Bishop Expects Pope to Challenge Political Leaders

Bishop Wenski said he expects the Pope to "challenge the world's political leaders as well."

ORLANDO, Florida (Zenit) - When Shepherd One lands at Andrew's Air Force Base a week from today, Benedict XVI will disembark with a message to strengthen the faith, hope and love of U.S. Catholics, said one of the nation's bishops.

Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy, said this in a column in today's Orlando Sentinel, affirming that the primary purpose of the Pope's visit is pastoral.

"While he will only stop in Washington, D.C., and New York City, Catholics throughout the United States will welcome his visit," the bishop wrote. "We sense that he has something to say to us."

"He is not just another player in a global game of power politics," Bishop Wenski continued. "He is not a politician but the Bishop of Rome and the universal pastor of the Catholic Church. This is not to say that he does not have his pulse on the world. [...]

Benedict XVI will address the U.N. as a religious leader, a moral leader -- but a uniquely informed one. And just as he will have something to say to Catholics, he will have something to say to the U.N. and the world."

Bishop Wenski said he expects the Pope to "challenge the world's political leaders as well."

"Much of the turbulence in world politics today stems from the detachment of faith from reason and the loss of faith in reason," the prelate contended.

"Like John Paul II before him, he will draw upon his faith to defend reason. In doing so, this Pope who began his career as a professor, will no doubt reintroduce world leaders to the universal moral law.

"This law written on the human heart and therefore knowable to human reason constitutes that 'grammar' of dialogue necessary for men and nations to build together a future of hope."