By Cindy Wooden
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 decision 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. However, 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 understands 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’ questions 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 sporting 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 popemobile 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.
“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 reduce 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 responsibility 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 almost always money.
Talking
about his five-day stay in Colombia, Pope Francis said he was “really
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 Colombian 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.”
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Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.
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