Thomas Merton is not a household name in modern America. He may come up in conversation when the humanities students come home from college and chatter about the new canon of books they’ve been reading, but for the most part, Merton’s legacy seems to continue only on a college campus or in a religious institution. Yet, Merton was one of only four Americans mentioned by Pope Francis in his speech to a joint meeting of the United States Congress on Thursday. 

The other three Americans mentioned were Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Dorothy Day. Pope Francis believed Lincoln was a “guardian of liberty.” King was mentioned because he enabled “people to ‘dream’ of full rights for all their brothers and sisters.” The Pope mentioned Day because she strived “for justice and the cause of the oppressed.” 

As for Merton, he is probably best known for “The Seven Storey Mountain,” his autobiography which he finished at the age of 31. Pope Francis said “Merton was, above all, a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church.” 

Exactly which certitudes was Pope Francis referring to? To answer that, we might have to look at another book written by Merton, “The Cold War Letters.” An avid supporter of peace, Thomas Merton was, much to the chagrin of his peers, quite vocal in his opposition to the Cold War and, in particular, the Vietnam War.

So why would the Pope make it a point to support Merton for challenging the Cold War? 

When Americans think about war, our first impulse is to think about the world wars, the Vietnam War, and wars in the Middle East, but the Cold War, with its clandestine operations and doomsday prophecies doesn’t seem to make the top of the list. Yet, it was probably one of, if not the most influential war of our time. 

The Cold War affected countries on nearly every continent in the world. The countries which obviously were affected include The United States and The Soviet Union, but the Cold War also affected Cuba, Vietnam, and the Koreas just to name a few. Surprisingly enough, the Cold War even stretched into many Middle Eastern countries. Take Iran for example. 

Iran was led by Mossadegh up until 1952 when America and England staged a coup (the CIA later admitted to it in 2013). The coup began only after England convinced America that it was in the best interest of the war on Communism for America to join in on the coup. The result was a 25 year leadership by the Shah which in turn led to the infamous Iran Hostage Crisis and, ultimately, a tense relationship between Iran and the United States that has continued until present day. 

Interestingly enough, the one hand that Pope Francis shook on his way down the center aisle of the chamber was the hand of John Kerry, the principal negotiator of the Iran nuclear deal, which the Pope has come out in support of.

It’s doubtful that the Pope was indirectly slapping America’s hand while shaking John Kerry’s. After all, the Pope also said in his speech that “it is difficult to judge the past by the criteria of the present.” Still, it’s hard to believe that Pope Francis didn’t realize that American citizens at home might want to Google “Merton” and find out that he was not necessarily a big fan of American politics at the time.