A Priest Holds A Mirror To The U.S.
This morning I listened to an NPR report in which a group of conservative Christians expressed the opinion that our country is plagued by, guess what? Too much empathy. At first, I thought I had misheard. Then the voice of evangelical minister Josh McPherson came on, warning, “Empathy almost needs to be struck from the Christian vocabulary … Empathy is dangerous. Empathy is toxic. Empathy will align you with hell.”
What gospels are these people reading? Have they any understanding of the teachings of Jesus — the Jesus who ate with the outcasts of his time, who treated them with dignity and compassion?
The battle against empathy stems from the gospel of Elon Musk, who is now aiming his famous chainsaw at what he sees as another public enemy. Empathy allowed too many immigrants into our country, Musk and the others say. Empathy led to gay marriage and transgender rights and a host of other things they consider ungodly.
A contrast to the words of the Musks and McPhersons of the world is a heart-felt letter written by The Rev. Alexander Santora, a Catholic priest and pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph Parish in Hoboken, NJ. Father Alex was a few years ahead of me at St. Peter’s University in New Jersey where our Jesuit mentors encouraged us to be “a person for others.” He titled his letter, “America Must Repent for the United States of Cruelty.”
Published by the USA Today Network at the start of the liturgical season of Lent, the letter speaks for all of us who despair over what we see as a lack of respect for the rule of law, democratic institutions, and common decency.
I offer these excerpts from Father Alex’s letter:
“Of all the Christian religious holy days, Ash Wednesday — not even obligatory — brings more people into churches than Christmas and Easter … People know that the ritual of ashes stands for something deeper: ‘Remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return.’ Today, there are variations of that classic phrase accompanying the ashes, but it all comes down to this: What will you do while you are here on earth?
“The ritual reminds us of our Christian obligations for our personal lives, but it also challenges us to atone for the systemic injustices swirling all around. Since Jan. 20, when Donald Trump returned to the White House, the U.S. has been undergoing the most consequential changes — some more drastic than anyone on earth could have ever imagined. Hatred, violence, prejudice, anger and hurt are all wrapped up into one big United States of Cruelty.
“Trump won the presidency by a modest vote, and most people voted for him to cure nagging inflation and to send a message to now-former President Joe Biden: We’re unhappy. But very few Trump voters bargained for the pain being inflicted not only throughout the country but all over the world. It’s as if the progress made since the 1960s to promote civil rights, affirm LGBTQ people, enhance women’s abilities and lift up the poor through safety net programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act were aberrations to be undone.
“All of this seems to set up Trump to give massive tax cuts to his billionaire cronies, exemplified by the richest man in the world — Elon Musk — who acts like a juvenile off his ADHD meds. These moves are made possible by a weak, pliant GOP majority in Congress, with slim margins representing mostly rural, farming communities that will be severely hurt by the cut in foreign food aid grown on American farms.
“Within the last month, Sam Nordquist, a transgender man, was held captive by seven individuals outside of Rochester, New York, and tortured to death, even being forced to eat feces. Trump and the GOP have made an anti-trans agenda its main cultural battle. On March 7, Brad Sigmon was executed by firing squad in South Carolina. Let alone the barbarism of still executing individuals, it has now become primitive. Trump plans to execute more federal death row inmates.
“Dismantling the federal Department of Education means that tens of thousands of poor children from Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Trenton will lose nutritious breakfasts and lunches in schools … Think of all the evangelical Christian voters who hailed Trump as the second coming of Christ. He is certainly not Jesus of Nazareth ...
“We are called to pray in Lent. And that may be the greatest motivator to bring to God’s ears what we need to change in our own lives and the lives of those less fortunate. Prayer can lead us, as it led Dorothy Day to oppose nuclear arms and violence, Martin Luther King Jr. the evils of racism, and Emma Lazarus, whose Statue of Liberty message welcomes ‘The tired, the poor, those yearning to breathe free.’
“[This is] not like Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s now ubiquitous `advertisements on the airwaves giving homage to Trump for the demeaning and dehumanizing expulsion of migrants — except those who can afford a $5 million green card.
“We all need to repent for complicity in licensing Trump to unleash an agenda of retribution and meanness throughout the world. Symbolically, the period of Lent leads to new life. We can only hope it comes to the United States soon — very, very soon.”
Thank you, Father Alex, for speaking for so many of us. May other pastors be as brave in telling the truth as you did. America — and indeed the whole world — need to hear more voices of sanity.
You can read Father Alex’s entire letter here: https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/2025/03/11/repent-this-lent-for-the-united-states-of-cruelty/82230684007/
