Pope will address Congress - Sack cartoon

[MADem]

51. This visit wasn't supposed to be about climate change, or Pope Francis, at all.

Boehner has been trying to get a Pope into Congress for TWENTY years. John Paul II was in frail health by the time he died in 2005, Benedict dealt with the whole "Nazi" stuff and the child molestation issues, but for whatever reasons, maybe those, neither of those guys said YES to his repeated invitations.

The reason Francis showed up is because he said YES to the invite.

Boehner is a devout Catholic--he apparently took to heart all the admonitions of the American bishops and cardinals about those social issues in years and decades past, and likely was VERY surprised by the messages and messaging of this Pope. Maybe in a good way, who knows?

I don't know if "Republicans" will change their tune, but I would not be surprised if "Catholic Republicans" do. Really--the whole "No global warming" argument has been slowly dying with them for a while, anyway. They--most Republicans, in fact-- aren't using it as a leading argument anymore even if many of their members still buy off on that stupid construct. Some are outright calling bullshit on the deniers (see link below).

And it does look like Pope Frank, and Benedict before him (who did talk on the topic too and wrote a chunk of that encyclical) have slowly, slowly, started to move the bar:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22/catholic-republicans-climate-change_n_7639784.html

http://www.environmentamerica.org/news/ame/ten-house-republicans-acknowledge-need-solve-climate-crisis-need-walk-their-talk

I think this was the first big chunk taken out of the wall...more, I suspect, to follow. It's by no means a done deal, there are still many more hearts/minds to be swayed, but when the only push-back they have against the Pope is to accuse him of being a false Pope and a paganist as a response to his message on climate, I'd say he's got them on the ropes.

This is hilarious and smacks of flopsweat desperation: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gene-koprowski-pope-francis-environment-paganism


Now welfare? That's a tougher nut. The GOP answer to "welfare" is "Give generously at your church." They'll probably keep on with that attitude for quite some time, and still feel like they're doing their part.