The head of the Catholic Church has caused some mixed reactions from both sides of the political spectrum during his time in America.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a simple man. He was born in a barrio of Buenos Aires to immigrant parents. He lives in a modest flat behind a gas station. He wakes up every morning at 4:00 a.m. to pray. Sometimes he makes phone calls. Sometimes he naps. And last week, our nation stood in awe as Jorge Mario Bergoglio — who is better known as Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church — traveled to the United States of America for the first time.
While in our neck of the woods primarily for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, Francis also stopped by the United Nations in New York City and a joint session of Congress in Washington. He addressed immigration and urged lawmakers to act with compassion and empathy. He spoke of the Syrian refugee crisis and reminded us to abide by the Golden Rule.
He called for a more responsible and proactive environmental consciousness. He advocated a global abolition of the death penalty. He commended social activism and justice and criticized fundamentalism, international arms trading and the unequal distribution of wealth.
Francis’s address to Congress was 3,404 words long. He used only 75 words on the topics of abortion and gay marriage and he never explicitly mentioned them by name. That’s right. The Pope allotted only 2.02% of his much-anticipated speech to addressing the talking points which have so far dominated the 2016 election circuit. It should therefore come as little surprise that Pope Francis isn’t all that popular among conservative voters. The Pope’s approval rating in this category has tanked, plunging from 72% in 2014 to 45% in July of 2015. Rush Limbaugh has called Francis a Marxist. Jeb Bush has been inclined to remark, “I don’t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinal or my pope. … I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting in the political realm.”
The irony here speaks for itself.
Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, expressed that he had initially hoped the Pope would use his congressional address to condemn the persecution of Christians, the atrocities committed by ISIS and the “condoned, subsidized, intentionally planned genocide of unborn children by Planned Parenthood.” After learning that the Pope intended to focus in large part on the urgency of the climate crisis, Gosar decided that he would boycott the address: “When the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one.”
I suppose it’s alright that Gosar opted out of the Pope’s speech. After all, Francis decided to skip some of the scheduled programming, too. Instead of dining with wealthy politicians, he chose to spend his time with the homeless at St. Maria’s Meals and the prisoners at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. Unlike Gosar, the Pope was not interested in making an ideological fuss about abortion or gay marriage. Rather, the Pope — who since his election has advocated for “the least of these” — demonstrated that when it comes to religion, our actions speak louder than our words.
Perhaps in a future column I can further outline the particulars of this Pope’s revolutionary platform. But for now, it stands to say that Francis, the 266th pope, has revitalized the papacy. He has breathed life into what was a tired scheme of red tape and bureaucratic pageantry. He has ventured from the beaten path, all the while affirming that “God is not afraid of new things.” He has committed to showing what the Church is for (namely love and justice) rather than what it is against. The Pope’s Catholicism may be doctrinally and theologically sophisticated but Francis’s God is subtle, transparent and kind. We should pray for one another, and if we are non-believers, then we should send “good vibrations.” Pope Francis has reminded all of us — whether we are Catholic or not — that the Golden Rule is paramount.
In this way, the Pope transcends the U.S. context. But, there are some things our nation stands to learn in light of his visit.
Francis speaks and the world listens. Of course, that is not to say that every person agrees with every word he says. Some conservatives — like Gosar, Limbaugh and Bush — are not happy with the Pope’s official acknowledgment of climate change. And some liberals are disappointed that he met with Kim Davis and has not more radically altered Catholic doctrine. Some conservatives are comforted by Francis’s more-or-less traditional opposition to abortion. And some liberals are inspired by this his teachings on immigration and social justice.
And therein lies the reason I find this Pope to be so refreshing. Francis cannot be put into a box. It is inadequate to label him “right-winged” or “leftist.” He has not confined himself to these trivial markers. And so in a mere 3,404 words, the Pope brought bipartisanship to Congress.
Pope Francis is a troublemaker and, for that, I thank him.
Grace Eberly is a senior studying world religions and biology. What do you think of Pope Francis? Email her at ge713313@ohio.edu.
