The last time a pope got involved in politics was when Pope Benedict XVI condemned Obama’s abortion stance in 2009.

Pope Francis comments that align the United States with some of the most oppressive nations in the world may have alienated many Catholics in America. Considering the number of Catholics in the world is declining, you would think that Pope Francis would have other priorities than to involve himself in issues that could further alienate more people from the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Thursday that the United States of America—and Russia, China, North Korea and Bashar al Assad’s Syria—have “a distorted vision of the world”–(“una visione distorta del mondo,” as reported in Italian by La Repubblica).

The pope made the observation in an interview with La Repubblica reporter Eugenio Scalfari.

“Last Thursday, I got a call from Pope Francis,” Scalfari reported. “It was about noon, and I was at the newspaper when my phone rang.”

He said the pope wanted to see him at four that afternoon, according to a Google translation of the Italian report.

“Pope Francis told me to be very concerned about the meeting of the G20,” Scalfari wrote.

“I am afraid there are very dangerous alliances between powers who have a distorted view of the world: America and Russia, China and North Korea, Russia and Assad in the war in Syria,” the pope said. –CSNNews