Obituary: Pope Francis

 The big news of course is the death early today of Pope Francis, who headed the Roman Catholic Church for 12 years following the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.  He had just recovered from ill health in the past few weeks, but the causes of his demise were a stroke and irreversible heart failure.

I am not a Catholic or even particularly religious, but I really liked this pope.  He was getting the Church slowly into the 21st century.   He was concerned about the poor, about the earth, about the so-called marginalized.  He didn't have much use for the Trump administration, from what I could tell.  By Catholic church standards, he was quite progressive.

Trump and the gang tried to make overtures, even going so far as to get VP JD to pay him a visit yesterday, but apparently the stress was too much on the pope, and he died  a day afterwards.

I suppose the conspiracy theories will start in earnest.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, in true batshit style, seemed to be dancing on his grave, calling him or the Church or both "evil."  Talk about projection.  She ought to open up a chain of movie theaters because she was so full of it.

Pope Francis was 88 years old.  Snip:

Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires on Dec. 17, 1936. The son of Italian immigrant parents, Francis rose through the ranks as a Jesuit priest in his home country of Argentina. Elected in March 2013, Francis was the 266th pope, spiritual leader to nearly 1.4 billion baptized Catholics worldwide.

Argentines were among those across the globe mourning Francis, holding a special Mass in the cathedral in Buenos Aires, where Francis was once archbishop. The building was adorned with a photo of Francis, white flowers and the blue and white flag of Argentina. The government said there would be seven days of mourning.

Funny How a Lie Grows and Grows and Grows

so that the truth gets buried under a ton of horseshit. So describes Bernie Sanders' "meeting" with Pope Francis, a "meeting" the pope himself has denied was anything other than a handshake and a brief acknowledgement.

Sanders finagled a spot to "meet" the pope on the latter on his way to Greece doing a humanitarian trip. He must have stood around for quite some time waiting for Pope Francis to come out. It is kind of like a groupie or a fan waiting around for a rock star to show up and then force her way toward him to get an autograph.

I am surprised Sanders didn't ask the pope for an autograph for "proof" he "met" with Pope Francis.

And instead of admitting he screwed up, this morning on CNN with an interview with Dana Bash, Sanders CONTINUED to brazenly lie about his Vatican trip, saying he "was invited by the Vatican," which is NOT in the least true. His adviser Jeffrey Sachs got him into a closed conference where initially he was only going to be in the audience. Sanders did, eventually, give his stump speech there.

Stick a Fork in That Liar Sanders

Here, direct from the source, via Reuters, is Pope Francis regarding that "meeting" he had with the Vermont senator:

Popegate: Sanders Busted Again

Bernie Sanders, in a futile attempt to influence the upcoming New York primary, has once again exaggerated his meeting with Pope Francis:

The pope, who made a brief trip to Greece on Saturday to visit a refugee camp, spoke to reporters on the plane home about his encounter with the American politician. "When I came down, I greeted him, I shook his hand and nothing more. This is called good manners and it is not getting involved in politics," the pope said, according to Reuters. "If anyone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics, I recommend that he look for a psychiatrist," he said, laughing.

The official Vatican transcript, issued later, quoted the pope's remarks as saying that Sanders "greeted me politely together with his wife (…) It is called ‘manners’ and has nothing to do with politics” he said. The official transcript, however, did not include the humorous aside regarding psychiatry.

I don't think Sanders can help but lie and exaggerate. I guess the primary is really about him.

He should just hang it up and return to the Senate.

Popegate

The Vatican has officially denied it invited Bernie Sanders to anything. It was one of Sanders' advisors who wrangled out an invite to the Vatican to an academic-type conference where Sanders would be merely a member of the audience, not a participant.

It is a far cry from his boast on The View yesterday he was having an audience with Pope Francis.

More of this mess:

The Sanders campaign made the announcement on Friday as the Vermont senator made the rounds on the morning television news shows. Mr. Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, said he would take a break from campaigning in New York, just days before the April 19 primary there, to attend a conference hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, a scholarly association in Vatican City that was established by Pope John Paul II in 1994.

Mr. Sanders did not initially correct interviewers who suggested that he would meet with the pope, but he later clarified that he had not confirmed whether the two men would actually meet.

Further confusion about the trip bubbled up on Friday afternoon when the Vatican press office made clear that it had not issued the invitation, but that it had come from the academy. It said that there was no indication that Mr. Sanders would meet with Francis.

Meanwhile, Margaret Archer, the academy’s president, told Bloomberg News that Mr. Sanders had actively solicited the invitation for political purposes.

“Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons,” Ms. Archer said. “I think in a sense he may be going for the Catholic vote, but this is not the Catholic vote, and he should remember that and act accordingly — not that he will.”

Busted, busted, busted!

I Really Like Pope Francis

He is the real deal, somebody who represents the best Christianity has to offer.

And who would have thought Pope Francis would take the media attention away from Donald Trump, who has sucked up miles of oxygen since he announced his run for the presidency.

If I could have afforded to go East and see the Pope, I would have.

Earlier today he gave a speech in front of Congress. Here is the transcript.

The speech:

The Winner of the "Popestakes" Is...

Argentine Jorge Bergoglio, who will adopt the name Pope Francis. He is the first pope to come from the Americas, and the first pope from outside of Europe in a millenium.

He replaces Benedict XVI, who has decided to retire from the post.

Pope Francis is 76 years old:

The choice of Bergoglio was announced by French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran with the Latin words "Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum. Habemus Papam" ("I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope"

Francis becomes the 266th pontiff in the Church's 2,000-year history at a time of great crisis and difficulty. Although a conservative he is seen as a reformer and was not among the small group of frontrunners identified before the election.

He also went against one of the main assumptions before the election, that the new pope would be relatively young.

He might hang around for awhile. After all, I don't believe his predecessor thought HE'D be around that long after Pope John Paul II died.