The Humanity of Benedict
Q & A with Archbishop Schwietz

By Joel Davidson
Anchor Editor

Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz saw Pope Benedict XVI twice during his papal visit to the United States last month, once at the White House and then later during a meeting with U.S. bishops. The Anchor spoke with Archbishop Schwietz about the significance of the papal trip, both for the nation and for Catholics in Alaska.

Q —What did the pope have to say about the public role of religion?

He is saying that faith and reason can go together and in fact must go together because that is how we are made as human beings. That is really a challenge to those who are trying to secularize this country to the extent that faith becomes meaningless and religious practice becomes meaningless when it has to be private and no one can talk about it. We cannot afford to privatize religion. That is not part of our founding fathers’ attitude and it would destroy our country as we conceive of it.