Have you brought up politics lately at work, or over the backyard fence, or in the vestibule after Mass?
These days, it can seem like the era of polite disagreement and respectful discussion are long gone, whether the topic is politics, vaccines, masks, or any number of other hot-button issues.
“As a Church and a nation, we are polarized and divided,” says the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in a new campaign aimed at asking people to be bridge-builders rather than being too quick to draw a line in the sand.
Pope Francis challenges us,” the bishops’ conference writes, “to build a ‘better kind of politics, one truly at the service of the common good.”
Called “Civilize It: A Better Kind of Politics,” the campaign invites Catholics of all opinions and political persuasions to pledge charity, clarity, and creativity.
There’s a website, www.CivilizeIt.org, which contains an examination of conscience, a Prayer for Civility, and many other resources, in addition to the pledge.
“As a Church and a nation, we are polarized and divided,” the bishops’ conference writes. “But as Pope Francis writes in Fratelli Tutti, we can seek ‘a better kind of politics, one truly at the service of the common good’.
“We can see ourselves as members of one family. We can seek to encounter and to grow. We can identify common values. We can listen to understand. We can seek the truth together. We can jointly come up with creative solutions to the problems that face our world.”
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