Is Congress listening?
To the editor:
Pope Francis’s grand tour in America took millions by surprise with his humble, unpretentious, and gentle manner. However, he came with an agenda that spared no institution and spoke from a place that had no boundaries.
That place, comes from within one’s self and is called goodness for all mankind.
With great eloquence and diplomacy, he addressed our fractious Congress with a poignant speech about the need of compassion towards and for the people who elected them. He asked Congress to put their personal agendas aside and told them that to argue amongst themselves .would only cause more harm to the people of this country.
He addressed the importance of our freedom, spoke of our socio-economic injustices and the need to protect the home we all live in, our planet earth, and climate change.
He told Congress he was against the arms trade, the death penalty, and spoke of the need for immigration reform. He mentioned the vast poverty and homelessness in this country stating, that “there is no moral justification for homelessness in this country”
He shellacked Congress, his own church, corporations, and our society driven by the supermarkets and super shopping malls.
The speaker of the house, Mr. John Boehner, in fact, invited Pope Francis to speak to Congress. Within 24 hours of this historic speech, Mr. John Boehner, came to a press conference singing “zippity doo dah” and resigned. Didn’t he look happy?
Was the Pope’s influence reason for resignation? Or was he finally tired of all the bickering congress subjected him to? I think he learned from the Pope but did the rest of Congress get the message?
At a church in Philadelphia, on Sunday morning, the pope addressed our cultural consumption driven by large super markets and shopping malls, stating this is what strips our culture of personal unique qualities, and is now built on distrust, which leads us to loneliness rather than social closeness within our neighborhoods and with our families, neighbors, and friends.
This pope does not denounce other religious institutions and recognizes freedom of prayer in any culture. He believes all people ARE created equal.
Did our Congress learn from this holy and compassionate man, who recognizes our suffering and in equality as a nation?
Our socio-economic issues can no longer be ignored by or dominated by self-centered governing opinions, lobbyists and certain congressional members who support ALEC, and Citizen United.
This greed only creates more damage to our country’s welfare and progress.
Pope Francis said there should be no society that excludes others.
He sees what our government is not attending to the protection and preservation our dignity of all its people.
This great holy man, came to us without pretense, with pride and great honor to the United States of America. And remember, he asked all of us to pray for him.
Deborah Green
Cape Coral