Abp Lori issues pastoral letter on renewal of U.S. political culture
Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore has issued a new pastoral letter outlining a vision for renewal in U.S. public discourse.
Released Monday, February 9, the 32-page letter titled “In Charity and Truth: Toward a Renewed Political Culture” is keyed to the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States, and comes as U.S. president Donald Trump is facing sustained criticism over his sharing of a racist video depicting former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
On the same day Lori published his pastoral letter, two senior U.S. prelates – Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit – issued public statements calling on the president to apologize for his actions.
The letter calls the occasion “a moment of grace and responsibility.”
“Authentic remembrance always orients us toward renewal,” Lori writes, “it calls us to consider not only who we have been, and who we are becoming – but, by God’s grace, who we are called to be.”
Lori has been thinking about the role of faith in U.S. public life for decades, and has been a leader in the U.S. bishops’ work to defend religious liberty in the United States. In 2011, Lori became the inaugural chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.
A stark picture of the present
Drawing on the writings of Popes Leo XIV, Francis, and Benedict XVI, the pastoral letter is the fifth Lori has issued in his 14 years of service as the head of the Baltimore archdiocese – the “premier see” in the United States, founded in 1789 – and offers an unsparing view of the state of U.S. political discourse.
“Like the Church herself,” Lori writes, “we operate in a cultural atmosphere that is something like the air we breathe.”
“Rarely is it entirely fresh and bracing,” Lori writes. “All too often it is polluted, even toxic.”
“Such is the political atmosphere in which we find ourselves today,” the archbishop writes.
“Political discourse has become more vitriolic than usual. Political violence and threats of such violence have erupted. There is deep polarization,” Lori writes.
“Extreme ideologies of both the left and the right are being asserted – ideologies that reveal not only political division, but also cultural and even religious polarization.”
Eclipse of human nature
Lori’s letter frames his view of general cultural malaise as a reflection of a deeper anthropological crisis.
“At its root,” Lori writes, “this crisis reflects a wounded understanding of the human person.”
“When we forget that every human being is created in the image of God,” Lori writes, “we begin to see one another not as brothers and sisters, but as obstacles and threats.”
“Political life then becomes a contest of power,” he continues, “rather than a shared pursuit of the common good.”
Lori says synodality – a term that “emerges from ecclesial life” but “offers wisdom for our civic life as well” – may be helpful.
“Synodality is, at its heart, a commitment to listening with humility, speaking with honesty, and discerning with the Holy Spirit–all while walking together, not apart,” Lori writes.
Though it must be “applied carefully, recognizing that the Church’s dynamics, authority, and mission differ fundamentally from those of a secular republic,” Lori writes, synodality “reminds us that no political goal is worth the cost of a fractured people, and no disagreement justifies forgetting our shared humanity.”
Virtue as the foundation of civic friendship
A central section of the letter discusses the four “cardinal” virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, which constitute the moral framework necessary to true human flourishing.
“These virtues do not belong only to one party or ideology,” Lori writes. “They are the shared moral grammar,” he writes, “that enables people of goodwill to work together for the common good.”
“Virtue,” Lori writes, “makes possible civic friendship,” which “is not sentimental,” but “is a strong, stable commitment to the truth that we belong to one another, that our destinies are intertwined, and that the flourishing of one depends in part on the flourishing of all.”
Civic friendship is “a way of living and relating that seeks the good of one’s neighbor and of society,” he writes.
“It is a deep, genuine desire to seek the good of others and of society,” and “the antidote to polarization,” which challenges all citizens – Catholics especially though not exclusively – to do four things: “[To] see political opponents as brothers and sisters, [to] build bridges where there are walls, [to] foster trust in a time of suspicion, and [to] cultivate hope amid fear.”
Models of civic friendship
The archbishop also writes of being Catholic in the U.S. as being a matter of letting the gospel inform our citizenship.
“Being Catholic in America has never meant uncritical allegiance,” Lori writes, “nor has it
required withdrawal,” but has always meant and continues to mean “allowing the Gospel to form our conscience, guide our choices, and inspire our commitment to the common good.”
“When we do that,” he writes, “we contribute not only to the unity of the Church but also to the healing and strengthening of our nation, helping it grow into the best version of itself, even when the journey is difficult.”
Lori indicated two great Catholics who lived in the U.S. between the 19th and 20th centuries as figures who embody the ideal of Catholic citizenship: Blessed Michael McGivney and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.
Bl. McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus, of which Lori is supreme chaplain. St. Frances Cabrini – an immigrant to the U.S. herself – founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to provide education, health care, and other services to the poor, especially the immigrant poor in the U.S.
Lori also offers the example of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, the great English martyrs, as models of Catholic citizenship.
More’s “faith-filled patriotism is one we would do well to imitate,” Lori writes, “a patriotism that loves one’s nation enough to speak the truth and to help it become its best self.”
Fisher is especially a model of fortitude – courage – which “is firm, patient and rooted in truth.”
“Fortitude in political life does not manifest as aggression or dominance,” Lori writes, “but in a quiet, unwavering commitment to the Gospel and the common good.”
“Fortitude helps us to do the right thing even when it is hard,” he writes.
Answering the call
Lori’s letter acknowledges frankly the tumult and division that characterize the present of U.S. political life, calling Catholics in his care to practice the virtues that in every age are crucial to achieving ordered liberty and genuine human flourishing.
“In the midst of political upheaval,” Lori writes, “the Church does not withdraw from public life, nor does she align herself with any partisan identity, but “remains what she has always been: a sacrament of unity, a beacon of hope and a teacher of truth.”
“Her mission is not to win elections,” he writes, “but to form saints.”
“Our nation needs Catholics who embody this mission,” Lori writes, “women and men whose lives witness to the dignity of every human person, whose love bridges divides, whose courage resists hatred and whose faith insists that despair does not have the final word.”
“The civic landscape may look dark at times,” he writes, “but the Church has lived through darker times and emerged stronger, purified and more faithful.
“So too,” he concludes, “can our nation.”