Pope Francis departed the United States Sunday evening, closing out a nearly week-long trip to America that included huge worship services, visits with the homeless, and speeches at the White House, Congress, and the United Nations. The expansive visit, which featured stops in three East Coast cities, was widely covered by virtually every major news outlet, and Francis’ various events were so well attended that he managed to stop traffic wherever he went.
But now that crowds have dispersed and the papal plane has made its way back to the Vatican, a question remains: What did the pope’s visit actually “do,” and how will it affect America?
It’s a bit too early to know for sure, but here are few predictions.
The pope’s visit was intentionally political, and will impact Congress and the 2016 election — to a point
While in the U.S., Francis repeatedly made bold calls for action on climate change, immigration, and economic inequality, moves that are certain to reenergize advocates pushing for federal legislation in those policy areas. Indeed, his visit was met with large rallies and demonstrations on all three issues, and his declaration that society should do more to help economically struggling families could encourage new movement on family-focused economic policies such as the FAMILY Act, which would guarantee every employee twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave.
Alas, the pope’s words — however inspiring — probably won’t do much to ease tensions within America’s famously gridlocked Congress.
Alas, the pope’s words — however inspiring — probably won’t do much to ease tensions within America’s famously gridlocked Congress. Although he received a standing ovation from lawmakers last Wednesday, his words were not uniformly endorsed by everyone present. In fact, it technically wasn’t even a full house: At least one Republican Congressman, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), boycotted the pontiff’s speech because he heard it would contain comments on climate change — even though Gosar himself is Catholic.
And while there are currently no fewer than six Catholic candidates jostling to be the Republican presidential nominee, most have worked to distance themselves from the pope’s more progressive positions. In addition to several awkward statements over the past few months from GOP candidates Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum challenging the pope’s credibility on climate change, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) posited last week that Francis’ words are only valuable when applied to “moral” issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, and not supposedly amoral issues such as economics or the environment (a dichotomy the pope himself rejects, as do most American Catholics).
“On moral issues, [Francis] speaks with incredible authority,” Rubio said. “He’s done so consistently on the value of life, on the sanctity of life, on the importance of marriage and on the family. [But] on economic issues, the pope is a person.”
Still, don’t be surprised if Francis shows up in any number of political speeches here moving forward, with politicians — especially Democrats — quoting him him as a holy endorsement of progressive policy positions. He is also likely to end up in campaign advertisements, presumably juxtaposed against Republican candidates who champion their Catholic faith only to ignore the pope when he disagrees with them. Conservatives, on the other hand, will probably harp on his robust defense of religious liberty.
Also, Francis’ visit to a Philadelphia detention center and support for prisoners’ rights could trigger renewed talks on prison reform, an issue accruing an unusual level of bipartisan support in an otherwise deeply divided Washington.
The trip cemented Francis’ role as an international leader
Arguably the most tangible outcome of Francis’ journey to the states will be his growing legitimacy as a global diplomat. Granted, Francis was already an unusually effective international dealmaker before the U.S. visit, organizing leaders from Israel and Palestine to pray for peace and helping to broker the normalization of relations between America and Cuba. In fact, the pontiff’s recent trip schedule was a none-to-subtle celebration of this success: Francis went to Cuba the week before coming to the United States, and commentators in both countries framed the thawing diplomatic relationships as a clear product of Francis’ work.
But Francis’ kicked it up a notch during an address last week to the United Nations — his first — when he laid out a complex but comprehensive agenda for solving a number of the world’s problems. This makes sense, given that he has already moved to put the Vatican at the center of issues such as combatting climate change, but his tone before the General Assembly invited collaboration from across the political and theological spectrum, a sentiment that was echoed later that day when he oversaw an interfaith service at the September 11 memorial: He reportedly sought to spark “new urgency” for religious tolerance, according to a local bishop. When coupled with the pope’s repeated olive branches to members of other religions — such as demanding Catholic parishes in Europe take in refugee families from Syria, many of whom are Muslim — his prominent gestures of goodwill in America set him up to be a possible third party for future peace negotiations.
And as the world gears up for high-profile talks on climate change in Paris later this year, look for the international leaders to use the pope’s U.N. speech as a launching pad to help broker a formalized agreement on the environment.
His U.S. speeches will guide future Catholic conversations about “family issues”
Religiously speaking, the Holy Father’s visit to America won’t change much. Francis is still the pope, and his stopover in the United States will do little to alter the day-to-day machinations of the Vatican or the Catholic Church writ large. Granted, America’s far-reaching media likely magnified papal messages louder than ever, but Francis didn’t really say anything in Washington, New York City, or Philadelphia that he hasn’t already spoken to before, and he certainly didn’t advocate for any changes in Catholic teaching. If anything, his American speeches and homilies were simply a grand synthesis of his collective works thus far as pope.
If anything, the pope’s American speeches and homilies were simply a grand synthesis of his collective works thus far as pope.
However, it is worth noting that Francis did expound upon so-called “family issues” while in Philadelphia on Sunday. Speaking to the Festival of the Families, a Catholic conference that was convened in the city and was Francis’ original impetus to visit the country, the pope called the institutional family a “factory of hope,” and implied — as he had in other speeches — that society should do everything it can to protect them.
But while Francis did mention marriage as something that occurs between a man and a woman, he did not otherwise specifically address homosexuality or same-sex marriage — things typically classified as “family issues” within the Catholic Church. This is significant because Francis is preparing for an upcoming Synod on the Family, a meeting of prominent clergy to discuss these issues and make recommendations for how the Church should address things such as marriage equality, divorce, contraception, and couples that live together before marriage, among many others. The synod is the second in two years, and while it can only make recommendations (as opposed to altering Church teaching), it could help steer the Church towards change on these issues.
Thus, Francis’ clear distaste for discussions of reproductive rights and LGBT issues could impact the outcome of those conversations — although the specifics of how remain unclear.