Catholic schools in Hawaii suspended lesson plans and used the past month of historical and dramatic events in Rome as a teaching opportunity.
With 21st century fixation on immediate information, the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and the selection of his successor reached the level of breaking news around the world for the past month.
What a fantastic boon for teachers striving to make history come to life, and to instill a spark of interest in a tedious, secretive process that takes awfully long to hold the attention of the instant info generation.
“It’s a perfect teaching moment,” said Christian Brother Peter Zawot, principal of Damien Memorial School. “Because it’s something happening here in front of us, we’re covering it across the board, in religion class, in history. Normally, selection of the pope would come up in sophomore church history class.”
Brother Zawot said Damien teachers urged students to read newspapers and watch television news as the story unfolded.
“There was a lot of interest in the fact that any Catholic male is eligible to be pope,” he said. “They ask questions like ‘will it be an American?’ and ‘How will a new pope change things?’
“As part of American culture and our understanding of an election, they have a lot of questions about the differences. They are learning that the Catholic Church is not run as a democracy,” Brother Zawot said. “Just listening to the kids’ questions is an experience for the teachers, part of their own lifelong learning experience.”
Sister Barbara Jean Wajda, a Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, had her students at St. Francis School following through on the news reports, doing research on the bishops who were mentioned as papal prospects.
Mock conclaves were held in the four sections of freshman religion class, with youngsters going through the steps of the secret balloting process cardinals would follow. Not surprising, since class is only an hour long, once the students learned that a pope can be picked by acclamation, they decided to shortcut the voting process and do just that. Since they recently had the experience of a Bagels with the Bishop gathering with Bishop Larry Silva, guess who their unanimous choice was.
No surprisingly at St. Francis, now coed but with an abundance of girls in the student body, one of the pressing questions from students was “Why can’t a woman be a pope?” “How come only the cardinals can vote?” was another.
Sister Joan of Arc Souza, St. Francis principal, said it was a “real teachable moment” applied in other classes as well.
At St. Louis School, juniors and seniors in religion classes were assigned to use the Hawaii Catholic Herald and other sources to study the historical event starting with a pope resigning from the office for the first time in 600 years.
Principal Pat Hamamoto said students watched a video on how the conclave of cardinals works, an informational film, more accurate but doubtlessly way less interesting than the nightly news versions full of speculation on bloc voting and intrigue about Vatican insiders versus out-of-towner cardinals.
The subject of picking a pope was taught across the various grade levels at Maryknoll School, from second-graders looking at the papal garments and heraldic symbols, such as the keys of St. Peter, to seventh graders studying the conclave process, said marketing director Loryn Guiffre.
Linked to the process by prayer
Every school and every parish has prayed for the cardinals as they fulfill the centuries old responsibility to keep the church on course.
At Damien, “we ask the Holy Spirit to give guidance to the cardinals in their selection,” Brother Zawot said.
At St. Francis, they prayed that “the person God truly wants to be elected” is chosen as the church leaders sort through their all-to-human inclinations and politics.
Several parishes picked up a prayer disseminated by the national Knights of Columbus written by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore. It goes, in part: “Grant, Lord Jesus, in Your boundless love for us, a new Pope for Your Church who will please You by his holiness and lead us faithfully to You, who are the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
More than our nightly news dose of talking heads sharing speculation, sound bites, factoids and pure blather on the subject, our prayers are a link to the conclave.
“It gives people a sense that we’re part of the bigger church,” said Sacred Hearts Father Richard McNally, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Wahiawa. Father McNally returned to parish work this year after several years on assignment at the Vatican as vicar general of the international Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
“Who’s going to be pope?” is a question any priest and a whole lot of grass roots Catholics have been asked in the past month. Father McNally has fielded the questions, especially when someone learns where he’s been.
“I wouldn’t know any more if I were living in Rome than I do living here,” he said. “A lot of the interpretation is from a political perspective … and it can be so far off the beam,” he said. “The cardinals do read the newspapers and see what the electronic media has. Depending on where it came from, they would take it with a grain of salt. They would be interested in how the church is being perceived. But they aren’t influenced by a poll.”
More than the breaking news, it’s the centuries-long history of the church that has weight in the proceedings, Father McNally said. In medieval times “governments had veto power over the selection of pope. It’s only about 130 years ago that the church got freed from outside influences. They’re not going to let that happen again.”
It’s been a “teaching moment” for an adult Catholic, too. With the experience of a Catholic education, even though the details have faded, you have a sense that we’ve come a long way from the shenanigans of the distant past. All you needed to refresh the memory was the passing reference in news stories to the last time in history when a pope resigned.
Pope Gregory XII stepped down in 1417, putting an end to a 100-plus-year turmoil when there were two simultaneous popes, one ruling from Avignon, France. The Avignon fellow, Pope Benedict XIII was excommunicated as a church council of disgusted bishops finally ended the Western Schism. The French king, the head of the Holy Roman Empire, princes from Italian city states, all manner of political thugs played puppetmaster with popes in those days.
A historical footnote: the new pope in 1417, Martin V, was elected by unanimous vote. Per church history, he managed to strengthen the political power and financial status of his relatives in southern Italy during his 14 years.
Oh my, that’s more like R-rated viewing than the breaking news we’ve been experiencing. Maybe it’s just as well that the class assignments were directed to present and future times, not dwelling in the past.
