John Waters on the Pope

The Anchoress over at First Things linked to this article about the Roman Catholic Church moving beyond its scandals. It focuses on the Irish writer John Waters and his observations on the papacy and the current pope.

“They’ll tell you ‘Oh, I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual.’ Now, I want to get people thinking, to ask if they see themselves as they really are, to see life as something extraordinary, to ask why we are here and where we are going.”

He’s not doing this at any easy time: “When you are invited on to a radio programme, all they want to talk about is sex abuse,” he said. And the Pope – whose writings on beauty, truth, on the nature of man, on Christ, he finds absolutely gripping and of huge importance – is caught up in a drama where no one really listens to what he has to say or takes any notice when it is explained to them.

“They’ll just repeat what they are told – that the Pope insulted Muslims or whatever, and they don’t want to know any more."

It's been that way for years. I remember as far back as the election of John Paul II in the 1970's that all the news anchors seemed to be able to talk about was whether he was going to change the RC Church's stand on abortion and the ordination of women. In all the run-up, discussion, and analysis, no one seemed the least interested in what he had to say about truth, the importance of the family, or relationship with Christ.

It is because they do not understand these things and have no interest in them, except as they fit into their own previously-held opinions.