1/1/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I enjoyed seeing you on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve last night sharing your optimism. I also appreciated Jill’s suggestion to go out & be kind. I will do my best to follow your leads.

            Condolences to you on the passing of Pope Emeriti Benedict XVI (PEB16). I was surprised by Marc A. Thiessen’s critical statement that, “his abdication was a terrible, tragic mistake.” MAT thinks PEB16 should have continued service to demonstrate “the salvific power of suffering.” While I find that argument unconvincing, I was grateful to MAT for sharing PEB16’s message that “love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like ‘a clanging cymbal.’”

            MAT provided a link to PEB16’s 2005 DEUS CARITAS EST (DCE), which I assume you read at some point. Perhaps you will recall that he differentiates between the roles of the Church & State, noting that the Church supports the “purification of reason” which enables the State to promote justice. I hope to find time to give the DCE a closer read.

            Many in the media are calling PEB16, “a brilliant theologian.” Some are critical of him for his handling of sexual abuse. I never paid too much attention to him or any other pope because I object to the sexism & hierarchy of the Church. My quick look at the DCE makes me think I could learn a lot from the popes, even if I don’t choose to follow them. I am so grateful that my freedom of religion gives me this choice. Thanks for protecting it!

            Please contact UN Human Rights Commissioner, Volker Türk, to see what you can do to support his efforts to provide “a coordination mechanism to ensure proactive search & rescue (of refugee boats), the disembarkation of Rohingya refugees … & their effective protection….& help Bangladesh support the over 1,000,000 Rohingya refugees who have sought protection there since 2017.”

            BYBS,