Huh, weird. And I thought Pope Francis had made it clear that he had no patience with the MAGA movement and its anti-immigrant, anti-communion political stunts.
After all, it wasn’t a couple of months after San Francisco’s Arch Bishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone announced that Speaker Nancy Pelosi could not receive communion in San Francisco due to her stance on abortion that Francis leapfrogged San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy to the rank of Cardinal over the senior Cordileone, a breathtakingly obvious sign that Francis was furious. McElroy is San Diego’s first Cardinal. San Francisco… nearly always has one. The Pope then later gave Pelosi communion himself when she visited the Vatican. Not subtle.
Were that not enough? Francis went poo-flinging insane over the treatment of migrants across the Western world in a riff during a speech as he described anti-immigration as “disgusting, criminal, and sinful when migrants are left to die in front of us.”
It isn’t like the Jesuit Pope is shy about his (relative) liberalism. He hates all things “MAGA.” And now, the Vatican court system (composed of people appointed by Francis) has defrocked “Trump’s Priest and Spiritual Advisor.” And, ah, there will be no appeal, thanks much.
According to the New York Times:
A well-known Catholic priest and incendiary leader of the anti-abortion movement was removed from the priesthood by the Vatican, according to a letter from Pope Francis’s representative to the United States that was obtained by The New York Times.
Frank Pavone, who leads the advocacy organization Priests for Life, and was once a religious adviser to former President Donald J. Trump, was dismissed from the clergy on Nov. 9 with no possibility of appeal, the letter states.
“This action was taken after Father Pavone was found guilty in canonical proceedings of blasphemous communications on social media, and of persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop,” it states.
Annnd, the article goes on to say that Pavone was also active on social media, where he claimed… the election was stolen. MAGA MAGA MAGA. Bye-bye.
Everything Trump Touches Dies, and it’s not like Pope Francis sprung from the bushes on this one.
****
[email protected], @JasonMiciak, Substack: Musk One of the World’s Most Dangerous Figures
To paraphrase a quote I once read: I dream of the day the last king is strangled by the entrails of the last priest. I think Voltaire was the one who wrote it.
I was educated by the Jesuits. They are the ones that turned me into a liberal. They aren’t all bad.
Agree. Especially if they follow the two greatest commandments. The problem is religious hypocrisy & religious institutions.
What the church has done to Jesus is what the governor of California wants to do with the redwoods…take a wild and wonderful thing & turn it into den furniture. Daniel Berrigan (Reagan was governor at the time).
The Jesuits have a totally undeserved bad reputation. The REAL nasties were the Dominicans (Torquemada, the Inquisition and general abusive bahviour were their doing). For some odd reason though the Jesuits seemed to get the blame.
Understandable given how little time people give to Biblical scholarship & ancient history. Ironically, our culture totally promotes religion at every turn, but it’s a shallow knowledge allowing for ignorance at every turn of the road. People are intellectually lazy and many are truly ignorant, yet want to believe they have ‘God’ on their side. As Dylan once said in a song, ” you don’t count the dead with God on your side.” 1500 years ago people were certain the earth was flat. 500 years ago people were certain we were the center of the universe. Science has clarified many aspects of our existence which should have ignited more curiosity not less. Unfortunately we are a fat people sitting on our collective asses, watching TV, wanting or accepting easy answers for the mystery of existence.