"Habemus Papam!" "We have a Pope!"
Pope Leo XIV will be for workers what Pope Francis was for the environment.
United Auto Workers on strike at the John Deere factory in Ankeny, Iowa in November 2021.
There will be so much to say in the coming days, weeks, and years. Yesterday made history in so many ways.
The Catholic Church through the office of the Papacy and from the nation state of the Vatican speaks in symbol, tradition, ritual, and the time scale of centuries.
Since the US election day in November, much of what’s happening in the world has been on Trump time. It’s chaotic, undisciplined, untethered, spontaneous, self-absorbed, and unaccountable.
The world according to Trump is transactional. It’s cruel. Divisive.
First consider the rest of the world. I’ve been worried about the global move to nationalism with strong tones of isolationism, hostility towards immigrants, and authoritarianism. There has also been a rise in religious fundamentalism. All of this threatens the growth of democracy and coordinated international efforts to face challenges like climate change, migration, and support for basic human needs like food, health care, education, rights for women, and investing in people striving to rise out of poverty.
In the United States, even as the policies of the Trump administration threaten the economy and target all of the non-military functions of the federal government, the political power of Trump and Republicans has gone mostly unchecked. When the courts have attempted to rein in the executive branch, the President and his team have frequently ignored or challenged those rulings.
The ideology of radical individualism, the disregard for the environment, the tearing down of democracy, the rise of autocracy, and the concentration of wealth and power appeared to be gaining momentum.
However, while Trump and Republicans break things, a global movement is emerging. What to some seemed like the inevitability of a Trumpian world order where truth doesn’t matter and empathy is for losers appears to be becoming less inevitable.
While US Republicans have remained tethered to Trump, much of the world, including now ordinary Americans, are not willingly participating in this cosmic shift in fundamental values away from democracy and into authoritarianism.
In his second term, Trump’s attempt to break everything all at once in order to crush any opposition and to control all the functions of the federal government, just might be hitting an existential limit. The gamble that if they break things fast enough, they can hold onto power, might actually be the catalyst that sparks the return of democracy and smart government. In other words, they may have overplayed their hand and instead of advancing a radical, far right, anti-democracy global movement to authoritarianism, they broke that movement as well.
In Canada, the Conservative Party was expected to win in a landslide. Last month, the Liberal Party prevailed. It’s generally acknowledged that the Trump Administration created the on-ramp for a sharp swing to the left in Canada.
Last weekend, Australian voters moved to the left after earlier polling suggested a strong showing by conservatives. This gave the Labor Party a sweeping victory to maintain their control of the federal government.
This story in The Conversation gives a great overview of elections around the globe since Trump took office. Not all the elections rebuked the global movement to the right. But what looked like a growing movement fueled by the election of Trump in the United States, is starting to look more like a stalled global movement because of Trump.
That brings us to the election of Pope Leo XIV. Yesterday's election at the Vatican is the third election in less than two weeks where the winning candidate of a nation state stands in opposition to the political worldview of Team Trump.
Granted the Pope is not exactly like the Prime Minister of Canada or Australia, but he is elected. And his election on the second ballot, marked one of the shortest conclaves in history. The Cardinals were motivated to elect a leader in a manner that demonstrated resolve and unanimity. By contrast, Pope Francis was elected on the fifth ballot.
The Cardinals knew who they were electing and more importantly what the election of this person to become the Vicar of Christ would mean. It means a continuation of the movement in which Pope Francis had re-oriented the largest denomination of Christians on the planet. Nearly one out of every two Christians is a Catholic. The leader of the Catholic Church will continue to move the Church deeper into Catholic Social Teaching.
While there is no definitive list from the Vatican, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops provides this list of Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching.
Life and Dignity of the Human Person: The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society.
Call to Family, Community, and Participation: The person is not only sacred but also social. How we organize our society -- in economics and politics, in law and policy -- directly affects human dignity and the capacity of individuals to grow in community.
Rights and Responsibilities: The Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met.
Option for the Poor and Vulnerable: A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring.
The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers: The economy must serve people, not the other way around.
Solidarity: We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences.
Care for God's Creation: We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation.
This is not consistent with the politics of the MAGA movement, which had no love for Pope Francis.
Francis’s first encyclical was Laudato Si, On Care for Our Common Home. He chose to elevate environmental stewardship as a core aspect of his papacy. His chosen name spoke to it. And he wrapped his papacy within the social teachings of the Catholic Church.
Choosing the name Leo XIV is an intentional extension of the papacy of Leo XIII. A Vatican press release yesterday said it explicitly.
“Turning to the name chosen by the new Pope, Bruni confirmed that the decision to be called Leo XIV was a clear and deliberate reference to Pope Leo XIII, author of the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum. That document marked the beginning of the Church’s modern social doctrine.”
Here’s the third paragraph from Rerum Novarum: On Capital and Labor as a sample of what the Vatican is communicating.
3. In any case we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen's guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their place. Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.
The Cardinals didn’t pick a compromise candidate. They did not choose a short term placeholder. They did not choose someone to make a subtle statement.
John Paul II was the youngest modern pope at 58 years of age. He was pope for 26 years. He was Polish and provided a strong counterpoint to communism and the power of the Soviet Union.
Leo XIV is 69. He is from the United States. He could easily be Pope for 15 years.
While I won’t pretend to know the mind of the Cardinals, I do suggest that there is a message in the election of Leo XIV that is directed at the Trump worldview in similar ways as the message of the election of John Paul II was directed at the communist worldview in the 1970s.
The Vatican is playing the long game and they are focused squarely on Trump, Vance, and the threats of the MAGA movement.
When the Trump team generated and shared the AI image of Trump as Pope, they were playing games. They were feeding their base and mocking the “libs” who were reacting with outrage. They were trolling us.
Leo XIV is in a way the ultimate troll of Trump. I don’t look for a straight up confrontation. But I also don’t expect any compromise on Catholic Social Teaching. I don’t expect any on-ramps for the kind of “creative” theology Vice President Vance attempted with ordo amoris, the right ordering of love.
I did anticipate that MAGA would melt-down like a snowflake with the news of the first Pope from the United States when they figured out who he was and what he was going to build his papacy on. That happened within hours.
My bet is the election of the Head of State of the Vatican is only the third of many more elections to come embracing liberal democracy, standing with workers, and fighting more for social justice than corporate interests.
I anticipate more candidates willing to embrace more of the themes of Catholic Social Teaching and less of the values of MAGA will win races around the globe and in our own nation. More Americans are going to be showing up with homemade signs on small town Main Streets holding Trump and Republicans accountable.
My bet is with Leo XIV and the Vatican. They’re in it for the long game. The Catholic Church is being led by someone going all in on the New Testament. I went to bed last night with more hope in my heart and more fire in my belly than I’ve had since January 20th.
Come Holy Spirit come!
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Matt, what a great way to begin my morning. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for this informative and hope-filled post. May we all do our part to further the caring of creation and all that is in it, especially the folks who are now being disenfranchised, discriminated against, poor and vulnerable. May we all, no matter our faith of denomination, join in bringing more fairness and equity to those who are hurting most. And may democracy not only survive but thrive.
Yes, Matt. Yes, yes, yes, to every word of yours in this glorious post.