Four Liberals in a Profound Moment
The Winona Daily News reports Minnesota St. Mary’s University Trustees have presented Pope Francis with an award.
An Argentinian pope has joined a Guatemalan bishop as the second recipient of the Signum Fidei Award from Saint Mary’s University — created in memory of an SMU alumni martyred in Central America.
Was this alumnus martyred for the Faith or because he ‘loved the poor?’ Oh, right! Same thing.
SMU President William Mann, along with SMU trustees Mary Burrichter and Sandra Simon, presented Pope Francis — personally — with the award following the pope’s weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square April 15.
The Signum Fidei — Sign of the Faith — Award is bestowed in recognition of extraordinary service to the vulnerable and marginalized members of society and work that promotes human solidarity. The award presented to the pope is in the form of a bronze bust of Brother James Miller, a SMU alumni and member of the Christian Brothers who in 1982, while serving as a missionary in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, was gunned down by three unidentified gunmen while repairing a wall at the mission school.
They never know who did it, but they always know why.
Miller met his death serving the poor, the marginalized, the forgotten, Mann said. “This pope seems to be — in a major way — reaching out to those populations.”
What is a marginalized population anyway? Doesn’t it just mean liberal? And if some people are forgotten, why do they get remembered so much?
When is the pope going to reach out to a Catholic?
Mann said that as he explained to the pope who James Miller was and what he had done, Francis reached out to touch the bronze and blessed it — the Latin American pope very aware of the situation at the time.
“It was an incredible experience,” Burrichter said of her meeting with Pope Francis. “He came up to us,” she said, “ Brother William spoke to him in Spanish … He held my right hand. He gave us his blessing, then said to us in English, ‘Pray for me.’”
“He seemed to be a very gentle, a very kind man.”
Really? What about this?