During an interview with Australian Jesuit Father David Holdcroft, the Economic Inclusion Specialist for the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Rome, he remarked how, “Pope Francis seems to not be popular in America.” This statement came as both a surprise but no surprise to this West Coast-based Catholic because the portrait of the American Church presented abroad is often a miscellany devoid of the story of Catholicism as it plays out in the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States.
Catholics internationally are therefore left to assume, like Father David, that all or even most US Catholics share a cynical view of the late pontiff, when in fact this is not the case.
The effect of regionality on American Catholicism
Logistically, many publishing houses in the United States, including my own diocesan magazine’s publishing partner, are located in the Midwest to serve both coasts. But where they have one time zone to the east, there are two to the West; an unfathomably large tangible space lies between the Pacific region and the nearest Midwestern or Northeastern urban centers of Catholicism. In theory, this should not matter in this age of global connectivity, and yet it does.
There are positives and negatives to this. Negatively, this means that representation abroad of day-to-day Catholics living in the Western and Southwestern regions of the US may be harder to acquire because it may seem that we do not have much more to offer outside what the secular media reports. Catholic stories from Silicon Valley, where I live, seem to be limited to coverage focused on bioengineering and Artificial Intelligence. But we are so much more.
The Stories from the Church in the West Are Worth Reporting
Positively, the Church in the geographic American West and Southwest has developed its own distinctive character and has freely and enthusiastically embraced the teachings of Pope Francis (and Benedict XVI, and the late John Paul II, etc.). In a special way, when Francis was pope (and continuing with Pope Leo), Catholics here understand when Papa speaks in English and Spanish. In theory, this should not matter in this age of global connectivity and instant-translation, and yet it does.
The so-called ‘Francis rupture’ that is perceived in other regions of the US — which feeds into viewpoints like Father David Holdcroft’s that “Pope Francis seems to not be popular in America” — is not reflective of our experience of Papa Francisco. He made good sense to us, in his consistent Gospel call to imitate Christ and — as he wrote in Fratelli Tutti — the Good Samaritan. And this is exactly what the whole Church stands to gain from these regions of the US: a balance in perspective that brings us more closely to a complete portrait of the American Catholic Church.
This is not, of course, to ignore the more fringe elements present, at least here in California, which I have written about and which also is covered in other stories at Where Peter Is. But the point is that these are, in fact, the great exception to the faith of those who make up the greater Church on the Pacific Coast and Mexican border-adjacent states. Much of the motivation for this essay is to emphasize that, by a large proportion, far more favorable responses to Pope Francis, rather than negative, exist here for Catholics.
I can only conclude that equal regional representation is important to American Catholic Media, however, it is important to note our historic absence. In his 2021 book, The Making of American Catholicism: Regional Culture and the Catholic Experience, Michael J. Pfeifer notes, “The weight of scholarship [is] still focused on the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic and little attention paid to the varied regions of the United States west of Buffalo.” This seems to be shifting lately with the news surrounding recent ICE raids and the appointment of a homegrown former refugee, Michael Pham, as Bishop of San Diego. Still, there is much work to be done in terms of creating the full mosaic of Catholic America.
Do Eastern US Catholics even care to understand the West?
Do Catholics in other parts of the United States truly have any sense of how much Pope Francis was loved by those of us living on the Pacific Coast and the Southwest?
I genuinely do not know the answer to this question, perhaps due to the effect of regionality on my own career and faith. Do they understand Francis’s resonance with Latinos? Are they aware that his call to care for creation brought many back to the Church? For us, creation and immigration are directly linked, since it is those who are immigrants who work the land.
The late pontiff’s emphasis on the poor, the marginalized, and oppressed — those who look a lot like ourselves — was a point of intense spiritual conversion. Here Pope Francis’s invitation to “encounter” one another in our culturally diverse region of the country has been taken very much to heart. This may be due to our inherent encounters with different cultures. For example, some communities are almost equally divisible into thirds: English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
I also wonder sometimes whether those in other regions want to learn about the global impact the Church in the West and Southwest is making in Latin America and Asia. We were quite happy to meet Luce, the mascot for the 2027 World Youth Day. She makes sense to us — we are quite familiar with Korean art and culture. Here you are just as likely to find Guadalupe processions as you are Simbang Gabi Masses around Christmas. Understanding those who sit in the pews on this side of the country may go a long way in explaining to the greater American Church exactly why we loved and still love Pope Francis.
“Pope Francis was not popular in America” is simply not true in the US West
A few weekends ago, during Mass at my parish, I watched a tiny Latina girl place a dollar in the collection basket. The older Filipino gentleman holding the basket bowed deeply and reverently to her in thanks, and she giggled before running away. It was a sweet moment that is repeated, in a multitude of variations, in parishes all over the West Coast and Southwest, and it is beautiful.
On a rather sober note, Catholics here also bring an important lens to the overall American Church conversation. When the Bishops speak out against ICE raids, we recognize that the targets of these raids are, in fact, ourselves. Catholics who live on the American Pacific Coast and in its Southwestern regions are giving life to the Church. We continue to be deeply impacted and transformed by Pope Francis and anticipate continuing to be so with Pope Leo. We are Catholic, we are in the West and Southwest, and we have stories worth reporting.
Image: Installation Mass of Bishop Michael Pham in San Diego. YouTube Screenshot.
Marissa Nichols can be found on Twitter.
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