A Reflection on the “Big, Beautiful Bill” and Our Call to Peace and Justice

Pace e Bene! Peace and All Good. This traditional Franciscan greeting invites reflection, calling us to a spirit of shared humanity and reconciliation. As followers of St. Francis, a revered “herald of peace” who made God’s love comprehensible to ordinary people, our lives are inspired by his profound religious experiences and deep concern for all creation.¹ In these complex times, when significant legislative proposals are placed before our nation, we, as Catholics and especially lay Franciscans, must examine such measures through the lens of Gospel values and the comprehensive framework of Catholic Social Teaching.

This article explores the tensions that arise when public policy, such as the “big, beautiful bill” proposed by Republicans in the Senate ², appears to diverge from the core tenets of Franciscan spirituality and broader Catholic Social Teaching. It is a moment for profound discernment, moving beyond partisan rhetoric to a faith-informed ethical analysis. The diverse political affiliations and beliefs among Catholics in the United States ⁴ underscore the necessity of this evaluation. While the Church guides moral principles for voting, it does not dictate specific choices.⁸ The fact that some Catholics may support policies that conflict with certain aspects of Church teaching ⁵ highlights an internal complexity within the Catholic community. This situation necessitates a deeper moral evaluation, providing a framework for applying faith to this policy. Responsible citizenship, an ethical obligation rooted in our baptismal commitment, demands that the moral convictions of well-formed consciences shape our participation in the political process ¹⁰ This report, therefore, seeks to illuminate the ethical implications of the bill, rather than merely its political alignment.

The Enduring Call of St. Francis: Simplicity, Solidarity, and Creation

The Franciscan way of life offers a profound lens through which to view the world and its challenges. It is centered on a deep love for God and creation, community, service, simplicity, peace, justice, and care for creation.¹¹ These values, inspired by Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, provide a radical counter-cultural ethic that often directly opposes prevailing societal norms.

A deep love for God and creation is at the heart of Franciscan spirituality. Franciscans strive to live by Gospel values, seeing in all of God’s creation a reflection of divine love.¹¹ St. Francis’s “Canticle of the Creatures” beautifully expresses this interconnectedness, referring to all creation as “sister, brother, mother. “.¹³ This perspective emphasizes that nothing in this world is indifferent to us, and the harm inflicted upon creation is a reflection of the violence within human hearts.¹⁴

Simplicity and poverty are fundamental to the Franciscan charism. St. Francis renounced a life of privilege to embrace poverty and service.¹² Franciscans avoid materialism and consumerism, focusing instead on relationships and spiritual growth.¹¹ This commitment extends to shared ownership and equitable distribution of goods.¹¹ The purpose of this poverty is not deprivation, but to remove the desire for wealth as an obstacle to faith ¹⁵ and to foster vulnerability, openness, and a deeper relationship with Christ found in the poor.¹⁶ This stance is a deliberate protest against a society that often embraces wealth and ostentatious power.¹⁵

Community and fraternity are central to the Franciscan way, emphasizing mutual support and shared values within fraternities and sororities.¹¹ This communal living strengthens spiritual growth and collective mission, fostering deep relationships built on love, respect, and humility.¹¹ This sense of fraternity extends beyond human relationships to a “cosmic fraternity,” where Francis used the names “brother” and “sister” for all creation, a novelty in his time.¹³

Franciscans are profoundly committed to service and “minority,” which means serving among and standing in solidarity with those on the margins.¹² St. Francis actively reached out to the leper, the poor, and the marginalized, recognizing Christ’s presence in them.¹ This “preferential option for the poor” is a core tenet, calling Franciscans to be with and identify with the poor and vulnerable in their struggle for dignity and rights.¹⁶

Promoting peace and justice is integral to the Franciscan mission.¹¹ Franciscans are known as “heralds of peace, ¹, advocating for nonviolence and conflict resolution through dialogue, understanding, and forgiveness.¹⁷ The pursuit of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) is a chief priority, aiming to address the root causes of poverty, inequality, and violence.¹

Finally, care for creation, or environmental stewardship, is a fundamental aspect of Franciscan spirituality. Rooted in Francis’s love for all creation, Franciscans advocate for sustainable living and ecological responsibility.¹⁷ Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ draws heavily from St. Francis’s “Canticle of the Creatures,” reminding us that our common home is a “sister” and “mother” who “cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse”.¹⁴ This teaching stresses that creation can never be treated merely as an object to be used, consumed, and discarded, but possesses its own intrinsic value.¹³

These Franciscan values are personal virtues and constitute a radical social ethic. They compel us to question fundamental policy: Does it foster simplicity, solidarity, peace, and genuine care for creation? Does it challenge or reinforce systems that create poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation? This framework provides a critical, faith-based standard against which the “big, beautiful bill” must be measured, immediately highlighting potential areas of tension.

Catholic Social Teaching: A Moral Compass for Public Life

Catholic Social Teaching (CST) provides a comprehensive framework for applying Gospel values to social, economic, and political life.²⁰ It is fundamentally rooted in the inherent dignity of the human person, created in God’s image and likeness, a belief that forms the foundation of all its principles.⁷

Key principles of CST include:

• Life and Dignity of the Human Person: This bedrock principle proclaims the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death, asserting that every person is precious.⁷ It calls for “Integral Human Development,” encompassing each person’s economic, political, social, ecological, and spiritual well-being.²³
• Call to Family, Community, and Participation: Human beings are inherently social. The organization of society—its economics, politics, and laws—directly impacts human dignity and the capacity for individuals to flourish in community. All people have a right and a duty to participate in society, working together for the common good.⁸
• Rights and Responsibilities: Human dignity is protected and a healthy community is achieved only when human rights are upheld and corresponding responsibilities are met. Every person has a fundamental right to life and to those necessities for human decency, along with duties to one another, their families, and the broader society.²²
• Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable: A fundamental moral test for any society is how its most vulnerable members are faring. This principle calls us to prioritize the needs of the poor and vulnerable, recognizing that their needs take precedence over the desires of the rich.⁷
• The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers: The economy must serve people, not vice versa. This means respecting the fundamental rights of workers, including the right to productive work, decent and fair wages, and to organize.²¹
• Solidarity: We are one human family, interconnected and interdependent, transcending national, racial, ethnic, economic, or ideological differences. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions and demands working for justice and peace, actively fighting the structural causes of poverty and inequality.²²
• Subsidiarity: This principle posits that the state should undertake only those tasks beyond the capacity of individuals or private groups acting independently.⁸ It cautions against unnecessary governmental intervention, emphasizing respect for the initiative and rights of individuals and local social units.²⁴ The principle aims to empower individuals and smaller groups to fulfill societal roles.⁸
• Care for God’s Creation: The Earth is sacred, a gift from God, possessing its intrinsic value. Humanity is responsible for protecting and cherishing the Earth’s ecological diversity and life-sustaining properties for future generations.¹⁷ This concern for nature is intrinsically linked to justice for the poor and commitment to society.¹³

These principles are not isolated tenets from which one can pick and choose; they are deeply interwoven and form a consistent ethic. For example, as articulated in Laudato Si’, environmental stewardship is intrinsically linked to justice for the poor.¹³ The tensions often observed within the Catholic community regarding political issues frequently stem from a selective application of these principles. Some Catholics may prioritize certain issues, such as abortion or religious liberty ⁷, while downplaying or overlooking others, such as social safety nets or environmental protection. This selective approach can lead to a fragmented understanding of the common good and result in political alignments that appear contradictory from a holistic CST perspective. The strong connection between Laudato Si’ and Franciscan spirituality ¹³ underscores that environmental issues are not secondary but fundamental aspects of social justice. Therefore, assessing any legislative proposal’s impact across all CST principles, not just those that align with a pre-existing political ideology, is crucial. This comprehensive view is essential for “forming a Catholic conscience” ⁷ and understanding why the Franciscan Movement, emphasizing the poor and creation, might find certain aspects of the bill deeply problematic, even if other Catholics support them. The challenge is to move beyond “single-issue voting” ⁹ to a comprehensive commitment to the common good and the dignity of everyone.

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” Through a Catholic-Franciscan Lens

The Republican legislative proposal, often referred to as the “big, beautiful bill,” is characterized by a focus on “cutting waste and government spending, reducing burdensome regulations, providing tax cuts that support families and small businesses, [and] supporting domestic energy”.² It aims to extend the 2017 tax cuts, which are described as “skewed to the wealthy” ²⁷, and includes “deep spending cuts to anti-poverty programs”.³ This approach has been identified as a “triple threat to low and moderate-income family well-being”.²⁷

Economic Justice and the Poor

The bill proposes extending tax cuts that could avert a “$4 to $5 trillion tax increase”.² However, these tax cuts are explicitly described as “skewed to the wealthy” ²⁷, and analyses suggest they would “reduce the income of households in the bottom 60 percent” or even the “bottom 40 percent”.²⁷ The current tax code already favors “upper class wealth-building over working class economic stability,” with corporations sometimes benefiting from “negative taxes” through subsidies.³⁰

Concurrently, the bill calls for “enormous cuts in Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), student loan assistance and other vital sources of support”.³ These cuts are projected to result in millions losing health insurance ³ and nearly 11 million people losing “some or all SNAP benefits” due to increased paperwork requirements and reduced flexibility for states.³ Studies also show that adding work requirements to Medicaid results in “virtually no increase in employment, but huge decreases in participation by otherwise eligible people”.²⁹

This approach stands in stark contrast to the CST principle of the “Preferential Option for the Poor” ²² and the Franciscan commitment to “serving the poor” and “standing in solidarity with those on the margins”.¹² The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has explicitly implored Congress to “protect programs such as Medicaid and SNAP and to expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to the most vulnerable children,” stating unequivocally that “Tax cuts that largely favor wealthier persons should not be made possible through cuts to healthcare and food for families struggling to make ends meet”.³¹ Catholic organizations like Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association have echoed this advocacy, emphasizing the essential nature of these programs for meeting basic human needs.³¹

The simultaneous proposal of tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and deep cuts to anti-poverty programs represents a moral inversion of the “Preferential Option for the Poor.” Instead of prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable, the bill prioritizes wealth accumulation for those already possessing significant resources. This directly contradicts the Gospel message that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” ¹⁵ and the Franciscan call to identify with the poor and marginalized.¹⁶ It also undermines the fundamental CST principle that “The economy must serve people, not the other way around”.²¹ For Catholics, and especially Franciscans, who are called to “make justice their aim” ³¹ and to see Christ’s presence in the poor ¹, supporting such a bill, even for other perceived benefits, would necessitate a profound moral reckoning with its direct and severe impact on the most vulnerable. This challenges the very “moral compass of our country and its people” ¹ and creates a significant point of tension.

The potential human cost of this legislative package is substantial, impacting millions of families. The following table illustrates some of the projected impacts:

Projected Impacts of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” on Vulnerable Populations

Impact Category	National Estimate	Representative State/District Examples
Increase in Uninsured People by 2034 (due to Medicaid cuts and ACA changes)	Nearly 14 million	Florida: 1.8 million; Texas: 1.6 million; California’s 22nd Congressional District: 55,000 3
People at Risk of Losing Some or All SNAP Benefits (due to paperwork requirements and reduced state flexibility)	Nearly 11 million	California’s 22nd Congressional District: 32,000 3
Jobs at Risk by Terminating Clean Energy Tax Credits	Not specified nationally	California’s 22nd Congressional District: 5,193 3

This quantifiable data underscores the severity of the proposed cuts and their direct conflict with the Catholic commitment to human dignity and the common good.

Environmental Stewardship and Deregulation

The Republican agenda includes “reducing burdensome regulations” ² and “unleashing American energy production”.² This often involves efforts to roll back environmental protections, such as “dismantling the national parks system”.³³ The bill also mentions eliminating “clean energy tax credits” ³, which could put jobs at risk.

This approach directly conflicts with the CST principle of “Care for God’s Creation” ²² and the deep Franciscan commitment to environmental stewardship.¹⁷ Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ ¹³ emphasizes that our common home is a “sister” and “mother” who “cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her”.¹⁴ It warns against treating creation as merely an object to be used, consumed, and discarded, stressing its intrinsic value.¹³ Franciscan Brother Jacek Orzechowski has described the Trump administration’s changes to environmental policy as “a colossal moral failure” and a “social sin which cries to heaven,” as well as “a profound affront to the Creator God”.³³

The underlying tension here is the false dichotomy that frequently pits economic growth, often pursued through deregulation and resource exploitation, against ecological responsibility. Catholic Social Teaching, particularly as articulated in Laudato Si’, rejects this separation, advocating for an “integral ecology” where human and environmental well-being are intrinsically linked and inseparable.¹³ Treating nature as merely a resource to be exploited (“entitled to plunder her at will,” ¹⁴) is not just an economic choice but a “profound affront to the Creator God” ³³ and undermines the common good, especially for future generations.¹⁹ For Franciscans, whose spirituality is deeply rooted in cosmic fraternity and a profound respect for all creation ¹³, policies that aggressively deregulate and exploit natural resources are seen as economic decisions and moral failings. This aspect of the bill directly challenges the Franciscan call to live in harmony with creation and to protect our common home, creating a clear and significant point of tension with those who prioritize economic models that disregard environmental impact.

Government’s Role, Accountability, and Civil Society

The bill’s stated goals include shrinking “a bloated federal bureaucracy” and addressing “runaway judicial activism.”.² From a Catholic perspective, the principle of subsidiarity dictates that matters should be handled at the lowest competent level.⁸ This means the state should not “intervene unnecessarily” ²⁴ or “crowd out private charity”.²⁵ However, CST also recognizes that “legitimate and necessary governmental intervention for the common good is defended. “.²⁴

A critical observation is that some large-scale problems, such as “water quality, air pollution, and climate change,” cannot be solved by local entities and require “collaboration and policy at the state, regional, and national level”.³³ Furthermore, CST states that “society has a moral obligation, including governmental action where necessary, to assure opportunity, meet basic human needs, and pursue justice in economic life”.²¹ While Pope John Paul II criticized the “Welfare State” for fostering “governmental excesses and abuses” that led to a “reduced sense of social solidarity” and “loss of human initiative” ²⁴, this critique is distinct from the Church’s strong support for federal “social safety net” programs. The USCCB explicitly supports programs like Medicaid and SNAP as “essential to helping many families meet basic human needs” ²¹, noting their effectiveness in lifting people out of poverty.²⁹

While potentially framed as aligning with subsidiarity, the bill’s approach to government reduction and social program cuts directly contradicts the Church’s practical advocacy for federal safety nets and its recognition of the state’s necessary role in addressing large-scale societal problems. This reveals a common misinterpretation or selective application of subsidiarity. While CST promotes local initiative and warns against state overreach, it does not advocate for dismantling essential governmental functions that serve the common good or protect the vulnerable when smaller entities are incapable. The Church’s critique of the “welfare state” was aimed at excesses and abuses that undermined solidarity and human initiative, not at eliminating the state’s fundamental responsibility to ensure basic needs and justice where necessary.²⁴ The “big, beautiful bill” appears to leverage the critique of “welfare state” bureaucracy to justify cuts that directly harm the poor, which the USCCB explicitly condemns.³¹ This is a crucial distinction: subsidiarity empowers lower levels, but it does not absolve higher levels of their responsibility for the common good, especially for issues beyond local capacity.

From a Catholic perspective, political authorities are “obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person” ³⁵ and to practice “distributive justice wisely”.³⁵ Citizens have both a right and, at times, a duty “to voice their just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the dignity of persons and to the good of the community”.³⁵ True peace, according to Aquinas, is “a harmony that is based on free consent, in the reasoned acceptance of the truth,” not merely “forced concord”.³⁶ The Church also emphasizes “ensuring the integrity of elections processes” and protecting “voting rights” as a “moral imperative for the common good” ³⁸, highlighting the importance of citizen participation.¹⁰ The bill’s proposed changes to government structure and social programs, if enacted, could severely weaken the state’s ability to fulfill its moral obligation to the common good and the poor. This also impacts the ability to hold the current government and the Republicans and Catholics that support it accountable, as it shifts burdens onto already struggling families and communities, contrary to CST.

Navigating Tensions: Catholics, Politics, and Conscience

The American Catholic population is “diverse in its beliefs, its adherence to Church teaching, and its religious practices as well as its social and political views”.⁵ Many Catholics “deviate from the Church’s teachings on social and cultural issues that intersect with politics” ⁵, and political party affiliation can sometimes be more influential than religious teachings on certain issues.⁶ For instance, while white Catholics often favor the GOP, Hispanic Catholics tend to favor Democrats.⁶ There is also a trend of “political/religious sorting,” where conservatives and Republicans tend to be more religious, and Democrats and liberals less so.⁶

Catholics are called to participate in politics by voting with a “conscience informed by the truths of Church teaching”.⁷ This involves informing oneself responsibly about Church teachings and relevant issues, reflecting prayerfully, and then choosing confidently.⁸ Conscience is described as the “voice of God within” ⁷ and requires “serious attempts to make sound moral judgments based on the truths of our faith”.⁹ It is not merely a feeling or a justification for doing whatever one wants.⁷

While certain issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, and racist behavior, are considered “intrinsically evil acts” and “preeminent threats to human life and dignity” ⁷, the Church explicitly teaches that “Catholics are not single-issue voters”.⁹ A candidate’s position on a single issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter’s support, though a position promoting an intrinsically evil act can legitimately disqualify a candidate.⁷ The complex moral dilemma of voting for a candidate who supports an intrinsically immoral act for “other morally grave reasons” is acknowledged, requiring “proportionate reasons.”.⁹

The documented diversity in Catholic political views, with some Catholics supporting policies like those in the “big, beautiful bill” that appear to contradict core CST principles, particularly the preferential option for the poor and care for creation, points to a deeper issue. The trend of “political/religious sorting” ⁶, where political affiliation seems to influence religious views, suggests a peril of ideological capture. This occurs when a political party’s platform, rather than the full, comprehensive breadth of CST, becomes the primary lens through which Catholics evaluate policy. When Catholics support a bill that, for example, makes deep cuts to programs for the poor ³, it suggests that other political priorities (e.g., tax cuts, deregulation, reducing government size) are being weighed more heavily than the direct and severe impact on human dignity and the common good, despite explicit and consistent Church teaching.³¹ This represents a failure of integral conscience formation if it leads to neglecting “fundamental moral truths”.¹⁰ The article must challenge readers to engage in an integral conscience formation, one that considers all CST principles holistically, not just those that align with a particular party’s platform. It is about “bringing together our principles and our political choices, our values and our votes”.¹⁰ The tension is therefore not just between different groups of Catholics, but within the conscience of individual Catholics who must strive to reconcile their faith with complex political realities. St. Francis himself was known for actively fostering reconciliation between warring parties.¹ The Franciscan call to universal kinship ¹ and to seek unity in truth, founded on love ³⁷, transcends partisan divides and demands a consistent ethic of care for all people and creation, fostering unity in truth rather than false unity.³⁷

Our Response: Living the Gospel in the Public Square

As Catholics, participation in the political process is a “moral obligation”.⁸ This involves more than just casting a vote on Election Day; it requires “ongoing participation in the continuing political and legislative process”.¹⁰ We are called to “communicate our concerns and positions to elected officials” ¹⁰ and to engage in public life “shaped by the moral convictions of well-formed consciences and focused on the dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good, and the protection of the weak and the vulnerable”.¹⁰

Beyond policy advocacy, Franciscans are called to “transform our lifestyles, particularly in the U.S., where our per capita carbon emissions are among the highest in the world”.³³ This includes engaging in “local grassroots advocacy” through “Franciscan Justice Circles” ¹⁸ and embracing the spirit of St. Francis: “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible”.¹⁶ This translates into concrete actions such as supporting the poor, advocating for asylum seekers, and combating environmental racism.¹⁶

The Church’s social mission is embodied and advanced through various organizations that serve as concrete expressions of its commitment to justice. These include:

• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): This official body advocates for policies protecting human life and dignity, strengthening families, and preserving the social safety net.²¹ They directly engage Congress on budget issues, social safety nets (Medicaid, SNAP, Child Tax Credit), and human rights.²¹
• Catholic Charities USA: A major provider of direct services, including food, shelter, and counseling, and a vocal advocate for policies essential to families’ basic human needs.³¹
• Catholic Health Association of the United States: This organization advocates for healthcare access, particularly protecting and supporting the Medicaid program.³¹
• Franciscan Action Network (FAN): A collective Franciscan voice that seeks to transform U.S. public policy related to peacemaking, care for creation, poverty, and human rights.¹⁶
• NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice: Founded by Catholic Sisters, this organization focuses on lobbying and grassroots advocacy for federal policies that support the flourishing of all, with a commitment to centering racial justice and equity.²⁰
• Catholic Relief Services (CRS): As an official agency of the U.S. Catholic Church, CRS works globally to meet basic needs and advocate for solutions to injustice, embodying Catholic social and moral teaching.³⁹
• Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD): The official anti-poverty agency of the U.S. bishops, CCHD funds community-based, grassroots-led organizations that empower poor and marginalized people to address local problems and systemic issues.⁴⁰

These organizations demonstrate a crucial interplay between direct service (charity), systemic advocacy (justice), and spiritual transformation (personal conversion). It is insufficient to provide charity if systemic injustices persist.²⁰ Similarly, advocating for policy change without personal conversion and a lifestyle that reflects Gospel values risks becoming hollow.¹² The Franciscan tradition, with its emphasis on “being with and identifying with the poor” ¹⁶ and its deep contemplative roots ¹², offers a powerful model for this integral approach. The tensions discussed throughout this article often arise when one of these essential dimensions is prioritized to the exclusion or detriment of others, or when the spiritual grounding is lost in the fervor of political engagement. For lay Franciscans, responding to the “big, beautiful bill” means analyzing its policy implications and discerning how their lives reflect the values it challenges or upholds. It implies a call to active, informed citizenship and a deeper spiritual practice that fuels their commitment to justice and peace. This holistic response is the path to “transforming the party to which we belong” rather than being transformed by it ¹⁰, ultimately contributing to a more just and peaceful world.

Finally, all service and action flows from prayer.¹² Building understanding and fostering true peace happens first by “contemplative study and prayerful embrace of the truths of our faith”.³⁷ This spiritual grounding ensures that activism remains rooted in Gospel values and avoids becoming merely partisan.

Conclusion: Towards a More Just and Peaceful World

The Franciscan vision calls us to universal fraternity ¹ and integral human development ¹³, recognizing that “Everything is interconnected” – our common home and all its inhabitants.¹³ Our pursuit of justice must reflect this profound unity.

The “big, beautiful bill,” with its proposed tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and deep reductions in vital social safety net programs, presents a significant challenge to this vision. It prioritizes economic models that exacerbate inequality and disregard environmental stewardship, creating a moral inversion of the preferential option for the poor and a profound affront to creation. While the principle of subsidiarity is valuable, its misapplication to justify dismantling essential governmental functions that serve the common good and protect the vulnerable contradicts the Church’s consistent advocacy.

Despite political divisions and the formidable challenges posed by policies that contradict faith values, we maintain a tone of hope rooted in God’s providence and the Gospel’s transformative power. Pursuing justice and peace is an ongoing journey, requiring perseverance and a commitment to “continue to act for justice” even when faced with resistance.³⁸ We are called to faithful citizenship, engaging in the political process with a well-formed conscience that considers all principles of Catholic Social Teaching. This means actively advocating for policies that uphold human dignity, protect the vulnerable, and care for our common home, while also transforming our own lives and supporting organizations that embody these Gospel values through both charity and justice.

Pace e Bene. May peace and all good be with us as we strive to be instruments of God’s peace and justice in the world, embodying Christ’s love in every aspect of our lives.

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Disclaimer:

Please be advised that the views and opinions expressed in my writings are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the official positions, doctrines, or teachings of the Catholic Church or the Franciscan movement. These writings are the product of my personal reflection and understanding.