Posted on 11/26/2016 7:26:50 PM PST by 2nd amendment mama
Pope Francis sent his condolences following the death of infamous atheist and former Cuban President Fidel Castro Saturday.
“I express to you my sentiments of grief,” said Francis in a message to Castro’s brother, President Raul Castro. He noted that he grieved over the “sad news” and would pray for the former dictator.
Castro died Friday night at the age of 90. He was baptized Catholic and educated by the same Jesuit order to which Francis belongs. Despite his religious upbringing, Castro was a vocal atheist and declared Cuba an atheist state when he rose to power in 1959. He suppressed the Catholic church during his reign, sending priests to re-education camps and restricting the celebration of holidays. Castro was reportedly excommunicated under an anti-Communist decree by Pope Pius XII in 1962
The Catholic church lived on in Cuba, despite the Castro regime’s best efforts to destroy it. While only ten percent of Cubans are practicing Catholics, half identify as such. The Vatican intentionally maintained relations with Cuba throughout the Castro era, despite its generally anti-Communist policy. Local Catholic charities provided relief work in Cuba, particularly after Castro lessened restrictions on religion after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict and Pope Francis all visited the island nation in years following the changes.
Francis, like Castro, is a critic of unregulated capitalism. He is believed to have played a major role in the cessation of the decades-long U.S. embargo on Cuba.
“I will resume praying and turn to the church again if the pope continues in this vein,” said Raul Castro while visiting Rome in May, 2015. “I mean what I say.”
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I mean... wouldn’t Francis logically pray that somehow, anyhow... that even Fidel would be forgiven? But we can’t talk about God forgiving him if we don’t recognize that he sinned.
Very much so.
They let God decide who belongs in heaven or hell. But there’s every reason to be sad if someone rebelled against God and did not repent in this life.
Pope’s a dick.
Francis the talking Jack-Ass does it again. This guy is a complete embarrassment to the Church.
I grieve over the Cardinals’ choice of Pope.
Where do I go to find Jeffersonian Deists?
Why are the stories of lives the way they are... I don’t know.
I’m a Crazy Evangelical of a Calvinut variety (well, “mild Calvinist”) and the way it is looking to me... yes, God could predestine us to get a Fidel Castro whose return to Christ would be one nanosecond before he died. God can get the timing as tight as He likes. Trying to see further into the situation, I don’t think I can, but could perhaps guess a few things. Why would such a soul be made the vessel of such evil before it was saved. This is one of those hypothetical questions that we’d be marveling in heaven about. I do know what engaging the salvation of Christ is like, and it turns our mortal categories quite inside out. It snatches things from the devil that he thought he had cemented down and iron clad. The very grace can drive us crazy because it could go to people whom the world never ever would wish heaven upon.
I have a lot of respect for Pope John Paul II. Very good man from my observation.
Having said that, his photo there shows a Bush family resemblance to me.
Probably not to the Roman Catholic church or even any other Christ believing church :-)
So what would God or Francis recognize as sin? Should we just stick with Francis. You also bring up the possibility of we recognizing sin, what guide line should we use to identify sin. Or is this left to The Pope and God?
What does the rule book say?
Do I miss St. JPII? Is the Pope Catholic? Er, forget that last question. Yes, I miss St. JPII.
Doing bad things to a society... it is not nonsense to talk about forgiveness of sin, but that presupposes recognition of sin.
Since Francis wasn’t asked for a eulogy, he COULD have been franker.
Francis wishes he could rule like Fidel did.
Yes, and I'm not even Catholic.
It seems the author would have no problem with people selling organs and baby parts for profit. Or 40" flat screen TVs made by slave labor. It's just good, solid, unregulated Capitalism.
How could the College of Cardinals get it so wrong?
It’s a warning about how deluding leftiness can be.
The idea is that you rob Peter to pay Paul and keep a commission on it, and you leave Peter to fend for himself before God.
You can get some simulacrum of life that way (due to the overflowing grace of God making up for some of the colossal waste) but never a true full-on blessing to the maximum of which earth is capable.
The world’s upside down.
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