tvc.dsj.org | September 19, 2017
IN THE CHURCH
7
Pope says He Hopes President Reconsiders DACA Decision
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT
FROM COLOMBIA (CNS) – Politicians
who call themselves pro-life must be
pro-family and not enact policies that
divide families and rob young people
of a future, Pope Francis said.
Flying from Colombia back to Rome
late Sept. 10, Pope Francis was asked
about U.S. President Donald Trump’s
decision to end the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals program, which
allowed some 800,000 young people
brought to the United States illegally as
children to stay in the country, working
or going to school.
Trump announced Sept. 5 that he
was phasing out the program; his deci-
sion was strongly criticized by the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Pope Francis said he had heard of
Trump’s decision, but had not had time
to study the details of the issue. How-
ever, he said, “uprooting young people
from their families is not something that
will bear fruit.”
“This law, which I think comes
not from the legislature, but from the
executive (branch) – if that’s right, I’m
not sure – I hope he rethinks it a bit,”
the pope said, “because I’ve heard the
president of the United States speak;
he presents himself as a man who is
pro-life, a good pro-lifer.
“If he is a good pro-lifer, he under-
stands that the family is the cradle of
life and its unity must be defended,”
the pope said.
Pope Francis said people must be
very careful not to dash the hopes and
dreams of young people or make them
feel “a bit exploited,” because the results
can be disastrous, leading some to turn
to drugs or even suicide.
Pope Francis spent only about 35
minutes answering journalists’ ques-
tions and commenting on his five-day
trip to Colombia. After he had answered
eight questions, Greg Burke, director of
the Vatican press office, told the pope it
was time to sit down because the plane
was approaching an area of turbulence.
The pope went to the journalists’
section of the plane still wearing a small
bandage on his left eyebrow and sport-
ing a large bump, which had turned
black and blue, on his cheek. Rather than
joking with reporters, he told them that
he had been reaching out of the pope-
mobile to greet people and turned. “I
didn’t see the glass.”
While his trip back to Rome did not
have to change flight plans like the
flight to Colombia Sept. 6 did because
of Hurricane Irma, Pope Francis was
asked about the apparently increasing
intensity of hurricanes and other storms
and what he thinks of political leaders
who doubt climate change is real.
Bruised, not Broken: Pope Encourages
Colombians to Pursue Peace
CARTAGENA, Colombia (CNS) – Pope Francis said he had no
magic words or special recipes for Colombians seeking peace, but
rather he wanted to listen to them, learn from them and travel
a bit of the road with them. He had a small accident on the road
Sept. 10 in Cartagena, the last city and last day of his five-day
trip: Riding in the popemobile down a street packed with people
who wanted to see him, Pope Francis turned and bashed h is face
on the edge of the window, cutting his eyebrow and provoking a
sizable bump on his left cheekbone. While the bruise would fade,
the overall experience of the trip was likely to linger. “I really was
moved by the joy, the tenderness ... the nobility of the Colombian
people,” he later told reporters flying back to Rome with him.
Before ending the trip with a Mass in Cartagena, Pope Francis
had visited Bogota, Villavicencio and Medellin. He celebrated a
large outdoor Mass in each city and had a packed schedule of
meetings with government officials, bishops, youths, children
living in a group home, and with priests, religious and seminar-
ians. The painful realities of Colombia’s recent past were openly
acknowledged with tears and hugs Sept. 8 in Villavicencio. At
a national prayer service for reconciliation, a former member of
the main rebel group and a former fighter with a paramilitary
group shared their stories and asked forgiveness. A woman who
lost two small children in the fighting and another still limping
from injuries suffered in an explosion in 2012 offered to “forgive
the unforgiveable,” as Pastora Mira Garcia, the mourning mother,
told the pope.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals sup-
porters demonstrate near the White House in
Washington Sept. 5 after Attorney General Jeff
Sessions announced that the DACA program is
“being rescinded” by President Donald Trump.
(CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters)
“Anyone who denies this must go to
the scientists and ask,” he said. “They
speak very clearly. Scientists are precise.”
Pope Francis said he read a report
citing a university study that asserted
humanity has only three years to re-
duce the pace of climate change before
it’s too late. “I don’t know if three years
is right or not, but if we don’t turn back,
we’ll go down, that’s true.”
“Climate change – you can see the
effects,” Pope Francis said. “And the
scientists have told us clearly what the
paths to follow are.”
Everyone has a moral responsibil-
ity to act, he said. “And we must take
it seriously.”
“It’s not something to play with,” the
pope said. “It’s very serious.”
Politicians who doubt climate change
is real or that human activity contributes
to it should speak to the scientists and
“then decide. And history will judge
their decisions.”
Asked why he thinks governments
have been so slow to act, Pope Francis
said he thinks it’s partly because, as the
Old Testament says, “Man is stupid, a
stubborn one who does not see.”
But the other reason, he said, is al-
most always money.
Talking about his five-day stay in
Colombia, Pope Francis said he was “re-
ally moved by the joy, the tenderness”
and the expressiveness of the people.
In the end, they are the ones who will
determine whether Colombia truly has
peace after 52 years of civil war.
Politicians and diplomats can do all
the right things to negotiate peace deals,
he said, but if the nation’s people aren’t
on board, peace will not be lasting. In
Colombia, he said, the people have a
clear desire to live in peace.
“What struck me most about the Co-
lombian people,” he said, was watching
hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fathers
and mothers along the roads he traveled,
and they would lift their children high
so the pope would see and bless them.
What they were doing, he said, was
saying, “This is my treasure. This is my
hope. This is my future. I believe in this.”
The parents’ behavior with their
little ones, he said, “is a symbol of hope,
of a future.”