……and sometimes Popes can seem to be a bit more Marxist than Catholic.
The current Pope, Pope Francis, has managed to alienate socially conservative Catholics and others with his touchy-feely Left-wingery. Also by his championing of the alleged ‘refugees’, whilst never having to live with the problems that they cause, he has managed to annoy both Catholic and non-Catholic alike.
Now Pope Francis has firmly planted his feet in his mouth with his attack on Donald Trump. Trump called for the borders of the USA to be selectively closed in order to protect America from those who would do it harm. Pope Francis slammed Trump and said that he was ‘not a Christian’ because he wanted to defend the USA from foreign, and especially Islamic incursion.
Many words, both pro-Pope and anti-Pope have been said about this story including some who have pointed out that the Vatican one of the most difficult nations to which to emigrate and gain citizenship in. Some have also pointed out that the Vatican is surrounded by a wall built in order to protect the city-state from invasion and despoilment by the armies of Islam. Did I just hear someone say ‘take the plank from your own eye before talking about the speck in you brothers eye’? I’m sure I did you know.
However, some of the best and most piercing words about Pope Francis and his increasingly deluded political statements has come from the centre Right American publication ‘Front Page Magazine’. They described the current Pope as someone who had:
“……..thrown his lot in with anarchists, anti-nationalists, neo-communists, and the radical libertarians of the open-borders movement who cry that the existence of borders in themselves is fundamentally unjust. Christians and communists are the same, Francis has also said. Communists are closeted Christians who “have stolen our flag.” This pope has even formed political alliances with the community organizers of the activist Left in the U.S., Obama administration officials, and radical activists like Naomi Klein, a college dropout and Red diaper baby whose mother made documentaries about Rules for Radicals author Saul Alinsky.
Francis is preoccupied with radical left-wing ideology, not empirical facts.
Anyone with eyes knows that the proliferation of capitalism over the past two decades has lifted a billion people out of dire poverty — and in coming decades is projected to rescue another billion from pauperism — but Francis robotically slams global capitalism, or “globalization” as the Left calls it, foolishly blaming markets for poverty. Markets, not handouts, accomplish humanitarian feats that the Bishop of Rome’s church could never, ever hope to match.
Francis embraces liberation theology, which Shapiro calls “essentially a mashup of Christianity and Marxist redistributionism — a theology in which capitalists must be blamed for the world’s ills and then forced to absorb all of its problems.”
FPM’s words are a seriously harsh criticism of a Pontiff who has shown a profound lack of knowledge about ideologies such as Islam that are a threat to Christians, or any inclination to counter them. They also show that this Pope, unlike one of his predecessors Pope John Paul II, is intervening in politics not to promote freedom, as JP II did, but to promote enslavement to leftist ideology.
The Orthodox Jewish commentator, and very knowledgeable Biblical scholar Ben Shapiro, also drew unflattering comparisons between Pope Francis and the late Pope John Paul. Ben Shapiro said:
““All of this would appall Pope John Paul II, who said, ‘This conception of Christ as a political figure, a revolutionary, as the subversive of Nazareth does not tally with the church’s catechism.’ Pope Benedict XVI said liberation theology was a ‘singular heresy’ and ‘fundamental threat’ to the Catholic Church.”
The difference between Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II is startling. JPII stood up to Communism and was one of those singular historical figures such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher who knew that Leftism meant slavery and not freedom. I’ve no doubt that, especially in Poland, Pope John Paul II gave comfort to a people suffering under Communism and inspired them to shake off the shackles of this dire ideology. Pope Francis on the other hand has chosen Communistic and Socialistic paths and not rejected them. By aligning himself with the Left, this Pope has put himself in a position where he can be manipulated by Leftists. This is not good.
Some Popes, such as John Paul II, were able to reach an audience way beyond that of Roman Catholics, but he did this by standing his ground on key issues, and not by bending with the Leftist wind, as Pope Francis seems to be doing. Religious leaders should make pronouncements on the great moral issues of the day, even if these statements, as in JPII’s ones on abortion and contraception, are generally unpopular. Religious pronouncements help to inform debate on major issues but this Pope has not merely made an observation on a moral or spiritual aspect, he has directly intervened in American party politics during an election year. What is worse is that he has intervened on the side of an ideology that is as far from moral as a political current can get and which over the course of the 20th Century murdered approximately 100 million people.
This Pope doesn’t seem to be bringing different people together as JPII did, but is dividing people on matters of political ideology. This Pope also doesn’t seem to have any concept of how his interjections look to the wider world and the sight of an absolute monarch, as the Pope is, telling ordinary people to open their doors to those who may end up murdering them, will no doubt turn the stomachs of many.
Link
Front Page Magazine article on Pope Francis vs Donald Trump
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261885/pope-slimes-trump-agitates-open-borders-matthew-vadum
