The Partisan vs. the Pontifex

Jerry Falwell, Jr., recently photographed standing with Donald Trump in front of Trump’s Playboy cover to give assurance that Trump will give Christians all the kingdoms of this world and their glory if they will bow down and worship him, is in the news lecturing the Holy Father for not being judgmental and for putting the poor first:

Jerry Falwell Jr. — a Baptist and leader of the religious right who was one of Trump’s chief promoters — delivered a pithy and pointed critique of the pontiff.

“Pope Francis lost all credibility when he failed to call out US Left for policies that impoverished inner cities 4 Dem political gain,” Falwell tweeted.

The tweet — directed at the Pope’s Twitter account, @Pontifex — was almost immediately deleted. Reached by phone Tuesday by RNS, the Liberty University president said his wife, Becki, and 16-year-old daughter, Caroline, had made him take it down, something he said happens “every now and then.”

But he stood by the tweet and said it was prompted by the Pope’s comments in an interview published Friday by Italian daily La Repubblica.

Asked what he thought about the president-elect, Francis said: “I do not judge people or politicians. I only want to understand what suffering their behavior causes to the poor and the excluded.”

As the US goes mad, I find myself more and more grateful for the Holy Father. When he dies, I hope he is given the title Pope St. Francis the Unavoidable. I mean that with the highest sense of praise possible. He fulfills Chesterton’s words: “The Saint is a medicine because he is an antidote. Indeed that is why the saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote.”

But, please God, don’t take him just yet. We need our Papa more than ever right now.