Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said Thursday that she didn’t mean to bash Pope Francis when she said that some of the pontiff’s statements on abortion and gay marriage “sounded kind of liberal.”
The former vice presidential nominee told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this week that, while the statements alarmed her, she wouldn’t necessarily trust media reports until she did her “own homework” on the matter.
“Just to clarify my comment to Jake Tapper about Pope Francis, it was not my intention to be critical of Pope Francis,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “I was reminding viewers that we need to do our own homework on news subjects, and I hadn’t done mine yet on the Pope’s recent comments as reported by the media.”
Palin said that her faith in the pope’s beliefs was assured after checking in with a few Catholic writers.
“Knowing full well how often the media mischaracterizes a person’s comments (especially a religious leader’s), I don’t trust them to get it right when it comes to reporting on the Vatican,” she added. “I do, however, trust my many Catholic friends and family, including some excellent Catholic writers, who have since assured me that Pope Francis is as sincere and faithful a shepherd of his church as his two predecessors whom I admired. I apologize for not being clearer in my response, thus opening the door to critical media that does what it does best in ginning up controversy.”
