Papal thoughts

The pope's death this weekend didn't catch me by surprise. His declining health in recent years, coupled with the septic shock resulting from a urinary infection... what was coming was invevitable. And beyond that, it simply felt that John Paul II's time was done, his mission over, that it was time to turn the job over to someone else.

I saw the pope in 1987 when he visited San Antonio, was part of the 300,000-person crowd that celebrated mass with him in the open fields west of San Antonio. An elaborate backdrop, consisting of two 12-story towers had been constructed behind the altar, with workers scrambling to get it completed. But the day before the scheduled mass, thunderstorms and high winds blew through and destroyed it all. Construction cranes were hastily brought in to hold aloft 100-foot banners to serve as the backdrop. It looked quite nice, but I'd have loved to see the original construction work instead.

The 300,000 people that attended made it the largest gathering ever in the Southwest U.S., much less San Antonio. Original projections estimated more than half a million people would show up, but after the fact I heard that huge bottlenecks at the border prevented tens of thousands of pilgrims from Mexico from reaching the site. It was, perhaps, the friendliest crowd I'd ever seen. My brother and I went with a group from the newly-formed Diocese of Victoria. We brought along peanut butter sandwiches, Doritos, Cheetos and lots of drinks. Sunscreen, too. The date was Sept. 13, and the weather was hot and steamy. Not as hot as August, thank goodness, and occasional clouds gave some relief from the sun. Even so, when I got home I was more than a little sunburned.

We were positioned on one of the broad aisles kept clear by ushers to facilitate the movement of all those people. We'd been told that the pope would drive past in his popemobile--the famous white Mercedes-Benz 230G equipped with bulletproof wraparound glass--but he didn't. Instead, the popemobile drove down the aisle one section over, maybe 30 yards away. That was the closest I got to him, as the altar was 200 yards or more from where we were. That might've been the end of it, if the ushers hadn't been so understanding. Those in our section began letting small groups of people slip out of their assigned section--there was lots of security--and run up the aisles a ways to get better pictures. I remember I got within 100 yards (maybe a little closer), stopping only when I reached the sections reserved for dignitaries and invited guests. At least, I assume so. A clear row separated the frontward sections from the rearward, and the aisles shifted over. There were different marking schemes on the sections as well, although I don't recall what they were. Luckily, my folks had let me take the telephoto lens with the camera, and I got several good photos. You can't see too much detail, but it's clear who the subject matter is. If I can find them, I'll try and get them posted, but I haven't seen the album they're in since we moved into the new house. But there's a decent photogallery here, courtesy of New8 Austin.

One of the most striking images I'll never forget was hundereds upon hundreds of buses row parked along the unpaved lanes of an under-construction freeway. It might've been Ray Stotzer Parkway, maybe not. The intervening years tends to blur the memory, and I wasn't very familiar with San Antonio until recently. Just to the north of the mass site now sits Sea World San Antonio, and the open fields that hosted the throng now host the under-construction John Paul Stevens High School. Times change.

I'm certain John Paul II will go down as one of the great leaders of the 20th century, and one of the top 10 popes of all time. I disagree with him (as do many American Catholics) on a great deal of issues, but there is no denying that he was a tremendous force for good in his time. The first half of his papacy, where he concentrated on bringing down communism, seems to my recollection to be more forgiving and tolerant, ironically enough. Once communism collapsed in Russia and Eastern Europe, to my mind he became more authoritarian and less tolerant of dissent, less willing to acknowledge opposing viewpoints, and more critical of the west--American Catholics in particular. In the last few years, as his health failed, I feel that staunchly conservative Cardinals such as Joseph Ratzinger began manipulating the situation to push the Vatican farther to the right. And no one ever accused John Paul II of being a theological liberal in the first place.

It will be interesting to see who emerges from the coming conclave as the new pope. It's foolish of anyone to think a theologically liberal Cardinal or an American will get the job, but there are some popular moderates--including some who would rein in the authoritarian top-down rule the Vatican adopted under John Paul II--who could do a very good job. "Those who enter the conclave as pope leave as a cardinal," as the old saying goes, so these next few weeks will be interesting, to say the least. I suppose something cool, along the lines of Robert Silverberg's "Good News From the Vatican" is too much to hope for (Silverberg, I trust, has submitted his name for papal consideration once again) but whatever happens, one things is certain: The next pope will have some very big "Shoes of the Fisherman" to fill.

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