By Deacon Scott Dodge–
In a recent article for the Sunday Times, “Dark clouds gather over the home of Fakebook,” historian Niall Ferguson noted that the human tendency to “form clusters in any social network, regardless of size,” known as “homophily” (loving or liking what/who is the same), holds just as much, perhaps more, in virtual reality than it does in actual reality.
Unsurprisingly, the result of this online tendency, which involves a huge social network, unimaginable in scope until not very long ago, “is massive polarization.” This polarization leaves no room for common ground. In support of his assertion Ferguson cited research: “One recent study of 665 blogs and 16,852 links between them showed that they formed two almost separate clusters: one liberal, the other conservative. A similar study of Twitter revealed that retweets have the same character: conservatives retweet only conservative tweets [liberals retweet only liberal tweets]. Most striking of all, a newly published study of language used on Twitter demonstrates that, on hot-button issues such as gun control, same-sex marriage and climate change, it’s the tweets using moral and emotional language that are more likely to be retweeted.”
In an article for the current issue of Great Britain’s Catholic news weekly, Catholic Herald, “How online propaganda is tearing the Church apart,” Damian Thompson, from whose piece I was directed to Ferguson’s article, pointed out the terrible consequences of this polarization for the Church, especially given that even members of the Church’s hierarchy sometimes, even if unwittingly, engage in polarizing online behavior.
One member of the U.S. hierarchy, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, who shepherds our country’s largest and most diverse Catholic flock, gave a great antidote for the poison of propaganda. The venue was the 65th annual Red Mass, which is celebrated each year in Washington, D.C. It is a Mass for legal professionals held around the time the United States Supreme Court begins its autumn session. The Red Mass is attended by attorneys and judges, including some members of the Supreme Court, five of whom are Catholic.
Like this blog, Archbishop Gomez took Pope Francis’s 2015 visit to the United States as his starting point. Specifically, he pointed to the Holy Father’s canonization of the Spanish Franciscan friar and missionary Junípero Serra. Rather than celebrate Serra’s canonization Mass in California, where Serra conducted most of his ministry, the Pontiff celebrated it in our nation’s capital. As Gomez noted, this canonization Mass was the Pope’s first formal act during his 2015 Apostolic Journey.
What Pope Francis sought to communicate, according to Archbishop Gomez, were two things. First, Serra, whose behavior towards those in his charge was not always perfect, championed the full humanity of the indigenous peoples before the Spanish colonial government that denied them this. Hence, defending the life and dignity of each and every human being is the fundamental duty of government. Secondly, the pope sought to demonstrate that, even before the arrival of the Puritans, who were religio-politico refugees, the beginnings of what would become the United States, was spiritual. Therefore, what is spiritual and what is political are related.
The archbishop cited a homily Pope Francis gave at the Pontifical North American College in Rome several months before his visit to the U.S., in which the Holy Father called Serra one of the United States’ “founding fathers.” In light of this, I think we can group him with Merton, Day, Lincoln, and King as an American figure to whose life and legacy Francis thinks we ought to attend.
In his homily, Gomez noted that along with the Spanish missionaries, the colonists and the statesmen who came later “laid the spiritual and intellectual groundwork for a nation that remains unique in human history.” Founders on our east and west coasts were framers of what Pope in his speech to Congress called the “fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people.” What is unique about the United States, according to the archbishop, is that we are a country “conceived under God and committed to promoting human dignity, freedom and the flourishing of a diversity of peoples, races, ideas and beliefs.”
His Excellency went on to address the challenges we face today in light of the Gospel and the ideals on which our country was founded. He noted that practically-speaking among those things that promote human dignity and freedom are caring for the young, the elderly, the poor and sick, welcoming immigrants and refugees, as well as rehabilitating prisoners.
Gomez also noted that, as a nation, we have often failed to live up to these ideals. Finally, he pointed out that perhaps the greatest power in the world is one we all possess: the power to forgive. It is this power, which is nothing but the power of love that allows us to realize our aspirations.
As Catholics we need to be united in our faith if the Church is to serve society, to be the salt and light the Lord calls us to be. Unity in faith requires us to distinguish between what pertains to the Gospel and what arises from political ideologies. Unity also requires us to discern between what properly pertains to personal morality and what pertains to the common good. While the two are connected, we tend to publicly prioritize the former over the latter, which often includes judging the personal morality of the poor in order to give ourselves cover for not responding charitably to their needs.
Archbishop Gomez also noted in his homily: “We have come a long way. But we have not come nearly far enough. That should not make us give in to cynicism or despair. For all our weakness and failure: America is still a beacon of hope for peoples of every nation, who look to this country for refuge, for freedom and equality under God.”
