The pope may be many things in many contexts, but he should avoid becoming a shill for the Democratic Party. This is how he came across when he delivered a political statement just after he had been visited by David Axelrod, Obama’s behind-the-scenes heavy.
The effect was redoubled when leading liberal Cardinals, including Chicago’s Blase Cupich, put on a media floorshow to promote the pope’s “message to America.” It was prattle we had heard many times before, from nice, peaceful politicians like Jimmy Carter: peace-not-war, appeasement, and negotiation at any price.
The pope had been proclaiming this himself on Twitter when he was only Cardinal Robert Prevost: simplistic Leftism along with Democratic talking points, and open immigration.
President Trump replied: “Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly, and more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church.”
I copy this concluding passage from his “Truth Social,” for it is routinely passed over by “the Media.” Trump was not attacking the Catholic Church. He was being characteristically candid, as we might hope that churchmen, too, might be candid, sometimes.
The contrary impression – that Trump was putting his boot in – was made by spokesmen for the anti-Trump side, with fond memories of the days when the Catholic Church could almost be presented as a department of the Democratic Party. This continues to be part of leftwing mythology, and the media still want to believe it, although American Catholics have mostly risen from the abortion sewer in which it deposited them.
Moreover, Pope Leo could not himself have wished to be seen, playing an obvious political game, even if he was. He was being used by a capable professional operative, who was exploiting his naivety and inexperience. He wasn’t trying to be mischievous, as his predecessor often was.
Of course, Trump can be worse than mischievous, and should practice the custody of his mouth, harder. He is much too articulate.
The role of political trolls has now migrated, with other disagreeable creatures, to the Left both in America and in Western Europe. It still has not penetrated deeply into Eastern Europe, where people still retain the experience of Communism, and the many unpleasant connotations of the word “peace” in Communist propaganda.
But west of there, are the modern liberal lands, where the words “Trump,” and “Jews” (or alternatively, “Israel”) regularly fetch an automatic hysteria that was instilled by Cold-War Soviet psychology, designed to flourish in low-intelligence environments.
American Democrats can carry the brainless tradition one ocean-width farther. They can now teach Europe a thing or two, for instance: how to become catastrophically “woke.”
Christ’s expression, “Forgive them for they know not what they do,” is one that we should all meditate upon. It is not a spiritual advantage to be terminally stupid. And if you are, someone is needed to take care of you, for you will be a danger not only to your community, but to yourself.
Indeed, as I have argued here and elsewhere, that is a “problem with democracy,” which becomes ever worse, now that we have entered the era of “artificial intelligence.” More and more extreme forms of know-nothingness have become possible in the general population.
Previously, one had to know at least how to tie one’s shoes, and there were levels of common sense that were equivalently “known” to everyone. Now, no matter how low the bar is set, all bets are off.
Those who are familiar with Christianity, and for that matter usually the other “great religions,” know, or knew, that peace was not obtainable without some level of judgement. If, for instance, someone is plausibly trying to kill you, “peace talks” with him will not necessarily make him desist.
If he has, by reputation, the habit of killing anyone with whom he disagrees – as the Iranian Mullahs and ALL their allies most certainly have – you need options including appropriate weapons, and disciplined training.
Christ, incidentally, surrendered, and had He not we can’t possibly know how it would have gone. He was escorted down the Via Dolorosa “peacefully,” to His Crucifixion. The individual Christian has that standard constantly before him.
But a society, except perhaps a fighting one like Masada, will seldom agree to be crucified, without complaint. It cannot possibly be incumbent upon them to “submit” (Islamic term) to violence, in service of vicious evil. Even the individual need not submit, when he is properly armed; and if the reader consults the historical chronicles of the last two thousand years, he will see that Christians have been consistently unlikely to welch out.
If we had not been so, Christianity would not be even an historical memory. No one would have thought its quick and brutal fate worth recording.
But Christians must live in a real, threatening world, and Christianity was designed for them, by a real, loving God.
Unlike Islam, for instance, or the more Nominalist excesses of Scholasticism, or Presbyterianism, or other extravagances, Catholic Christianity does not consist of an exhaustive rule book (including, in Sheikh Khomeini’s case, detailed instructions on how to wipe yourself).
We are told to become individual Saints, even though we should appreciate that such Sanctity is beyond us; nevertheless, we must persist in our attempt. We are told not only “to do no murder,” but also to live, and let live, in this theatre of the Divine. And we have received the possibility of faith, and reason, in pursuit of these mysterious, and lasting, goals.
When we are dealing with an enemy that is very evil, and has repeatedly announced his intention to exterminate us Americans and Jews, and acted whenever he could on that intention, we do not need the permission of a priest to respond aggressively.
We need the command and the obedience of soldiers.
