Next week in Miami, Pope John Paul II begins a ten-day visit to the U.S., the 36th major journey by this most peripatetic of Roman Catholic Pontiffs. He has worshiped with exotically clad Papuans and has preached to hundreds of thousands in Marxist Managua. But though he has been to the U.S. three times / previously -- as Pope in 1979 and twice before that as Archbishop of Cracow in Poland -- he has not encountered anything anywhere quite so complex and independent as today's American Catholic.
A few weeks ago, even as the daunting logistics for his tour were being fine-tuned, an adult Bible class met at the red brick Our Lady of the Assumption school in Claremont, Calif. The 25 participants quickly fell into heated disagreement over two issues: Is it morally licit for couples to live together outside of marriage? Should the church approve the remarriage of divorced parishioners? A generation ago, members of such a group would not have challenged the church's no to both questions. But at this meeting, reported Lee Kimball, a registered nurse, "Everybody had a different opinion. That's the state of American Catholicism today. People are practicing what they want to practice, and priests are giving individual advice."
Lee Kimball's feisty Bible study group typifies the dramatic shifts that have taken place in U.S. Catholicism since the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965. The stereotype of the working-class ethnic Catholic is no more. Catholics today are having smaller families, earning higher incomes and becoming better educated than Protestants. And their attitudes toward their religion have changed along with their circumstances. Once regarded by Rome as among the most dutiful sons and daughters of the church, many American Catholics now believe they have a right to pick and choose the elements of their faith, ignoring teachings of the church they disagree with. Nonetheless, more than in most Western nations where dissent is widespread, American Catholics continue to be committed to the church, though increasingly on their own terms.
The independent ways of American Catholics present a challenge that the resolute John Paul is determined to meet. This does not mean that he will necessarily arrive with tongue lashing and finger wagging. As with his dramatic 1979 U.S. visit, John Paul's Sept. 10-19 journey will feature blessings and warm homilies to huge and friendly crowds (see following story). But this time he will rely far more on advice from American bishops, who conferred with him in Rome, and he is expected to avoid confrontational speeches. The trip, through the Sunbelt and California to Detroit, will acknowledge U.S. cultural pluralism and deal with a few political necessities as well.
In Miami, the day after arriving and being greeted by President Reagan, he will confer with national Jewish leaders. Jews were upset by the Pope's audience with Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, who has been accused of complicity in Nazi war crimes. John Paul attempted to mollify ill feelings with a letter expressing sorrow over the Holocaust, and will continue the fence mending at a Vatican meeting this week with Jewish officials. In Columbia, S.C., on Sept. 11, he will talk with an array of 27 leaders of non- Catholic churches, then join an ecumenical prayer service with 72,000 people. In Los Angeles, the Pope will greet representatives of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.