I have never been a fan of the Roman Catholic Church. Its hierarchical and misogynistic ways grate on my progressive nerves. However, I must confess (no pun intended) that I have developed a soft spot for recent popes.
Francis, the current pope’s predecessor, was on the right side of some of the most important issues of our time. He was a strong environmentalist, outspoken about the need to confront climate change, a refreshing contrast to the views of some of our benighted political leaders. And he expressed greater concern for the marginalized than any previous pope. Like his namesake, he had a special place in his heart for nature and the poor.
He even showed a kinder face toward gays and trans people and opened some leadership roles for women. He spoke against conversion, saying Catholics should live “in brotherhood with other faiths,” a stand that earned him no credits from his conservative brethren. He said that he personally had been inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu and Mahatma Gandhi.
In a letter to U.S. Bishops, he criticized the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants, reminding them that Jesus, Mary and Joseph had once been emigrants and refugees in the land of Egypt.
His heir, Leo XIV, is I’m pleased to say a man of similar sentiments. He is outspoken about the need to confront climate change, and he advocates for those on the margins, highlighting a “loving care for the least and the rejected” in a document produced by Pope Francis. He advocates also for immigrants and has criticized the U.S. administration’s treatment of them.
But what has really put him at odds with Trump and his friends is his opposition to the Iran war. While Trump and his secretary of war invoke Christianity to justify their militarism, Leo has warned, “Jesus does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.” He referred to Trump’s barbaric threats to annihilate Iranian civilization as “truly unacceptable.”
Trump responded by calling Leo weak and a captive of the “radical left.” He even suggested Leo only became pope due to the influence of his administration. In a particularly bizarre act, he displayed a graphic on social media picturing himself as Jesus, or maybe God, healing the sick.
As Francis was the first pope from the Americas, Leo is the first from the U.S. By providing a foil to his political counterpart, he provides evidence that his country has not entirely lost its way,.
The two popes have provided moral leadership, on some key issues at least, at a time when the political class is being too much infected by a mean, bigoted right-wing populism that threatens not only liberal society but democracy itself. In the U.S. this populism is supported by a large part of the Christian citizenry.
In Leo’s words, ”Democracy remains healthy only when rooted in the moral law and a true vision of the human person. Lacking this foundation, it risks becoming either a majoritarian tyranny or a mask for the dominance of economic and technological elites.” Sadly, the U.S. is now running that risk.