Enemies Lay ‘Communist Jesus’ Trap for Francis!

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Wait a minute, Evo. Something's not right.

Wait a minute, Evo. Something’s not right.

In all that happens during these rough seas of FrancisChurch the most frightening is the disconnect between the balance of events and their interpretations from people you trust.  We look at our Church, the foundation of our lives and our souls and our hope for eternity, and we find before us a field of weeds and thistles. Thistles are impossible, and there are 32 of them in the Pope Francis news today but alas, there’s one daisy.  So now we must hear how we are in a field of daisies and those thistles exist mainly in our maladjusted, paranoid, angry and overwrought heads?

That’s the worst part of FrancisChurch.  It’s not the betrayals so much as the painful confusion they produce.  Don’t be fooled or denigrated.  Those are thistles out there and you’re not crazy.

Fr. Z sees a trap in the revealing photobomb of Pope Francis receiving an ugly Communist crucifix from his friend, the leftist dictator of Bolivia.

Don’t you think if Jesus felt is was necessary to be hung on a hammer and sickle He would have done so?  Is the cross not meaningful enough already the way it is?  Where did this ridiculous idea emerge to paste a Corpus onto Communism and call it Catholic?

A little tempest has been stirred around the “gifts” (aka traps) that Bolivian Pres. Morales gave to Pope Francis during his 4 hour stop in La Paz.

Morales, a socialist who dedicated his last election to Chavez and Castro, gave the Pope a “crucifix” in the form of a hammer and sickle as well as a small pectoral “cross” with the same design.

No, Jesus was not crucified on a hammer and sickle.  The hammer drove the nails and the sickle went through His heart.  Father reminds us that the thing almost looks like another over-modified cross, the swastika.  I’m sure the Devil likes this gift for the Pope (except for the Jesus part).

The Pope certainly has nice friends!  Oh, but they have some good things in common, yes?  There are daisies.  You know the common good, income equality, and the ‘just distribution of resources?’  It’s all part of the Catholic tradition, see.

Gifts at these meetings of heads of state are worked out ahead of time. So what gives with this?

Alas, the Pope put on the damn pectoral “cross” thing, which is a little hard to understand.  I have a theory about that, below, but only a persistent grilling of Fr. Lombardi has the potential of producing the authentic explanation.

In any event, and this is what we have to pay attention to, when the Pope saw the “crucifix” (much larger than the little pectoral “cross”) he said, “No está bien eso… That’s not right.”

I’m glad that happened and I agree with Francis.  It’s not right, Evo.  It’s jumping the shark to show the world a stupid crucifix like that while I’m making this monumental effort to convince them that Eco-Communism is Catholicism.  They’re not gonna buy that thing too!  Thanks for the Commie Christ necklace and the bag of coca leaves, but you’re screwing up here.  Give this back to me later.  (Except he seems to have accepted it.)

By the way, Fr. Longenecker has a theory why the press seems to be laying low while Francis trolls through banana republics on his full-bore Liberation Theology tour.  They figured out Francis is Catholic.  It finally happened.  They were wrong about him all along.  He was never really on their team.  Those bozos.  When are they going to coordinate with each other about these things in advance?  At least we can all relax now, right?

I’m learning so much about the Latin American Church.  It’s a Communist wreck.  You can get away with a ton of trouble if you don’t do it in English.

The conservative/traditional element are predictably blowing arteries at the sight of the Pope with these … things.  I, too, am disturbed.

Well, conservative traditional ‘element,’  though also disturbed Fr. Z is not one of you I suppose?  How did we become an element?  Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were simply ‘faithful?’

Maybe we’re not blowing arteries.  Maybe they’re being sliced.  Perhaps we’re just on the good end of those Beatitudes and emitting the occasional yelp.  Why the harassment from former friends just because of one temporary pseudo-Catholic post-abdication installation and all of its thistles?

Message To The Not-Really-Conservative-Anymore Catholic Literati: There’s Nothing Good Or Catholic About Liberalism And You Know It.  Decide Now In Your Heart.  Are You Liberal, or Are You Faithful?

After all, the hammer and sickle is a symbol of extermination of both human dignity and human beings numbering in tens of millions.  It is a symbol of oppression and degradation of billions that by far outstrips the swastika.

Some will counter, “But Father! But Father! The connection those noble yet humble proletariat crosses of mercy have with the Jesuit priest who was killed in the 1970s outweighs the …!” Blah blah blah.

Can you imagine anyone daring to put something like these into the hands of St. John Paul II?

Times have changed.

Another subtle and powerful Fr. Z point, but changing times don’t make the Church worse.  A worse Church makes changing times.  Father knows this.

Look at the photos and the video.  Francis is clearly unhappy when he saw the large version of what was on the smaller pectoral “cross”.

Could this have been a Pres. Bartlett moment, like the one with the flag of Taiwan?  In The West Wing, Bartlett mistakenly accepts a controversial Taiwanese flag which stirs a hornet’s nest with the PRC on the eve of a state visit.  Bartlett didn’t see the flag (why is another, not relevant, issue).  In this present Bolivian case, Francis might not have noticed the symbol on the small pectoral “cross”, but he reacts sharply – negatively – when he sees the larger version in wood.

I think that Morales move was sheer manipulation and political theater for his commie base in Bolivia.  it was a trap set for Francis to score points. Francis was polite in accepting this “gift/trap”, much as would a kind grandfather when given an inappropriate gift by an errant grandson.

I suspect that we haven’t heard the end of this one.  In the meantime, keep your cool and wait for additional information.

Keep cool and wait until the spin warms up.  This one caught us by surprise.

This is condescension.  Faithful Catholics need steadfast leaders, not insulting calls for calm in the face of attack.  We’re hearing the kinds of things you say to sheep you’re readying for slaughter.  This little daisy of the Pope’s ‘gentle reprimand’ to a Communist is nothing.

Answer these questions:

  • Why is the Pope meeting with Evo Morales?  Does he not know who he is?
  • Why is Pope Francis an apparent friend of Morales, having hosted him a few times, and praised his oppressive rule?
  • Why does the Pope receive a bag a coca leaves, drink coca tea, and honor a coca farmer like Morales?  Does he not know that in addition to bolstering an open Communist he’s also associating himself with the cocaine trade and its killers?
  • Why did the Pope tell Bolivians they have to work for the ‘common good,’ that riches should be distributed?  How do you do that without confiscating them first?
  • Why did Francis say Morales’ social reforms did a good job spreading the wealth around, and that prosperity isn’t material wealth? Why did the Pope spread an untruth?
  • Why did Francis tell the Ecuadoran bishops he laments how their predecessors, who defended the poor from ‘exploiters,’ were branded ‘communists?‘  Why did their fellow citizens call them that?  Because they were nice?  I guess it was just those ‘elites’ talking.
  • Is it possible that Francis’ friend, Evo, was correct to think Francis would like these gifts?  Why did Morales say things are different with Francis, that he helps the ‘liberation of our people?
  • Why did the Communist Morales praise, “My brother Francis, friend of the poor, the Church used to dominate, subjugate, and oppress but now we welcome it with joy?!”

Is all this just being thrown at Francis, while the hapless Vicar of Christ misses it in his naive innocence?  The same might have happened to Benedict, yes?

Finally,

  • Why did Francis stop, pray, and lay flowers at the murder site of Jesuit-Communist, Fr. Luis Espinal, who created that FrancisChurch crucifix, and didn’t know that, “that’s not right?”   Why does the Pope make such people ‘martyrs?’

I could go on but I don’t have to.  There’s will be another field of such daisies tomorrow in this time of mercy.

 

 

 

 

 

Get Out Your Notepad. FrancisChurch is a Font of New Truths

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No sinners here in this car!

No sinners here in this car!

The point of being Pope of FrancisChurch is to ‘make doctrine’ not defend it.  Isn’t that right?  Look at all the new things we keep learning to believe.  We have to go ‘ever forward’ and never return to the Ancient Mass.  We have to renounce ‘small minded rules and conditions that used to be Catholic but really were just spawn of Pharisees.  We have to make ‘the poor’ the center of the Gospel which actually makes no sense without the poor.  We should even kneel before the poor in Church!  (I’m sure they’ll find that uplifting.)

We must hate disunity, renounce war, believe Palestine is a country and in a brand new Cuba.  We have to think ISIS murderers decide who is a true Christian and believe arms makers are un-Christian hypocrites. My remarried father-in-law told my wife the other day that Pope Francis said we can all get divorced now if we want.  Why would he think that?  Most of all, among this font of new truths, it is important that we always remember to hate ‘inequality’ wherever it exists.

Today Pope Francis has gone even further and made an entirely new social justice.  From now, on Pope Francis says, we have no right to anything if it makes someone else’s pile unequal.  From this moment, if you’re not poor you’re a thief in FrancisChurch.  Good thing he rides in that Fiat.  But what about the driver?

Pope Francis on Tuesday (July 7) said protecting the planet was no longer a choice but a duty and called for a new “social justice” where access to the earth’s resources would be based on equality instead of economic interests.

I always cringe when I hear liberals use the word ‘access.’  They are so concerned about everyone’s access all the time.  I can’t access health care because they want me to pay the doctor!  I must access the earth’s resources so I can eat my cereal. Wait a minute.  How is it you have access to Kashi when I have to access these Raisin Bits?!

For people who love ‘access’ they sure like locking down classrooms and locking truth out of Vatican meetings.

In back-to-back speeches on the third day of his trip to Ecuador, the pope made his first full-court press on environmental issues since the publication last month of his landmark ecology encyclical “Laudato Si.”.

Speaking before a group that included indigenous people of the Equatorial Amazon, he also renewed his call for special protection for the area because of its vital importance to the planet’s ecosystem.

The pope has said he wanted the encyclical to influence a United Nations climate change summit in Paris in December and has now effectively taken his campaign to convince governments on the road. In September he takes his message to the United States and the United Nations.

“One thing is certain: we can no longer turn our backs on reality, on our brothers and sisters, on Mother Earth,” he said in a first speech at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador.

While he did not specifically mention climate change or its causes, he quoted often from the encyclical, which said there was a “very solid scientific consensus” on global warming and its human causes.

He appeared to be making a clear reference to climate change doubters when he said: “It is wrong to turn aside from what is happening all around us, as if certain situations did not exist or have nothing to do with our lives.”

Uh oh.  Sinner again in FrancisChurch!  It’s gotta be me.  How could it be Pope Francis?  He’s studied chemistry for Pete’s sake.

 

FrancisChurch Doctrine In One Simple Equation

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FrancisChurch of unity and love without conditions or elitist religiosity

FrancisChurch of unity and love without conditions or elitist religiosity

Why is it that Pope Francis seems to be deathly afraid of physical separation. To him, Heaven is like one enormous living pile.  It doesn’t matter how much it stinks, how uncomfortable, or how hard it is to breath.  So long as there’s unity, there it is. Perhaps that’s why Pope Francis seems to care so little about the meaning or history associated with the word, ‘utopia.‘

“Evangelization can be a way to unite our hopes, concerns, ideals and even utopian visions.” These were the words of Pope Francis during Mass at Quito’s Bicentennial Park today.

Over 1.2 million people attended the event, an unprecedented number given the fact that the population of the city is roughly 1.6 million. The park commemorates the first cries of independence that began against Spanish rule in Latin America in 1809.

Prior to the Mass, the Holy Father held a private meeting with the bishops of Ecuador. He then made his way to the park, where enthusiastic crowds greeted him with cheers and throwing flower petals.

In his homily, the Holy Father reflected on the theme of unity and evangelization. He told the faithful that he wished to see the cries for independence and freedom from exploitation that Bicentennial Park represents “under the beautiful challenge of evangelization.”

Uniting the idea of Christian evangelization with the populist cries of the worst banana republics is the essence of Liberation Theology.

Jesus’ call that all “may be one,” he continued, was raised in a context of mission in the world. A world, he noted, that Christ loved dearly despite experiencing “the worst of the world” in his own flesh.

“We too encounter daily a world torn apart by wars and violence. It would be superficial to think that division and hatred only concern struggles between countries or groups in society. In reality, they are a manifestation of that ‘widespread individualism’ which divides us and sets us against one another, that legacy of sin lurking in the heart of human beings, which causes so much suffering in society and all of creation,” he said.

I’m ready to repeat that I’m not against division.  I’m not falling into that FrancisChurch hole.  It’s not a sin.  In many ways it’s a blessing.  I am against hatred, but I can’t honestly say I’ve seen too much of it.  Mostly I see selfishness, cruelty, and cowardice.  I see the seven deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.  ‘Hatred’ is mostly a word used by demagogues and a characteristic of demons.

Then there’s ‘widespread individualism.’  That’s only a sin if you write for a Catholic outlet, teach in a college, or go on television.

The 78-year-old Pontiff said that despite this, Christians are also called to take up Christ’s call and accept the grace and duty of unity through evangelization. However, the Pope explained that unity does not mean uniformity or something that is fashioned with set conditions, which he described as a “religiosity of the elite.” Rather, unity is a concrete proposal by Jesus to love and care for one’s neighbor as explained in the parable of the Samaritan.

OK, Pope Francis.

Division = Bad.

Unity = Good.

Unity ≠ Something that is fashioned with set conditions, i.e. the    “religiosity of the elite.” 

Therefore:

FrancisChurch goodness is unity and love of neighbor so long as it has no conditions, no religiosity, and nothing related to power or money.

Why is the entire world telling us this is Catholic teaching and not just the radical rallying of an resentful ignorant mob?