It was an honor and a privilege to see Pope Francis speak on Thursday. I stood on the West Lawn of the Capitol as Pope Francis called for our government to tackle such challenges as climate change, the Levantine refugee crisis, and the death penalty. His speech served as a rousing call to action for a government plagued by inaction. It is a bit too early to tell exactly how many members of Congress will heed Francis’ words, but the speech already moved one person in particular.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was clearly quite excited by the pope’s visit to Congress. When he welcomed the pope in his ceremonial office, Boehner appeared to be in a state of shock. He strained to make even the smallest of talk with the pope and was visibly moved by the subsequent speech.
Boehner cried as Pope Francis spoke—even when His Holiness mentioned ideas that Boehner’s party disagreed with. Sure, Boehner has cried in public several times, but the floodgates really seemed to open up wide on Thursday. With his speech, Pope Francis both exposed the hypocrisy of our political system and presented his own alternative vision of what public service can and should be. It’s hard to tell if Boehner, a devout Catholic, was crying tears of joy while savoring the moment of proximity to His Holiness, or tears of shame due to how bad of a job he and his fellow Republicans have done in representing the interests of the people.
As Speaker, Boehner has regularly dubbed the House of Representatives “the People’s House,” but during his speakership it was anything but. Instead of making progress by presenting viable alternatives to the Democrats’ policies, Boehner’s Republican-controlled House passed dozens of abortive resolutions to defund Planned Parenthood or repeal Obamacare. This simply obstructed the normal business of our government. Boehner allowed ultra-conservatives to hijack the GOP while he was in charge, letting the Tea Party caucus drive the agenda. Instead of working toward compromise, House Republicans pushed the country to the brink of disaster, playing politics with debt ceiling disputes and causing frivolous government shutdowns. Boehner hesitantly played along, fearing for his job.
For Speaker Boehner, evidently, Pope Francis’ speech served as a spiritual and political awakening. The pope outlined why governments need to take action and serve their people. Watching Boehner on Thursday and Friday, you could see the exasperation on his face. I know I’d be unhappy if I had to hesitantly play along with such radical colleagues. Judging from the look on his face, Boehner appeared to realize how he had strayed. How many more debt ceiling debacles or shutdown showdowns does it take to reach a breaking point? Boehner stated himself that he had considered retiring before the start of this Congress, but stayed on after former Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his election. But on Friday, Boehner moved his resignation up to the end of October to avoid “prolonged leadership turmoil.” To me, that shows just how much of a toll the job has taken. I guess this was the breaking point.
It seems increasingly clear that Speaker Boehner made this decision of his own accord. In his awakening during Francis’ speech, he not only saw the error of his ways but also his eventual fate. More conservative House members have been planning for months to engineer his demise, and the upcoming shutdown fight looked like it would require Boehner to make a last stand. His decision suggests he’s no longer willing to go down with the Republican ship to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood. He knew that no matter what, the writing was on the wall. He was likely out of a job regardless of how the impending shutdown fight turned out. Boehner seems to understand that shutting down the government would only prolong the inevitable. The conservative wing of the House GOP would pounce and challenge his speakership almost as soon as the government reopened. There was no reason for him to put himself through another one of those fights, especially if there was a good chance he would lose his job regardless.
In Catholic culture, “Catholic guilt,” is the common idea that Catholics tend to feel remorse for a general lack of belief or observance. The pope worked the magic of the “Catholic guilt” on John Boehner with his speech Thursday. At least, that’s what it looks like. In his speech, Francis condemned many of the key tenets of Boehner’s Republican Party. The disconnects between the Republican Party and the Catholic Church, the two institutions Boehner holds most dear as a devout Catholic and a Republican leader, could not be more clear. We had a Pope who espoused welcoming immigrants, providing social services, and taking action on climate change. Meanwhile, Boehner has been left to lead a radical group of people who seek to build walls to keep the immigrants out, slashing social welfare programs, and obstructing any meaningful measures to curb climate change. Boehner seemed to realize he was leading an institution that has strayed quite far from the teachings of his church. If I were as devout as Boehner, I’d be crying too. There was his guilt, visible for all to see.
With Boehner’s resignation, our broken system has claimed yet another victim. Pope Francis exposed the fundamental problems of our system. But as a silver lining, he painted a picture for our political leaders to follow. By invoking the examples of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton, Francis traced the outline of an ideal America—a land of opportunity and a promoter of peace and equality for all.
At the same time, however, this optimistic picture contrasts with our reality. Our gridlocked system is a far cry from the ideal Pope Francis outlined. There is a lot of work to do for us to achieve the pope’s vision, so much so that it might have overwhelmed somebody like Boehner. Seeing no way out of the logjams and in-fighting that have plagued our government (at least no way that would end well), Boehner settled for the least of all evils, and fell on his own sword to ensure that his party avoided the damaging fights that would come during a shutdown and a leadership contest. It seems that Boehner heeded one key point that Pope Francis has emphasized during his papacy: humility. He sacrificed himself for the good of his party and our political system. His Holiness must be proud.
