If you were Pope, what would you do about the situation in Israel?
Now most of the Israelis are Jews. That's no secret.
Most of the Palestinians are Muslim. That's also not a secret.
There's a few ways he COULD play the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict. Let's think of it as a test from God.
"I am the leader of a billion Catholics, I pray for peace, but at the end of the day, I'm a busy Pope. What the Jews and Muslims do aren't my business."
"Yeah, the Catholic Church really screwed the pooch during World War II. Pius XII may or may not have been "Hitler's Pope, " But, just in case, we are going to err on the side of the Jews this time."
"God told me to stop at nothing to bring peace to the Middle East. I'm flying to both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and will broker a peace deal myself. If that doesn't work, I'm going to lay down in front of an Israeli Bulldozer in Rafah. I'm 87 for goodness sake, I don't have many battles for God left in me."
"The Middle East is a mess, I lament the continual loss of Palestinian lives."
Now on Christmas, the Pope prayed for worldwide peace, like he always does. And the prayers worked about as good as any other year. At the end of 2023 though, Pope Francis sounded a lot like option #1, which was his prerogative. When pressed, he stressed that this year, he was going to pray really, really hard for peace.
Lately, the Pope's tone has shifted as the Israeli army continues to plow through Gaza. His alarm seems to have moved his response toward #4, with the subtext being that October 7th was a long time ago. Israel is doing a poor job of turning the other cheek.
Yikes.
You can argue that I'm being unfair to the Pope, and I'll listen to that criticism, but that's why I opened with the question that I did.
What SHOULD the Pope be saying?
He has 2,000 years of doctrine as a foundation, if he just wants to steady the ship for his followers, that's fine. But every time he wades into the current geopolitical landscape, he steps in it.
What do I mean? Let me give you 2 examples:
Global Warming: The Pope keeps decrying what we are doing to the Earth. There's 2 problems with that. First, the greatest polluter today isn't the Evil West, it's China. BY A TON. When is the last time the Pope called out China? Secondly, isn't worshiping the Earth witchcraft? Seriously. You are supposed to worship the creator (God), not the creation (Earth).
I'm not saying Global Warming isn't real, I'm saying the Pope can do literally nothing about it.
Same-Sex Couples: Let me be clear on this. I am a straight man. Since I was a kid, I learned that premarital sex is bad. Sex with prostitutes is bad. Various deviations of sex are bad. Birth-control is bad. There is only one type of sex that is good, and that's sex within marriage for the purpose of procreation.
For straights, almost any sex is bad. If I'm interpreting doctrine correctly, the problem with same-sex couples isn't that they're the same sex, it's that no sex that they have results in procreation.
So Pope Francis blessing same-sex couples is like blessing my relationship with my favorite prostitute.
If you're cursing my name to the computer, let me stop you right there. That's not what I believe, that's Catholic Doctrine. You or I may not agree, but the doctrine has been set for a thousand years.
If Francis really, and truly, believes that the Church is woefully behind the times, he needs to launch a Third Vatican Council, not spout out random thoughts like a left-wing, populist politician.
I remember when Benedict XVI was elected pope. I said, and others also, that being in Nazi Youth should have disqualified Benedict from being pope. Vatican defenders said lots of kids in that generation were in fascist youth groups, that shouldn't disqualify anyone form being pope. But you know what DOES disqualify you from being pope? Being married. Being non-Catholic. Being a woman. Not being a priest.
Let me take it a step further. It's been about 600 years since a non-Cardinal became pope. The chances of becoming pope are about 1 in 239 if you're a Cardinal. 0% chance for the other 8 billion world citizens. 0% chance for the 1 billion Catholics who aren't Cardinals.
If Pope Francis wants to be a Woke Pope, he should start with his own flock. In the past, the Pope has expressed solidarity with parishes in Mexico affected by Cartel violence. How about this, why not have a Hispanic Nun voted in as the next pope?
Francis retires and uses his guiding hand to change the process of electing the next pope.
Yeah, he ain't doing that-
Sorry, I heard Satan chanting "go, Fred, go" in the background.
Article over.
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