Above Pope Francis's happy and mutually respectful meeting with the 44th President of the USA. Below, Pope Francis waiting to meet the 45th/47th President of the USA...
There are roughly 52 million Roman Catholics in the USA - around 20% of the population. Under normal circumstances, it would of course be right and proper for the sitting president to attend a pope's funeral on behalf of those many American Catholics. However, this coming Saturday one cannot help speculating that Trump will have ulterior motives for his attendance. After all, he is a deeply irreligious man. He might be there principally to network with other political leaders or to bolster his sinking popularity back home.
For his Easter Sunday address, Pope Francis's words were spoken by another, “I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the ‘weapons’ of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death!”
He was very obviously thinking about the current occupant of The White House and probably Vladimir Putin as well. Back in 2016, Pope Francis had said of Trump:-
"A person who only thinks about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian."
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/c7WGsv1
