In response to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation announcement Monday, I give my take on the Paul Harvey classic speech “So God made a farmer” as used in the Ram Truck Super Bowl commercial.

So God made a Pope

And some time considerably after the 8th day, God looked down on the Church his Son had established and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a pope.

God said, “I need somebody willing to preach the gospel before dawn, shepherd a multitude, work all day with world leaders and then come back to Rome to hear the concerns of the faithful.” So God made a pope.

God said, “I need someone parental enough to baptize a child, man enough to accept Holy Orders, smart enough to write encyclicals and simple enough to reach the every man, woman and child in the Church. He’d have to be able to laugh at himself, and cry with his flock.” So God made a pope.

It had to be somebody strong enough to die for Christ or live for his Church yet soft enough to end schisms and reach his opponents. Someone to pray, heal, serve, rule, forgive, judge and guide a flock that would grow from 12 to 1.25 billion. So God made a pope.

It had to be someone that could handle bureaucracy, study the law, oppose heresy and not fear the wolves. So God made a pope.

God said, “It has to be someone who’s a sinner, but who I can use for my greater glory. It needs be someone with so much zeal they sometimes say and do the wrong thing, but with enough wisdom to accept their own fallibility when confronted. Someone who could pastor charismatics and Latin mass goers, nuns and brothers, bishops and laymen. So God made a pope.

It would have to be someone willing to bear slurs, oppose injustice, speak for peace, hold fast to truth and forever work to evangelize an unbelieving world. So God made a pope.

It had to be someone who can look inside, and try, perhaps even with a tear in his eye, and know when its time to let someone else carry the cross and the crown.

So God made this pope.

God bless and keep Pope Benedict XVI.

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If you liked this, you may also like Father Kyle Schnippel’s “So Jesus Called the Priest,” recently posted on the Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s Vocation’s page.