Why Pope Francis Is Keeping His Hammer-and-Sickle Crucifix

National Review ^ | 07/14/2015 | Dennis Prager

[SeekAndFind]

Last week the Marxist quasi-dictator of Bolivia, Evo Morales, presented Pope Francis with a gift — a carved wooden hammer-and-sickle cross on which the figure of Christ is crucified.

The Vatican announced that the pope had not been informed in advance about the gift. And some commentators said that photos of the pope and Morales show that the pope was actually offended. That was a false — probably wishful — interpretation. The pope himself later announced that he was keeping the hammer-and-sickle crucifix and taking it home, saying, “I understand this work. For me it wasn’t an offense.”

And “Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi . . . said he personally wasn’t offended by Morales’ gift” (the Guardian).

The pope’s acceptance of Morales’s gift — along with his attacks on capitalism during his Latin American tour — further confirms one of the most troubling moral developments of our time: The Roman Catholic Church is currently led by a man whose social, political, and economic views have been shaped by leftism more than by any other religious or moral system.

It also reconfirms what is probably the single most important development one needs to understand in order to make sense of the contemporary world: The most dynamic religion of the past hundred years has been leftism, not Christianity, not Islam, not any other traditional religion. Indeed, regarding traditional religions, leftism has influenced them — particularly Christianity and Judaism — far more than they have influenced the Left. Mainstream Protestant Christianity, much of Catholicism (especially in Latin America, where Pope Francis lived his whole life before becoming pope), and most of non-Orthodox Judaism have become essentially liberal/Left movements with religious (and in the case of Judaism, ethnic) identity.

In terms of evil committed, what is the difference between the hammer and sickle and the swastika? Would the pope receive, let alone keep, a Fascist, racist, or Nazi sculpture with a crucified Christ on it? Of course not. Yet the hammer and sickle represents more human suffering than all of them combined. The number of people enslaved and murdered under the hammer and sickle dwarfs the number of people enslaved and murdered by any other doctrine in history.

To make things worse, Pope Francis received this gift from a man (Morales) wearing a picture of Che Guevara on his jacket. Is that, too, not worthy of condemnation by the Vatican? Che Guevara devoted his life to undermining human liberty, and to killing innocents in the name of Communism.

The only institutions that can resist the left-wing takeover of contemporary life are religious ones. When they fail, upon which institutions can we depend? What if, in a visit to an American museum, American artist Andres Serrano had presented Pope Francis with a gift — his work of art, Piss Christ — that features a crucifix in a jar of Serrano’s urine?

Would the pope have accepted it? Would he have brought it home?

There could not have been a gift that more accurately represents this pope’s value system than Christ crucified on a hammer and sickle. First, in a literal sense, that is exactly what Communists have done wherever they have assumed power — crucified Christ by working to violently destroy Christianity and murder Christians. Second, in a figurative sense, the gift represents the mélange of Christianity and Marxism, precisely what much of the Church — again, especially in Latin America, and especially in the person of this pope — stands for.

My heart breaks for the millions of Catholics who feel that their beloved Church is being led over a moral and religious cliff by a leftist pope and innumerable other leftists among cardinals, bishops, and parish priests.

Though I am not a Catholic, my heart breaks too. The only institutions that can resist the left-wing takeover of contemporary life are religious ones. When they fail, upon which institutions can we depend?

Tragically, we cannot turn to the contemporary Catholic Church. When the pope keeps a hammer-and-sickle crucifix; when the pope declares free-market capitalism, the one economic system that has lifted masses of people out of poverty, to be largely evil (“the dung of the devil”); when Cuba’s Cardinal Jaime Ortega declares that there are no political prisoners in Cuba; and when the pope issues an encyclical on global warming while the oldest Christian communities in the world are exterminated, it is clear that while one can still turn to individual Catholic priests and lay leaders for moral guidance, one cannot turn to the Church and its pope for moral guidance. On the contrary. One must fight back.

— Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His book, The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code, was published by Regnery. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

[ilgipper]

The commie pope must go. No more South American radicals can be put into that role again. What a fool.

[bray]

Why do Conservatives stay in the Catholic church. It has been infiltrated by Marxist priests and bishops for decades.

Pray America is waking

[C. Edmund Wright]

Wonderful piece....and this is what leftist do....they infiltrate formerly conservative organizations and turn those institutions to the left.

We’’re seeing it in the Catholic Church....where it’s been going on for a long time...as well as in the Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian denominations and others. Even in Joel Osteen’s church.

Maybe the organized church is not the future of “the church” - as in the body of Christ.

[21st Century Crusader]

Some have said the antiCHRIST would be a Pope.

[defconw]

Where should we go?

[kenmcg]

Who ever thought this imposter would be following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ? He is doing to the Catholic Church what Obama is doing to the country. They are both commie/Marxists.

[SaveFerris]

Ah, he’s keeping it? Let the spin begin.

[livius]

Unfortunately, all this is too true. The other very alarming thing - having read the interview in which he says many of these things - is that the Pope is not a very smart man. He thinks he knows everything and is willing to offer a sentimental, statist or even Marxist opinion on everything, from economics to global politics...but he rarely mentions the thing that he is supposed to be doing, which is heading a religion that is fundamentally at odds with statism and relies on individual conversion and individual adherence to the moral law and faith in the revelation of God in His Son, Jesus Christ.

The few times he ventures into religion, of course, he reveals his ignorance and ideology there, as well.

I wish he would be removed from us. He is destroying the Church.

[miss marmelstein]

Your question shows you do not understand the religion. Catholics are brought up to understand that even priests can be bad men - it means little when one can still receive the sacraments.

[ScottinVA]

The pope himself later announced that he was keeping the hammer-and-sickle crucifix and taking it home, saying, “I understand this work. For me it wasn’t an offense.”

Oh.. the pope understands that work, all right... and the ideology behind it. Does anyone else think Evo Morales took His Popeness behind closed doors and apologized for Bolivia's role in taking down that other Argentinian marxist, Che Guevara?

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

Where should we go?

To Ayn Rand. Or Adam Smith. Maybe Prager offers salvation too.

[The Antiyuppie]

“Why do Conservatives stay in the Catholic church. It has been infiltrated by Marxist priests and bishops for decades.”

Please specify, “Roman Catholic”. The “hammer and sickle” symbol will probably not go over too well in non-Roman Catholic churches, which were persecuted in Eastern Europe for 70 years and have just now managed to achieve a level of being barely tolerated.

In case anyone was wondering, “not go over too well” was a spectacular understatement.

[navet97]

“Where should we go?”

I’m thinking maybe Eastern Orthodox, haven’t decided yet.

[exit82]

Will he accept Jesus crucified on a swastika?

What would be the difference?

[ArcadeQuarters]

Once you allow gay child molesters in the Church hierarchy, it’s over. Communism is just another phase in the Church’s self-destruction.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

I’ve always read that a the Pope would be an even better candidate for the False Prophet position since he literally paves the way for the New Global Order of the A/C.

We shall see of course and I’m no expert in prophetic study by any means. Just posting what I’ve read many times by my own understanding.

[Alex Murphy]

Last week the Marxist quasi-dictator of Bolivia, Evo Morales, presented Pope Francis with a gift — a carved wooden hammer-and-sickle cross on which the figure of Christ is crucified. The Vatican announced that the pope had not been informed in advance about the gift. And some commentators said that photos of the pope and Morales show that the pope was actually offended. That was a false — probably wishful — interpretation. The pope himself later announced that he was keeping the hammer-and-sickle crucifix and taking it home, saying, “I understand this work. For me it wasn’t an offense.” And “Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi . . . said he personally wasn’t offended by Morales’ gift” (the Guardian)....

[Gamecock]

Because he is a commie?