Francis Goes to Washington

Francis Goes to Washington

Not everyone was happy to hear the message delivered by the Pope in Congress. Even before he arrived, conservative Washington Post columnist George Will attacked him as a “false prophet” because of his views on climate and capitalism; the Wall Street Journal thought he went a bit too far on the need to welcome refugees and skepticism for “free markets”; one WSJ columnist took issue with the Pope’s call for a “cooperative economy” rather than an “unfettered” competitive Global system; a rightwing site attacked the “Radical Pope”; a woman in the audience was recorded as saying she would "take my shoe off and throw it at his head" just before the pontiff entered the House chamber. The three conservative Catholic Supreme Court justices — Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas — did not show up at all.  In his address to Congress the Pope also praised Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day, who, it’s safe to assume, not many in the hall had ever heard of – or, if they did, most would be offended by her advocacy of pacifism and draft resistance.

 

Pope Decries “Shameful and Culpable Silence” on Arms Sales “Drenched in Innocent Blood”

Pope Francis on Thursday gently scolded Congress on a variety of issues, from immigration to foreign policy, but on one unexpected topic — the weapons sales that fuel armed conflicts around the world — he couldn’t have been much more blunt. He was speaking about his determination “to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world,” when he said this:

“Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.”  More