The pope made his whirlwind visit to the United States three weeks ago. Unquestionably, the papal visit stirred Catholics, Protestants, non-religious and pretty much anyone listening to his speeches and following his actions. Now with three weeks for perspective, I polled students about Francis’ U.S. tour.
One UNC senior, after learning of the Kim Davis meeting, rolled his eyes, scoffed and said the pope’s visit was disappointing.
Kathryn, a first-year student, said she was ambivalent, saying the pope’s visit was “probably really cool for some people,” but since she wasn’t Catholic, it didn’t impact her.
My sister’s fiancée, Matt Shears, student body president of Johnson University, a Christian university in Knoxville, Tenn., said he liked that the pope’s visit was ecumenical — meaning it united many different faith groups.
“I appreciated his efforts to promote interfaith dialogue — meeting with members of the Jewish and Muslim faith,” he said via Facebook.
My questionably unscientific survey concluded that people generally favored the pope, but more frequently disagreed with specific political stances. Political stances that were outlined most notably through his speech to a joint session of Congress, which touched on issues relevant to the current Congressional term: abortion, climate change, refugees, the death penalty and the traditional family.
Both sides of the aisle cheered through many parts of his speech (definitely anytime he said America was great.)
Other parts, they were probably shaking their heads — like when the pope spoke about the traditional family. Or about climate change, or the topics that weren’t about America’s greatness.
It’s clear that Pope Francis, stemming from his papal predecessors, has taken an external approach to leadership of the Catholic Church. He’s not afraid to descend into the depths — into the den of thieves and robbers — into Congress, to discuss controversial issues. He’s unabashed about entering politics, especially when it means helping people and making the world, as he sees it, a better place.
Friar Michael Lasky, pastor at UNC's Newman Catholic Student Center Parish, said Francis promotes Catholic social teaching, a doctrine outlining a commitment to the poor and resolving issues of wealth, economics, social organization and roles of the state.
“Pope Francis, he is criticizing an unbridled capitalism at all costs with no ethical norms because that’s what he is confronted with — power and money at all costs,” he said.
And something that makes Francis different, said Lasky, is the global audience now listening to his messages.
“He’s the first one at a global level to change the language, so that people are truly hearing what he’s saying,” he said.
One of the more poignant lines of his speech to Congress never actually made it to the ears of Congress. According to the Vatican, the pope lost his place reading the speech and the following lines were skipped:
“All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity,” the pope wrote (but never actually said).
“‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Declaration of Independence).’ If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance.”
Reading just that, you almost forget it’s the pope speaking — and not an American politician, like John F. Kennedy, now venerated for the rhetoric in his 1963 Civil Rights Address, for bravely facing Congress to assert human rights.
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