ABC’s Good Morning America made Pope Francis into one of their own — a cultural progressive — on Monday by boasting “he often clashed with conservatives” over his “compassion for the LGBTQ community” and “wave of optimism” for everyone from immigrants to the poor to even Palestinians. And, of course, they made it about themselves too.
Co-host Michael Strahan had a tease that made it seem like he knows what he’s talking about:
Longtime ABC correspondent Terry Moran shortly thereafter emphasized Pope Francis’s people skills were unlike any of his predecessors (though he later backtracked and praised Saint Pope John Paul II) and, like Strahan, emphasized him as pro-LGBTQ:
“All those unforgettable moments of Pope Francis. The way that he went to a war zone, that he brought refugees back to his own house in Rome. All those gestures, that’s really his legacy, not hammered out in writing in church doctrine, but in the witness that he bore with his own personal example,” he added.
Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos had his own voice-over report, saying Francis “inject[ed] a wave of optimism into the Catholic Church” and cheered him selecting “juvenile prisoners, women and non-Catholics” for footwashing on Maundy Thursday.
He continued on, gushing over Francis dispensing with discussion of “abortion, gay marriage, and contraception” and pivoting to “a more inclusive church” and declaring “laws criminalizing homosexuality...unjust” even if official doctrine didn’t change:
To further drive home this point, ABC brought in far-left keyboard pundit and Jesuit James Martin, who said it was “a real special moment in my life” when he once had a conversation with Pope Francis “about LGBTQ Catholics” and he allegedly told him “continue this ministry in peace.”
Strahan lingered on this focus of Francis as pro-LGBTQ, gushing over what many have taken to mean he has no issue with homosexuality. Co-host Robin Roberts unsurprisingly concurred (given she’s lesbian) and cued Martin up on this theme of Catholicism being “welcoming” to all lifestyles:
Notice how, in Catholicism or conservative Protestantism, there’s never any mention by these liberal journalists about God being just in addition to being loving?
Senior political correspondent Rachel Scott also got her cheap shot in at President Trump:
The second half-hour included more reflections from Moran. After a brief history lesson about the papacy having been more than just a spiritual leader in, say, the Middle Ages, he held up Francis as pro-Palestinian as a sign of what Stephanopoulos observed as “the importance of the small gesture that would be broadcast all over the world”:
I come back to the trip to the Holy Land that he took. He was very concerned about Christians in the Middle East in general, but in the Palestinian Christians in particular and he was critical of — of some of the way that the Israeli governments had treated the Palestinians. And his hand on the wall, the dividing wall between the Israeli and Palestinian people, praying for peace there, was one of those classic Pope Francis gestures.
Entertainment-focused co-host Lara Spencer even got in on the act and praised him as “known to be in and among the people, and will be remembered as an outspoken champion of those marginalized and oppressed.”
After she too cited the footwashing example, she had the first of many Martin soundbites.
She obviously emphasized his “who am I to judge” line, as well as a moment in 2018 that has been used to suggest atheists could still go to heaven:
Roberts had her own segment boasting she met Francis twice:
Our friend Aaron Walker at Twitchy had it right in reaction to ABC’s coverage: “The media are the ultimate cafeteria Catholics. They want us to follow the Catholic Church on something like border control, but they never want to follow the Catholic Church on abortion.”
Moran led off the second hour by gushing Moran “embraced controversy” and even “stirred it up as well”:
“Pope Francis had some tough words over the years for the governance of President Trump, but he was unafraid of controversy and castigated many of the world leaders, trying to remind wealthy nations to share that wealth, to take care of the environment, to work for peace, and to lift up the needy,” he added, to which Roberts swooned “of course” and “very wrong words.”
Moran came back one final time in the next block and, before he said Francis blessed him and his wife ahead of the birth of their now-eight-year-old eight, he twice said the pope was “great...to cover” since “he made news” and “spoke off the cuff.”
Stephanopoulos returned the conversation to politics and painted Francis as having thumbed his nose at “conservatives”:
There was also this interesting exchange Strahan and Spencer had with Catholic University’s Helen Alvare as the two ABC hosts attempted to have her throw more punches at traditional Catholics:
To see the relevant Good Morning America transcript from April 21, click here.
