My Pope

It turns out that I’m quite the fanboy of recent popes. First it was Francis, now deceased, the patron saint of empathic understanding and non-judgmental acceptance of human difference. It would have been hard to predict from the perspective of history that a pope could have met the LGBTQ-plus community with a supernal level of humility and tenderness. Somebody asked him about gay Catholic men. Instead of driving people out of his church, he quietly announced an immortal generosity: “Who am I to judge?” he answered. That is the kind of response that opens the gates of Heaven.

Now comes Leo in the footsteps of his predecessor. Several weeks ago, as the Administration was ramping up, Leo used his pulpit to urge ecclesiastical activism. He demanded that his bishops take a stand on immigration. Hounding desperate people was sinful and indefensible. Wholesale deporation was against the will of the Living God. Not for Leo the strategy of diplomatic niceties. In a stroke, he fulfilled the moral demands of the moment and issued a call to three dimensional action, a take-to-the-streets effort to stop Trump in his tracks.

Miraculously, his words had their intended effect, at least when it comes to mobilizing his troops. American bishops meeting in Baltimore this week have issued a take-no-prisoners statement. The technical term is a “special message” which describes their objections to mass action against immigrants. Without naming Trump and Stephen Miller individually, it expressed their sense that Administration policy is wrong and offends against the standards of the church. It speaks movingly of the dignity of all human persons and obligates the church to acts of resistance.

I have not always been aligned with American bishops on matters of faith or public policy. Like progressive Jews everywhere and the majority of my colleagues, I urgently support the rights of women, especially when it comea to bodily autonomy. My understanding of the tradition is that their judgement is primary, especially in the area of reproductive freedom. The Church espouses an entirely contrary view, exemplifying the standard of religious pluralism.

But on the subject of immigration, we are completely congruent. Targeting people who have escaped poverty and violence by arduously crossing the American border seems unusually cruel for otherwise innocent souls, welcomed for decades by American business and government. Every immigrant activist says exactly the same thing. The handful of criminals are one small category. Deportation for the rest is brutal, stupid, and wrong.

I am especially proud that bishops of Oklahoma have been steady advocates of humanity and gentleness. During his life of service, the late Bishop Edward Slattery, said that he would rather go to jail than countenance the deportation of innocents. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City was recently elected president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. In that role, he is a crucial influencer. The final statement in Baltimore, he siad, had his “strong support.”

Quite clearly Pope Leo has seized the moment to work out the terms of Catholic faith. His faith is our faith, and his words will live as moral signpost in a time of savagery. If our co-religionist Stephen Miller cannot hear the voices of American rabbis, he should listen more carefully to the voice of the Vatican.