VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Observing with great concern the social unrest unfolding in the United States, Pope Francis said no one can claim to defend the sanctity of every human life while turning a blind eye to racism and exclusion.
Addressing all “dear brothers and sisters in the United States” during his livestreamed general audience on June 3, the Pope said, “Today I join the church in St Paul and Minneapolis, and in the entire United States, in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism.”
“Let us pray for the consolation of their grieving families and friends and let us implore the national reconciliation and peace for which we yearn,” he said in Italian.
The Pope said he has “witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of Mr George Floyd”, a 46-year-old man, whose last moments of life were recorded on a widely disseminated video showing a white police officer in Minneapolis pushing down on his neck with his knee May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead.
“My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life. At the same time, we have to recognise that ‘the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost’,” he said, quoting Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Pope prayed for the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, to assist “all those who work for peace and justice in your land and throughout the world. May God bless all of you and your families”.
Hundreds of thousands of people turned out nationwide to protest Floyd’s death. And many of the country’s Catholic bishops joined the calls for justice.
Four officers from the Minneapolis Police Department were fired on May 26, including Derek Chauvin, with whom Floyd pleaded “Please, I can’t breathe” as he held him down. Chauvin is facing second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. Three other officers involved are also facing charges.
(CNS Photo)
Perhaps it is time for all Catholics to read “The Church and Racism” by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, and reflect
(particularly those who are supposed to take Encyclicals seriously ).
Of importance is the clear discussion of SHARIA in the Encyclical and its orientation mentioned in detail. Yet this
does not attract any church leader who has the fibre and intellect necessary to champion the cause.
Islam is largely overlooked as strongly anti-Trinitarian (deserving beheading), while Sharia is VERY VERY RACIST.
Muslims also breed faster than most Catholic countries.
Also one death by what is claimed as racism against hundreds of thousands of abortions in the US as well as global abortion initiatives,
lost in cold-blooded murder, which in the US has attracted hundreds of thousands in anti-abortion rallies across US Cities, is hardly
a comparison.
The approach by Pope Francis is clearly populist, and an attempt to restore peace.
He would be better off to pray for “Mary Queen of Peace”, from Medjugorje, which he has already downplayed as sending messages like the “post office” (yet he now has Twitter going non-stop).
While Pope Francis may downplay abortion against one (claimed) racist action, he has an obligation towards promoting mysticism, which is the antithesis of the anti-God religion of the US,
which is its state religion.
While he downplayed Catholic charismatic renewal (mysticism) as the “Samba” he is visible on Utube Rome 2014 receiving from
a stadium filled with 50,000 mixed sexes praying in tongues with extended hands towards him in a vast communal
blessing while he is seen kneeling receiving behind a chair he is about to sit on.
He is better off promoting Orthodoxy, and traditional Catholicism, instead of appealing to the social left which
has no interest in reducing abortion as Joe Biden has made clear already, and indeed Barack Obama who also is vocal
even though he is not in the Presidency. Obama could not give two hoots about pro-life either.
Sorry but this makes my stomach turn. If Catholics cannot fix their birthrate, currently way below 2 in most European countries,
which is TERMINAL CANCER for the Catholic church, they deserve to be over-run by Islam AS HAS BEEN THE CASE ELSEWHERE.
Furthermore the comment by Pope Francis about Catholic family that “Breed like rabbits” is both crassly un-Christian and decidedly
unfair on those who genuinely love children.
He and the Vatican experts need to find new ways of supporting pro-lifers. Pro-lifers get precious little mileage from clergy,
which points to a void in the Catholic church that desperately needs to be filled.
The classic example is Poland which was arrogantly approached by the EU to help fund global initiatives in abortion.
Instead of expressing the support for a “Federation” (his words), which is in fact not supportive of Christianity, he could at the very least support Poland
-Pope Saint John Paul II’s country, which defied both Racist Nazis and Communists, despite their six million loss to VERY RACIST NAZIS.
Worth a think?
Thank you.
See below for further motif on the web.
Archbishop Viganò’s powerful letter to President Trump: Eternal struggle between good and evil playing out right now
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
So honored by Archbishop Viganò’s incredible letter to me. I hope everyone, religious or not, reads it!