Politics

Leaked Document Shows Soros Spent $650K To Influence Pope Francis On ‘Economic And Racial Justice Issues’

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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George Soros’s Open Society Foundations spent $650,000 in an effort to influence Pope Francis during his visit to the United States, a leaked document reveals.

The document is an agenda for a May 2015 New York meeting of the U.S programs division of the Open Society Foundations. It states that it had allocated $650,000 for a grant related to Pope Francis’ September 2015 visit to the United States. The group DC Leaks has released over 2,000 documents from groups associated with Soros.

“In order to seize this moment, we will support PICO’s organizing activities to engage the Pope on economic and racial justice issues, including using the influence of Cardinal Rodriguez, the Pope’s senior advisor, and sending a delegation to visit the Vatican in the spring or summer to allow him to hear directly from low-income Catholics in America,” the document states.

According to PICO’s website, “PICO is a national network of faith-based community organizations working to create innovative solutions to problems facing urban, suburban and rural communities.”

Cardinal Rodriguez, who hails from Honduras, has been described as Pope Francis’ best friend.

The document goes on to state, “The grant will also support FPL’s media, framing, and public opinion activities, including conducting a poll to demonstrate that Catholic voters are responsive to the Pope’s focus on income inequality, and earning media coverage that drives the message that being ‘pro-family’ requires addressing growing inequality.”

FPL stands for Faith in Public Life, the group describes itself as having “played an important role in changing the narrative about the role of faith in politics, winning major progressive policy victories, and empowering new religious leaders to fight for social justice and the common good.”

Their website states they carried out the functions of the Soros grant. “In preparation for the pope’s visit to the US, we commissioned extensive opinion research about how Catholics respond to the Pope’s prophetic messages and released the poll at the National Press Club,” FPL’s site states. “Throughout the trip, FPL coordinated messaging among numerous Catholic groups and did extensive media outreach.”

The Soros document goes on to state: “By harnessing the Papal visit to lift up the Pope’s searing critique of what he calls ‘an economy of exclusion and inequality’ and his dismissal of ‘trickle down’ theories, PICO and FPL will work to build a bridge to a larger conversation about bread-and-butter economic concerns and shift national paradigms and priorities in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign.”

Pope Francis, much like Soros, has been supportive of efforts to bring in refugees into Europe.