Five dispensations Americans need from Pope Francis

Millions of Americans—Catholic and non-Catholic alike—are eagerly awaiting Pope Francis' visit to the United States next week. There's no mystery as to why. In word and in deed, the humble yet audacious pontiff has reawakened Americans to the Roman Catholic Church's teachings on social justice. But his challenge, that "the excluded are still waiting," is not limited to the rich and the powerful. His influential encyclical Laudato Si (On Care for Our Common Home) demands the engagement of all people and their institutions as stewards of the earth, warning that "the present ecological crisis is one small sign of the ethical, cultural and spiritual crisis of modernity" and reminding us that "our relationship with the environment can never be isolated from our relationship with others and with God."

But when Francis becomes the first pope to address a joint session of Congress, author Paul Vallely predicts, "America's political leaders should expect some discomforting talk." Despite his warning to his American church not to be "obsessed" with abortion, gay marriage, and contraception, social liberals should not expect the Pope to alter church doctrine on any of those topics. As for conservatives who have already denounced Francis' emphases on climate change, poverty, and inequality as "kind of liberal,""pure Marxism,""neo-socialism" or "communist" and protested, "I don't get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope," Bergoglio's speech won't change many minds in the media, on Capitol Hill, or on the campaign trail.

Pope Francis probably won't change any minds among the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (UCCSB), either. Increasingly out of touch both with their Pope and their own parishioners, the bishops nevertheless have an outsized influence not just on the nation's 68 million Catholics, but on all 320 million Americans. Their heavy hand weighs on public policies large and small, in ways seen and unseen. For our sake and arguably for his, Pope Francis needs to loosen their grasp.

Below are five areas where America and Americans need a dispensation from His Holiness.