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For the Common Good, Politics and Religion, Politics and Society, Pope Francis Address to U.S. Congress, roman catholic church
Pope Francis addresses U.S. Congress – Washington DC – September 24, 2015
Photo Credit: Catholic News Agency (L’Osservatore Romano)
Pope Francis, leader of the Roman Catholic Church headquartered in Vatican City, is the latest celebrity to hit the shores of America. When he arrived at Joint Base Andrews on September 22, President Obama received him with the honors due a Head of State. After his reception at the White House in Washington D.C. and engagements in New York City, the pope headed for Philadelphia on Saturday morning and will fly out on Sunday evening for Rome. For his seventy-eight years, he sure has a lot of stamina.
The Church’s first Latin American pope has brought much needed fresh air to an institution beset by internal political strife, sex abuse scandal, and rising secularism. Since taking over the leadership position, Pope Francis has called on all Catholics to focus on Jesus’ message of love, forgiveness, and care of the most vulnerable among us. In setting the example with a simple lifestyle and his concern for the poor of our world, the Holy Father has won many admirers inside and outside of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis spoke with the calm humility of an elder. He didn’t threaten the sinner with eternal damnation in Hell. In his address to the U.S. Congress on September 24, he said: “we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners.”
This doesn’t mean that the Church will soon open its arms to gay couples, individuals who have divorced and remarried, and women who have had abortions. Not at all. The pope made this clear when he later expressed concern that “fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family.”
Pope Francis called on the members of the U.S. Congress to work towards the common good of all its citizens. “Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you… 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. Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life.”
Working towards the common good involves our planet. “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”
It also means ending wars and the arms trade that feeds it. A trade driven by money: “money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.”
Will the message of Pope Francis be choked by the thorns of congressional members who prioritize the needs of the wealthy One Percent, leaving the rest of us to manage as best as we could? That will depend upon us.
Vs his predecessors, Pope Francis seems to be engaging world leaders to call for peace and harmony most. It is most heartening… 🙂
It is indeed, Cicorm. Now it’s up to us to keep the pressure on our leaders.
Another excellent post, Rosaliene. Thank you. Earlier this week I saw a full page newspaper ad that chided the Pope for the contradiction implicit in the Church policy toward unborn life and his concerns about climate change. It suggested that one could not fully deal with a planetary problem of limited resources and our carbon footprint without also dealing with the contribution made by unrestrained population growth, essentially encouraged not only by a position forbidding abortion, but also the practice of birth control. Whether we like it or not, I suspect the combination of these concerns will increasingly be pushed forward into our public conversation. We are, in effect, all occupants of a small life boat with limited supplies and too many bodies to feed. An interesting movie from the late ’50s, “Abandon Ship,” deals with such issues without any reference to its possible application to our current situation.
Thanks, Dr. Stein. Thanks, too, for raising the issue of “unrestrained population growth.” As you so rightly point out, we are “occupants of a small life boat with limited supplies and too many bodies to feed.”
As I see it, to limit population growth is to limit the growth and power of the Church.
The dilemma, abortion set aside, seems to be this: respect for the potential for life (a sperm and egg not yet joined) vs. respect for fully formed life. I also think you are right, quite literally. The Church requires followers, which means recruitment of the living through conversion or the birth of likely Catholics in Catholic homes.
Dr. Stein, I just read the following article by Suzanne Goldenberg published in The Guardian, September 24, 2015, that supports your viewpoint about population growth:
“Pope’s climate push is ‘raving nonsense’ without population control, says top US scientist”
Paul Ehrlich writes in Nature Climate Change that Francis is wrong to fight climate change without also addressing the strain from population growth on resources
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/popes-climate-stance-is-nonsense-rejects-population-control-says-top-us-scientist
I’m not sure I’d call the Pope’s position “raving nonsense,” but I appreciate your sending me the link. I’m old enough to remember Paul Ehrlich from his book, “The Population Bomb, written several decades ago. I think he believed “the bomb” would go off before now.
Reblogged this on Guyanese Online.
Thanks for sharing, Cyril. Have a great week 🙂
Pope Francis: He Told Them!
Published: September 27, 2015 | Authors: Robert Scheer | Truthdig | Op-Ed
The Pope’s recent message to “Follow the Golden Rule” comes at an important time as candidates start campaigning for the presidency. Let’s hope his message stays in the minds of these candidates and in ourselves as we vote next year.
He told them! Any religious leader who is considering sainthood for the “Servant of God” Dorothy Day—the crusading editor of the Catholic Worker and heroine of my garment-worker parents during the Great Depression—gets my vote. Read more….
http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/09/27/pope-francis-he-told-them/
Cyril, thanks for sharing the article. I agree with the writer that:
“What is most startling in the approach of this pope is his refusal to demonize “the other,” be they of another religious, political or nationalist outlook. Francis rejects precisely the simplistic war between good and evil that has dominated U.S. foreign policy for much of the past century.”
We in the United States have demonized and condemned so many people to a life of Hell on Earth – at great profit – that it will take a mental purge to reverse course.
The Pope on the Importance of Family Life
http://stanislauscollege.blogspot.ca/2015/09/the-pope-on-importance-of-family-life.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+StStanislausCollegeGeorgetownGuyana+(ST.+STANISLAUS+COLLEGE,+GEORGETOWN,+GUYANA.)
Thanks for sharing.
This pope is a humble individual who is prepared to question his own establishment attitudes of past….wishing for change….hope he succeeds in his endeavour.
Good luck !
Kamtan, his approach at bringing about change by setting the example is courageous and admirable. But the “establishment” is where the real power lies.
Exactly
Party/religion politricks.