This morning, I got around to reading yesterday's Wall Street Journal, the only secular newspaper I read. (I'm also a big fan of The Week magazine which delivers top stories and news analysis from a zillion national and international periodicals.)
Front page, below the fold: an article about scalping tickets for Pope Benedict's public appearances.
The lead: "Brooklyn native Charlie Pigott says..." blah blah about his ability to score seats for baseball games and his inability to get "his mother into the bleachers for New York's hottest event." Next, he explains why people are going to such costly lengths to see the pope. "To a real Catholic," he says, "it's the closest thing to God you're going to get."
Tempted as I am to correct Charlie's grammar and syntax, it's his view of Catholic reality that needs tidying up. Yes, Catholics tend to go gaga over the pope, but because "it's" the closest "thing" to God? Lord have mercy.
Someone -- maybe his mother? -- should remind Charlie that the papacy traces its origins to St. Peter. (Mt. 16:18) For this convert from Judaism and real Catholic, it's the extraordinary reality of apostolic succession that stimulates feelings of awe and reverence relative to the pope. Also his outfits, especially the shoes.
