Pope Francis Drops the Mic to Congress

Mr. Vice-President,

Mr. Speaker,

Honorable Members of Congress,

You have no idea just how much Pope Francis just pwned you with that speech. I’m sorry if I sound like a word that starts with B and rhymes with witch, but I hope you guys were actually listening and not just waiting to applaud.

I expected Pope Francis to mention Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln, but the fact that Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton were also major parts of the speech is also awesome. Although Thomas Merton wasn’t born in America, he did contribute a sense of spirituality to American culture. But I’ll look more into these four in another post. Right now, Pope Francis has the stage.

Without further ado, Top 10 Moments in Which Pope Francis Pwned Congress. (In chronological order.)

1. All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity…  If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance.  Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. 

2. (In reference to the Syrian refugees) We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.  To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal.  We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome.  Let us remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” 

3.   The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.  The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.

4.  I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes.

5.  Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society?  Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood.  In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.

6.  It is my wish that throughout my visit the family should be a recurrent theme.  How essential the family has been to the building of this country!  And how worthy it remains of our support and encouragement!  Yet I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without.  Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family.  I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.

7.  In particular, I would like to call attention to those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young.  For many of them, a future filled with countless possibilities beckons, yet so many others seem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair.  Their problems are our problems.  (This one is one I particularly relate to.)

8. At the risk of oversimplifying, we might say that we live in a culture which pressures young people not to start a family, because they lack possibilities for the future.  Yet this same culture presents others with so many options that they too are dissuaded from starting a family.

9.  A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to “dream” of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton.

10. God bless America! (Or as my friend Ana said “What he really means is “Kiss my ass.”)