Today I am sharing with you a pastoral reflection I have written entitled When Power Forgets the Human Person. I ask you to take the time to read it carefully, study it thoughtfully, and pray over it in full.
This is not a partisan statement, nor is it an attempt to draw the Church into the spirit of faction and political tribalism. It is, rather, an effort to reflect on grave matters in light of Catholic Social Teaching: the dignity of the human person, the moral use of language, the treatment of immigrants, the conduct of war, and the danger of allowing power, fear, and ideology to deform the Christian conscience.
We are living in a time when many people are tempted to let political loyalties do their thinking for them. But the Church asks more of us. She asks us to see clearly, to think morally, to speak truthfully, and to judge public life not by the standards of party passion, but by the light of the Gospel and the dignity of every human person made in the image of God.
For that reason, I encourage you not to skim this reflection, but to reflect on it. Read it slowly. Bring it to prayer. Ask yourself where it challenges you, where it unsettles you, and where it calls for deeper conversion of mind and heart. As Christians, we are not called merely to react to the times, but to discern them.