The right and the left in America are equally partisan about Pope Francis.
Whatever else has occurred during the present papacy, the Catholic Church in the United States has become more divided – even fractured – than in recent memory, if ever.
I am not suggesting that the fault lies entirely, or even primarily, with Pope Francis. Divisions in the Church in the US are driven by political loyalty rather than theological formation. By and large, we Americans practise our moral and political lives according to one of the two wings of individualism that have formed our basic moral commitments. The moral positions of American Catholics are more likely to track party identity than Church teaching. Our Catholic faith is often a thin veneer over our highly partisan political commitments. This is true across the spectrum, from the extremities of the left to the right. We sculpt and mould our Catholicism around the partisan politics in which we find our public identities. The policies of our respective political parties are the true Catholic teaching. Folks on the other side are heretics, both political and theological.
