Evo Morales tried to give Pope Francis a crucifix shaped like a hammer and sickle. He refused the gift.
While traveling in South America this week, Pope Francis was offered a hammer-and-sickle crucifix by Bolivian President Evo Morales — but he declined to accept it.
"No está bien eso," the pope reportedly responded, meaning "that's not right."
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Morales pressed on despite the pope's rejection, successfully draping a hammer-and-sickle medallion around the pope's neck.
The communist crucifix was a reproduction of one created by Fr. Luis Espinal Camps, a Jesuit missionary, journalist, and activist in Bolivia who was murdered in 1980. Despite his refusal of the crucifix, the pope stopped to pray at the site where Espinal's body was found.
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