PopeWatch: FRATELLI TUTTI Summarized and Translated from the Original BOMFOG-Part VI

Go here to read Part I, here to read Part II,  here to read part III,  here to read part IV and here to read part V.

251.Those who truly forgive do not forget. Instead, they choose not to yield to the same destructive force that caused them so much suffering.

252.Forgiveness is precisely what enables us to pursue justice without falling into a spiral of revenge or the injustice of forgetting.

253.Violence perpetrated by the state, using its structures and power, is not on the same level as that perpetrated by particular groups.  (Once again a proposition that is either true or false depending upon the facts of a situation.  The Pope is ever at war with nuance and facts.)

1. I ask God “to prepare our hearts to encounter our brothers and sisters, so that we may overcome our differences rooted in political thinking, language, culture and religion. Let us ask him to anoint our whole being with the balm of his mercy, which heals the injuries caused by mistakes, misunderstandings and disputes. And let us ask him for the grace to send us forth, in humility and meekness, along the demanding but enriching path of seeking peace”.

255.War and the Death Penalty.

256.There are those who seek solutions in war.  (Rather all of human history teaches that war is part of the human condition.)

257.United Nations as a solution to war.  (Read in the right spirit our Pope is quite the comedian.)

258.Bye, bye Just War Teaching.

259.In today’s world, there are no longer just isolated outbreaks of war in one country or another; instead, we are experiencing a “world war fought piecemeal”, since the destinies of countries are so closely interconnected on the global scene. (As is the case with so many things the Pope says, this simply isn’t true.  One of the features of the post war world is a success in usually isolating wars to prevent regional conflagrations.)

260. In the words of Saint John XXIII, “it no longer makes sense to maintain that war is a fit instrument with which to repair the violation of justice”.

1. Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. (Manifestly untrue.  Some wars leave the world a better place.  Popes should not lie in Encyclicals or other official teaching texts.)

262.With the money spent on weapons and other military expenditures, let us establish a global fund[245] that can finally put an end to hunger and favour development in the most impoverished countries, so that their citizens will not resort to violent or illusory solutions, or have to leave their countries in order to seek a more dignified life.  (Poverty almost never plays a role in wars between nations.  Even revolutions within nations tend to occur during times of rising prosperity.  Not only does the Pope not have a solution to the problem of war, he does not understand the true nature of the problem of war:  conflicts between peoples and groups, often intractable in nature, and sometimes where there is some justice on both sides.)

263.Abolish the death penalty.

264.In the New Testament, while individuals are asked not to take justice into their own hands (cf. Rom 12:17.19), there is also a recognition of the need for authorities to impose penalties on evildoers (cf. Rom 13:4; 1 Pet 2:14).   (The Pope does not mention that the Old Testament has endless death penalties for crimes and that the New Testament utters not a word against the death penalty.)

265.Pope argues that some people in the history of the Church were against the death penalty.  (He does not state that for the first 1950 years of the history of the Church the clear teaching of the Church was that the death penalty was licit, and that clerics, including the Pope, frequently ordered the death penalty.)

266.Fear and resentment can easily lead to viewing punishment in a vindictive and even cruel way, rather than as part of a process of healing and reintegration into society.  (Popewatch  knows of a case where a fellow murdered his girlfriend, his daughter, 5, and his son, 3.  How would the Pope reintegrate him into society?)

267.Pope gives an indirect nod to Black Lives Matter.

268.Argues against the death penalty and life imprisonment, which the Pope calls a secret death penalty.  (Campaigners against the death penalty used to argue that life imprisonment was sufficient.  Few political movements have been more unremittingly mendacious than the anti-death penalty movement.)

269.A murderer retains his personal dignity.

270.Attempts to enlist Christ in his anti-death penalty campaign.

271.The different religions, based on their respect for each human person as a creature called to be a child of God, contribute significantly to building fraternity and defending justice in society.

272.God the Father is necessary for fraternity.

273.Quotes John Paul II:  If there is no transcendent truth, in obedience to which man achieves his full identity, then there is no sure principle for guaranteeing just relations between people. Their self-interest as a class, group or nation would inevitably set them in opposition to one another. If one does not acknowledge transcendent truth, then the force of power takes over, and each person tends to make full use of the means at his disposal in order to impose his own interests or his own opinion, with no regard for the rights of others… The root of modern totalitarianism is to be found in the denial of the transcendent dignity of the human person who, as the visible image of the invisible God, is therefore by his very nature the subject of rights that no one may violate – no individual, group, class, nation or state. Not even the majority of the social body may violate these rights, by going against the minority.

274.From our faith experience and from the wisdom accumulated over centuries, but also from lessons learned from our many weaknesses and failures, we, the believers of the different religions, know that our witness to God benefits our societies.

275.It should be acknowledged that “among the most important causes of the crises of the modern world are a desensitized human conscience, a distancing from religious values and the prevailing individualism accompanied by materialistic philosophies that deify the human person and introduce worldly and material values in place of supreme and transcendental principles”.

276.For these reasons, the Church, while respecting the autonomy of political life, does not restrict her mission to the private sphere. On the contrary, “she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines” in the building of a better world, or fail to “reawaken the spiritual energy” that can contribute to the betterment of society. (The apologia of our ever political Pope.)

277.The Church esteems the ways in which God works in other religions, and “rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for their manner of life and conduct, their precepts and doctrines which… often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men and women”.[271] Yet we Christians are very much aware that “if the music of the Gospel ceases to resonate in our very being, we will lose the joy born of compassion, the tender love born of trust, the capacity for reconciliation that has its source in our knowledge that we have been forgiven and sent forth. If the music of the Gospel ceases to sound in our homes, our public squares, our workplaces, our political and financial life, then we will no longer hear the strains that challenge us to defend the dignity of every man and woman”.[272] Others drink from other sources. For us the wellspring of human dignity and fraternity is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. From it, there arises, “for Christian thought and for the action of the Church, the primacy given to relationship, to the encounter with the sacred mystery of the other, to universal communion with the entire human family, as a vocation of all”.[273  (What remains of the command of Christ:  Go ye and make ye disciples of all the nations?  Not a whole lot.)

278.For many Christians, this journey of fraternity also has a Mother, whose name is Mary. Having received this universal motherhood at the foot of the cross (cf. Jn 19:26), she cares not only for Jesus but also for “the rest of her children” (cf. Rev 12:17). In the power of the risen Lord, she wants to give birth to a new world, where all of us are brothers and sisters, where there is room for all those whom our societies discard, where justice and peace are resplendent.

279.We Christians ask that, in those countries where we are a minority, we be guaranteed freedom, even as we ourselves promote that freedom for non-Christians in places where they are a minority.   (As the Pope looks with complete indifference at the persecution of Chinese Catholics, indeed he cooperates with their persecutors.)

280.At the same time, we ask God to strengthen unity within the Church, a unity enriched by differences reconciled by the working of the Spirit. (The Holy Spirit can of course redeem all human folly, but we have no guarantee as to the souls lost by human folly within the leadership of the Church.)

281.The Pope quotes himself:  “God does not see with his eyes, God sees with his heart. And God’s love is the same for everyone, regardless of religion. Even if they are atheists, his love is the same. When the last day comes, and there is sufficient light to see things as they really are, we are going to find ourselves quite surprised”.  (Pity that there are plenty of quotes of Christ stating otherwise.)

282.The truth is that violence has no basis in our fundamental religious convictions, but only in their distortion.  (In the world to come Pope Urban II and Pope Francis will no doubt have a very interesting chat.)

283.Condemns terrorism.

284.Wails on “fundamentalists” again.

285.Quotes from his meeting with Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb.

286.In these pages of reflection on universal fraternity, I felt inspired particularly by Saint Francis of Assisi, but also by others of our brothers and sisters who are not Catholics: Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi and many more. Yet I would like to conclude by mentioning another person of deep faith who, drawing upon his intense experience of God, made a journey of transformation towards feeling a brother to all. I am speaking of Blessed Charles de Foucauld.

287.Prayers.

Done!