All eyes these days seem to be focused on Rome, and on the Vatican in particular, where Pope Francis has convened a meeting of bishops from all around the world to address the abuse crisis in the Church. Questions abound: will the entire Church adopt the approach that the U.S. bishops adopted in the Dallas Charter of 2002 (the zero tolerance approach)? Will there be a resolution of the question of how to deal with bishops who abuse, or who fail to report the abuse by others? If there is no global resolution of the question of how to deal with problem bishops, will the U.S. bishops adopt the plan which was proposed for the U.S. in November, 2018? However these questions get answered, there will certainly be some people who find a reason to find fault with Pope Francis. He's the Pope, after all, and in some quarters there is this simplistic view that by definition the Pope is not only all-powerful (at least when it comes to the Church) but supremely holy. Folks hold him to this high standard, a standard of perfection. Today's Gospel (Mt 16: 13-19) presents a picture of Peter, our first Pope, the one who Jesus calls a "rock" upon which He will build His Church, which should disabuse us of the notion that the Pope is somehow superhuman or super-holy. Peter turns out to be just a regular, flawed human being. Yes, he is the first one to articulate that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." But right after he does that, and is named the "rock" and given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, he shows that he has no idea what he is talking about. In the passage right after the one we read today, as well as in the passage from Mark's Gospel that we read yesterday (Mk 8: 27-33) the next thing that Jesus does after hearing Peter profess that Jesus is the Christ is to explain that the Christ must suffer greatly, be killed, and be raised to life on the third day. Peter doesn't buy that for a minute, and rebukes Jesus, essentially telling Jesus that He is wrong, that He will not have to suffer in that way. Jesus is harsh in His response, saying: "Get behind me, Satan." Calling Peter "Satan" is hardly an endorsement of Peter's holiness. Of course, Peter's failings don't end there. He denies Jesus three times as Jesus is on trial, as Jersus has predicted, and Peter's view that Gentiles need to become Jews before they can become Christians, a view which Paul does not share, provokes the Jerusalem Council, where Peter's opinion is soundly rejected by the Church. My point is not to emphasize Peter's flaws. He is a saint, after all. My point is that Peter was far from perfect, far from an image of superhuman holiness. He was an ordinary human being, with his share of human flaws. One doesn't have to look too far back into Church history to find other Popes with flaws much more serious than Peter's. Popes aren't perfect. Pope Francis himself acknowledges his failings. His most common request is that people pray for him. He gets that he, like all of us, needs a ton of prayers. So whatever happens in Rome in the next couple of days, and in the weeks and months thereafter, let's cut Pope Francis some slack. Let's recognize that he has no magic wand which he can waive and make things happen. Let's presume that he has the best possible intentions, and that he is trying to achieve positive change in an institution which fundamentally resists change. Let's understand that he does not have, and cannot have, all the facts, and can't control all the other actors in the drama which is being played out. And let's remember that this flawed, imperfect human being is the best hope we have for leading the Church out of the crisis which which has engulfed us. The Pope certainly deserves our prayers-- let's be generous in giving them to him.