"Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?" (Lk 11:17)

We are all aware of the division within political groups, but today we also see a growing division among Catholics in the Church. Over the past few weeks, certain news outlets have posted divisive headlines about Pope Francis and the Catholic Church. I read these articles and quickly noticed that if something Francis says fits into the belief system of that political party, he is praised by the author. Of course, if it is not the party's belief system, he is mocked and criticized. Theologians do not usually write these articles, so the authors primarily look at the Church through a political lens.

Many of you who read the news online probably noticed the comment section below an article. While I like to peruse the comment section, one of the first things I saw from the Pope Francis articles was how some of our political views are not in line with the Church and how we have let our political ideologies divide us in the Church. I think at this point, many of us understand the media is not always concerned with the truth as much as it is concerned with division. But what are the motives for this division? The 15th-century political adviser and theorist Machiavelli wrote a lot on division and its tactics. Divide and conquer or "divide and rule tragedy is when one power breaks another power into smaller, more manageable pieces and then takes control of those pieces one by one.{1} This can take a relatively long time, but it has proven successful in politics and war strategy. But honestly, should we be divided? Suppose we are concerned with keeping our Catholic values and what the Church teaches higher than our political values. In that case, we should look past identity politics and focus on the faith and moral teachings of the Catholic Church.

As certain groups seek to divide and attack us, let's not hide our faith or be scared to declare that the Church's teaching, supported by Pope Francis, is still clear that abortion, homosexual unions, and cohabitation are sins contrary to the faith. Or, most recently, Pope Francis labeling the normalization of gender ideology as “one of the most dangerous ideological colonization's' afflicting the world today." Truthfully, we should not be confused with the political worldviews on these or other issues. Maybe the question should be, where does your party stand on specific topics, and are they in line with the Church? Are we looking to our political affiliations above our faith? If so, maybe it is time to rethink who or what is steering our morals.  

Faith in Jesus Christ, who is "the way, the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6), calls Christians to exert a greater effort in building a culture that, inspired by the Gospel, will reclaim the values and contents of the Catholic Tradition. The presentation of the fruits of the spiritual, intellectual, and moral heritage of Catholicism in terms understandable to modern culture is a task of great urgency today in order to avoid also a kind of Catholic cultural diaspora.{2}

Disagreements can be topics for fruitful discussion and mutual movement toward truth. But divisiveness prevents these things by breaking down relationships.{3} Let us unite under the umbrella of our Catholic faith, follow what the Church teaches and help to keep our Catholic family strong. A time is coming when a decision will have to be made on whom we are truly serving.

"No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Mt 6:24)

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Notes:

{1} https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/36757

{2}https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20021124_card-biffi-politica_en.html 

{3} http://wcucatholic.org/a-kingdom-divided/