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- [00:07]
Bill O'Reilly
Pope died at 7:35 this morning Monday in Rome. And he was 88, as I mentioned. And people were shocked because of yesterday's Pope mobile appearance. And he looked very clear eyed as he walked around and greeted everybody and they were ecstatic. I was in Vatican City, I think it was 81 on Easter Sunday. It's an amazing thing to be there. And The Pope spent 17 minutes with Vice President Vance and gave his children, you know, his small children, some chocolate eggs and they had a nice conversation. It was not intense. The Vice President said that the Pope invited him. It was the Pope's invitation. So I guess Vance was the last outsider famous person to talk with the Pope. I'd be interested to hear what the Vice President has to say about that conversation. He's in India now talking to Modi, the Indian President about, you know, the tariffs and all this stuff that's going on. All right, a little bit about the Pope. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born in Flores, Argentina, right outside of Buenos Aires, came a Jesuit priest in 1969. That Jesuits are the intellectual wing of the Catholic Church. It is a liberal group. Now back then, not so much. The Jesuits were involved in a movie, the Exorcist. In the book, okay, he was appointed cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. Now in that time in Argentina, I was down there covering the Falklands War. So I saw it firsthand. It was ruled by a military junta coming off Juan Peron. There was no freedom there, really. It was a police state and most of the people were poor, desperately poor, because the oligarchy in Argentina stole all the money. Very important for you to understand that. So what the cardinal saw then, subsequently the Pope was massive poverty fueled by corruption. And he became a liberation theologian. And many, many Catholic priests who work in the third world are that the problem that Jorge Mario had was that he put the blame on capitalism for the poverty. And that was wrong. There is an editorial in the Wall Street Journal stating that it wasn't capitalism that were keeping the people poor. It was the corrupt administration government in Argentina run by a guy named Galtieri. When I was there, and you had to fear him, Galtieri would have you killed. And I don't blame, I don't think there were stories about, you know, how the cardinal didn't do what he should have done, a bunch of both. All right, so then he gets to be Pope and he comes on in and eight years ago I almost to the day I met him in a very brief conversation. But, but I was in his Proximity for two hours. And I'm a reporter and I watched every move the man made. And he dealt with hundreds of people. He was exceedingly kind and patient. He was 80 years old. And my interaction with him was just a greeting primarily. But he and I, like, stared at each other for maybe 15 seconds after I said buenos dias, I addressed him in Spanish and it was eerie. He didn't break my gaze. I don't know whether he recognized me or knew I was in the small group. I don't know. But it was just as something came off of him. Okay, so the Pope ran into trouble in America and some other European countries because of his. Because not sympathy so much, but he. Promotion, I think that's a better word. He promoted illegal immigration in the sense that he said, if you are a Christian, you have to treat these people with dignity. That was everything. Now, on December 31, 2019, five and a half years ago, here's what I said.
- [05:16]
Commentator
As for Pope Francis himself, he is a liberation theology guy. He lives in a world where religion, Christianity and Catholicism are there to improve the plight of the poor. Must understand where he is coming from. That is his mission. The poor help the poor, the downtrodden, the, the incarcerated, the migrants. Help them, help them, help them, help them. Does not go against Christianity. Does not. The only problem with Pope Francis is he gets into trouble when his solutions make the poverty and migrant problem worse and hurt good minded people, which he has done. Pope has done that. Remember when the Pope spouts a political opinion that had nothing to do with theology, he's not infallible. It's not dogma, it's not any of that. It's just his opinion as an Argentinian cleric, which is what he is. I like him. I think he's a sincere man. I think he tries to help people. And that's my bottom line for Pope. I don't need Winston Churchill in there.
- [06:35]
Bill O'Reilly
So I think that's the most accurate assessment you're ever going to get on Pope Francis. Now, if he's not in heaven, then there's no hope for me. Okay, but. And there is that. But he didn't analyze the migrant movements in a way that I believe was effective number one or responsible number two. I guess I'm committing a sin here, calling a former Pope irresponsible. But he wasn't actively trying to do that. But he couldn't see the big picture. And you'll remember his quote about the Trump administration. You have to build bridges, not walls. Well, you got to obey the law. Your Holiness, I wish I had been able to. I was close to getting an interview with him, and I wish I had, because that's what I would have said. You got to obey the law. The law is there for a reason, to protect people. You can't just say, I don't like this law because it hurts some poor people. And it does. Our exclusion of everybody in the world who's poor hurts people. If they could come here, they would be a lot better off. That is true. But we can't do it. We can't afford it. We can't supervise it. We can't assimilate it. No nation could on this earth. And that's the truth. There's a new Pope, so I think we'll lead with that tonight. I do not know Cardinal Robert Francis Provost. All right. He is from Chicago. He is a protege of the Cardinal of Chicago. And he looks like a good guy to me from my initial research. But I don't know him. I don't know anyone who does know him because he hasn't been in America for 10 years. So he was the leading Catholic cleric in Peru. In fact, he holds Peruvian citizenship as well as American citizenship. Two passports, 69 years old, born in Chicago, first American Pope in history. I hope that's a good thing. He looks like a good guy to me. Just watching his demeanor when he came out on the Vatican balcony and greeted the folks. And here's what he had to say.
- [09:17]
Pope Francis
The Pope who blessed Rome gave his blessing to the world, to the entire world, that morning of Easter. Allow me to follow up on that blessing. God loves us. God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail. We are all in hands of God. Therefore, without fear, united, hand in hand with God and amongst ourselves, let us go forward.
- [09:58]
Bill O'Reilly
I like the line, evil will not prevail. I like that line. So I'm going to send him a copy of Confronting Evil, my book that'll be out in September. Now, the new Pope, if you don't read Roman numerals, he is Leo xiv. All right. My Catholic school upbringing drummed that into my head. I got those Roman numerals. So he was active in the USA in the early part of his career, 1982-85, and then from 2000 to 2014. The rest of the time he spent in Peru and Rome. And he had a good position in Rome, and he was friendly with Pope Francis, who, of course, was an Argentine. And Peru is right across the continent. Now, Peru is an interesting country. Very poor, not as destable as Colombia, Venezuela, even Argentina and Brazil. But there's a big gulf in Peru between the wealthy and the poor. And I think you're going to see a lot of sympathy for the poor from the new Pope. Now, he was educated Villanova, Philadelphia, Bachelor of science degree in math. He's got to speak a bunch of languages. I know he speaks Italian, English, and Spanish. I am trying to track down the other language. He's 69 years old, as I said, and it looks like, you know, from the just cursory view, that he is a good choice. Now, why should you care if you're not Catholic? Because on this planet, there are very few institutions devoted to try to spread peace on earth, goodwill to men. You know, you don't have a lot of that going on, do you? And you can pick apart the Catholic Church. That's not hard to do. It's run by men. A lot of those men are evil, okay? And we saw that over the past few decades. But the theology is pretty solid, in my opinion. That's why I am a Catholic. But we need, you know, some kind of tempering of the evil that we see every day. And the totalitarians, you know, like the Chinese, they don't want the Catholic Church. Putin says he's an Orthodox, Russian Orthodox adherent, but he's not. He's a murderer. He's a killer. And Pope really can't do anything about those guys. If you read Killing the ss, you'll see what the Pope came up against when he tried to temper Hitler, okay? And it was impossible. These bad, evil people, they override the good people. But we still need to hear from the good people. And that's why the Pope's story is important. And, you know, if I find somebody denigrating my religion, I speak up. I don't let it go. And I know that we are a secular country. I'm not a holy roller. I don't proselytize on this program. I tell you, you know, who I am, what I do, why I believe what I believe. But I'm, you know, I'm optimistic that this Pope will be a positive force for humanity. And I think that's. That's what we need. Okay? And I'll have more on Monday as we delve into this. But I think it's a positive all around, even if you don't believe. All right, the Pope. So he invites the media in. All right? I understand worldwide media, which is not much better than the American media. The American media is as corrupt as it's ever been in the entire history of our country. And you know what? I've tried. How many times do I have to prove it? Okay, so the Pope invites everybody in at the Vatican's Nervi hall today and says this.
- [14:19]
Pope Francis
The church recognizes in these witnesses. I'm thinking of those who report on war, even at the cost of their lives. The courage of those who defend dignity, justice, and the right of people to be informed, because only informed individuals can make free choices.
- [14:42]
Bill O'Reilly
And it's true. That's why we do so well here. So our goal is to inform you honestly. Now, the Pope speaks English, but he was speaking in Italian, which I thought was a mistake because most of the media in the world, because of social media and the Internet, is English. I don't know why he speak in Italian for what most international reporters speak English, but that's nitpicking. But he's right. I mean, you know, we need an honest, vibrant media. And I've been in war zones. I've been at risk. And I did it to try to get you information.
- [15:23]
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