Bill Press: Why the pope’s message will soon be forgotten

Pope Francis arrives in Washington this week, his first stop on his first ever visit to the United States. Washington hasn’t been so excited, or seen so much security, since Barack Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.

On Thursday, the pope will address a Joint Session of Congress. And because, unlike most politicians, Francis delivers the same message to every audience, no matter whether they agree or not, we know exactly what the pope’s going to say.

{mosads}Based on statements made by the pope during his visit to South America in July, as well as his recently released encyclical Laudato si’ and what he’s said consistently before many audiences since becoming pope in 2013, we can expect Francis to emphasize four main points to members of Congress: the primary mission of all people of faith to help the poor; the immoral nature of unbridled capitalism in generating income inequality; the primacy of diplomatic solutions over military might; and the duty of all nations to protect God’s creation by combating human-caused global warming.

That will be the pope’s message to Congress. And my message to Pope Francis is: With all due respect, Holy Pontiff, you are wasting your time.

You are speaking to a Congress controlled by a Republican majority, many of them Catholics, who have already rejected your challenge. Sure, they’ll greet you like a rock star on Thursday morning. They’ll slobber all over you, take selfies, brag about being close to you and kiss your feet. But by Thursday afternoon, they’ll forget you were ever there — and go back to their old, cold, cruel, and uncaring ways. 

Help the poor? Not this gang of Republicans. They’ve never seen a program to help the poor they didn’t want to cut or eliminate. And they’re off to a good start, proposing funding cuts to food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid, and refusing to raise the minimum wage. Even John Kasich, the Ohio governor running for president next year, has denounced the Republicans’ “war on the poor.”

As for income inequality: While more and more Republicans acknowledge it does, indeed, exist, they refuse to do anything about it. Instead, they propose more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and oppose eliminating the “carried interest” tax advantage for hedge fund managers.

On the diplomatic front, the pope arrives in the United States just a couple of weeks after endorsing President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran — something every single Republican in the House and Senate voted against, along with a handful of Democrats. Many members of Congress would prefer war with Iran instead.

And, of course, the pope can’t expect much help on climate change. Most members of Congress don’t believe in it, or don’t believe it’s man-made. They’re certainly not about to heed the pope’s warning in Laudato si’ that we have a moral obligation to care for our “common home.”

Pope Francis’s visit to Capitol Hill will be like the Gospel parable of the farmer sowing his seed on rocky ground. In Matthew 13:13, Jesus might be talking about members of Congress when he says: “For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.”

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “The Obama Hate Machine.”