At meeting of Obama and pope, shared views on 3 key issues
When Pope Francis and President Obama meet at the Vatican on Thursday, everybody from political heavyweights in Washington to Catholics in the pews will be closely watching. What will a spiritual rock star riding a wave of global enthusiasm and a beleaguered second-term president facing a divided Congress talk about behind closed doors?
A Catholic and a Protestant who disagree over flashpoints such as abortion and can’t speak the same language might seem like an odd couple for fruitful dialogue. But Obama will find a warmer reception from Pope Francis than he does from a vocal minority of U.S. culture-warrior bishops and conservative political leaders who sometimes act as if God is a Republican. Though the pontiff will surely bring up church teaching on abortion and raise objections U.S. bishops have about contraception coverage in the Affordable Care Act, he will find plenty of common ground with a president who wants to raise the minimum wage, pass immigration reform and calls inequality the “defining challenge of our time.”
When it comes to economic justice, Pope Francis is more progressive than Obama. The pope flustered more than a few conservative political donors when he challenged those who defend “trickle-down” economic theories and unfettered markets. These views, the pontiff said, have “never been confirmed by the facts” and show a “crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.”
Unlike some high-profile Catholics in Congress who cut taxes for the rich and food assistance for struggling families, Pope Francis warns about an “economy of exclusion and inequality.”
This pope is not a maverick. For more than century, traditional Catholic social teaching has supported living wages for workers. While Catholics such as House Speaker John Boehner oppose Obama’s push to raise the minimum wage, the church has supported living wages since 1891, when Pope Leo XIII recognized the right of workers to earn enough to provide for a family. Today’s federal minimum wage fails that basic moral test.
Obama will find a receptive audience from the pontiff on efforts to reform a U.S. immigration system. In his first trip as pope outside of Rome, Francis denounced a “globalization of indifference” during an emotional visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, where an estimated 20,000 migrants have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Africa en route to Europe. A tour by U.S. bishops of the U.S-Mexico border next week will include a Mass for migrants who have died attempting to cross the desert.
The White House and the Vatican also have shared goals around international diplomacy. When Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Vatican counterpart, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in January, discussions included negotiations between Israel and Palestine, and the Syrian civil war. Obama’s efforts on nuclear deterrence and disarmament have been praised by Vatican officials.
Christian culture warriors and politicians who reduce the expansive Catholic social justice tradition to bumper-sticker simplicity and think they are holier than the pope could learn an important lesson this week.