It’s common for some to criticize Pope Francis’s wariness about capitalism, but Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump just took that to a new level, saying he’d try to “scare” the pope by telling him: “ISIS wants to get you.
I’d say ISIS wants to get you,” Trump said. “You know that ISIS wants to go in and take over the Vatican? You have heard that. You know, that’s a dream of theirs, to go into Italy.
I’m gonna have to scare the Pope because it’s the only thing, Trump said. The Pope, I hope, can only be scared by God. But the truth is — you know, if you look at what’s going on — they better hope that capitalism works, because it’s the only thing we have right now. And it’s a great thing when it works properly.”
The Rev. Robert Sirico, who has voiced his own concerns regarding the pope’s economic views, clearly was not impressed with Trump’s views on how to deal with the views of “the people’s pope.”
My gut reaction to that is, if you want this pope to respond to a concern you have, you do not say it in the way [Trump] just said it. Culturally that is an offensive, boorish way of communicating, especially to a pope,” [Sirico] said. “And I would suspect it will confirm every negative stereotype this pope would have about American businesspeople.
It’s like a lot of things with Trump – he has some ideas worth considering, but the packaging in which it comes – he’s used to being, how would you say it? It’s his bravado. He can feel the response to him when he’s saying things that are blunt and he gets addicted to it.
Asked whether the Vatican would pay attention to a comment from Trump or other candidates, Sirico said: “I think the Americans [church leaders] will be paying attention. They’ll be at dinner, and it will be: ‘He said this or that,’ but there wouldn’t be any close monitoring. I’ll tell you right now, his entourage is saying: ‘Do not comment on Donald Trump because you’ll get into a mudslinging match’ and that is not this pope’s style.”
Read the entire Washington Post article here.
