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Pope fever at a pitch

By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 12, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Father Pawel Zborowski poses for a photograph Friday at the Church of the Risen Christ in Denver, where he is a priest. He plans to travel to Washington, D.C., next week for Pope Benedict's visit. Zborowski grew up in Poland and became a priest under John Paul II.

Photo by Preston Gannaway / The Rocky

Father Pawel Zborowski poses for a photograph Friday at the Church of the Risen Christ in Denver, where he is a priest. He plans to travel to Washington, D.C., next week for Pope Benedict's visit. Zborowski grew up in Poland and became a priest under John Paul II.

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Dora Collins' husband likes to joke that she was just a kid the last time she saw a pope.

Well, she was 31, anyway.

"Yeah, she got to go in '93 because she was a youth," Kevin Collins teases his wife, who is now 45.

Birthdays come and go, but pope fever is proving to be as durable as ever. Next week, 251 Coloradans across the state will head to New York or Washington, D.C., to see Pope Benedict XVI make his first visit to the U.S. (He previously came to this country when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.)

Among the pilgrims are veteran pope-goers such as Dora Collins. She joined throngs of other believers at Denver's World Youth Day in 1993 (where the cutoff age for "youth" was 39). The draw was the charismatic Pope John Paul II, often likened to a rock star in the way he drew the younger generation to their faith.

"John Paul planted a lot of seeds here," Collins said. "The youth are on fire. They are the seeds that he planted."

Collins is escorting one of a number of parish teen groups going to see Benedict. Others headed to the East Coast run the gamut of what the Catholic Church looks like today, youth, converts and foreign-born clergy. Among the pilgrims:

* Amanda Hicks, 17, chose to skip her prom to see the pope.

* Gary Kim, 58, a business journalist, and self-described '60s left-wing radical, drawn to Benedict the theologian.

* Father Pawel Zborowski, 30, a native of Poland who grew up not far from the home of John Paul II.

He loves Benedict, too: "The pope is coming. I have to go see him!" Zborowski said. "It's in my blood. I have to participate."

Bounty of tickets

Church officials in Washington and New York were in charge of dispensing tickets to dioceses for the pope's official public events.

All told, Coloradans received a harvest of tickets, compared with other dioceses, according to Rocco Palmo, a Philadelphia-based Vatican observer and journalist.

The Archdiocese of Denver got 225 tickets to distribute to clergy and laity. The remainder of the 251 went to Colorado Springs, with the exception of one for the Pueblo diocese, for the bishop.

Why Denver's ticket bounty? Palmo points to the good will generated by World Youth Day 15 years ago, run by then-archbishop, J. Francis Stafford, now a cardinal and a high Vatican official: "It's considered the most wildly successful World Youth Day, ever," Palmo said. "It showed what a papal visit could be."

Fast forward to today. This pope has proved a surprisingly huge draw, too. John Paul may have been the charisma-packed pontiff, but Benedict has carved out his own persona. As John Allen, a veteran Vatican-based reporter put it recently, "If John Paul weren't a pope, he would have been a movie star; if Benedict weren't a pope, he would have been a university professor."

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the present pope was perceived as the stern theologian who kept the church in line - the "bad cop" to John Paul's "good cop."

Bishop Michael Sheridan, of Colorado Springs, recalled his first meeting in Rome, during which even his own perceptions changed.

"I expected to be whisked away in 10, 15 seconds, but he just stood there - 'Oh, you're from Colorado!' - and talked to me," Sheridan said. "(His)image has just been proven to be so wrong; he's a man of warmth and friendliness."

Next week is exciting - even for a bishop, Sheridan said: "I don't meet popes all day long."

Words ring true

Benedict is expected to speak about the clergy sexual-abuse scandal and how to be Catholic in a world hostile to religion, among other topics.

Some of those drawn to the pope are converts or those who left the faith, only to return.

Dora Collins returned to Catholicism at age 25.

"Like many teenagers, I got into the world, and after a few years I realized God is right," she said. "That was the beginning of saying, 'OK, Lord, I want to walk with you.' "

Gary Kim became a Catholic because of Benedict's theology: "He is so clear and philosophically sound."

Kim was raised in a nominally Protestant home, embraced atheism as a teen and entered college in the 1960s, as a "long-haired political activist" with the writings of Mao under his arm.

Many years and several religions later, Kim found the writings of Cardinal Ratzinger.Kim especially was struck by the future Pope Benedict as a fellow "60s liberal" who had become horrified by the effects of radicalism, "when the whole world went crazy."

"I was one of those people he writes about," Kim said. "He already knew that was a dead end by 1968."

Kim will be in Yankee Stadium to see a pope who understands his journey.

"Listen, I'm not expecting stars to fall from the sky," he said. "I just know this man addresses the really hard moral issues we live with in North America in the 21st Century. And I know he's right."

Hungry for hope

At age 30, "Father Pawel" (pronounced Pah'-vel) never has known another pope but John Paul, his fellow countryman. The Denver-based priest, who serves at Church of the Risen Christ, is making a solitary pilgrimage to Washington to concelebrate Mass with Benedict and hundreds of other clergy members.

"I have a ticket!" said the ebullient priest, waving a coupon bearing the pope's insignia. Given the history of German persecution, "People ask me, as a Pole, how do you accept a German pope?" Zborowski said. He said he sees Benedict as a fulfillment of John Paul's theme: "Be not afraid."

"We are looking for direction on how to live," Zborowski said. "The holy father's theme is, 'Christ is our hope.' I am hungry for the message of hope."

For Amanda Hicks' generation, hope comes with being 17. She wanted to go to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, this year, but cost and timing proved tough. Instead, she's giving up a rite of passage to see the pope in New York.

"People have asked me if I'm going to prom - 'Me, at prom? No, I'm going to see the pope,' " Hicks laughed. "Initially they took it as a joke - 'No, really, I am going to see the pope! It's just a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Hicks recalls listening to a TV with her classmates in the school cafeteria when Benedict was named pope - she even remembers the announcement, as it was made in Latin: "Habemus Papam - We have a pope."

"I'm so blessed to have this opportunity, I can't imagine passing it up," she said. "And there's always prom next year."

torkelsonj@RockyMountainNews.com 303-954-5055

Who's going to see the pope

In Denver:

* 60 seminarians

* 8 priests

* 1 archbishop

* 156 lay people

In Colorado Springs:

* 1 bishop

* 1 vicar general

* 23 lay people

In Pueblo:

* 1 bishop

Comments

  • April 12, 2008

    7:08 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    vudumom writes:

    Here is what ticks me off about the Pope coming to visit. He comes here and has the nerve to criticize the U.S. about the war, not doing enough for impoverished people, not properly taking care of God's children, blah, blah, blah,. Then he sits high on his throne in Rome with the vast amount of wealth that the church has telling everyone else they should do more to end poverty and other social ills that really are out of our hands. Just him visiting here is going to cost us millions of dollars for security and police.
    I wonder if we could send a bill to the Vatican? What is he really going to say about the clergy abusing children for decades? I'm sorry? After all the denial coming out of the Vatican? Please, give me a break.
    For me there are a few things in life that are unforgiveable and sexual abuse is one of them ,especially by a person who lives by the bible and their faith in religion.
    What the Catholic Church has done to children for decades was a vast conspiracy and cover-up. Anyone who is still in the Catholic Church after what it and it's clergy did to children is condoning the systematic sexual and physical abuse of the whole Catholic Church on children. How could anyone forgive that?

  • April 12, 2008

    4:41 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    LOUIE writes:

    "Pope Fever at a Pitch", well while pope's here let's all relax on the pitchin'. The pope will most likely do most of the pitchin' anyway. I wonder what his biggest pitch is? Well, lets hope he's a good pitcher...

  • April 13, 2008

    10:19 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    infidel91 writes:

    Can anybody name three major points of disagreement between catholicism and european socialism?

  • April 13, 2008

    10:26 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jconder45 writes:

    infidel-
    1. The existence of God
    2. The legitimacy of private property
    3. The morality of abortion and artificial birth control
    Any other questions?