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.
