A Mormon In The Vatican

In Rome, you behold the stark confluence of Classical and Christian influences that form Catholicism--the Roman Pantheon is now a basilica that you can't enter during mass; Trajan's Column is now crowned with a bronze statue of St. Peter; a renaissance Pope dedicated the Colosseum to the early Christian martyrs.  And smack dab in the heart of the liberal Roman Empire that only ever banned 2 religions (Druidism and Christianity), stands the Vatican.

Before proceeding, I want to be clear that I'm not interested in another round of Catholic bashing--when I was a young Mormon missionary in Puerto Rico, the Catholics were hands down the nicest, coolest people I met (seriously, screw evangelicals).  The McConkie-influenced anti-Catholicism in modern Mormonism is frankly bizarre, given that 1) Joseph Smith himself declared the "old Catholic Church is worth more than all" and deserves our respect (and as the LDS Church continues to grow faster in Catholic Latin-America than in Protestant North America, it behooves us to both respect and understand where our biggest converts are coming from); and 2) despite our treating the Reformation as a forerunner to the Restoration, we have rejected all of Protestantisms biggest claims, including the idea of salvation by faith alone. In terms of Priesthood keys and sacred places, Mormons and Catholics speak the same language; and there is no place more sacred to Catholics than the Vatican.

Which is huge.  The place itself I mean.  My mind shorted out at least 3 separate times there, including inside the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica, because there was simply too much detail and grandeur to process.  (The crowds were especially thick when I visited, but that's probably just because every Catholic and their Mom is trying to see the new Pope right now.)

Look, I know the place was built up in part on abhorrent practices like the selling of indulgences, but holy crap is the Vatican gorgeous.  (And really, if ordinary Catholics made great sacrifices to help build the Vatican, then the place is as sacred to them as LDS Temples are to us--and Catholics, give 'em credit, unlike us, do let non-Catholics into their most sacred places). Besides, lambasting a litany of Papal abuses and Catholic corruption is a strictly Protestant game--have you ever read Boccaccio's Decameron or Dante's Inferno, with its teaming mass of adulterous monks and Popes in hell?  Even the medieval Italians knew that Popes were corrupt!  (And they're the ones with "Papal infallibility," not us!)  Tell Catholics about their Church's sins and they'll just shrug their shoulders and say, "Yeah, we know."  For them, the Church is true, even when its leaders aren't. 

Quite frankly, as the modern LDS Church comes to grapple with its own, shall we say, more "colorful" history (see such recent books as Rough Stone Rolling and David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism), perhaps a healthy dose of Catholic "The-Church-is-true-even-when-the-people-aren't" is just what the doctor ordered.  The Lord uses flawed men to do his work, and allows us to make mistakes; repentance, not perfection, is the requirement for salvation.  "I never told you I was perfect," said Joseph Smith, and neither did the Catholic Church.

To be clear, I'm not excusing, say, the Inquisition, or drawing some false-equivalency between the Pope and Thomas S. Monson; I'm simply trying to live Matthew 7:1-5, as I'm sure both gentlemen would approve of.  Anyways, back to the Vatican: I've never seen as many Nuns and Priests in my life combined as I saw in just 3 days in Rome--or as many dead Pope's as I saw in St. Peter's, the newer ones sepulchered Vladimir-Lennin-style, the older ones actually being bones in a glass case.

I also saw the living Pope, Francesco himself!  (I just can't bring myself to call him "Francis," it just sounds so less epic in English).  Every Sunday and Wednesday (barring trips abroad or whatevs), the Pope holds a short morning mass in St. Peter's Square.  The tickets are free, but you do need tickets, since the Square fills up to capacity 7,000-strong each time (and we Mormons feel impressive when we can fill up the General Conference center just twice a year!).  Show up at least 2 hours in advance if you want to go.

I certainly did.  And let me tell you, Pope Francesco is a rock star: upon his arrival, he weaves through the crowd on his little Pope-mobile, followed by camera, shaking hands and kissing babies.  (Literally.  I'd always assumed kissing-babies was just a general metaphor for glad-handing politicians or something, but no, he was actually picking up babies and kissing them for the camera!).  The crowd rises to its feet and applauds loudly, breaking spontaneously into chants of "FRAN-CES-CO!  FRAN-CES-CO!"

(Contrast that to the respectful silence and dignified rise to the feet that occurs when the Mormon Prophet enters the room; not saying that that should change, but I can't help but imagine what General Conference would be like if the 25,000-strong crowd suddenly broke into loud applause with chants of "MON-SON! MON-SON!" as he ran through the crowd smiling and high-fiving everyone.  It's part of my same fantasy of Mormon fast and testimony meetings turning into Southern Baptist call and response shout-outs; "I knooooow Joseph Smith was a Prophet o' da Lawd!" "Preach it, brutha!").

Half-hour before the Pope makes his appearance, a series of Cardinals stand up and recognize, in their native languages, the various groups of Pilgrims who've showed up that morning; e.g. an Italian-speaking Cardinal calls out the Italian groups, who in turn shout back and wave their flags; then a Francophone Cardinal calls out the French-speaking groups, and so on.  (We were seated near an Italian Boy Scout troop that totally cheered and waved when recognized; I was going to make a joke about what the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts have in common, but then I felt bad).  Have you noticed that all the party-countries are Catholic countries?  That fiesta-atmosphere was totally on display that morning at St. Peters.

I'll admit, I totally shouted out when the Anglophone-Cardinal recognized the English-language "pilgrims."  One day I'd like to organize a local LDS ward to visit the Pope's weekly address, just to hear the Mormons get called out in the Vatican. 

(And can I also just say how fetching those Cardinal outfits are, pagan-Roman-origins not withstanding?  Actually, I'll just say how well-dressed Italians are in general--I've never seen classier looking cops than the ones I saw in Rome!)

The Pope then gave his actual address in Italian, which lasted all of about 5 minutes--this particular one was on St. Joseph and the importance of work and of battling unemployment in a just and humane manner and other such harmless generalities (hey, when gotta you give 100+ sermons a year, you can't hit 'em all outta the park).

Then, the aforementioned Cardinals stood up again, one at a time, and each recited the Pope's sermon in the representative languages of Catholicism: French, German, Portuguese, English, Polish, and Arabic (!)--all save for Spanish, which this Argentine Pope chose to recite for himself, to wild cheers from the Latinos in the audience.  He finished with a set prayer and blessing, and then the whole place erupted into applause.

Of course, for most the folks in attendance, what was most exciting wasn't what the Pope spoke about, but rather that he spoke at all.  And that got me thinking about Mormonism's own relationship with the Prophet; we're often taught in Sunday School how embarrassing it would be for us to brag of having a Prophet and then be asked what he's said and not knowing (as though we couldn't just say "Prayer and how pornography is bad" and not be in the ball-park).  And that sentiment's completely true: the content of the Prophet's words is more important than his existence.

But I'm not so ready to dismiss the importance of just his existence; I read a Dialogue article recently, about the Church's relationship with the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon.  Said article outlined how in the early LDS Church, what was most marvelous about the Book of Mormon, what most animated the missionaries and excited the converts, wasn't what it said, but just that it existed--the Heavens were open again!  God speaks to man again!  What exactly was He saying to us?  At the time, it was just marvelous that He spoke at all!  And I wonder sometimes if we don't appreciate that gift enough, or with a sufficient amount of awe.

The Pope of the Catholic Church does not claim to be a Prophet; they're at least honest in that.  But what the Catholics stand in awe of, what they consider to be their pearl beyond price, is that there is in fact a man on Earth who holds the same keys to the kingdom of heaven that Christ Jesus bestowed upon the Apostle Peter.  Where the Mormons and the Catholics will always have to part ways is on whether those Keys continued uninterrupted from Peter to Pope Francesco, or if they were lost and restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr.  But perhaps what we can learn from the Catholics is the thrill, the happiness, the sheer joie de vivre, to know for sure that someone holds those keys at all.