When The Pope Visits, He Serves No Agenda But The Church’s

The historic visit of Pope Francis to the USA has kicked off this afternoon, and a storm of interested parties attempting to co-opt his beliefs, his “agenda,” and his mere presence has been brewing for quite some time. Numerous media outlets and Christian and secular blogs have been attempting to determine just how “progressive” the Pope is, and even the stars of The View have weighed in on the political ramifications of the Pope’s visit.

Republicans have publicly expressed their fears that the Pope will use his visit to push a socialist or progressive agenda, thus eroding their credibility with Catholic voters, who make up a significant part of their base. Democrats are reacting with predictable positivity to the visit, with the Guardian reporting that the Pope’s visit is seen by some as a way to end the climate change controversy in Congress. And it’s not just politicians trying to co-opt Pope Francis. Publications like Deist are complaining about the commodification of the visit, citing the appearance of personalized rosary beads and even a line of Pope beer.

A significant factor in the political wrangle over who the Pope “belongs to,” so to speak, is the simple fact that his positions do not perfectly fit any faction of politics. He’s pro climate-change action, but anti-abortion, in favor of social programs for the relief of poverty, but against key elements of LGBTI equality. His anti-greed stance pleases the left to the same extent that his pro-life statements horrify them, and the reverse tends to be true for the right. And overlaying all this is the “label game,” where various commentators try to find a political orthodoxy into which they can crow-bar the Pope’s various positions.

It’s no wonder that none of these attempts is successful. Amidst a political climate that is arguably more divided than ever before, all sides of politics are desperate to co-opt someone as symbolically potent as the Pope in order to legitimize their own points of view. But the simple fact of the matter is that the Pope will never be able to serve any of them entirely. What seems to have been forgotten is that the Pope really only has one worldly master — the Catholic Church. As Pope, his only hard priority is the service and betterment of the state-like organization that he heads.

Pope Francis’ progressivism, his focus on the poor and on social justice, are neither unprecedented nor political. They represent an aspect of Catholicism that has ebbed and flowed throughout the Church’s long history. In fact, the choice of the name “Francis” was in part a signal. For over 800 years, the Catholic Church has struggled within itself to define doctrine regarding poverty both for clergy and the community. The 13th century Franciscan movement represent the most violent and absolute schism on these issues, and Pope Francis declared through his name and his disdain for vestments and ceremony exactly which side he was on — the side of the Church Spiritual.

The Church has many pre-occupations, and it has always been up to each new Pope to choose which he will focus on. The Pope’s wish to help the poor does not make him a Democrat, any more than his pro-life beliefs make him a Republican. It might sound a bit obvious, but in light of recent speculation there seems to be a need for it to be said : the Pope, first and foremost, is a Catholic.

[Picture via Getty Images/Pool]