National Review Editor Reviews Address By Pope Francis
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- National Review writer and editor Kathryn Lopez reviewed the Pope Francis' address in Washington, saying people should ignore the politics and focus on his message.
Lopez, talking with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said the Pope's intention is to bring people back to the faith and to focus on what matters.
"At the mass at Catholic University, he talked about these habits that we fall into. We might not be bad people but we fall into these bad habits. We become apathetic. We start, he didn't say this, but he'll say it before he leaves because he talks about it all the time, becoming indifferent to people. A lot of what he does is just encourage you to look at your neighbor and see his suffering, because so many people are suffering. It's on such a basic, fundamental level because he really feels like people have lost that, basic human encounter and on a more supernatural level, encounter with Jesus Christ, which is the invitation he really is offering to people."
She pointed out that he has been focused on immigration and refugees way in advance of the rest of the world catching on to what was happening.
"Before anybody was talking about any Syrian refugee crisis or anything, he was made aware of the fact that people were fleeing the Arab Spring by crossing the Mediterranean, most of them dying. Some of them making it to land, here in this Island of Lampedusa. The islanders were taking them in. The Island is not a Muslim island. Most of the people coming over were Muslim families and they welcomed them and they helped them. Nobody in the world cared. That's very much on his heart. That's why he talks about immigration among other things. He knows that people are suffering. That it might work for the President's agenda isn't really on his radar screen. I think he's become a little more schooled in that on the way over here. But he is talking things that he's talking about because they really bother him."
Lopez also said she was happy to see the Pope recognize the significance of the US globally.
"He recognizes the fact that the rest of the world needs us. Europe has made some really bad mistakes and the very existence of Christianity is in question in Iraq, Syria, and the cradle of Christianity. Yeah, we have our problems and he'll point out some of the problems, but we've often done something right and reminding us of that, that's something we need to treasure."
