As Pope Francis arrived in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) praised the pontiff’s focus on income inequality and climate change, calling the Catholic leader “courageous.”
“He is dealing with issues that very few people in Congress are prepared to deal with. He is talking about the morality of whether so few should have so much and so many should have so little,” Sanders told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Tuesday evening.
Sanders noted that he does not agree with with the pope on every issue, but applauded his focus on the poor.
“Obviously, I disagree with the Pope on a woman’s right to choose, and I disagree with the Pope on issues of gay marriage,” he said. “And our Republican friends kind of gravitate to him on those issues. But I think the fundamental critique he is making of the hyper-capitalist society that we are seeing globally is something that is striking a strong resonance in the hearts of many of the progressive members of the Congress, and we applaud him very much.”
Hayes asked Sanders if Pope Francis has had an impact on the world’s discussion about climate change.
“It is hugely important,” Sanders responded. “It is helping us significantly turn the tide. When you have the leader of the Catholic Church telling us that we cannot continue to destroy God’s planet, and that we have got to move in an aggressive way to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel. That is a profound statement which I see already having a significant impact on the debate.”
Watch Hayes’ interview with Sanders via MSNBC:
I hope Bernie’s right about this. While I am generally no fan of the Catholic Church (for a number of reasons), the Church is in a position to do some real good on this issue (and others) and this Pope seems more likely than any in my lifetime to actually do so.
Who is this Bernie person that the article is referring to, and how is he related to Trump?
There are a number of Catholics who have been no great fans of the Church thanks to the regressive nature of the massive organization. No matter how actual life changed, the church refused to keep up. Now there is a leader who names relevant contemporary issues and exemplifies solutions. Pope Francis’s words and ideas will reach a billion or so people and at the very least get their minds to thinking and give them something to talk to each other about at Alter Society and Knights of Columbus. There will still be conservatives in the Church, but their hearts may be touched and their spirituality rekindled. There are still rules, lots of rules to keep the parishioners occupied, but my hope is the hatred and lies of smirking O’ Riley, et. al, will be less acceptable in light of Francis’s life.
At the very least I pray that Catholics buying new cars will recall The Holy Father leaving Andrews AFB in a Fiat with clear glass windows, and so not buy an Escalade or one of those damn Hummers.