Thursday, January 28, 1999
Teacher pulls kids into pope
Her experience clarifies visit
BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SOUTHGATE — If Pope John Paul II were 15 and could dance and sing like 'N Sync, seventh-graders at St. Therese School would have no trouble connecting with the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Instead, the pontiff, 78, is seen as an elderly man to be respected; someone who is stiff on his feet and too far removed from the concerns of Northern Kentucky teens.
“What would your reaction be if the pope came down the hall at St. Therese?” teacher Jennifer Whitis asked her class.
Students sucked in their breaths and said they would act very properly.
“And if 'N Sync came down the hall?” Ms. Whitis asked. “What would you do then?”
The girls in the class said they would be blushing.
“If one of them gave me a hug, I'd be screaming,” Robyn Boeckman said. “I'd jump on them because they are a lot cuter. I wouldn't jump on the pope.”
That rock-star reaction — the beating heart, the wave of emotion — is exactly what happens when people get close to the pope, Ms. Whitis said. Her students were skeptical.
The pope targets his messages to youths, encouraging them to be the lights of the world, to carry the church's message into the new millen nium. But in the United States, papal visits do not stop a nation and commandeer media coverage. Students don't often receive the pope's message.
And, Ms. Whitis, said, they don't realize that this week's St. Louis trip will likely be the pontiff's last journey to the United States.
“I think they put the pope in a separate category. They know he is an elderly man, but because he is the pope, sometimes even realizing that he is a human is hard for them,” Ms. Whitis said. “He could be 36 and be the pope and they'd still be less comfortable.”
To prepare her students to watch the pope's Wednesday televised Mass, Ms. Whitis told them to focus on what he said about young people.
To encourage them to change their image of the pope, Ms. Whitis pulled out souvenirs from her 1993 trip to Denver, to see the pope at World Youth Day.
She dressed Adam House in the T-shirt and shorts she wore. She put her admission tag around his neck, complete with the cross a man from Spain gave her and buttons she swapped with people from other countries.
Then she pulled out the foam miter, commonly called “the pope hat,” and placed it on Adam's head.
“You weren't cool unless you got a pope hat,” Ms. Whitis said.
Laughing about the pope got students talking. Justin Geiger said he is impressed by the way the pope can relate to so many different people.
Other students said the pope spreads joy and peace and has influence over so many people in the world.
“Even though he's not healthy and stuff, he still makes a huge effort to go out and help people,” Brittany Wooton said.
Ms. Whitis passed around a souvenir magazine from the pope's 1993 visit, with a story about his life. She shared a language guide that people from 30 different countries used to speak to each other. And she showed the class her photo album, with pictures of the pope taken from just 20 feet away.
“He's not so untouchable,” Ms. Whitis said. “When you watch him around people your age, he seems like more of a grandpa.”
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