Pope Francis: Christmas Festivities “a Charade” while World at War
Now he is targeting weapons makers for global strife.
During a homily that followed the massacre in Paris, Pope Francis said the “whole world is at war”.
His most recent homily was darker still, declaring traditional Christmas festivities a charade during this time of global turmoil:
The pontiff put this holiday season in perspective during mass at the Basilica di Santa Maria last week. His speech comes after a rash of notable violent incidents, including the now infamous terrorist attacks in Paris, as “we are close to Christmas. There will be lights, there will be parties, bright trees, even Nativity scenes – all decked out – while the world continues to wage war.
“It’s all a charade. The world has not understood the way of peace. The whole world is at war,” Pope Francis said. “A war can be justified, so to speak, with many, many reasons, but when all the world as it is today, at war, piecemeal though that war may be—a little here, a little there—there is no justification.”
The Pope expanded his blame from weapons dealers to weapons makers for the continuing strife:
“You can not serve two masters: either God or riches.’ War is the right choice for him, who would serve wealth: ‘Let us build weapons, so that the economy will right itself somewhat, and let us go forward in pursuit of our interests. There is an ugly word the Lord spoke: ‘Cursed!’ Because He said: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers!.’ The men who work war, who make war, are cursed, they are criminals. A war can be justified – so to speak – with many, many reasons, but when all the world as it is today, at war – piecemeal though that war may be – a little here, a little there, and everywhere – there is no justification – and God weeps. Jesus weeps.”
Pope Francis is clearly feeling the stress of being a prime target of ISIS terror operatives, and so the bleak attitude is understandable. Especially in light of the fact that an attack during one of the holiest seasons for Christians is especially tempting for radical Islamic terror organizers.
In fact, British security experts indicate holiday shoppers are likely to be the next target:
A terror expert has warned the festive period makes the iconic landmarks in the UK a “soft target”, with tourists, shoppers and revellers a likely target.
MI5 has warned Britain is facing the highest threat of a terror attack than it has ever experienced, with seven terror attacks foiled in Britain in the last six months alone and nine disrupted overseas in this year alone.
Despite ISIS-video threats against New York City’s famed landmarks, residents are planning to continue with their usual festivities:
Several holiday-themed events opened this week with increased police presence. The annual Union Square Holiday Market opened Thursday, and Urbanspace, the organization that runs the market, said it expects to have just as busy a holiday season as ever.
“We’re going on as usual this year, but obviously we’re cognizant of what’s going on in the world,” said Rachel Van Dolsen, a spokeswoman for Urbanspace. “The holiday market has been in New York for over 20 years, it has integrated itself into the city’s culture, it’s become an institution.”
The Pope is now in Kenya as part of his African tour, which will include masses in that country and Uganda. Despite the butchering of Christians at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists, including 147 university students in Nairobi in April this year, the Holy Father is still traveling through the streets in a simple Honda with windows open.
Should a jihadi sniper decide to take aim, it will not be a gun maker or ammunition dealer that would be responsible for the ensuing tragedy. The free market does not control the choices people make to embrace evil or ignore real world risks to themselves.
Sunday is the start of Advent, and the season will be celebrated with candle lighting and prayers in Catholic homes around the world…including mine. I will be enjoying these festivities all the more, because the continued chaos makes me more deeply appreciate the many blessings I have (including a being Legal Insurrection author).
I will also be saying prayers for Pope Francis, that he remains safe and learns to embrace the fact that an economic system is not our enemy.
That last prayer may require a miracle to fulfill.
(Featured image: Time video)
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Comments
Sometimes I think Pope Francis wears a Che Guevara t-shirt under his robes.
I’m so embarrassed.
The world is always at war. And, we always need “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.”
J.R.R.Tolkien was a devout, daily-Mass Catholic. In The Two Towers he wrote “War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Numenor; and I would have loved her for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.”
You see, Your Grace, the problem is not with the gun makers, not with the gun dealers, or ammunition sellers, but with those who choose to do evil.
For many years I lived without a gun. At the encouragement of President Barack Hussein 0bama, I realized I had Bibles to cling to, but didn’t have a gun. Before purchasing that gun and his brothers, I decided that if push came to shove I would shoot with the intention of killing. My actual hope is a 12-gauge slug to the nose, so they would need a closed casket. That would be icing. The real desire is to stop the perpetrator in the act.
So many times in movies we see a good guy get the gun and get the drop on the bad guy. The bad guy knows the good guy is good, and probably won’t shoot him. The bad guy edges this way or that and soon recovers the edge. So often this happens that I think there must be something to it.
The first quote to come up from my “good, the bad, and the ugly” search:
“[Tuco is in a bubble bath. The One Armed Man enters the room]
One Armed Man: I’ve been looking for you for 8 months. Whenever I should have had a gun in my right hand, I thought of you. Now I find you in exactly the position that suits me. I had lots of time to learn to shoot with my left.
[Tuco kills him with the gun he has hidden in the foam]
Tuco: When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.“
Well, ok, Tuco wasn’t exactly a good guy, but he sure as heck wasn’t going to be shot to death in a bubble bath.
Brilliantly composed comment.
My compliments, good sir.
The format for praying for the intentions of the Holy Father is to state that intention, and then pray one Our Father and one Hail Mary followed by one Glory Be. I try to pray for the intentions of the Holy Father right after praying the Rosary. He surely needs all the help he can get.
A great idea, and I think I will join you.
Some new theology where weapons have free will?? Typical leftist talking points, it is the guns fault, or the company that made the gun, never are individuals or hate spewing mosques to blame.
Pithy and right on target. A simple explanation of simplistic thinking.
P.S. Sorry, I meant to hit the “up” button. The rating should read “5 up” votes, and “0 down” votes.
I am not Catholic so I don’t have much of a dog in this fight. However, as a Chrsitian (Protestant) I take issue with the premise that gun manufacturers or an economic system causes war. In all actuality it is greed, power and shall I say it, sin. This is what causes war! Everything else is a charade. No Pope Francis, we are not “cursed” because of gun makers, we are cursed because all hearts are wicked. This is Christianity 101.
Actually, I know this is hard for the Pope to believe, there was war before guns were invented.
This guy is, quite frankly, kinda dumb. Otherwise, he’d realize he’s enabled a freak called ‘Obama,’ who has intentionally put the world on the fast-track to World War III.
If Francis got all that he wished for, he’s then start complaining that the unicorns that subsequently populated the world had horns are that are too sharp (that is, they’re dangerous – and could also somehow affect the weather.)So Francis would have all the horns cut off all the little unicorns. Then there would be no sharp horns, but also no unicorns — just little horses with ugly stubs on their heads. So now Francis would have something new to whine about, and he would remain in his psychological happy-place.
It takes strength to oppose tyranny. Like Obama, Francis is a weakling to bullies, and takes the path of least resistance: criticize the victim of the bullying, and enable the bully. (Like Gandhi, Francis is taking on people who would never hurt him. Let’s see how Francis – or Gandhi – would have taken on Nazi occupiers in World War II, instead taking on the weather, and the British in India.) In the process, Francis is endangering the people who trusted him not to. (In Obama’s case, Obama actually preys on his fellow countrymen, enabled by the likes of Boehner, who trusted the cowardly scumbag to fight against Obama’s tyranny.)
Francis is doing as much damage to Catholicism as Obama is doing to America, and Boehner has done to the Republican party.
God must be pulling out his hair.
Francis was selected by cardinals who knew exactly who he is and what kind of papacy he would have.
And yet, who appointed those cardinals? JP2 and Benedict. So what went wrong?
Extreme Christians can be such great people; they can also be such utter idiots.
And the Pope of Rome would have us lay face down in worship and submission to the false god of the heathens?
The Pope “thinks” like a SJW. Inanimate objects and climate change are the source of evil, not the hearts of men.
I feel much sadness for the Catholic Church: Such a fool following such a brilliant predecessor as Pope. The world needs a great leader in this position, not a confused man.
Besides, I thought the Nobel Peace Prize winner of several years ago would lead us all to Utopia. The Pope could blame him — I do.
The pope and his coterie benefit most generously from capitalism. Capitalism enables him to visit the poor side of town and to continue the lie that capitalism is greed and to seek to make the church relevant with climate change scientism.
Why doesn’t the pope give up all he has and give it to the poor, as Jesus said? Because of the pope’s self-preserving desire (and greed) for security and continuity, a common ‘charade’ played by ‘pious’ liberals.
Not all people in the world want war, but there is an element who thoroughly enjoy war and the entire concept of war. To these cretins, war is joy, inner fulfillment and MONEY.
This “charade” of a pope consistently sides with those who oppose Christianity and both despoil the birth of the person he purports to serve.
Adding to the woes of the world, are a FAKE prezzy and a FAKE pope.
Go away, Francis. Find a Franciscan monastery, abandon the Jesuits, read the Bible and ruminate upon it, pray.
I thought popes were supposed to specialize in understanding sin and evil, but this dolt believes that weapons cause violence.
I thought popes were supposed to have an understanding of theology and history, but this dolt appears to have no clue about the teachings of Islam or what those teachings have done to civilization for 14 centuries.
Actually the Pople also seems to have a poor handle on what his own Bible teaches, as well as Catholic theology, catechism, and church history.
Romans 13:3-5
“3For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.…”
A ruler is, according to St. Paul, and agent of God on earth who bears the sword for a reason. To strike fear into the hearts of those who would do evil. Like ISIS, maybe? Stop me if I’m wrong but wasn’t it just a short time ago that the Pope was calling on the world’s governments to do something about ISIS’ genocidal slaughter of Christians? That wouldn’t be possible without arms makers and arms dealers.
Speaking of St. Paul, he almost lost his life when he visited the Temple in Jerusalem during one Passover. At the time Christianity was just a Jewish sect. The Jews accused him of bringing a gentile into forbidden parts of the Temple. Gentiles were only allowed in the outer courtyard and perhaps a couple of other places. The Jews were getting ready to stone him to death when he was rescued by the Roman garrison. It wasn’t all sweetness and light, the Romans wanted to figure out what Paul had done to rile up the crowd and in typical Roman fashion they were going to flog him to make sure they got the truth. Until Paul informed them he was a Roman citizen by virtue of his birth in Tarsus. The Romans would have suffered the death penalty had they flogged a citizen.
Later when Paul got wind of a plot to murder him he appealed to the Roman commander. The commander believed him as he had just received a request out of the blue to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin the next morning where zealots would have had a perfect opportunity to kill him. So the Romans smuggled Paul out of Jerusalem under heavy guard that night, and took him to Caesarea.
So St. Paul had no problem appealing to civil authorities for protection, and he was lucid enough to understand they only could provide him protection because they were heavily armed. By arms makers and arms merchants; the Romans didn’t make their own weapons.
And the Catholic Church is not pacifist. St. Thomas Aquinas developed his just war doctrine centuries ago. Sometimes, waging war is a moral obligation. As is self-defense of one’s self or others.
Matthew 22:36-40
” 36 ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’
37 Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The commandment to love your neighbor presumes that you must be able to love yourself. If you don’t love yourself you can’t possibly love your neighbor. So Catholics aren’t required to just give up their lives to an unjust criminal attacker. And since you are commanded to love your neighbor, if you’re capable of going to your neighbor’s defense if someone is unjustly trying to take their life it’s your moral obligation to do so.
The catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that all justified self-defense is based upon these principles.
And being capable of going to your neighbor’s defense normally requires a weapon. St. Paul understood this, and appreciated the fact that only armed individuals could provide the protection he willingly sought. The Pope doesn’t understand this. I sometimes wonder if he’s ever read the Bible, or understands it.
I’m all but convinced that this Pope is a Leftist-Marxist-Socialist plant empowered and emplaced by threats, blackmail and evil- hence the sudden and mysterious abdication of the last Pope.
Priests and Cardinals may not marry but they still have family and loved ones who are vulnerable.
I see NO evidence of Holiness, Dignity, or real Sympathy in this Pope.
I suppose when the Pope is condemning arms makers and dealers he’s not talking about the arms makers SIG, Heckler & Koch, and Steyr since they make the weapons the his Vatican issues to his Swiss Guard.
If that were really what concerns him then he should be promoting war against them, not condemning it. The church teaches that there are just wars, does it not? The church has in the past sponsored wars. What has it come to when a pope’s response to evil is to condemn those who make war against it, and to advocate…what? Pacifism?! Surrender?! This is not a pope worthy of respect.
When has there ever been a Xmas without a war, somewhere in the world?
Targeting weapons makers – wasn’t that the plot of the first Iron Man movie?
I am wondering if there are pictures involved???