Its always a good Friday to call this pope to task

Back to a frequent subject of interest, and criticism, to/by your Veritaspac editorial board:

This one is in the category of “stories the press sees no reason to follow up on because it might ruin a narrative”:

Maybe some readers recall one of the ‘jovial’ rants by Pope Francis from a year or so ago. In that one he issued his usual criticism of borders, ‘lack of welcoming’ by nations to any and all “immigrants”, legal or illegal, “refugees”, legitimate or not, and virtually anyone who decides they can get a better deal in some other sovereign nation than they can get in their own, and shouldn’t have to conform to its laws, values, or culture . You know the shtick…’build bridges, not walls, blah, blah’.

At the time, a big deal was made of the Pope ‘reaching out’ to refugees in Syria. In a visit there and in a ceremony, Francis selected three Syrian families, including six children to “take back with him to the Vatican”. He noted that, while he understood the concern that Europe had about “the refugee influx”, they “deserve to have their basic human rights respected”. Accordingly, the Pope suggested that he was thus doing so for those three families.

It seemed to us at the time that there was a faint odor of “publicity stunt” to the gesture.

I must have missed it, but my impression at the time was that, at least, Pope Francis was “welcoming” these three “refugee” families into the Vatican, safe in their ‘basic human rights’ within the walls of the Holy See.

But researching the stories of the time, I realized that I had gotten a mistaken impression:

“The Vatican said the three Syrian families, including six children, who were taken back with the pope will be supported by the Holy See and cared for initially by Italy’s Catholic Sant’Egidio Community, which for years has been active in providing assistance to refugees in Italy.

So he didn’t apparently bring them into the Vatican confines for an unlimited stay  (if at all) as he admonishes others to do.

“God will repay this generosity,” Francis said.”

So, it seems that the Holy Father was merely bringing those families to the Vatican where their care will eventually become the responsibility of the Italian government.
I wonder what has become of those families since Pope Francis’s expression of charity and generosity…since they have served His Holiness’s ‘high purpose’?            dlh

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