Introducing Pope Francis to America By Jim Nicholson And Newt Gingrich
http://www.wsj.com/articles/introducing-pope-francis-to-america-1442613272
Our first-time visitor will find a free-enterprise system that has lifted millions from poverty.
As lay Catholics, one of us a “cradle” Catholic, and one of us a convert, we add our warm welcome to you, Pope Francis, on your upcoming pastoral visit to the United States.
Americans deeply admire—and share—your commitment, as affirmed in your inaugural Mass, “to protect the whole of creation, to protect each person, especially the poorest.” In that same Mass you called on all of us to share in this service to the person “so that the star of hope will shine brightly.”
Americans know this service well. Our nation was founded precisely on the basis of protecting the person. Our founders proclaimed the “self-evident” truth that all men are created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Our form of government is often called an “experiment” because it was an exception to the prevailing practices of government everywhere else in the world in which rights of the person were defined (and routinely violated) by kings, despots and oligarchs. Here, God is the source of rights and the people govern. Government was designed to be the servant of the people, not their master.
Several decades later, an American president reflected on the explosion of prosperity that followed the establishment of this experiment. He wrote that it was not the result of accident but of something close to the human heart. “That something,” wrote Abraham Lincoln, “is the principle of ‘Liberty to all’—the principle that clears the path for all—gives hope to all—and, by consequence, enterprise, and industry to all.”
In his search for understanding America, 19th-century French visitor Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of the deepest source of America’s capacity for renewal: “Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions.”
During his 2008 visit, Pope Benedict described the American experiment this way: “In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good.”
This ever-present challenge of winning freedom for the cause of good is why all of America joyfully welcomes you and your ministry. You are clear about good and evil. You have met with the victims of priestly abuse and mafia violence. You speak of the devil as a reality to be confronted. We need your wisdom and prayerful guidance to meet the challenge of freedom for a new generation. What you will find is an America that never stops debating the best way to order freedom to the good for the benefit of all.
You have laudably made active outreach to the poorest and most vulnerable one of the pillars of your pontificate, inviting all people of good will to come to the aid of those in need. Care for the poor—understood not just as a socioeconomic class, but as all those who cannot fully care for themselves—is among the foundational values of this country. Having come from poverty to prosperity, Americans have not clung greedily to their wealth, but have shared prosperity with the rest of the world, both through direct aid and through investment in the ideas and initiatives of others.
Far more significantly, many of our young citizens in uniform have fought and died to free others from tyranny, and to make possible the opportunities that we have enjoyed.
We note, your Holiness, in your recent speech in Bolivia that it is your view that the predominant global economic system has the “mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”
That is not the United States.
Much of the opportunity that characterizes our nation, a nation of immigrants, flows from a political and economic system that rewards hard work and creativity. We strive to put the well-being of the human person at the center of economic activity. You will find a free enterprise system that has lifted millions from poverty and has made America unique among nations. Though it has flaws, our economic system is not some savage jungle. Instead, it is founded on the rule of law and sustained by a strong national ethic of honesty, responsibility, thriftiness and care for one’s neighbor—virtues prized and propagated by the Catholic Church and by America’s Founding Fathers, as well.
Finally, Your Holiness, as faithful Catholics, we have read your recent encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” and note your sincere concern for the human condition and our habitat. Your compassionate prose is inspiring, especially when addressing human trafficking, food and stewardship of the environment. You acknowledge that the Catholic Church “does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics” and call for an open dialogue.
It is in that spirit that we urge you to speak out against those who would deny the use of fossil fuels to bring electricity to the billion-plus people who still do not have this basic prerequisite for a better life. We would not deny food or water to the poor. So too we must not deny fossil fuels to the poor. When people can refrigerate medicine, pump water and read in the dark they have a dramatically better chance at escaping poverty, and the degradation of dignity that goes with it.
In the debate about global climate change, we continue to have the obligation to protect each person, especially the poorest. America used to be poor and polluted. It is now more prosperous and much cleaner. The two correlate.
You can tell, Holy Father, we are proud of our country and we hope your first visit will afford you the chance, as it did for de Tocqueville, to see that this experiment in freedom and opportunity is working. We pray it will continue. Benvenuto!
Mr. Nicholson was U.S. ambassador to the Holy See (2001-05). Mr. Gingrich was speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1995-99).
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