Pope backs George Floyd protests and hits out at virus sceptics

POPE Francis is supporting demands for racial justice in the wake of the United States police killing of George Floyd and has blasted Covid-19 sceptics and the media that spread their conspiracies in a new book penned during the Vatican’s coronavirus lockdown.

In Let Us Dream, Francis also criticises populist politicians who whip up rallies in ways reminiscent of the 1930s, and the hypocrisy of “rigid” conservative Catholics who support them.

However, he also criticises the forceful downing of historic statues during protests for racial equality this year as a misguided attempt to “purify the past”.

The 150-page book, due out on December 1, was ghost-written by biographer, Austen Ivereigh, and at times the prose and emphasis seems almost more Ivereigh’s than Francis’.

At its core, Let Us Dream aims to outline the Pope’s vision of a more economically and environmentally just post-coronavirus world where the poor, the elderly and weak are not left on the margins and the wealthy are not consumed only with profits.

It also offers new personal insights into the 83-year-old Argentinian and his sense of humour. At one point, Francis reveals that, after he offered in 2012 to retire as archbishop of Buenos Aires when he turned 75, he planned to finally finish the thesis he never completed on the 20th-century German intellectual, Romano Guardini. “But in March 2013, I was transferred to another diocese,” he deadpans.

Francis was made Pope that month. The book’s publisher have said the book is the first written by a pope during a major world crisis.