Religion News Service's reporter Jack Jenkins could barely contain his excitement as he reported that the Catholic cardinals had selected as their next pope a man who might stand up to Donald Trump:
Jenkins quoted seminary professor Steven P. Millies in his article, suggesting a parallel between Karol Józef Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II) opposing Soviet communism and Robert Francis Prevost (the new Pope Leo XIV) opposing Trump authoritarianism.
He was reminded of when Pope John Paul II was elected 'from behind the Iron Curtain' in 1978, a move that signaled the church was choosing to challenge the Soviet bloc.
'We are watching authoritarianism swell in all parts of the globe, but is fueled most visibly by the Trump administration in Washington, D.C.,' Millies said. "The election of an American pope, the first American pope … there's a signal here that the church is taking a side in what's happening around the globe."
There are two things to address here. First, the possibility that this reporting is accurate and that the Catholic Church is now an institution preoccupied with contemporary American politics. Second, the fact that upon hearing the news that there is a new pope, the first impulse of men like Jenkins and Millies is to ask, "I wonder what he thinks about Trump?"
In terms of the first issue, the Catholic Church remains one of the oldest institutions operating on the earth. The cardinals who selected Prevost represented over 70 different countries, likely the most geographically diverse conclave in the church's history. If such an eclectic array of spiritual leaders viewed their solemn duties through the prism of American politics, it's an egregious dereliction of duty, and the Catholic Church has a far bigger problem than any earthly authoritarianism.
Yet that appears to be the anxious hope of both Jenkins and Millies, the former having posted this breathless tease just hours before his politics-laden article dropped:
Trying to be respectful, that kind of assessment represents such a stunted, truncated, feeble view of the Church of Jesus. It's what you would expect from the ladies on The View, not religious reporters and scholars. Incidentally, the women of The View didn't disappoint, addressing the appointment of Prevost by fretting he might uphold Catholic doctrine on LGBT issues.
It's not that His Church is to remain silent on worldly issues. It's that viewing the importance and significance of a faith supposedly representing the Savior of humanity strictly through a 21st-century ideological lens is, well, sad.
I have significant doctrinal differences with Catholicism, but here's a point I think all of us wearing the name of Jesus should agree on: His Church is eternally focused. It exists to glorify God, bind believers together, and point all people to Christ as Lord. That is what will change the world, not elections or the machinations of worldly empires.
Religion reporters and seminary professors shouldn't struggle grasping that.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
