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Francis in Cuba
From an editorial in the Washington Post:
The pope is spending four days in a country whose Communist dictatorship has remained unrelenting in its repression of free speech, political dissent and other human rights despite a warming of relations with the Vatican and the United States. Yet by the end of his third day, the pope had said or done absolutely nothing that might discomfit his official hosts.
Pope Francis met with 89-year old Fidel Castro, who holds no office in Cuba, but not with any members of the dissident community — in or outside of prison. According to the Web site 14ymedio.com, two opposition activists were invited to greet the pope at Havana’s cathedral Sunday but were arrested on the way. Dozens of other dissidents were detained when they attempted to attend an open air Mass. They needn’t have bothered: The pope said nothing in his homily about their cause, or even political freedom more generally.
Care for a contrast? Just look at this picture of Francis’s predecessor, St. John Paul II, embracing Lech Walesea, the leading dissident in Communist Poland. It is possible to reign as supreme pontiff, remaining, fundamentally, above politics — and yet to stand with those fighting for human liberty.
Photo above: AFP/Getty via the Telegraph
Published in General, Religion & Philosophy
It is a great novel. Thanks for the reminder Ryan.
By and large Ryan, you’re right, the Pope is on the left side of the divide. I think most Catholics (such as myself) don’t see it as extreme as most non Catholics. We see more nuances from the Pope than non Catholics, and so non Catholics are jumping to the conclusion the Pope is a Marxist. It’s a question of where on the left spectrum the Pope actually is. That’s our discrepency.
Pope Francis is a very holy man, but the cardinals who elected him did not focus on his predilection for Liberation Theology. Before becoming pope his entire life experience was a Peronist Argentina. This has strongly influenced his political and economic views.