David Brooks:
First, I just say I found it incredibly moving to watch him give his first remarks as pope, in part because here I was watching an American on the world stage being a decent human being and being a good person. So I found it so just refreshing to see America portrayed in this way by this man.
Secondly, I think the cardinals did a brilliant thing in selecting an American, which was so unexpected. But a couple decades ago, when the Soviet Union was the chief problem area in the world, the cardinals selected John Paul II, a Pole, and he was — helped end communism.
Now America is the most troubled nation the world, and they select an American who represents Catholic social teaching, who represents a series of teaching about the marginalized, about the dignity of all human people, about welcoming the stranger. And they knew what they were doing.
They picked somebody — if Donald Trump is about pagan values, about dominance, power, control, victory, conquest, here’s a guy about blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek.
And that’s a complete social change and a moral challenge to Trumpism. And the final thing I will say is that, during World War II, in the middle of the 20th century, there was communism on one side, there was capitalism on the other side, these two machines. And the Catholics gave us a system in the middle there which they called personalism, a guy named Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier.
And that was a more humane version to combat the dehumanizing processes that were afflicting left and right. And so who knows, but this pope could be a real moral force in the country and especially in America.