logo
Biden: Pope Francis stood for compassion as others embraced cruelty. May mercy be his legacy.

Biden: Pope Francis stood for compassion as others embraced cruelty. May mercy be his legacy.

USA Today28-04-2025

Biden: Pope Francis stood for compassion as others embraced cruelty. May mercy be his legacy. I fear with Pope Francis' passing, the world will be colder and less just. Which means that all of us who loved Francis need to step up.
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Pope Francis requested a simple funeral in his will
Pope Francis requested a "simple" funeral in his will, reflecting a legacy devoted to humility.
As I sat among the more than 200,000 people who came to Rome to grieve the loss and celebrate the life of Pope Francis, one word kept running through my mind − mercy.
I thought of the pope's motto – ''Miserando atque eligendo." It translates as, "He looked at him with mercy and chose him.' It is a reference to Jesus selecting Matthew to be his disciple, not despite the fact that the tax collector was a sinner, but because of it.
I thought of the Jubilee Year of Mercy that Pope Francis proclaimed. I thought of 'The Name of God is Mercy' that he wrote.
Most of all, I thought of his mission, his ministry, his life's work.
Pope Francis gave me hope and optimism
I first met Francis at his inauguration as pope in 2013. I was vice president. Like millions of Catholics all over the world, I felt a surge of hope and optimism.
In Francis, I saw the revitalization of the faith I had grown up with. A faith that calls us to care for 'the last and the least' among us. A faith that gives us the obligation to feed the hungry, care for the sick, lift up the poor, welcome the stranger. A faith that sees the humanity in everyone and believes we are all God's children. A faith of forgiveness and compassion. Of dignity and respect. Of love and mercy.
Opinion: I'm a Catholic who craved spiritual connection. I found it in Pope Francis.
Francis was a pope for our time, when so many leaders embraced cruelty. He stood for compassion. When so many casually embraced lies. He stood for truth. When so many saw the climate as an imagined problem. He saw it as an existential crisis. When so many treated the climate as a political matter. He knew it was a moral imperative.
And when so many practiced the politics of dehumanization, he stood for our common humanity.
Francis spoke on behalf of migrants
Francis was a voice of great moral clarity even in the face of sickness and death.
In his final Easter message, which he gave just one day before he died, he cried out against war: 'What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of our world!'
He called out the cruelty being inflicted on others: 'How much violence we see, often even within families, directed at women and children!'
He spoke against the demonization of the weakest among us: 'How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!'
Opinion: With Francis, LGBTQ+ Catholics finally felt seen. Will new pope turn away from us?
Francis used to say that 'a little mercy makes the world less cold and more just.' Now I fear with his passing, the world will be colder and less just. Which means that all of us who loved Francis need to step up.
Francis wasn't the only one chosen by God's mercy. We all were. When we remember that, we will see that mercy isn't weakness. There is no greater strength.
One of the mementoes I most treasured as president was a photo with Pope Francis that I kept on my desk in the Oval Office. That photo is now on my desk at home in Delaware. It serves as a daily reminder to me to do more, to be better, to make a difference in the lives of others.
Pope Francis was a great leader and a deeply good man. Now we can honor his life by making his legacy a living legacy. A living faith. A faith of caring and compassion – and mercy.
Joe Biden was the 46th president of the United States.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

US Justice Department says Trump can cancel national monuments that protect landscapes

timean hour ago

US Justice Department says Trump can cancel national monuments that protect landscapes

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Lawyers for President Donald Trump's administration say he has the authority to abolish national monuments meant to protect historical and archaeological sites across broad landscapes, including two in California created by his predecessor at the request of Native American tribes. A Justice Department legal opinion released Tuesday disavowed a 1938 determination that monuments created by previous presidents under the Antiquities Act can't be revoked. The department said presidents can cancel monument designations if protections aren't warranted. The finding comes as the Interior Department under Trump weighs changes to monuments across the nation as part of the administration's push to expand U.S. energy production. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said that at Trump's order, 'his Justice Department is attempting to clear a path to erase national monuments." Trump in his first term reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah, calling them a 'massive land grab." He also lifted fishing restrictions within a sprawling marine monument off the New England Coast. Former President Joe Biden reversed the moves and restored the monuments. The two monuments singled out in the newly released Justice Department opinion were designated by Biden in his final days in office: Chuckwalla National Monument, in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in Northern California. The Democrat's declarations for the monuments barred oil and natural gas drilling and mining on the 624,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) Chuckwalla site, and the roughly 225,000 acres (800 square kilometers) Sáttítla Highlands site near the California-Oregon border. Chuckwalla has natural wonders including the Painted Canyon of Mecca Hills and Alligator Rock, and is home to rare species of plants and animals like the desert bighorn sheep and the Chuckwalla lizard. The Sáttítla Highlands include the ancestral homelands of the Pit River Tribe and Modoc Peoples. All but three presidents have used the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources. About half the national parks in the U.S. were first designated as monuments. But critics of monument designations under Biden and Obama say the protective boundaries were stretched too far, hindering mining for critical minerals. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit wrote in the Trump administration opinion that Biden's protections of Chuckwalla and the Sattítla Highlands were part of the Democrat's attempts to create for himself an environmental legacy that includes more places to hike, bike, camp or hunt. "Such activities are entirely expected in a park, but they are wholly unrelated to (if not outright incompatible with) the protection of scientific or historical monuments," Pettit wrote. Trump in April lifted commercial fishing prohibitions within an expansive marine monument in the Pacific Ocean created under former President Barack Obama. Environmental groups said Tuesday's Justice Department opinion doesn't give him the authority to shrink monuments at will. 'Americans overwhelmingly support our public lands and oppose seeing them dismantled or destroyed,' said Axie Navas with The Wilderness Society. Biden established 10 new monuments, among them the site of a 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, and another on a sacred Native American site near the Grand Canyon. Since 1912, presidents have issued more than a dozen proclamations that diminished monuments, according to a National Park Service database. Dwight Eisenhower was most active in undoing the proclamations of his predecessors as he diminished six monuments, including Arches in Utah, Great Sand Dunes in Colorado and Glacier Bay in Alaska, which have all since become national parks. Trump's moves to shrink the Utah monuments in his first term were challenged by environmental groups that said protections for the sites safeguard water supplies and wildlife while preserving cultural sites. The reductions were reversed by Biden before the case was resolved, and it remains pending. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act after lobbying by educators and scientists who wanted to protect sites from artifact looting and haphazard collecting by individuals. It was the first law in the U.S. to establish legal protections for cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on federal lands.

Ex-Biden aide agrees to testify to House committee about president's mental fitness while in office
Ex-Biden aide agrees to testify to House committee about president's mental fitness while in office

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Ex-Biden aide agrees to testify to House committee about president's mental fitness while in office

A former senior adviser to President Joe Biden has agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door interview as part of its investigation into claims of Biden's cognitive decline while in office. Neera Tanden, who served as a senior adviser, White House Staff Secretary, and Director of the Domestic Policy Council during the Biden administration, is set to testify before the committee on June 24, according to an Oversight Committee aide. Her closed-door testimony will be recorded and reviewed as part of Republican committee members' investigation into Biden's mental acuity and the alleged cover-up by his staff and allies. Republican Representative James Comer, the chairman of the committee, has accused Democrats, the media, and the Biden administration of 'propping up a man who was unfit to lead.' Comer believes the so-called 'cover up' allowed for the utilization of 'autopens' to issue 'blanket pardons' for members of the Biden family. President Donald Trump has made similar claims that the use of the autopen meant someone other than Biden was in charge of the White House during his term. Tanden has acknowledged that the autopen is used in 'a lot' of administrations but has not provided any public comment on Biden's use of it or his cognitive function. Comer had requested Tanden and other former staffers he's accused of engaging in a 'cover-up,' testify to the committee and threatened to subpoena those who do not voluntarily comply. Tanden, 54, is a prominent Democratic political consultant who has worked in the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations. When Biden took office in 2020, he nominated Tanden to serve as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. However, the nomination was considered controversial due to Tanden's history of name-calling in tweets. The White House eventually withdrew Tanden's nomination and appointed her senior adviser and staff secretary. The testimony will come after a renewed focus on Biden's mental fitness, which was the subject of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's book Original Sin. Comer has also requested testimony from Michael Donilon and Anita Dunn, former senior advisers; Bruce Reed, former deputy chief of staff; and Steve Ricchetti, the former counselor to the president. Others subpoenaed include Anthony Bernal, a former senior adviser to First Lady Jill Biden; Ashley Williams, the former deputy director of Oval Office operations; and Annie Tomasini, the former deputy chief of staff. Comer has also subpoenaed Biden's physician, Kevin O'Connor. Biden has maintained that he drove the decision-making during his presidency. There has been no evidence that aides acted on his behalf or that anyone other than Biden used the autopen.

US Army to bring back names of 7 bases that once honored Confederate leaders
US Army to bring back names of 7 bases that once honored Confederate leaders

Yahoo

time5 hours ago

  • Yahoo

US Army to bring back names of 7 bases that once honored Confederate leaders

The US Army said Tuesday it will restore the names of seven Army bases that previously honored Confederate leaders. 'We are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill, and Fort Robert E. Lee,' President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday at Fort Bragg, which was briefly known as Fort Liberty until the administration changed it back earlier this year. 'We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It's no time to change.' The Army plans to give the bases new namesakes honoring 'heroic Soldiers who served in conflicts ranging from the Civil War to the Battle of Mogadishu,' according to a news release, as it rolls back the Biden-era name changes. Reverting the base names to the original Confederate namesakes would require congressional approval. The move comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a National Guard veteran and former longtime Fox News host, moved quickly to roll back name changes at other Army bases, such as Fort Bragg and Fort Benning. Hegseth also ordered the secretary of the Navy to rename the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk, which had honored the gay rights activist and Navy veteran who was made to resign from the force because of his sexual orientation. Removing Confederate monikers from US military bases became a contentious political issue in the final months of Trump's first term. While Trump vetoed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that included a naming commission to study and recommend new titles for bases named after Confederate leaders, Congress voted to override his veto with overwhelming bipartisan support. The Department of Defense began implementing the naming commission's recommendations in 2023. Here are the names that are being brought back. According to the Army's Tuesday announcement, Fort Barfoot, a Virginia base previously named after Confederate General George Pickett, will be named in honor of 1st Lt. Vernon W. Pickett, a soldier who received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism during World War II. While pinned down by enemy machine gun fire, Pickett crawled forward and destroyed two enemy positions with grenades, the Army said. He escaped from a transport train after being captured, rejoined his unit and was later killed in action. Fort Cavazos in Texas will be renamed Fort Hood in honor of Distinguished Service Cross recipient Col. Robert B. Hood, who fought in World War I. In 2023, it was named after Gen. Richard Cavazos, who served in both the Korean War and Vietnam War. He was the first Hispanic four-star general in US history. Georgia's Fort Eisenhower will revert back to Fort Gordon, this time honoring Medal of Honor recipient Master Sgt. Gary I. Gordon, who during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, defended wounded crew members at a helicopter crash site. The base, which was previously named after Confederate General John Gordon, was renamed Fort Eisenhower after General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower, who went on to serve as the nation's 34th president. A Virginia fort once named for Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee will carry the namesake of Pvt. Fitz Lee, who received the Medal of Honor for his service during the Spanish-American War. The fort was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams after Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col Charity Adams in 2023. Gregg helped desegregate the Army, including at Fort Lee, while Adams, in 1944, 'was selected to command the first unit of African-American women to serve overseas,' according to the congressional naming commission. Her service was chronicled in the 2024 film 'The Six Triple Eight.' Gen. James H. Polk, a Silver Star recipient and commanding officer of the 3rd Cavalry Group in operations across Europe during World War II, will become the new namesake for Louisiana's Fort Johnson, according to the release. The fort had been renamed in honor of Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black soldier who was considered one of the first heroes of World War I after he fought off about two dozen Germans alone, killing at least four. Fort Novosel will be redesignated as Fort Rucker, in honor of Capt. Edward W. Rucker, a Distinguished Service Cross recipient and aviator that flew behind enemy lines in World War I 'in a daring aerial battle over France, disrupting enemy movements and completing their mission against overwhelming odds,' according to the release. It was previously renamed after Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael J. Novosel Sr., who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, where he flew 2,543 medical evacuation missions. The Army will bring back the Fort A.P. Hill name to Fort Walker, this time honoring Lt. Col. Edward Hill, 1st Sgt. Robert A. Pinn and Pvt. Bruce Anderson, three soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War. The Virginia fort previously was named in honor of Lt. Gen. Ambrose Powell (A.P.) Hill, a Confederate commander. It was renamed Fort Walker in 2023, after Dr. Mary Walker, the Army's first female surgeon who was ultimately awarded the Medal of Honor for her service during the Civil War. CNN's Samantha Waldenberg, Oren Liebermann, Devan Cole, Barbara Starr and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store