(RNS) — People keep asking me, “Is the new pope liberal or conservative?” The question itself betrays our culture’s tendency to view our faith and many moral issues through a partisan political lens. The lens is red or blue, left or right, but if we are Christian our lens should be Christ.
Merely applying that American lens to the new pope might make a “click-worthy” news story or trigger some misguided tribalism, but it’s wrong. Sure, we Catholics find many things to disagree about, but the church’s social doctrine is very clear. Care for the poor and marginalized isn’t red or blue — it’s what we are called to do as Catholics.
Jesus teaches us to draw close to those who suffer. When the Catholic Church engages on issues such as economics, immigration and abortion, we start with what Jesus teaches us. We start with the Gospel of Matthew’s Chapter 25 and caring for “the least of these.” We recall Jesus’ solidarity with the lepers, the disabled and the outcast woman at the well. Inspired by the teachings and actions of Jesus, Catholic doctrine on social issues has long held a preferential commitment to the poor.
Looking through the lens of the gospel, we seek to protect the unborn, migrants and people on Medicaid. Whether it’s Pope Leo XIII in 1891 uplifting the rights of workers, Pope Francis speaking about the dignity of migrant labor today, or even our new Leo XIV urging us in 2015 to sign the Catholic Climate Petition, loud voices in media and politics dismiss this as left wing, blue-tinted politics.
And when we speak of the human dignity of the unborn and the elderly — as our new pope has done on numerous occasions — equally loud voices dismiss it as right wing, red-tinted politics.
Is Leo XIV going to be vocal for the lives of the unborn, or is he going to champion social justice? Yes, he will do both, since, for Catholics, these issues aren’t discrete. The dignity of human life means justice for an unborn baby and a worker, an immigrant and a small business owner, a farmer and a prisoner, someone denied opportunity because of race and someone denied opportunity because of motherhood. As Catholics, we follow Jesus before political party. Our moral duty is neither red nor blue. It transcends politics.
Let’s look at the issue of the environment, on which I am heavily involved as the bishop moderator for the Vatican’s designated organization on the environment in the U.S., a nonprofit called Catholic Climate Covenant. People are shocked to hear that it was Pope John Paul II who said that the “greenhouse effect has now reached crisis proportions as a consequence of industrial growth” in 1990 or that Pope Benedict XVI challenged our “indifference” to “such realities as climate change” in 2010.
Most people also do not know that the U.S. bishops continue taking strong stands on pollution and climate change. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently advocated that the Environmental Protection Agency strengthen limits on deadly soot pollution from power plants, which would save thousands of lives each year.
I anticipate Leo will, as every pope, champion the whole of Catholic social doctrine. The name he chose seems to underline this commitment. The last Pope Leo, in 1891, ushered in our great tradition of social doctrine when he wrote the watershed encyclical letter called “Rerum Novarum.” Class struggle and violence exploded in his time, including Chicago’s famous 1886 Haymarket protest that we now commemorate with May Day. Leo XIII decried “the enormous fortunes of some few individuals and the utter poverty of the masses.”
While rejecting both radical socialism and ravenous capitalism, Leo XIII also called for the right of workers to unionize and collectively bargain and advocated for what would become the eight-hour workday.
Leo XIII’s encyclical “Rerum Novarum” translates to “Of New Things.” As we bear witness to our new pope’s service to the church and the world, we have a chance to think anew about the relationship between politics and faith. We can pause to replace our red- or blue-tinted lens for the clear lens of moral values.
Once we do, we will see a united church emulating Jesus’ deep solidarity with the vulnerable and marginalized. Then the important question to ask will be, “Who are we serving today?”
(The Most Rev. Joseph J. Tyson serves as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Yakima in Washington state and as bishop moderator for Catholic Climate Covenant, based in Washington. The views represented in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)