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Pope Places Personal Politics Above Faith

Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, is continuing his bizarre departure from his own faith and the traditions of the institution he leads. He has apparently decided to ignore Jesus’ own example and misuse the papacy to advance his personal political leanings.

The Pontiff, according to Catholic beliefs, cannot commit error in matters of religious doctrine. Pope Francis, however, has used his highly visible position to engage in temporal matters, in which he has shown little insight and a disturbing lack of knowledge.   

Vatican News reports that he has directed $500,000 be sent to migrants in Mexico from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. At first glance, this appears to be a fairly normal act of charity from an organization that has performed enormous good works across the planet. But a more careful review reveals a separate motive, and a lack of logic in the action.

An official Vatican statement noted that “In recent months, thousands of migrants have arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometres on foot and with makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Men and women, often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better future in the United States. However, the US border remains closed to them…In particular, the aid is intended to assist the more than 75,000 people who arrived in Mexico in 2018, in six migrant caravans…All these people were stranded, unable to enter the United States…”

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As the Vatican stated, these individuals fled poverty in their home nations. Through Catholic Relief Services, the Church does seek to provide assistance in those countries.  But Pope Francis attention is concentrated less on the good works performed by his institution and more on criticizing the moves by Washington to protect its own borders.  He appears less concerned with the corruption and incompetence of those Central American nations that causes the poverty and human rights violations, and more on his political dislike of capitalism, an illogical perspective considering that capitalism has provided more prosperity for more people than any other approach.

The Pontiff has soundly criticized the legitimate rights of the United States to enforce its own . laws, but has remained relatively silent on the practices of Latin American leaders who have caused the conditions that chased people out of their homelands. As Dr. Samuel Gregg wrote in The Catholic World Report, “With Venezuela imploding, many wonder why Pope Francis seems slow to condemn a left-wing populist Latin American dictatorship that’s brutalizing the population of an overwhelmingly Catholic country. If you want to see where socialism takes a country, go to today’s Venezuela. After 18 years of a left-wing populist regime committed to “21st Century Socialism,” a once-wealthy and relatively stable nation is coming apart.”

The Pope has made some comments condemning corruption in the region, but his actions indicate a lack of resolve. Martin Barillas, in a Lifesite article points out that “Twenty former presidents of Latin American nations sent an open letter on Jan. 5 to Pope Francis in which they criticized his call for “harmony” in socialist Venezuela and “reconciliation” in Nicaragua where Marxist governments have ruined these countries’ national economies and subjected citizens to torture and summary executions. Led by Nobel Prize-winner and former president of Costa Rica Oscar Arias, the letter to the pontiff said, ‘We are concerned that the call for harmony on the part of your Holiness in which, given the current context, can be understood by the victimized nations that they should come to agreement with their victimizers. In particular, in the case of Venezuela, the government has caused the flight of 3 million refugees, which the United Nations predicts will reach 5.9 million in 2019.’”

The most prominent display of the Pontiff’s apparent affection for corrupt and socialist regimes came during his 2015 visit to Cuba, in which he met not only with the island nation’s current leader but also with retired dictator Fidel Castro, who has an abysmal human rights record. The Washington Post editorial board .reflected: “How… to explain Pope Francis’s behavior in Cuba? The pope is spending four days in a country whose Communist dictatorship has remained unrelenting in its repression of free speech, political dissent and other human rights despite a warming of relations with the Vatican and the United States. Yet by the end of his third day, the pope had said or done absolutely nothing that might discomfit his official hosts.”

Writing in Reuters, Philip Pullella reports that ” A group of 19 Catholic priests and academics have urged bishops to denounce Pope Francis as a heretic.”

Photo: Official portrait of Pope Francis (Vatican)

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Has the Pope Rejected Catholic Theology?

Pope Francis has apparently abandoned the basic principles of the religion he leads, and has endangered the cause of religious freedom not only for the Catholic Church but for all other religions as well.

Radio Free Asia (RFA)  , The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and other sources report that an agreement has been reached between the Vatican and China regarding Beijing’s appointment of bishops.

According to WSJ’s Francis X. Rocca (reporting from Rome) and Eva Dou (reporting from Beijing) China and the Vatican are set to sign a landmark agreement later this month ending a long struggle between Beijing’s Communist rulers and the pope over who chooses the leaders of Catholicism in the world’s most populous country, according to two people familiar with the matter. The controversial deal would include the first official recognition by Beijing that the pope is the head of the Catholic Church in China. In return, Pope Francis would formally recognize seven excommunicated Chinese bishops who were appointed by the Communist government without Vatican approval.”

Even a superficial analysis indicates that in return for enhancing his personal authority, Pope Francis has surrendered a key tenant of his church, that Roman Catholic prelates be appointed solely through the church.

Surrendering to Beijing’s demands to have the right to appoint bishops has in the past been severely criticized by some Church leaders, particularly in Asia. The Catholic Herald reports that “ Cardinal Joseph Zen, the most senior Chinese Catholic, has said a possible deal between China and the Vatican would ‘betray Jesus Christ’.

In a past interview with The Guardian, Cardinal Zen stated “Maybe the Pope is a little naive, he doesn’t have the background to know the Communists in China… he may not know the Communist persecutors who have killed hundreds of thousands. Chinese Catholics are free to go to mass and attend government-sanctioned churches, but barred from proselytizing. The state-controlled China Catholic Patriotic Association controls the church and appoints bishops, currently without any input from the Vatican. An “underground” Catholic church exists, with some estimates saying it is larger than the official one, and its members and clergy have faced persecution by authorities. Protestant Christians also face similar challenges…”

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That disturbing act is not an isolated one. The Pontiff has also broken with his predecessors in his apparent endorsement of “liberation theology,” which basically replaces the spiritual mission of Catholicism with a political one, and one allied with Marxism. The Catholic Herald reported in June that the Pope had praised the founder of liberation theology, Father Gustavo Gutierrez. Liberation theology became prominent in South America several decades ago. Pope Benedict XVI believed that the movement was overly political and emphasized Communism, a creed which has been overtly hostile to religion.

Commentator Wayne Allyn Root  has written that “This pope neither seems to understand, nor care that his views on issues…often put him in bed with atheists and socialists, who don’t believe in God, mock religion and think the Bible is a work of fiction. He crusades for social justice, yet chose to embrace the Castro brothers – evil murderers who have imprisoned, tortured and murdered generations of Cubans for expressing their opinions and questioning the authority of a tyrant…He chose not to visit or even be seen with Cubans imprisoned because of their political views.”

It is not inappropriate to inquire about Pope Francis’ core principles.  Christianity’s founder, Jesus Christ himself, intensely avoided involvement in the turbulent politics of his era despite extraordinary temptation to do so.  His birth nation and its people were deeply oppressed by their Roman overlords, and as Christ gained fame, some urged him to involve himself in that struggle.  But he chose a deeper course, and stayed true to his spiritual mission, an example Pope Francis has discarded.

Catholicism’s forays into earthly politics, power, and financial concerns led at times to its straying from its spiritual mission, and the splintering of Christianity itself. One cannot help but wonder why Pope Francis believes it is appropriate to ignore both the Christ he claims to represent, and the history of how straying from spiritual concerns has damaged the Christian faith over the centuries.

Photo: The Vatican (Pixabay)

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Vatican Surrenders to China, Part 2

Photo by Vatican

Pope Francis has reportedly reached an agreement with Beijing allowing the Communist government to appoint bishops.  What are the implications for religious freedom across globe?

Catholicism has survived across two millennia. It endured attempts at eradication by Roman emperors. It outlived a regrettable period when the Vatican functioned as secular state.

The Papacy has arguably emerged as the world’s most respected religious institution because modern Popes understand that the Vatican’s role is to lead in moral matters, not temporal ones.  In that respect, they are directly following the example of Jesus himself.

Christ was born into a particularly troubling time.  According to the New Testament, he was on occasion urged to take a stand on the political issues of the day, particularly the Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland. Jesus refused, and set an example of moral leadership that an extraordinary percentage of the world’s population considers to be the guiding light of all mankind.

It appears that Pope Francis has taken a different course than Jesus did. He has espoused views on matters of science, economics, and international affairs. In doing so, his opinions must be judged not as those of a religious figure, but as a political one.

While the Pontiff has been a breath of fresh air in his attempts to reform the administration of the Catholic Religion, his political views are tired, old, and frankly discredited. His immediate predecessors rejected the “Liberation Theology” which describes Pope Francis’s perspective.

Nowadays, you can easily get safed musli products from market and online shop viagra online medical stores. It is (when successfully achieved) akin to a profound state of relaxation, peace http://amerikabulteni.com/2011/09/09/nflde-sezonun-acilis-macinda-heyecan-ve-rekor-vardi/ buy cialis and even bliss. As these amerikabulteni.com prices for cialis are purely herbal with all the natural ingredients they have no side effect. This can add anxiety, stress and depression in your best levitra prices life. Clearly this Pontiff, who has displayed brilliance in his analysis of the course the Vatican must take to restore a connection with estranged Catholics, has not demonstrated a similar mastery of the political issues he has chosen to discuss. There is little evidence that he consulted data, studies, or experts who have views contrary to his that are so much a product of his background.

In his 2015 address to the U.S. Congress, Pope Francis spoke of the need for compassion to immigrants. Has he not reflected on the reality that no nation is currently taking in more immigrants, nor treating them better, than the United States?  Shouldn’t he spend more time lecturing the governments that immigrants are freeing from, rather than the governments they are fleeing to?

The Pope has displayed great and justifiable concern for the poor. It appears that he singles out capitalism for criticism. But here his lack of adequate research is manifest. Capitalism has been the most successful system to reduce the number of people in poverty, while redistributionist regimes have failed to do so.  Need examples? Compare the former nations of East and West Germany. Compare North Korea with South Korea. It wasn’t the economy of capitalist America that collapsed, it was the Soviet Union’s.

The Pope is clearly worried about the health of the environment.  There are key areas, deforestation in his home continent of South America being a prime example, that are undeniably vital to the health of the planet.  Rather than concentrate on that, however, he places his trust on increasingly suspect studies about man-made global warming. He has failed to mention that the “solutions” to this unproven issue would devastate the poor that he properly displays so much care for.

Pope Francis is correctly concerned about the dignity of each human life.  What, then, compelled him to visit with the harsh totalitarian leadership of Cuba, but not with the heroic dissidents of that oppressed island nation?  Why did he consent to speak in the shadow of a memorial to Che Guevara, a vicious murderer?

Indeed, in an era when stunning acts of aggression, repression and atrocity are increasing with frightening intensity as a result of the acts of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and terrorist forces, the Pontiff seems to inexplicably concentrate far more on his preconceived notions of the shortcomings of largely peaceful and open democratic western nations.

His surrender to the authoritarian regime of Beijing is an error of historical proportions.

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Quick Analysis

Vatican Surrenders to China

Photo by Vatican 

It appears that Pope Francis, the most political pope in modern history, is close to coming to an agreement with Beijing over the appointment of bishops in China. In doing so, he upends over two thousand years of Catholic tradition, and betrays the steadfast loyalty of his faith’s 10 million adherents in that nation.

The government wants Roman Catholics in China to attend only state-sanctioned churches, ruled over by bishops designated by the Communist dictatorship. Underground churches in that country, who brave oppression, continue the religion’s ancient practice of allegiance to the Pontiff, seen as the heir, in an unbroken line stretching back to Peter the Apostle, who was, according to the New Testament, appointed head of the church by Christ himself.

The BBC reports that there are about 100 bishops in the world’s most populous nation, some appointed by the Vatican, others by Beijing. Following four meetings since 2016, an agreement to provide joint authority in the designation of bishops appears to be potentially completed within months.

The LA Times has revealed that a further dramatic reversal of church doctrine was emphasized by Bishop Sanchez Sorondo, a close adviser described as “confident” of Pope Francis. Sorondo stated that the Communist giant “is implementing the social doctrine of the catholic Church.”

The move would be an even more significant change to Catholicism’s power structure than that which occurred in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. For the first time in the two thousand year-old history of the Church, the Vatican would cede the power to appoint clergy leaders to an atheist entity. It would also be seen by Christians as a betrayal of  martyrs who gave all for the integrity of Christianity.

Surrendering to Beijing’s demands to have the right to appoint bishops has in the past been severely criticized by some Church leaders, particularly in Asia. The Catholic Herald reports that “ Cardinal Joseph Zen, the most senior Chinese Catholic, has said a possible deal between China and the Vatican would ‘betray Jesus Christ’.
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In a past interview with The Guardian, Cardinal Zen stated “Maybe the Pope is a little naive, he doesn’t have the background to know the Communists in China…The pope used to know the persecuted Communists [in Latin America], but he may not know the Communist persecutors who have killed hundreds of thousands. Chinese Catholics are free to go to mass and attend government-sanctioned churches, but barred from proselytizing. The state-controlled China Catholic Patriotic Association controls the church and appoints bishops, currently without any input from the Vatican.An “underground” Catholic church exists, with some estimates saying it is larger than the official one, and its members and clergy have faced persecution by authorities. Protestant Christians also face similar challenges…”

As the planet’s most influential religious leader, a surrender by Pope Francis on the issue of the independence of faith groups to appoint their own governing clergy would impact every denomination in every nation.

Many of Pope Francis’ statements have raised serious questions about whether his worldview is sufficiently informed. A U.S. News analysis noted that the Pontiff has not watched television since 1990.

Commentator Wayne Allyn Root  has written that “This pope neither seems to understand, nor care that his views on issues…often put him in bed with atheists and socialists, who don’t believe in God, mock religion and think the Bible is a work of fiction. He crusades for social justice, yet chose to embrace the Castro brothers – evil murderers who have imprisoned, tortured and murdered generations of Cubans for expressing their opinions and questioning the authority of a tyrant…He chose not to visit or even be seen with Cubans imprisoned because of their political views.”

Pope Francis’ lack of a more thorough and well-rounded understanding of the world is leading to exactly the opposite of the goals he, with all good intentions, advocates.

When the Pope ventures into areas beyond his theological expertise, that can cause problems.  Damien Thompson, writing in Spectator writes: “What should worry Francis is that moderate conservative Catholics are losing confidence in him. The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, who is no one’s idea of an extremist, believes that ‘this pope may be preserved from error only if the church itself resists him’. Cristina Odone, former editor of the Catholic Herald, says that ‘Francis achieved miracles with his compassionate, off-the-cuff comments that detoxified the Catholic brand. He personifies optimism — but when he tries to turn this into policy he isn’t in command of the procedures or the details. The result is confusion.’”

The Report Continues Tomorrow

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The Pope’s Mistake

During World War II, Winston Churchill urged Stalin to consider the opinions of the Pope. Displaying classic arrogance, the dictator replied, “How many divisions does the Pope have?”

Over 70 years later, the Vatican remains a powerful influence in the world, while Russian Communism is dead.

Catholicism has survived across two millennia. It endured attempts at eradication by Roman emperors. It outlived a regrettable period when the Vatican functioned as secular state.

The Papacy has arguably emerged as the world’s most respected religious institution because modern Popes understand that the Vatican’s role is to lead in moral matters, not temporal ones.  In that respect, they are directly following the example of Jesus himself.

Christ was born into a particularly troubling time.  According to the New Testament, he was on occasion urged to take a stand on the political issues of the day, particularly the Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland. Jesus refused, and set an example of moral leadership that an extraordinary percentage of the world’s population considers to be the guiding light of all mankind.

It appears that Pope Francis has taken a different course than Jesus did. He has espoused views on matters of science, economics, and international affairs. In doing so, his opinions must be judged not as those of a religious figure, but as a political one.

While the Pontiff has been a breath of fresh air in his attempts to reform the administration of the Catholic Religion, his political views are tired, old, and frankly discredited. His immediate predecessors rejected the “Liberation Theology” which describes Pope Francis’s perspective.

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In his address to Congress, he spoke of the need for compassion to immigrants. Has he not reflected on the reality that no nation is currently taking in more immigrants, nor treating them better, than the United States?  Shouldn’t he spend more time lecturing the governments that immigrants are freeing from, rather than the governments they are fleeing to?

The Pope has displayed great and justifiable concern for the poor. It appears that he singles out capitalism for criticism. But here his lack of adequate research is manifest. Capitalism has been the most successful system to reduce the number of people in poverty, while redistributionist regimes have failed to do so.  Need examples? Compare the former nations of East and West Germany. Compare North Korea with South Korea. It wasn’t the economy of capitalist America that collapsed, it was the Soviet Union’s.

The Pope is clearly worried about the health of the environment.  There are key areas, deforestation in his home continent of South America being a prime example, that are undeniably vital to the health of the planet.  Rather than concentrate on that, however, he places his trust on increasingly suspect studies about man-made global warming. He has failed to mention that the “solutions” to this unproven issue would devastate the poor that he properly displays so much care for.

Pope Francis is correctly concerned about the dignity of each human life.  What, then, compelled him to visit with the harsh totalitarian leadership of Cuba, but not with the heroic dissidents of that oppressed island nation?  Why did he consent to speak in the shadow of a memorial to Che Guevara, a vicious murderer?

Indeed, in an era when stunning acts of aggression, repression and atrocity are increasing with frightening intensity as a result of the acts of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and terrorist forces, the Pontiff seems to inexplicably concentrate far more on his preconceived notions of the shortcomings of largely peaceful and open democratic western nations.

There are numerous international figures that, with greater knowledge and expertise, provide intellectual guidance on issues such as immigration, economics, and the environment.  There is, however, only one Pope to remind all mankind of its obligation to treat each human with dignity, and in recognition of the divine spark that exists within each soul.

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The Pope’s mistake

Pope Francis has detracted from legitimate scientific and economic debates regarding two issues, poverty and climate change, and has harmed the Catholic Church by his forays outside his areas of expertise.

His recently released Encyclical “Encyclical Laudato si‘” states that:

“Climate change is a global problem with serious implications, environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods; it represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day…the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all…many of those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms…Our lack of response to these tragedies involving our brothers and sisters points to the loss of that sense of responsibility for our fellow men and women upon which all civil society is founded”.

The Pope’s concern for the environment is a legitimate (if non-theological) interest. Insuring the cleanliness of Earth’s air and water, the biodiversity of its species, and the preservation of its wild spaces is in the interest of all. But the question of man-made climate change, despite the fervent attempts of its adherents, remains an open question. The planet’s climate has consistently changed, frequently shifting from warming periods to cooling periods and back again long before the advent of industrialization, automobiles, or the extensive discharge of chemicals into the air.

Supporters of the man-made climate change concept have employed non-scientific tactics involving political pressure and the doctoring of data to in their advocacy. The Vatican has not indicated what scientific data the head of the Church relied on, and how rigorous his research has been. It is most distressing that, according to the Washington Post, he did not seek alternative views, an arrogance reminiscent of the infamous 1610 trial of Galileo.

If Pope Francis had expressed a deep concern for the health of the planetary environment without entering into the climate change debate, he could have accomplished more success in calling attention and concern to the issue in a far less partisan manner.

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Pope Francis has displayed a similar lack of knowledge in his approach to poverty. He correctly notes that “…Christians are called to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own and to take practical steps to alleviate it…”  However, it is clearly evident that the system that has far more successfully reduced poverty is not the socialism he essentially alludes to, but capitalism. Indeed, even the prime alleged “success story” of Communist China is wholly dependent on the sale of items to capitalist economies, predominately the United States. A mere redistribution of wealth from “rich” nations to “poor” nations essentially creates a one-time solution that will quickly fade, as the ineffective socialist and other top-down economies will fail to create the conditions for ongoing prosperity.

All people are at least partially influenced by the region in which they were brought up, and the South American-born Pontiff is no exception. He appears sympathetic to the Latin American Catholic movement known as “Liberation theology,” which embraces a left-wing, political view of Christianity far more than the traditional spiritual elements which are its true essence. Interestingly, Pope Francis’s predecessors took a rather dim view of this, so the current head of the world’s Catholics is at odds with his predecessors.

The world’s 1.2 billion Catholics are under no obligation to follow the Pontiff’s scientific or political views. While the Pope’s word on matters of religious doctrine is, essentially, law for the church, his views on other matters are essentially his own opinion.

But he is the Pope, and his views on any topic are cause for great interest throughout Christianity. (Catholic Bible 101.com notes “The doctrine of infallibility, officially defined at the Vatican I council of 1870, says that when the Pope is officially defining church dogma, the Holy Spirit is also. There are three  requirements for infallibility to be invoked: 1.  The pronouncement must be made by the official successor to Peter. 2.  The subject matter must be in the area of faith and morals. 3.  The Pope must be speaking ex cathedra (from the chair) of Peter, and must be intending to proclaim a doctrine that binds the entire Church to assent.”)

When the Pope ventures into areas beyond his theological expertise, that can cause problems.  Damien Thompson, writing in Spectator writes: “What should worry Francis is that moderate conservative Catholics are losing confidence in him. The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, who is no one’s idea of an extremist, believes that ‘this pope may be preserved from error only if the church itself resists him’. Cristina Odone, former editor of the Catholic Herald, says that ‘Francis achieved miracles with his compassionate, off-the-cuff comments that detoxified the Catholic brand. He personifies optimism — but when he tries to turn this into policy he isn’t in command of the procedures or the details. The result is confusion.’”