Catholicism at its Best
Pope Francis' view was expansive enough to allow the possibility of life on other planets.
Note: Yes, Pope Francis gave a talk that discussed humanity's poor as well as extraterrestrial life. I like to it at the end of this essy. Having been raised Catholic, the events of the Roman Catholic Church for the past month have been powerful. The teachings, traditions, and sense of community have a way of staying with a person, and can still offer comfort and guidance, even if we find ourselves far afield of where we started. I still have many misgivings with this Church, but I think its better aspects were championed by Pope Francis, and by the selection of Pope Leo.
The passing of Pope Francis, the day after Easter, and the celebrations of his life and work, were powerful. Then we observed the vitriol and disrespect shown to him and his mourners by many American Christians. Then the College of Cardinals elected Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. And then, even more hostility was directed at the new Pope.
First, I must say that Francis and even Leo have failed to live up to their calling. Francis didn’t advance enough reforms to root out Vatican corruption. Neither man handled the American child abuse crisis honorably. Leo can still do something about both of these, or they will be left to future generations. This warrants just and productive criticism. That will be covered by others extensively. I, however, want to address the vitriol from American Christians, and what is good about Leo and Francis.
First, this anger comes from a place of fear of doing the slightest amount of self-reflection. The problem is that Pope Francis, and now Pope Leo, are solidly on the side of empathetically supporting immigrants, workers, and supporting efforts to address climate change, based on the teachings of Jesus. The problem for those who react with vitriol to these Popes, is that Catholic clergy speak from a level of educational authority that is difficult to reproduce.
Catholic clergy train hard for their roles. They spend years studying scripture, and then they put their work into practice by emulating the work of Christ and the apostles. Famous examples of this are: Mother Teresa of Calcutta who dedicated her existence to ministering to and serving the poor, or Father Damian of Molokai, who did so for the leper colony on Molokai. All of this gives weight to the words of Catholic clergy.
It takes 5-10 years to become a Catholic priest. These years are spent in contemplation and prayer, formal training in philosophy if the candidate doesn’t already have a college degree in philosophy, 4-6 years of Seminary training in theology, leadership, parish functions, and ministering for the sick and marginalized, in settings such as hospitals, prisons, and facilities that support the poor. They train with the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, as well as with Augustine, Aquinas, and Francis. Then, if they aspire to a religious order, such as Mother Teresa, they take vows of poverty, simplicity, and aspiration to emulate the life and actions of the apostles. Whether you agree with their teachings or not, we cannot doubt that these are highly educated, trained, and experienced people.
The anger against the ideas of caring for immigrants, the poor, and the planet, must come from the pain of refusing to self-examine. These ideas of charity must cause “patriotic” American Christians to look inward, just a little bit, and to realize they do not like what they see. To hear a Pope contradict small thinking on immigration, labor, and planetary health must be jarring, because the Pope, and Catholic leadership are well trained, and they minister to over a billion followers, many living in poverty. This rage is a result of having to face inward and reflect. On its surface it looks like anger, but it is actually an indicator of embarrassment, and perhaps pain.
Advocating for care for immigrants and workers, and taking care of our planet, not just because climate change is destroying our natural world, but also because climate change is hurting humanity, and hurts the least-fortunate among us the most, must feel strange to a person who has established a daily thought habit of other-izing these people and these problems. So strange in fact, that it’s the reaction of the most cowardly, to demean and attack the Pope, the faithful, and these ideas themselves.
The Catholic Church has had a back-and-forth strained relationship with science for its entire history. But the Catholic Church has also been a stalwart supporter of learning and education for millennia. One could argue that its traditions laid the foundations for reason used in the Renaissance and European Enlightenment, which gave us modern science, engineering, and government. These traditions allowed the Church to evolve over the centuries. It is what allowed the Church to go from burning the priest and astronomer Giordano Bruno in 1600 to establishing the Vatican Observatory in 1891, and today accepting that Earth is 4.5 billion years old, which is a foundational fact to understanding how climate change can be happening to our planet. In this way, reason and theology supported each other up to make both better over the centuries.
There is a tradition of scholarship in the Catholic faith that provides the foundation required to understand the science of vaccines; that vaccines serve a mission of public health which is in line with the mission of Jesus Christ.
There are other areas of science which I hope the Catholic Church will accept as time passes, such as the complexity of gender and sexuality. I think Christ’s example of caring for the marginalized, combined with a deepening understanding of the sciences surrounding these topics, will eventually yield positive developments. I’m an optimist. I would not be writing any of these essays if I weren’t. People can be reached. Even the most hard-hearted, dogmatic people.
I think by aiming to keep the Gospels as their core guide, above all the other books of the Bible, Pope Leo and Catholic leadership serve a unique role in the world. They follow and strive to emulate Jesus and the apostles. They humbly recognize the vastness and complexity of what they believe is God’s creation, starting with the atomic level of the genetics of human beings, extending far out in to the universe to the cosmic order of galaxies.
If you have read my previous essays, you will know that I am not shy about calling strict interpretation of the Bible as literal truth plain wrong. In fact, I have been contemplating a word that has resurfaced in my reading: Pharisee. Pharisees were an ancient religious sect in the who believed in extremely strict interpretation of law and scripture so much so that they ended up completely missing the point of scripture and God in the first place. Modern American Christian Fundamentalists are exactly today’s Pharisees.
Someone responded to one of my previous essays by calling me a Sodomite. This is a strict Old Testament insult. First of all Sodom is city that I’ve never even been to, so I’m not a Sodomite. Second, this is just the type of thing a Pharisee would do - use Old Testament stricture, and combine it with vitriol to attack me without first looking inward.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” -Socrates
Pharisees are a manifestation of human yearning for simplicity and comfort, rather than struggling with the hard work of self-improvement. Since they see the Bible as literal divine truth, they need to do no textual interpretation, and they can dismiss every other book that has been written by our species as unnecessary.
This is not the Catholic way, thankfully. I see in Catholicism a church, with all its flaws, that is still trying to motivate all of us to see each other’s humanity and care for one another in that spirit. Even though it is bungling its handling of the scandals of the last century, at its best it is trying to motivate us to not let strict adherence to dogma get in the way of us caring for one another. It slowly works against its Pharisaic tendencies.
The Church has failed its calling many times over the last 2000 years. This Church has drastically injured its cause many times, with Crusades, witch hunts, Inquisitions, bribery, corruption, ancient sexual abuse, and modern sexual abuse. What might save this Church however, is its traditions of scholarship and putting Jesus above all the other figures in the Bible.
It’s with mixed emotions that I watch the celebrations of Pope Leo of Chicago. I am also from the Great Lakes. He’s definitely eaten a fish fry and been to a football game. But I was a marginalized person growing up in his Church. His record on this matter can be improved, and maybe it will improve. But this isn’t about me. If we have a Pope who is willing to give a voice to immigrants, workers, the poor, and our planet, for all of his flaws, I will take it. He has had a ton of education, he has spent time serving the poor, he is educated through travel, he speaks five or six languages, and he was a close friend of Pope Francis. I wish I could describe many more world leaders with similar statements.
As I reflected on the life of Pope Francis, I found this TED talk he gave in 2017. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a speech given that I agreed with every word of. But Francis accomplished that in this address. He demonstrated humanity, humility, and even talked a little bit about planetary science. I will leave you with a link to this TED talk:
Pope Francis: Why the only future worth building includes everyone
As always, thank you for reading! It’s an honor. Please consider subscribing for free or with a contribution. You will always have access to all of my writing, regardless. Adding subscribers whether paid or free, helps me build support for science literacy projects I am leading: founding a museum of planetary science, as well as teaching science to entirely new audiences through social media.
I admire your ability to cut everyone a break. You put the Church in a bright light that I am not willing to shine. Love you!