Not being Catholic, and therefore believing the Pope is just a man like any other, I don’t think much of pointing out that the Pope is a hypocrite for declaring that weapons producers and sellers can’t possibly be Christian, and using all manner of pejoratives to describe them. One has to wonder if this includes the weapons producers who make the firearms for his Swiss Guard, which include SIG, Glock, H&K, and Styer? Is that not a who’s who of top global small arms companies? Surely the Swiss Guards themselves are Christians? So how, exactly, are the companies who manufacture, and the people who ultimately sell firearms to his armed guards suddenly not Christians?
This is ludicrous, but I wouldn’t expect much more from someone who very much seems to believe in Liberation Theology. He should disarm the Swiss Guards before he casts stones at others.
and now.. live from Turin.. (you know, where the Carcanos were made?)
A church that spent decades lying and covering up crimes against children committed by their own priests has no right to make judgments about who is a good Christian and who isn’t.
The Swiss Guard is a selected exclusively from Catholic Swiss Army Veterans. While they do use some top-notch firearms, those pole-axes they carry aren’t just for show. They were some of the deadliest medieval weapons and the Guards are trained to use them.
This Pope is a real Leftist jackass. Politicizing the church is a very bad move. Whether he swung left or right, he’ll lose half his audience.
I’m Catholic and he’s starting to piss me off.
the pope is infallible only in matters dealing with the Faith, nothing more
Yes. As a fellow Catholic I agree. And it’s about time the media research the term “ex cathedra.” The Church very much recognizes that the Holy Father is not authoritative in all matters. Anyone who claims Catholics must automatically believe everything the Holy Father believes personally would be wrong.
A top church official declaring a category of people to be non-Christian is rather a “matter of faith”, isn’t it?
Except this was not an ex cathedra statement declaring them all heretics or heathens or excommunicating them or anything of the sort.
There’s no pretense of his making this a doctrinal “matter of faith” with Apostolic authority.
“Relating to the faith” is not sufficient for Papal authority to adhere to an utterance of the Pontiff.
As Happy says, look into the specifics of Papal authority and the doctrine of infallibility – it doesn’t apply here.
“…Then said he unto them: But now he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a scrip; and he that hath not, let him sell his coat, and buy a sword.” Luke 22:36
Sorry…isn’t a sword, specifically, a WEAPON? Tell the Pope to take his delusions up with Christ.
To be fair, scriptural interpretation universally holds the “sword” there to be metaphorical spiritual armament rather than literal swords.
Because the literal interpretation makes no sense in the context of the Last Supper, for one.
Wraith nailed it with a quote from the REAL authority in the Church.
He’s simply saying, to quote from the article, “one day they will have to respond to God for their actions.” They will. And so will the following long-venerated, canonized Catholic saint:
Saint Adrian of Nicomedia – (Patron of arms dealers)
As well as:
Saint Dunstan – (Patron Saint of Armorers and Gunsmiths)
Saint Erasmus (Saint Elmo) – (Patron Saint of Ammunition Makers, and Explosives/Ordnance Workers)
Saint George – (Patron Saint of Armorers, Cavalry, and Soldiers)
Saint Lawrence – (Patron Saint of Armories and Armorers)
Those are just a few. There are many more patrons of specific weapons, tactics, support roles, etc.
So what’s the actual full quote, in context? This is getting portrayed as “arms maker = not Christian”, which is rather different from what you’re observing.
I ran across this earlier this morning, https://suburbanbanshee.wordpress.com/2015/06/21/did-the-pope-really-say-that-people-who-make-weapons-cant-be-christians/
I was referring to this: (http://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-lashes-at-arms-dealers-abusers-1402508571)
ROME—Pope Francis on Wednesday warned arms manufacturers, the corrupt, slave laborers and human traffickers that one day they will have to respond to God for their actions, as thousands of migrants escaping war and destitution reach Italy’s shores in recent days.
“One day everything will come to an end and they will have to account for themselves before God,” Pope Francis told thousands of faithful, under a blazing sun, at… [ rest of article can only be read by subscribers ]
And I was trying and probably failing to be ironic.
The Pope is a communist. The communists fled into the green parties in Europe and The communists are behind the global arming attempt to take power and reduce power (literally with fuels and energy to owners. So this follows communist doctrine to take guns ways from people.
The Catholic Church made a mistake with choosing this man as Pope.
Look at the history of the Roman Catholic Church over the centuries. See how many wars it has been in. Look at all the blood it has shed. The Pope needs to get his own house in order before condemning others. See Matthew 7:3-5.
To be fair, the Catholic Church hasn’t been involved in a war for centuries. I’d say he got his house in order in that regard. But the fact remains that the Vatican is protected by some pretty serious firepower.
Like any other institution, the personalities influencing the church change over the years and therefor its policies do, too. The one thing consistent is that church policy will always be to defend the church’s own interests, especially its economic interests.
One of the ironies of history that we tend to forget in these days of decrying leftist “liberation theology,” is that in the 1930s the church actively supported the fascist movements in Europe, in particular, Franco in Spain, because they were perceived as being more church-friendly than the democratically established governments, who leaned left and tended not to kowtow to the church, especially on economic matters.
So, if the Catholic Church were regarded as a philosophical continuum, Pope Francis would indeed be a hypocrite, when we recalled that his church supported the people sho gave Hitler’s forces a chance to test drive their Stukas. But we may suppose that Francis is bringing a philosophy of his own. If he opposes individuals being armed, he is wrong. If he comments on people who cobble up wars so that arms industries can profit from them, at the expense of individuals, he might be worth listening to.
Yes, and it’s not too much different today. A Catholic, when given the option of choosing the state or the Church must invariably choose the Church. If I had to choose between Francoist Spain or the Church as a moral authority in the 1930s I would have chosen the Church. The other option was of course a left wing communist dictatorship, and that would never really be a proper option. Rarely in life do we have the luxury of the perfect in civil matters, so Catholics throughout the ages chose the best. At least the best that man-made civil government had to offer. And history treated Westerners well for it… As most of the religious wars cited were defensive acts against Modhammedans. The more things change the more they stay the same.
And yes… Most of those wars did involve modern weaponry of the time as the Church and state armies were intertwined.
“The other option was of course a left wing communist dictatorship…”
Just for the sake of historical accuracy, the “leftist” side in Spain was the legitimate government, and Franco’s fascists were the revolutionaries. From the beginning, the fascists were supported by Hitler’s and Mussolini’s forces and heavy weapons, who in turn were supported by U.S. corporations that (e.g.) supplied the fuel for Franco’s forces to cross from North Africa and attack government forces. Our oil interests supplied aviation fuel for Hitler’s Stukas.
It is true that once the situation became “internationalized” Stalin provided forces and “advisors” (mostly very bad ones) on the government side, which is no surprise, given that anyone could have seen what was coming, and each side had to feel out the other at the same time they gained military experience. But if you are characterizing what was the legitimate government, which was reasonably democratically established, as a “left wing dictatorship” I think you are way off base. If you are speculating that the defeat of Franco would have evolved into a regime too dominated by the Soviet Union, all we can say is, that is speculation and, who knows?
If I recall correctly one of the Catholic Church’s beefs with the government was that they were attempting to reform education, which until then was controlled by the Church, which frowned on things like kids who could read and write, as opposed to quoting selected bible passages. That of course was defined as “leftist.” When Franco prevailed he handed education back to the firm control of the church, and you see how far Spain has come since then.
Well, “centuries” is a little generous, given that the Papal forces last fought in 1870 [a token effort, the last plausible real action being in 1867] – a mere 145 years ago – but close enough.
It is interesting to realize that the Pope’s own soldiers fought more recently than the US Civil War.
“Politicizing the church is a very bad move.”
I’m carrying this to the bottom because I’m responding to a theme more so than to the individual who wrote that specific sentence:
Do you mean, like, those Christian Evangelicals whose asses every Republican presidential candidate seem obligated to smooch?
I missed his appearance at the NRA NatCon a year or so back, but what did Franklin Graham have to say about guns that was compelling?
My theme of course is that the mixing of politics and theology seems to depend on what ideology is being promoted, in terms of how much it tends to upset us, and how inappropriate it seems.
The Pope has embarrassed himself and the Church on this topic, as he has on many other topics (take a stroll through Catholic websites, and you’ll see how).
As to the Spanish Civil War, the Socialists/Communists whom Franco toppled looked like ISIS:
“During the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, and especially in the early months of the conflict, individual clergymen were executed while entire religious communities were persecuted, leading to a death toll of 13 bishops, 4,172 diocesan priests and seminarists, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns, for a total of 6,832 clerical victims, as part of what is referred to as Spain’s Red Terror”
From: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=7508
The Catholic Church and by connection the Pope are the hypocrites. Here is the Pope constantly preaching about the evils of capitalism, of everyone should have to share with the poor. Very noble indeed.
The Catholic Church is the richest church in the world. they should put their money where their mouth is. Sell all your gold, your valued paintings and artifacts and I bet you could support the world’s poor.
I don’t see what your unsourced opinions on the Church have to do with the topic or related topics like Just War Theology or the theology of self-defense.
As to serving the poor, the Church, through her myriad schools, hospitals, and missions, has done more to serve the needy in more places and in more eras than any other institution in world history.
Charity is not a zero-sum game. The Church’s missionary efforts have not suffered from the Church’s custody of her artwork, which is held in trust for humanity. If the Church were to sell her artwork, which is meant to 1) worship the Lord, and 2) inspire souls to do the same, would you then be satisfied? Maybe if we sold the Vatican to Donald Trump so he can turn it into a golf-course, then you’d love the Church? Yeah, right.