Baltimore's Archbishop Says Pope's Visit Could Help People "Take Another Look" At Catholic Church

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore Archbishop William Lori will greet Pope Francis when he arrives at Joint Base Andrews Tuesday afternoon.

Lori spoke with WJZ's Mary Bubala about the Pope's visit.

"It's really exciting. His first moments on the soil of the US. The president is going to be there. Bishops...just the chance to see the Pope begin his journey to the United States is really wonderful," Lori said.

Bubala: "What part of the Papal visit are you most excited for?"

Lori: "It's hard to say but I think there are three things that stand out. The one, the canonizing, we are praying for vocations. We want to be missionaries. This new saint shows us the way. Secondly, I think when he speaks to bishops, I don't think he'll just say, `Atta boy.' I think he'll have lots of things to say that will be very, very important. And then I think the world meeting---just having the Pope encourage family life. I've always heard and I believe if you get family life right, a lot of other things in the church and society are going to be a lot better."

Bubala: "By all accounts this Pope is a rockstar. People clamor to see him. How does that help the Catholic church on a local level?"

Lori: "First of all I think the pope is a rockstar. I think people love his simplicity, his authenticity, his directness and the fact that he's speaking to them and to their concerns. I think he does open people's minds and hearts. Maybe people who have written off the church, walked away from the faith or just let it slip -- this may give them a chance to say 'maybe I should take another look.' He has a very attractive way of presenting the faith and I think he will open the doors to evangelization."

Bubala: "What do you think the main message from the Pope for US Catholics that's different, perhaps, from Catholics in Cuba?"

Lori: "Well, first of all, I think part will be the same: spreading the gospel, missionary disciples, bringing the gospel to the margins. What he will address, here, I'm sure, is a couple of things. First, our responsibilities toward the poor as a capitalist country. He's not entirely comfortable with capitalism, to put too fine a point on it. And I think he will at least tell us to practice our system with great generosity. And we are a generous country. It's very important for the Holy Father to come and tell us that profit isn't everything. Secondly, I think he will certainly tell us as a church to open our hearts and our doors to the poor and again, we're doing this. But as you look around and as I look around, I recognize how huge, how tremendous the needs are---how many poor, how many vulnerable, their living environments. Popes have spoken before about the care for creation. He's the first one to write a whole encyclical line with that and to tell us to take care of our common home as a place for humans to flourish and then I think he will tell us for sure that we should cherish our freedoms, our religious freedom. That's a different situation in Cuba. That's a situation where a kind of secularism is eroding our freedom and I think he will tell us to keep our freedom strong and to do it in solidarity with people who have been persecuted and martyred, genocide in many places, especially in the Middle East."

Bubala: "This is also a Pope who is spontaneous. He likes to think of himself as a priest and a pastor. Do you think we will see moments where he breaks protocol?"

Lori: "Expect the unexpected. He will certainly go off script and he will certainly find a way to kind of upset the carefully laid plans that are in place and everyone will be delighted when he does it. I think that's one of the things everyone loves about him is that he is going to do that to be normal, natural---just to be himself. It's one of the things he said when he was elected Pope. He said to himself, `I just have to be who I am; otherwise, I'll make a fool of myself.' Imagine, the Pope saying that."

Bubala: "And he asked us to pray for him."

Lori: "Yes, he did. And what a beautiful thing. I'm always asking people to pray for me but I've never done it from the balcony at St. Peter's."

Bubala: "As we sit here in the birthplace of US Catholicism, the first Basilica in the US, it's too bad he's not coming here. Will you invite him, perhaps, next time?"

Lori: "Well, I did invite him this time and I thought to myself, `What a beautiful thing to have him come here to the Basilica, the first cathedral in the United States, the place where the American experiment of religious freedom really got its start in an organized way.' It would be great if he would come. And I was also thinking this: we also have a city, the city of Baltimore, that currently is in so much need. It would be wonderful to have an interfaith service right in the Basilica and just have the Pope pray for unity. It could reach out to Ferguson, Charleston, so many places in the country where there are divisions that have surfaced and where the effects of long-term structural problems have really manifested themselves. So I hope he comes back and next time in Baltimore."

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