Posted on 02/20/2025 1:21:08 PM PST by ebb tide
In an open letter to American Catholics dated 11 February 2025, Pope Francis directly challenges the Trump Administration’s desire – and by extension the desire of many conservative leaders in Europe – to impose a rule of law and sanctity of national borders. The Pope states:
“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ (cf.Lk 10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception. But worrying about personal, community or national identity, apart from these considerations, easily introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the will of the strongest as the criterion of truth.”
Pope Francis, as usual, tries to cloak Globalism in the mantle of the Magesterium. Christ also said, “For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always.” (See, Matt. 26:11) The question Francis and his fellow social justice warriors ought to be asking is “What form of government has the least amount of poor?” Or, to quote Sir Winston Churchill “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
As such, American spiritual and economic engine must run on the fuel of free market economics, respect and integrity of private property rights, and security from external threats. As so brilliantly explained by author Tom Bethell in The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages:
“When property is privatized, and the rule of law is established, in such a way that all including the rulers themselves are subject to the same law, economies will prosper and civilization will blossom. Of the different possible configurations of property, only private property can have this desirable effect.” (Emphasis added)
Threats to the United States today and into the foreseeable future recognize that The West’s center of gravity is the strength of our free market economy and our Constitutional Republican form of limited government: we are not a democracy, where the tyranny of mob rule. The primacy of these national interests as the foundation of our societal will to fight must be protected. President Trump, as well as conservative leaders here in Europe, merely wish to point out that an illegal alien is no more a citizen than a burglar is a member of the family. This ought not be an immoral or illogical point to any sane person.
Pope Francis ought to concentrate on running The Church, which he is flying into the ground.
Not satisfied with merely expressing his ill-founded opinions on these matters of economics and national sovereignty outside of his jurisdiction, Pope Francis next openly foments dissent by American Catholics against their lawful civic authority:
“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all.”
This should come of no surprise to anyone familiar with Pope Francis’s and his Society of Jesus’s support for radical Liberation Theology movements, which are nothing short of fomenting violent Communist revolution against Church and State in Latin America and now it appears the United States and Europe. Sadly, the worst frivolities and iconoclastic, fringe elements of Vatican II have become the new orthodoxy in the Church and Francis is their ringleader.
Pope Francis ought to concentrate on running The Church, which he is flying into the ground. He is promoting and celebrating every form of perversity with the likes of Father James Martin, S.J., while attacking the only group of Catholics that have growing and vibrant communities, Traditional Catholics attending the Latin Mass. From his celebration of the pagan Pachamama idol in the sacred ground of St. Peters (In Inca mythology Pachamama is fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting) to his welcoming (if not worshipping) radical LGBTQ+ elements to Rome in this supposed Holy Year, this Pope seems possessed by evil spirits.
Moreover, if Pope St Pius V was such as feckless coward as Pope Francis there would have been no victory at the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571 and the Ottoman Turks would have destroyed Christendom then and there. Christendom in Europe and the United States is under a clear and present danger from Islamification. It is clear that Pope Francis lacks the moral fiber to rally The Church in any meaningful way. As a Catholic, I pray for his exorcism and release from such spiritual disturbances. Or his successor: prayerfully a Traditional Roman Catholic.
Ping
I thought that heretic was on his deathbed.
Your pope believes those who illegally enter countries have more grace and are higher in standing to God than his body of believers in the church.
It is called Liberation Theology and it is a false doctrine. He believes just being poor makes you better, To bad the book of James amongst much other scripture disagrees with him.
But that is expected when a faith puts scripture second to man’s traditions.
What I've seen in the last few years is that *nothing* that this Pope has proclaimed is consistent with what the nuns taught me.
My money's on the nuns having taught true Catholic beliefs rather than this Pope doing so.
The Good Samaritan acted on his own volition at his own expense.
He did not mandate the government do it and fund it with extorted taxpayer money.
“deathbed.”
He’s improving. He’s strong, I’ll give him that. His real name is Jorge Mario (George Mark). George is a name of strength and fighting, the dragon slayer, and so is Mark (”warlike” and my first name). The Gospel of St. Mark is the blunt, repent gospel, also designating strength. I think he may be Pope into his mid-90s.
The Good Samaritan is told is the context of a man who is trying to justify his self righteousness. Jesus rebukes him by showing neither he, nor any man , lives up to the first commandment, nor in the end even his own standard. The Catholic way of looking at scripture is to appeal to authority, like Augustine and try to develop an ethical rule. The Protty way is to look at the passage in its scriptural context and see how it points to the Savior. Neither the lawyer testing Jesus, the beaten man, the Levite or the priest has anything but filthy rags to offer for salvation. They all need a savior, that’s why Christ came, that’s what he always teaches.
25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
SOLA SCRIPTURA
No elaborate parables are needed to show that, and that's only one level of what is going on here, and not the most important one.
Jesus is talking to scribes and Pharisees, both of whom believe in a very strict reading of the Law of Moses, and both of whom look down on those who don't. A particular object of their disdain are the Samaritans. The Samaritans are the survivors of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel (not Judah) in 732 BC. They are syncretists with paganism, not full-blooded Israelites, and -- in particular -- don't subject themselves to the Law as far as worshipping in the Jerusalem Temple.
Jesus' point is that that Samaritan is closer to the kind of ethical behavior God (and the moral law reflected in Torah) demands than many Jews (looking here at his listeners) are. This is highly shocking to his listeners. It's like a modern-day Jesus praising a Russian for his devotion to liberty in front of a crowd of Americans. It grates on his listeners.
To merely look at it in the lens of reformation arguments about soteriology is somewhat superficial. Yes, Jesus' hearers needed a savior, but they also needed to get over the idea that salvation was intrinsically connected to their birth as Jews and their rigorous adherence to rabbinic law. Those things are nice, but God asks for more.
exactly right, it explains why the Jews rejected Christ in large measure . you see it in Nazareth where Christ is not honored in his hometown after citint the widow of Zarepheth and throughout the book of Acts where Paul was chased all over the Mediterranean as the Jews were forced to confront that God ‘s grace included all natiionalities. this goes to the heart of why this man in articular rejected Jesus, giving up the privileges of his national identity was even harder , no doubt, that giving up his riches would be for the rich young ruler who justified himself by keeping the 10 commandments, in his own eyes.
Nothing is more profound than accepting the savior.
I’ll listen to Francis on border issues when the Vatican City removes it marble walls and iron gates.
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