Landmark Event: Pope Will Address U.S. Congress

By Julio Severo

For the first time in the U.S. history, a pope will address the Congress, invited by Republican John Boehner and Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

When he speaks to American lawmakers September 24, Pope Francis will address a Congress that is 31 percent Catholic, well above the 22 percent of all the American population, according to a survey released last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Boehner and Pelosi are both Catholic.

“We’re humbled that the Holy Father has accepted our invitation and certainly look forward to receiving his message on behalf of the American people,” said Boehner, the most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives.

“Hearing his call to live our values, to protect the poor and the needy, and to promote peace,” said Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat in the House of Representatives.

Francis, an Argentinian Jesuit and the first pope from the Western Hemisphere, has made the cornerstone of his papacy calling on wealthy nations to “help the poor.”

According to the Associated Press, he plans to use his trip to the U.S. to urge world leaders to take bold steps to curb global warming. He also plans to release an encyclical on climate change, which he says is mostly manmade.

“He has a track record of challenging people,” said Mathew Schmalz, a religious studies professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Even though many Republicans are not going to like what Francis will say about global warming, it is certain that many Democrats will not like some of Francis’ views, either.

He has condemned abortion and the use of artificial contraception, and called marriage between a man and a woman a “fundamental pillar” of society. However, different from John Paul II, he has not emphasized these issues. His focus has been fighting poverty.

Obama said he was eager to welcome the pope to the U.S.

“Like so many people around the world, I’ve been touched by his call to relieve suffering, and to show justice and mercy and compassion to the most vulnerable,” Obama said.

Obama’ sincerity is a problem. His administration and political life are rife with pro-abortion activism — a serious threat to the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.

America needs Christian leaders to challenge her directly to repent and abandon her wicked ways. Will Francis match this responsibility? It is not impossible to do so.

In the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast with President Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa straightforwardly condemned legal abortion in America and treated its innocent victims as the most defenseless and vulnerable in the U.S. society.

She challenged Clinton and U.S. authorities to protect these victims.

This was her last breakfast with Clinton.

It is doubtful that Pope Francis will imitate her courageous pro-life speech. In a 2013 papal visit to Brazil, when socialist Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was considering making abortion legal — which she did —, Francis never mentioned abortion and child-killing to her.

Pope John Paul II, a true pro-life apostle, would have deserved the honor to address the U.S. Congress. Surely, he would focus on pro-life issues, as Mother Teresa did.

But what to expect from Francis? The U.S. media is certain, and glad, that he will focus on global warming and “fighting poverty.” In fact, he and Obama have now an alliance against global warming.

What to expect from the American Catholics who invited Francis? Nancy Pelosi’s socialist stances are well representative of Democrats, including Obama: pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, pro-culture of death.

What to expect from John Boehner? According to the Daily Beast, Boehner said, “We won’t fight gay marriage.” Reportedly, he basically said the Republican Party will no longer stand in the way of gay “marriage.”

Such “beautiful” opposition! Democrats and other socialists advance their socialist evils, and “courteous” Republicans let them go forward.

Their mutual Catholic courtesy is now bringing Francis, a pope not prominent (as John Paul II and Mother Teresa were) in pro-life issues, but highly prominent and praised, including by homosexual magazines, for his “tolerance” — even for Islam. Last year he said that “it is wrong to equate Islam with violence.”

Be it as it may, Boehner’s courtesy to homosexual “marriage” is very troubling.

According to Scott Lively, “Ancient Rabbinical tradition holds that homosexuality, more specifically homosexual marriage, was the ‘final insult’ to God which caused Him to bring that Great Flood which only Noah and his family survived.” So, if Republicans are unwilling to fight homosexual “marriage,” what is their party good for?

Even Russia, criticized and condemned by Democrats and Republicans, by U.S. homosexual activists and right-wingers, by Pelosi and Boehner, by Obama and McCain, has successfully resisted homosexual “marriage” and other socialist evils. If the Republican Party is unable to do so, what is it good for?

Some Catholics in Brazil are rejoicing that America is “more Catholic” today. At least the U.S. Congress is more Catholic than all the American population.

They rejoice that for the first time in the U.S. history, a pope will address the U.S. Congress, invited by two prominent Catholics: John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi.

If a higher number of Catholics is enough reason for a sense of victory, they should rejoice over the U.S. Supreme Court, which began 200 years ago with Protestants, but today all of its Christian members are Catholic. The Supreme Court is no longer Protestant, but it is more pro-abortion and pro-sodomy than ever.

So, is there reason for rejoicing over Democrat Pelosi and her pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality obsession?

Is there reason for rejoicing over Republican Boehner and his unwillingness to fight homosexual “marriage” and other socialist evils?

Is there reason for rejoicing over a pope focused on global warming and highly praised by liberals around the world?

Will their Catholicism save America?

If a higher number of Catholics were a sign of hope, Brazil, the largest Catholic nation in the world, would be the most conservative and anti-Marxist country in the world. No. Marxist Liberation Theology is rampant among Brazilian Catholics, as it is rampant among Catholics in Latin America.

According to a recent BBC report in Spanish and Portuguese by Jaime Gonzalez, American conservatives see Francis as Marxist and radical environmentalist. No surprise: he is from Latin America. Actually, the BBC report was defending him against U.S. conservatives!

The pope’s socialist Catholicism is not different from the Brazilian Catholicism. So it is just natural for Pelosi, a Catholic socialist, to invite him. Yet, if American conservatives see him as Marxist, why does Boehner, the most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, want him addressing the Congress? It only makes sense if you understand that the Catholic Republican does not want fight homosexual “marriage.” Is he, with Pelosi and the pope, considering fighting global warming too?

By the way, I have never rejoiced that Obama, Clinton and other liberal U.S. presidents are Protestants.

Their liberal Protestantism is part of the problems America has today just as liberal Catholicism is part of the problems of Brazil.

May Pope Francis and the U.S. Congress someday have his eyes open to see these problems.

With information from the Associated Press and The Daily Beast.

Portuguese version of this article: Evento histórico: papa falará no Congresso dos EUA

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Pope and Obama: Alliance against Global Warming

Pope says equating Islam with violence is wrong

Pope Francis Named “Person of the Year” by World’s Biggest Gay Magazine

End of communism not good for Catholicism?