“Brace yourself, Father,” I said, taking a seat in a plastic chair facing my would-be confessor in Madison Square Garden’s dimly lit Madison Bar on Friday, a few hours before the start of the papal mass.
The bearded Franciscan priest in his dove gray vestments laughed and said, “No way. It’s all fine. Think of it as a big embrace of forgiveness from your heavenly father.”
OK. I tried to warn you.
“Let me see if I remember how this goes,” I began. “Bless me father for I have sinned; it’s been 35 years since my last confession.”
He tried not to look startled and almost pulled it off.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here,” he said, smiling kindly as he reached beneath his cassock to pull out a small paperback tract that, he explained, contained a list of questions that he could ask me that might make recounting all of my trespasses since the third grade a little less daunting.
1. WATCH: Pope Francis Stops His Motorcade for 5-Year-Old Sophie Cruz
Our favorite moment so far of Francis' time in the U.S. Grab the tissues — this one'll tug your heartstrings. ¡Si se puede!
2. Pope Francis Is Not ‘Progressive’ — He’s a Priest
“Living the Christian faith always has profound political consequences, but it can’t be reduced to a political stand.”
3. WATCH: What Song Does Pope Francis Dance To?
What happens when you wait seven hours to see the pope? A dance party, obviously.
A Cuban-American reflects on the pope’s journey to ‘nuestra America.’
Pope Francis embraced survivors of 9/11 in the footprints of the Twin Towers, then prayed for peace at an interfaith service beside the last column of steel salvaged from the fallen skyscrapers.
Arriving straight from his speech to the United Nations on Sept. 25, Francis met with 10 families from the 9/11 community — people who survived the destruction, rescued others from the inferno, or lost loved ones in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, executed by religious zealots.
Stunning is the word that most comes to me after Pope Francis’ two-day visit to Washington, D.C. The country and the media was reveling in his presence, using language like “amazing,” “incredible,” and “wonderful” in response to this extraordinary moral leader who literally transformed our public discourse in the 48 hours he was in the nation’s capital. What these two extraordinary days mean going forward is the big question on all our hearts and minds.
At the formal welcoming ceremony on the South Lawn at the White House, a very traditional template was transformed by the “Vicar of Christ,” whose presence turned everyone’s language to one reference after another to those Christ called “the least of these” in the 25th chapter of Matthew. Never have I heard the most vulnerable being the most talked about in this city.
President Obama began the pope’s visit with these words, “What a beautiful day the Lord has made.”
Indeed. Then Pope Francis introduced himself to America as “a son of an immigrant family” who was “happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.”
Point made.
"Climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation." — Pope Francis
To mark Pope Francis' visit to the United States, Sojourners has partnered with NextGen Climate to convene key interfaith leaders and activists to welcome the Pope and his call to action on climate change.
The effort, including a full-page advertisement on Sept. 25 in the New York Times and several other newspapers, features a letter signed by 36 interfaith leaders and activists.
I’ve had five Advanced Pastoral Counseling students work in the community with domestic abuse, five students write doctoral dissertations addressing abuse or misogyny in the faith community, and had many of my Pastoral Counseling students share how they are addressing abuse in their congregations or serving in the community on councils or teams to raise awareness. We have witnessed a strong connection between some of the pastors in our community and with agencies that help protect women and hold men accountable. I feel that training students in seminary is one major way to develop a network of clergy who will support this cause.
Just as the single session on homosexuality at this Vatican-approved meeting of Catholic families was to begin on Sept. 24, a conference official took the stage in the main hall, capable of seating at least 10,000, and announced the location had been moved.
Thousands of people got up and made their way up one floor to another room capable of seating only about 1,000. Hundreds of others were turned away, the doors shut on them by convention center officials citing fire code regulations.
At his speech before Congress on Sept. 24, Pope Francis listed Trappist monk Thomas Merton as one of four exemplary Americans who provide wisdom for us today.
Out on the National Mall, thousands cheered when the pope named two other exemplary Americans: Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. Fewer recognized Merton (or the fourth exemplar the pope mentioned, social activist Dorothy Day.)
The pope did not choose to hail anyone associated with the institutional Catholic Church as his models. Instead he chose a former president, a Protestant minister, a lay Catholic, and a monk.
Pope Francis went straight from charging the U.S. Congress to care for the neediest to blessing and encouraging Washington’s hungry and homeless on Sept. 24.
Still, Francis, wearing his cross showing a shepherd and his flock, carried a political message along with his pastoral mission.
“The Son of God came into this world as a homeless person,” he told staff and clients of Catholic Charities, at St. Patrick’s in the City’s ministry to the needy.
When a soft-spoken, white-robed, wisdom-dispensing sage took the stage this morning before Congress, his affect seemed a little...familiar. Former Sojourners staffer Danny Mortensen proclaimed him the "Christian Gandalf," and (okay, all disputes as to whether Gandalf is the original Christian Gandalf aside) we totally dig it.