The pope is ‘The Situation’ in white robes
Posted by John Reed on
I keep turning on TV to watch the news and instead I get the pope. I would say I have zero interest in the pope but zero does not adequately capture it.
He is nothing but a celebrity—a rellgion celebrity no less. I have more interest in what The Situation from Jersey Shore has to say about climate or economics.
The pope is from deep in the anti-capitalist Latin American my socialism right or wrong mind-set.
I was born CaTHOLIC, WENT TO CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WITH NUNS IN HABITS 60 to A CLASSROOM AT ST. ANN’S IN WILDWODD, NJ FROM FIRST THROUGH 5TH GraDE. Starting around age 10, I concluded organized religion is so much hocus pocus.
One of my cousins was a Jesuit. He got out, after marrying my brother and his wife, and married his former girlfriend who had become a nun during the same years when he was a priest. So I have been around that stuff for many years. Some popes have been important, but the church’s history of involvement with politics, or non-involvement as in World War II, is a disgrace. They were damned near outlawed altogether in Mexico as a result of deciding they were ayatollahs there back in the day.
Catholicism’s canonization of the poor—all the poor—no matter how they became poor or why they remain poor—is a childlike departure from reality. Their hatred of capitalism while claiming to be for the poor, who have benefited infinitely more from capitalism than they have from Catholicism, is another exaltation of ideology over reality.
I was once complaining about the Army being like the Soviet Union when I was an Army officer—at a family picnic where the Jesuit priest cousin was in the conversation. He said the Catholic priesthood was the same and quickly related pertinent anecdotes like the church talking out of one side of its mouth when it wanted separation of church and state and out of the other side when it wanted money from the government. He went to law school at Fordham as a priest and worked somewhat as a lawyer in the church.
Ann Coulter’s current book has a subtitle about the Left wanting to turn America into a third-world hell hole. The pope is a socialist demagogue from the third-world hell hole.
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8 comments
Wow, so well said! And you barely scratched the surface. As a Hispanic who also grew up as catholic though didn’t go to Cath. Sch. and now Evangelical, I agree with you in this. I’ve enjoyed reading your articles for the last 2 years. Again Well Said!
Excellent post and I couldn’t agree more. Product of Catholic elementary and high school myself so I can appreciate your perspective. Listening to this pope it’s just the usual progressive, leftist tome about how everything in the US is bad and what we need to do for everyone else. Last time I checked I didn’t see the Vatican taking in large numbers of refugees, I would think that they could provide accommodations and citizenship for several thousand at a minimum. With regards to capitalism, if the pope feels so strongly about it start selling off as many of the Churches assets as it takes. Just my opinion on this but I wouldn’t be surprised if the progressive movement didn’t have a had in getting this pope appointed.
Mr. Reed,
Must admit I have become a fan of your news blog, after stumbling on the military articles. It’s interesting that I was just discussing this topic with another person yesterday. As such, I have to point out that technically, the Pope is not a socialist, though many of his views could be described as leaning to the extreme left. Instead, he is a preacher of Catholic social doctrine that stresses the importance of all life, from conception to death, and a break-away from “the machine” a.k.a. the exploitation of workers by capitalists AND socialists. This doctrine was formalized in the late 1800s and was in response to the sweeping changes industrialism had brought across Europe (uber-rich or the state controlling the majority of resources ). What evolved was something called distributism that effectively pushes governing and resource allocations decisions to the lowest level possible (family, immediate community). Of course, it can be pointed out that were this situation to play out, the strongest remaining power in the world would be the Catholic church, given its enormous wealth and “offices” in nearly every town. However, I have not researched on, nor will speculate towards, what exactly their role would be.
Research:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_social_teaching
-Bill Campbell