As Pope Francis prepares for his first-ever visit to the United States this September, a question is beginning to resurface in the media: what does the pope actually mean to the American public? Sure, he’s a popular guy — and I’m hardly the first non-Catholic to write in praise of the latest Holy Father — but why is he worth your attention, even if you aren’t one of the 69 million Catholics in the U.S.?
Two trends seem to dominate public (non-Catholic) perception of the man formerly known as Jorge Bergoglio. On one hand some people see him, like any other pope, as a relic of an obsolete religious hierarchy. These are the kind of people that reply “Is the pope Catholic?” to your earnest questions or otherwise poke fun at Catholicism as if it were some harmless but laughably misguided religious society. Nevermind that it has more adherents than any other religion in the world.
The other trend identifies Pope Francis as nothing more than a bundle of political positions, predictably dividing people into two further sorts: those who approve of those positions and those who don’t.
The first trend is naive; of course Catholicism is relevant. Mere numbers testify to that, not just globally but locally, and the papacy is far more than some lingering ghost of tradition. Pope Francis continues to define the religious and practical lives of over 1 billion people, and his words actively effect change in the broader community.
The second trend is dangerous. While the pope is deeply and unavoidably political, he is nothing like a player in the current political drama known as the 2016 presidential election. Trump, Bush, Sanders, and Clinton might be reducible to a series of yes-no voting positions, but Pope Francis stands out by resisting all reductionism.
This is why Pope Francis is worth your attention. This is why you should listen to him — not uncritically, mind you, but carefully. Francis does things differently than his predecessors. He never wanted to be pope, and while his position is a product of a deeply complicated hierarchy, he remains free to follow motivations other than those that fuel the American political system: namely his theology.
At first glance, it may seem like Pope Francis is playing the game for popularity, but the full picture shows most of his unusual habits are deeply ingrained into his background. Much of Francis’ popularity stems from his disregard for the typical stuffy dignity of the office. Like our own President McLarty, Francis has a robust and active Twitter account, and he welcomes selfies with his admirers.
On the pope’s trip to the U.S., he will visit a school in East Harlem and a prison in Philadelphia, among the usual papal visits to D.C. and high-profile Catholic centers. All of this could be mistaken for political maneuvering, were it not for his long-time solidarity with the poor in Argentina, and his constant dedication to a clear theological message regardless of its popularity.
Think, for instance, of Francis’ second encyclical published earlier this year. At 184 pages, “Laudato si” is hardly meant to appeal to the short attention span of the public. Instead, Francis’ encyclicals are genuine, deep, theologically and scientifically grounded analyses of public events. Christian communities — Catholic or otherwise — have a lot to learn from the way the pope does public policy.
If you agree with the pope’s positions, all the better. If you disagree, then at least acknowledge that a thoughtful, well-reasoned application of Christianity does not always coincide with your beliefs. For millions, Pope Francis is the infallible voice of the church in an increasingly secular world; to dismiss him or to politicize him, both would be to endanger the strongest presence Christians have in the public sphere.
So before Pope Francis hits U.S. soil, and before he explodes back into the media, take some time to explore who he is and what he believes about our relation to God’s world. Read part of his encyclicals or, less ambitiously, some of his recent speeches. And maybe, instead of asking whether Francis coincides with your political position, ask whether he coincides with the gospel.
