The furor came at a time when enemies outside the church—far-right, xenophobic populist politicians who kept winning elections around the world—were organizing against Francis. None would prove more menacing than Donald Trump, who made Francis a target on the campaign trail as he sought the presidency in 2016.
Anti-Catholic bigotry had been common in American politics since the country’s founding, but there had never been anything like the 2016 campaign, when a leading presidential candidate and the bishop of Rome openly traded insults. Their battle began in February, when the pope was on a pilgrimage to Mexico and organized a Mass on the banks of the Rio Grande, along the US border. He intended to show solidarity with migrants attempting to cross illegally into the United States. Trump, whose call to build a border wall was a centerpiece of his campaign, denounced Francis on television: “I think the pope is a very political person. I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico.” The Mexican government was “using the pope as a pawn.” (The audaciousness of Trump’s attack on the pope was seen as shocking, although he had said uglier things about Benedict. “He should just give up and die,” Trump said of Benedict in a radio interview in 2013. “He looks so bad.”)
No comments:
Post a Comment