We now know why the United States Congress – and especially the right wing ratbags of the Tea Party lunatics and their ilk – absolutely did not want Pope Francis to come to America. He makes them look like the completely horrible people most of them are.
Obviously, Congress thought Pope Francis would be honoured to dine with them, and all their pomp and prestige. They were wrong.
Pope Francis says he didn’t have the time because he already had a date eating with the homeless. In fact, he is not only going to be eating with them, but serving them. The meal will take place at St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, D.C.
Rather than try to write some great prose about this situation, we will simply quote Eric March from the website Upworthy, because he nailed it:
Unlike some of his predecessors, Francis has reminded journalists and world leaders time and time again that the church is for the poor, blasted the global financial system which causes so much poverty in the first place, and called on Catholics across the globe to take action and start lifting up the most vulnerable among them.
He’s also spoken out forcefully against economic inequality.
Including some of the worst, most exploitative labor practices in the world, which create conditions that allow hardship and desperation to thrive.
Blowing off John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi to serve the homeless is pretty much the kind of badassery we’ve come to expect from this pope when it comes to speaking up for the world’s most hard-up.
“Pope Francis is the ultimate Washington outsider. His priorities are not Washington’s priorities,” said John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
“We think we are the centre of the world. We are not the centre of Pope Francis’ world. He is frankly more comfortable in the slums of Argentina than in the corridors of power.”
Frank is also very comfortable trying to get the politicians of this world to understand that Climate change is real, and that it is caused by humanity, and that screwing the planet is not the sort of stewardship God intended us to follow.
We really like this guy. Really like him. He’s our type of Christian, and our type of leader.
We sincerely hope someone doesn’t shoot him, or that he doesn’t have a very convenient heart attack. And no, we’re not kidding.
Well, This Is What I Think 
I never comment – don’t have anything worth saying. But I could not let this one pass.
I’m a lapsed Catholic – and have no interest in organised religion at all, believing that it is a central player in multiple types of discrimination that still haunts society, even in one as “advanced” as Australia’s.
I was musing the other night on the question “What religion would I choose, if I was forced to have one?” I found myself saying – much to my surprise – that I would be a Catholic if Pope Francis was leading it. This man is the epitome of what I believe a religious leader should be – and what few are.
I find myself buoyed just reading about him, and I break into a smile when I see his photo. The goodness that exudes from this man is a tonic. Long may he hold the job.
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I am really glad to have you commenting, Steve, and thank you. Don’t be so shy in future!
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Your remarks about the heart attack and the assasination are not wide of the mark. Have you ever read Graham Yallop’s book In God’s Name, about John Paul I, the Italian Mafia, a Masonic lodge and the financiers who were aghast at his plans to take the church to the poor and sell many of its assets to alleviate hunger and poverty.
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I have indeed read it. Terrifying, with the smack of truth.
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Thank you for this. You really have our Tea Party politicians pegged.
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I also have had suspicions about the death of Thomas Merton, though nothing could ever be proved; it just seems like such a coincidence.
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