twenty new cardinals
from fourteen countries
with more of them hailing
from non-European countries
than European
in an attempt to show
the Vatican's "inseparable link"
with Catholics around the world.
As if that weren't mushy enough
of an agenda
one cardinal
Soane Patita Paini Mafia
is from the island of Tonga
home to a tiny community
of 17,000 Catholics
and threatened by climate change.
Cardinal Jose Luis Lacunza Maestrojuanan
is from Panama
and has campaigned to protect
indigenous peoples.
Last January
among the nineteen cardinals
he nominated
were clergy from Haiti
and Burkina Faso.
He has said he wants to see
an overhaul of the Church
that would bring it closer
to ordinary people.
This rhetoric sounds similar
to what the GOP
has been declaring
again and again
they've wanted to do
but with Governor Rick Perry
out on the campaign trail
implying that his rejection
of Medicaid
was an informed decision
on the part of poor Texans
not to have health insurance
this style of tough love
seems to be selling
about as well
as the premise
for Fifty Shades of Grey.
This poem © 2015 Emily Cooper.
