President and Pontiff
In many ways the American president and the Argentine pontiff are a study in contrasts. The dynamic pope, for example, has emerged as the leading global advocate for immigrants and refugees while President Trump seeks to sharply curtail immigration to the U.S. from Mexico and several Muslim-majority nations. So in the days leading up to their historic meeting at the Vatican much will be made of their diametrically opposed views on several major issues. However, there are a number of commonalities, despite the significant differences in their worldviews, that could bring the two influential world leaders closer together than expected.
Populist Outsiders – The first Latin American pope is a dyed-in-the-wool Argentine populist. Elected pope in order to revitalize the Church, especially in his native Latin America where only 69% are now Catholic, Francis is the New World outsider at the Vatican shepherding the seismic shift of the ecclesial center of gravity away from Europe and toward the Global South. A small but very vocal group of conservative clerics, led by American cardinal, Raymond Burke, have fought Francis’s progressive agenda tooth and nail, but his approval rates among parishioners across the globe are as sky-high as those of Pope John Paul II were. Liberation Theology, which calls for a preferential option for the poor, guides the pope’s Catholic populism.
Real estate mogul Donald Trump shocked both the Republican establishment and the American body politic by successfully campaigning as an angry populist outsider who promised to drain the Washington swamp of corrupt and self-serving politicians and lobbyists. Trump’s nativist and xenophobic scorched-earth campaign, promising to “Make America Great Again,” resonated with just enough white middle and working class voters, especially Evangelicals and Catholics, to earn the brash businessman four years in the White House. Though President Trump continues to cultivate his populist persona, especially at frequent campaign-style rallies with his base, his political agenda couldn’t be friendlier to the country’s corporate and financial elite. Here we see a significant divergence with Pope Francis’s brand of populism, which goes far beyond the realm of rhetoric.
Loose Cannons – As part of their appeal to the disenfranchised masses, populist leaders are typically charismatic figures who frequently go off script, pontificating on whatever happens to cross their mind at any particular moment. Both men are so adept at extemporaneous communication that I could pen an entire HuffPost on their notorious departures from the script. One of Trump’s most recent unfiltered remarks was calling former FBI director James Comey a “nut job” during his recent meeting with Russian officials in the Oval Office. Pope Francis’s freestyling isn’t usually as outrageous, but his (in)famous line, “If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?" led to months of Vatican damage-control over what was misinterpreted by some as a major shift in Catholic policy on LGBT parishioners.
Persecution of Christians – Major concern over the persecution of Christians in their Middle East homeland, especially Syria and Iraq, is one of the substantive agenda items that unites the president and the pope. Concern for the near-extinction of Christians in the conflicted region has been at the top of the papal agenda, as evidenced by his recent trip to Egypt where the region’s largest Christian population, predominantly Copts, are the targets of Islamist terrorism. In his welcome address to Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized the freedom of worship for Christians in his country, in contrast to their persecution in the rest of the region.
The persecution of Christians is also an in issue that is near and dear to the hearts of white Evangelicals who constitute Trump’s core constituency and have remained loyal to him even as his approval rates among Americans plummet to record lows, and he faces possible impeachment over dealings with Russia. Trump himself of course is a de facto Religious None who rarely attends church and is unfamiliar with basic tenets of the Presbyterian faith in which he was raised. Nevertheless, Trump will almost certainly discuss Christian persecution in the Middle East with the pope since it’s of major concern to his political base and one of the few substantive areas of common ground with him.
As the prophetic pastor that he is, the Argentine pope will likely express some concern to the American president on major issues that divide the two world leaders, such as climate change, immigrants and refugees, and the plight of the poor. However, given the apocalyptic spirit of the times, look for the pope and president to come together on the basis of their commonalities.