The story was first reported by Robert Moynihan at Inside the Vatican; subsequently, ABC News interviewed Ms. Davis.

Confirming the meeting, but offering no further details, the Vatican spokesperson, Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., said "I do not deny that the meeting took place, but I have no other comments to add."

A few things to bear in mind:

1. Pope Francis met with many individuals during his visits in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia, at various locations and events.
2. Such meetings are arranged in several ways.
3. It's hard to know how much the Pope Francis knew about each individual who was introduced to him during his long trip to the United States.
4. His words to her, "Be strong," and his gift of a rosary seem to be the kind of thing the pope might do for anyone presented to him.
5. For those wondering what all of this means, it's probably best not to interpret a meeting that the Vatican will not speak about, and also to be careful about swallowing wholesale the interpretation of those who would use this meeting to support their own agenda.
6. It's ill advised to use a private visit with the pope to make political point.
7. Most of all, despite what Ms. Davis said, a meeting with the pope does not "kind of validate everything"; Pope Francis also met Mark Wahlberg, and that does not mean that he liked "Ted." Continue reading

Kim Davis is the county clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky who gained national media attention after defying a federal court order requiring that she issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

Sources

• James Martin, is a Jesuit priest, contributing editor to America magazine and author of several books.
• Image: Inside Loyola

But those aren't the only differences between Pope John Paul II's historic 1979 visit and Pope Francis' virgin trip to the US this week.

Pope Francis will find a church that is markedly different in a number of significant ways; so different, in fact, that it calls into question whether we can still refer to the Catholic Church in the US.

When JPII made his first visit US, he found a church that was in transition but largely intact.

Some 40 percent of Catholics went to mass in any given week and there were nearly 60,000 Catholic priests and 135,000 nuns, with the nation's 18,800 parishes boasting an average of two priests each.

The sacraments were still a major part of most Catholics' lives: there were nearly 1 million baptisms and 350,000 Catholic marriages.

The controversy over Humanae Vitae ten years earlier had largely subsided; most Catholics used birth control and most priests ignored the issue.

The Catholic Church had tried valiantly over the previous decade to make abortion a major political issue for Catholics as it pressed the issue of a constitutional ban, but with little success.

Even the head of the church's own National Committee for a Human Life Amendment admitted that the "overwhelming majority" of Catholics were apathetic about the issue.

Orthodox Catholics fretted about the rise of "cafeteria" Catholics who picked and chose from doctrine, particularly around issues related to sex, but most continued to identify as Catholics, raise their children as Catholics and take part in the life of the church.

Some formed reform groups like Call to Action and the Women's Ordination Conference to agitate for a more democratic church and clerical roles for women.

A very different Church

Pope Francis will find a very different church.

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate

• Only one-quarter of Catholics attend mass every week (CARA has some of the best, most rigorous tracking of mass attendance; other surveys find higher percentages using more generous methodologies);
• the number of priests and nuns has declined precipitously; from 58,000 to 38,000 for priests and from 125,000 to 50,000 for nuns;
• despite a significantly larger population, there are 1,300 fewer parishes, with an average of just one priest per parish;
• some 3,500 parishes have no resident priest;
• the sacraments are no longer as central to the lives of Catholics;
• the number of baptisms has declined from nearly 1 million to just over 700,000, and the number of marriages within the church has declined by nearly half;
• only the number of Catholic funerals has held steady.

And while the number of Catholics overall has remained level, that's largely due to Hispanic migration to the US; some 40 percent of those born Catholic have left the church.

But numbers don't tell the whole story. The church Francis will encounter is fundamentally different in character from the church of John Paul in two important ways. Continue reading

Sources

• Religion Dispatches
• Image: Daily News

It's not often that a mere two words manage to convey three complete misconceptions, but the phrase "Shepherd One" pulls off the hat trick.

1. The plane isn't really called "Shepherd One." People in the United States call it that, but the phrase is a media conceit rather than an actual call sign.

Formally speaking, the papal plane doesn't have a name. Its designation is usually just Alitalia flight AZ 4000 on the outbound leg, and beyond that Italians simply call it the volo papale, or "papal flight."

2. The pope doesn't own a plane. The term "Shepherd One" suggests that the pope actually owns a plane, which he doesn't. Even the term "papal plane" is something of a myth, since the pontiff does not have his own personal aircraft.

The Vatican always charters a plane for the three or four foreign trips a pope usually makes every year, often using a different aircraft for each leg of the journey.

These are regular commercial planes that were in use making the Rome to London run, or something like it, the day before the trip and will be again once it's over.

The tradition is for the pope to take the Italian national airline, Alitalia, to wherever he's going, and then fly the national carrier of that country on his return.

When Francis travelled to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in January, for instance, he took Alitalia to get there and Philippine Airlines to get back to Rome.

On this trip, Francis will take Alitalia as far as Washington and then American Airlines the rest of the way. Continue reading

Sources

• Crux, from an article written by John L. Allen Jr., associate editor of Crux, who specialises in coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church.
• Image: Senza Pagare

It is about two lovers whose longing to marry is thwarted by a cowardly and morally mediocre priest and a grasping nobleman. A good simple friar shelters the suffering couple.

Then a plague hits the country, reminding everyone of their mortality and vulnerability, and also bringing about a moral reckoning.

As the doctors serve in hospitals for the body, the good people in the church serve in hospitals for the soul. One cardinal remonstrates the cowardly priest.

"You should have loved, my son; loved and prayed. Then you would have seen that the forces of iniquity have power to threaten and to wound, but no power to command."

In the end there are heart-wrenching scenes of confession, forgiveness, reconciliation and marriage.

I mention this novel, which Francis has read four times, because we in the press are about to over-politicize his visit to America.

We're comfortable talking about our ideological disputes, so we'll closely follow and cover whatever hints he drops on abortion, gay marriage, global warming and divorce.

But this visit is also a spiritual and cultural event. Millions of Americans will display their faith in public. Francis will offer doctrinal instruction for Catholics.

But the great gift is the man himself — his manner, the way he carries himself.

Specifically, Francis offers a model on two great questions: How do you deeply listen and learn? How do you uphold certain moral standards, while still being loving and merciful to those you befriend?

Throughout his life Francis' core message has been anti-ideological.

As Austen Ivereigh notes in his biography "The Great Reformer," Francis has consistently criticized abstract intellectual systems that speak in crude generalities, instrumentalize the poor and ignore the rich idiosyncratic nature of each soul and situation.

He has written that many of our political debates are so abstract, you can't smell the sweat of real life. They reduce everything to "tired, gray cartoon-book narratives." Continue reading

• David Brooks is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times.