“The Pope challenges everybody!”

I visited the office of Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (1st District, NE) at the end of the recent Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington.  I went with two people from Nebraska, and a staffer from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.  We met a legislative assistant, and the meeting was very professional – that is to say, dry.  Everybody was polite: a Republican aide from well-mannered Nebraska meets with some well-meaning liberals from the East Coast of Obama-Land.  Then someone mentioned Pope Francis’s planned visit in September, and the aide lit up: “The Pope challenges everybody!”

Can we all agree that the visit in September can be a time of grace?

Maybe people will listen to their consciences with a fresh awareness.  Can we all agree to let people – even legislators – shift their positions on issues of conscience at that time?

Legislators take positions on issues during campaigns.  What should they do if they change their minds?  Are they bound to stick to every position they stalked about during the last campaign?  What if the Pope pries open a new idea, and the legislator’s conscience pushes toward a new position on some issue?

Can we all agree not to punish a legislator whose conscience is pricked during the Pope’s visit?

It can be a time of grace.  And grace can be unpredictable.  A time of grace, a time of renewal, might be a time of adjustment and change!

PLEASE!  NOW! Write to your legislators, and tell them you will not attack them if they shift on some issue during the Pope’s visit!  Of course, you might vote against them in the next election, if you disagree with the new position.  But you won’t attack them for inconsistency or treachery or anything like that.  Tell them!  NOW!

Come Lord, and change our hearts!