A Methodist's view on the new pope

By Jeff Orvis

The news was swift and exciting from Vatican City this afternoon with the announcement that the cardinals had chosen a new pope, Francis, to lead the 1.2 billion member Roman Catholic Church.

This is one Methodist who wishes him well and congratulates my friends and relatives who now have someone to lead their church. And congratulations to the cardinals who acted swiftly to find a new leader. In the church's long history, there was a time when it took three years to find a new pope. This time, it took less than two days!

While I don't understand a lot of the pomp and ceremony that we have witnessed the past few days, nor do I agree with some of the teachings of the church, it is still wonderful to see the thousands of people who flocked to Rome for the announcement. To me, it shows that in this era where religion is sometimes an afterthought, a Christian denomination represents over 1 billion people around the world.

The Catholic Church has had some well-documented problems. But what is not reported are the millions of weddings, first communions and funerals that the church conducts each week. Millions of children receive a wonderful education every day in parochial schools. Millions of people find refuge in Catholic churches, some in some of the toughest parts of cities.

To know that this work is done despite the obvious incredible expense associated with the formalities we witnessed this week is probably nothing short of a miracle. As a delegate from my former church, I attended several annual conferences of the United Methodist Church in Ames. We had some very impressive worship services during those extended weekends. But Hilton Coliseum is a long way from Vatican City and we sure didn't have 115 red-cloaked cardinals in attendance.

But we got our business done and were truly inspired by the worship and fellowship.

Putting aside the differences on such things as abortion and same-sex marriage for a moment, the one change I would hope the Catholics might make sooner rather than later would be allowing women in the priesthood. I grew up in another Protestant denomination that still does not allow female clergy. But when I joined the Methodist church, I quickly grew to respect several women who were pastors. To my mind, women are quite capable of being spiritual leaders and in some ways, they are probably better.

I would also like to see the Catholics allow their priests to marry. Being the brother of a woman whose husband is a Lutheran pastor, I know that pastor's wives (or husbands) can be a vital part of the ministry.

One of the big changes we witnessed these past few weeks was the apparent voluntary retirement of Pope Benedict. It marked the first time in some 600 years that a pope walked out of his apartment for the last time into retirement instead of being carried out to his final resting place. I hope this is a precedent that will continue and if the time comes that God tells Pope Francis that he can no longer effectively lead the church, he will feel free to follow Benedict into a peaceful and honorable retirement.

So congratulations to Pope Francis. May he lead his church out of its current problems to more stability and success in the new century.