Dear Rightwing Catholic Islamophobes: Pope Francis just washed the feet of a Poor Muslim

Juan Cole writes Dear Rightwing Catholic Islamophobes: Pope Francis just washed the feet of a Poor Muslim.

Pope Francis on Maundy Thursday declined to address enormous crowds. Instead he went to a prison to emulate Jesus’s act of humility before his crucifixion in washing the feet of his 12 disciples. The pope washed and kissed the feet of 12 inmates, two of them women and two of them Muslim (one of the women was Muslim). It is reported that some of the prisoners broke down in tears.

This pope is going to be different. But how different?

The pope is going to cause trouble for the conservatives:

These purveyors of hate speech against Muslims claim to be Catholics, and some of them are annoyingly Ultramontane, insisting on papal infallibility and trying to impose their values on all Americans.

Yet the person they hold to be the vicar of Christ has just given humankind a different charge, of humility and of service to the least in society, many of whom are Muslims.

It will be interesting to see how this pope advances the Catholic social teaching.

However, the main problem for the pope to overcome is to reconcile his actions during the dictatorship in Argentina. As Carlo Sands wrote recently:

Pope Francis is also heavily implicated in the crimes of Argentina's fascist junta — but as Jesus teaches, none of us are without sin. And, really, who among us can honestly say we have not kidnapped and tortured the odd priest?

The mainstream media coverage of world figures has sure been interesting of late. Apparently Pope Francis, who backed a dictatorship that slaughtered thousands, loves the poor. And Hugo Chavez, who redistributed wealth and lowered poverty, was a tyrant. The corporate press might not be much good at depicting reality, but at least its black-is-white message is consistent.