Pope says the deniers would never have spoken out against George Floyd’s death

Pope Francis, in a book published this Monday, criticized opponents for the use of masks or other restrictions imposed to contain the covid-19 pandemic, noting that they would never speak out against the death of African American George Floyd.

“Some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, speaking out against travel restrictions – as if the measures that governments should impose for the good of their people constituted a kind of political attack on individual freedom,” laments the Pope in ” Un temps pour changer “, a book of interviews that will be published in French on 2 December by the French publisher Flammarion.

Francisco protests especially those who say they are forced to wear a mask, an obligation defined as “an abuse of state power”, without ever worrying about those who have lost their jobs or do not have social security.

“These people will never be seen protesting the death of George Floyd (…) They cannot leave their little world of interests,” adds the pope, of Argentine nationality.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, died May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a white cop kneeled him around his neck for about eight minutes in an arrest operation, although Floyd said he couldn’t breathe.

Since the images were posted on social networks, protests against police violence and racism have followed in dozens of American cities, some of which have been looted, as well as in other parts of the world.

The pope, very committed to the defense of minorities, at the time considered all forms of racism “intolerable”.

The deniers will intervene neither “against the favelas, where children lack water and education”, nor for “the enormous sums invested in the arms trade to serve to feed the entire human race and educate all children”, considers Francisco in the book.

Pope Francis, 83, also criticized at length, without naming them, governments “who ignored the painful evidence of the increase in deaths with inevitable and serious consequences” in favor of the economy.

However, he admits that most governments “have acted responsibly, imposing strict measures to contain the epidemic.”

In his new work, written with British journalist Austen Ivereigh, the pope also opposes the destruction of statues of historical figures associated, in particular, with slavery or other forms of oppression.

“For there to be a true story, there must be a memory, which requires us to recognize the paths we have already taken, even if shameful. The ignominy of our past, in other words, is part of who we are and what we are. we are. I remember this story, not to praise the oppressors of yore, but to honor the testimony and greatness of those they oppressed, “he adds.