Against the War of Words: An Open Letter to Catholic Leaders

(Photo: Unsplash)

During my childhood, communism, which Pope Leo XIII had condemned in the previous century, loomed as a global threat through its aggressive expansion. This threat was most evident in the actions of the Soviet Union. I grew up listening to the tense rhetoric exchanged between President Reagan and Soviet leaders — first Leonid Brezhnev, and later Mikhail Gorbachev, who, fortunately, recognized the need to end the decades-long Cold War and implement reforms essential for his country’s survival.

Since those days, the angry rhetoric that was once the public language of international relations has increasingly turned inward, with a growing coarseness, vitriol and polarization between our major political parties. This hostile attitude has seeped into the average American citizen, fostering a similar mindset in which a neighbor with different beliefs is seen — at best — as ignorant and needing to be silenced (or "canceled"), and at worst, as an enemy.

We are quickly becoming a country where every person looks for the very worst in the other rather than the best.

As a cradle Catholic, most of my life was spent just finding the trailhead of the path to sanctity. Early on, I was a check-the-box Catholic, an apathetic Catholic, a lazy Catholic, an angry Catholic (at God), and yes, in my young adult years, even briefly “took a break” from Catholicism altogether and yet I kept hearing, “You are almost to the trailhead”.

St. Claude de la Colombiere wrote, “A person may be imperfect today who, in a little while, recognizing this, may rise to great sanctity.” The world would say that he was an altruistic sap and that his thinking about the way the world works was naïve, but perhaps these are, in actuality, very wise words that we should incorporate into our lives when we interact with other people.

We have a unique and brief window of time to show the world what it means to be a Catholic leader. In an address to the media in May, Pope Leo XIV said that “Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others. In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: We must say ‘no’ to the war of words and images; we must reject the paradigm of war.”

He may have been thinking about Ephesians 4:29-32 when St. Paul cautioned the Ephesians:

"Guard against foul talk; Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." 

St. Paul’s challenge to us is to control ourselves. Control what comes out of our mouth and what we let into our heart, and work on expunging the bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice from it. We need to do the hard work to get to the trailhead and start walking the path to sanctity. He is challenging us to act with integrity. If our values, actions and language are consistent with the tenets of our Catholic faith, then we are leaders of integrity. If they do not, then we are hypocrites, and you know Jesus had big issues with hypocrites.

Lastly, St. Paul’s challenge can change the world, especially through the influence of those regularly seen and heard on the global stage — including the many Catholics in leadership. According to an article in the National Catholic Register, more than one-third of the current U.S. cabinet is Catholic, as are numerous members of Congress, the Senate and state government.

We must reject the war-of-words mindset. Today’s civil servants often speak so harshly in public that their foul-mouthed language must be censored on TV. Are we not better than this? President Reagan once compared politics to show business — but now, it resembles a gladiator arena where we cheer for our leaders to scorch, slam and destroy the opposition.

Borrowing from Pope Leo XIV in his address to the media, it is important to remember that “communication is not only the transmission of information, but it is also the creation of a culture.”

What kind of culture are we creating — in business, government and our communities — when the faith we profess weekly at Mass doesn’t align with how we act and lead at work or in public life?

St. Augustine reminds us of this when he said, “Let us live well, and the times will be good. We are the times: such as we are, such are the times” (Discourse 311).  It’s time for Catholic leaders to be the leaders we are called to be.  We are the times we live in.