What kind of example does the most popular leader in the world, Pope Francis, set for American political leaders who are neck deep in election campaigns?
If you are the one presidential candidate who regularly quotes Francis, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, you have been quoting Francis for some time and have regularly said that you share his views on climate change and economic injustice.
“I’m not quite as radical as the Pope is,” he smilingly told Time Magazine. “But.”
If you happen to be an Arizona Republican congressman and climate change denier like Paul Gosar, you run for cover by announcing that you will boycott Francis’ address to Congress.
Hopefully Goasar, who is a Catholic and attended a Jesuit college in Nebraska, will watch the speech on C-SPAN from his office and, more in the Jesuit tradition, consider some thoughts different from his own.
“I’m sure the Pope will make everyone very uncomfortable,” Representative Joseph Crowley, a Catholic Democrat from New York, told The New York Times.
“There will be some things that Democrats may not like to hear, and there will certainly be some things, I think, the Republicans will not like to hear.”
A number of people are worried that Francis’ message will be over-politicized by America’s divisively polarized partisanship.
That was the view of David Brooks, who is a regular pundit on the Friday evening PBS NewsHour. Brooks, who is also a New York Times columnist, said he was convinced that the humble pope’s visit would have “a seismic” impact on American spirituality.
It could, he said, lead tens of thousands of people to realize the importance of care for the neediest people in society, refugees and the poorest Americans. It could also awaken a desire to stem the advance of environmental degradation and climate change by targeting its root causes.
Brooks is right in that Francis’ pastoral Catholic faith is centered in the heart of the gospel’s Sermon on the Mount and Beatitudes. In secular language, the Golden Rule. But it is inevitably also political because the treatment of refugees, dealing with the effects of climate change and casino capitalism all require buy-ins from government leaders.
America could expect to see a "Francis effect" in the voting booth. A new survey from Faith in Public Life, reported by Religion News Service shows that Catholics are considering the pope in their political decisions.
In the US, 20 per cent of the population identify themselves as Catholic. Six US Supreme Court justices are Catholic, and, reads the RNS report, “when the pope goes to Capitol Hill nearly a third of his Congressional audience will be Catholics.”
Looking at the RNS report, “when it comes to persuasion, the pope appears to have more influence on Catholic Republicans than on Democrats (in large part because most Democrats already agree with him). Catholic Republicans who read about [Francis’ encyclical on the environment] were more likely to agree that humans are responsible for climate change."
But like David Brooks, many people see Francis’ influence extending far beyond the Catholic community.
Sister Simone Campbell, the leader of an activist group and part of a “Nuns on the Bus” lobbying tour, told RNS she is "astonished by how many non-Catholics tell her, 'He’s MY pope.'"
"In particular, she hears from immigrants and African-Americans about how 'nourishing' it is to hear Francis say, 'We are all in this together.'...Pope Francis is going to challenge us to bridge the divides and heal our nation.”
Washington-based Protestant evangelical leader and author Jim Wallis wrote last week that the pope also isn’t limiting himself to Congress and the UN.
“He is also spending an unprecedented amount of his trip interacting with the people Jesus calls the 'least of these' in Matthew 25, including refugees and immigrants, homeless and disabled men and women, low-income schoolchildren, and prisoners. Some of these people are the very same people who are demonized in our nation's recent political discussions, and are regularly ignored by most of our politicians."
Francis’ influence is much wider than the Catholic Church, Wallis says--it is changing the conversation in America.
How much of the Francis impact will spill over the border into Canada?
Canada has a Catholic population of more than 40 per cent. Every Canadian prime minister since 1968 has been a Catholic, except Kim Campbell and Stephen Harper. But, unlike American politicians, Canadians rarely identify themselves by their religion.
That doesn’t mean they can duck Francis’ message, which transcends Catholic dogma.
If Canadian leaders miss the chance to engage with Pope Francis in his clear and inclusive call for action on the world refugee crisis, the poor, and the effects of climate change on the most vulnerable, they do themselves and Canada a disservice.