My concern is that Trump is going to inevitably drive anti-Catholic sentiment in the US as a result of this and other episodes. I just listened to Limbaugh

rolleyes

and he summarized the pope’s comments about Trump. He then took a caller who was obviously Catholic, said he supported and loved the pope, and explained that the pontiff was reaffirming Catholic teaching on the dignity of all humans when rejecting the notion of walls built between countries. (Whether one agrees with walls or not, Catholics must accept the Church’s teachings regarding human dignity – teachings which are typically not understood by non-Catholics, in my opinion.) The caller also noted that the MSM often doesn’t characterize the pope’s comments properly and that Catholic media does a much better job of contextualizing them in terms of Catholic teaching. Limbaugh then took a break and when he returned, he did so alone and took the opportunity to describe the caller as “typical” of those who want to blame the US for not being generous enough to welcome refugees. He then went on to claim that the pope wants the US to become socialist and reject capitalism wholesale. Aside from the factual errors involved in his ensuing comments, what struck me was the anti-papal and perhaps anti-Catholic spin to this rhetoric. It was troubling.