The Pope's Speech to Congress

Lynne and I tuned in live to hear Pope Francis speak to congress. He is not an orator in the way Douglas MacArthur was but it was a riveting speech. Not surprisingly there were times when one side of the aisle stood and applauded while the other sat in silence. I am well aware of some of the underlying policy disagreements but given what Francis actually said, how could you not applaud? How can anyone sit in stony silence when a Pope urges the protection of human life in all it's stages? Do they really want to advocate for infanticide? Can't we all support protecting our common home while seeing to the needs of the poor at the same time? Even if we disagree about how best to do that? Some comments were well received by almost everyone present, including remarkably what he had to say about families. His reminder that most of us were once strangers could have come straight from the Old Testament. His caution that the past should not be judged by the standards of the present but the sins of the past must not be repeated was a gentle rebuke to some of our current national discourse. His use of the examples of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton was masterful, and only two of the four were Catholic! Except for stopping the arms trade Francis didn't get much into policy specifics. But he did issue an urgent call to action. We've got some serious issues to deal with. We need a national conversation and we need more than talk. I don't think he mentioned the polarized atmosphere so prevalent today but we are all probably going to have to give a little if we are to get anything done. Which brings me back to policy differences. Francis mentioned his recent encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si', where he did get into specifics. I read Laudato Si'. I read it twice and I disagree with some of what the Pope advocates, partly because of the inevitably negative impact it will have on the poor, and partly because I think he under estimates the power of human ingenuity to deal with Malthusian issues as they arise. But I can't argue with his goals. This is the only home we have. We do need to take care of it and we need to take care of the poor at the same time. Same thing with the other issues the Pope raises, no matter how contentious. As Francis points out we are confronted with the most serious refugee crisis since the end of WWII. We must deal with it. We cannot be intimidated by the numbers, nor can we be stymied by fear that there may be radicals among them. Pope Francis covered a lot of ground, and he did acknowledge the remarkable progress made in lifting so many people out of poverty over the last two centuries. He also acknowledged the role the great American research universities can play in addressing some of the most intractable issues confronting us. I wish he had had more to say about the effect bad governance in many parts of the world has in holding back even more progress, including in his native Argentina. Maybe he will have more to say about that in New York when he addresses the United Nations. But I'm not sure there is much a weak UN can do about it. The US and its allies are probably in a stronger position. All in All Pope Francis has given us a lot to think about. I hope he has started a much needed national discussion. Maybe we can stop talking past one another.