Losing Faith in Politics

During Pope Francis’s recent visit to the United States, he was widely applauded by people of all walks of life. Yet his greatest gain was his growing support among liberals.

This is a pope who speaks of kindness, gentleness, and open-mindedness. This is a pope who says all of the right things about taking care of the sick and the poor. He even rejected a dinner with the politically elite to instead dine with homeless people.

What a guy.

However, the catch came  when news broke out about Francis’s meeting with Kim Davis, the right-wing “martyr” who refused to do her government-appointed job of issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. According to Davis’s camp, Francis supported her efforts, and told her to “stay strong.”

There was about a day’s worth of backlash from the pope’s liberal fans who felt betrayed by this story, but it didn’t take long for a Vatican representative to assure Francis’s left-wing groupies that “his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects.”

It was a very political answer from the representative of a very political man. The answer says nothing at all really. It neither confirms nor denies Francis’s feelings about Kim Davis or about same-sex marriage in general. What it does offer is some confirmation of the words of the man himself.

A few months ago in Manila, Francis spoke before a mass saying, “The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage… which threaten to disfigure God’s plan for creation.”

So the question remains, why do liberal-minded individuals continue to give Francis a pass? He has continually said the nice, open-minded thing when speaking to some audiences, but then has said the exact opposite to others. This is the sort of duplicity that people have no problem attacking politicians over, but for some reason, we continue to handle Francis with kid gloves.

If a man is going to stand before the public as a leader of any kind, the least we should expect is for him to be genuine about his opinions.

Francis is the very definition of someone who wants to have his cake and eat it too. He constantly offers warm, accepting sound bites while continuing to a lead a church that fundamentally supports discrimination against same-sex couples.

Francis is absolutely entitled to his own opinions, and everyone is just as entitled to agree with him, but if you are one of the many people who firmly believe in marriage equality, you may want to consider tempering your support of the pope.

There is always the possibility that Francis actually is as accepting as he portrays himself, and is just doing his best to work within the difficult confines of his position, but how much can we really admire a man who would feel that way and not put himself on the line for it? We need more from Francis, and there is nothing wrong with expecting it.

Being a better man than his predecessors is not the only standard we should hold the pope to.

Brady Simenson
Contributor
bsime172@uwsp.edu