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The President and the Pope: Not quite as warm of a greeting

Trump and the prickly pope.

Despite the tone of some of the cable news coverage I’ve been seeing this morning, there was nothing particularly unsettling about the meeting between President Donald Trump and Pope Francis this morning.

All in all, it seems to have been the usual, choreographed bit of performance art which characterizes most Papal meetings with heads of state. But unlike Trump’s previous stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel, it’s hard to deny that the temperature seemed a bit “cooler” for this discussion.

Leading up to the meeting the press was already reminding everyone of the less than loving relationship between Trump and the Pope during the campaign and noting their many differences in policy. But as this pool report from Reuters described it, both men carried out their duties in a polite and respectful fashion.

…snip…

Perhaps we can discern a bit more about the meeting from the gifts that they exchanged. In what seems a rather pointed indicator, the Pope gave Trump bound copies of two of his encyclical letters. They were the 2017 message on peace, “Nonviolence – A Style of Politics for Peace,” and his 2015 letter on the need to protect the world from climate change. Nothing too subtle about that I suppose.

Trump gave the Pontiff a bound, first edition set of the works of Martin Luther King. Was there a message for the Pope there or was it just a recognition of progress and the civil rights era? Tough to say. There were some other gifts exchanged as well, but those were the ones that really stood out to me in terms of messaging and the current state of relations between the White House and the Vatican. And, of course, Trump’s gifts were significantly more appropriate than an iPod loaded with swinging blues classics.

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Comments (6)

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    Spurwing Plover

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    Pope Francis is a total fruad a faker and a tool of satan and the powers of evil

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    G

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    This Pope places socialism before faith. The RC Church made a big mistake when they sold out to the so called “social justice” left wing in what they calculated as a nod to left-wing populism with the choice of Francis.

    What an about-face compared to the bold leadership of John Paul ll, who fought against the tyranny, oppression, and atheism of Communist Europe.

    If Catholics stay this course, the church will become nothing more than a moral propaganda puppet of world socialist leaders.

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      dgSchroder

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      I don’t know if this applies all over, but it is very obvious around here (Edmonton area). The churches that preach environment and social justice are closing down one after another. The churches who preach about Jesus and not about social issues are building bigger and bigger buildings as they keep growing.

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        G

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        Interesting observation. Here in Wisconsin it’s clear that churches preaching environmental and social “justice” are quickly devolving into partisan political rally centers that get drawn into all kinds of crazy causes and moral contradictions. There’s not much there to sustain personal Christian faith.

        The great assumption is that faith-based justice is the equivalent of socialism, a claim that is absurd on its face when held to history and philosophy.

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    Spurwing Plover

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    Maybe the pope had better remember one of the ten(10)COMANDMENT’S which is THOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GOD BEFORE ME

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    Sonnyhill

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    Mind control = cash flow. Give in to it and you’ll pay. The Vatican is networking with eco-socialists. For a small monthly donation from your credit card they’ll take you back to the Garden.

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