Pope Benedict XVI’s first trip to the Americas ended Sunday. Hes back in Rome. So far there is no word exactly when he will visit the U.S., although in April he accepted an invitation to address the United Nations in New York City. No date was set. Will that eventual visit be a short East Coast stay — or a true foray into the American hinterland?Will we see Pope Benedict make the kind of ambitious transcontinental trip that Pope John Paul II made to the U.S. in September 1987 when Phoenix and Tempe were a stop on his 10-city, two-week, coast-to-coast odyssey? Now 80 and clearly not the jetsetter that John Paul was, we may never see the German pope in these parts. Getting a pope here 20 years ago will only grow in the annals of Arizona history like the Diamondbacks actually winning the World Series in 2001. Did those events really happen?Much analysis was made about Pope Benedicts five days in Brazil, the nation with the largest Roman Catholic population. He gathered together Latin American and Caribbean bishops for a major conference. He told them to work harder at building up the church that has been losing members precipitously to evangelical Christianity or altogether to secularism and apathy, according to wire reports. Pentecostals have made in-roads with exciting spirituality that promises miracles, exorcism and supernatural experiences. Those churches independence and simplicity of structure have appeal compared to Catholicisms hierarchy and doctrinal rules and requirements.One can detect a certain weakening of Christian life in society overall and of participation in the life of the Catholic Church, the pope said.The Catholic News Service reported the pope told bishops of a misunderstanding of the priesthood, a public questioning of the value of priestly commitments to God through celibacy and their primary service to souls. He called for more pastoral energy to draw people back to the church. Catholics who have abandoned the church drifting toward religious indifference or attracted by the aggressive proselytizing of the sects are people who were never sufficiently evangelized in the first place, the CNS paraphrased the pope. They are easily influenced because their faith is weak, confused, easily shaken and nave, despite their innate religiosity, Benedict said.He lamented the wide gap between rich and poor, saying the church needs to be a force to change that and to defend the rights of the poor and build a society founded on justice and peace. But well recall that, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the 1980s, he chided Latin American Catholics caught up in the populist liberation theology where the church stood up to repressive governments.The news service noted that the pope didnt mention the shortage of ordained clergy in Brazil (a ratio of one priest to 8,000 Catholics) where many Catholics go weeks or months without seeing a priest.He renewed his criticism of the decline of fundamental moral values against the relativistic and consumerist cultural forces that seek to destroy them. And while he called for ecumenical dialogue, he said the strong and aggressive ways of proselytizing by sects make that more difficult.Benedict told bishops that priestly celibacy is an important gift for the church. Conveying that to young seminarians is essential, he said, because future priests are keys to fostering human growth and eliminating the risk of going astray in the area of sexuality.All that may elicit headshakes of approval by the faithful, but I suspect it rings somewhat hollow to the peoples across Latin America who live in a sharply different world and where family life is not easily set aside. The married priest movement bears watching. Deeply sincere Catholics, trying to save their church, are sticking their necks out trying to point out the obvious: The human drive for love and family relationships is a universal and cultural value. To relentlessly demand celibacy and watch the important labor force of priests shrink and shrink and shrink is enormously destructive to the faith. How may popes will it take and how depleted will parishes be before some Holy Father gets a revelation and makes celibacy optional? I dont expect to live to see it.

Only Howard Morrison of Gilbert sent us information this year about the annual National Day of Prayer on May 3. He touted the events that would take place outside of the Gilbert municipal building during the lunch hour. If other East Valley communities held traditional National Day of Prayer events this year, they did a woeful job of getting the word out about them. I have to presume that, at best, there were only token observances this year in the Valley. The Arizona National Day of Prayer website (www.aznationaldayofprayer.org/)has been off line, so the public could not even check to see what was slated. Were undergoing a complete overhaul, and it will take a bit of time before everything has been updated and is live again. reads the site. A half dozen years ago, I could compile a list of National Day events in almost all East Valley cities, typically held in the early morning or at noon. I covered a number of them and the turnout of speakers and participants was respectable. A few years ago, the churches in Chandler held a monthly prayer gathering at one of the churches. They joined in ecumenical prayers for the community, state, nation and world. I attended one for a story and participation was intense. Those gatherings are no longer.Even the national web site (www.ndptf.org) for the National Day of Prayer could offer up very few posted events, as one clicked on the map of the 50 states to check them out. There were only three listed for California, for example. Success of the event, community by community, depends of volunteers, and where there are none to be recruited, there are no observances. Where are the prayer warriors these days? Certainly, massive problems haunt every sector of our community and planet, and prayer is needed as much as ever. Inhumanity is out of hand. Scandals and corruption, poverty and health crises, crime and needless deaths beset our civilization. The evangelical community traditionally powers these prayer events, as they do prayer breakfasts and vigils. I sense some fatigue among them. Ecumenical unity seems to have stagnated, given marginal interest in the Valley, for example, for cross-faith and inter-religious dialogue or ministerial or clergy groups. And nationally, there are signs that evangelicals have lost some of their unity and fire for reshaping America. Christian activists great hope came with the election of George W. Bush and was boosted by two new Supreme Court justices. The three branches of government seemed to be in alignment to bring about their desired remake of our nation.But the loss of the Republican Congress in 2006 and a cascade of scandals among conservatives in Congress and the clergy (Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham and Ted Haggard) may have contributed to a malaise among them. Disbanding in April was the Center for Reclaiming America, founded in 1996 as a political arm of the Rev. James Kennedys Coral Ridge Ministries. Almost 1,000 gathered in Fort Lauderdale two years ago for its conference with a spirited and ambitious agenda, the Miami Herald reports. They planned to launch a Capitol Hill lobbying arm, open a dozen regional offices and have activists assigned in all 435 congressional districts.But now in 2007, the organization has shut down. At a National Day of Prayer rally at the Florida capitol in Tallahassee, its leader Pam Olsen lamented the big loss, but said , You will see the Christian-values voters rise again.Some complain that the Reclaiming America folks got too narrow and caught up in in-fighting. For example, the president-elect of the Christian Coalition resigned when his group declined to add global warming and poverty to its meeting agenda. The Herald noted that the Christian Coalition once steeled the evangelical movement, with an annual budget of $26 million in the late 1990s. Last year, it was $2 million in debt and facing defections from some of its strongest state chapters, including Iowa, Ohio and Alabama.Meanwhile some of the evangelical giants like Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins Family Research Council and Coral Ridge Ministries still have budgets from $140 million to $38 million. Observers said that the war horses are aging and losing their influence, while younger evangelicals are less partisan, and they tend to be less scared by secularism.

I cannot explain it, but I tend to remember people who have leaped from one religious faith to another. Its those folks who have spurned one faith where they have been observant and faithful. That abrupt declaring commitment to another belief system begs our curiosities especially when the changes are to faiths sharply contrasting with what theyve left.In America, there are some faiths where the crossover are especially common: Catholic to Episcopal, or vice versa; Presbyterian to United Church of Christ, or vice versa; Lutheran to Episcopalian; or Unitarian Universalism to Humanism, or vice versa. I generally view American faiths on a spectrum that has much to do with how much the individual is willing to accept set doctrine. At one end is doctrinal orthodoxy and at the other is free intellectual inquiry and search. In the past few days in theological circles, theres been a loud buzz about the resignation of the president of the Evangelical Theological Society, Frank Beckwith., who has returned to the Roman Catholic Church of his roots. Called a renowned evangelical philosopher by the Associated Baptist Press, Beckwith announced he wanted full communion with the church of his youth and to find historical and theological continuity with the early church.He said there would be public conflict if he remained president of the Theological Society, which has long established differences with Catholicism. Beckwith resigned on Saturday, and three days later, the Society released a statement signed by eight officers and board members. While saluting Beckwith, an associate professor of church-state studies at Baptist-affiliated Baylor University, the ETS said certain expressions of (Catholic) church dogma dont jibe with their beliefs.The work of the Evangelical Theological Society, as a scholarly forum, proceeds on the basis that the the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and therefore inerrant in the autographs. But Confessional Catholicism, as developed through the doctrines across its historical councils, sets forth a more expansive view of verbal, infallible revelation. Catholics embrace a larger canon of scripture, including biblical books, called the Apocrypha, barred from evangelical Christian texts. The ETS said it recognizes Catholics theologians right to do their theological work on the basis of all the authorities they consider to be revelatory and infallible but it goes beyond the Bible alone.The statement, whose lead signature was that of president-elect C. Hassell Bullock of Wheaton College, said Catholics and Evangelicals share some common ground addressing critical social and moral issues of our contemporary culture but there are important theological differences.Beckwith, who will remain at Baylor, wrote a lengthy blog on My return to the Catholic Church at http://rightreason.ektopos.com/archives/2007/05/my_return_to_th.html. He said he wanted his return to Catholicism to generate as little attention as possible and he expressed worries that he might be perceived by many as a bad witness for the Gospel. He said he served as the sponsor for a 16-yead-old nephew for his confirmation as a Catholic and was instrumental in getting him to renew his faith. That nephew suggested Beckwith take the plunge into Catholicism, too. On April 28, Beckwith was received back into the church after several months of procedures. Beckwith complains that bloggers jumped on his story and second-guessed his motives and loyalties. He said he stepped down from the presidency without being asked. He said he was his reading about the early church fathers that convinced him that the early church is more Catholic than Protestant and that the Catholic view of justification, correctly understood, is biblically and historically defensible. Comments on that same blog range from well-wishes for Beckwith to this comment: By joining Rome, you are putting an institution above God; you are putting men (and I mean males) ahead of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. I lament what you have now done.

In was early Sunday morning outside the doors of Mexico Citys historic Metropolitan Cathedral facing massive 13-acre Zocalo Square in the middle of the city. By the size of the crowd outside, it portended a record mass of people had arrived for the days Masses. By why had they come so early? And in the darkness? Then on cue, they revealed why they were all there — all 18,000 to 20,000 could be seen in the all together as if they were re-enacting the second chapter of Genesis when the man and the woman were both naked, but they were not embarrassed. (Genesis 2:25). American photographer Spencer Tunick had come to Mexico City to stage what would become his newest record for nudes in a single photograph. But in Catholic, conservative Mexico? The New Yorkers previous record for a field of skin had been another Catholic Spanish-speaking venue, Barcelona, Spain, in 2003 when an estimated 7,000 folks posed naked for his lens and created eye-catching designs. He did almost as well previously in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Caracas, Venezuela; and Montreal, Canada — all cities with high Catholic populations. Cynics could say that, in the second largest metropolitan area in the world (about 20 million), it cant be that difficult finding merely 18,000 to 20,000 to shed their threads, then blend into acres of human flesh. To be part of such a unique experience has its allure. It surely qualifies for that line, "Be part of something greater than yourself."Time and again, its said such situations prove to be pretty asexual, even in mixed company. Yet, it had to be exciting to be part of something so surreal, defiant and historic. It was pretty innocuous. While technically it may be exposing oneself, it also amounts to literally being lost in a crowd where everyones vulnerability is equal. A veritable sea of humanity. One radical photo session. Mexico is nominally 89 percent Roman Catholic. While Catholics may have a reputation of being more prudish than other groups, theres plenty to suggest that it isnt so. All in all, the church holds the planets richest treasures of nude sculptures, paintings, tapestries and other pieces of art. Ive spent time in the Vaticans great art museums including the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The celebration of the human body is infinite, bold and worthy, both there and in the far-flung buildings of Catholicism. In respect to the church, Tunick agreed to leave the cathedral out of is photos, and a Mexican flag was deliberately removed from a pole. Participants had signed up via the Internet and had to show documentation to get in. Late-arrivers were barred. The Washington Post said Tunick called his latest work a symbol of freedom and a mysterious morning ritual. It quoted a 40-year-old taxi driver who participated, With this, I see us advancing. Were moving toward more freedom of expression, more liberty. I could never imagine this happening in Mexico. Tunick, who had spent five years planning the shoot, shouted instructions to the multitude through translators. One pose had everyone standing in rows at attention, then one where they pressed their palms to their chests, another with all folks lying on their backs, creating a texture of bodies as they lay end to end, side by side. Finally they got on their knees and hunched forward, their foreheads to the pavement, compressed in a fetal pose, the Post said. Shooting began at 7:18 a.m. and was over by 8:30 a.m., with plenty of police on hand to keep gawkers away and to guard the discarded clothing, cell phones, purses and more. In less than an hour it was over, and thousands of shivering, naked individuals came bouncing back to the bags of clothes theyd left at the edges of the square, wrote the Posts Manuel Roig-Franzia. They were dark-skinned indigenous people, pale men and women who trace their heritage to the Spanish conquistadors, light brown mestizos. They were fat and skinny, tall and short. But stripped of their clothes and viewed from afar, they looked a lot alike. They looked like Mexico. Another newspaper quoted a 24-year-old woman, This is an expression of pride. People want to be part of the modern art world. With official seating capacity of 19,023 at U.S. Airways Arena in downtown Phoenix, this crowd would have filled that place. Tunick has struggled at getting large numbers of folks for U.S. shoots perhaps because of cities resistance and Americans conflicted attitudes about nudity compared to libertine notions elsewhere. Need we be reminded of the incredible public and media overreaction to the clothing malfunction at the Super Bowl in 2004 when, for a second or less, singer Janet Jacksons breast was exposed on TV during a dance routine? All in all, Tunick is reaffirming what all kinds of artists have demonstrated over millennia that the human body is Gods greatest work, not something of disgrace. The human fabric created in Zocalo Square shows ultimately our commonality and similarity. Each of us has one body to keep alive and take care of as we hug this planet. Such a dramatic sum of human hides was healthy. For an hour or more in a public square in Old Mexico, they were as naked as the day they were born, with the open air caressing their skin. They came willing. And, for the most part, they were not ashamed.

Postage rates continue to climb, and I am amazed by how traditional snail mail has been drying up. Fifteen years ago, I could expect my Tribune mailbox chocked full of stuff, bona fide material that would be the grist for religion stories or news briefs. Or just a lot of interesting things, including mostly marginally useful things related to religion.That included lots of unsolicited copies of religious magazine sent to the secular press at no charge. But because of the Internet and especially e-mail, countless para-church organizations and denominations and others have turned to the web to get information to us. It has effectively cut links we have had with some causes, movements and faiths. I could name a number of once free magazines that dont show up anymore. But one staple that comes in the mail is Sword of the Lord, a biweekly newspaper from Murfreesboro, Tenn. Fiercely evangelical and embracing orthodox Bible teaching, the newspaper is foursquare in its message: Standing for verbal inspiration of the Bible, the deity of Christ, his blood atonement, salvation by faith, New Testament soul-winning and the premillennial return of Christ; opposing modernism, worldliness and formation.Each issue features sermons from the archives of American preaching, some going back to the 19th century. All are forthright and orthodox and never any equivocation. The paper gets in its digs at the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Council of Churches and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In the back are one- and two-column advertisements of mostly Baptist churches from across the American landscape, including photos of the senior pastors. The April 20 issue, for example, carries ads that include photos of 108 pastors. All are males. Among them are Pastor Michael Sproul of Tri-City Baptist Church in Tempe; Pastor Dave Chicton of Lakeside Baptist Church in Peoria; and Pastor Andrew Wirtz of Canyon Springs Baptist Church in Phoenix. Most the churches are in the American Southeast, especially Florida.The churches tout themselves as Making ready a people for the Lord, or Striving to preach the truth in love, the Church where everybody is somebody, Where the Bible comes alive, A church family for the entire family and Where the shout has not died out.And, of course, some of the churches have names not easily forgotten: Shining Light Baptist Church, Fundamental Baptist Church, Lighthouse Baptist Church, Jericho Road Baptist Church and Harvest Baptist Tabernacle. Sword of the Lord takes its name from Judges, 7:20, And the cried the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. Since 1934, it has stood on its steadfastness, putting forth headlines like Atheism has fueled greatest mass murders in history, Emerging church crowd reworking the Bible for postmodern culture and Woe to the couch potato.Last piece of advice: Never is sin an affliction of pimples, but ever a deadly cancer.

Rudy Giuliani fielded a gotcha question about the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Mike Hucakabee insisted that a candidates faith frames the way one functions and abortion and stem-cell research, with their moral implications, all combined Thursday night to make it clear Republicans will talk a lot about faith and belief in the long months until election day 2008. Oddly, these presidential wannabes talk a good story about domestic moral and ethical issues but remain blind to the litany of immoral steps related to the U.S. going to war in Iraq and the massiveness of death of the innocent. Moral fiber-testing of the candidates for the president of the United States goes on. At the Republican debate featuring 10 hopefuls lined up in the auditorium at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the inquisitors and the candidates set a sharp contrast to the Democrats first debate a week before in South Carolina. So much was about bravado and proving which man has the most testosterone on the world stage. The all-male Pack-Ten, often invoking Reagans name in the museum of the 41st president, seemed pretty predictable as they reviewed things like the Terri Schiavo overindulgence of feds into a right-to-die issue in Florida. In what they said and how they spoke, the candidates clearly were talking to the Republican base and not the broader population. Discerning listeners couldnt help but audit the candidates individual remarks and see contradictions from stands they have taken in the past. Their sometimes candor Thursday night will surely come back to haunt some as they move through the arduous primary process and when one or more goes forward as the party standard-bearer. The Rev. Roger Miller, who is winding up a tour of duty as the interim pastor at First Congregational Church of Tempe (United Church of Christ), wrote a column called Active for God in the May newsletter. In it, he writes some powerful words about the campaign season. He borrows from Eugene Peterson of The Message Bible translation fame: Many people think that whats written in the Bible has mostly to do with getting people into heaven getting right with God, saving their eternal souls. It does have to do with that, of course, but not mostly. It is equally concerned with living on this earth living well, living in robust sanity. . On earth as it is in heaven is Jesus prayer.That robust sanity Dr. Peterson describes means, for me, a daily, passionate encounter with people and ideas that leaves me more aware, more informed and more involved with the world than I was when I rolled out of bed that morning, Miller writes. Being a more informed Christian, he said, means that I will be a critical observer both of the good that my country does and of the incalculable ineptitude and corruption that are blockading justice and wreaking unimaginable suffering here and abroad. It means I wont be fooled by the lies and manipulations of politicians of any party or even the loud and powerful voices that propose to speak for Christianity.Miller said the campaign season demands folks be awake and discerning. Unfortunately, most will be deciding the politicians they like or dislike on the basis of looks, past party affiliation or media hype. He warns that religious spokespersons are fashioning themselves as kingmakers while competing politicians position themselves as post 9-11 leaders who can best protect the American people.Be very aware when fear of terror, fear of change, fear of foreigners, fear of youth, fear of failure, fear of other religions and fear of homosexuals are used to block serious political discourse, Miller continues. Be also aware of the underlying racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia that seem to be thriving particularly well in one portion of the political spectrum. When citizens are lazy thinking, the country is hurt. And when Christians are lazy thinkers, the church is hurt.Compelling words that I hope echo through the minds of thinking people this campaign season. Clearly all indicators are pointing to Americans getting distinctive choices with far-reaching implications. Maintain robust sanity in the process.

Tis the season for church mother-daughter banquets, when often multiple generations of women gather in a fellowship halls, and tribute is paid to special women, and where all celebrate the feminine experience with great food and entertainment. Typically, it comes right around Mothers Day.In my earlier newspaper years in Iowa when I was a columnist and editor, I was invited to speak to a good number of mother-daughter and father-son dinners in church halls in the 16-county area we covered. Each setting was a mix of honoring the oldest and youngest, greatest number of family members on hand and most grandchildren or great-grandchildren. For churches, events dont get more basic in fellowship that the mother-daughter gathering..Go West, Young Women, Go West was the theme Tuesday night at my churchs annual mother and daughter banquet. The womens group lassoed me to lead the posse of men to get the ladies fed. You must be the head honcho or Joe Arpaio or such, their leader informed me by e-mail. And we should have about 18 men for you to boss.I dont own a cowboy shirt, so I went to used clothing store for a plaid shirt (youd never otherwise ever find me in plaid). I had my blue jeans and cowboy boots, and I bought a western straw hat in Ajo for $5 last weekend. I needed a handkerchief for around my neck. I stopped in at Laradas Army Surplus, 764 W. Main St., where they advertised bandannas for 99 cents on the window. They had quite a variety and I got one. At the checkout counter, I spotted on the wall a Tribune column I had written about the shop, Surplus store provides stroll down GI memory lane. I informed the three staffers on hand, See that newspaper column on the wall. Thats picture is me. I wrote that column maybe 15 years go. The gist of the column was that the shop of massive military surplus gave me and does any serviceman or vet an incredible adventure in remembering the trappings of life in uniform. I checked my office file copy of the column and found out it was published in the Tribune on Aug. 31, 1987. For nearly 20 years, it has been posted in Laradas.The dinner went flawlessly, with all the mens rustling darn tootin good victuals and not once pouring coffee or lemonade on any guests. Always a highlight is the Presbyterian Women announcing their Woman and Man of the Year for outstanding service to the church. Congratulations to this years two winners, Barbara Harden and W.R. Junior Meier. Just a month ago, Junior was named the City of Tempes 2007 Volunteer of the Year for his longtime devotion to Buddy Bowling, a program where he takes mentally disabled folks bowling every Saturday morning. For 22 years, the womens group has named the two winners, and the list of recipients reads like a veritable church hall of fame. I have known all 44 of the recipients. Nine are deceased. The people, if physically able, continue to serve the church. (Somehow, I was chosen for the mans award in 1991.) One of the great benefits of belonging to a congregation is knowing and working with people with purpose and depth, dedication and longevity of service. So it is always heartening who come away from the mother-daughter banquet seeing more people recognized for their enduring involvement.

The D. C. Madams 46-pound little black book of clients of sex in the nations capital has put lots of a folks in a quandary, and its made them second guess their own standards of morality about right and wrong. The talk shows and water cooler conversation has been all about people seeing both sides of a dilemma and equivocating: What adults do in private is their own business versus prostitution is illegal, so participants should be revealed and given public scorn. With it being a Washington, D.C., scandal, of course, naming names could very well be names of people in high places. Especially looked for are those johns who have otherwise played roles of uprightness or spoken out forcefully against immoral activity and now are being snared in their hypocrisy. What the madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, has done could become the summers sultry marathon of news stories. A grand jury indicted the 50-year-old on racketeering charges related to her operating an escort service, a prostitution ring, that operated for 13 years. Palfrey, seeming to produce witnesses for her legal defense, has turned, to ABC News, more than a foot high stack of phone records on thousands and thousands of the clients. All eyes will be on ABCs 20-20 show Friday night to see how the network handles their gift and who will be outed. The first casualty was Randall Tobias, deputy secretary of state and, ironically, President Bushs AIDS czar. He acknowledged to ABC that he used the service in which male clients paid as much as $300 per hour for women. He resigned. If that was the first shoe to drop, how many more will?Sadly, this scandal once again will divert important public attention to sorted details on peoples lifestyle foibles while the Ship of State continues drifting through disastrous water, i.e. the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The media easily gravitate to sexual misconduct and can fill hours and hours of electronic news and tons of newsprint to cover the gotcha details ad nauseum. Talk show hosts have acknowledge how conflicted and ambivalent they are. They weigh the age-old disdain of sex-for-pay against whether the names of male customers should be made public, what with the shame, impact on families and loss of jobs. The argument is made that the mens seemingly discreet sex on the side may have nothing to do with their professional work. And theres the arguments that prostitution is a consensual, two-party, victimless behavior that is inconsistently monitored by law enforcement and even legal in Nevada and much of the world.And with it being Washington, D.C., the lobbying capital of the world, many say the powerful in government perversely sells themselves already for votes and campaign support. How ABC handles its cache of phone numbers and whether it selectively releases names could set off a vigorous debate on what is ethical and fair in an imperfect world where looking for love can be fraught with risks. It could reignite debates on whether prostitution, the vice that cannot be eradicated, should simply be legalized, then regulated like booze and gambling. Other will just say this is more biblical prophecy of the decadence and sin of humankind and proof that we are in the final days.