SO much hypocrisy in mike huckabee's "christian" tweets. Let's start with the hateful attitudes towards the President, Muslims and seemingly anyone not a right wing evangelical extremist. It is so very obvious he is using the Pope's visit to stoke the hatred of his flock. But even more glaring is the self righteous rants of thomas williams, ex adulterous catholic priest "Williams is a vulnerable messenger for such a
critique: He was a priest of a secretive and influential religious
order, the Legionaries of Christ, a longtime favorite of the Catholic
right, which the Vatican has been trying to overhaul after revelations
of lurid sex and money scandals.
He later left the priesthood to marry a woman —
the daughter of Mary Ann Glendon, a conservative Catholic law professor
and ambassador to the Holy See under President Bush — with whom he had
secretly had a child while he was still a cleric." mike huckabee, thomas williams and all the others offended by the guest list for the arrival ceremony for Pope Francis would do well to remember the kind of people Jesus Christ met and ate with, served and blessed and healed. As Christ representative on earth (for the Catholic Church) I believe the Pope will welcome all who have gathered to greet him just as Christ himself welcomes all who come to Him. From +NPR and +Religion News Service via +The Salt Lake Tribune .....
The Flag of Vatican City flies next to American flags
outside the West Wing of the White House on Monday ahead of Pope
Francis' arrival.
Andrew Harnik/AP
And the Obama administration also has critics on this side of the pond — the latest is presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Here's what he tweeted Monday:
Gov. Mike Huckabee
Classless decision by @POTUS to transform @Pontifex visit into a politicized cattle call is an insult to millions of Catholics #PopeInUS
.@POTUS show of disrespect for @Pontifex is a new low for an admin that will go down as most anti-Christian in American history #PopeInUS
Why is it that @POTUS goes to extremes to accommodate Muslim terrorists but shows nothing but disdain for Christians? #PopeInUS
An estimated 15,000 invitations have been issued for the event, which will take place on the South Lawn of the White House. The Obama administration issued some invitations itself but also partnered with faith organizations including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Archdiocese of Washington and Catholic Charities.
Earnest declined to respond directly to Huckabee's "anti-Christian" claim but said more generally that
Late last week, Earnest said the diversity of the large crowd "reflects the diversity of people in this country that are moved by the teachings and actions of this pope.""The president's approach is to welcome the pope warmly to the United States and to eagerly anticipate and participate in a discussion about their shared values.
"There is so much about what Pope Francis has to say that is inclusive and that reflects the kind of personal commitment that Pope Francis has to a wide range of issues, particularly when it comes to social justice. And his eloquent expression of those values has inspired millions people not just here in the United States but around the world, and that's why he's deserving of such a warm welcome, and the president is looking forward to the opportunity to sit down with Pope Francis for a second time and to talk about some of — many of those values that they have in common. ...
"There's plenty of opportunity for others to inject politics into this situation. It certainly is a protected constitutional right of theirs to do that. But that's not what the president is interested in."
Separate from the welcoming event, the president will sit down with the pope and is expected to discuss a range of issues. Earnest said the meeting will not be about politics or specific policies but "rather about the kinds of values that both men have dedicated their lives to championing." President Obama, he said, has been impressed at Pope Francis' willingness "to take on some tough issues and to lay out his values."
Conservatives outraged at gays on White House guest list for Pope Francis — Vatican? Not so much
First Published 7 hours ago
•
Updated 7 hours ago
Do we have our first full-blown diplomatic incident marring the carefully orchestrated visit of Pope Francis to the U.S.?
Did the Obama White House muff what should have
been a slam-dunk in welcoming the pontiff to what is essentially a
Washington photo-op?
It sure sounds that way, judging by the
conservative outrage over White House invitations to a number of gay
Catholics and LGBT advocates, an openly gay Episcopal bishop and a nun
who is a prominent social-justice activist.
They are among the nearly 15,000 people taking
part in a reception for Francis on the South Lawn on Wednesday before
his private meeting with the president.
But these particular guests are "a rogue's
gallery" of dissenters and their inclusion is "a stunning show of
political indecorum" designed to "test just how far Pope Francis'
notorious tolerance will go," Thomas Williams wrote last Wednesday on
the right-wing news site Breitbart.com.
In his article, Williams — who left the
priesthood to marry a woman he was having an affair with — described
Sister Simone Campbell, one of the guests, as the "pro-abortion
executive director of the social justice lobby Network."
Campbell, who is known as the organizer of the
"Nuns on the Bus" tours, says she is "pro-life, not just pro-birth." She
has also said that while her work does not focus on abortion issues per
se, she believes that her mission to address economic injustice and
promote health care for all Americans helps reduce the number of
abortions.
Williams also pointed to the invitation to
Aaron Ledesma, a 23-year-old gay Catholic who said he recently returned
to Mass because he was inspired by Francis' message of inclusivity, and
Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the
Anglican Communion, who's now a senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress, a think tank with ties to the Democratic Party.
Williams is a vulnerable messenger for such a
critique: He was a priest of a secretive and influential religious
order, the Legionaries of Christ, a longtime favorite of the Catholic
right, which the Vatican has been trying to overhaul after revelations
of lurid sex and money scandals.
He later left the priesthood to marry a woman —
the daughter of Mary Ann Glendon, a conservative Catholic law professor
and ambassador to the Holy See under President Bush — with whom he had
secretly had a child while he was still a cleric.
The Breitbart story was given further momentum
when The Wall Street Journal ran an article Thursday saying "the
Vatican has taken offense" at the guest list. The story cited an unnamed
"senior Vatican official" as the source of the offense.
That really got the ball rolling, and in a
cascade of tweets and blog posts, conservative Catholics and their
allies voiced outrage at the "childish dig at the pope" and the
"juvenile" and "deliberate insult" to American Catholics.
"(T)he White House wants to deliberately
embarrass the Pope by sticking a thumb in his eye, and by sticking their
noses into Catholic doctrine and teachings," Ed Morrissey wrote at HotAir.com.
Even the editorial page of The Washington Post
got into the act on Saturday, writing that the Vatican "has raised
objections" (a Vatican spokesman in fact noted that the Holy See does
not, as a matter of course, comment on such matters) and criticizing the
Obama administration for being willing to offend a kindly soul like
Pope Francis while kowtowing to oppressive governments such as China,
Saudi Arabia and Cuba.
The president would never invite dissidents to
receptions for those countries' leaders, The Post said. (It did not
mention that Francis is also being criticized for not meeting political
dissidents and speaking out more forcefully on human rights while in
Cuba.)
The Post also said inviting Campbell insulted
Francis because she criticizes church policies on euthanasia; Campbell
said in an email she has never raised the issue or criticized the
Vatican over it.
"While I won't have the opportunity to meet
Pope Francis directly, I'll be carrying in my heart many of the people
that I've met on our Nuns on the Bus tours across this great country,"
said Campbell, who is currently on a bus tour with other nuns to promote
Francis' teachings ahead of his visit.
"These are the people Pope Francis cares
about," she wrote, referring to the struggling Americans she has met in
various cities on the current trip. "These are the people we care about.
Pope Francis knows the type of work we Catholic sisters do as we walk
with the people, and we are grateful for his leadership bridging divides
and transforming our political and economic systems."
On further review, maybe American conservatives and Obama critics are more upset than the pope they say they are defending.
While the guest list apparently irked the
Vatican official who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, several other
church officials in the Vatican and the U.S. said privately they didn't
consider the issue a problem or worth coverage.
They said there are far more important issues
to think about in connection with the pope's Sept. 22-27 trip to
Washington, New York and Philadelphia, and they noted that the guests in
question represented a handful of people out of many thousands.
Administration officials also said the White
House worked with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the
Archdiocese of Washington, Catholic Relief Services and Catholic
Charities to distribute invitations to guests from around the country.
Leading evangelicals and representatives of
other faith groups were also invited, and many guests were told they
could bring friends of their choosing.
Jewish representatives will be absent because
the event falls on Yom Kippur, the sacred Day of Atonement. That timing
was the source of scattered complaints, though most Jewish leaders
dismissed such grousing and said they understood scheduling was
difficult. Francis is to formally meet with Jewish and interfaith
leaders Friday in New York.
It seems unlikely that Francis would have a major problem with Campbell.
He has gone out of his way to praise the work
of American nuns, whose social-justice outreach seems to mirror his own
priorities, and he ended a Vatican investigation of U.S. sisters
launched under his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Moreover, Francis last week named Sister
Maureen Kelleher, a founding member of Campbell's group Network, as a
special delegate
The pope has also welcomed gay people to the
Vatican and invited a transgender man from Spain to meet with him at his
private residence. He has met with advocates for LGBT Catholics and
appointed a German bishop to next month's Vatican synod who has
suggested that the church bless gay couples.
Just last week, a New York priest who ministers
to gay and lesbian Catholics revealed that after celebrating Mass with
Francis at the pontiff's chapel in the Vatican, he gave the pope a DVD
that tells stories about LGBT Catholics and their relationship to the
church.
"This is from the gays and lesbians of the
United States," the Rev. Gil Martinez, pastor at the Church of St. Paul
the Apostle, told Francis, according to Martinez's interview with The
Huffington Post.
In chatting in the pope's native Spanish about
his upcoming U.S. visit, Francis told Martinez: "I would love to visit
and talk to gay and lesbian people. And please tell the gays to pray for
me, and I shall pray for them."
On Wednesday at the White House, the pope may be able to deliver that message in person — if he can find them in the crowd.
— Editor's note: David Gibson assisted Sister Simone
Campbell in writing her 2014 memoir, "A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us
Can Create Hope, Change, and Community."
Former Sen. Rick Santorum speaks at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
