We are called to be bridge-builders

As Catholics, we are called to love not just our neighbors, but our enemies

(Courtesy photo of ALEXANDER DRAGO)

Recently, I read the news that Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb warlord who was convicted of atrocities during the civil war that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, had died. That news sent me to my bookshelf in search of “They Would Never Hurt a Fly,” Slavenka Drakulic’s book about that conflict and the people involved in it.

The book examines how people who had lived peacefully together for decades after the end of World War II would turn on each other after years of working together, going to school together, marrying each other and living in relative harmony.

The answer that she offers is relevant today, especially as we see similar actions reflected in the behavior of our own political leaders.

Back then, it was individuals using nationalist prejudice to build their own political power. It began, notes Drakulic, with identifying a group and making them an object of hatred.

“The reasons do not have to be rational or even necessarily true,” she writes. “The most important thing is that they are convincing, because this makes them acceptable to people.”

That hatred is built on prejudice. In the 1990s, Drakulic writes, the prejudices were that Serbs were primitive, Croats were Nazis, Muslims were stupid. Today we hear that immigrants are criminals, Christians are intolerant, MAGA supporters are fascists, and Muslims are terrorists.

Propaganda is then used to create a feeling that the other side is a threat, thus strengthening an urge for a dominant group to be less tolerant of beliefs, customs or values that might differ from theirs.

“Most important,” writes Drakulic, “is the method of introducing hatred: it is most effective if people get used to it slowly, step by step, until they have absorbed it into their daily life.”

One example in our time concerns immigrants. I remember years ago when we were told that other countries were not sending their best citizens. Eventually we were told that those immigrants were mainly criminals, before being fed lies that some were eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs.

We may tell ourselves that we do not share such prejudices, nor do we spread lies about our neighbors. But that is not enough. Drakulic’s reporting taught her that “remaining silent in the face of injustice and crime means collaborating with a politics whose program is death and destruction. And whether it is willing or unwilling collaboration doesn’t really matter, because the result is the same.”

As Catholics, we have many reasons to speak up, based not only on Scripture (love of neighbor, caring for the immigrant) but also on our experiences as citizens of America. How many of us know that at the time the Declaration of Independence was signed, the penalty for a Catholic priest caught presiding at a Mass in the colony of New York was death by hanging? Or that 100 ago, the Ku Klux Klan was resuscitated to keep Catholics out of public life, among other things?

And those immigrants at our borders? More than 80 percent of them are Catholics. Pope Francis once asked how many prayer books, how many rosaries, were left in the jungles along the route to the southern border by those poor and desperate Catholics who died on the dangerous trek north?

As Catholics, we are called to love not just our neighbors, but our enemies. We must resist the efforts of politicians and others to divide people into “us” versus “them.” In today’s intolerant political climate, that can be easier said than done. Nevertheless, our Church offers a path we can follow.

For several years, the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops has offered a program titled “Civilize It” to provide an effective option. It was created in response to Pope Francis’ call in “Fratelli Tutti,” to seek “a better kind of politics, one truly at the service of the common good” (No. 154). 

The bishops write, “We can see ourselves as members of one family. We can seek to encounter and to grow. We can identify common values. We can listen to understand. We can seek the truth together. We can jointly come up with creative solutions to the problems that face our world.”

The task is not easy. It requires us to engage in critical examination to ensure that our perspectives are rooted in truth, that our sources of information are unbiased, and that we do not open ourselves to manipulation by partisan interests.

The bishops call us to form our conscience through prayerful reflection, study of Scripture and Church teaching, and guidance from reputable experts.

They want us to be bridgebuilders who participate in constructive dialogue based on shared values, a mutual exchange of gifts, and the humility to together seek the good.

To do these things, they provide guidance and resources at the website: https://www.usccb.org/civilizeit.

In the weeks between now and the elections in November, many people will be trying to divide us for their own political gain. Let us resist those attempts and serve the Kingdom of God by acting responsibly and with restraint.

Deacon Walter Ayres is the retired director of Catholic Charities’ Commission on Peace and Justice.