A Public Plea for Mercy by Patrick Carolan

These past few weeks have been very challenging for many of us. Our faith, values, and spirituality have come under attack. Much of our political and religious and spiritual discourse seems to be more focused on “-isms” like nationalism, racism, sexism, separatism, individualism, and shortsighted militarism rather than what our great mystics and spiritual leaders taught about the interconnectedness of all creation.

Our religious and secular challenges are so enmeshed as to be inseparable. We live in a time of conflict and polarization—in the church in its various forms and in the world at large. This divisiveness was never more apparent than when, last month, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde gave a homily for the prayer service at the inauguration of President Trump at the National Cathedral in Washington.

In her homily, Bishop Budde asked for mercy and justice for immigrants and the poor. She opened with a simple prayer that began: “O God, you made us in your own image.” The bishop spoke about mercy and justice, and asked that we show compassion to children, immigrants, and refugees. It was a plea that came directly from the gospels.

When I lived and worked in Washington, I was blessed with the occasional opportunity to work with Bishop Budde. It was obvious to me that she was filled with God’s love and peace. I would sometimes attend her services at the National Cathedral, where I would often hear a version of her inauguration homily asking for mercy and justice for the poor, the hungry, and the migrant. Her words were always framed by the stories of the gospels and the teachings of Jesus. So when I started hearing the invective being hurled against this very spiritual, powerful woman of God, I was shocked and horrified.

Pope Francis writes in Laudato Si’ that “We are sowing filth and destruction into the earth rather than life and beauty.” The hatred and vitriol being spread against Bishop Budde is a perfect example of what Francis was referring to. People like the far-right musician and activist Sean Feucht went so far as to call Bishop Budde a “crazy witch lady.” He further suggested that she is a “God-hater” and “demonically inspired.”

This type of language is not an anomaly in today’s world. It is being used more and more to cast aspersions on women in leadership. In our last presidential election, Kamala Harris was described as a “childless cat lady” and having a “cackling” laugh—terms that were often used to condemn and burn women at the stake in previous eras. After the debate between Trump and Harris, Evangelical leader Lance Wallnau accused Kamala Harris of using “witchcraft.” “When I say ‘witchcraft,’ I am talking about what happened tonight. Occult-empowered deception, manipulation, and domination,” Wallnau wrote the morning following the debate.

People criticizing Bishop Budde’s homily seem to fall into two different categories. The first are those like Feucht and Wallnau who want to spread vicious statements trying to demonize spiritually strong women, the same way we have throughout the history of Christianity. One only need to look at how we recast mystics like Mary Magdalene and Joan of Arc as prostitutes and witches to diminish their roles in the church. The second group have indicated that, while they agree with the thrust of Bishop Budde’s homily, she should have waited to address President Trump in private. I have heard and read several comments from folks suggesting that if Jesus were there, he would have done just this.

Perhaps these folks have not read Matthew 21:12-13 or Mark 11:15-18, the story of Jesus publicly confronting the money changers in the temple and overturning their tables. Or Matthew 23, where Jesus publicly calls out religious leaders for their hypocrisy: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” Jesus did not go privately to the money changers to politely ask them to take their wares out of the temple. He did not go privately to the Pharisees to ask them to show mercy and do justice. He forcefully and publicly challenged them.

When asked in a CNN interview about her homily and the kind of response she was hoping for from the president, Bishop Budde replied that she was “speaking to everyone who was listening, through that one-on-one conversation with the president, reminding us all that the people that are frightened in our country . . . are our fellow human beings, and that they have been portrayed all throughout the political campaign in the harshest of lights.” She continued, “I wanted to counter, as gently as I could, with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community.” 

There is an expression in Franciscan spirituality that you never transform in your comfort zone; it is only when you are willing to step beyond and embrace that which you most fear that you will experience transformation. As my friend and former pastor Fr. Tom Lynch would often say at the end of Mass: “I hope I have made you feel uncomfortable. Because if not, I am not doing my job.” Like Fr. Tom, Bishop Budde was clearly speaking to all of us, trying to urge us out of our comfort zone and experience the truth of the gospel. ♦

Patrick Carolan is a Catholic activist, organizer, and writer. He served as the Executive director of the Franciscan Action Network for ten years; he co-founded the Global Catholic Climate Movement and Catholics Vote Common Good. His writing and activism are centered on his understanding and belief through Franciscan spirituality of the connectedness of all creation and God.

Image: The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of Washington, DC, delivers the homily during a memorial service celebrating the life of Neil Armstrong at the Washington National Cathedral, on Thursday, September, 13, 2012. NASA/Paul Alers