By Ryan Denson
Pope Francis, while
appearing at the United Nation’s World Food summit, slammed the United States (and the rest of the world) over its
obsession with guns after the terrorist attack in Orlando left 50 people dead
and another 53 wounded.
Calling the obsession “brazen,”
the Pope chided world leaders for their “strange paradox” over the politics of
food and international aid, but not guns:
It makes no difference where arms come from — they circulate with brazen and virtually absolute freedom in many parts of the world.
The Pope also chastised the world for numbing itself to people’s
pain, saying “We are bombarded by so many
images that we see pain, but do not touch it; we hear weeping, but do not
comfort it; we see thirst but do not satisfy it.”
Hours after the brutal attack, the Holy See released a strongly worded condemnation of the attacks, calling his “homicidal folly” and
denouncing those responsible:
The terrible massacre that has taken place in Orlando, with its dreadfully high number of innocent victims, has caused in Pope Francis, and in all of us, the deepest feelings of horror and condemnation, of pain and turmoil before this new manifestation of homicidal folly and senseless hatred … We all hope that ways may be found, as soon as possible, to effectively identify and contrast the causes of such terrible and absurd violence which so deeply upsets the desire for peace of the American people and of the whole of humanity.
The condemnation is exactly what the United States deserves,
especially when some right wing politicians (the same one who do nothing about
gun violence) proclaim that we are a Christian nation.
But how can we
claim to be when we allow ourselves to become so numb to the epidemic that is
gun violence?
Perhaps the faux-Christians should listen to the Pope (yet
again) and lead by example.