The victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Catholic Latina from the South Bronx, in the Democratic primary of New York's fourteenth congressional district has added to the growing excitement about a possible resurgence of the “religious left.” Some hope a twenty-first-century version of the Social Gospel will save the United States from Trumpism and American Christianity from a thinly veiled theology of ethno-nationalism.
There are, to be sure, some striking similarities between the platform of Ocasio-Cortez and Pope Francis's message (especially in Laudato si' and in his official messages to the participants of the “World Meetings of the Popular Movements”) about the social and economic ills of our system. But “Pope Francis Catholics” who want to create a connection between the present pontificate and the “religious left” must deal with some serious obstacles—besides the obvious fact that this pontificate might not last long enough to help their political movement take off.
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