OPINION | Biden and Francisco, or to Caesar what is Caesar’s

Editor’s note: Rafael Domingo Oslé is a research professor at the Center for Law and Religion at Emory University and professor of Law at the University of Navarra. The opinions expressed in this article correspond exclusively to its author.

(CNN Spanish) – The meeting between Joe Biden and Pope Francis at the Vatican has left memorable photographs and important moments in history. I am left with the fact itself, naked and without diplomatic paraphernalia, that the visit simply took place. And period. That the incarnation of earthly power, also called the president of the United States, converse, privately and for 75 minutes, with the incarnation of spiritual authority in the West, also called the pope, has a very deep political and spiritual meaning.

The encounter meant, in the first place, that earthly power, no matter how much army it has and all the strength and influence it deploys, is not absolute. In the XXI century, the political potestas continues to need the spiritual auctoritas, like the land of the rain, since the spiritual dimension of the human being plays a determining role in the lives of people and peoples.

Secondly, the visit has shown us that, in the so-called era of secularization, political activity, no matter how secular or secular, and no matter how secular or secular it may become, will never eradicate the relevance of the religious message, nor to corner the spiritual leaders of the world. The meeting has undoubtedly been a severe blow to the most intransigent secularism, which seeks to stifle any openness of society to transcendence.

This visit has also reminded us of Jesus Christ’s advice to give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s (Matthew 22:21). This rule is of inestimable value for the smooth running of politics and the development of peoples. It is a pity that so many times we stray from it or do not understand it in all its depth.

It seems that both Biden and Francisco, perhaps unintentionally, have updated this advice seamlessly with their encounter. The photographs of the two leaders in serene and constructive conversation teach us that the relationships between spiritual authority and political power are better understood from mutual collaboration than from exclusion, since both instances should serve the flourishing of the human being and of the peoples. Just as a human being cannot be divided (the corporeal from the emotional, for example), so neither can the political community be divided by creating an impenetrable wall of separation between the political and the religious.

God is everywhere: both in churches and in parliaments. He knows little about material limits. The need to differentiate the political from the spiritual dimension does not mean that spirituality can be separated from politics. Caesar is also the son of God. And vice versa: the spiritual leader lives in the world of Caesar. In fact, Biden professes himself a practicing Catholic, and he certainly is, even though he does not participate in Christian morality on such central issues as abortion.

On the other hand, the Pope, with this visit by Biden, has recognized the existence of a civil power, a Caesar, who deserves all respect and support, even when some of the policies of his administration violate Christian morality and dignity. that is, do not respect what must be given to God. The pope has defended the value of human life since conception on multiple occasions. Surely, this controversial issue was dealt with in the private audience, but anything resembling a political submission of political power to spiritual authority has been rightly avoided in the media. This would have meant the death of the political life of American Catholics, who could easily be held in the face of being governed from Rome and not from Washington. Catholic politicians who defend life do so freely, not because the Vatican tells them to.

The Pope has shown once again that he is a true pontiff, a builder of bridges, who adds, cooperates, helps all the rulers of the world in all their efforts to achieve the common good of the peoples. The pope seems to have earned the full trust of Biden, who, as president of the United States, sees in the pontiff a spiritual leader who defends the poor and persecuted, who fights the pandemic by demanding that vaccines be donated to the most important countries. in need, which protects the planet from the environmental crisis and is attentive to the equitable development of peoples after the economic crisis.

This visit, for me, is a clear example of the necessary harmony that must exist between spiritual authority and political power, not as an artificial marriage of convenience, the result of conflicting political interests, but rather of a much deeper spiritual union that, precisely for that reason, it knows how to separate functions and delimit spaces.