The death of Pope Francis provided the liberals of CBS News ample opportunity to boast about the liberal polices the pontiff promoted while also giving them a foil against President Trump’s staunch stance against illegal immigration. In their break-in and CBS Mornings newscast, the network spent a lot of their Monday morning boasting about how Francis “try[ed] to make the Catholic Church more inclusive” and stood in opposition to Trump.
CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell was brought on repeatedly since she had been the first American broadcast journalist to interview Pope Francis. It was during their breaking news bulletin that O’Donnell first proclaimed that Francis “had changed the tune but not the lyrics of the church;” a line that would become tired and played out because of how many times she and the rest of the cast uttered it (eight times).
“In other words, a lot of church doctrine did not change, but he did try to make the Catholic Church more inclusive, whether it was his message about gays or sex unions to while he is not allowing women to become priests or deacons, he did appoint two women to a high offices within the Vatican managerial offices. That is a step forward,” she touted.
CBC Mornings co-anchor Tony Dokoupil took enjoyment in how Francis made “changes to refocus the church on different part of the Catholic experience” and “distressed” conservatives in the process:
And then in his role as pope, medicine, it would seem for the church as well those changes to refocus the church on different parts of the Catholic experience. Sometimes it was something that cheered liberals and distressed more conservative members of the church. But as you point out, there was a change in the tune but not in the doctrine. And I think that continues as I understand it in the plans now for the pope’s funeral.
On that point about the plans for his funeral, O’Donnell flaunted her ignorance about Catholicism by suggesting that Catholics didn’t revere St. Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, and touted his planned burial at the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major as a way to draw much needed attention to her:
And so he will be buried there. And again, I think it’s just like you said, how the pope has tried to do things differently to break with the centuries old tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and to bring attention whether it is to the marginalized and the poor or in this case where he will be buried to Mary, a saint that he of course and the blessed virgin mother and to bring attention to her teachings and what she represents for the Catholic Church.
During the CBS Mornings segment on the Pope’s passing, correspondent Chris Livesay noted that Vice President J.D. Vance was one of the last people to meet with Francis and how they “clashed” on the issue of “border security”:
LIVESAY: Earlier Sunday, Francis very briefly met with Vice President J.D. Vance, a vocal catholic.
VANCE: So good to see you.
LIVESAY: Vance’s strict views on border security had clashed with Pope Francis, the world’s most vocal champion of migrants.
VANCE: I know you’ve not been feeling great, but it’s good to see you in better health.
LIVESAY: It will go down in history as one of the Pope’s last meetings. The Pope, struggling to speak for long periods, used an aide to deliver one of his final messages: a condemnation of policies that stir up contempt for the vulnerable, the marginalized, and the migrants.
O’Donnell was trotted out again during CBS Mornings to further compliment Francis for changing the “tune” of the church. “So, do you think that made him controversial? Because a lot of people thought that he was more inclusive than many of his predecessors,” co-anchor Gayle King teed her up:
That is true, Gayle. I mean, Pope Francis was a lightning rod on a number of these issues, but he was also trying to make the Catholic Church more inclusive. You know, there are about 1.4 billion people around the world that say they are Catholic, about 20 percent of Americans associate with the Catholic faith. But yes, on many of these issues, it caused controversy. But I think at the end of the day, as scholars and those who have studied this church, will say, you know, he changed the tune of the Catholic Church, but not the lyrics.
Toward the end of the segment, O’Donnell noted that “modesty” was “the hallmark of his papacy” and linked it to “why the Holy Father spent so much time talking about migrants during his papacy.”
She also recalled Francis’s worry of “the globalization of indifference” and tied it to Trump and hyped their opposition: “He asked people to think about why migrants leave their home: they are fleeing war, injustice, poverty. And so that is why it’s led him to clash with the current administration, but also I think will be one of his defining moments.”
Is there nothing the liberal media would wedge Trump into?
The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:
CBS Mornings
April 21, 2025
6:05:54 a.m. Eastern(…)
NORAH O’DONNELL: Now, as what his legacy will be. We asked him about that in our interview and he said he hadn’t thought much about it. He hopes the legacy is the church in his words. But I think in many of the papal scholars that we have spoken to recently, and just over ear ago, they noted that he had changed the tune but not the lyrics of the church.
Do you understand what I mean? In other words, a lot of church doctrine did not change, but he did try to make the Catholic Church more inclusive, whether it was his message about gays or sex unions to while he is not allowing women to become priests or deacons, he did appoint two women to a high offices within the Vatican managerial offices. That is a step forward.
(…)
6:07:17 a.m. Eastern
TONY DOKOUPIL: One of my favorite anecdotes that I’ve come across this morning, something that’s going around is a story of the Pope as he tells his mother in the back in the 1960s that he wants to go into the priesthood and she says, ‘please, I would suggest you study medicine instead.’ And he tells her as the story goes, ‘I’m studying the medicine of the soul.’
And then in his role as pope, medicine, it would seem for the church as well those changes to refocus the church on different parts of the Catholic experience. Sometimes it was something that cheered liberals and distressed more conservative members of the church. But as you point out, there was a change in the tune but not in the doctrine. And I think that continues as I understand it in the plans now for the pope’s funeral.
(…)
6:09:12 a.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: He is going to be buried at the church of St. Mary Major not inside the Vatican, which is highly unusual. This is the church where he will be buried is the largest Marian church in all of Rome.
I was just there a couple of weeks ago. It is actually the church where Pope Francis goes to pray before and after every single international trip that he does. So he has been there more than a hundred times. And the reason – it’s a really beautiful church – and the reason that he goes there once again is to bring the focus to Mary the blessed virgin mother.
This is a picture of him there pray right before this really beautiful picture of the Virgin Mary.
And so he will be buried there. And again, I think it’s just like you said, how the pope has tried to do things differently to break with the centuries old tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and to bring attention whether it is to the marginalized and the poor or in this case where he will be buried to Mary, a saint that he of course and the blessed virgin mother and to bring attention to her teachings and what she represents for the Catholic Church.
(…)
7:02:38 a.m. Eastern
(…)
CHRIS LIVESAY: Earlier Sunday, Francis very briefly met with Vice President J.D. Vance, a vocal catholic.
VP J.D. VANCE: So good to see you.
LIVESAY: Vance’s strict views on border security had clashed with Pope Francis, the world’s most vocal champion of migrants.
VANCE: I know you’ve not been feeling great, but it’s good to see you in better health.
LIVESAY: It will go down in history as one of the Pope’s last meetings.
The Pope, struggling to speak for long periods, used an aide to deliver one of his final messages: a condemnation of policies that stir up contempt for the vulnerable, the marginalized, and the migrants.
(…)
7:07:23 a.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: He’d become one of the most popular public figures in the world, regularly speaking up for the voiceless, and leading example. Whether dining with the homeless, washing prisoners’ feet, or providing a home in Italy for migrants and refugees fleeing lands torn by war or economic instability.
He was a tireless advocate for the rights of migrants, even taking the rare step of delving into a nation’s politics when he criticized the Trump administration’s plans to deport millions, saying it violated human dignity.
The Holy Father pushed for progress in combating climate change, projecting imagery of the crisis on the front of St. Peter’s Basilica and becoming the first pope to issue official Vatican documents on the topic. He reformed the Curia, the central administration of the church, appointing laymen and women to run Vatican offices, positions historically reserved for cardinals and bishops.
(…)
7:10:22 a.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: While he may have received widespread credit for changing the tune of the church, as one Vatican reporter puts it, the lyrics remain the same. Despite drawing fire from church conservatives for being too liberal, he reaffirmed church doctrine opposing gay marriage but allowed those in a same-sex union to be blessed. The Catholic rules for pretty much everything from birth control to ordaining women were unchanged.
(…)
7:12:57 a.m. Eastern
GAYLE KING: As you said in your piece, he was a pope who made big changes to the papacy. So, do you think that made him controversial? Because a lot of people thought that he was more inclusive than many of his predecessors.
O’DONNELL: That is true, Gayle. I mean, Pope Francis was a lightning rod on a number of these issues, but he was also trying to make the Catholic Church more inclusive.
You know, there are about 1.4 billion people around the world that say they are Catholic, about 20 percent of Americans associate with the Catholic faith.
But yes, on many of these issues, it caused controversy. But I think at the end of the day, as scholars and those who have studied this church, will say, you know, he changed the tune of the Catholic Church, but not the lyrics. But there’s still much to say about his legacy because many of the cardinals that will gather soon in this conclave were appointed by Pope Francis, and they are to, in his model and in his image in some ways, embrace many of the same things. So, they are to carry on his legacy. And we’ll see how much of the church continues to open its heart as Pope Francis told me.
(…)
7:15:22 a.m. Eastern
O’DONNELL: [Modesty] and that has been the hallmark of his papacy. And that’s in part why the Holy Father spent so much time talking about migrants during his papacy. Because he talked about the globalization of indifference. He asked people to think about why migrants leave their home: they are fleeing war, injustice, poverty. And so that is why it’s led him to clash with the current administration, but also I think will be one of his defining moments.
(…)
