Views From the Outside
Pontiff's Role, D.C. Visit Mainly a Curiosity for Non-Catholics

By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 29, 2008; B11

What does a papal visit mean for the three-quarters of Americans who aren't Roman Catholics?

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to make his first trip as pontiff to the United States next month, experts say he is largely a curiosity to non-Catholics and lacks the superstar image enjoyed by his predecessor, John Paul II.

Recent polls show about one in 10 non-Catholic Americans say they have never heard of Benedict (or B-16, as church insiders call him), and more than a quarter say they have "no opinion" of him. More than four in 10 say they view him favorably.

"If you ask Ame ri cans about this man, I doubt if you'll learn much. He hasn't made a big splash in any direction," said Dean Hoge, a sociologist at Catholic University . Even Catholics are still watching for clear signs from the pope, "but there isn't one," he said.

As the clock ticks to his April 15 arrival in Washington, however, talk of the pope is inevitably on the rise, with tens of thousands of Catholics seeking tickets to his Masses, special choirs created, special lectures given and analysis everywhere about the state of American Catholicism. It's bringing out the fact that even non-Catholics clueless about Benedict have feelings about his office, which seems increasingly unusual in an era of waning denominationalism and bottom-up religion.

Among evangelical Protestants, the office of pope has gone in a few decades from an antichrist figure who claimed false access to God to an ally in the culture wars. Movement leaders such as Chuck Colson praise the Vatican's leadership on such issues as abortion and relativism. And even many rank-and-file evangelicals who feel skeptical -- or worse -- of authority coming from anywhere but the pages of the Bible see in the pope someone holding the line.

"The pope is kind of this thing we count on. We may not believe in everything he says, but we have these 'id' tendencies and know the pope just isn't going to blow with every cultural wind," said Timothy Larsen, a theology professor at the evangelical Wheaton College in Illinois.

That said, the evangelical magazine Christianity Today so far has no definite plans to cover Benedict's visit, and Ted Olsen, the magazine's longtime blogger and current online managing editor, said he doesn't think "you'll find too many evangelicals on eBay trying to spend money for a ticket."

He said, however, that interest could rise, depending on what Benedict says. "If he talks about the culture of life, evangelicals will stand up and say 'hallelujah.' If he talks about the need for Jesuits to get in line, people will shrug."

The pope is intriguing -- and sometimes infuriating -- to some non-Catholics, because he is so unlike any other figure in the historic authority he claims.

Diane Winston, who covered the pope in the 1980s and now writes and teaches about religion and culture, says, "You can't underestimate the power of the costume." People are fascinated with the notion of this centuries-old spiritual lineage, she said. "Even if they're not Catholic, people appreciate what he represents, this chain of religious authority."

Not everyone is appreciative.

"He's a relic, a flashback to antiquity," Jon Meyers, a 40-year-old D.C. art director, said recently during a lunchtime errand downtown. The Vatican is an ivory tower, said Meyers, who calls himself "sort of Jewish."

On the next block, Lexa Lemieux, an atheist who works at a consulting firm, said she hadn't even heard the pope was coming and doesn't think he's relevant. How can he characterize birth control as wrong in such a poverty-stricken place as Africa? How can he think he knows what God wants? "I don't identify with the whole thing," she said.

Non-Catholics were much more familiar with John Paul II, who was in office nearly three decades. John Paul had a dramatic life narrative: actor, athlete, communism-fighter. Benedict, a shy Bavarian academic, is known for being the Vatican's guardian of morality and doctrine -- "not exactly sexy work," Winston said. "It's hard to understand the intricacies of his positions."

John Paul also made the office of pope more accessible to the general public through pop-culture-type events that experts say Benedict is unlikely to initiate, like the World Day of Prayer in 2002, when John Paul invited Shinto priests, rabbis and imams, among others, to ride a train with him through Italy to promote peace. Or when he drew hundreds of thousands of people in shorts and sneakers to a Denver park in 1993 for World Youth Day. In a YouTube world, Benedict's professorial style might be missed by many outside the faith.

Hoge, of Catholic University, thinks non-Catholics, like Catholics, should take the pope seriously as a moral leader, but "Americans basically don't trust this idea that 'I have the mind of God.' Americans don't trust that."

That sounds about right to the Rev. Patrice Sheppard of the Living Word Church in Southwest Washington, whose voice tenses a bit when she talks about money spent on the pope's visit. "They're not glorifying God; they're glorifying a man . . . that don't get me no closer to God."

Pop culture in general seems uninterested in the pope, save for generic pontiff appearances on "South Park" and such films as "Saving Grace," a 1985 comedy in which Tom Conti plays a pope who gets locked out of the Vatican by accident and thrust into the regular world.

One reason could be that non-Catholic America doesn't know what to do with this lofty, unique position and fears offense -- a la the Muhammad cartoon controversy.

That's precisely the reason why Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl thinks non-Catholics in hyperactive, celebrity-obsessed America might pay attention to the pope: because he's not like any other clergy, no matter how mega their megachurch.

"The pope speaks not just to Catholics, but to the whole world. And his message is a message of understanding; it's a message of respect; it's a message of how do you build a good and just society. All of those currents will be part of his presentations," Wuerl said this week. "And I think they go through the hearts of most people."