Just so there’s so misunderstanding about where the Vatican stands on the Rohingya genocide, Burmese Catholic Bishop John Hsane Hgyi & Fr. Mariano Soe Naing, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Burma spoke at a news conference yesterday alongside Vatican spokesperson Greg Burke. It’s worth noting that Burke, who was appointed the pope’s spokesperson last year, is a former Fox News journalist & member of Opus Dei.
The purpose of the press conference was to lay out the Burmese Catholic Church’s view of the Rohingya genocide. The presence of the Vatican spokesperson can only mean Pope Francis is in agreement with the Burmese church. Bishop John Hsane Hgyi defended the Burmese government (a fasicst military junta) & suggested that reports about atrocities committed against the Rohingya–who he did not refer to by their proper name–were fake news. Burke piped up that the Rohingya genocide was not the purpose for the papal visit but was part of establishing formal diplomatic relations between the Vatican & Burma. What kind of spiritual leadership doesn’t just ignore genocide but denies it despite mountains of documentation? Burke denied that the pope has lost moral authority for his sniveling behavior in Burma. In fact, it is likely that his moral authority has grown considerably among fascists & the kind of people who consider Fox News legitimate.
Pope Francis really should have stayed at home because he has shown himself to be something of a monster. He traveled on to Bangladesh today sputtering praise for Bangladesh for humanitarian assistance to the ” massive influx of refugees from Rakhine State”–again refusing to call the Rohingya by their proper name or denounce genocide.
Everybody wants to believe the pope’s humble-pie schtick. We want to believe he’ll clean up the Vatican covering for pedophile priests; that he’ll loosen up the misogynist policies against women’s reproductive rights, that he’ll stand with human rights even though that hasn’t been the track record of the Vatican. Does Pope Francis want the Catholic Church to become the spiritual wing of Fox News & fascism? Most Catholics do not & they do not deserve that kind of compromised leadership.
Photo is Rohingya child who Pope Francis refuses to acknowledge except in evasions.