Religion, Politics, and the San Francisco Bridge
Religion, Politics, and the San Francisco Bridge
Father Jerry J. Pokorsky
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2023/01/15/religion-politics-and-the-golden-state-bridge/
Religion, Politics, and the Golden State Bridge
How do we avoid and correct the secular encroachment of the Catholic faith or religious violations of reasonable non-religious duties? The geography of San Francisco provides an analogy.
Golden State Bridge, San Francisco, California. (Image: Maarten van den Heuvel/Unsplash.com)
Our Catholic religion often falls victim to manipulation by priests and laity for political purposes. How do we avoid and correct the secular encroachment of the Catholic faith or religious violations of reasonable non-religious duties? The geography of San Francisco provides an analogy.
The ancient Israelites generally expected a political Messiah, partly explaining the Roman coin test of Jesus. In the early Church, the Romans persecuted subversive Christians who refused the patriotic duty of venerating Roman gods.
Immediately before the Ascension, the Apostles asked: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) Their political expectations are familiar and continue throughout history.
Before His Ascension, Jesus reveals to His politically-minded priests — the Apostles, the day will come when Jesus will indeed rule all nations, the living and the dead – fulfilling the Psalms: “All the nations thou hast made shall come and bow down before thee.” (Ps. 86:9). But the timing belongs to the Father alone: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”
Until then, Jesus commissions the Apostles to continue His work of redemption as their primary duty: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)
The Ascension of Jesus requires the Church to encounter Him in faith, keep His commands, and continue His saving work. Until the Second Coming, Jesus desires our freedom, fidelity, gratitude, and apostolic zeal. So Jesus returns to His Father and sends the Holy Spirit upon us. Fully incorporated into His Mystical Body, we become His instruments to transform our lives, families, and world in His grace – according to our distinctive roles in His hierarchical Church with bishops, priests, and the laity.
The clergy’s role is primarily religious as they carry out the redemptive priestly mission of Jesus. “Christ, to be sure, gave His Church no proper mission in the political, economic or social order. The purpose which He set before her is a religious one.” (Vatican II, GS 42)
The role of the laity is primarily secular, or “in the world.” “Secular duties and activities belong properly, although not exclusively to laymen. Therefore acting as citizens in the world, whether individually or socially, they will keep the laws proper to each discipline…” (GS 43)
It isn’t difficult (for the most part) to distinguish between doctrinal religious authority and negotiable political opinions. Yet, violations abound. The secular culture demands the Church modify her teaching on marriage and the family to modern expectations. We see popes dabbling in the politics of immigration and endure bishops supporting the neo-Marxist Black Lives Matter. The USCCB usually encourages big federal social spending.
Such non-binding-in-conscience political posturing undermines binding religious authority.
A proposal: The City by the Bay provides an analogy that helps clarify our understanding of the complementary relationship between priest and people. The San Francisco Bay represents the religious domain of the clergy (with Alcatraz as the Vatican). The vast Pacific Ocean belongs to the laity and their innumerable secular duties. The Golden Gate Bridge separates the secular Pacific Ocean from the religious San Francisco Bay. The roles of priests and laity are distinct but overlap. The two bodies of water intersect, to some extent lacking clarity. But the Bridge provides a convenient line of demarcation. The religious Bay includes Scripture study, the Creed, prayer, and the Sacraments. The Ten Commandments are essential to the priestly mandate. “If anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.” (1 Jn. 1:3) Priests typically avoid the choppy secular Pacific Ocean waters and focus on spiritual improvement: overcoming anger, impatience, and rash judgments; and promoting kindness, charity, and goodwill.
As a priest approaches the Golden Gate Bridge, he enters brackish cultural and national waters. As he critiques the secular culture by applying the Ten Commandments, the response is mixed, partly because the laity often fails to distinguish between the religious Bay and the secular Pacific.
The response of politically-minded laity — adrift in the Pacific, varies. Some are offended because the Commandments challenge their new morality of diversity, equality, and inclusion. Others typically don’t object because the Ten Commandments are somewhat compatible with their oceanic cultural hot tub. Nevertheless, careful priests are not practicing the art of politics.
Their authority indeed remains well within the religious San Francisco Bay. The leaven of the “Catholic cult” informs the “culture.” Apostolic authority encompasses carefully crafted critiques of the culture — according to God’s immutable laws — that extend far into the secular Pacific Ocean but do not go into the details of navigation.
The economic teachings of the Church related to the Fourth and Seventh Commandments are challenging, often navigating the choppy waters of the laity’s secular Pacific Ocean domain with priests as chaplains. Our understanding of the religious rights and duties of families — with borders and security, helps craft our immigration policies. As stewards of creation (cf. Genesis), we must avoid despoiling the environment. Except for egregious violations, devising and implementing those policies belong to the laity in charge of sailing the ocean blue.
The Catholic faith is universal, transcending, informing, and permeating all cultures. But religious teachings do not deprive the laity of their secular rights and duties. The complementary harmony of the Pacific Ocean and the City by the Bay, separated by the splendor of the Golden Gate Bridge, helps us critique, restore, and maintain a proper understanding of the respective roles of the laity and clergy.
This analogy is subject to correction by authorized Alcatraz officials.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt. 28:19-20)
