While the election of a Pope of the United States amazed the world, me, like so many Americans, I felt a shock and an impression in the best direction. And when he presented himself with the expression “Peace be with you”, it was happy to look at the Americans many different beliefs and cultures being proud of one of the own our own. It was also hope, because the call of Pope Leo XIV to dignity is universal.
However, I couldn’t help but think about a time ago 65 years ago, when many Americans did not think that a Catholic could become president of the United States. Today, we have an American who has become a Catholic pope. The cultural change we have attended in recent decades is so important that it is breathtaking.
In the 1960s, anti-Catholic prejudices were so common in American life that it almost sank the chances that John F. Kennedy, my uncle, would never take the oath. During his campaign, he had a hard time convincing a skeptical audience that Rome would have nothing to do with his decisions in power.
Today, we came far from the tolerance of religious differences and many other things that have historically divided us. But we always find it difficult to give people from all walks of life, fundamental human dignity, that’s why I hope – something ironically, you might say – that Pope Leo has a significant impact on American politics and culture in the years to come.
I do not plead at all for a ventilation of the wall between the church and the state. I say that our state could have a lot to learn from the church at this particular moment, with this particular pope.
When I travel across the country, I hear Americans who think we are in a crisis of broken trust and a lack of connection and belonging. Of his Very first words like popeLeo sought to be a unit calling for a more peaceful world. We need leaders who remind us of what is possible, which brings out the best in us while discouraging the worst.
In comments earlier this week, he went even further, support freedom of expression and free pressAnd showing that it is informed of the type of messaging that dominates the modern media focused on algorithm and poisons our public sphere. “Let us disarm the communication of all prejudices and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; Let us free it from the attack “,” He said. “We don’t need noisy and energetic communication but rather communication capable of listening.”
These words were encouraging to me because, for several years, I have put on a mission to reduce the political temperature of the country by replacing the contempt that we so often hear in daily discourse with dignity. Pope Leo reminds us that we can solve problems, facilitate divisions and prevent violence if we pay particular attention to the way we interact with each other in times of conflict or stress.
Our polarization problem is not caused by a simple disagreement. This is the result of how we act when we do not agree. Our language and our actions are often flooded with contempt, which only provides our divisions because it obliges a desire for revenge, which then launches a vicious circle of remuneration. If we want to bring together and solve problems, we must turn away from this contempt and to dignity.
We need urgency of voice and moral leaders of confidence to say that depreciation, dehumanization and contempt that have normalized in society are not at all normal and that there is a better way.
Sunday on Saint-Pierre square, Pope Leo delivered a homily calling to the unit in an inaugural mass to which hundreds of thousands of people, including world leaders and dignitaries, attended.
“We still see too much discord,” he said, “too many injuries caused by hatred, violence, prejudices, fear of difference and an economic paradigm that exploits the resources of the earth and marginalizes the poorest.”
According to all that we have learned about Pope Leo XIV, he taught this lesson, underpinned by Catholic social education, all his life. If this message comes from Rome and resonates all over America and the world, we will be better for that.