Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 2:23am

PopeWatch: Hammer and Sickle

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Lie down with dogs and get up with fleas was the reaction of PopeWatch to Bolivian President Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez wannabe, giving to the Pope a hammer and sickle upon which Christ is crucified:

 

Hammer and Sickle

 

 

Vatican officials appear to have been flummoxed after Pope Francis was presented with a communist crucifix depicting Jesus nailed to a hammer and sickle by Bolivia’s president Evo Morales.

The gift from the leftwing leader caused an immediate stir among conservative Catholics who said the pontiff was being manipulated for ideological reasons.

The response of the pope was less clear. After being handed the wooden crucifix during a formal ceremony, he examined it for a few seconds before returning it to a Bolivian presidential aide.

His comments were largely drowned out by a flurry of camera clicks, prompting a flood of speculation. While some have claimed he expressed irritation, muttering the words “eso no está bien” (“this is not right”), Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope was more likely to have uttered “eso no sabía bien” (“I didn’t know that”) in bemusement at the origins of the present.

The Bolivian government insisted there was no political motive behind the gift. Communications minister Marianela Paco said Morales had thought the “pope of the poor” would appreciate the gesture.

“That was the intention of this gift, and it was not any sort of maneuver … It was really from great affection” she told the Patria Nueva radio station.

Go here to read the rest.   I doubt if the Pope was really discomfited by Christ on the Hammer and Sickle.  After all, when he got to Bolivia he prayed at the death site of a murdered priest who kept by his bed a photo of the crucified Christ affixed to a hammer and sickle.  Go here to read about it.   Additionally, Morales gave the Pope a pectoral cross with the same image of Christ crucified on the hammer and sickle.  Some Catholic commenters are alleging that Pope Francis was outraged by all this, but PopeWatch believes that this is mere wishful thinking.

In a way Christ crucified on a hammer and sickle is appropriate, since the Communists in the last century murdered tens of millions of Christian martyrs.  Of course Evo Morales, Communist groupie, and a man who prior to the election of Pope Francis said that Bolivia needed to get rid of Catholicism and return to native religions, did not intend this to be a commemoration of Christian dead, but rather a celebration that the extreme left now has a Pope of their own.  Pope Francis has done little to combat such a perception, ever excuse making Catholic bloggers notwithstanding.

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Don L
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 4:03am

Are we to believe that a Latin American Pope didn’t know what this evil symbolized?

“Get thee behind me, Marx,” would have been the right response.

Paul W Primavera
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 4:21am

Again, someone needs to give the Pope Quod Apostolici Muneris by Leo XIII and Divini Redemptoris by Pius XI. I do not think this man understands that socialism and communism are evil.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 4:56am

Paul W. Primavera: Truth. Communism and socialism are organized larceny and evil.
.

Communists, liberation theology heretics, and socialists are filled with coercion, deceit, and violence. They are traitors to Christ and His religion. They daily nail Jesus on that hateful symbol.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 6:15am

. I hope numerical titles do not erupt in the saccharine end of Catholic media.
” 8 Things to Know About Hammers and Sickles ”
” Five Things to Know About Indigenous Religions ”
” 6 Things to Know About Why We Write Titles Like These With Endless Numbers in Them”

Ken
Ken
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 6:23am

I’ve had plenty of complaints about our pontiff, but I give him a pass on this one. The RadTrad crowd still displays the picture of St. JPII kissing the Koran. I strongly doubt there was an itinerary listing, “3pm presentation of hammer and sickle crucifix.”

Paul W Primavera
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 6:24am

Whatever happened to telling these political leaders, “The Kingdom of God is not of this world,” and then returning to them all their Marxist medallions and icons?

Ginny
Ginny
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 6:54am

@Bill Bannon
Those banal and insipid numerical lists remind me of Hints from Heloise.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 7:18am

Ginny,
That Jimmy Akin with a good IQ does it the most …says alot about the profit motive….and that Jimmy knows his demographic. When years ago he praised Benedict’s Verbum Domini, I entered the thread and challenged him on Benedict in section 42 attributing the herem massacres to men instead of mandated by God as scripture declares six times. He was stone silent. He has a nice salary at Catholic answers…100K. Apparently he wants to keep that rather than criticize any Pope at a deep level. That in a nut shell is the Catholic intellectual problem…criticize a Pope when needed and you may be looking for another source of income. For professors of theology, they take an oath to submit to the non infallible but not with the three caveats of LG 25. Critical Catholic thinking then becomes rare. An out of work theology professor…is then an Uber driver.

The Bear
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 8:09am

Pope Francis dug a pit and fell into it, per Proverbs. This is why the Bear said the Pope cannot go to Cuba, because only Nixon can go to China. It reminded the Bear of a scene from Woody Allen’s 1971 “Bananas.”

Don L
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 8:12am

We need to be cautious in dissing lists:

Todays most appropriate reading….
2 Corinthians 4:6-11, 16, 17

6For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 16So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 8:38am

This appears to be how Evo Morales interprets, “In Hoc Signo Vinces”.

c matt
c matt
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 10:37am

From his facial expressions, it does not look like he was communicating disapproval. Actually he looks not exactly pleased, but somewhat bemused. For that reason, I give more credence to the “I did not know that [about the thing’s origin]” rather than the “this is not good” story line. His physical reaction seems more in line with learning some semi-interesting tidbit of trivia rather than shock or disapproval. If you watch the video with no sound, you are hard pressed to detect disapproval.

c matt
c matt
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 10:40am

Regardless of the intent of the designer or the giver of the thing, it is ironic that the hammer and sickle takes the place of the cross. The cross was an instrument and symbol of shame, torture and brutality, transformed by Christ into a symbol of victory (including victory over the Roman Empire that persecuted Him and His followers). Likewise, I can see this becoming a symbol of Christ’s victory over communism, regardless of the intention of the makers of this thing.

Stephen E Dalton
Stephen E Dalton
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 10:55am

Will this inspire a new hymn, “The Old Rugged Hammer and Sickle”?

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 11:04am

I don’t like “caused immediate stir among conservative Catholics”. It should be upsetting to all American Catholics… All Christians everywhere really.
.
Who is disingenuous – the pope? Or me trying to give it all a pass.
.
William P. Walsh good comment , “In Hoc Signo Vinces”.

Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 11:31am

The scenes of the pope interacting with dictators from the Americas are very similar to scenes of Obama interacting with dictators around the world. The dictators all know they can use both weak men as props for pictures & gaining political points.

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 12:38pm

The Bolivian government insisted there was no political motive behind the gift. Communications minister Marianela Paco said Morales had thought the “pope of the poor” would appreciate the gesture.

“That was the intention of this gift, and it was not any sort of maneuver … It was really from great affection” she told the Patria Nueva radio station.

…right, and the guy who was sponsoring the bill to remove Juniper Sierra was shocked, shocked I say, to find out the Pope was going to visit America at the time the bill was to be voted on.

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 3:38pm

Pity poor Obama. Morales beat him to it.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 4:31pm

Juniper Sierra — is there much of an effort out there to defend him?

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 4:32pm

Serra

Foxfier
Admin
Friday, July 10, AD 2015 5:05pm

Anzlyne– enough, with strong enough facts, to make the guy backpedal like a rider headed for a crash who doesn’t know about hand-breaks.

I’m not sure if it’s the number of folks defending him or the attack being so flimsy.

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Saturday, July 11, AD 2015 6:56am

Donald McClary – Thank you for Bolivia rising link.

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