If you didn’t hear the pope in his unprecedented speeches before Congress and at the White House, and if you only read mainstream media reports, you’d think the pope was a progressive who only fought for issues like climate change, illegal immigration and world peace.
Here are a few sample headlines about the papal address to the joint session of Congress:
Before landing in the U.S. while flying the short flight from Cuba, the pontiff was asked to comment on media outlets that are asking if he is liberal.
He emphatically denied it, saying, “Some people might say some things sounded slightly more left-ish, but that would be a mistake of interpretation.”
My point here is not to argue whether the pope is liberal or conservative. It is to say, if one only listened to mainstream media, one would likely believe he was a liberal progressive. They would also overlook or ignore four key points the pontiff made in his speeches: for the defense of religious freedom, marriage and family, sanctity of human life, and against Islamic extremism. Let me discuss each in turn.
1) For defense of religious freedom
In the pope’s speech at the White House last Wednesday, he aimed directly at President Obama with 112 words (one-sixth) of his relatively short 615-word speech. He spoke indirectly against the ways Catholics and Christians have been persecuted and oppressed under Obama’s administration: “Mr. President, together with their fellow citizens, American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination. With countless other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty. That freedom remains one of America’s most precious possessions. And, as my brothers, the United States bishops, have reminded us, all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.”
A day later in his
speech before Congress, the pope essentially reiterated the same point: “In this land, the various religious denominations have greatly contributed to building and strengthening society. It is important that today, as in the past, the voice of faith continue to be heard, for it is a voice of fraternity and love, which tries to bring out the best in each person and in each society.”
2) Against Islamic extremism
Speaking of religion, the pope also
stood up against ISIS and Islamic extremism though he did not use those titles: “Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.”
His last point being, we must maintain a “delicate balance” to preserve the religious liberty of Muslims while at the same time stamping out barbaric extremism in groups like ISIS and al-Qaida.
He
added last Friday at the 9/11 Memorial in New York: “This place of death became a place of life too, a place of saved lives, a hymn to the triumph of life over the prophets of destruction and death, to goodness over evil, to reconciliation and unity over hatred and division.”
Just a week before coming to the U.S., the
pontiff warned that ISIS could “infiltrate” Europe by hiding among the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing countries such as Syria and Libya.
He may have encouraged Congress to better massage the issue of immigration and help the refugees, but he confessed, “It’s true, I also want to recognize that, nowadays, territorial security conditions are not the same as they were in other periods of mass migration.”
He warned that even Rome is at risk with ISIS just a few hundred miles south on the desert coastline of Libya: “The truth is that just 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Sicily there is an incredibly cruel terrorist group. So there is a danger of infiltration, this is true.”
3) For marriage and family
Speaking of threats to our country, the pope passionately reiterated the importance of fighting for the two institutions at the very heart of our country and fabric of our communities: marriage and family.
He said, “I will end my visit to your country in Philadelphia, where I will take part in the World Meeting of Families. It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme. How essential the family has been to the building of this country! And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement! Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.”
At the heart of the
World Meeting of Families is also the Preparatory Catechesis, which has as its principle No. 4: “Two Become One. We are not made to be alone. Human beings need and complete each other. Friendship and community satisfy that longing with bonds of common interest and love. Marriage is a uniquely intimate form of friendship that calls a man and a woman to love each other in the manner of God’s covenant. Marriage is a Sacrament. Married love is fruitful and offered without reservation. This love is in the image of Jesus’s faithfulness to the Church.”
4) For the sanctity of human life in the womb
Regarding the sanctity of life, the
Huffington Post went so far as reporting, “Pope Francis’ speech to Congress didn’t mention abortion … by name.”
He might not have mentioned the term, but he sure did stand up for sanctity of human life in the womb.
Regarding family in particular,
the pope said, “I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young … trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair. Their problems are our problems. We cannot avoid them. We need to face them together. …”
The pope echoed: “Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ (Matthew 7:12). … This rule points us in a clear direction. Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. …The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.”
As he gazed upon the marble relief portrait of Moses that stares down on Congress as the central figure among lawgivers, the pontiff summarized at the outset of his message: “Yours is a work which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of Moses. On the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel symbolizes the need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means of just legislation. On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being. Moses provides us with a good synthesis of your work: You are asked to protect, by means of the law, the image and likeness fashioned by God on every human face.”
It is not a coincidence that Moses appears many times on the buildings in Washington, D.C., including depictions where he is holding the Ten Commandments. He is doing so in a bronze statue in the main reading room of the Library of Congress and as the central figure looking down from atop the outside arches of the U.S. Supreme Court. Moses is even depicted in a frieze inside the very courtroom where the U.S. Supreme Court justices meet each day they are in session.
Interestingly, the
tablet Moses is holding in the U.S. Supreme Courtroom frieze only reveals Commandments 6-10. Is it a coincidence that the sixth commandment is at the top of the tablet mandating to all who see it: “
Thou Shalt Not Murder“?
I hope and pray that our lawmakers and, in particular, the Supreme Court justices who sat front and center listening to the pope’s inspiring address to Congress, are haunted by the papal words: “Defend human life at every stage.”
