I sense that the Pope [during his visit to North America] was telling Americans something we all need to hear at this critical moment in time, when the hardest work of dealing with climate change, the unprecedented number of political refugees, immigration, structural racism and grinding poverty still lie before us. Our society will not solve such challenges and achieve its loftiest goals by having a few charismatic leaders with their heads in the clouds. If we are to survive and get beyond a future filled with post-apocalyptic dystopias, we all must descend to the lowest levels of the earth and to the lowest stratum of our society where the most marginalized among still suffer on a daily basis. We must de-romanticize our heroes, de-colonize our tendencies to be merely “do-gooders,” and de-ideologize our social and environmental justice movements if we are to truly live and work in the Franciscan spirit of both St. Francis and Pope Francis.
Gary Nabhan, "Reading Pope Francis on Peace, Justice & Caring For Creation" (September 2015)
