One of my majors at Seton Hall University was Catholic Studies, with a particular focus on American studies. When most people suggest one shouldn’t talk about religion or politics at dinner parties, I think to myself, that’s all I talked about for the five (yeah, five) years of my undergraduate study. So as a Catholic and one interested in American culture I join my excitement with all the country as I watch our beloved Holy Father Francis in America. The Pope is finally here and it is so wonderful how he is so beloved by believers and non-believers—Catholics and non-Catholics.
The separation of religion and politics is something I generally agree with, not because the noble pursuit of politics is somehow poisoned by belief but because politics poisons the beautiful tapestry of religion. So what are we to do with this image of our Pope in Congress? The slightly surreal image reminds us that our Church is universal. The very word Catholicism means universal. Whichever party one belongs to there are things we can struggle with in his universal call that go beyond our country’s dual structures of ‘left’ or ‘right.’
One of the things that took me by surprise in watching our humble spiritual leader is how uncompromising he is with his message. His awkward English, his hand gently motioning downward, seemingly perplexed by this American need for ovation are all signs of yes, his humility and gentleness, but if we are truly listening we can hear a very stern warning of the dangers of modernity. His gentle message may seem at odds with Christ’s in this week’s Gospel. Jesus is pretty fired up. “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43). Jesus tells us.
It can be easy to shut out Jesus’ seemingly harsh message as divisive or controversial but His message of love, albeit tough love, this week is a cry for having authentic faith. Authenticity of belief is not the same as fundamentalism. Our Holy Father is a great example! Ecumenism, true conversation between political and cultural divides means nothing if we are just watering down each side’s beliefs. Instead of the Holy Father suggesting we do not talk about the death penalty in a country that executes more people than any other country he calls for the “global abolition of the death penalty” in front of a joint meeting of Congress, but he does it with love! He doesn’t judge those people who believe in the death penalty.
The Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan wrote of this need of finding, not a watered down middle point between two worlds, but an all-encompassing center. He writes, “There is bound to be formed a solid right that is determined to live in a world that no longer exists. There is bound to be formed a scattered left, captivated by now this, now that new development, exploring now this and now that new possibility. But what will count is a perhaps not numerous center, big enough to be at home in both the old and the new, painstaking enough to work out one by one the transitions to be made, strong enough to refuse half measures” (Collection, Vol. 3)
As Americans we live in the greatest pluralistic culture on Earth. Learning from other cultural traditions, beliefs and customs is one of the great things about this great land. I would argue we become quite literally un-American and deeply unpatriotic by not learning from others. As Justin Barrett, a religion scholar at the Fuller Theological Seminary, writes, “Differences are real between people of various faiths and ethnicities, but they often mask deeply important similarities, and variation within a group may be greater than differences between the groups.” (Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology 192) So maybe religion can teach something to politics after all namely, by celebrating differences and not shying away from our unique perspective, we can send a powerful message to a variety of people if we are committed to it, and we love people through it, not judge them.
This weekend as our Pontiff visits the birthplace of our democracy in Philadelphia, let us be proud of our faith and its capitol T truths about human dignity, economic justice and ecological care and yes, these are made complicated by our politics, but the next time you’re at a dinner party and someone asks if you are a Republican or a Democrat just say, “I’m with the Pope.” Let us pray for and with our Holy Father this week.
I’ll be seeing you,
Elliot