Catholic Christie Slams The Pope: ‘His Infallibility’ Is On Religion, Not Politics

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Sunday criticized Pope Francis for praising leaders in the United States and Cuba for working to normalize the relationship between the two countries.

“I just think the pope is wrong,” Christie said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The fact is that his infallibility is on religious matters, not on political ones.”

Christie referenced Joanne Chesimard, an escaped fugitive who broke out of prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba.

“The fact is that, for me, I just believe that, when you have a government that is harboring fugitives, murdering fugitives, like Joanne Chesimard, who murdered a state policeman in New Jersey in cold blood, was broken out of prison, and has been harbored for the last 40-plus years by a Cuban government that has paid her and held up her as a hero — that this president could extend diplomatic relations with that country without getting her returned so she can serve the prison sentence that she was sentenced to by a jury of her peers in New Jersey is outrageous,” Christie said.

The New Jersey governor, who is a Catholic, said he happens “to disagree with the pope on this one.”

During a visit to Cuba this weekend, Pope Francis said that the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba “fills us with hope.”

Watch part of Christie’s interview via CNN:

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for ajoguy ajoguy says:

    And speaking as someone raised Catholic, now atheist, but loving Pope Francis, I reject Christie’s rejection – piss off you narcissistic ever-hatin’ blowhard.

  2. I was shocked a number of years back when guy from England told me his favorite place to go for vacations was Cuba. I just assumed all that a lot of our allies would be boycotting them too. When I found out otherwise I just had to wonder even more why in the world we continued to do this.

  3. Sunday Catholic…

    0ne from column A… one from column B… with three you get egg roll… he’ll pass on the rest…

  4. "I was shocked a number of years back when guy from England told me his favorite place to go for vacations "

    Canadians have been going there for years. North of the Palm Beach county line no one really gives a shit about that sorry little island other than use as a political football. Stupid Christie thinks he is going to go against the business interests (cruise lines , telecom, airlines, consumer goods ) that are sitting in the wings waiting to get a foot in the door. The business interests will change the policy by pressuring Republicans.

  5. Well, I guess he did some research on this pander, and on gestation crates and such, you have to give him that. Ironic—if he’d put the same effort into being a good, honest governor that he’d put into this B.S. he might actually have had a shot. Karma.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

57 more replies

Participants

Avatar for ajoguy Avatar for gulliver Avatar for silas1898 Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for clunkertruck Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for sundancer Avatar for easydm Avatar for enon Avatar for opinionated1 Avatar for vonq Avatar for pdxer Avatar for sickneffintired Avatar for captaincrunch Avatar for longtimeobserver Avatar for barblzz Avatar for dickweed Avatar for jcblues Avatar for dnl Avatar for azjude Avatar for darrtown Avatar for misterneutron Avatar for bckrd1 Avatar for jalus

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: