Pope’s in town!

On Friday, four of my sophomore wunderkind historians talked me into taking them out to lunch in Amman so we could study together for the upcoming AP World History test. I agreed—what’s not to love—food and talking about history! Around noontime Lubna, our ‘Gal Friday’ in the Faculty office, called just to tell me if I planned to go out that day that I better beware of the traffic—“the Pope is landing at the airport soon and there will be big traffic problems!”. We worked our lunch-study session at Tony Roma’s Ribs around the Pontiff’s imminent landing in Jordan. We did not land in the snarl of traffic that probably hit the afternoon pleasure seekers.

On Saturday I had hoped to go join a parade in nearby Madaba welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to Jordan. After all, how often do you get to say, “Yeah, the man who is known to Roman Catholics as the Vicar of Christ on Earth is driving by my house today and will spend the afternoon just down the street.” Of course, that is what happened.

However—and there is a big sigh there—I didn’t get to join the Madaba parade Saturday. I had to finish those blasted curriculum maps! Yeah, those ones I mentioned in Friday’s blog. I felt left out of the party of well-wishers—not unlike when I was a graduate student at Brown and I turned down the chance to be with my great Denison friends and I missed the inauguration of the new President at Denison. I stayed behind to finish some work. Anyway, I got the low-down from Tessa about the Pope’s visit to Madaba and his parade through the streets.

I am not Catholic, but hey, Benedict is a world figure, and how often does Madaba get to be on CNN? As you probably know, Pope Benedict is on a major trip to the Holy Land this week, and he spent four days in Jordan. In Madaba he dedicated the opening of a new university that the Italian government is co-sponsoring. The Italian government has been spending some big bucks in Madaba—very helpful in restoring ancient mosaics, creating a mosaic school, so I guess the wasta connections landed the Big Guy to lay the cornerstone.

Madaba is known as a “Christian town” in Jordan, although Christians are out-numbered now over 2-1, but historically it has been an important enclave of Christians in a country that is about 95% Muslim. Tessa and a few colleagues waited in Madaba for the parade and reported that Benedict looked calm and peaceful riding through our dusty Madaba streets in his Popemobile. Benedict then continued down the road to Mt. Nebo where he visited the 4th century church commemorating the place where Moses died. That spot is one of my favorites in Jordan anyway with its commanding views of the Dead Sea Valley.

I decided I couldn’t let the Pope’s visit be a total waste for me, so I signed up to join a busload of KA students to attend the Pope’s mass at a stadium in Amman on Sunday. I have been spending a bunch of time outside of class helping prep those young historians for the AP test that I didn’t feel much guilt at all about joining tens of thousands of Christians for the Pope’s service in Amman.

I got up about 5:00 a.m. on Sunday—we needed to leave school at 6:00 and be in the stadium by 7:30 a.m. for the 10:00 a.m. mass. The whole way into town the roadway was bedecked with intertwined flags of the Vatican and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. We get to the stadium, flash our tickets, and find our way into Gate 9 of the soccer stadium in northern Amman. I forgot a hat and sunblock—don’t tell my good friend Anne who will be disappointed I forgot about sun protection—and there would be hours in the sun!

In the couple of hours of waiting I appreciated the amount of work that goes into a Papal visit: the security forces, the creation of a red carpet and altar, the flowers, the battalions of faithful who swarmed into the stadium. The flowers up the steps to the proscenium and altar were all variations on the colors in the Vatican flag (which is a daffodil yellow and Cape Cod-y blue), and there were photographs from the day before—maybe 5-6 stories tall—of the Pope and the King—around the stadium.

I guess I wasn’t prepared for the soccer game ambience of the stadium (hmmm…if something is held in a soccer stadium, how could it not be that ambience?) what with the waving of national flags (Lebanese, Syrian, Cambodian, Japanese, German, Czech, Italian, Australian, besides Jordanian) and the selling of popcorn, cigarettes, Pope T-shirts, Pope hats, Pope banners, Vatican flags, and Pope umbrellas! Someone near me had a huge banner waving that cried out, “Lebanon Loves the Pope More!” I guess I also didn’t think about people coming from far away (like Cambodia! Lebanon is like someone from Massachusetts visiting New York).

For a voyeur like myself, Sunday was a field day! I could see how people reacted, spent their time waiting, see how they clamored when the bishops and archbishops marched in to take their place amongst the pageantry. I could look at wonder at the waves of four hundred little children, all dressed in white, preparing for their first communion. Imagine the joy of a first communion—ever—with their Holy Father! I watched the rows of dutiful nuns take their place in the sun (the bishops often had young volunteers shielding them with the papal seal umbrella as they mounted the dais) and the army officers forming a ring inside their stadium protecting everyone from everyone.

In a way, the service itself could seem a bit disappointing. It was warm and the sun is draining, and the hoopla then fades away. But several things struck me deeply about this visit.

First of all, I have a little clout in that I already have seen a Pope. I was in Rome in the 1980s on for Easter with my dear Denison friends Jill and Steve, and we attended Easter mass with Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square. While that was incredibly exciting, this had a vibrance and rare quality about the service. I spent a good deal of the morning with two of my great students, both Christians, and they marveled that this gathering of 50,000-60,000 was all for a Christian purpose. I am a little jaded that in the United States—as a white, male, Protestant—I am such the majority, but for these young men, it was rare for them to see a sea of Christians in Jordan. It is perfectly safe to practice Christianity in Jordan—but I have learned what it feels like to be a minority, and that empathy for other minorities is very instructive. Here I was seeing something rather historic—not normal at all, of a gathering of Christians in a Muslim land. These two juniors in high school felt so giddy as the Pope entered the stadium in the Popemobile—they joined in the thousands cheering, dancing, singing and swaying.

They joked at the Pope’s Arabic—“Your Arabic is so much better,” said one of my students. Well, good. But the crowd had learned a song especially written for this mass (when one arrives several hours early, one can learn production numbers!) with the words: “With a new heart and spirit we welcome Pope Benedict! Madaba and Amman and the Baptism Site renew their faith and loyalty for the love of God and the Kingdom! We are all for peace and co-existence and the uplifting of humanity!”

I gotta say it is a thrill to go on-line and read about something on the New York Times website that you have just done—or to turn on the CBS Evening News (about 12 hours later) and see a story of what you have just done. The news stories spoke of Benedict’s 13-minute sermon promoting a good relationship between Muslims and Christians. They cited his words: “Muslims and Christians, precisely because of the burden of our common history, so often marked by misunderstanding, must today strive to be known and recognized as worshippers of God, faithful to prayer, eager to uphold and uplift peace and love.” I loved the phrase that we must be “artisans of peace.” Benedict urged the Christians of the Middle East to “have the courage” to stay faithful to their Christian roots in order to “build new bridges” to fight extremism and “enrich society.”

Later that day Rehema and Tessa joined a group that went to the Baptism Site for a mass with the Pope. We compared our Protestant notes at the end of the day about the services with the Pope. The Pope blessed the Baptism site (also claiming it is the true site, so a little dig at Israel across the Jordan claiming their spot as the true site…oy…) and spoke about the Christian contribution to promoting dialogue and understanding in the region.

Pope Benedict’s visit reminded me of the presence and role of Christian Arabs in the region—it is not just monolithic Muslims and Jews. Christian Arabs are certainly dwarfed by a Muslim population in the Arab states, and by a Jewish population in Israel, but they are still a key component of the Palestinian and Arab peoples in this neck of the woods. The New York Times did discuss the dwindling numbers of the Christian Palestinians to North America, and certainly in the U.S. we look at the Arab-Israeli conflict as usually a Jewish-Islamic point of view, maybe we need to look at the Arab Christians a little better.

These Arab Christians are an interesting lot—they have the national aspirations of the Palestinians, coupled with the dear hope that spiritual needs will be met, and they speak overwhelmingly of transcending the “real estate” tensions of the area, insisting on the need for justice as an integral part of a peaceful resolution.

Yes, some of the magic of a papal visit is lost on me—I am a Protestant after all, and we aren’t supposed to accord him that “infallible status.” But Benedict is not just on a trip—he is on a pilgrimage, and he has come to the Holy Lands of Jordan and Israel. His mass at Mt. Nebo is where Moses died, near where John the Baptist died, and then at the site where the faithful believe John baptized Jesus.

Benedict’s message of peace and co-existence are critical messages, but more than mere concepts—they are actions. Peace cannot come about because we wish for it. Peace must be sought and worked for. Without peace, there is no co-existence, and justice cannot be exclusive nor avoided.

Benedict has arrived in Israel now. This message will be repeated.

Maybe the visit will focus minds that justice demands action, consistency, and the ability to transcend political obstacles. Co-existence is the prize at the end of the long road.