Bridges

This weekend a grandchild sought information about the Von Trapp family beyond that offered in the movie, “The Sound of Music.”  I pulled out Maria Von Trapp’s book and familiarized the child with key differences between movie and reality.  This 4-year-old grasped that movies differ from reality, myth from reality.  

Also this weekend, the priest at Mass expressed hopes of Pope Leo XIV building bridges between progressives and traditionalists within the Church.  I started musing about parallels between these two weekend experiences. 

 

I don’t know much about the new pope so cannot predict what he’ll do.  However, I’m not yet sure if I care.  Maybe because to me, much of the hierarchy seems heavily fixated on a “Catholicism the Movie” type mythology while I’m tied to Catholicism in real life.  

 

Bridge building needs to be more substantive than a one-way bridge inviting progressive Catholics mostly operating in the real world to jump into the heavy myth world of traditionalist Catholics as if they are Mary Poppins jumping into a chalk drawing fantasyland.  The bridge cannot be merely smiley-faced traditionalists telling progressives they’re misguided but that said traditionalists stand ready with their halos in place and arms wide-open to welcome back these misguided souls.  Bridges will exist when traditionalists join progressives in reality as readily as they welcome progressives into their fantasyland.  This requires traditionalists being willing to question long-standing traditions because bridging means moving to meet somewhere in the middle.

 

I’ve read that the new pope prior to being elected pope defended a few long-standing traditions including the all-male clergy and disparagement of same-sex unions.  These traditions happen to be two biggies inspiring progressives to eschew the traditionalists and the Catholic Church itself.  We’ll leave another biggie: women’s reproductive health for another day.  To build a bridge between the traditionalists and progressives, Leo XIV is going to need to re-examine the foundations of those traditions and be willing to move.

 

Let’s quickly summarize the rickety theological scaffolding for the myths tied to these traditions which can be found in  Lumen Gentium, (The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church 1964 ), Inter Insigniores (Paul VI 1976), Theology of the Body and Mulieris Dignitatem (written in 1979-1984 and 1988 respectively by John Paul II whom I lovingly refer to as the patron saint of sexual predators based upon him protecting so many serial offenders who … pure coincidence here, I’m sure… fundraised boatloads of money for the Church, but I digress.) 

 

In summary, the hierarchy teaches:

1.   God is a dude based on the hierarchy selectively exclusively embracing scriptural metaphors referring to God as masculine and ignoring passages referring to God as feminine.

2.   Marriages are only between dudes and dudettes.

3.   Jesus is God and is married to the church, though Jesus never refers to the faithful as his bride, but instead only as sheep, children and wedding guests, and never compares the Kingdom of God to marriage but instead to weeds, seeds, yeast and vineyards. 

4.   Since God and Jesus are dudes, the Church must be the dudette bride in the marriage.

5.   For a sacrament to be “real” the symbols used in the sacrament must have a “natural resemblance” to what is being recalled.

6.   The sacrament of Eucharist is also the matrimonial sacrament of the dude Jesus marrying the dudette Church so that they can create together.

7.   Whoever plays the part of Jesus during Mass will act in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) … because they said so and despite Jesus telling the disciples to “do this in memory of me” not “do this in persona of me.”

8.   The only “natural resemblance” that will cause people to see Jesus in the Mass celebrant is if the priest has the same sex organs as Jesus, organs that will be suitably buried under the priest’s totally not girly-girl dresses – excuse me, vestments. 

9.   However, the part of the dudette church can be played by either boys or girls because sometimes priests celebrate Mass by themselves.  Don’t go there with imagery of a priest marrying himself.  Also, priests are the official voice of both the male and female sides of this Jesus/Church marriage. No, this is not the Church setting a precedent for priests dabbling in the trans realm with their manly men voices in dresses also being 100% the official voices of the girly-girl Church.  Gonna have to cut you off from the sacramental wine if you keep up with that kind of crazy talk.  Furthermore, sometimes boys don’t become priests and are just part of the dudette Church and they can’t come up with a better way to solve this.  So, dudes can be the dude and/or the dudette in the marriage.

10. Ergo the part of Jesus in the form of the priest must be a literal male but the part of the Church can be anyone capable of fogging glass because the Church is but a metaphorical female. 

11. If this union between the literal male priest and the metaphorical female Church does not occur, all of salvation history unravels.

12. “Good boys and girls” will not question any of the theological scaffolding that marginalizes women from one of the seven sacraments, Holy Orders.  Ditto for teachings about same sex unions.

 

That’s the movie version, the myth.  In the real world, people can see “natural resemblance” for men, women and non-binary people in the person of other men, women and non-binary people without confinement to gender.  “You remind me so much of your dad,” is a statement I’ve heard uttered at me repeatedly throughout life.

 

In the real world of logic, one can easily say, “You say males can play both the part of bride and bridegroom in a marriage?  I do believe you just gave theological justification for same-sex marriage and possibly trans individuals as well.”  This scaffolding of theology is so fraught with contradictions and inconsistencies that at most you can support one of these two traditional myths.  Either males can play both “marriage” roles in the Mass and you justify same-sex marriage, or both “marriage” roles in the Mass are metaphorical and can be played by men or women and you justify women’s ordination.  

 

There is also the option of having real live married people re-write the abundant theological myths about marriage and inject copious amounts of reality into those documents.  Ditto for women about women.  It would be comical were it not so negatively impacting to women that in Mulieris Dignitatem (The Dignity of Women), John Paul II acknowledges the rampant historic sexism and misogyny of the early Church “fathers” but then waves his hand dismissively saying that this didn’t impact their clarity writing about women’s roles in the church one iota.  Right… and I suppose JPII also believed that Klan members never allowed their prejudices against African Americans to cloud their judgment when setting policy about African Americans either.  

 

Now it’s time to fold in a third activity from this past weekend: enthusiastically singing along to music from the movie “Frozen” with the previously mentioned grandkid.  In “Let it Go,” that movie’s signature song, the young queen Elsa sings about struggling and ultimately setting herself free from the societal conditioning and consequently the gaslighting she’s been subjected to her whole life that’s been telling her to conceal her true self.

Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know
Well, now they know

 

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don't care what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway

 

Herein lies the split between reality and myth.  God calls women to Holy Orders.  God creates gay people.  Enough people have endured tremendous hardships to be their authentic selves that it's pretty apparent that this is how God made these folks.  The gaslighters try to tell women called to ordination and gays called to marriage that they’re crazy and/or evil.  But, for people thus touched by God to do otherwise than accept that this is who God made them to be, they are not only tormenting themselves, they are denying the truth of who they are. The torment they endure from external forces is cruel and abundant but less crushing than continuing to pretend they are someone other than who they are.  The hierarchy gaslighting such people is insidious and needs to stop.

 

Many progressives, whether they remain in the Church or not, can identify with Queen Elsa’s sentiments.  They’re going to walk in truth, becoming who God meant them to become and encouraging others to become who God meant them to become.  They’re not going to contort God so that the misinformed and misguided ramblings of many a sexist theologian can be preserved.  

 

They turn away and slam the door on the myth if the myth impedes or prevents people from becoming their full authentic selves.  They are walking away from gaslighting that paints people as “bad,” “disordered” or “damned” simply for listening to God or following Gospel premises.  They are beyond caring what the traditionalists say because they have been cold-shouldered by this crowd so much that they have become acclimatized to being out of favor.  Being held in low esteem by people who gaslight and dehumanize others is seen as a badge of honor rather than a tragedy.

 

Queen Elsa continues in the song,

 

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small

And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all

It's time to see what I can do

To test the limits and break through

 

For centuries, the Church hierarchy controlled secular society in addition to religious dimensions of life.  That created growing spirals of power with control breeding fear leading to greater control and greater fear.  However, as the hierarchy’s secular control has diminished, so has their power because fear subsides. Consequently, here in the U.S. the hierarchy formed an unholy alliance with secular politicians who shine glimmers of hope that they will return control to them despite these same politicians violating gospel principle after gospel principle.  Side note: If the only way you can keep your spouse is to create an atmosphere of power-imbalance-fueled terror, you have a toxic unhealthy marriage.  Second side note: Marriage based upon coercion is considered grounds to annul the union. 

 

Those who braved challenging the hierarchy have realized with a little distance from the power myth that their fears were unfounded.  They step away and in doing so let loose with their God-given gifts that were previously suppressed and sometimes outright demonized by the hierarchy.  They help others become their authentic God-given selves too – others who have been tormented by the gaslighting trying to convince them that God’s calling and gifts were actually “evil.”

 

So what does bridge-building look like for people who, like Queen Elsa feel,

 

My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around

And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast

I'm never going back, the past is in the past

 

Once the myth’s spell is broken, can you ever go back?  Can or should someone who has broken the spell of a gaslighter return to the gaslighting environment?  We’re not trying to bridge the gap between a group of coffee lovers and hot cocoa lovers wherein we can simply serve both and everyone is happy.  The progressives aren’t going to strike a middle ground on dehumanization.  “Gosh, if you only dehumanize my gay family member 3 days a week instead of 7, I’ll come back.”  

 

The Rule of St. Augustine, the monastic rule to which Pope Leo, an avowed Augustinian, presumably adheres only has eight short chapters yet one entire chapter is devoted to maintaining chastity.  That chapter speaks about women as if they are temptresses to be avoided.  I struggle to envision someone who adheres to that rule making sufficient movement away from dehumanizing institutionalized sexism to build a bridge that a progressive is willing to trod upon.  The progressives are moving away from sexism and homophobia; they’re not going back.

 

Bridging in the Church is far more complex than my grandchild bridging fact and fantasy in “The Sound of Music.”  It will require the feminine voice being apparent within the official voice of the female Church.  It will require deconstructing destructive dehumanizing myths.  Most importantly, it will require traditionalists moving theologically– an activity they historically eschew.

Take this message to my brother...

It’s snowing today although it’s Spring so people are talking excitedly.  But in a few days, the typical warmth of Spring will return and people will forget about it.  This kind of reminds me of last week’s brief flurry around Pope Francis’ desire to form a commission to study women deacons in the early church.  However, instead of blowing snow on a Spring day, it seemed to be a chinook wind bringing warmth in the deep of winter.  It seemed a remarkably rapid thaw after about 1,200 years of winter.  But, within days, the Vatican weather vane twisted again and the climate resumed its typical frigidity..."no, no, that's not what we mean..."

I hope people are not too disappointed or disheartened.  The pope’s statement contained weasel wording a la a marketing pitch.  He merely said he wanted to study women deacons in the early church.  He didn’t say he wanted to ordain women.  People jumped to that conclusion, because it’s justified and logical…but justice and logic are not strong suits amongst many churchmen. 

My guess was Francis suggested the study either to relegate women to some non-ordained sub-deacon status (oh, we already have that….), declare women were never ordained (though neither were any men originally…) and so we must continue marginalizing women and ignoring the Spirit, or offer women deacons as a small, picked over bone to women in hopes people will stop talking about women priests. 

If the commission happens, rest assured, it likely wouldn’t contain any women with a vote anyway.  And after recently discussing female biology with a soon-to-be-ordained seminarian who thought all birth control pills aborted conceived children rather than prevented conception via preventing ovulation (as in there is no egg to fertilize), I don’t hold a lot of hope for a commission of ordained men coming to any reasonable conclusions about women in the church.  So, I’m not sure I care if they hold this commission or not and I’m quite sure I care even less about their conclusions. 

You see, my dear ordained brethren, "You don't know me but I'm your brother," as in your sibling, your equal.  Yes, I am your sibling yet, "you don't know my kind in your world." (Doobie Brothers, "Takin' it to the Streets"). Opting to operate in a world that isolates you from women makes you far from experts about women.  It makes you one of the most ignorant groups of humans on the topic, in fact.  And when the topic of spirit inspired female leadership arises, the collective lot slinks into the vestment closet, fondling your silky robes like children with their security blankets, sucking your thumbs and crying, "Go away! You can't come in my imaginary fort! You have cooties!"

It’s Pentecost but the clergy’s fancy robes seem to shield them from being touched by the Spirit.  Mary announced the gospel’s first good news proclaiming the resurrected Christ to the brothers but women cannot even read the gospel at Mass. “Apostle” means “one who was sent” and Mary definitely was sent by Jesus.  But John Paul II who even admitted she was seen as “an apostle to the apostles” started the adamant, increasingly angry and uncharitable derision and excommunication of women following the Spirit’s call to ordination.  It’s Pentecost but the hierarchy is afraid of the Spirit.

No worries, people are not waiting for the Vatican to acknowledge the Spirit they see in women.  At an accelerating pace, Catholic women are being ordained in defiance of feebly constructed bans against it.  They are simply "takin’ it to the streets" because they are tired of ordained men tellin’ them the things they’re gonna do for them (a)…that don’t connect with history or reality.  They ain’t blind and they don’t like what they think they see so they are sending a message to their brothers (a).

Let the Spirit blow where it may.  Walk without fear, and don't wear such heavy robes that the Spirit cannot touch you.

As a side note, I have no desire to be ordained.  However, the prohibition against ordaining women drilled into the core of my being as a youth because it opened my eyes to marginalization of women, in the church and in society.  It is degrading, demeaning and discriminatory, but most of all ill-founded.

(a)    Loosely based upon the Doobie Brothers’ song, “Takin’ it to the Streets.”

Reflections on the Pope's visit to the U.S.

My last night in China, I stayed up well past bedtime to watch Pope Francis address the U.S. Congress.  I noted both what he said and what he didn’t say.  He explicitly called for a global end to the death penalty and arms sales.  He explicitly called for welcoming immigrants, tending the environment and caring for the poor.  He explicitly spoke of the perils of child abuse.  He never uttered the words, “abortion,” “birth control,” “Obamacare,” “Planned Parenthood,” or “gay marriage.” 

I had to settle for reading the transcript of his homily to U.S. bishops in D.C. in which he congratulated and thanked the bishops for their actions around the clergy sex abuse scandals without offering any encouragement to abuse survivors.  Yet, most abuse survivors and many lay people find the bishops’ individual and collective actions on this topic to span between cowardly and dastardly…not even close to the “courageous” description ascribed by Francis.

It seemed the connection between Francis’ child abuse comments to Congress and the lifelong wounds arising from clergy-inflicted child sexual abuse eluded Francis.  In declaring the bishops’ response “courageous” and speaking of the issue as though concluded while so many abuse survivors still constantly battle abuse ramifications, Francis displayed appalling insensitivity.  He evaded institutional responsibility to walk in healing restitution with survivors every day, every step of their lives.

While reading that homily I was also struck by Francis’ seeming assumption that the bishops and clergy are penultimate experts on and purveyors of gospel messages – and that they just tirelessly need to be gentle until the (clueless, sad, miserable) sheep finally catch on to their wonderful messages.  This, would bring about healing in the church, he seemed to say.  That and the clergy abuse comments made me wonder about Francis’ institutional self-awareness. 

Lots of laypeople have a stronger understanding of gospel messages than the bishops, and better and more joyfully imitate Jesus than them.  Many very faith-filled people cannot bring themselves to follow the bishops because they find the bishops worshipping a god too weak to call women to priesthood, too weak to allow re-examination of human sexuality teachings based upon millennia-old flawed science, too weak to require admission and correction of the church’s collective institutional sins, and in general too weak to allow rethinking anything about which the hierarchy have declared themselves to be “absolutely correct.”  Actually, it seems sometimes they mistake themselves for God and worship themselves and their utterances – and this many people mightily and rightly reject.  Consequently, many people do not follow the bishops – not because these people reject the gospel - but because they think the bishops do.  

A very powerful example rests in this week's gospel reading (Mark 9:38-40), which denudes the bishops' Canon Law demonizing women priests.  "John said to him, 'Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.' Jesus replied, 'Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.'"  That gospel passage makes it impossible to denounce people of either gender who work to spread God's love.  If the bishops do, they merely repeat the apostles' mistakes from centuries ago.

The combination of my international travel during Francis’ U.S. visit, just generally not allowing the pope to occupy idol status in my life, and his remarks starting to sound highly repetitious account for me oscillating between watching or listening live and relying upon catching clips or reading transcripts of his remarks and homilies.  Therefore, I know I’ve not heard every word he’s said.

However, what I did read was him telling the bishops to dialogue and not fear dialogue.  He repeated this theme when speaking to Congress.  I also heard him say at Independence Hall, “…it is imperative that the followers of the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others.”  

Therefore, Francis, following your instructions I must join the many voices – those of the majority of Catholics, many of whom could only reconcile their consciences by leaving the flock – calling for the end to Catholic church injustices. 

In the name of ending church injustices against clergy abuse survivors, I call for removal of every bishop who harbored abusive priests.  I call for Canon Law to classify such bishops as committing a grave delict.  I call for your regular dialogue with abuse survivors - towards curing insensitivity.  I insist monies hidden to avoid paying restitution be recovered and distributed to survivors to aid in their healing process.

In the name of ending church injustices against women, I call for the de-classification of women’s ordination as a grave delict.  I insist you actively dialogue on women’s ordination, birth control, and all church human sexuality teachings that are based upon false science.  I call for cessation of the church grooming girls to fill gender stereotyped roles.   

Also, in the name of ending injustices against women caused by extreme religious fundamentalism, I call for the U.S. bishops to stop blocking female Catholic institution employees’ access to menstrual cycle regulating medications.  These tools which have helped countless women conceive, which have helped countless women avoid chronic excruciating pain, which have prevented countless hysterectomies; which have saved countless women’s lives must not be demonized nor should those who use them.

Still in the name of ending injustices against women, I insist that the U.S. bishops stop this bullying tactic towards controlling women’s bodies – the one braying this nonsensical “religious liberty” slogan.  The bishops must stop portraying themselves as persecuted American Christians - because they just aren’t.  One-third of this country’s federal legislators are Catholic; the Secretary of State is Catholic; multiple Speakers of the House have been Catholic; the vice-president is Catholic; two-thirds of the Supreme Court is Catholic, and the worldwide leader of the Catholic Church addressed the U.S. Congress!  Furthermore, the worldwide Catholic leader is enjoying celebrity status, meeting with the President, having parades thrown in his honor, costing taxpayers millions of dollars to host, and receiving almost non-stop and overwhelmingly positive press coverage!  What does “religious tolerance” look like if not this?  Must the bishops have full tyrannical control before they stop claiming “religious persecution?”

Well, I again find myself staying up past my bedtime but this time partially inspired by the pope’s visit and partially attributable to jetlag.  I hope Pope Francis has enjoyed visiting my country – very free from any persecution.  I thank him for consistently repeating messages advocating for the environment, peace, immigrants and the poor.  And, I hope he recovers faster from his jetlag than I am from mine.

However, I anxiously await him following his own advice to end religion-based injustices, especially against clergy abuse survivors and women.  He can begin by having regular dialogues with abuse survivors and women.  He can reinstate people excommunicated for supporting women’s ordination and redistribute hidden funds to abuse survivors.  He can re-establish the ordination of women as deacons and discuss ordaining women priests.  He can drop the absolute ban on birth control.  He can announce a concerted effort re-working Catholic teachings on human sexuality that rest upon foundations of false science.  Finally, he can remove bishops who harbored abusive clergy and in their places appoint bishops who show true courage engaging in sincere, meaningful dialogue versus sanctioning those with whom they disagree. 

The Church’s glaring, painful wounds, which in turn contribute to global ills, will not heal without fostering dialogue and recognizing rights within the organization.  Loving people requires knowing them.  Knowing them requires talking to them.  Knowing and loving them precludes denying them rights. None of these can occur from a rigid hierarchical perch but can only emerge from a position of humility and equality. 

Of Miracles and Messes...

Dear Pope Francis,

I have written you a few letters but never received the favor of a reply.  Nonetheless, I continue writing in hopes that someday we discuss pressing issues in the church. 

I am inspired to write again now after listening to this weekend’s reading from Jeremiah, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD (Jer 23:1).”  With U.S. Catholics’ mere 25% Mass participation rate that’s dropping as I type, I am starting to wonder if it’s possible for the shepherds to destroy and scatter the flock much more than they’ve already done.  Have we not suffered enough from their poor shepherding skills?  Is it not time to stop doubling-down on the sheep-scattering tactics and exchange them for exemplary shepherding skills?

Maybe you too feel dismayed at your brotherhood's individual and collective flock-scattering penchant and prowess.  Is that why during your recent Latin America trip you expressed hopes in the upcoming Synod on the Family to produce scandalous miracles?  Is that why you again exhorted the church’s youth to “make a mess?”  Do you believe the church is already such a mess from inept leadership that it would be difficult to distinguish any further destruction at this point?

I write because I’m confused.  To quote Ghandi, “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.”

Frank, simply put, what are you waiting for?  Be the miracle you hope to see!  Make the mess you hope gets made!

I offer ten suggestions of miracles and messes you could do today, by mere virtue of the white pointy hats you own and the fabulous chair you sit upon in St. John Lateran’s Basilica.

1.  Re-institute married clergy.  Nothing needed to do this but the stroke of a pen…specifically your pen.  Please take it out, remove the cap, dip it in the papal ink well and scribble away…

2.  Re-institute ordaining women as deacons.  Again, there’s no obstruction to doing this.  Benedict paved the way by declaring that deacons no longer act in persona Christi.  While your pen is out please handle this one too.

3.  Change Canon Law to remove ordaining women as a grave delict and instead add bishops who mishandle sexual abuse cases.  Then please address the numerous bishops guilty of this grave delict.

4.  Tell the truth.  Dispense with clinging to false biological, medical and psychological teachings as foundations to establishing “truths” about human sexuality.   You can’t say you’re the penultimate guardian of truth if you don’t tell it.

5.  Change canon law to prevent Catholic employers from denying their employees access to medical care just because they fear it.  The medications used to treat many female health issues can also be used for birth control.  However, the medication itself is merely a tool.  Indeed it is a tool often used to help conceive life.  It is one particular usage of that tool to which you object, yet the tool is outright banned.  Consistent application of this rule would see the rope cincture around your waist barred since many people have been hanged using ropes.  Furthermore having episcopal review boards rather than medical ones determining whether or not women can have certain life-saving procedures performed at Catholic hospitals is just derelict.  Stop this practice at once.  Scribble that into canon law and make the U.S. bishops fix their medical ethics document to reflect the change.

6.  Lift the excommunications hanging over all people.  Grant general amnesty since, “Who are you to judge?”

7.  Cancel any meetings in Philadelphia that lack women – laywomen – not cheerleaders for church status quo and not only religious women, but regular women who are mothers.  They can teach you much about what it means to be a holy mother as you try to lead “Holy Mother Church.”

8.  Cancel any meetings in Philly that are exclusively with clergy and all meetings with Archbishop Chaput unless he accompanies you to meet with groups such as Fortunate Families being barred from attending his World Meeting of Families.

9.  Take time when you are in Philadelphia to meet with women with such a strong sense of calling that they are willing to endure scorn, rejection and excommunication… Yes, that’s right; meet with Catholic women priests.  Understand why they do what they do after you listen to understand what they do.  Then make them dinner and serve it to them.  This can be done in person and thus save on those expensive charges for overseas cellphone calls you must be racking up with your spontaneous, surprise pope-calls.

10.  Update the papal wardrobe to align with the poor – perhaps a nice pair of second hand jeans and a t-shirt from the St. Vincent de Paul store would be in order.  These are practical work clothes and require far less bleach and fuss to clean than the flowing white gowns you currently wear…  Maybe you can have a big garage sale at the Vatican and sell your white vestments to a traveling band of dentists in dire need of white fabric.  It’s just a suggestion.

I think if you did any one of these ten suggestions, you would definitely cause a mess and be seen by some as creating scandal while to most of the scattered flock seem like you just worked a miracle.  Isn’t that what you’re going for here?  Or are your words just supposed to make good press?

Sincerely,

A ewe…still in the flock despite being metaphorically beaten with multiple shepherds’ staffs as they try to run me out of the flock…  “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture…”

P.S.  Sorry to rescind my offer of hospitality but it looks like I’ll be out of the country when you come to the U.S.  Enjoy your visit and be sure to have a Philly cheesesteak, visit the Liberty Bell and tour the Philadelphia Mint.