Moss: Pope Francis A ‘Politcal Genius’

Notre Dame New Testament Professor Candida Moss at Politico Magazine explains the “political genius” of Pope Francis.

Late last year, when President Obama reviewed the draft of a speech he was scheduled to give on economic inequality, he sent it back with a request: He wanted his speechwriter to add a quote from Pope Francis’s recent letter to the Catholic church.

“Across the developed world, inequality has increased,” Obama said in the Dec. 4 speech. “Some of you may have seen just last week, the pope himself spoke about this at eloquent length. ‘How could it be,’ he wrote, ‘that it’s not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?’”…

Herein lies the genius of Pope Francis’s papacy: He has persuaded the world he isn’t a politician and, in doing so, has become arguably the most politically influential man in the world…

Speeches made by popes—like those made by presidents—are usually carefully prepared and scrutinized by aides for potential misinterpretation. But Francis has become known for putting aside his notes and speaking without a script; the fact that what he says hasn’t always been vetted by Vatican aides gives his words an additional layer of sincerity.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.