Among quake victims, pope is simple pastor

Benedict is anything but a "simple pastor." In fact, I find most of what John Allen writes these days to be in the apologist mode for the Bishop of Rome and his College of Cardinals. John Allen is all too impressed by the grand and imperial halls and walls of the Vatican. He lives a privileged life living high on the hog in Rome. I no longer find Mr. Allen credible. Too bad. Benedict has never been and never will be a simple pastor, and to imply otherwise is dishonest. Benedict had done great damage to the Church and his papacy will never recover. He has no credibility except with those wing nuts who think of the Church in a very narrow and fundamentalist mindset. Benedict is a failure on just about every level. The man doesn't have a clue about how to engage the Church in the most important issues facing Planet Earth and its' many people. I wish Mr. Allen would step aside and allow journalists with a more honest and critical eye to evaluate and report significant news about the Church and its' nefarious power structure. I'm sure Mr. Allen is a good person, but I no longer respect his reporting because he is too enamored by the privileged few who control the strings of power in the Vatican.

Thank you, John Allen, for this beautiful report.

“The entire church is here with me, standing with you in your suffering,” the pope told the victims, adding that The Lord “is not deaf to the anguished cry of so many families who have lost everything.”

Contrast these words from Pope Benedict XVI with the behavior of Puppet George at New Orleans after Katrina:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/06/9465

"Mr. Bush was told the Sunday before the Monday Katrina struck that the city's flood defenses could fail in such a storm. The National Weather Service issued a special hurricane warning saying most of New Orleans would be uninhabitable for weeks and "water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards." Mr. Bush acknowledged these warnings. He said the government was fully prepared to help. He was wrong, of course, but not on purpose."

"Monday morning Mr. Bush was again warned about the potential devastation of Katrina and was told the government might lack the capacity to deal with it. He did not let that interfere with the day's planned activities. Mr. Bush talked about immigration issues with the head of the Department of Homeland Security. He then shared a birthday cake photo-op with his old friend, Senator John McCain, and, after learning that the 17th Canal levee in New Orleans had breached, went off to Arizona to promote Medicare Drug benefits. By late afternoon he was at a California senior center where he discussed the Medicare drug benefit. At 8 that night the governor of Louisiana told the president she needed everything Mr. Bush could provide to deal with the emergency. Mr. Bush said nothing. He went to bed."

"Tuesday afternoon Mr. Bush joined country singer, Mark Willis, for a photo op, Mr. Bush holding a guitar and the singer smiling at the playful president. Mr. Bush then returned to Texas to finish up his vacation. He let it be known that he would begin work the following day with a task force to coordinate relief efforts."

"As soon as Mr. Bush finished his vacation Wednesday, he flew back to Washington, making a detour, however, to fly over New Orleans so he could see for himself how bad things were. A picture was taken of him looking out the airplane window at the devastation below."

Thank God, America did finally wake up after eight years of the Puppet Show by the Puppeteer (V.P.)Dick with his Puppet George. Both of them may have missed watching Brent Snowcroft on Charlie Rose, where Snowcroft admits that the "Iraq adventure" was wrong - http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10249

Thank you!
I've been following your reports recently and I can only thenk you for your work!
This one in particular is great.

Grazie!

Pray for all concerned. Christ is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!

God bless him for being there.

Before anything else he is the Bishop of Rome.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish

A very balanced report from NCR. They did not even question whether the pope had dipped into the Vatican coffers to offer practical assistance to the tent dwellers.

I like Benedict XVI and I think that he did the right thing. After all, this is the home territory of John XXIII. Why did Allen forget that? I think that our present Holy Father, Bishop of Rome has made some questionable decisions over the years if his papacy. This act of his, however, should be accepted by all as a sincere sign of what the Church really is, a community who feeds the hingry, dresses the naked, comforts the afflicted and supports the widows...
And I agree, John Allen should become more detached and objective when it comes to His Majesty, BXVI

It seems to me the mindset of Pope B XVI is pretty old-fashioned. He certainly feel compassion for the victims of the earthquake (I was in the earthquake in Kobe in 1995 so I know what that feels like). This is a natural feeling for the Holy Father, old or new Church. (I also wondered if the Vatican had put any money where its mouth was.) But his idea of Church still includes the notion of protecting the image of the Church, to the point where he hardly noticed that children were suffering and that the bishops' response in shutting them up rather than leaping to isolate and punish the priests who caused it, until, I think, his trip to the US, where he began to perceive the depth of the suffering and anger of the people because of it. I guess it's unthinkable that he would notice something like the misery of women who feel called to ordination. But I see him as growing. I was scared stiff when I learned he had become the Pope. But it hasn't been as awful as I had expected. Perhaps the hierarchy, certainly in Rome, but even also our local bishops, is really so convinced after several centuries that the Church is basically the hierarchy and the bishops and priests, whose job is to let us watch and learn and lick up the scraps from under the table because they're the only ones who know anything. I see B XVI as even more sheltered than JP II, who I felt deserved more blame than B XVI for all that he did to the detriment of our Church.

John Allen has the task of sorting this out for us, since he sees a lot of it from closer up than we do. You want to give people the benefit of the doubt, and you want to do a good job of interpreting what you see because your interpretation may help get through to the people you're watching as well as the people you're explaining things to. Allen's predecessor, Peter Hebblethwaite, was incredibly good at describing the Church's mind for us. He looked at the Church with the same long view of centuries with which the Church looks at the world. There was a time when Hebblethwaite's views kept me in the Church. He died less than a month before the Kobe earthquake, and I learned it from an issue of the NCR that arrived only when mail was being delivered again. I think I was more devastated by the loss of Peter Hebblethwaite than I was by the collapse of my company, the damage to my house, and the upset of life as we had known it until Jan. 17, 1995. Allen doesn't have quite this historical wisdom that we used to get from Hebblethwaite, but I think he does a good job of finding out what's going on in the Church, especially in Rome.

The POSITIVE in John Allen's report: Surely the personal conversations from the Pope directly with relief workers, clergy, and earthquake victims, would have been heartening, encouraging, and a wonderful person-to-person human touch. This was Jesus' tendency: get right in with the people, talk to/with them.
The NEGATIVE might be an accidental omission on John Allen's part. There was not much mention of practical financial relief--rebuilding, employment, etc. To be scholarly and honest, we have to realize this report was written in the CONTEXT of other reports about the earthquake coverage, which may have covered practical financial relief. I honestly cannot say, because I have not have had time to research all, or even very many, written reports.
Maybe John Allen's accidental mistake was in writing this article for people who he assumed had read full coverage of the earthquake, and its effects weeks later. On the other hand to be a true scholar: the report seems to leave a gaping hole about financial rebuilding. In the article the Pope speaks inspiring words and leaves lovely symbols like a golden rose; however for social justice people, this could fall flat in terms of cold, hard, cash.
This is my best attempt at a balanced critique, from a busy person.

I've just read "God's New Man" by Paul Collins which reveals the kind of Church this Pope will try to force upon the "uninformed" laity, how he acted while in charge of the CDF and how those who dissent with his views are systematically marginalised or forced out of the church. It is therefore good to read this report and see that he does have compassion for those suffering. Perhaps if he spent more time outside academic cloisters and more time with the church, ie the people of God, we may yet have a papacy that will be meaningful in our modern, secular world. One can only hope and pray!!!

Can we not for a moment forget when one is a victim of his office and be unified and grateful witnesses of the compassion of Jesus for His suffering people?

I'm curious to know how Chris Smith and Paul Dion would prefer to see Mr. Allen report on the Pope's
visit. The facts of the matter were recounted objectively, pertinent quotes were given -- and I really
cannot see a bias in action.

An excellent report, as always, John. Benedict is truly a "humble worker in the Lord's vineyard" as he said at his election. I was overjoyed four years ago when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's name was announced on that balcony in Rome. He was my preferred choice as the perfect man to follow John Paul the Great, to continue John Paul's legacy and to clean up any mess that was left (especially in the Curia and among the bishops, John Paul was many things, but was not very good at picking bishops, though he got better once Jadot and Laghi were no longer involved). Benedict has been everything I had hoped and more. The Holy Spirit gave the Church a great gift in him.

Benedict never ceases to remind people that he is not the center of attention, it is rather the Lord. I appreciate how he continues to emphasize that reality, something that John Paul did as well, but a reality that was sometimes overwhelmed by John Paul's sheer presence. Benedict is far more retiring and less of a showman than John Paul was, and that is a good thing, I think. It reminds us that popes come and go, but the Church remains the same, forever rooted in Jesus Christ, Who is the Same yesterday, today and forever.

To those who think that John Allen is no longer objective, I want to make just a quick reply. You seem to believe that, because John says good things about the Holy Father, things that don't agree with your particular mindset and prejudices, he is not objective. I say the opposite. I think that, having spent time in Rome, having met many of the cardinals, bishops and priests that people at NCR malign and insult and denigrate day in and day out, he probably has come to realize that they are not so bad after all, that they are, by and large, good men trying their best to do God's work. I think John Allen is the most balanced and fair voice at a very unbalanced and very negative newspaper and website. Perhaps you should examine your underlying beliefs and mindset and you might find that you are exactly what you accuse John of being, just on the other side of the debate.

The Pope is the Vicar of Christ. He is the Bishop of Rome and the Universal Pastor of the Church. He is human too like everyone of us but he has the grace of state proper to his mission as the successor of St.Peter.
John Allen's report is positive and balanced as far this visit of the Holy Father to comfort the quake victims in Italy is concerned. He has done what is expected of him!
Our responsibility id to continue to support him with our prayers that he may continue to be a better instrument in the Hands of God.
Irrespective of how we see it, there will always be a Pope shepherding the people of God on earth and the Church which is the Mystical Body of Christ Our Lord and God will stand the test of time till the very end of the world.