CARITAS CORNER: In the One, we are one

By Andy Barton

To this day, I can recall watching “Predators of the Mara,” a rerun of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” on a quiet Sunday afternoon in the early 1980s. In that episode, a cheetah chases down and kills a young wildebeest. It is a remarkably brutal scene of struggle for the wildebeest to get free from the cat’s jaws locked on its neck. The horror I felt as I watched one animal kill another was tempered only by the calming voice of Marlin Perkins, who explained that the herd was ultimately stronger because predators in the Maasai Mara National Reserve helped to cull the sick and the weak. This was natural selection — survival of the fittest.

We generally accept the natural law of the Mara — or any ecosystem — where the predator-prey relationship is fundamental to survival with the exception for one species: homo sapiens. Among wildebeests, it seems reasonable that the herd is strengthened by the elimination of its weakest members. Theoretically, one could argue that humanity would be stronger without the weak and the sick. Yet, as a species, we reject this logic. The cold, scientific reasoning of natural selection may apply to animals, but it clashes with our moral instincts. Instead, we consciously choose to care about — and care for — one another, often at great personal and collective cost. Why do we do this? What compels us to act against the laws of nature?

The simplest answer may be the one found in the first chapter of Genesis and especially 1:26,27: “Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth. God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them.”  Equally compelling is the commandment in Matthew 22:37-39: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” These verses stand out among countless others in the Bible in telling us that we care for each other because God made us, and God commanded us to love one another.

There is a deeper logic at work here, one that bridges theology and evolutionary science. If, in nature, the herd is made stronger by the removal of its weakest members, then the inverse is also true: the herd is only as strong as its weakest member. If humankind refuses to abandon our weakest, then it is in everyone’s best interest to support and uplift them. Our collective strength depends on how we care for those who are most vulnerable.  This is the essence of the principles of Catholic social teaching, especially care for the common good and solidarity.

Which brings us to our new pope. In his first address to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV declared that his motto would come from Augustine’s words: In Illo uno unum, which translates to “In the One, we are one.” It is a profound theological vision rooted in the Augustinian tradition — a tradition that shaped Pope Leo XIV during his years as a scholar and as a bishop. Augustine’s understanding of humanity was not defined by competition or exclusion, but by the radical unity that comes from being created in the image of God. For Augustine, the health of the community depended on the well-being of each member; true strength is found not in the survival of the fittest, but in the flourishing of all.

Pope Leo’s track record as a bishop speaks to this conviction. He was known not only for his intellectual rigor but for his tireless advocacy for the poor, the sick, and the marginalized. He understands that the Church’s mission is not to mirror the laws of the wild, but to embody the law of love. In the face of global crises — inequality, migration, war — Pope Leo’s Augustinian background equips him to call the Church, and the world, to a higher standard: to recognize that our future depends on how we treat the weakest among us.

None of this is especially insightful or intellectually profound. Why take up valuable white space in the final issue of The Colorado Catholic Herald pontificating on “Wild Kingdom” and the Bible while reiterating the bio of our new pope? Because these are hard times for homo sapiens, and I worry that in our politics, our nationalism and even in our fandom, we sometimes lose sight of the imperative to care for each other. In this, Pope Leo XIV brings me hope. His leadership promises to remind us that, in the One, we are indeed one — and that our greatest calling is to care for each other, not because it is efficient or expedient, but because it is what separates us from the wildebeest on the Mara and makes us truly human.