Why I, a Buddhist, mourn this Pope’s passing.

“You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works.”
~ Pope Francis
at St. Luke Catholic Church in Middleburg, Florida.

Dear folks who claim we’re politicizing his death: yeah, you should be ashamed of some of the hateful comments I’ve had to read on our main facebook page, facebook.com/elephantjournal around his passing.

Some of you are coming out as uncaring, uncompassionate, homophobic, etc…you just want a nice little cute symbol who doesn’t care about people.

If you don’t see that the Pope cared about the vulnerable in Palestine, gay families, our planet and climate crisis, immigration…”politics”…you know, real world rights and issues affecting real people…maybe it is you who never bothered to listen to his sermons of compassion.

Was he perfect? No. Did he push his vast institution with millions upon millions of faithful toward real love and taking responsibility? Yes.

“There can be no peace without freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and respect for the views of others.”

~ his final Easter message.