Paul KeenanThe US hierarchy can work with Donald Trump, writes Paul Keenan
Of all the commentary surfacing in the immediate aftermath of the shock result to the US election, it was Vatican veteran George Weigel who most succinctly captured the surreal reality for many when he wrote: “The good news is that she lost. The bad news is that he won.”
It was in this contorting context of the morning of November 9 that American society (and the wider world) began the process of thinking past what had not been at all considered just hours before, but which now must be accepted and negotiated with for at least the next four years of American political life.
Among those waking up that morning to a presidency all but unthinkable were the members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who, not unlike other collective stakeholders, had a further harsh fact to deal with; barely had the impact of the new era in politics hit them than the major role played by the Catholic laity in Mr Trump’s victory surfaced for the hierarchy to consider.
Findings
Within hours of the declared result, the Pew Research Centre issued findings on the religious vote. Its ‘How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis’ (www.pewresearch.org) revealed that “White Catholics…supported Trump over Clinton by a wide, 23-point margin (60% to 37%)…Trump’s strong support among white Catholics propelled him to a seven-point edge among Catholics overall (52% to 45%) despite the fact that Hispanic Catholics backed Clinton over Trump by a 41-point margin (67% to 26%).”
Across all traditions, meanwhile, Pew found that “exit polls also follow another pattern from recent elections: Most weekly churchgoers backed Trump over Clinton, 56% to 40%. Those who said they attend religious services more sporadically (i.e., somewhere between a few times a month and a few times a year) were closely divided. And, those who said they don’t attend religious services at all backed Clinton over Trump by a 31-point margin (62% to 31%).”
(Writing in the National Catholic Reporter, Seán Winter seemed to offer a flavour of Catholic division when he quoted Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles speaking to the fear felt at the result – “There are men and women who can’t sleep because they are trying to figure out what to do next” – and the welcome offered by Cardinal Raymond Burke who insisted that Mr Trump’s statements on abortion and family issues show “a great disposition to hear the Church on these matters”.)
Readers of The Irish Catholic may be no less divided, such has been the power of Mr Trump to speak one way, act another and subsequently flip-flop in a campaign that has people guessing still.
Yet the Catholic findings seem incredible for a candidate as alienating and divisive as Mr Trump, though somewhat less so when set against the singular issue of abortion, by which many identified Hillary Clinton.
Crux Now noted significantly: “Out of sight of most media reports, religious concerns…seem to have played an important role in Trump’s win. Whether religious voters were embracing Trump or blocking Clinton, there seems to be a clear political message in the result, which is that people of faith cannot be ignored, disparaged or taken for granted.”
This is to be sincerely hoped as the US hierarchy prepares to deal with President Trump.
How that interaction will unfold will have been largely decided by the bishops during their November 14-16 plenary meeting in the city of Baltimore. (Will the figure of Mr Trump have loomed large enough to affect the bishops’ choice of a new conference president?)
Again, however, a hint of the bishops’ sense of matters was quickly revealed after the presidential result.
Far from engaging in non-productive blame games, the prelates held their nerve to consider the challenges to be faced over the next four years.
Here, remember is the representative body of the Church in the US that decried President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, and yet found itself able to work with him on matters of religious freedom; similarly it could work with his successor who has proved himself strongly at odds with the Church on contraceptive and abortion elements of his universal healthcare plan – forcing religious congregations to pursue vindication of their religious rights through the courts – but simultaneously found common ground on climate issues.
Now the wheel has turned full circle, and the bishops face a president-elect with numerous policy aims standing in direct opposition to the messages of Pope Francis. Where one makes care of the environment part of his Laudato Si’ encyclical, the other describes climate change as a “hoax”, words of tolerance and inclusion for the tragic migrants of Syria are met with calls for a ban on “all Muslims” seeking to access the United States.
It is in recognising the damage to be wrought by making the perfect the enemy of the good that now compels the US hierarchy to carefully map their path forward. The understanding of this was to be found clearly enunciated in the message issued by outgoing conference president Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville in response to the Trump victory.
Stating bluntly that “the American people have made their decision”, Archbishop Kurtz quickly sets out the Church’s stall for Mr Trump to carefully consider after inauguration day.
“The Bishops’ Conference looks forward to working with President-elect Trump to protect human life from its most vulnerable beginning to its natural end,” Archbishop Kurtz declares. “We will advocate for policies that offer opportunity to all people, of all faiths, in all walks of life.
“We are firm in our resolve that our brothers and sisters who are migrants and refugees can be humanely welcomed without sacrificing our security. We will call attention to the violent persecution threatening our fellow Christians and people of other faiths around the world, especially in the Middle East.
“And we will look for the new administration’s commitment to domestic religious liberty, ensuring people of faith remain free to proclaim and shape our lives around the truth about man and woman, and the unique bond of marriage that they can form.”
Thus, while others took to social media to rail against ‘President Trump’, or to the streets to lay claim to the violence they had smugly predicted would be the response of failed Trump supporters on November 9, it was the bishops, their case stated, who eschewed any temptation to sneer at the laity’s choice and led calls for a nation divided to now heal itself within the democratic process on which it prides itself.
More loudly than many political leaders – and certainly more than the greater swathe of the US media – Bishop Michael Burbidge of Raleigh, North Carolina led appeals that division should not now be the greater outcome of the election. Offering his congratulations to Mr Trump, he said: “Regardless of who received our vote, now is the time to be reminded that the strength of our republic lies in our unity as fellow citizens and members of God’s holy family. Such relationships are the bedrock of our society and it is our sacred duty to foster them so that nothing divides us. When we live in such harmony, there will be true dialogue, and the exchange of ideas will occur in a civil and respectful manner.”
Likewise Cardinal-elect Blase J. Cupich, addressing questions of the Catholic vote for Mr Trump, found time to state that “our common goals must be to demonstrate our commitment to those ideals, to recover our solidarity as a nation”.
And that’s another thing the protestors won’t want to accept but must: the bishops are right.