A source close to the pontiff tells me that the first American pope will use tomorrow’s address to deliver a forceful moral rebuke of the U.S.-Israeli military assault.
Trump is going to war simply because his ratings are lowering. This is his way of hoping that going to war improves his ratings as elections draw near. He has no concern for the misery of victims of war. As long as the victims of misery are people of color, he is okay with their death or suffering. Thankfully, Pope Leo is speaking out clearly about Jesus’ words regarding wars and their effects on innocent people.
I have stopped watching the news as much as I can because it stressing me out. I rely on Substack news, and the NYTimes. Our country is in chaos daily and it makes me sick thinking of what he has done to our country in less than two years. I pray daily that God protects our country and gets Trump out.
The United States according to a NYT update bombed a girls elementary school with estimated 176 people inside in broad daylight. I am just sick. This shouldn’t not be happening. May God protect the innocent…
As an American Protestant clergyman and Church historian, I hope that God will guide Pope Leo to speak with a prophetic voice, and roundly condemned the vicious unchristian, and ungodly actions of Trump and his ilk.
I am praying earnestly for the Pope and his misision of compassion, justice and integrity.
The strikes by the US against Iran were immoral and illegal. Despite being advised by high ranking US military leaders not to start a war against Iran, Trump was supported in his decision to go to war by his Vice President, JD Vance whose Curriculum Vitae says he is a convert to Catholicism. I say convert him back. He is a CINO-Catholic in Name Only.
The situation seems quite complex, as does the Church's Social Teaching in relation to it. Reading Vatican II, and the successive magisterial documents, we have the impression that the Catholic Church commends the idea of an international body, fit to judge and safeguard Human Rights across the globe. Not at all a bad idea, at first glance, and one which I think we ought to uphold. The United Nations served this purpose for some time, alongside entities like the ICC, but it has become progressively weaker, and inept in its defence of human life. To have the presence of such States as Saudi Arabia on their Human Rights Council speaks volumes about the underlying problem. History has ran ahead of the Church's Magisterium, and many of the documents forming the Social Teaching simply appear dated, and irrelevant in the 21st century.
It seems, from my own reading, that the Church has been unable to square her aspiration for international law (a development of natural law, which the Church once saw protected under Christendom) and its respect for Nation-States. Pope Francis approached Catholic Social Teaching with a "Theology of the People", deeply contextualised by the South American experience, but one which unfortunately relativised the aspirations for Human Rights in a universal sense. The theological problem here is quite profound, and has been identified by various observers (usually laypeople); Francis spoke often of "Peoples", in the plural, while traditional theology only speaks of the "People". Vatican II referred more explicitly to the "People of God". The consequence has been that some Peoples are considered to have different rights, without an emphasis on the universal dimension.
There are many concrete examples. For one, consider that Francis would often criticise Trumpian conservatism (and I would also critique Trump) but that he would refuse to condemn Putin, for the war which he instigated, and continues to prosecute, in Ukraine. Francis was also shown to have lauded Islamic conservatives, whose impact has been to create some of the world regimes in the world. He would look stern when photographed with Trump, but he would be beaming when he met an Ayatollah from Iraq - the latter fully supportive of the most inhumane interpretations of Shariah Law. The politics of the previous pontificate not only confounded many Ukrainians and Iranians, but it also confounded so many of those who actively campaign for the respect for even the most basic of Human Rights worldwide. It's a very problematic legacy. Dare I say it: some of these problems resemble those evoked in relation to Pope Pius XII. His refusal to condemn the politics of Jozef Tiso (a Priest acting as Head of State, who deported some 40,000 Jews to the death camps, and now buried with magnificence in the Cathedral at Bratislava) is just one of the problems associated with that pontificate.
The issue can be phrased very simply: if the Catholic Church aspires to have a universal moral voice, it must be consistent in its pronouncements, and it must avoid double-standards. Otherwise, it seems difficult to serious observers to receive these pronouncements.
Pope Leo XIV has not yet spoken officially, so we can't get ahead of ourselves. However, I'll conclude with an observation. He has said absolutely nothing about the State-sanctioned massacre of a few thousand protesters on the Iranian streets, in recent weeks, save an appeal to pray for an end to "tensions" in the country. Realpolitik doesn't work well with Catholic Social Teaching, but the two seem to be mixed together. It won't work in the long term.
Trump is going to war simply because his ratings are lowering. This is his way of hoping that going to war improves his ratings as elections draw near. He has no concern for the misery of victims of war. As long as the victims of misery are people of color, he is okay with their death or suffering. Thankfully, Pope Leo is speaking out clearly about Jesus’ words regarding wars and their effects on innocent people.
Once again, it takes a leader of another part of the world to call attention to injustice in our own country.
I have stopped watching the news as much as I can because it stressing me out. I rely on Substack news, and the NYTimes. Our country is in chaos daily and it makes me sick thinking of what he has done to our country in less than two years. I pray daily that God protects our country and gets Trump out.
The United States according to a NYT update bombed a girls elementary school with estimated 176 people inside in broad daylight. I am just sick. This shouldn’t not be happening. May God protect the innocent…
As an American Protestant clergyman and Church historian, I hope that God will guide Pope Leo to speak with a prophetic voice, and roundly condemned the vicious unchristian, and ungodly actions of Trump and his ilk.
I am praying earnestly for the Pope and his misision of compassion, justice and integrity.
The strikes by the US against Iran were immoral and illegal. Despite being advised by high ranking US military leaders not to start a war against Iran, Trump was supported in his decision to go to war by his Vice President, JD Vance whose Curriculum Vitae says he is a convert to Catholicism. I say convert him back. He is a CINO-Catholic in Name Only.
May God protect Pope Leo and bless him, and all innocents who are in the path of the warmongers.
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
The situation seems quite complex, as does the Church's Social Teaching in relation to it. Reading Vatican II, and the successive magisterial documents, we have the impression that the Catholic Church commends the idea of an international body, fit to judge and safeguard Human Rights across the globe. Not at all a bad idea, at first glance, and one which I think we ought to uphold. The United Nations served this purpose for some time, alongside entities like the ICC, but it has become progressively weaker, and inept in its defence of human life. To have the presence of such States as Saudi Arabia on their Human Rights Council speaks volumes about the underlying problem. History has ran ahead of the Church's Magisterium, and many of the documents forming the Social Teaching simply appear dated, and irrelevant in the 21st century.
It seems, from my own reading, that the Church has been unable to square her aspiration for international law (a development of natural law, which the Church once saw protected under Christendom) and its respect for Nation-States. Pope Francis approached Catholic Social Teaching with a "Theology of the People", deeply contextualised by the South American experience, but one which unfortunately relativised the aspirations for Human Rights in a universal sense. The theological problem here is quite profound, and has been identified by various observers (usually laypeople); Francis spoke often of "Peoples", in the plural, while traditional theology only speaks of the "People". Vatican II referred more explicitly to the "People of God". The consequence has been that some Peoples are considered to have different rights, without an emphasis on the universal dimension.
There are many concrete examples. For one, consider that Francis would often criticise Trumpian conservatism (and I would also critique Trump) but that he would refuse to condemn Putin, for the war which he instigated, and continues to prosecute, in Ukraine. Francis was also shown to have lauded Islamic conservatives, whose impact has been to create some of the world regimes in the world. He would look stern when photographed with Trump, but he would be beaming when he met an Ayatollah from Iraq - the latter fully supportive of the most inhumane interpretations of Shariah Law. The politics of the previous pontificate not only confounded many Ukrainians and Iranians, but it also confounded so many of those who actively campaign for the respect for even the most basic of Human Rights worldwide. It's a very problematic legacy. Dare I say it: some of these problems resemble those evoked in relation to Pope Pius XII. His refusal to condemn the politics of Jozef Tiso (a Priest acting as Head of State, who deported some 40,000 Jews to the death camps, and now buried with magnificence in the Cathedral at Bratislava) is just one of the problems associated with that pontificate.
The issue can be phrased very simply: if the Catholic Church aspires to have a universal moral voice, it must be consistent in its pronouncements, and it must avoid double-standards. Otherwise, it seems difficult to serious observers to receive these pronouncements.
Pope Leo XIV has not yet spoken officially, so we can't get ahead of ourselves. However, I'll conclude with an observation. He has said absolutely nothing about the State-sanctioned massacre of a few thousand protesters on the Iranian streets, in recent weeks, save an appeal to pray for an end to "tensions" in the country. Realpolitik doesn't work well with Catholic Social Teaching, but the two seem to be mixed together. It won't work in the long term.
I read that earlier in the NYT. It’s criminal.