Tag Archives: POPe Francis

THE POPE GETS RELIGION – BUT DOESN’T USE THE “R” WORD

November 30, 2017 thenewbostonteaparty 24 Comments

In the past we haven’t good things to say about the Pope, but this week he surprised us. What was the cause of such a turn around? A visit to Myanmar. The once military run dictatorship isolated by west was previously known as Burma. The social landscape took a turn for the better when Aung San Suu Kyi. A newnew parliament convened on 1 February 2016 and, on 15 March 2016, Htin Kyaw was elected as the first non-military president since the military coup of 1962. On 6 April 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, a role akin to a Prime Minister.

The Rohingya people have consistently faced human rights abuses by the Burmese regime that has refused to acknowledge them as Burmese citizens. The Burmese regime has attempted to forcibly expel Rohingya and bring in non-Rohingyas to replace them -this policy has resulted in the expulsion of approximately half of the 800,000Rohingya from Burma, while the Rohingya people have been described as “among the world’s least wanted” and “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.” But the origin of ‘most persecuted minority’ statement is unclear.

Rohingya are also not allowed to travel without official permission, are banned from owning land and are required to sign a commitment to have no more than two children. As of July 2012, the Myanmar Government does not include the Rohingya minority group—classified as Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh since 1982, therefore, the government states that they have no claim to Myanmar citizenship.

Since the democratic transition began in 2011, there has been continuous violence as 280 people have been killed and 140,000 forced to flee from their homes in the Rakhine state. A UN envoy reported in March 2013 that unrest had re-emerged between Myanmar’s Buddhist and Muslim communities, with violence spreading to towns that are located closer to Yangon. The Burmese army and police have been accused of targeting Rohingya Muslims through mass arrests and arbitrary violence.

Many world leaders are appalled at the treatment of the Rohingya, but have stepped aside in criticizing Aung San Suu Kyi.

When Pope Francis stepped off the papal plane in Burma, he walked into a diplomatic minefield — which is exactly where he belonged.

The quagmire centered on whether he would appease a government and military that is overseeing what the United Nations has called a ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing,’ or do the thing that has established him as the most credible world leader today: side with the marginalized. In this instance, they are the Rohingya Muslims who have been subject to mass slaughter, rape and forced migration.

How Francis would be judged on this question centered around whether he would use one word: ‘Rohingya.’

The R-word holds such importance in Burma, also known as Myanmar, because the government does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens. To the military, extremist monks and most of the country, they are Muslim outsiders from neighboring Bangladesh. Usage of the word signals support for an almost universally hated group and invites severe repercussions from the military.

Many questioned the Bishop of Rome’s political calculus in making a trip that appeared to be a no-win scenario. As Rev. Thomas Reese, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, put it, Francis risked “either compromising his moral authority or putting in danger the Christians of that country.”

Now the trip is finished, and Francis is on his way to Bangladesh. While he gave a speech calling for peace among all faiths and respect for all ethnicities, he did not use the R-word.

Nonetheless, Francis’s trip ends in success — though we may not see the fruits until later.

Good Job Pope Francis!

VATICAN CITY AND THE HISTORY OF THEIR WALLS

February 20, 2016 thenewbostonteaparty 15 Comments

You all heard of Vatican City, right there in the center of Rome. There are plenty of walls surrounding the city for protection against invaders. Map of Vatican City

“It isn’t all surrounded by walls, and it’s not like you need a separate visa or a passport to enter,” he said. “You wouldn’t know, almost, when you even entered Vatican City. There is a white line painted on the ground in St. Peter’s Square, but that kind of thing is not obvious everywhere.”

There are, to be sure, formidable walls in Vatican City, and much of of the site, including the gardens and the modest guesthouse that is home to Francis, is set behind them. But the walls do not entirely enclose the city-state, and in the modern era they are not meant to, historians said.

“Anybody can walk into St. Peter’s Square — that’s the whole point of it,” said Dr. Mannion. “It was designed to be welcoming and to draw people in like two open arms, to draw them into the heart of the church.”

Some of the walls in Vatican City were built in the ninth century by Pope Leo IV in an attempt to protect it from attacks by pirates and other marauders, historians said. But other stretches of wall were built during the 15th and 16th centuries, Dr. Mannion said, less as a defensive measure and more as “a political and cultural statement” about the cultural and political power of the pope.

As highlighted above, there are some walls that were built to protect the Vatican from attacks by pirates and marauders; sounds like the wall proposed by Trump will do the same thing. And in ten decades there may be no need for the wall.

POPE TREVAILS

February 19, 2016 thenewbostonteaparty 8 Comments

As the world turns in its axis so does the Pope; a traveling satellite so to speak. Touring one country after another. An Argentinian, Pope Francis has been there and not done that. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European pope since the Syrian Gregory III in 741.

He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina, and the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him a political rival. This was a good thing, similar to the fall of Communism in Poland.

The international relations field knows Pope John Paul II for his temporal leadership in the Roman Catholic Church, but less is known about his pivotal role in the rise of Poland’s independent trade movement of Poland standing firm against Communism.

Yet Soviet “liberation” of occupied Poland brought only further repression. And for 33 years, Wojtyla would promote Christianity and religious freedom under threat of a regime attempting to squash any opposition to atheistic totalitarian rule. Rising to the position of archbishop of Krakow in 1963, he carefully avoided direct criticism of the government, but spread his philosophy of Christian “humanism” through a series of poem-cycles that, in effect, worked to undermine the Marxist foundation of Communism. Yet clashes were inevitable—he encountered fierce opposition in his efforts to create 11 new parishes through door-to-door evangelism, and Soviet authorities tried to stop him from publicly leading Catholics in Poland’s Corpus Christi procession, a medieval feast day celebrated every June.

Wojtyla’s election as pope in 1978 armed him with an international following that, in retrospect, cowed even the Soviet empire. “Be not afraid” became his rallying cry, and following a 1979 address to the U.N. General Assembly in which he challenged the free world to defend human rights, he embarked on a courageous but dangerous nine-day public pilgrimage to “strengthen the brethren” in Poland. There he warned Communist authorities that the papacy would watch them closely, and he reminded them of their responsibility “before history and before your conscience.” The people responded to John Paul II’s visit with loyalty borne of years of shared suffering—banners with the Communist party slogan “The Party Is for the People” sported the daring addition, “. . . but the People are for the Pope.”

John Paul II’s example encouraged other leading church authorities, such as the Czech Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek, to become fierce critics of Communism. His visit also inspired an unemployed electrician named Lech Walesa to form in 1980 the Soviet Union’s first and only trade union—Solidarity.

Instead of coming to the border and lambasting Trump, Pope Francis should pilgrimage in all the countries of Latin America run by Communists and dictators. Of course rabble rousing among the people in the drug infested waters Columbia, El Salvador, Nicaragua has risks. Lecturing Trump on a wall is a non starter. Walls, just like Robert Frost said, make good neighbors. Letting more druggies, murders, killers, rapists, leaches into the United States is the wrong thing to do. Trump is right, the Pope is wrong. We do not need a lecture on what is right and what is wrong.

And if he is so concerned about the poor, have the Vatican, with three to four trillion in assets, start selling their wares and distribute the proceeds to the poor. Ain’t gonna happen folks. Stay tuned.

“WHEN IN ROME DO AS THE ROMANS DO”

January 28, 2016 thenewbostonteaparty 24 Comments

Roman officials turned the Vatican into a Muslim holy place by covering up nude statues during a visit by Iran’s Rouhani, a ruthless Islamic killer; the Capitolini Museum was the scene of the crime. Pope Francis should have spoken out prior to the visit, he had two choices, neither of which he took. Romans should be outraged.

The modesty measures were imposed prior to Rouhani’s meeting Monday with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Any directive to cover up the statues came from the prime minister’s office directly, and not from city officials who normally run the museum, according to a Rome city official.Iran President Hassan Rouhani (L) exchanges gifts with Pope Francis at the Vatican January 26, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Medichini/Pool.

This is an embarrassment to the artists, the Christian people and the good citizens of Rome. Their shibboleth down through the ages has been “when in Rome do as the Romans do.”

Political correctness by Pope Francis is a show of weakness when the likes of Rouhani and the Iranian Red Guards are supporting killers in Syria, Hezbollah and the Nusra Front. Iran is responsible for exporting their Shia fanaticism into neighboring states. Killers of the first rate, they will not stop until they conquer Israel.

How many Christians have been liquidated by Iranians surrogates in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon. The Pope put those questions aside. Don’t forget, Islam is a religion of peace and now the Pope has signaled that Christianity is a religion of accommodation.

THE POPE HAS NO IDEA

October 3, 2015 thenewbostonteaparty 24 Comments

During the Pope’s visit to the United States he took time out to lecture Congress; among them was that the U.S. is not doing enough, that they should do more; do more of what? end racism, embrace immigrants, abortion and the family.

For the Pope to come to our country and lecture us in our own House show’s his lack of respect for the United States. The Pope should have gone to Nigeria, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras and Brazil. These are the countries that need lecturing, their economies in turmoil, their politicians among the most corrupt in the world, their immigration policies abhorrent. Yet he comes here, we don’t get it.

Case in point: When Poland was under Communist rule, the Church stood up against tyranny. The people said no more chains, they took to the streets, formed a union (Solidarity) led by Lech Walesa they went on strike. Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski started a crack-down on Solidarity, declaring martial law in Poland, suspending the union, and temporarily imprisoning all of its leaders. The Catholic Church supported the Solidarity movement and it was not to long before the government gave in to the Union’s demands. Democracy rules to this day.

Pope Francis delivered a stinging blow to nativist conservatives bent on keeping illegal immigrants and Middle Eastern refugees out of the United States, saying Thursday in a landmark address to Congress that Americans should show compassion to immigrants of all stripes. So instead of lecturing us, the Greatest Nation on the face of the earth, the Pope should preach to the Nations of the World that keep their citizens in bondage.

Our advice to The Pope is to read Atlas Shrugged. The Pope’s message of share the wealth is contrary to that of many biblical verses “give a man a fish and he is fed for a day, show a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

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UPDATE: POPE HAS A CONFESSION! “I AM A MARXIST” HAS THE POPE LOST IT?

June 7, 2015 thenewbostonteaparty 9 Comments

(click here for the latest)Pope Francis has confessed, he is a MARXIST. In Argentina he insisted that his priests should see the world through the eyes of the poor, by living among them, and he brought that approach with him to Rome. Evangelii Gaudium – the document which got Rush Limbaugh so worked up – argues that inequality creates “a state of social sin that cries to Heaven”. Pope Frances has also said that unemployment is “the result of a worldwide choice, of an economic system that led to this tragedy, an economic system that has at its centre a false God, a false God called money”.

“If some people think that he’s a Marxist (now), wait and see what he says on the environment!”

Hundreds of thousands of criminals have crossed the Mexican border into the United States; to boot there are 11 million illegals in this country, most came from Latin America countries where Christianity prevails and the Catholic Church rules.

History speaks of of the brutal killings and mass murders of the Conquistadors in the name of the Catholic Church. Francisco Pizzaro and Hernan Cortez ran rampant through Mexico, Peru and the rest of Latin America. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

So we can put to rest that the religion of the illegals, most accepted or were forced into Christianity by the Conquistadors. But what gets our goat is that Pope Francis is lecturing us on the treatment of these illegals (they are criminals Pope Francis – maybe you forgot that) as they seek to cross our borders.

“These young people — who have come to learn how to strive against the propagation of stereotypes, from people who only see in immigration a source of illegality, social conflict and violence — can contribute much to show the world a church without borders,” Francis wrote. You have got to be kidding. The citizens of the United States have nothing against Mexicans, Hispanics or Latinos; to get the record straight ‘”we harbor animosity against illegal aliens. “

However the Pope misses the point when he does not address the treatment these invaders have received in their home countries where drugs, smuggling, murders, theft, kidnappings and corrupt government are the lay of the land. by the way they are very adapt at bringing this behavior north. Why doesn’t the Pope address the fact that these illegals are coming here for a free lunch, parasites in their own right.

Our advice to Pope Francis, pay a visit to Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Columbia, Brazil,Venezuela, try lecturing their governments on doing more for the unemployed, the poor – you know, the ones with corruption – start with Cristina Kirchner’s Argentina, your home country. Tell you what Pope Francis, Socialism is the worst disease known to man, a poison that corrupts and enslaves. Is that what you are for, a distribution of wealth by authoritarian governments like Cuba and Venezuela?

Additionally, from what we heard, the Church has billions of dollars of gold stored in bank vaults in the United States; isn’t it about time some of it was distributed to poor in Latin America? Pope Francis made one of his strongest attacks on the global economic system saying it could no longer be based on a “god called money” and urged the unemployed to fight for work. Wow!

The law abiding people of the United States are not interested in being scolded by the Holy See, for one he has not experienced the effect of illegal aliens first hand, he has never been mugged, robbed, raped, trespassed. Sitting on a high perch and lecturing us does not win many fans. After all that, we know deep down in his heart the Pope is a good man.

OPPOSING VIEWS HELD BY POPE FRANCIS AND POPE BENEDICT XVI

September 11, 2014 thenewbostonteaparty 6 Comments

Pope Francis called the Islamic State fighters terrorists and said there was a need for “a professional, well-equipped army.” “The situation is going from bad to worse.” Contrast that to what Pope Benedict XVI said. See below.

Pope Benedict XVI has called for Christians as “to open their arms and hearts” to Muslim immigrants and “to dialogue” with them on religious issues. The Pope told participants that the Catholic Church is “increasingly aware” that “interreligious dialogue is a part of its commitment to the service of humanity in the modern world.”

in today’s non Christian world, the Middle East, Christians are forced to convert at the end of a sword or pay up, if not they are “dead meat.” Most who have come face to face with the ISIS force have fled the evil precipitated on the lands of Iraq and Syria. The main question remains, why is there not much of an outcry by the Christians of the world. Every Clergy, every Bishop, every Cardinal should be shouting from the top of their lungs what is happening to their Christian brothers and by who.

As Pope Francis said, ” we need to arm ourselves.”

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