Andrew Sullivan is concerned that the Pope does not get it. He seems to think the reason is that the Pope is old, frail, and sickly. Certainly, I think that old is part of it, but not because of his age, per se, but rather because of the generation that he comes from. I suspect that the Pope would be very hard-pressed to understand the likes of Andrew Sullivan. In his day, homosexuals were rarely open about their orientation. Further, they almost certainly didn't have (or at least express) conservative values.



But on the other side of the argument, it is clear that Mr. Sullivan also doesn't fully understand the Pope - or at least his point of view. I think that the Pope, and thus the Catholic Church, are comfortable with the rules and doctrines they have in place. Homosexuality is a sin. Priests are male, and they are celibate. Easter celebrates the re-birth of Christ and always occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. These are the rules that the Church has played by for hundreds of years. There is no denying that progress - and especially the progress of American culture - is currently forcing (or will soon force) the Church to examine these and many other of its tenets..



My parents are Catholic. I went to Catholic schools and to mass every Sunday of my life until I was 18. I am no Church scholar, but I do know the faith is based largely on believing things for which there is no truly rational explanation. To many people none of the beliefs make sense. It is not surprising that - to many members - some of the rules don't make sense either. But it comes down to the fact that Catholics believe that the Pope is infallible when he speaks as the mouthpiece for the Church. I don't disagree with Mr. Sullivan, but if there was a Catholic court for him to fight this battle in, he would lose..



As a bit of an additional (and lighter) aside, reading the Pope's letter to the priests, it strikes me how much it would benefit from the greater use of hypertext. At a number of points he notes his references parenthetically which could benefit from a direct link - for example - to the Council of Trent text, and a link to a Latin-to-English translator or dictionary would certainly be helpful. The biblical quotes could link to an online version of the bible (almost certainly available in any language) to help put the message in context. It is great that this letter is on the Vatican website, but it looks like their web-publishing staff could use a little help. Maybe when Andrew and his staff are done with Shakespeare in the Park, they could spend a little time in Italy helping the Holy Father. At the very least, it would confirm or deny my early hypothesis about how the Pope would take to Mr. Sullivan.

Jonathan 3/22/2002 05:52:00 PM