Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese, NCR’s senior analyst, appeared on CNN yesterday for a news story titled, “Pope’s popularity in Washington.”
Asked why he thinks Francis is popular for both Democrats and Republicans, Reese said, “My cynical view is that he’s so popular, they want to piggyback on him for their own political purposes!”
CNN conducted a poll where they asked people if they thought Francis was too liberal or too conservative. Eighty-six percent of respondents thought Francis was neither, instead putting him in the “about right” category.
“People in Washington would kill for those numbers,” Reese responded to the poll.
After a clip of President Obama quoting from Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Reese said, “President Obama who very rarely talks about the poor (he talks about the middle class), well, Pope Francis is putting the poor back on the agenda.”
