a Christian rock band.

Seeking to harness the adulation he inspires, John Paul urged the 20,000 young people at the rally to work not only at being good Catholics but also at spreading their faith to the world.

“I am told that there was much excitement in St. Louis during the recent baseball season, when two great players, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, were competing to break the home run record,” the pope told the rowdy crowd.

As they applauded madly--and blitzed him with as many flashbulbs as St. Louis slugger McGwire saw with each record-busting swing--John Paul chuckled and continued. “You can feel the same great enthusiasm as you train for a different goal,” he told the teens, “the goal of following Christ. The goal of bringing his message to the world.”

Just what message the teens will spread, however, is an open question.

For while they expressed tremendous devotion to the pope himself, many teens took issue with his teachings--most especially, his refusal to even consider creating more opportunities for women in the church.

“I know he’s an old-fashioned guy with old-fashioned values, but I do think some things should be changed,” said Pascal Beauboeuf, 18, who attends a Catholic high school in St. Louis. Women, he said, should be ordained. And homosexuals should be accepted unconditionally. “If God has given some people these sexual preferences,” Beauboeuf said, “it hardly seems like there’s a reason to be prejudiced against them.”

Such attitudes, of course, clash with John Paul’s teachings.

So does John Zuerlein’s support for the death penalty: “I know God wants to protect life, but he’s also a just God, and the death penalty is totally about justice.”

And Regina Irvin’s stance on abortion: “I wouldn’t have one, but I wouldn’t want someone else not to be able to have one.”

And Jama Cohea’s defiant announcement that she’ll have premarital sex if she wants to--and she’ll use birth control if she wants to, too: “The church is not going to stop me.”

John Paul sought to warn against such attitudes in his speech at the rally, which was also broadcast on big-screen televisions to thousands clustered at a “papal plaza” in a nearby park.

“Wherever I go,” he told the teens, who waved yellow flags and hooted as though they were greeting a rock star, “I challenge young people, as a friend, to live in the light and truth of Jesus Christ.”

But Zuerlein, Irvin, Cohea and others said they saw no contradiction between their freethinking views on social issues and their absolute loyalty to the church.

All said they have strong, honest relationships with God, relationships the Catholic Church would approve of. Their faith animates their lives, they said. It helps them through tough times. It gives them peace and comfort. But it is not going to dictate their every thought.

As his younger sisters looked on in alarm, Pete O’Toole, 20, insisted that he can be religious and independent at once. “You don’t have to believe everything they say in the Catholic Church in order to be Catholic,” he asserted.

Nathan Bennett, an 18-year-old unmarried father, agreed. “Just because he’s the pope doesn’t mean he’s always right,” Bennett said between bites of nachos. “He’s from the old school. You have to think for yourself.”