The Company We Keep
Fr. Raymond J. de Souza: The company we keep is not only an issue for popes but also for political leaders, and presidential politics provides many examples.
Jesus taught, in part, by the company he kept.
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” the Pharisees asked the apostles. (Matthew 9:11)
Jesus kept company with those who scandalized others and made clear the nature of the scandal. Not the scandal of approving sinful behavior, as the Pharisees thought, but the scandal of God’s mercy: that forgiveness was available to the contrite as was the offer of salvation to even great sinners who obeyed His command, “Go and sin no more.”
It remains a challenge for Christian disciples today to keep company with all and make clear the purpose of the company keeping. Consorting with public sinners is no longer the issue it was in Biblical times, the confusion can still arise from the ambiguities inherent in the company we keep. The meeting is the message.
How to get that message right? Recent challenges come to mind.
Last month, Pope Francis invited comedians to join him in Rome, including Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, and Conan O’Brien. It was not a tax collectors and sinners moment; comedic contrition was entirely absent. It was a celebration of comedy and an affirmation of the invited comedians, even as the Holy Father slipped in a subtle clarification, noting that “the laughter of humor is never ‘against’ anyone, but is always inclusive, purposeful, eliciting openness, sympathy, empathy.”
Perhaps too subtle. While no one thought that the Church was endorsing, say, the comedy of Chris Rock, there was also no sense that he should clean up his act.
Pope Francis knows how to message by meeting. In May 2022, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone instructed Speaker Nancy Pelosi to no longer receive Holy Communion. In June 2022, Pope Francis welcomed Pelosi to St. Peter’s, and was photographed with her. She received Holy Communion at the papal Mass.
In contrast, when Pelosi was received by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, the Holy Father did not permit the customary photograph and a statement was issued immediately to clarify exactly the message of that meeting.
The company we keep is not only an issue for pastors, but also political leaders. Presidential politics gives further examples.
I returned to reading about Theodore Roosevelt recently, as his progressive politics have resurfaced, after a fashion, in the Republican Party. Trump vanquishing the Bush Republicans has some echoes of TR against the Taft dynasty of Ohio.
In the first weeks of his presidency, TR learned the impact of invitations when he dined with Booker T. Washington at the White House. Racists across the South erupted in rage. TR, while considering the dinner correct in principle, later came to consider it a “political mistake.” Washington did not dine at the White House again.
Pastors and politics sometimes mix. At the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, was invited to offer a prayer. Not the customary invocation or benediction, but rather Graham formed part of a quartet introducing Donald Trump. First up was Tucker Carlson and then Hulk Hogan. Graham followed Hogan, but did not rip off his shirt. After Graham, came UFC impresario Dana White.
What was the message? What does it mean for a Christian pastor to lead a prayer – specifically “for Donald Trump” and that God “will make America great once again” – as part of the wrestling-style introduction of a political candidate? Sandwiched between professional wrestling and mixed martial arts, was Graham just another act in someone else’s show?
The RNC itself offered a bit of teaching by the company it kept. On Monday, after Senator J.D. Vance was announced as the vice-presidential nominee, the evening program featured the president of the Teamsters Union. Republicans do not usually keep company with Big Labor, so this was a message that Trump and Vance wanted to send.
Also featured that night was Amber Rose, a TikTok influencer who inaugurated the “Slutwalk,” a promotion of “sex-positivity” at the annual west coast Pride marches. She has her own pornographic site. What message did the RNC want to convey by consorting with Big Sex? Perhaps that converts were welcome; both Vance and Rose changed their minds about Trump.
After the assassination attempt, certain religious voices ramped up their political rhetoric. For example, Eric Sammons of Crisis, a Catholic magazine which promotes a novel conservative fusion, namely Trump and the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM):
At this point, the lines are as clear as they ever could be: if you love our country and want it to survive, you must vote for Donald J. Trump in November. . . .I don’t care if you don’t like his personality. I don’t care if you don’t like his position on many issues, including his at times squishy pro-life stance. I don’t care if you think he won’t be a good president. All that is irrelevant at this point. Our country is descending into chaos, and, like him or not, Donald Trump is the only person standing in the way.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, and given the dire state of presidential politics, many sympathize with Sammons. There is some truth in his approach.
I went to the Crisis site because it ran a commentary by Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society, about something that I had written about a letter to Pope Francis regarding the TLM. Signed by various grandees of British society, it asked the Holy Father not to impose further restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass.
In 1971 a similar letter had obtained a favorable response from St. Paul VI, who was impressed to see the name of non-Catholic Agatha Christie amongst the signatories. The 2024 version included Andrew Lloyd Webber, perhaps appealing to Pope Francis’ national sympathies with evocations of Evita; don’t make us cry, Papa Argentina.
I had wondered whether that was a good strategy, entirely independent of the merits of the case. If Pope Francis regards the TLM as putting flamboyance over faith and costumery over a contrite heart, would it help to highlight the support of non-believers of theatrical fame? Who is at the meeting – or signs the letter – shapes the message.
(A companion American letter was signed by Andrew Sullivan, the preeminent Catholic advocate for same-sex marriage.)
I thought keeping such company might distract, even undermine, the message. Shaw, as per usual, had good points to make on the liturgical principles in play. But, again, does it help his argument to have it appear in a publication the editor of which advocates voting for Trump even if “you think he won’t be a good president”? Would it advance Shaw’s cause in Rome to have it associated with such enthusiastic Trump partisanship?
It is fair to argue that it is the argument that matters, not what appears adjacent to it. But the company kept is a communication of its own. It’s been that way for a very long time.
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AUTHOR
Fr. Raymond J. de Souza
Fr. Raymond J. de Souza is a Canadian priest, Catholic commentator, and Senior Fellow at Cardus.
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