Universality of Church apparent at synod

BY ARCHBISHOP CHARLES CHAPUT

Rome in the 1990s is a long way from the drama of St. Peter's first century ministry. The only persecution today is the city's traffic. The weather is cool and rainy. Winter tourists are few. The massive face of the basilica is partly covered by scaffolding, a sign of the ongoing preparations for A.D. 2000 and the Great Jubilee. Under the gray skies and inside the Vatican's walls, the work of administering Christ's Church goes on as it has for centuries, with a logic and a rhythm Americans -- including some bishops -- often find mystifying.

But finally the machinery works, and the reason is Peter, the rock on which Jesus built His community of faith, and through which He changed the world. Across the Tiber, the imperial forum is now just an interesting archaeological site of dead stones. But Peter, the man the Caesars murdered, is still alive here -- alive in the memory of the bones beneath the basilica, and alive and very vividly present in the apartments high above St. Peter's Square.

Again and again over the past two weeks, as I've crossed St. Peter's Square at night, I've seen the lights in the Holy Father's rooms still burning. They're always among the last to go dark. Even as he ages, John Paul II seems tireless and amazingly focused in his work. It is certainly Peter who sits among his brothers every day at every session of the current Special Assembly for America. And it is Peter who anchors our meeting by his witness of fidelity to the truth. The health of John Paul II may be a favorite topic of speculation in the secular press -- but the pope of this synod is as effective as ever. I know: I've watched his attention and engagement in the proceedings every day, and at a lunch other bishops and I shared with him this past week.

For those of us taking part, the special assembly has been a time to learn. On the one hand, the synod is purely consultative. The Holy Father can act with or without the assembly's advice. Everyone gets a chance to speak, and among the many scores of interventions, some are outstanding, others repetitive. Some themes emerge; others disappear. The attention required of participants, after a long day of presentations, can be demanding.

But in hearing one another's concerns, each of us is being educated in the wider life of the Church outside the boundaries of our own dioceses and nations.

Bishops begin to listen to each other, form friendships across languages and distances, and informally discuss issues. What develops is a better understanding of the pastoral terrain we all share as we approach the new millennium. In that sense, the pope very wisely uses the synod not only to inform his own reflection, but to prepare all of us, bishops included, for the Great Jubilee.

I miss Colorado very much. But being a "stranger in a strange land" on Thanksgiving Day was a special kind of gift: It made me even more grateful for my family of faith back home, and eager for the time when I'm with you again. I have prayed for all of you every day. I know you've remembered me in yours prayers too, because they have kept my spirits strong and focused me on the lessons I will bring back to share with you.

One of those lessons is that our faith, like Jesus Himself, is the same yesterday, today and forever. And the guardian of that unity through time and across cultures is Peter. That's why we revere and follow the Holy Father, not because he is a king or a CEO, but because he is Peter today, the man who Christ Himself chose to lead us in His name, for the sake of our own salvation and the salvation of the world.

If you were to drop a plumb line from the top of the dome on St. Peter's Basilica, through the main altar far below, through the more ancient altars beneath it, and into the ruins below the great church, it would fall directly into the small first century shrine which houses, historians believe, the bones of the first pope.

This is no accident. The architect, Michelangelo, designed it that way for a purpose. He wanted to make Christ's words literally come alive: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." Peter is the rock. So he remains today.

Editor's note: This week's column was delivered from Rome via e-mail.