Pontiff urges unity
Call for unity in time of harsh division comes as controversy roils his church
Pope Francis addresses the divisiveness in elections and in his church.
“The virus of polarization and animosity permeates our way of thinking, feeling and acting.”
Pope Francis, speaking of the Roman Catholic Church
At a solemn ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica to elevate 17 new cardinals, Pope Francis on Saturday delivered a plea to the world and his own Catholic Church to reject “the virus of polarization and animosity” and the growing temptation to “demonize” those who are different.
The sermon came across as a gospelbased indictment of the populist and nationalist anger roiling countries around the world, displayed most recently in the election of Donald Trump as U. S. president.
“In God’s heart there are no enemies,” Francis told an assemblage of hundreds of clerics in elegant scarlet and purple vestments along with thousands of political and civic leaders and supporters of the new cardinals, who include three Americans.
“God has only sons and daughters,” the pope said. “We are the ones who raise walls, build barriers and label people. God has sons and daughters precisely so that no one will be turned away.”
Francis said our “instinctive reaction” is to “discredit or curse” those whom we view as opponents, “to ‘ demonize’ them so as to have a ‘ sacred’ justification” for dismissing them. God’s unconditional love, he said, “is the true prerequisite for the conversion of our pitiful hearts that tend to judge, divide, oppose and condemn.”
Trump has called for a registry for Muslims and a wall separating the U. S. from Mexico. He also pledged during the presidential campaign to throw undocumented immigrants out of the country.
His victory, this summer’s Brexit vote and the growing popularity of nationalist movements across Europe have raised grave concerns around the world, including at the Vatican. Francis made it clear that for him, such divisive sentiments are anathema.
“We live at a time in which polarization and exclusion are burgeoning and considered the only way to resolve conflicts,” said the pope, who turns 80 next month. “We see, for example, how quickly those among us with the status of a stranger, an immigrant or a refugee become a threat, take on the status of an enemy.”
“An enemy because they come from a distant country or have different customs. An enemy because of the color of their skin, their language or their social class. An enemy because they think differently or even have a different faith.” This animosity gradually turns to outright hostility and violence, he said.
Francis did not spare his own church from his warning.
“Yes, between us, within our communities, our priests, our meetings,” he told the hundreds of clerics, “the virus of polarization and animosity permeates our way of thinking, feeling and acting.”
Those words carried a special resonance given the controversy that erupted in recent days as four conservative cardinals publicly challenged Francis over his efforts to make the church more open and pastoral in its ministry, saying that they may try to charge him with teaching heresy if he does not clarify some of his statements.
The “Gang of Four,” as some here have dubbed them, is led by U. S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Rome- based churchman who has been one of Francis’ staunchest foes since he was elected pope in 2013.
In an interview published Friday, Francis appeared to respond to his foes — without naming them — saying some critics “are acting in bad faith to foment divisions.”
The churchmen elevated to the rank of cardinal Saturday include prelates from 11 dioceses and six countries that have never before had a cardinal.
The three new American cardinals are Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Indianapolis; and Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an Irish- born churchman whom Francis recently transferred from the Dallas diocese to a major post in the Roman Curia.