It’s no secret that Pope Francis is not like any other pope in Catholic history. For starters, his immediate predecessor is the first pope in 600 years to resign. Francis is also the first Latin American pope. Hell, he’s the first non-European pope. (Well, the first since the papacy moved to Rome; the first pope, St. Peter, was Middle Eastern, as were many of the early popes.) Francis is also the first Jesuit pope. He’s decidedly more modern than previous popes — while he hasn’t updated any Roman Catholic Church teaching officially, he has certainly offered new angles and perspectives on multiple topics, such as homosexuality, acceptance of climate change and indicting a Western “culture of waste.” Our president said it best when he said, “You shake our consciences from slumber. You give us confidence that we can come together, in humility and service, and pursue a world that is more loving, more just and more free.”
Two years ago, when the pope was elected, our religion teacher projected it onto his whiteboard and three or four classes gathered in a room to watch the first words from our new pope. A classmate who spoke Italian provided translations, and it was hard not to be excited. It was as if we knew even then that this pope was going to be different. I didn’t know then that the Catholic church was about to receive more publicity (especially positive publicity) than it had in years (probably since the papacy of John Paul II) or that people who weren’t Catholic and knew I was would begin to approach me and ask about different topics and dogmas of the Church. In short, it was a great time to be a Catholic and to be a liberal.
Now, two years later, Pope Francis is stepping onto U.S. soil for the first time. Fifteen thousand people gathered on the White House lawn for his first speech, which covered topics like helping the needy, climate change and the importance of freedom of religion. For the first time ever, a pope addressed Congress. Francis’s speech to Congress did not fall short of my expectations — he was eloquent, he certainly knew his audience and he spoke truthfully.
Pope Francis appealed to the good ol’ American spirit. He mentioned parents working hard to provide a better future to their children and the fundamental values inherent in these families. He also acknowledged that many children suffer at the hands of their parents and will have to work harder. Francis even quoted the the first lines of the Declaration of Independence. As an example of him “shaking up our consciences,” he reminded Congress all political activity must serve the good of the person while protecting dignity. Emphasizing the need of politics to serve the people and not the economy, he said politics should have the aim for a people to live as one, with one goal of the common good.
Similarly, he said our neighbors are also people to be treated with dignity. Immigration is a topic Francis is very close to since both his parents are immigrants (from Italy to Argentina, where Francis was born). “We must not be taken aback by their [immigrants’] numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.” Basically, Francis just dropped a truth bomb, stating obvious things like the Golden Rule and how we should treat everyone with compassion.
Francis covered the death penalty as well, which the Roman Catholic Church is pretty adamantly against. He reasoned that even the harshest punishment should not be able to remove hope of rehabilitation for the criminal.
The Pope mentioned four different Americans as role models or icons: Dorothy Day (woman holla), Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thomas Merton (googled it — a friar who wrote tons of things converting people to Catholicism and also protested the Vietnam War).
He went on to speak of distribution of wealth, saying business is a noble occupation when it is not self-serving but instead serving the economy as a whole. He recommended a fairer and more earth-friendly way to distribute resources as well.
Francis also accused Congress of using war for economic or financial gain. “Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?” he asked. “Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money — money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.”
He ended with a traditional “God bless America” after several standing ovations and many tears in the eyes of our Congressmen. After the speech, he ate with some local homeless people and greeted the crowds.
Francis gave a speech that didn’t see party lines and only strove to deliver truth. While not scornful, he was still able to speak honestly and justly preach a message that I think everyone can agree with. I think Stephen Colbert said it best when he said, “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”
As a Catholic, I’m happy for the positive publicity to the Roman Catholic Church; as a liberal, I’m glad he spoke about climate change and immigration. But as an American, I’m more glad he saw beyond party lines and encouraged a unification of our country.
Read the full speech here.