Posted on 09/22/2015 7:44:18 AM PDT by Salvation
CREDIT: Jaclyn Lippelmann, The Catholic Standard
On Thursday morning, Pope Francis will speak at a joint session of Congress. Shortly thereafter he will journey to a nearby center of Catholic Charities. In so doing, he will be meeting very different groups of people: politicians, and the poor, legislators and the less fortunate.
There is in these visits a powerful contrast. But not all things are as they appear for not as man sees does God see. Let’s consider both.
The day will begin in the well of the U.S. Congress. This will be the first time that a pope has addressed a joint session of Congress. He does so as a religious and moral leader, but also as a head of state. In fact, many of the honors the pope has been accorded, including arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, an official welcome, and Secret Service protection are due to his status as the head of state of the Vatican City State, the smallest internationally recognized state in the world.
But do not miss the stunning image here: a pope addressing Congress. Such a thing would have been unthinkable before the 1960s. Catholics were generally considered with suspicion by the Protestant majority in the United State. They wondered if our loyalties were here or with the Vatican. Wave after wave of Catholic immigrants in the early 20th century also created fear in the minds of many Americans. These Catholics immigrants were poor and brought with them many of the social ills associated with poverty. Thus, anti-Catholic sentiment ran deep before the 1960s. And despite Catholics gaining local power in many northeastern cities, it was generally difficult for Catholics to be elected to national office. In those times, people who talked about the important of the “separation of Church and State” usually had Catholics in mind.
Much of the severity of sectarian hostility has waned, even as secular hostility against the Church has risen. But most people who lived before 1960 could never have imagined a pope addressing a joint session of Congress or receiving the sorts of state-sponsored honors you have seen; it would have been politically impossible.
Yet note a further paradox! In many minds, this address of the pope to Congress is one to arguably the most powerful body on this planet. The men and women gathered there sit atop billion dollar budgets and make decisions that affect the entire world, let alone the United States. The fate and well-being of many depends on them.
But not all things are as they appear. For that body of individuals is likely the second most important group the pope will address on Thursday. The most important and influential group awaits him at his next stop: the poor at Catholic Charities.
Please be assured that I do not make this observation with the common class hatred/envy that simplistically concludes that all rich and powerful people are evil and greedy while all the poor are good and holy. Things are never that black and white. There are sinners and saints in each group.
But understand this: the poor, the suffering, and the vulnerable are far more powerful than most of us imagine. Consider that while the poor need us in this life, we are going to them in the next. The Lord Jesus counseled us, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings (Lk 16:9). In other words, if we are generous to the poor here, they are going to be powerful advocates for us on our judgment day.
Mother Mary, too, spoke of a great reversal that is coming: he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty (Lk 1:52-53). And Jesus added, But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first (Matt 19:30). And Psalm 72 says, The Lord hears the cry of the poor (Ps 72).
It seems that many of us here are going to have to make an appointment to be able to see them in Heaven! Many who are poor, suffering, and vulnerable now are going to have the highest places in Heaven, and they’re going have a lot to say about our final judgment. It’s not bad advice to befriend them now because we’re going to need them later!
So which is the most powerful group the pope will address on Thursday? Well, you decide. But remember, things are not always as they appear; God does not see as man sees.
I see no paradoxes in Pope Che’s scheduling.
First he visits the Castros in Cuba.
Then BHO in Washington.
Then address the UN in NYC.
Seems very consistent to me for this Pope.
He will find many kindred spirits in his travels this week.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
I believe you are mistaken.
How so?
Did you even read it? Don’t the quotes from Holy Scripture give even a moment’s pause for reflection?
If Catholic Charities out there is anything like it is here, the “poor” he will be meeting are illegal aliens who are doing considerably better than I am.
Oh c’mon. This Pope is a hardcore lefty. He detests capitalism. He embraces globull warming. He has no problem with illegal immigration. He embraces every left-wing leader under the sun including Evo Morales in Bolivia, the Castro brothers in Cuba, not to mention BHO here in the US. He has offered recognition to the Palestinian state. Stuart Varney just stated the Pope is anti-capitalist. I totally agree. The Pope NEVER criticizes Socialism or liberation theology. He totally embraces social justice . He is a true Jesuit. And that means far left.
And yet another socialist coming to harangue us about how bad we are as a country because we are not yet completely dis-functional and destitute (DESPITE the best efforts of people akin to Pope Che) is going to do what good, exactly?
Pope Pius XII even before his Papacy denounced the Nazis. Certainly His Holiness never went to Nazi Germany to embrace Hitler in a “friendly and familiar” encounter.
Either as Archbishop Bergoglio or as Pope, Francis never denounced the crimes of the Cuban Stalinist regime. Francis have expressed his high regard for the most brutal tyranny in the history of this hemisphere, to the extreme of bragging before going to the Holy Land that he considered himself to be the Che Guevara of Palestine people.
During his trip to the island prison Francis did not incited the Cuban youth to create “líos” (to mess up, to revolt) as he did to the youth in a trip to Brazil just after been elected Pope.
In Cuba Francis called for reconciliation but he did not meet with the dissidents, the real representatives of the enslaved Cuban people, whose demand freedom and respect for the human and civil rights have been ignored by the rest of the world for more than 55 years. Making a mockery of the Pope visit, the regime imprisoned all the leaders of the democratic dissidence during Francis stay in Cuba.
He’s also apparently a coward. Instead of going down to speak truth to power to the Mexican government, he completely ignores the root of the problem. Much easier to berate the most generous country the world has ever known for somehow not doing enough to take care of the problems and rancid overflows of corrupt states.
So, I may safely conclude that the words of the Gospel have no impact? Fine.
The OP is pointing out the contrast between public (government) and private (voluntary association). My opinion is the Pope has no business addressing Congress. Nor does he have any business advocating specific policy.
He should limit himself to present doctrine and leave it to the faithful to have it impact policy. Sadly, he does not see it this way.
Old Fidel likes his capitalist brand names doesn’t be? Addidas for me, the People’s Textile Cooperative for you!
Amen.
I can ONLY wish the Pope would stick to the gospels and completely avoid all other subjects, especially politics, economics, and science.
Did you ever read the OP? Or is it just a springboard for the same old rants?
You got to remember that both Castros brothers are growing older, and in time will pass on into history. Pope Francis is beginning to prepare the island of Cuba for when it will go into a post communist period and it will come.
I have no problem at all with the scriptures quoted above.
I have LOTS of problems with the current Pope’s views and agenda.
I am glad we have this forum here at FR to call the Pope out on his radical far left political ideology.
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