WikiLeaks’ CIA dump makes the Russian hacking story even murkier — if that’s possible

Sunday, Mar 12, 2017 06:00 AM EDT

WikiLeaks' new trove suggests the CIA could easily fake a Russian hack. It's no smoking gun, but it's disturbing Danielle Ryan

Enlarge(Credit: AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth/Reuters/Lucas Jackson/Salon/Mireia Triguero Roura)


Russia hacked the election. Russia didn’t hack the election. Russia sort of, maybe, possibly hacked the election.


Is your head spinning from this story yet?

The latest WikiLeaks disclosures concerning the CIA’s hacking abilities has further complicated the hall of mirrors that is the Russian hacking story. The “Vault 7″ leaks are believed to be authentic and reveal a few uncomfortable truths about the overreach of U.S. intelligence agencies.

Reactions to the leaks have varied from those who think they could be more significant than the Edward Snowden revelations to those who think it’s all a bit of a non-story. Basically, it’s a pretty clear split between those who regard WikiLeaks’ editor Julian Assange as a trustworthy whistleblower and those who regard him as a tool of the Kremlin.

Among other things, the leaks revealed that the U.S. government is essentially paying out to exploit the vulnerabilities in software without telling companies and, disturbingly, that they could be using your iPhone or Samsung TV as a microphone — even when it’s supposedly switched off.

One of the most interesting disclosures concerns how the CIA can cover its tracks by leaving electronic trails suggesting the hacking is being done in different places — notably, in Russia. In fact, according to WikiLeaks, there’s an entire department dedicated to this. Its job is to “misdirect attribution” by leaving false fingerprints. If you’ve been at all skeptical about the recent levels of Russia-related hysteria, promoted heavily by U.S. intelligence agencies, alarm bells are probably going off in your head.

Keeping these tactics in mind, the evidence presented to prove that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee in an effort to throw the presidential election to Donald Trump becomes flimsier than it was before. And it was pretty flimsy to begin with.

Recall, for example, that cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike conveniently concluded within one day that the Russian government was behind the attack on the DNC servers. I say conveniently, because the DNC paid for CrowdStrike’s services — and it’s fair to say the DNC had an unhealthy fixation on all things Russia for the duration of the election cycle.

The evidence provided by CrowdStrike included the fact that malware found on DNC servers was the same as malware believed to be used by Russian intelligence units, that metadata files included information in Cyrillic text, and that emails had been sent using the Russian email service Yandex. In other words, it was nothing the CIA couldn’t have done itself in order to “misdirect attribution.” What’s more, CrowdStrike actually admitted that it deliberately left out evidence that didn’t support its claims that Russia was responsible.

FireEye, a competitor of CrowdStrike, made similar claims on thin evidence. The hackers, they explained, “appeared to cease operations on Russian holidays, and their work hours seem to align with the UTC +3 time zone, which contains cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg.”

In a thorough and thought-provoking piece on Russian hacking, investigative journalist Yasha Levine picks this “evidence” apart:

Bird flu outbreaks still a potential threat

By Guest Columnist Email the author

Published 3:34 pm Saturday, March 11, 2017
fergusfallsjournal.com | March 12, 2017



Column: Guest column

By David Bly

Last week, when we heard the news that a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza had been detected in chickens in Tennessee and then this week that a less pathogenic strain had been detected in Wisconsin, my mind immediately turned to the devastation Minnesota’s turkey producers saw in 2015.

These news reports bring anxiety to poultry farmers and legislators as we remember the 2015 outbreak here in Minnesota that cost more than $650 million, 100 farms their livelihood, and the forced destruction of millions of birds.

The outbreaks in Tennessee and Wisconsin show that bird flu is still active and still a potential threat. In 2015, I authored legislation to provide an immediate response to the avian influenza outbreak. We’re still prepared to meet the threat of an outbreak, but there have been troubling attempts to take funds from preparedness efforts and use them for other purposes, such as tax cuts. We cannot allow that to happen when an outbreak could happen at any time.

Carol Cardona, University of Minnesota avian influenza expert, reports that, “We’ve seen evidence, in a bird in Alaska and one in Montana that the 2015 virus is still out there. So I know our poultry producers are on extreme alert right now.”

The outbreak in Tennessee was the most dangerous category of bird flu, it is reported that it most likely started as a low pathogenic virus and evolved into the deadly, highly pathogenic form. Viruses are known to change quickly in environments like feedlots. In this case more than 70,000 chickens were destroyed to limit the risk of spreading the disease.

Although the 2015 virus hasn’t shown up in a poultry flock recently, tests in the last six months did find the bug in wild ducks in the U.S. This has been a year of elevated bird flu activity around the globe. Europe and Asia have been hard hit, with more than a hundred people in China dying from avian flu infections.

In terms of an economic contribution to the state of Minnesota — agriculture pumps $95 billion dollars annually into Minnesota’s economy. The 2015 outbreak was the largest animal disease outbreak ever in the U.S. It’s important to note that Minnesota first responded to this crisis with a trained incident management team from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. When the outbreak worsened, USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service and a number of other state and federal agencies stepped up to help eradicate this highly contagious disease. Throughout the five month response, the MDA employees alone contributed 18,000 hours to the effort.

Protecting our state’s agriculture sector from devastating threats and working to quickly minimize them when they do strike should be top of mind for all of us in St. Paul. Incident responders need to be ready to move at a moment’s notice and having resources available before emergencies occur are a better guarantee that our response will be quick and effective.

Following the 2015 outbreak, the legislature established the Agricultural Emergency Account to address this need and create a fund for future outbreaks. There’s concern that as some legislators look to fund tax cuts they will look for places to find funds and may do away with the account and use the funds for other purposes. We know the economic toll avian influenza had on our state in 2015. And that’s just one disease that struck the poultry industry.

There are numerous animal diseases and other threats that could strike any part of our agriculture industry at any time without warning. Instead of worrying if we’ll have the resources to immediately address a new emergency, let’s stay prepared. Agriculture touches every Minnesotan every day.

We need to remember our top place in the breadbasket and do what we can to ensure the success of agriculture in Minnesota.

Rep. David Bly (DFL-Northfield) is the DFL — Lead on the Agriculture Policy Committee.

© 2017, The Fergus Falls Daily Journal

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Jesuit Attack On SDA Hymnbook - Evan Sadler

Prophetic Fulfillment! The Beast of the Sea is Rising!

Pope to meet with most powerful European leaders on March 24

2017-03-03


On March 24 a historic meeting will take place between the pope and many of the most powerful heads of government throughout Europe.


The meeting was announced by the Director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Greg Burke and will begin at 6 p.m. in the Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.


The participants will convene in Rome to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

In May 2016, Pope Francis recently spoke about his "European Project” stating, "I dream of a Europe that promotes and protects the rights of everyone, without neglecting its duties towards all. I dream of a Europe of which it will not be said that its commitment to human rights was its last utopia.”

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Global Jesuit leader says women's inclusion in church structures 'has not yet arrived'

Kerry Alys Robinson, left, and Social Service Sr. Simone Campbell speak during the Voices of Faith gathering March 8 at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Massimiliano Migliorato, Catholic Press Photo)

Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 9, 2017



The new leader of the global Jesuit order has said the Catholic church should recognize that women are still not allowed to have a full participatory role in the church's structures.

Jesuit Fr. Arturo Sosa Abascal, a Venezuelan who was elected the superior general of the Society of Jesus in October, said March 8 that while Pope Francis has acknowledged that women play a "fundamental role" in passing on the faith they are not yet fully included in church governance.

"Pope Francis has been quite outspoken about women making decisions and holding responsibility in the church," said Sosa, speaking at the annual Voices of Faith event for International Women's Day at the Vatican's Casina Pio IV.

"He has also created a study commission on the women's diaconate to explore the history and role of women in this church structure," Sosa continued. "But if we are honest, we acknowledge that the fullness of women's participation in the church has not yet arrived."

"That inclusion … remains stymied in many forms," said the priest, calling for a new type of ecclesiology — or theology of the structures of the church — that "should push the church to become the People of God as we proclaimed [in] the Second Vatican Council."

Pope Francis Exposed Quietly Letting Pedophile Priests Off With Little or No Punishment

by Matt Agorist
February 25, 2017

from TheFreeThoughtProject Website


Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state.

Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project.

Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter and now on Steemit



  In 2014, Pope Francis admitted that "about two percent" or 1 in 50 Roman Catholic priests are pedophiles.

He then promised solutions to the history of the church essentially condoning the horrid practice. However, it appears that his solution is to sweep it under the rug.

According to a report out of the AP, Pope Francis has quietly reduced sanctions against a handful of pedophile priests, applying his vision of a merciful church even to its worst offenders in ways that survivors of abuse and the pope's own advisers question.

One of the child molesting priests given clemency by the Pope was later arrested and sentenced to more than four years in jail for abusing multiple boys aged 12-16.

The Rev. Mauro Inzoli is now facing a second church trial after new evidence emerged against him, according to the AP.

It is no secret that the Vatican has been sweeping the issue of pedophilia under the rug for many years. In 2014, the UN issued a scathing report, blasting the Vatican for protecting pedophiles.

The U.N. committee's main human rights investigator, Sara Oviedo, led the most intense grilling the Holy See has received on the issue, according to a report by The Associated Press.

Given the "zero tolerance" policy of the Vatican, she asked, why were there "efforts to cover up and obscure these types of cases?"


Another committee member, psychologist Maria Rita Parsi, added:


"If these events continue to be hidden and covered up, to what extent will children be affected?"

One such event that was covered up by the Vatican and the Western media at large was the reverend Gino Flaim, who claimed to "understand pedophilia" and said it's caused by the child's attempt to find affection.

He told Italy's La7 television channel,


"I've been to lots of schools, and I know children.

Unfortunately, there are children who seek affection because they don't receive it at home and I understand that some priests can give up.

Pedophilia is a sin, and like all sins has to be accepted."

When the interviewer asked Flaim,


"So, you actually mean that most of the time it's because of the kid's fault?"

Flaim responded by saying,


"Yes, most of the time."

After condoning pedophilia and blaming it on the child, this 'holy man' went on to bash homosexuality, calling it a "disease."




Many canon lawyers and church authorities argue that defrocking pedophiles can put society at greater risk because the church no longer exerts any control over them.

They argue that keeping the men in restricted ministry, away from children, at least enables superiors to exert some degree of supervision.

However, as the case of Rev. Mauro Inzoli illustrates, these people need to be locked up.

In November, an Italian criminal judge showed little mercy in convicting Inzoli of abusing five children, aged 12-16, and sentencing him to four years, nine months in prison.

The judge said Inzoli had a number of other victims but their cases fell outside the statute of limitations, according to the AP.

With pedophilia scandals rocking the elite right now, is it that surprising to learn that the Pope is attempting to downplay the church's role in the horrific practice?

As the AP reports, Francis scrapped the commission's proposed tribunal for bishops who botch abuse cases following legal objections from the congregation.

The commission's other major initiative - a guideline template to help dioceses develop policies to fight abuse and safeguard children - is gathering dust.

The Vatican never sent the template to bishops' conferences, as the commission had sought, or even linked it to its main abuse-resource website.

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ProphesyAgainTV Live Stream

RIOTS REFUGEES AND PROTESTANTISM: A RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Jesuit general calls for new ecclesiology to promote women's inclusion : News Headlines | Catholic Culture

Jesuit general calls for new ecclesiology to promote women's inclusion : News Headlines | Catholic Culture

#Vault7 Problem Reaction Solution - #NewWorldNextWeek

CIA 'Weeping Angel' program can hack smart TVs, WikiLeaks says

BY CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Updated: Wednesday, March 8, 2017, 1:31 AM

Unverified WikiLeaks documents show the CIA working on hacking smart TVs. (DAVID BECKER/GETTY IMAGES)

You watch TV — but your TV could also be capable of spying on you.

A trove of documents released Tuesday by WikiLeaks claim that a CIA surveillance program can target everyday electronic gadgets — including smart TVs, smartphones and even cars.

The spy program can snoop on unsuspecting Americans, WikiLeaks says, by turning the gadgets into recording devices that can capture conversations.

The agency’s “Weeping Angel” program — believed to be developed along with British agency MI5 — allegedly captured audio, but not video, after the Samsung smart TVs were compromised.

WikiLeaks releases thousands of alleged CIA hacking documents

Why Catholics thrive in the CIA

by Robert Wargas 

posted Thursday, 5 May 2016

Three out of the last five directors of the intelligence service have been Catholic (Photo: AP)


The agency has been dubbed ‘Catholics In Action’ because the faithful have occupied so many senior positions. But could their dominance be weakening?

Just a few days before Christmas 1988, terrorists blew up Pan American Flight 103 as it passed over Lockerbie, not long after leaving Heathrow. One of the 259 murdered onboard was Matthew Gannon. The eighth child of devout Catholic parents, Gannon had joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1977, becoming a skilled operations officer and linguist.

Women’s March organizers proposing ‘A Day Without a Woman’

By Associated Press

Published: March 7, 2017, 10:14 am





PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Organizers of the January Women’s March are calling for women to take the day off and encouraging them not to spend money Wednesday to show their economic strength and impact on American society.

“A Day Without a Woman” is the first national action by organizers since the nationwide marches held the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration that drew millions of women into the streets in protest against misogyny, inequality and oppression.

Wednesday’s event coincides with the U.N.-designated International Women’s Day, and organizers say they want to “stand with women around the globe” who supported their efforts Jan. 21 with similar protests in cities around the world.

Spokeswoman Cassady Findlay said organizers were inspired by the recent “Day Without an Immigrant” protests held last month. She said the action is aimed at highlighting the effect of women on the country’s socioeconomics system and demonstrating how women’s paid and unpaid work keeps households, communities and economies running.

“We do all of this and get paid less than men, get sexually harassed, get inadequate family leave,” Findlay said. “We provide all this value and keep the system going, and receive unequal benefits from it.”

Unlike the Women’s March, Wednesday’s protest focuses on the absence of women, who are being steered to local rallies and community groups and away from work or shopping in stores or online. Organizers also are asking women to wear red to signify love and sacrifice.

It is unclear how many women could participate in the action. More than a million people, mostly women, turned out nationwide for the Women’s March. School districts including Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools in North Carolina, have canceled classes in anticipation of employee participation.

Some businesses have said they will either close or give female employees the day off. The event website provides templates for “out of office” emails, and an employer letter. The site had more than a half-million visitors, and more than 60,000 had clicked on the letter template Tuesday afternoon.

Organizers pointed out that only a fourth of participants in the Women’s March signed up in advance to participate.

The role of women in American society is significant. According to the U.S. Census, women make up more than 47 percent of the workforce and are dominant in such professions as registered nurses, dental assistants, cashiers, accountants and pharmacists. They make up at least a third of physicians and surgeons, as well as lawyers and judges. Women also represent 55 percent of all college students.

Still, American women continue to be paid less than men, earning 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. The median income for women was $40,742 in 2015, compared with $51,212 for men, according to census data.

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Pope Francis and the Curia depart Rome to begin spiritual exercises

The Enemy Unmasked - Pastor Bill Hughes

Mark of the beast: Vatican's Sunday law will be enforced soon! (18)

Malzberg | Klayman Going to Court to get FISA Warrant Records

WikiLeaks says it has exposed the CIA's hacking operations. Here's what we know now

USA Today Network Sean Rossman , USA TODAY

Published 12:35 p.m. ET March 7, 2017 | Updated 29 minutes ago







Newly released documents by Wikileaks shows the CIA used software to hack everyday devices. Veuer's Nick Cardona has the story. Buzz60



Tough agency, soft skin: The lobby of CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.(Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)

WikiLeaks, known for its high-profile releases of confidential government information, has published a trove of documents it says exposes the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's hacking operations.

In a statement, the CIA declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents, which they described as "purported."

Security experts, however, are concerned, with one expert saying that it is a possible sign that the spy agency has "lost control" over its cyber arsenal.

Here's what we know so far.

What do the documents claim to reveal?

WikiLeaks says the documents have details about the size and scope of the CIA's hacking capabilities. The agency's hacking division had more than 5,000 users and produced more than a thousand trojans, viruses and "weaponized" malware, WikiLeaks said in a statement on its website.


The hacking program laid out in the documents had the ability to tap into iPhones, Google Android phones, Microsoft Windows operating systems and Samsung smart televisions, which can act as microphones. WikiLeaks said the agency could place smart TVs into "fake-off" mode, which allowed the agency to record conversations when the TV was seemingly off. The information, WikiLeaks said, would then be sent to "a covert CIA server."

"The CIA had created, in effect, its 'own NSA' with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified," WikiLeaks said in a statement on its website.
Was anyone hacked with these tools in the U.S.?

Legally speaking, these cyber-snooping weapons can’t be used against U.S. citizens by the CIA within the United States without the permission of legal authorities, and we currently have no information at this point that they were. The agency can, however, legally use the tools abroad as constitutional limitations don’t apply outside U.S. borders.

If they were used domestically, it would need to have been done by the FBI, not the CIA. The domestic authority of the CIA is extraordinarily limited, said Robert Cattanach, a partner at the law firm Dorsey & Whitney.

“The only thing they can do is debrief people that have been overseas. They have no authority and in fact are forbidden from conducting operations in the United States,” said Cattanach, who was previously a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice and also special counsel to the Secretary of the Navy.

These cyber weapons are also expensive and difficult-to-create, making it unlikely the CIA used them on ordinary citizens.

What is WikiLeaks?

WikiLeaks is a multi-national media organization and associated library, according to its website. It was founded by its publisher, Julian Assange, in 2006. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he has been accused of sexual assault, and the United States, where he fears possible espionage charges.

WikiLeaks has run a global campaign to expose government secrets through a series of controversial and sometimes embarrassing document dumps in recent years. One led to the imprisonment of Chelsea Manning, who has spent six years behind bars for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents through the WikiLeaks website.
This new data dump. Is it all true?

USA TODAY hasn't yet been able to verify the documents, which were released Tuesday. In a statement, the CIA declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents, which the agency described as "purported."

How many documents are there?

WikiLeaks says it has released thousands of documents, which it says are "the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the (CIA)."
How did WikiLeaks get the documents?

WikiLeaks did not unveil its source. However, the organization did say the CIA Center for Cyber Intelligence "lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal," which provided "the entire hacking capacity of the CIA."
Will there be an investigation?

Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of California, quickly called for an investigation by Congress in the wake of the release.

"The potential privacy concerns are mind-boggling," Lieu said. "We need to know if the CIA lost control of its hacking tools, who may have those tools, and how do we now protect the privacy of Americans."
What do security experts think?

Jake Williams of the Rendition Infosec security firm said hackers, and those who combat them, will put the documents to use in the coming days or weeks.

"This is a treasure trove of information," Williams said. "We are regularly dealing with corporations being attacked by nation-state hacking groups. This gives us a lot of insight into how they do it."

Scott Vernick of the law firm Fox Rothschild said if it was true, "then at a minimum this is Snowden 2.0," referring to the former government contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked details of U.S. surveillance programs to news outlets.

"You're talking about an extensive hacking and malware program by the most powerful and largest intelligence-gathering organization in the world, one that's purportedly lost control over the arsenal," said Vernick, who specializes in data security and privacy.
Pop culture references

The documents showed CIA developers' penchant for pop culture. They named programs and techniques after the television series Doctor Who as well as the films Talladega Nights and Fight Club.

The documents revealed the "fake-off" smart TV technique was named "Weeping Angel," a nod to a recurring group of villains in Doctor Who. An implant for computers running Microsoft Windows went by the name "RickyBobby," the character played by Will Ferrell in the 2006 film Talladega Nights. Fight Club was the name for a trojan spread by thumb drives.

Follow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman

John Bacon, Elizabeth Weise, Nick Penzenstadler and Eli Blumenthal contributed to this article.

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Francis and the revival of the Right

by Michael Davis
posted Thursday, 2 Mar 2017

Alternative für Deutschland’s Wiebke Muhsal, right, with colleague Björn Höcke


A year ago you would have been forgiven for thinking that, following a successful Brexit referendum, Ukip would begin its slow decline into obscurity. And you would have been quite wrong. “Ukip is a radical party, or it is nothing,” Nigel Farage wrote in the Daily Telegraph last week. His successor as leader, Paul Nuttall, will see to it that Ukip remains radical indeed. An advocate for stricter abortion laws, capital punishment and a burka ban, Nuttall is a sort of Tory’s Tory – a viable alternative for conservatives unimpressed by Cameronism.

But what really drives Nuttall? According to him, his Catholic faith. “On moral issues, we [Ukip], more than any other political party, are more in line with Catholic thought,” he declared back in 2015.

He’s far from an outlier. Radical right-wing movements are cropping up all over the Western world. And, almost to a man, they’re led by Catholics.

In the United States, there’s Stephen Bannon, former publisher of Breitbart and now White House chief strategist. Late last year Buzzfeed published a talk Bannon gave at the Vatican in 2014 in which he extolled an “enlightened”, “Judeo-Christian” capitalism against a “libertarian” capitalism that “looks to make people commodities, and to objectify people, and to use them”. The whole thing was lifted straight out of Catholic social teaching. (Think more Leo XIII than Francis.)

In France, it’s François Fillon, presidential candidate for Les Républicains. He sent shockwaves through the secular establishment when, during last year’s primary, he claimed a nearly two-to-one victory over his rival, Alain Juppé. Like Trump’s, Fillon’s victory was a huge upset. He won by reanimating catholiques zombies: non-practising Catholics who nevertheless hold strongly to the Church’s teachings on education, marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Even though Fillon is struggling now, his primary blowout was a startling reminder that France hasn’t entirely forgotten her place of pride as the Church’s eldest daughter.

Read more of the article @

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/magazine-post/francis-and-the-revival-of-the-right/

Could be truth to Trump's wiretapping allegation

Could be truth to Trump's wiretapping allegation

Fox News Journalist James Rosen Discusses His Experience Being Surveille...

The Straigh Testimony

I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver, and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this is what will cause a shaking among God's people.

I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded. The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the church hangs has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified. 

Early Writings, p.270.

Loretta Lynch calls for blood and death on the streets?

The Pope on Panhandling: Give Without Worry

Opinion

EDITORIAL

JULIANNA BRION

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
MARCH 3, 2017


New Yorkers, if not city dwellers everywhere, might acknowledge a debt to Pope Francis this week. He has offered a concrete, permanently useful prescription for dealing with panhandlers.

It’s this: Give them the money, and don’t worry about it.

The pope’s advice, from an interview with a Milan magazine published just before the beginning of Lent, is startlingly simple. It’s scripturally sound, yet possibly confounding, even subversive.

Living in the city — especially in metropolises where homelessness is an unsolved, unending crisis — means that at some point in your day, or week, a person seeming (or claiming) to be homeless, or suffering with a disability, will ask you for help.

You probably already have a panhandler policy.

You keep walking, or not. You give, or not. Loose coins, a dollar, or just a shake of the head. Your rule may be blanket, or case-by-case.

If it’s case by case, that means you have your own on-the-spot, individualized benefits program, with a bit of means-testing, mental health and character assessment, and criminal-background check — to the extent that any of this is possible from a second or two of looking someone up and down.

Francis’ solution eliminates that effort. But it is by no means effortless.

Speaking to the magazine Scarp de’ Tenis, which means Tennis Shoes, a monthly for and about the homeless and marginalized, the pope said that giving something to someone in need is “always right.” (We’re helped here by the translation in an article from Catholic News Service.)

But what if someone uses the money for, say, a glass of wine? (A perfectly Milanese question.) His answer: If “a glass of wine is the only happiness he has in life, that’s O.K. Instead, ask yourself, what do you do on the sly? What ‘happiness’ do you seek in secret?” Another way to look at it, he said, is to recognize how you are the “luckier” one, with a home, a spouse and children, and then ask why your responsibility to help should be pushed onto someone else.

Then he posed a greater challenge. He said the way of giving is as important as the gift. You should not simply drop a bill into a cup and walk away. You must stop, look the person in the eyes, and touch his or her hands.


The reason is to preserve dignity, to see another person not as a pathology or a social condition, but as a human, with a life whose value is equal to your own. This message runs through Francis’ preaching and writings, which always seem to turn on the practical and personal, often citing the people he met and served as a parish priest in Argentina.

His teaching on divorced and remarried Catholics has infuriated some conservative critics who accuse him, unfairly, of elevating compassion over doctrine. His recent statements on refugees and immigrants are the global version of his panhandler remarks — a rebuke aimed directly at the rich nations of Europe and at the United States.

America is in the middle of a raging argument over poor outcasts. The president speaks of building walls and repelling foreigners. That toxic mind-set can be opposed in Washington, but it can also be confronted on the sidewalk. You don’t know what that guy will do with your dollar. Maybe you’d disapprove of what he does. Maybe compassion is the right call.

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