I was trying to ignore the conservative hand-wringing over the Pope’s visit but it’s become so stupid that I have to throw a few well-deserved bricks.
First, I must begin by noting (as sane observers have noted) that Pope Francis is his own man. He does things his own way and sometimes his reasoning seems odd. He speaks more freely than maybe he should, but he also knows things that we don’t – not just spiritually, but politically as well.
For example, people are hyperventilating that he didn’t make a show of visiting dissidents in Cuba. This supposedly shows he’s a Communist.
Or maybe he has something else in mind. I’d rather he did speak out forcefully against the Castro brothers and talk to dissidents, but I also don’t know what he knows. For many people, it was enough that he was able to visit Cuba and help stir the faithful.
Look, I know Reagan said “Tear down this wall!” but that wasn’t the only thing he ever said. He also held summits with the Soviets. The Blessed Pope John Paul II spoke out against Communism but he also failed to aggressively flush out the pederasts. Frankly, I’d rather Francis pursue the latter at this point than the former.
Now on to the serious nit-picking:
The Federalist is whining that His Holiness didn’t try to proselytize Congress.
Seriously? Does anyone with a brain in their skull think that Chuck Schumer and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are suddenly going to demand baptism? What a stupid, empty criticism.
Here’s Ace yammering about how the speech didn’t spend enough time carping about abortion.
Right, because Nancy Pelosi would totally change her vote on Planned Parenthood funding if he told her to.
Nowhere do I see the fact that he made a visit to the embattled Little Sisters of the Poor, you know the ones suing over Obamacare.
Yep, he’s a total Democrat/Liberal shill.
I saw a few days ago Mark Steyn complaining that he hasn’t done enough to stop the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East.
Clearly Steyn missed the Vatican’s call for military action (!) some months ago. That is a huge departure from normal Vatican policy which is basically to pray for peace.
I suppose Steyn would feel better if he called for a new crusade, but given Obama’s still using the previous ones to excuse doing nothing, I’m not sure how that would help things.
I preferred the style of Benedict XVI, partly because I’m of German extraction and am more sympathetic to his Teutonic reserve than Francis’ outgoing Latin extrovert personality.
Still, on the important things Francis is getting it right. I mean, for all the people whining about him not addressing the family and gay marriage thing, er, what’s he doing here?
Geez, this is worse than the Trump hysteria.
Oh, and a final note on the immigration/refugee issue: There is a thing called Catholic Relief Services. Look it up before claiming that the Vatican is hypocrites for not packing St. Peter's Square with migrants.
This may come as a shock to conservatives, but the Catholic Church has absolutely no investment in the survival of the nation-state. None. As far as the Church is concerned, they are a new-fangled thing that popped not quite 400 years ago as part of the Lutheran unpleasantness.
Spoiler alert: Nation-states may not survive and the Church has zero investment in preserving them. Christianity came into a world of empires, kingdoms and tribes and so expecting the Pope to endorse shutting people out of (from a historical standpoint) arbitrary lines on a map is not logical.
As an American, I disagree with unlimited migration, but the Church sees things differently. One of the great flaws in American thinking is that we assume everyone acts and thinks like we do and has the same goals and objectives. They don't.
The survival of individual nations is immaterial so long as the faith survives. Tough for us patriotic Americans to accept, but there it is.
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