The Vicar Visits Congress

Published October 2, 2015 | By RE

Off the microphone of RE

Aired on the Doomstead Diner on October 2, 2015

Discuss this Rant at the Podcast Table inside the Diner

Big Newz from last week besides the endless stream of Refugee stories was the visit by His Holiness, Vicar of Christ on Earth, Pope Francis to the Hallowed Halls of Congress.

The VoCoE has been making a lot of Headlines lately, a couple of months ago he issued out an Encyclical "Laudato si", which translates from Latin as "Praise be to you". Basically his Popeness was encouraging the flock to take better care of the Earth, and also to do a better job of sharing the wealth of the Planet.

1. “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.[1]

2. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

The share the wealth thing didn't play too well with right wing think tanks however. From the Gatestone Institute International Policy Council:

Some high-profile commentators think they smell a Marxist clothed in white papal robes, who dreams of redistributing the world's wealth. Pope Francis insists that he has little interest in Marxism and that his political advocacy against materialism, capitalism, greed and idolatry are largely religious in nature. However, the flavor of some of his statements might suggest otherwise.

The Pope also knows that the UN is poised to strong-arm member nations to sign on to an impossible globalist agenda that will require a total shift of the world's wealth, and a restructuring of international politics and economics with a one-world government and a universal religion at the steering wheel.

Even to the Pope's admirers, that sounds a less like peace and love and more like a utopian totalitarian nightmare.

OMFG!!!! THE POPE IS A COMMIE!

Not to mention he also wants a One World Goobermint with the Holy Roman Catholic Church in charge again!

Now, anybody who gets the righty think tanks in such a tizzy gets a thumbs up from me for that, and overall I do support the agenda of His Holiness on these issues. However, I do have a few issues with exactly how serious he is in terms of doing more than just jawboning.

With that in mind, here's the Pope Rant:

Snippet:

The fact religion is becoming more prominent in the political environment is a disturbing, if not unexpected outcome. Much of the popular sentiment against the refugees stems from the fact they are by and large overwhelmingly Muslim. The Hungarians for instance have explicitly stated they will only take Christian refugees, although I don't know how you can determine this with folks leaving war zones with no documentation. Who would you call to find out if they attended Sunday Church services recently?

There is also a huge cultural divide between the more fundamentalist Muslim sects and Western culture and ideas about women's rights, standards of dress and so forth. Polygamy is still acceptable in many Muslim nations, and child brides are fairly common as well. Arranged marriages rather than the Western ideal of Romantic Love forming the basis for a marriage also are common. To the Westerner, this all seems positively medieval. To the Muslim Fundamentalist, its positively lurid that women are allowed to walk around with short skirts and hit the beaches in itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikinis. You smash together two groups of people with such wildly different cultural perspectives and sprinkle in the vast inequality of wealth since even f they had some money when they left their home countries they are probably dead broke by the time they make it to Sweden or Germany, and you have an instant recipe for social strife.

FOR THE REST, LISTEN TO THE RANT!