Saturday, April 19, 2008

Benedict and politics

If this election has revealed anything about the state of the American political community, it that it is stricken with division. Republicans and democrats, pro-lifers and pro-choicers, those for and against a continuation of the war…the division is seemingly endless. Yet, despite the claims of hope that each candidate brings, is there really any hope for change with the current rules of the game? Simply put, all the candidates say they are offering a new approach, but is it really enough to change the political community? Their campaign tactics have largely been the same, their voting records in the Senate are nothing “revolutionary”, and, after the release of their tax records, they in reality are the proto-typical multi-million dollar candidates. I’m beginning to doubt that these same old rules and norms in the campaign and political community can really bring about any substantive “change”, at least the type that the American people are looking for.

This said, pope Benedict XVI’s visit has been a remarkable witness to the true path to reconciliation and change, for this essentially is what the nation’s political community is looking for. Earlier in the week I saw a clip on CNN of the head of an American Atheist group saying she would be picketing the pope’s arrival. Her argument was that his trip was purely political (is she that unimaginative?) and that he was trying to push the “Catholic agenda” on Bush. At first I wrote her off, but I think in a lot of ways she was right…

However, she was right in a different way. Nearly mirroring the division of American society, there really is a split in the Catholic church between its various communities. People are becoming evermore “cafeteria-ized”, and due to the sins of some of the clergy’s past, there are incredibly deep wounds that need to begin the process of healing. Where American politics seems to be in the habit of offering an “alternative” when there is an obvious problem in the community to heal it (take Obama’s campaign centered around a new hope or change, or even McCain’s “Straight talk express”), Benedict offered a new path to reconciliation, to unity.

He listened; he wept; and he prayed. Simply, he loved. Three abuse survivors shared their stories with Benedict after his Mass in Washington D.C., and their reactions on CNN were testament to the healing power of reconciling love. The were all three moved at his understanding, his incredible listening skills, and his concern. Publicly, the pope has denounced these priests who have forsaken their calling. His response to the division is love, not confrontation. Christ commands us to love, and Benedict truly showed the love of the Church this week in his engagement of these survivors. For reconciliation comes in this mutual recognition of humanity, in an affirming love that shows the concern for the other with more than merely words. Thus, as the American political community is fraught with division, Benedict did offer an answer – a way of living. A radical love that reaches out, reconciles, and heals. Yes, he was political, but in no way most protesters could have ever dreamed. His largest challenge to not just Catholics but all Americans in the political arena is the challenge of a reconciling love. Instead of offering different policies, as American politicians do so well, he offers a different way of living, the love of Christ crucified.

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