{"id":3913,"date":"2015-07-09T17:53:35","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T21:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/?p=3913"},"modified":"2015-07-10T13:34:45","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T17:34:45","slug":"enemies-lay-communist-jesus-trap-for-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=3913","title":{"rendered":"Enemies Lay ‘Communist Jesus’ Trap for Francis!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wait<\/a>

Wait a minute, Evo. Something’s not right.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n

That’s the worst part of FrancisChurch.\u00a0 It’s not the betrayals so much as the painful confusion they produce.\u00a0 Don’t be fooled or denigrated.\u00a0 Those are thistles out there and you’re not crazy.<\/p>\n

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

Don’t you think if Jesus felt is was necessary to be hung on a hammer and sickle He would have done so?\u00a0 Is the cross not meaningful enough already the way it is?\u00a0 Where did this ridiculous idea emerge to paste a Corpus onto Communism and call it Catholic?<\/p>\n

A little tempest has been stirred around the \u201cgifts\u201d (aka traps) that Bolivian Pres. Morales gave to Pope Francis during his 4 hour stop in La Paz.<\/p>\n

Morales<\/a>, a socialist who dedicated his last election to Chavez and Castro, gave the Pope a \u201ccrucifix\u201d in the form of a hammer and sickle as well as a small pectoral \u201ccross\u201d with the same design.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, Jesus was not crucified on a hammer and sickle.\u00a0 The hammer drove the nails and the sickle went through His heart.\u00a0 Father reminds us that the thing almost looks like another over-modified cross, the swastika.\u00a0 I’m sure the Devil likes this gift for the Pope (except for the Jesus part).<\/p>\n

The Pope certainly has nice friends!\u00a0 Oh, but they have some good things in common, yes?\u00a0 There are<\/em> daisies.\u00a0 You know the common good, income equality, and the ‘just distribution of resources?’\u00a0 It’s all part of the Catholic tradition, see.<\/p>\n

Gifts at these meetings of heads of state are worked out ahead of time. So what gives with this?<\/p>\n

Alas, the Pope put on the damn pectoral \u201ccross\u201d thing, which is a little hard to understand. \u00a0I have a theory about that, below<\/strong>, but only a\u00a0persistent grilling of Fr. Lombardi has the potential of producing the\u00a0authentic explanation.<\/p>\n

In any event, and this is what we have to pay attention to, when the Pope saw the \u201ccrucifix\u201d (much larger than the little pectoral \u201ccross\u201d) he said,\u00a0\u201cNo est\u00e1 bien eso\u2026 That\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m glad that happened and I agree with Francis.\u00a0 It’s not right, Evo.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They’re not gonna buy that thing too!\u00a0 Thanks for the Commie Christ necklace and the bag of coca leaves, but you’re screwing up here.\u00a0 Give this back to me later.\u00a0 (Except he seems to have accepted it.)<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 They figured out Francis is Catholic.\u00a0 It finally happened.\u00a0 They were wrong about him all along.\u00a0 He was never really on their team.\u00a0 Those bozos.\u00a0 When are they going to coordinate with each other about these things in advance?\u00a0 At least we can all relax now, right?<\/p>\n

I’m learning so much about the Latin American Church.\u00a0 It’s a Communist wreck.\u00a0 You can get away with a ton of trouble if you don’t do it in English.<\/p>\n

The conservative\/traditional element are predictably blowing arteries at the sight of the Pope with these \u2026 things. \u00a0I, too, am disturbed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, conservative traditional ‘element,’\u00a0 though also disturbed Fr. Z is not one of you I suppose?\u00a0 How did we become an element<\/em>?\u00a0 Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were simply ‘faithful?’<\/p>\n

Maybe we’re not blowing arteries.\u00a0 Maybe they’re being sliced.\u00a0 Perhaps we’re just on the good end of those Beatitudes and emitting the occasional yelp.\u00a0 Why the harassment from former friends just because of one temporary pseudo-Catholic post-abdication installation and all of its thistles?<\/p>\n

Message To The Not-Really-Conservative-Anymore Catholic Literati: <\/strong>There’s Nothing Good Or Catholic About Liberalism And You Know It.\u00a0 Decide Now In Your Heart.\u00a0 Are You Liberal, or Are You Faithful?<\/p>\n

After all, the hammer and sickle is a symbol of\u00a0extermination of both human dignity and human beings numbering in tens\u00a0of millions. \u00a0It is a symbol of oppression and degradation of billions\u00a0<\/em>that by far outstrips the swastika.<\/p>\n

Some will counter, \u201cBut Father! But Father! The connection those noble yet humble proletariat\u00a0crosses of mercy have with the Jesuit priest who was killed in the 1970s outweighs the \u2026!\u201d Blah blah blah.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine anyone daring<\/em> to put\u00a0something like these\u00a0into the hands of St. John Paul II?<\/p>\n

Times have changed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another subtle and powerful Fr. Z point, but changing times don’t make the Church worse.\u00a0 A worse Church makes changing times.\u00a0 Father knows this.<\/p>\n

Look at the photos and the video. \u00a0Francis\u00a0is clearly unhappy when he saw the large version of what was on the smaller pectoral \u201ccross\u201d.<\/p>\n

Could this have been\u00a0a Pres. Bartlett moment, like the one with the flag of Taiwan? \u00a0In The West Wing<\/em>, Bartlett mistakenly accepts a controversial Taiwanese flag<\/a> which stirs a hornet\u2019s nest with the PRC on the eve of a state visit. \u00a0Bartlett\u00a0didn\u2019t see the flag (why is another, not relevant, issue). \u00a0In this present Bolivian case, Francis might not have noticed the symbol on the small pectoral \u201ccross\u201d, but he reacts sharply \u2013 negatively \u2013 when he sees the larger version in wood.<\/p>\n

I think that Morales move was sheer manipulation and political theater for his commie base in Bolivia. \u00a0it was a trap set for Francis to score points. Francis\u00a0was polite in accepting this\u00a0\u201cgift\/trap\u201d, much as would\u00a0a kind grandfather when given an inappropriate gift by an errant grandson.<\/p>\n

I suspect that we haven\u2019t heard the end of this one. \u00a0In the meantime, keep your cool<\/em> and wait for additional information.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Keep cool and wait until the spin warms up.\u00a0 This one caught us by surprise.<\/p>\n

This is condescension.\u00a0 Faithful Catholics need steadfast leaders, not insulting calls for calm in the face of attack.\u00a0 We’re hearing the kinds of things you say to sheep you’re readying for slaughter.\u00a0 This little daisy of the Pope’s ‘gentle reprimand’ to a Communist is nothing.<\/p>\n

Answer these questions:<\/p>\n