The Catholic world is mourning the loss of the humble pope whose liberal views challenged tradition.
Pope Francis, the first pope of Latin America, died hours after his final public appearance on Easter Sunday, aged 88.
World leaders touched Rome’s spoil to attend his funeral, among them the President of the US, Donald trump, and his wife, Melania Trump.
During their first term at the White House, the Trumps met Pope Francis, and according to many, the meeting was a bit “awkward” to say the least.
Even before the visit took place, Trump had shared his opinion on the pope on several occasions. Namely, a day after he was selected a pope, Francis returned to the front desk of his hotel in Rome to personally settle his bill, which many agreed was just another sign of his humbleness and modesty.
However, Trump wasn’t among them. In fact, he criticized Pope Francis’ action, writing, “I don’t like seeing the Pope standing at the checkout counter (front desk) of a hotel in order to pay his bill. It’s not Pope-like!”
When Trump decided to build the Mexico wall, the pope took a stand and said, “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel.”
Trump commented on the pope’s statement and dubbed it “disgraceful.”
Despite this, Donald Trump and Melania visited the Vatican in 2017 and met Pope Francis.
Melania Trump, who is of Slovenian descent and whose mother tongue is Slovenian, told MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski during her husband’s first presidential campaign that she spoke several languages. While we are all aware she’s fluent in English, Melania claimed she also spoke Italian, French, and German, besides English and Slovenian.
However, no one has ever heard her speak any Italian, German, or French. What’s most, during occasions when she has meetings with people from the respective countries, she always has translators by her side.
When she met with the pope, he asked her in Italian if she fed her husband a special Slovenian cake called potica. Melania didn’t understand right away and turned to her translator who explained the question. She then said, “Potica, yes.”
Mary Jordan, author and Washington Post reporter, revealed in the 2020 unauthorized biography about Melania, The Art of Her Deal, that the pope was told about Melania’s knowledge of Italian before the meeting.
When he extended his hand to her, Melania said, “Thank you. Nice to meet you,” in English. Pope Francis, however, answered in Italian.
“She looked at him and said nothing,” Jordan wrote in The Art of Her Deal.
However, it was obvious Melania was familiar with some of the Italian words Pope Francis uttered, despite answering in English. Asked by the pope where they were off to next, the First Lady replied, “I’m going to visit a hospital, for bambinos. Thank you so much.”
The question is whether Melania can truly speak Italian or not. If not, then why would she say she could. Maybe to polish her image as a First Lady.
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