Wrangler Dani

I’m a cynic. I’m the one who asks the Devil Advocate questions, who snorts at simple answers, who absolutely rejects chain-letters and sappy news stories and nearly every hard-luck tale. (I’m not proud of this, by the way. Just being honest.)

So, I surprised myself when I cried this morning as they announced the new Pope at the Vatican. There are thousands of people packed into the courtyard, millions more all over the world, leaning into radios and TVs to watch the proceedings and listen as Pope Francis 1 makes his first blessing. Thousands of voices reciting “Our Father” and “Ave Maria” together.

There’s a lot of cynicism in my heart, and even more in the world. There are people making cracks about how the Catholic priests are just a bunch of child molesters, how religion doesn’t mean anything, how much the Catholic church gets wrong. I think it does get some things wrong, but it also does a lot right.

Papacy is a tradition that’s carried on for almost a thousand years. “Our Father” was given by Jesus two thousand years ago. I can’t be cynical about something that has stayed true for so long – I think about my grandmother, how she would have gotten teary-eyed too at this moment, how despite her toughness she was a softy for the Catholic church, for living her life in a way that honored God. I see the faces on the TV of people from all over the world, waving the flags of their country and crying out their gratitude to God for a new leader.

It’s really a beautiful thing. My cynicism is melting away in the face of this optimism and faith, and it feels good.