Your Pope.

The arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in the United States this week will bring with it a renewed attention, excitement, and criticism of the Church. With the arrival of Benedict, some will rejoice, others will feign indifference, while still others will comment that the Papacy is an irrelevant institution.

If you fall into the last two groups, I will state simply: The Pope matters. Perhaps more than ever.

If the Pope didn't matter, the otherwise anti-Catholic media wouldn't bother covering his arrival with such detail.

If the Pope didn't matter, he wouldn't be meeting with the President of the United States or addressing the United Nations.

If the Pope didn't matter, bigot clubs from Pride to the Westboro Baptist Church wouldn't be there to protest his visit.

If the Pope didn't matter, loony-left spokesmen like Bill Maher wouldn't be spreading lies on the air before his arrival.

If the Pope didn't matter, Rosie O'Donnell wouldn't be so mad.

If the Pope didn't matter, Yankee stadium would not be full for the celebration of the Mass.

The Pope matters, my dear friends. If John Paul the Great gave the Church her humanism back, he did it with an eye to move her back towards her Orthodox roots. Benedict XVI has quietly but surely forwarded this agenda, knowing that only in Orthodoxy is there truth, and only in Orthodoxy does the Church have her true strength.

The diminutive German theologian has confounded those fearing his famed "bulldog conservatism," deflecting their fears with a disarming smile. His work has been anything but indirect, however, and I think that history will reflect his quiet accomplishments.

Lastly, in a fragmented Christian world, only the Catholic Church has maintained an unmodified and uncompromising Christian vision and ethic for the entirety of her existence, regardless of what scoundrels may have occupied her posts. In a time when Churches are losing their moral ground to populist pressure and fragmenting as a result, the Pope stands once again at the helm of the faith. Liberals, bigots, and Church-haters know that if you silence the Pope, you conquer Christianity.

Historically speaking, modern critics and moral lunatics are small-fry compared to the extreme challenges previously weathered by Rome.

Benedict XVI will face his fiercest critics with a calm and assured smile this week. Knowing that his Church cannot be conquered, we can now understand the source of his quiet confidence.