Ah yes, Pope Francis. The all-knowing, the all-sensing, the all-feeling Pope Francis and his recently released encyclical, “Laudato Si,”. Some parts of it begged to be discussed…especially coming from the representative of Christ, such as he is. We will get in the ring with him and his “Rope-A-Dope” style of swinging away at a topic but hitting nothing but air. So as a Christian, a husband, a father, an American, a proud Capitalist and a Recovering Catholic here we go..
WEALTH AND SALVATION
The Catholic church definition of “Vicar of Christ” in Dictionary.com is : “the pope, with reference to his claim to stand in the place of Jesus Christ and possess His authority in the church.”, along with the definition of authority; “a person or organization having power or control in a particular, typically political or administrative, sphere.”, you begin to understand his influence and the blind like following he inspires in millions of Catholics. Pope Francis is wrong on so many fronts, but what is disheartening and frightening at the same time is that so many look to him, to that POSITION as the last authority; and behave in Lemming like fashion to his dictates or opinions.
I am a recovering Catholic; I was an altar boy for 6 years, and no I was not molested by the priest. Father Lyons loved the nuns. In the 50s, I was given the once superlative Catholic education before the 60s heralded the beginning of the slow drip of liberal indoctrination via the Redistribution Theology of Social Justice and Liberation Theology. The Pope, in his piece says, and I am paraphrasing, that you cannot be a true believer unless you give until you are disadvantaged. As DC McAllister wrote; ” Papal suspicion of private property and infatuation with a “theology of poverty” lend sanctimony to the class antagonism hibernating in the church’s “preferential option for the poor,” a problematic concept derived from Liberation Theology. (Problematic because the promise of the resurrection, the ineradicable core of Christianity, is not directed to a class, but to individuals). So gracious, so loving, was Jesus that he humiliated himself, not by becoming economically poor, but by emptying himself of his glory—of riches he shared with God before the world was made—and becoming a human being who would die. The poverty of Jesus would have been the same had he lived as a wealthy man—because he would have still been a man.-” In plain words, the message of Jesus Christ to the world is that GRACE is an UNEARNED GIFT that is freely given and that gift is everlasting life through Jesus Christ. Jesus basically says that if you “worship” the dollar, then lose it and worship me. If you follow me and are rich..then cool. In plain words, there ain’t no dollar amount on salvation my friends, whether it be a – or +.
Being the man of his word, I know him to be, the Pope should take the riches of the Vatican, with its 24K gold leaflets, paintings, statues and sculptures, etc and sell everything and give all the proceeds to the “poor”.What a great example he would be. Oh yea, I forgot, he is the Pope, so the rules are different for him.
ECOLOGICAL WING NUT
In his encyclical, at # 188, the Pope said the following:. “There are certain environmental issues where it is not easy to achieve a broad consensus. Here I would state once more that the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics. But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.” Then, he changes directions and says, “A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events.”
Mmmm…an “honest and open debate”, and “the church does not..settle scientific question..” This is very odd as Hans Schellnhuber was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and to say the least, he is a real piece of work. He has lobbied for an Earth Constitution, a Global Council, and establishment of a Planetary Court, a transnational legal body with enforcement powers on environmental and population issues. Besides being your typical fanatical promoter of the man-made global warming theory and advocate of population control..he has another distinctive badge of honor; he is a PANTHEIST.
What is a pantheist? A pantheist, which is a variation of atheist, is somebody that believes the earth is a living organism, is intellectual and reacts to horrible things done to it only by humans. “The earth is an intelligent living and breathing organism with self-protection built-in to compensate for the daily destructive tendencies of humanity.” Appointed by the Pope, this non-scientist zealot activist, is a REAL FRUITCAKE and is the lead advisor for Pope Francis on the global warming and the climate change aspects of his encyclical. He headed up the Pontifical Academy of Sciences meeting in April at the Vatican; you know, so they could have an “honest and open debate”, a meeting where only the like-minded were permitted to come. A French scientist, whose name escapes me, had done extensive research on the solar activity of the sun, and wanted to present his findings and had been invited to the meeting. There was much gnashing of teeth and protest of him coming by the like minded consensus man made global warming crowd , so 5 days before the meeting, with plane ticket in hand, he received an email informing him that there was no room for him. I guess that is what the Pope meant by, “honest and open debate”, and “the church does not..settle scientific question..” As Tracinsk says,” These are the sections in which Francis lays out what he sees as the facts about a global environmental crisis, and it is a series of blatantly one-sided errors and exaggerations, including many which have been well-discussed and refuted, even in the New York Times. Pope Francis refuses to recognize alternative ideas outside the leftist orthodoxy on capitalism and the environment. As far as Francis is concerned, it might as well be 1971 and Paul Ehrlich is still a visionary.” The appointment by the Pope of the psychologically unstable, out of touch, wanna-be global bureaucratic tyrant, Hans Schellnhuber, speaks volumes about the Pope and his Socialist agenda .
GUNS, GUTS AND GLORY
This brings me to some peppy comments made in Turin by the Pope last week about the bigotry of owning, selling or manufacturing weapons. I say bigotry because the Pope said, “It makes me think of … people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn’t it?” He went on to disparage those that invest in weapons by saying that “duplicity is the currency of today … they say one thing and do another.” That was exactly what I was thinking about when you wrote “an honest and open debate”; you say one thing and do another.
Well, being a proud investor in weapons, I thought that the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-sensing Pope, would see the bigotry in his own remarks. Does not his Vatican, a country by the way, have the Swiss Guard since the 1500s? And aren’t they some of the best and well armed guards in the world; having an impressive catalog of high-powered, contemporary weapons to get the job done? Does he not give permission to them to use force if needed to protect him and the Vatican treasures? What is the difference? Speaking out both sides of his mouth, and according to his remarks, I guess the Pope is not a Christian either.
As Mr. Harsanyi so sensibly put it, “For starters, if you consider that self-defense is a civil right— and, to some extent, most Americans still give this notion some lip service—a quick reading of European history tells us it can be perilous for minorities(or majorities) to be denied the right to bear arms. Being defenseless can be even more dangerous than owning an air conditioner, in some instances. And since the Pope brings it up, let’s consider the Jews, who were left without any means of defending themselves not that long ago.” Again, the Pope’s words speak volumes about him and his Socialist agenda .