Most high-profile remarks to the US Congress can be safely forgotten within a news cycle. That was not the case with Pope Francis’s address earlier this week. Picking up where Laudato Si, his encyclical on the environment, left off, the pontiff encouraged dialogue and compassion to a political body that rarely indulges in either, and he quietly nudged it towards greater inclusivity. “A political society endures,” said the Pope, “when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk.”
After mentioning the global refugee crisis, the pope pointed out that “this continent, too” has a situation in which “thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life.” Finessing the xenophobia that has driven so much of the US discussion on illegal immigration the Pope asked Congress to “not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.”
Throughout the speech Pope Francis spoke in terms that a global audience would appreciate. Acknowledging the centrality of the United States in world affairs he nevertheless indicated, with admirable tact, its shortcomings as a global actor. Speaking of the “delicate balance” needed to fight political, religious or economic extremism, he cautioned his audience against “the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners.” Memorably he observed that: “The contemporary world, with its open wounds … demands that we confront every form of polarization … To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place.”
Homing in still further on the Manichean tendencies in US politics, the Pope noted the persistence “even in the developed world,” of “unjust structures” that should be reformed with a “renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good.” Speaking to one of the least cooperative legislative gatherings in recent history – one that has fought, tirelessly, to frustrate its president’s progressive instincts – Pope Francis added that “If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance… [it] is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one …[to build] a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life.”
Just in case this didn’t have a sufficient number of Representatives squirming in their seats, the next remarks touched on the Military Industrial complex. “Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?” asked the pontiff, before answering, sadly, “simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.” He condemned the “shameful and culpable silence” that allowed the arms trade to continue and called for collective action to bring it to an end.
It is easy to underestimate the importance of restating the case for dialogue, compassion and peace, especially to a powerful audience. Noam Chomsky once joked that speaking truth to power is a fool’s errand because the powerful already know the truth, often in far greater detail than their critics. Nevertheless, as subsequent reactions to the Pope’s speech have shown, the US is uniquely capable of absorbing thoughtful, carefully phrased criticism.
Many of us are familiar with the destructive force of American weapons or the neoliberal economics of the Washington Consensus, we are wary of its greedy corporations, quick to condemn its insularity, prurience, inequality or racial and religious bigotry. What we tend to overlook, as Pope Francis deliberately did not, is its unmatched power to produce dreamers, like the Rev Martin Luther King, and “Dreams which lead to action, to participation, to commitment. Dreams which awaken what is deepest and truest in the life of a people.”
