The Servant of the Servants of God

As I write this column, we are still in the papal interregnum. That is the brief period of time between when a pope dies and a new pope is elected.  It also happens to be April 30th, the feast day of one of the truly great popes, Pius V, from the 16th century.  So I thought it would be fitting to reflect on the gift and role of the papacy, as our next pope will be the 266th successor to St. Peter, the first Pope. 

The pope is Christ’s vicar. His agent on earth, not Christ Himself.  As Pope St. Gregory the Great (from the 6th century) famously said, his title should be servus servorum Dei (the servant of the servants of God).  He was truly insistent that the pope never forget he is a humble servant.   Still, with the help of the Holy Spirit, a pope can have a tremendous impact on the direction of the Church and the holiness of the faithful.  Pope St. Gregory the Great is traditionally depicted in religious art with a dove on his shoulder.  When I was in seminary in Cincinnati, my 3rd floor dormitory room overlooked a beautiful courtyard with a goldfish pond presided over by a statue of the holy pope in just such a fashion.  This is a reminder that all Christians, but the pope above all, should pray constantly for the guidance of the Holy Spirit: for the pope, to have the fortitude and wisdom to strengthen his brother bishops, teach with great clarity, and protect the Church from her enemies, both temporal and spiritual.

Pope St. Pius was a stellar example of a Pope who did just that.  In his very brief six-year reign, he had to implement the worldwide council of bishops at Trent.  This was called to address the crisis of the Protestant revolt that rocked Christendom, splintering the church in half and causing great confusion about her teachings.  Pius deliberately set about promulgating the Roman Catechism, which beautifully explained the true teachings and helped countless of the faithful to follow Jesus Christ Who is the way, the Truth, and the life.  He also standardized and codified the celebration of the Mass in a missal that drew the best of the way the Mass had been celebrated for a millennium and a half and guaranteed that the sacredness and beauty of the liturgy would be safeguarded for the future. This missal was used essentially unchanged for 400 years!  Additionally, he rallied Catholic soldiers to fight against the Muslim Turks’ invasion of Europe at the Battle of Lepanto, when they threatened to conquer the heart of the Church.

Pope St. John Paul II was another of the great popes, who reigned shortly after the period of extreme confusion caused by the anti-authoritarian wave that characterized the 1960s and 1970s, where countless Catholics began challenging core teachings of the Church.  He too boldly preached and taught, helped overturn the tyranny of communism, and created a new modernized universal Catechism to clear up confusion in the Church.  Benedict XVI, one of the most brilliant theologians of the modern era, taught with great love the beauty and truths of the Church’s tradition, liturgy and Scripture.

In these troubled times, we pray that the next pope will follow in the footsteps of his saintly predecessors as he steers the barque of Peter.