Reflections on Meeting the Pope

The theme of the Pope’s visit is “heart speaks unto heart”, a reminder in the midst of all the controversy about his visit that it is about connection. Lost in the debate about whether the Pope is a good thing or not, is the simple truth that it is often easier to access the soul through the heart than through the head. As Walter Benjamin said about speech, “It does not abolish the distance between human beings but brings that distance to life.”

It feels right to support this visit because of what it promises all of us, Catholics and non-Catholics, those with a religion and those with no religion. I want this Pope to be different and challenge us – that is his strength, and our opportunity.

His meeting with religious leaders is billed as “a celebration of faith and of cooperation between the religions.” For too many political and religious leaders, all that matters is finding common ground. What matters equally is accepting some differences and working through others. The 20^th century was a century of fighting for this or that “ism”, or finding some compromise that avoids tackling the difficult issues. The 21^st century should be about understanding the other- especially in what makes the other different from us. It must also be about rediscovering the fixed points which make humanity unique. We can only do this working with and through the other.

We are blessed as a human race in having different perspectives and different traditions. Through difference comes possibility. On this basis, as a Liberal Jew, I agree with the Pope on some issues, agree to differ on others, and want to work though some issues where we could yet agree. Faith leaders need to be strategic in their relationship to believers and non-believers, and distinguish between different layers of agreement and disagreement. I agree with the Pope on tackling climate change, reducing poverty and the dangers of moral relativism. I disagree with him on equality of women and gay rights. This is the basis of a meaningful cooperation – everything else puts off genuine engagement and meaningful collaboration.

When my father landed a job in Paris when I was five years old, my first education was not at just any French school, but a Jesuit one. I was a lapsed Catholic in my twenties and thirties. I explored a broad range of spiritual and religious literature, undoubtedly inspired by contact on my professional travels with people from different cultures and backgrounds. Over time, Jewish people and Jewish stories become a connecting thread, and in my early forties, Judaism became my fixed point around which I found and created meaning.

I kept an audit of what went into my decision to become a Jew. That journey made me reflect on how I make decisions. Depending on time pressures, I came to realise that for me at least, three ways of deciding usually reached the surface in different degrees: strength of intuition- gut instinct blended with experience and emotion; rational calculation -weighing up the pros and cons, benefits and costs; and finally, a sense of deep mystery- what Einstein alluded to when he said that at the cradle of true art and science lies a "mystery".

At the rabbinic board for my conversion, perhaps to the amusement or horror of some of the rabbis, I said that there was a connection between my Jesuit education and Liberal Judaism. The different ways to read the Torah resonated with me very early on - not just because this put a value on interpretation, but what I have long felt goes on beneath and beyond interpretation. It is what accounts for the autonomy of intention, when reason is exhausted and cannot provide any answer. None of us – the Pope, Hawking, Dawkins, even Lieutenant Columbo- has cracked that mystery.

With Judaism I found a faith that was inherently questing and questioning. It allowed me to seek out and celebrate a higher self, without losing sight of the whole self- the mineral, vegetable, animal, as well as the human, and something more than human. Dawkins and others are right to say that being human is enough- more than enough. But the beauty- and invariably the ugliness- of organised religion is that a collective and social space is preserved and nurtured where we can all explore a deeper mystery.

The Pope's visit reminds me that much as life is about variety and variation, there is something profoundly welcome about our civilisation being grounded in tradition and a renewed commitment to absolutes.