Questions for the pope

Pope Benedict XVI will arrive at Andrews Air Force Base to be greeted by President Bush and a host of church dignitaries. His visit has already begun with some statements to the press on the plane.

From what he said to reporters and other writings, this pope is not afraid to address hard issues. According to the New York Times story, the Vatican chose the questions the pontiff answered on the plane and it was issues of pedophilia and immigration. He did not mince words when talking about the scandal: "Who is guilty of pedophilia cannot be a priest,” he said.

I'm also currently listening to his book Jesus of Nazareth, and I saw the same trend. In his exegesis of The Lord's Prayer, Benedict acknowledges that the beginning of the prayer "Our Father" is hard for those who have not had a good example of father. As well, he asks the question "what about God as mother?" It's clear this is a man so confident and rooted in his theology that he sees the answers to these difficult questions.

As he meets with members of other religions and denominations and address the youth at a seminary, difficult questions will be a consistent theme through his visit. In his blog yesterday, Gary Stern of the Gannett suburban papers had some great questions. What questions would you have for the pope?

Tainted memories

I fell in love with Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs because of its purity. For a college student, it was the greatest place to be on spring afternoon.

Wrigley has no parking so everyone takes the El to Wrigleyville and the closer you get to the stop, more royal blue jerseys and caps appear on the train. Walking past the bars, souvenir shops and scalpers, you come to the stadium with its big electronic marquis. It feels like everyone is welcome here -- even though tickets are starting to price some folks out.

Inside, the smell of Chicago-style hot dogs, popcorn and beer fill the air - few gourmet treats here. In the outfield is the old fashioned score board. If you look, you can see the guy that changes the numbers sitting in the hole for the 10th inning. Noticeably absent are the advertisements. They aren't on the scoreboard and no one's figured out how to grow a brand name in ivy so the outfield wall is empty. There's only the Budweiser roof across the street, but that's so quirky it becomes part of the charm. The whole atmosphere was just about baseball.

But apparently, according to today's Mitchell report nine former Cubs were among the steroid users in what some are calling baseball's greatest scandal. In church terms, scandal usually means the acts of one or a few people that discredits the entire institution. It's an apt word here. Somehow Wrigley doesn't seem so pure anymore. The ivy seems a little brown and the beer a little warm.

With that scandal comes our own series of moral questions. What were we seeing? Great athletes? Guys so worried about their stats and performance that they use drugs to supplement their game? Or worse, men trying to take a shortcut instead of actually working out? The fact that most of the guys on the list weren't great stars seems to say the drug route was apparently a waste of time.

Then I wonder how much are we as fans somehow complicit? Do we expect athletes to be like gods - always perfect? Do we put that much importance on sports that they feel compelled to cheat? And do we accept the cheating as part of doing business?

National tragedy with local ties

The story of the shootings in two Colorado religious organizations continues to baffle me. None of the mass shootings make sense, but at churches and so far apart?

And more interesting, the pastor of New Life Church, where the gunman was eventually killed was from Northwest Louisiana. The Rev. Brady Boyd grew up in Logansport in the Assembly of God church and went to Louisiana Tech. According to his biography, He was saved at a church in Jonesboro and started his ministry at First Assembly of God in Shreveport (now Shreveport Community Church) in the early 1990s. He started out volunteering in the inner city, ministering to a specific neighborhood. As well, he took a job at Evangel Christian Academy, teaching English, coaching basketball and track, and pastoring students.

Several moves later, he took over for Ted Haggard, who resigned amid scandal. That situation already required some support from home for Boyd and his family, but now I'm sure they need even more prayers. As well, the church has links from its website to a place to donate funds to the affected families.