During a press conference on his flight back from Mexico, Pope Francis was asked about US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along America’s southern border. The Pope said: “A person who thinks only of building walls anywhere, rather than building bridges, is not a Christian.” Francis said he hadn’t heard exactly what Trump said and would give him the “benefit of the doubt”. Trump said the Pope’s words were “disgraceful”.
What the British media are saying
Many media outlets around the world picked up and commented on this story, noting that Trump’s combative response probably appealed to many of his supporters. John Sopel at the BBC wrote: “The one thing we’ve learnt about Donald Trump since he entered the presidential race is that turning the other cheek is not his style. Ever. He’s lashed out at his critics and bullied his opponents. He has mocked the disabled and had protesters bundled out of his rallies.” Writing for the Telegraph, under the headline “Donald Trump v Pope Francis? Trump wins”, Tim Stanley wrote: “The kind of Americans backing Trump won’t care that he’s had an argument with a Pope they brand a ‘social justice warrior’.”
What US Catholics are saying
Two columnists suggested Donald Trump and Pope Francis had more
in common than you might think. Matthew Schmitz at The Washington Post said they were both “outsiders shaking up their establishments”. While Trump attacks Republican elites and party orthodoxy, Francis “challenges a hidebound Vatican bureaucracy and flirts with revising Catholic doctrine”. Both deploy similar rhetoric, said Ross Douthat at The New York Times: “Trump calls people ‘low energy’, ‘liar’ and ‘loser’, while Francis prefers ‘Pharisee’ and ‘self-absorbed Promethean neo-Pelagian’.” While they both promise “deliverance” from their institutions, he said, they downplayed the “rules, customs and traditions protecting people from the rule of novelty and whim”.
The most overlooked story of the week ✣Most euthanasia deaths ‘linked to loneliness’
What happened?
The majority of people killed by euthanasia in the Netherlands for “psychiatric” reasons had complained of loneliness, a new study has revealed. Researchers in America found that loneliness, or “social isolation”, was a key motivation behind the euthanasia requests of 37 of 66 cases reviewed.
Why was it under-reported?
The subject of euthanasia – “assisted dying” – has rarely made headline news in the British press, although the actual facts are very dramatic. In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise the practice since Nazi Germany. In 2014, there were 5,306 recorded deaths in the country by euthanasia, and the 2015 figure is expected to pass the 6,000 mark. In Belgium the number of euthanasia deaths has doubled in the past five years, and has included some disturbing individual cases.
What will happen next?
Phil Friend, from disability group Not Dead Yet UK, said the practice of killing people because they were lonely showed just how far down the “slippery slope” the Netherlands had descended since it legalised euthanasia. Anti-euthanasia campaigners such as Fiona Bruce expressed grave concern. She said the study confirmed “why Parliament was right to defeat so overwhelmingly the assisted suicide Bill last year”. If assisted suicide did become law in Britain, this showed what would follow.
✣The Week Ahead
‘24 hours for the Lord’ will take place around the world on Thursday and Friday next week as part of Pope Francis’s Lenten initiative. The Archdiocese of Boston, for example, has called for 12 churches to remain open for Adoration and Confession during a 24-hour period. Pope Francis will lead a vigil on the Thursday and a second “vigil to dry tears” on the Friday.
Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton will address a conference organised by the Church pressure group A Call to Action (Acta) in Winchester tomorrow. The title of the day-long conference is: “What next for the family?”
A Muslim youth group in Leeds is giving up treats in everyday life for the 40 days of Lent out of solidarity with their Christian friends. The campaign #Muslims4Lent, launched by the Leeds Muslim Youth Group (LMYG), is an attempt to highlight the values that Muslims and Christians around the world share with each other.
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