Oct. 16 to be 'Pope Day' in New York and Other Cities

NEW YORK—For months, newspapers and television stations have been presenting a picture of priests who are not trustworthy, bishops who are irresponsible and a Pope too old and out of touch to solve the crisis of sexual abuse in the Church.

A number of young people in 15 cities in the United States and abroad will present a different view of Pope John Paul II on Wednesday, Oct. 16. That's the 24th anniversary of his election to the papacy, and they'll be telling anyone who cares to listen that the Pope has answers to the abuse problem—and a lot of other questions faced by society.

Many of these young adults have been mining the Holy Father's wisdom in discussion groups for the past couple of years, and they'll be inviting people to attend lectures and concerts that evening celebrating one of history's longest pontificates.

“Pope Day,” as chief organizer Peter McFadden calls it, is an anniversary gift to John Paul—and a response to his call at World Youth Day in Toronto this year for young Catholics to be “salt of the earth and light of the world.”

“We're trying to be the salt of the city,” McFadden said.

During busy lunch hours in Manhattan, Denver, Saskatoon and other cities, volunteers will stand in front of churches and in downtown areas offering free copies of a 32-page booklet of the Pope's writings, chiefly from Love and Responsibility, his 1960 book on love and marriage.

Different Flavors

The celebration will take on different flavors in different locations. At the midtown Manhattan Church of Our Saviour, Father George Rutler, pastor and well-known Eternal Word Television Network host, will celebrate a votive Mass for the Pope. After Mass, choirs will serenade commuters walking past the church on the way to Grand Central Terminal, and speakers inside will examine the Pope's example of out-reach to youth and his writings on conscience. And a former Swiss Guard will tell of how his life was transformed by some close encounters with the Pope at the Vatican.

In Denver, speakers will discuss the Pope's theology of the body, ecumenism and personalist philosophy. High school students in the Czech Republic, where McFadden once worked, will be staging “The Jeweler's Shop,” an early play written by then Karol Wojtyla. Seminarians from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will discuss papal infallibility. And Oct. 16 will be part of Pope Week in Couva, Trinidad. Festivities there are being organized by a girls high school teacher who picked up the “Love and Responsibility” booklet at World Youth Day.

That booklet will be distributed at Ave Maria University in Ann Arbor, Mich., College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and Columbia University. The Newman Center at Hunter College in New York will screen Witness to Hope, the video based on the biography by George Weigel. Votive Masses for the Pope will be celebrated in the Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

For Anastasia Northrop, who is organizing Denver activities, Pope John Paul II has an important message to offer a society that is confused about the meaning of sexuality. It has to do with his understanding of the human person, said Northrop, 26, who works with her family's taping ministry, Our Father's Will Communications. “He teaches us about why we were created male and female, what our purpose is here. Our vocation is to love.”

Northrop has led a group of young people studying John Paul's theology of the body, which is based on a series of talks he gave early in his pontificate. The message, she has found, “really touches people's hearts.”

“It rings true. It appeals to what people want: fulfillment and love. It's not about use but about gift,” she explained.

That message seems particularly relevant to many American Catholics, given the recent revelations regarding sexual abuse of minors by priests.

Denise Iona, a 25-year-old accountant in Boston, perhaps the place hardest hit by the sex-abuse scandals, said her participation in a Love and Responsibility group there has “taught me the right perspective on relationships and human dignity.”

But McFadden, 39, is quick to point out that Pope Day is not meant as a response to the sex-abuse crisis but as “our desire to share the beauty of the Pope's teaching.”

He and fellow New Yorker Alberto Mora have led a weekly discussion group on Love and Responsibility for the past two years and have encouraged the formation of similar groups in other cities. The book emphasizes the need for a correct understanding of love and warns against treating people as means to an end or objects to be used. Anxious to share the message, McFadden excerpted key passages and had 50,000 copies of the resulting booklet printed. He and other New Yorkers gave away 13,000 copies at World Youth Day in Toronto.

Non-Catholics, Too

In searching for a printer, McFadden met H.C. Vale of Seattle through the Internet, who put him in touch with someone in Toronto. “I wrote him a thank-you note to let him know how well it worked out and he responded by saying he's going to put together a Pope Day in Seattle,” McFadden said.

That was surprising, since Vale is a Methodist. But the Seattle salesman said he was impressed with what he read in the booklet. It's a message that needs to be heard, he said, “especially now, when the act of love has been reduced to the equivalent of a drink of water, to a trivial recreation. It used to be considered a monumental act, not something casually entered into.”

Vale and his boss, Brenda Galang, who is Catholic, will distribute some 450 copies.

As Pope Day passes, McFadden and his group will continue reading John Paul's works, including the play “The Radiation of Fatherhood.” They have other plans on the horizon, including a coffeehouse in Manhattan where such plays might be performed, a papal birthday celebration next May 18 and another Pope Day next year.

Predicted McFadden, “The 24th anniversary this year will set the stage for an incredible 25th anniversary.”