What the Church Needs in the Next Pope

Shortly after Pope John Paul II died in 2005, I received a note from a rabbi. He asked, in a friendly way, why Catholics seemed to spend so much time worrying over matters of doctrine, and why the Vatican had an entire office designed, in his words, to “police Catholic thought.” We had a fruitful exchange that underlined an essential difference between our faiths. The defining qualities of being “Jewish” and “Catholic” differ. Catholics come from different language groups, ethnicities and cultures. We have no uniquely Catholic homeland or common bloodline. None of these things serve, or was intended to serve, as a ground for unity.