UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
* Martin Luther King, a true Christian, dared to dream. One wishes Pope Francis would dream similarly more often. As I observed Pope Francis on his overly scripted public relations trip to the Philippines, I had a dream as well. It was triggered while observing Pope Francis outrageously lobby, in his homily at a massive outdoor Mass a few hours after hugging a twelve year old former “street child”. The pope’s lobbying was, in effect, his real response to the innocent young girl and to the world. The pope in the presence of the leaders of the Philippines amazingly called for an end to the government’s long overdue help to poor couples who want to plan their families. Is Pope Francis really serious? Why does he want to prevent couples worldwide from planning their families? This is cruel and hypocritical, no? Who speaks for the children, Pope Francis, if not you?
* In “dreaming” about the pope’s encounter in the Philippines with the young “street child” on the eve of Martin Luther King’s US holiday, yes, I had a dream! I dreamed that the pope told the young former street girl what the Vatican’s real strategy was. If he had told her the “real deal”, I dreamed it would go something like this. Pope Francis would have said:
* (1) I was elected by frightened cardinals to keep them out of jail for crimes related to child abuse cover-ups and financial corruption;
* (2) My priority is protecting bishops, all 5,000 of them, while maximizing their wealth in their unaccountable lifetime positions;
* (3) I need to preserve the Vatican’s “richest markets” , especially in the USA and Germany, and among the billionaires of the Philippines, South Korea, Mexico, et al. In the USA, I need in 2016 to get a friendly Republican, like the Bushes were, in the White House (God forbid Hillary Clinton gets elected!), now that low tax/low regulatory Republicans control the US Congress and, in effect, the US Supreme Court. Our US billionaire donors like that;
* (4) In the USA, I must also appeal to fundamentalist and Latino voters with a muddled mix of anti-abortion/contraception and anti-gay marriage crusades, and frequent appeals to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Junipero Serra and Oscar Romero, and of course, constant references to the devil;
* (5) In Germany, I must protect the bishops $6 billion annual governmental subsidy, including by getting divorced and remarried Catholics from taking their families and pro rata subsidies out of the Church;
* (6) I must push with my contraception ban to pump up the Catholic birth rate everywhere, especially in light of the high birth rate among our Muslim competitors; and
* (7) If after taking care of my bishops, obedient priests, opportunistic politicians, “scholars” and media supporters and, of course, our 24/7 insatiable civil, criminal and and bankruptcy lawyers, I, as pope, would use the rest of the donations, if any remains, to “trickle down ” what remains to the poor, and to those priest abuse survivors who keep silent.
And then I awoke from my dream.
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