Pope Benedict XVI has good reason to like the Church in America. From its parishes to its elementary and secondary schools and universities to the charitable outreach of Catholic hospitals to social services and shelters, the Church is alive with the faith and in service to it.

At a time when America itself is yearning for a return to first principles based upon the truth and dignity of the human person, the Catholic Church in America, through its ecclesiastical and lay leadership, more often than not is supplying pivotal direction for the country as a whole.

Among the Catholic people, the pontiff will find openness, warmth and a common touch. Any candor Pope Benedict finds about the ugliness of the sex abuse scandal among a small percentage of clergy will be exceeded by a spirit of forgiveness that has left liturgical commitment and parish community undiminished.

U.S. Catholics of every political persuasion sit side by side, united by creed and the magisterial and encyclical teaching of the Church. There is healthy debate about the best means to reduce the incidence of abortion and avoid the manipulations of cloning and embryonic stem-cell research.

Source of Pride

Understandably, American Catholic education at every level is a source of pride and attention for the pope’s visit. Achievements at Catholic elementary schools often outdistance far better-financed public institutions.

And Catholic high schools continue to inspire the confidence of parents looking for an education of the whole person, including the formation of conscience and the inspiration to develop virtuous habits.

It was not at all surprising that Pope Benedict XVI chose The Catholic University of America in Washington to be the locus of his meetings with the American bishops and with the leaders of U.S. Catholic universities.

Catholic University is by formal designation the national university of the Catholic Church in America. But it’s more than the charter that makes the pope’s school in America a fine one.

Catholic University president Vincentian Father David O’Connell is a scholar president not afraid to take orthodox positions even inside the Beltway where standing up for traditional values is not always applauded.

International Scholars

He has staffed the ranks of the major schools and departments with Catholic intellectuals whose reputations are often international in scope. For example, Dominican Father Kurt Pritzl crosses the street each day from the Dominican House to guide the highly accomplished school of philosophy that is well-grounded in the tradition of the natural law.

Father O’Connell has been so effective at recruiting that he even snatched personnel from the Vatican itself. Perhaps out of a gesture of reciprocity, Father O’Connell recently allowed Monsignor Brian Ferme to return to Italy to be president of the Institute for Canon Law following his service as dean of Catholic University’s canon law school.

In coming to America, the pope has been able to see past the media caricature of the United States that is sometimes the result of European misunderstanding, but is often a reflection of the exaggerations found in our own exported entertainment products.

It is said that the pope sees in America a possible model for his efforts at countering the forces of secularism in Europe. Unlike the charters of the European Union which exclude all reference to the divine, America’s beginnings proclaim the self-evident truth of a creator and a constitutional commitment to religious freedom.

Coerced religious establishment in Europe has meant empty churches. Religious freedom in the United States has filled the pews, and this is true even when the pope isn’t looking in on us.