Pope Francis' Volatile Mix of Peacemaking and Politics

Pope Francis seems to be positioning the Catholic Church against conservatives and the Republican Party in the United States. The Pope's recent action in mediating a secret deal to re-open the relationship between the United States and communist Cuba was met with disfavor by most American Republican and conservative Catholics. Senator Marco Rubio, who has taken the GOP lead on responding to President Obama's surprise Cuba action, said : "I would also ask His Holiness to take up the cause of freedom and democracy, which is critical for a free people, for a people to truly be free." Senator Rubio, who is the son of Cuban immigrants and a practicing Catholic, said Cubans "deserve the same chances to have democracy as the people of Argentina have had, where he [the Pope] comes from, as the people of Italy have, where he now lives." Rubio is not alone. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Catholic Republican from Florida as is Rubio, said Francis should be championing the people of Cuban rather than "their oppressors." The negative Cuba reaction of American conservatives comes not long after Pope Francis clashed with conservatives everywhere when he tweeted that income inequality "is the root of social evil" and that trickle-down economics is "crude and naïve." ~~~~~ In addition, Francis plans to issue a papal encyclical in March in conjunction with his speech to the United Nations in New York that calls for Catholics to work to alleviate global warming. A first step will come in less than three weeks, when, during his visit to the Philippines, the Pope is scheduled to have lunch with some survivors of the typhoon that devastated Tacloban in 2012. The Vatican sees the scope of the human calamity there as being a result of deep poverty and poorly governed urban growth, as well as the ferocity of Typhoon Haiyan. The social and environmental roots of that disaster provide the context the Vatican needs to reinforce its case that sustainable human progress will come as much through attacking poverty and fostering fairness as by boosting environmental protection. This appears to be the theme that will be central to the March encyclical. While there are no details available yet, we know that in a Vatican workshop last May - “Sustainable Humanity, Sustainable Nature: Our Responsibility” - the goal was to shape strategies for human advancement that match the planet’s limits. The workshop was organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Academy of Social Sciences. The themes and conclusions developed in those sessions are seen as helping to shape Pope Francis’s planned push for serious international commitments in 2015 to curb greenhouse gases and arm communities, particularly the poorest, against climate-related hazards. These themes, while in themselves acceptable to American conservatives and Republicans, are rejected when tied to the leftist-progressive agenda of climate change that would restrict industrial development and the creation of jobs in the US and elsewhere by placing severe limitations on the use of fossil fuels. This is another wedge Pope Francis seems to be prepared to drive between himself and conservatives in America. ~~~~~ Vincent Miller, chairman of the Catholic theology program at the University of Dayton, told The Hill that Francis' moves are effectively making the church a place where open disagreement can flourish. Miller said : "In that sense, one of the most important changes he's making is that conservative politicians are now openly disagreeing with him." But Mauricio Claver-Carone, director of the conservative US-Cuba Democracy PAC, disageees. He told The Hill that Francis has alienated Cuban-Americans by getting involved in the talks : "I don't want the Pope running the foreign policy of the United States, just as I don't think the President wants the Pope running the social policy of the United States." Back in July, The Hill reported on the difficulty in getting a bill through Congress to honor Francis on his election as Pope. The bipartisan bill passed the Democrat-majority Senate, but stalled in the Republican-led House. Only 19 of 221 House co-sponsors were Republicans. A House source told The Hill at the time that some in the GOP felt Francis sounded too much like President Barack Obama, and that the Pope "actually used the term 'trickle-down economics,' which is politically charged." ~~~~~ Dear readers, Pope Francis is an activist Pope of a kind the modern world has not often seen. Many of his causes resonate deeply with all people. But when Francis takes his social agenda into the political arena, he must be prepared - both for reaction and for being treated as just one more political leader. This can be dangerous for the Pope and for the Catbolic Church when America is in play. Why? Here are some reasons. The United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world - after Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines - and no country has a larger Catholic minority - 100 million Americans, a third of the nation, have been baptised into the faith and 74 million identify themselves as Catholic. Discrimination against the Catholic minority, and strong leadership from Rome, encouraged American Catholics to create a sort of parallel society in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the result that there are now over 6,800 Catholic schools (5% of the national total); 630 hospitals (11%) plus a similar number of smaller health facilities; and 244 colleges and universities. Many of these institutions are known for excellence. Seven of the leading 25 part-time law school programmes in America are Catholic (five are run by Jesuits). A quarter of the 100 top-ranked hospitals are Catholic. All these institutions are subject to oversight by a bishop or religious order. The church is the largest single charitable organisation in the US. Catholic Charities USA, its main charity, and its subsidiaries employ over 65,000 paid staff, serve over 10 million people, and distributed $4.7 billion to the poor in 2010, of which 62% came from local, state and federal government agencies. The American church may account for as much as 60% of the global wealth of the Catbolic Church. So, it isn't surprising that America is the biggest contributor to the Vatican (ahead of Germany, Italy and France). Everything from renovations to St Peter’s Basilica in Rome to the Pontifical Gregorian University, the church’s version of West Point, is largely paid for with American money. These may seem like Church-related facts. They are really political chess pieces. Add them to the continuing uproar in the US over priest child abuse and you have a political witches' brew. If Pope Francis wants to become a player in US politics, he needs to keep these facts close in hand because they can be turned against him if a newly conservative Congress decides to look at the Catholic Church's generous tax treatment and other religious exemptions. And he needs to remember that America is culturally conservative, not culturally socialist as is much of South America where Francis honed his political skills. I certainly am not suggesting that Francis back off his principles. But he should not expect deference to those principles - as if they were moral-religious guidance - when they are in fact political in nature and represent Vatican interference in US governmental decision-making and policy implementation. Especially when Francis is out of step with his own Catholic flock in America. ~~~ ~~~~~ Pope Francis made his New Year's wish yesterday : No more wars. Tens of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and Romans crowded into St. Peter's Square for the Pope's first window appearance of 2015. Francis expressed "the wish that there will never be more wars." He told the crowd that "peace is always possible. We must search for it." He pointed to a sign in the crowd that said "Prayer is at the root of peace," and said he agreed with that. Earlier, celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, he prayed for blessings for "the entire human family." Francis also asked that God "grant peace in our day - peace in hearts, peace in families, peace among the nations." Those words of Pope Francis we can all agree with, even if making them reality is a long walk down a rugged road.