Here comes  the Pope, whose disposition for bad news, one may hope, is a strong one, inasmuch as the the U.S. media keep dishing out the bad tidings.  The media theme is that, whatever else His Holiness may find here, in addition to an endless diet of presidential campaign news, he will find a flock looking askance at him.

"A growing segment of U.S. Catholics," says a Catholic professor quoted in the Washington Post, "...are essentially developing their own religiion, in tension with the hierarchy but vibrant and spiritual." 

The Post notes that more Catholics than members of  the public at large support legal protections for same-sex unions, as well as for the legality of abortion "in most cases."   Additionally, the paper says,   "large swaths of Catholics...part ways with [Pope] Benedict's teachings on immigration,  the Iraq war, and capital punishment."  A New York Times headline writer calls U.S. Catholics "pained and uncertain."   Just 22 percent of  American Catholics, according to a poll by an arm of Jesuit-run Georgetown University, profess themselves "very satsified" with their bishops, whereas about the same percentage are :"somewhat dissatisfied."

Were the papacy elective -- which it is, just not in the American sense  --  Chris Matthews and Charlie Gibson might be posing the earnest question, how long can this papacy last?  There would be echoes of the matter on Oprah Winfrey.  It would be observed that when  a leader  loses his "base vote" (not that Benedict is quite there, mind you) the death watch begins.  And so on, because that's what makes news these days, pal:  Leaders in Trouble.  It helps explain our endless diet of presidential  campaign news..

A point worth noting about Pope Benedict XVI  is how much longer the game he is in has lasted than  has the one in which  Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and  John McCain currently figure.  The very first pope was one Simon Peter, a fisherman of repute, known as the Rock    This Peter was an individual who combined  strength with fragility.  His low moment: the three-times denial of his master. His high one, perhaps: crucifixion head down, in the same cause as that of the master he had denied.   Noted, and sometimes not-so-noted, successors coped with wars, persecutions, schisms, fallings-away, carnalities,calumniations, repudiations, defilements. You name it, the papacy has seen it.  And endured.

In other words,  the papacy of Benedict XVI -- now so "troubled," in news cycle terms; so burdened with scandals over sex abuse and beset with demands for internal change -- represents the oldest organized institution in the world, the Catholic Church, known as "Roman" (to distinguish it from its Eastern and Anglican variants).   Nothing gets to be the oldest anything without showing a little moxie -- and, dare I add, some evidences of otherworldly encouragement.

Prophecies of  the papacy's impending demise -- likenings of it to the scarlet woman of  the Book of Revelation and similarly unflattering modes of expression  -- run throughout history. Yet here comes the Pope, with millions to welcome him to the United Stats and wish for him all success.

The mistake moderns make, again and again, is seeing history as the New York Times', or CNN's, account of the past week, when, in fact, history washes away everything moderns regard as of unexampled importance and urgency.  "American Idol," for instance.    Bright enough just on his own terms, Benedict XVI -- nee Joseph, Cardinal Ratzinger -- understands himself to represent, partially at least, the brilliance of the Christian understanding of  life, as imparted millenia ago to the likes of  the fisherman known as Rock and to countless disciples since then.

They didn't take polls in Peter's day, and not just because Mark Penn hadn't been born.  They didn't take polls because the truth of God wasn't a matter that called for yea and nay votes. It was the good news.  That it's still good -- despite everything -- is the news Benedict XVI brings to America this week.   (ital) Exulatate!, (ital),     as I believe they used to say.

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