Pope Francis Can Barely Hide How He Feels About Donald Trump

To say I was raised Catholic would be an understatement. I'm not talking "Catholic schools are good and not that expensive, so we'll go to Church on Christmas" Catholic. I was raised "church multiple times a week or you're going to hell, if you ever masturbate you're going to hell, if you even think something less than good, you might as well have done it... and also you're going to hell" Catholic. Throw in the whole "not being straight" ("you're going to hell") thing and you have a recipe for my current strained relationship with the religion. And yet, as resentful as I am, I have to admit that Pope Francis has time and time again made statements and done things that make me consider going back to church. He's the best thing to happen to the Catholic Church in generations, and today was no exception.

Donald Trump visited the Vatican today. You might recall that during the election, Pope Francis had some harsh words for the "Republican" saying, "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian." This led to a news cycle where, I swear to God ("you're going to hell"), people on the Right like Sean Hannity, basically asked who the Pope is to say someone is not Christian. So I, like many others, was eager to see how the Pope received our president who stands for everything that real Catholicism (often at odds with The Church as an institution) is opposed to. Short answer? Pope Francis does not like Donald Trump.

Consider their photo:

"But the Pope is a serious guy!" you scream in hopes that you don't have a conflict between your Catholicism and your unfeeling "conservative" belief system that treats the poor like garbage despite everything Jesus ever said. Interesting argument, let's compare and contrast, shall we?

And Trump's photo again:

"A photo isn't a real indicator of how someone feels!" you scream as you begin to consider that maybe your political beliefs and your religious beliefs are in direct conflict with one another. That it was the corruption of the Catholic Church that dovetailed well with the right-wing's policies and not the Church itself. Fair point. If only there were some other medium we could look to... Oh right!

And now some context from how the Italian media is reporting the story:

So, yeah... Pope Francis is not here for Donald Trump's immoral and despicable policies (and personal life). It's been a little while now, but it's still so odd to have a Pope that makes me actually want to be Catholic again.