Made for Worthier Hopes

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Archbishop of the Military Services, recently gave an interview in which he was asked about where things stand between the American bishops and the Trump administration. His answer was telling: in some ways, he said, it’s been easier to work with the present administration than the previous – on the life issue, for instance, or on questions of freedom of conscience. But in other ways, some policies have been much thornier to navigate with them – questions of immigration, for example, or aid to refugees.

His comments weren’t splashy or heated. They were just a well-measured assessment of certain political questions as informed by Catholic principles and teaching. But that, perhaps, is enough to make his comments feel splashy when compared to the way we’re used to talking about politics. American political culture says that our political alignments are the absolute ones. Therefore, if you sign onto a political party, you shouldn’t critique it, no matter what; and if you don’t sign on to a given party, you should attack it, as often as you can. Because the point is that a given candidate or party isn’t us, and so we want them out; or that a given candidate or party are us, and so we want them in.

But Archbishop Broglio reminds us that the Church and the faithful’s duty is not first of all to a given political party – neither is, in fact, “us” wholesale. Both are pursuing certain goals which we can hold up to the light of truth to determine our agreement with them or not, but that’s where we can safely draw the line, when it comes to our obligation to them. This tends to be a truth easy enough to accept in idea, but it’s much more difficult to live out in practice – in the midst of ordinary discourse over dinner, at a ballgame, or with a couple of friends relaxing over a pint. We become oddly defensive and protective, in those settings, wanting to safeguard the sanctity of our party of choice, the infallibility of its decisions.

This tends to be a peculiar difficulty for Americans, especially. For a long time, there’s been a quiet belief that’s lingered in our national psyche that our republic is the new hope for humanity. It’s a project of terrific significance, as a result, and so to belong to it really is the most important thing; it might even be the Christian thing. Protecting and advancing America’s future is a sacred trust, one the world is counting on us to get right.

This is, of course, a step too far. Politics are important; good, just, prudent governments are important. But the Gospel transcends all of it in importance. The Lord demands our first and foremost allegiance, such that the political views we hold and the policies we support derive from our rootedness in Christ. We can therefore hold our political views lightly, if not inconsequentially; we can be unhesitating in backing off of the party line while chatting with the neighbor over burgers, if and when it comes to that. For our minds are made for devotion to much worthier truths than those articulated by the Republican or Democratic party, just because they happen to be the Republican or Democratic party; and, our souls are made for much worthier hopes than one in the future of the USA.

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