Pope Francis’ Op Ed: Thank You Papa for Caring About America

Pope Francis wrote a most remarkable Op Ed for the New York Times this week.

It is the voice of a loving shepherd, speaking to his sin-sick, spiritually ravaged American flock. I hope that every person, of every belief and ideology, will read it. I know that reading it was balm for my heart. 

We are in the grip of a huge surge in a deadly worldwide pandemic. Yet religious leaders are telling their flocks to ignore and do the opposite of the advice coming from medical and public health officials who are simply trying to keep people alive. We have a Catholic bishop who has actually gone to the Supreme Court to overturn public health restrictions designed to curb the spread of this deadly pandemic in order for him to put more Catholics in his churches during mass. 

There’s no good explanation for this bishop’s action. There’s no loving, caring and Christian way to explain away a bishop who uses the power of his office to break down public support for desperate public health and safety measures that are trying to slow the spread of a deadly virus in a pandemic in order to save the lives of many thousands of people. 

All I can say this morning as I type this is Thank, thank God for Pope Francis and his letter to the editor of the New York Times. He’s evidently been watching America from across the Atlantic, and has managed to get a surprisingly accurate read on our spiritual suffering. 

America is sick at heart and soul, as well as ravaged and dying in huge numbers from a pandemic. Our religious leaders have fueled the twisted rage that has set us against one another, and they have done it for partisan political gain. When religious denominations siphon off billions of dollars of federal aid money that was intended for suffering Americans, that action does more than raise a question about the true motivations for their worship of the politicians who wrote the checks. It puts a period at the end of the sentence. 

That’s why Pope Francis’ Op Ed is so important. We are hurting here in America.

Americans are dying of a deadly pandemic. I am so grateful to Pope Francis for writing this Op Ed. I didn’t need him to tell me these things he writes. I needed to know that somewhere in this great Church of ours there was a leader who actually cared for the people of America as human beings. 

All I really want to do in this post is say Thank you Papa, for talking to Americans as if we are people and not things for you to use to gain political power. Thank you for caring if we live or die.

Here is a small sample of what Pope Francis wrote. From the New York Times:

With some exceptions, governments have made great efforts to put the well-being of their people first, acting decisively to protect health and to save lives. The exceptions have been some governments that shrugged off the painful evidence of mounting deaths, with inevitable, grievous consequences. But most governments acted responsibly, imposing strict measures to contain the outbreak.

Yet some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions — as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom! Looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good for individuals. It means having a regard for all citizens and seeking to respond effectively to the needs of the least fortunate.

It is all too easy for some to take an idea — in this case, for example, personal freedom — and turn it into an ideology, creating a prism through which they judge everything.