Picture Of The Day

(Pope Francis washes and kisses the feet of 12 refugees in a Maundy Thursday ceremony at a refugee center near Rome, Italy; the refugees were Muslim, Christian and Hindu. Osservatore Romano/ Reuters)

We don't see any yooge walls or police patrolling and conducting surveillance, do you?

Sunday Reflection

At the conclusion of the Synod on the Family, Pope Francis had some hard truths for the right- wing bishops who thwarted his desire to have the Catholic Church adopt a more forward- leaning position toward the LGBT community.  We hope he can find new postings for the medieval clerics (largely from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe) who opposed him -- as well as a few sedition- minded American right- wing clerics = cough= pedophile protector Cardinal Dolan =cough= who richly deserve early retirement as well. 

Morning Reading - "A Pope Who Leans Left"

Harold Meyerson has today's morning reading, where he reminds the right-wingers whose sudden antipathy to the head of the Roman Catholic Church that they may be taking issue with a certain carpenter as well:

The Wall Street Journal laments his overt embrace of the “progressive political agenda of income redistribution.” My Post colleague George F. Will writes that, “Americans cannot simultaneously honor him and celebrate their nation’s premises.”

It’s not clear, however, whether the Journal and Will’s argument is with the pope or with the Christianity of the saint whose name he took, or even more fundamentally, with the Nazareth carpenter whom Christians believe was the son of God.  [snip]

Suppose, for instance, that the pope elects, in his address to Congress, to repeat one of that carpenter’s most famous quotes: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Based on past performance, can we expect some Republican congressman to leap to his feet and shout, “You lie,” or Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. to shake his head in dissent? Both occurrences greeted addresses to Congress by President Obama, speeches that were nowhere remotely as inflammatory as those in a recent papal encyclical, much less the Sermon on the Mount.  [our emphasis]

Meyerson goes on to illustrate how -- in addressing capitalism, worker rights, human dignity and poverty -- Pope Francis is following the teachings of "the Nazareth carpenter" as well as that of Popes going back to Leo XIII in the 19th Century,  the main difference being Francis is "walking the walk."  At the same time, he's de-emphasizing the socio- political issues beloved by the right. As such, he's of course infuriating the knuckle draggers:

These conservatives lament that Francis has de-emphasized the church’s traditional fear and loathing of women and sex. How a church governed by male celibates should have come to view its areas of core competency as gender relations and reproduction is a good question. By returning to the kind of issues that St. Francis and the Nazarene focused on — stewardship of the Earth, championing of the have-nots — Francis has been a great disappointment to those Catholics nostalgic for the spirit, if not the letter, of the Inquisition.

A pope infused by the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi and Jesus poses a threat to the current economic order. Conservatives are right to fear and despise him, as they would be right to fear and despise his role models. The final scene of George Bernard Shaw’s play “Saint Joan” places Joan of Arc in a dream sequence in which all her persecutors, once she’s safely dead and canonized, praise her and acknowledge her sainthood. When she asks them if she should return to Earth and live again, however, they answer with fear, loathing and a resounding “no.” That, in essence, is the conservatives’ response to Pope Francis, and to the spirit and faith he embodies.  [our emphasis]

The Pope is about to address Congress as we post this.  We await what he has to say, and how it's received.

UPDATE:  Here's the text of the remarks Pope Francis made to Congress.

"Laudato Si" - Pope Francis Issues Encyclical On Stewardship Of The Earth

The much anticipated encyclical from Pope Francis I on man's moral responsibility for stewardship of the Earth, "Laudato Si" ("Be praised"), has been released.  Here's the text.

The Associated Press summarizes:

Pope Francis called Thursday for a bold cultural revolution to correct what he calls the "structurally perverse" economic system of the rich exploiting the poor that is turning Earth into an "immense pile of filth."

In a sweeping manifesto aimed at spurring action in U.N. climate negotiations, domestic politics and everyday life, Francis explains the science of global warming, which he blames on an unfair, fossil fuel-based industrial model that he says harms the poor most. Citing Scripture and past popes' and bishops' appeals, he urges people of all faiths and no faith to undergo an awakening to save God's creation for future generations.

It's an indictment of big business and climate doubters alike.

"It is not enough to balance, in the medium term, the protection of nature with financial gain, or the preservation of the environment with progress," he writes. "Halfway measures simply delay the inevitable disaster. Put simply, it is a matter of redefining our notion of progress."

It's even more than we expected from this remarkable breath of fresh air in the Catholic church.

Meanwhile, tiny right-wing heads are exploding.  (And fat ones, too.)

Your Right-Wing Cafeteria Catholic, Peggy Noonan

Ed Kilgore on Sister of the Order of the Three-Martini-Lunch, cafeteria Catholic and St. Ronnie of Hollywood idolator Peggy "Nooney Tunes"* Noonan:

One of the abiding wonders of the papacy of Francis is the deep dismay he consistently inspires among politically conservative Catholics, especially in this country. That dismay is likely to rise to significantly next week when he is expected to release an encyclical on global climate change as the opening bell for a high-profile papal campaign on the subject that will take him to the UN and to Congress this fall.

So it’s actually kind of useful to read the anticipatory comments of Peggy Noonan, delivered in her accustomed tone of distracted rambling, but unmistakably disrespecting Francis as a bit of a dullard who’s being used by secularists and anyway he’s still on Our Team on Abortion and Contraception!

Jesuit-trained Francis with an advanced degree in chemistry is a dullard compared to brilliant John Paul II??  Yeah, that's not going to fly even with the help of the canaries floating around Noonan's head.

Ed quotes the bibulous Noonan yapping about Pope Francis discomfiting "the church he loves" by speaking out on global climate change, "trickle down" economics, and income inequality, and then offers his rebuttal:

That’s entirely true if by “the church” which is being discomforted you mean those good loyal Catholics who have let themselves stray into the communion of the Golden Calf and its own line of pontiffs from St. Friedrich Hayek to St. Ayn Rand to St. Ronald Reagan (Peggy’s own Patron in more ways than one).

Please read the entire piece.   It's priceless. 

(Image:  Nooney Tunes - "Hmmm.  What would St. Ronnie do?")

* h/t Jon Stewart, Daily Show.

Resolution Recognizing Pope Francis Blocked By Republican Extremists (Nearly Their Entire House Caucus, That Is)

How extreme is the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party?

A popular piece of legislation that seeks to honor Pope Francis is stuck in Congress.

With time running out on the Capitol Hill calendar, the lawmakers who crafted the bipartisan measure are getting impatient with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). 

The resolution, written by Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Pete King (R-N.Y.), congratulates Francis on his March 2013 election and recognizes “his inspirational statements and actions.” 

The seemingly innocuous resolution was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which hasn’t acted on it. The panel didn’t comment for this article. 

The inaction and the lack of a white smoke signal from Boehner have sparked speculation that politics is at play. 

Only 19 of the 221 co-sponsors are Republicans. The dearth of GOP members on the measure could be attributable to assertions that the pope is “too liberal,” according to a Republican backer of the legislation. 

The source noted that Francis last year denounced “trickle-down economics.” 

Some Republicans believe the pope is “sounding like [President] Obama. [The pope] talks about equality — he actually used the term ‘trickle-down economics,’ which is politically charged,” the GOP official said.  (our emphasis)

Horrors!  Denouncing trickle-down economics!  And equality! Impeach the Pope! (Or maybe just sue him for now.)

We expect to hear howling about this affront to the head of the Roman Catholic Church from Sean Hannity and Sweaty Bill Donohue any time now... =crickets chirping= .  Mmmm.  We thought so.

Poll: Two-Thirds of Americans Dissatisfied With Income Inequality

A new Gallup Poll is showing that two-thirds of Americans are dissatisfied with growing income inequality.  (Note how closely Democrats and Independents track.)  Click to enlarge:

Applying our keen analytical skillz, we're detecting a winning political issue here (that has the benefit of being a highly moral one, too):

Attitudes about the distribution of income and wealth are highly related to partisanship. Republicans, at 45% very or somewhat satisfied, express the highest satisfaction with the current wealth disparity in the U.S. Democrats are much less satisfied, at 24%, with independents closer in satisfaction to Democrats, at 28%. Furthermore, almost half (43%) of Democrats and independents express strong dissatisfaction with the current state of wealth and income distribution.  [our emphasis]

We should also mention the upcoming meeting in March between President Obama and Pope Francis, who has taken a refreshing turn from his two most recent predecessors in aligning himself - and the Church - unequivocally with the poor and against "unfettered capitalism."  That could provide yet another opportunity to highlight the problem of the accelerating income gap between the poor and the super rich (possibly causing the heads of "Sweaty Bill" Donohue, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto and all the other "Catholics" over at Fox "News" to explode).

Living Wage: Fox Business Talking Heads Versus The Pope

Watch after the inevitable ad:




The Pope really makes these corporatist Republican jack-offs uncomfortable, doesn't he? (Also, has someone alerted Pope Donohue to the apostasy?)