THE SEATING arrangements for Pope Francis’s funeral was this: Catholic royalty at the front, followed by other royalty and then world leaders on that side, and the red hat Cardinals on the other side.
Someone needed to make sure that the red hats in the front row did not include a MAGA hat as United States President Trump believed or insisted that he should have a front row seat.
Respectful behaviour isn’t in his main skill set.
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So obvious
President Trump has said, “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv.”
But imagine how the people of Kyiv feel about it.
He seems annoyed that it will mess up his attempt to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine, although his solution seems to only involve the Ukrainian people giving up their land.
He is not capable of solving this conflict and certainly not in the first day as he promised.
A resolution to a war must be done to stop the fighting and protect the people involved, not to be something to boast about.
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Respect?
The body of Pope Francis was laid in state for several days for people to show respect and say goodbye.
This seemed a simple operation but there was a need to tell some people not to take selfies with the body.
What type of person would defile the Pope’s memory in this way?
What do you gain with a photo of a smiling face against the solemn reposed body of the Pope?
Some people have lost the plot, some are just disrespectful.
Vale, Pope Francis.
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Faint praise
President Trump described Pope Francis as a “good man” who “worked hard and loved the world”.
This is very much a minimalist view of a person who devoted his life to make the world a better place as opposed to Trump’s effort to just make his own world a better place.
Pope Francis was beloved by billions of people, respected by those from other beliefs and a person who led the way to a more accepting church.
Those that didn’t agree with him, or even openly opposed his changes, were still welcome in his house, not exiled to an El Salvador prison.
We all need great people to set examples for us to follow and sadly we have just lost one great example.
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Welcome home
It appears that the Trump government is considering cutting National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) science budget in half for 2026. This will stop a number of projects including possibly the Goddard Space Flight Center.
Support for the Hubble Telescope will continue until it falls apart but then no more telescope launches.
One possible reason for the cutback might be that the search for alien life will succeed and we discover that rather than being small and green, they are large and orange and want their lost child back.
On a more serious note, any cutbacks to science funding should be condemned given the developments with people losing faith in science and the rise of pseudo-science.
The appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr., a vaccine sceptic, to leading America’s health departments does not provide confidence in their support of real science.
Perhaps the space programs could be taken over by SpaceX, owned substantially by Elon Musk, President Trump’s money saver. The SpaceX rockets, however, do explode from time to time which is worrying./PN
