by Deacon Bill Scholl
The French have a saying, “C’est moche, mais ça marche”; which translates to, “It’s ugly but it works.”
It’s used ironically as an apology for solutions incongruous with ideology.
Historically, Americans have distinguished themselves from other nations by our preference for the pragmatic over the ideological. We focused more on what needs to get done than on how it gets done by making space for compromise. Yet, now it seems that we as a people are losing this ability.
A key ingredient is missing in the “E Pluribus Unum” (“Out of many, one)” secret sauce that for 200 years enabled us to be one nation despite our different ethnicities and creeds. The problem, in a nutshell, is that because we now spend most of our attention online, our news, information and entertainment are algorithmically manipulated to corral us unawares into ideological enclaves.
This segregation is not a bug; it’s a feature. The solution can be found in one of the four pastoral pillars of “Evangelii Gaudium”: “Realities are more important than ideas.”
Catholic social teaching is a Christian framework for thinking about and solving social problems, which draws from the teachings of Jesus and the lived experience of Scripture and human history.
The Body of Christ relates to the world like a good husband relates to his wife: mostly listening, responding with action, and occasionally speaking up when the moment arises. Such a moment happened when the Magisterium promulgated the apostolic exhortation “Evangelli Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”).
While it’s not exclusively a Catholic social teaching, it lays out four pillars for achieving the common good and peace in society (para. 217-237).
These principles are: 1. Time is greater than space: Focus on long-term processes rather than short-term results. 2. Unity prevails over conflict: Seek communion rather than divisiveness. 3. Realities are more important than ideas: Address concrete, lived situations rather than abstract doctrines. 4. The whole is greater than the part: Balance local concerns with the global.
Reality is more important than ideas. How many of our problems right now in America are coming from a refusal to acknowledge reality when facts don’t comport with ideologies?
As Catholic Christians who also love America, we must stand against a post-truth world by praying for the “eyes that see and ears that hear” (Mt. 13.16) and challenge our countrymen to attend to what actually happens as opposed to how we think it should. Otherwise, it will only get more ugly.
