GOP Eyes Pope Francis for Divine Inspiration

Photo Credit: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty For his party to survive, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich believes the GOP needs to broaden its appeal beyond “the infamous 47 percent.” Conservative activist Ralph Reed would rebrand the Republican Party as a force of compassion – feed the poor and clothe the naked. Republican strategist John Feehery says the GOP craves a populist leader – “a happy warrior.”

Their model: Pope Francis.

“What Francis is doing,” Reed said, “is rebalancing the Catholic Church’s message to stress the pastoral mission of good works and service to people before getting to ideology. What he’s not doing is jettisoning the Catholic doctrine. What about that is not a model for the Republican Party?”

For top Republicans, Catholics in particular, the pontiff’s headline-seizing efforts to reverse negative stereotypes of one of the world’s oldest and most ossified institutions – almost exclusively through symbolic gestures – stands as an example for the GOP. The Republican Party, according to polls, is viewed by many in the United States as insular, intolerant and lacking compassion for the poor while consorting with the rich.

The Catholic Church has the same “brand problem” – and since his election in March, Pope Francis has ruthlessly tackled it. Here are four lessons Republicans should take away from the pope’s early success…

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