The Cat’s Pope

July/August 2008 Issue | Posted by Tim Drake in Features

Only three years ago, like so many other Catholics, we eagerly listened to the radio together as a family, awaiting the announcement of who our new pope would be.

I can still remember the excitement on our daughter Claire’s face when she heard his first name — Joseph — because we live in a town named for the saint and I came into the Church on his feast day.

For months I’ve prepared my children for Pope Benedict XVI’s July World Youth Day, which I’ll be covering as a reporter for Faith & Family’s sister publication, the National Catholic Register. They’ll be following their dad’s daily reports on Pope2008.com.

At first glance, it might seem odd to have a book about the Pope told by a cat, but in our household where half a dozen farm cats roam the property and try to sneak into the house whenever the door is opened, it seems perfectly natural.

So, when Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as Told by a Cat, crossed my desk, the timing could not have been better. I immediately read the story myself before sharing it with the kids.

The book creatively tells the story of Joseph Ratzinger through the eyes of Chico, a neighbor cat to Ratzinger’s residence in Pentling. The book shares the salient points of the Pope’s life — his birth on the eve of Easter, his reluctant, compulsory service in the German army, his ordination and role as professor, and his friendship with Pope John Paul II. It ends with his election as Pope Benedict XVI.

While most of the information was familiar to me, it wasn’t to my children. They were fascinated, for example, to learn that Cardinal Ratzinger had preached the funeral homily for Pope John Paul II.

Chico tells the story as only a cat can — it’s filled with the humorous self-importance one would expect from a feline.

“He’s always relating the story to himself,” commented Claire, one of our 10-year-old twin daughters and the animal lover extraordinaire in our home.

While the story is text-heavy, the whimsical artwork that centers on Chico, the vain cat, held the attention of all of our children but our 5-year-old. There are images of Chico chasing a dragonfly, looking over young Joseph’s shoulder while he reads, and watching the white smoke pour forth from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel. In fact, there are far more illustrations of the cat than there are of the Pope, and disappointingly, there are no images of the adult Joseph — which perhaps says more about the confidence of the illustrator than the book itself.

One particularly precious image shows Chico sleeping comfortably in the lap of the Holy Father … only the Pope’s lap is imagined by Chico to have been created from the smoke coming from St. Peter’s.

While didactic, the book has much merit. It’s an excellent introduction for young children to the life of our current Pope.

Our son Elias, who plays piano, was interested to learn of the Pope’s love for his instrument. Peter, our 5-year-old fan of Nativity sets and the Blessed Mother, was quick to point out young Joseph and his brother Georg playing with a Nativity scene illustrated in the book.

All three of our girls were happy to read about the papal coat of arms, for they had recently learned about it as part of their involvement in a Schöenstatt girls group — a religious order that originally hails from Pope Benedict’s home country of Germany.

The use of a cat is clever in telling the story of the Pope. It reminds me of the often-told story about how a dog looks to his master and says, “You are god,” while a cat looks to his master and says, “I am god.”

The children especially laughed when Chico shares some Latin with them.

“If you want to know how Latin sounds, then you should know that mus means mouse, feles means cat, and sinus means cat food bowl,” says Chico. “Just between us, these are the most important words in every language, so it’s best to learn them well.”

The book subtly juxtaposes the apparently narcissistic self-love of a cat with the self-giving, selfless love of the good cardinal.

In reading the Pope’s story, I have always been struck by his willingness to go where he did not want to go. Although comfortable teaching in Germany, when asked to go to Rome, he did. The story has been told that Cardinal Ratzinger requested to return to his homeland, to his teaching, to his books, and to his cat, but Pope John Paul II asked him to remain — a request that ultimately asked of Joseph Ratzinger his very life, serving as he now does as Pope.

It reminds me of the end of the Gospel of John where Jesus tells Peter that “someone else will lead him where he does not want to go.”

Even more than that, it reveals truths about the relationship Christ seeks with all of us.

In the foreword, Msgr. Georg Gäns­ wein, personal secretary to the Pope, shares the secret of the Holy Father’s life.

“The Holy Father is a special person, but it is above all because he is a real friend of Jesus,” writes Msgr. Gänswein. “Only by becoming a true friend of Jesus can we learn to open our hearts to the people we meet and to all the people of the world.”

At the end of the story, Chico is sad that he will have fewer opportunities to be with Joseph. Yet, he realizes that the Pope is no longer just his personal friend, but a friend to all Catholics. E

Tim Drake will leave his farm cats and five children behind to blog from World Youth Day at Pope2008.com.

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