Jorge Mario Bergoglio was named Person of the Year by The Time Magazine in 2013. He studied in the tough Jesuit school before teaching literature and psychology at the university level. This man is a scientist and earned a Masters’s degree in Chemistry.
The Forbes Magazine Senior Editor and Science Writer, Alex Knapp, said this about the man, according to Time magazine:
‘Being a scientist means that you have to embrace the fact that you don’t know everything. That you need to be constantly searching for the truth.’
His Italian immigrant mother did not like his career choice, but she changed her mind. He is Pope Francis now. The Pope called George Floyd by his name — twice. He knelt in prayer during a Black Lives Matter protest.
George Floyd died when a white policeman pressed his knee into the black man’s neck, casually putting his hand into his own pocket — for eight minutes and 46 seconds. That officer knew he was being taped and arrogantly stared right back into the camera as Floyd begged for his life and then called for his mother. This killer knew that the police in Minneapolis, MN had not suffered any consequences.
The Holy See “encouraged anti-racism protesters while making a clear statement about where American Catholics should stand ahead of President Donald Trump’s bid for a second term in November.”
Both the murdered man and the Pope had the same first name chosen when they were born: George or Jorge in Spanish and Portugese. The Vatican sent a clear message to the conservative Catholics who are “pro-Trumpers.” Presidential Visiting Fellow at Yale Divinity. School Anthea Butler said:
‘Listen, this is just as much of an issue as abortion is.’
The black woman continued, saying that the Vatican has been sending Catholics around the world a message:
‘[P]ay attention to the racism that is happening and the racism that is in your own church in America.’
Since Pope Paul VI, the Vatican has supported
‘[R]acial injustice, and…have voiced support for the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of nonviolent protest. History’s first pope from the global south is no different. He quoted King at length during his historic speech to the U.S. Congress in 2015 and met with King’s daughter, as his predecessor had done.’
However, Pope Francis and the Vatican drawing close to George Floyd’s killing was unusual. It may be that the Vatican has a strategy against “political and ideological partisanship.” Church Historian and Secretary of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies Alberto Meloni said:
‘It’s not like seven people had the same type of reaction.’
Just last week, Pope Francis denounced the “sin of racism.” He mentioned Floyd’s name twice and associated it with a “tragic” killing. He said he was worried about violence during the American protests:
‘We cannot close our eyes to any form of racism or exclusion, while pretending to defend the sacredness of every human life.’
The Pope was calling out the conservative Catholics who considered the abortion above all else. Pope Francis endorses mens’ and women’s lives:
‘[R]acism, immigration, the death penalty and poverty.’
He regretted that these went out the window at the ballot box. While the Pope stands fully behind “significant restrictions on legal abortion,” he noted that American Catholic Churches have been “obsessed” with abortion, contraception, and gay marriage to the detriment of its other teachings.”
Pope Francis noted that Donald Trump has been enrolling Catholic voters primarily with his “anti-abortion platform.”
After Trump’s photo op in front of the so-called “President’s Church,” which is across from the White House. POTUS stood before the Episcopal Church blasphemously holding a Bible upside-down. At the same time, his “military” shot rubber bullets and pepper ball chemicals into the gathering of peaceful protesters. The military shoved people to the ground and beat an Australian cameraman with a baton.
The next day, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump went to the St. John Paul II Shrine. The highest-ranking black prelate in the US Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington DC said:
‘[I found it] baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated.’
The Pope called Texas Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso last week, about his leadership:
‘His leading role in demanding fair treatment for migrants attempting to cross the southern U.S. border, a cause Francis has championed in ways that have fueled tensions with Trump.’
Pope Francis called Seitz unexpectedly after the Pope saw him kneeling in prayer at a Black Lives Matter protest. According to Seitz, the Pope thanked him:
‘My recent words and actions on the events that are taking place in the country now.’
The Vatican was well-aware of American police as they shoved a white 75-year-old peaceful protester Martin Guigin to the ground sending him to the hospital. It was caught on video, and the Vatican urged:
‘Go watch it, please.’
The highest-ranking American at the Vatican, Cardinal Kevin Farrell condemned how America was “failing its black citizens:”
‘[I have] spoken to Francis in the past about America’s race problems, which he saw up close as an auxiliary bishop in Washington. Farrell said Francis is well versed in King and American history. Francis “knows what the principle was and he knows what the struggle was,”‘
Professor of religious studies at Manhattan College Natalia Imperatori-Lee said Pope Francis was impacting American Catholics:
‘We are starting to see a kind of fissure emerge. Whether that’s going to be long-lasting or whether it is a sign of a paradigm shift, I think it’s too early to tell. I guess we’ll know if this works when Catholics go to the polls in November.’
The nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute’s poll last week showed white Catholics holding favorable views of Trump had dropped by double digits in a year. Last week 37 percent of them did so in May after 49 percent did throughout 2019.
Featured Image is a screenshot via YouTube.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
