By David Warren
The Pope can be many things in many contexts, but he should avoid becoming a propaganda instrument of the Democratic Party. This is the impression he gave when he made a political statement right after being visited by David Axelrod, Obama’s influential shadow strategist.
The effect was doubled when prominent liberal cardinals, including Blase Cupich of Chicago, staged a media spectacle to promote the Pope’s «message for the United States.» It was the same rhetoric we had heard many times before from amiable and peaceful politicians like Jimmy Carter: peace-not-war, appeasement, and negotiation at any price.
The Pope himself had been proclaiming this on Twitter when he was only Cardinal Robert Prevost: simplistic leftism along with Democratic talking points and open immigration.
President Trump responded: «Leo should put his affairs in order as Pope, use common sense, stop pleasing the radical left, and focus on being a great Pope, not a politician. This is hurting him badly and, more importantly, it is hurting the Catholic Church.»
I copy this final passage from his «Truth Social,» as it is habitually overlooked by «the press.» Trump was not attacking the Catholic Church. He was being characteristically frank, as one would expect churchmen to be frank sometimes too.
The contrary impression—that Trump was throwing a low blow—was created by spokesmen from the anti-Trump camp, with fond memories of the days when the Catholic Church could almost be presented as a department of the Democratic Party. This remains part of left-wing mythology, and the media still want to believe it, even though American Catholics have mostly come out of the abortion sewer in which they had been deposited.
Moreover, Pope Leo could not have wished to be seen participating in an obvious political game, even if he was doing so. He was being used by a capable professional operator who exploited his naivety and inexperience. He was not trying to be mischievous, as his predecessor used to be.
Of course, Trump can be worse than mischievous, and he should practice more custody of his mouth. He is too eloquent.
The role of political trolls has now migrated, along with other unpleasant creatures, to the left both in the United States and in Western Europe. It has not yet penetrated deeply into Eastern Europe, where people still retain the experience of communism and the many unpleasant connotations of the word «peace» in communist propaganda.
But to the west of there lie the modern liberal lands, where the words «Trump» and «Jews» (or, alternatively, «Israel») regularly provoke an automatic hysteria that was infused by Soviet Cold War psychology, designed to flourish in low-intelligence environments.
American Democrats can carry the brainless tradition one ocean further. Now they can teach Europe a thing or two, for example: how to become catastrophically woke.
Christ’s expression, «Forgive them, for they know not what they do,» is one we should all meditate on. It is not a spiritual advantage to be terminally stupid. And if you are, you need someone to take care of you, for you will be a danger not only to your community but to yourself.
In fact, as I have argued here and elsewhere, that is a «problem of democracy,» which is getting worse now that we have entered the era of «artificial intelligence.» Ever more extreme forms of ignorance have become possible in the general population.
Previously, one had to know at least how to tie one’s shoes, and there were levels of common sense that were equivalently «known» by all. Now, no matter how low the bar is set, nothing is certain.
Those familiar with Christianity and, indeed, habitually with the other «great religions,» know, or knew, that peace is not obtained without a certain level of judgment. If, for example, someone plausibly tries to kill you, «peace talks» with him will not necessarily make him desist.
If he has, by reputation, the habit of killing anyone he disagrees with—as the Iranian mullahs and ALL their allies certainly do—you need options that include appropriate weapons and disciplined training.
Christ, incidentally, surrendered himself, and if he had not, we cannot know how it would have turned out. He was escorted along the Via Dolorosa «peacefully» to his Crucifixion. The individual Christian has that standard constantly before him.
But a society, except perhaps a combative one like that of Masada, rarely accepts being crucified without complaint. It cannot be mandatory for them to «submit» (Islamic term) to violence in the service of perverse evil. Even the individual does not need to submit when properly armed; and if the reader consults the historical chronicles of the last two thousand years, he will see that it has been consistently unlikely for Christians to back down.
If we had not been like that, Christianity would not even be a historical memory. No one would have thought that its quick and brutal fate was worth recording.
But Christians must live in a real and threatening world, and Catholicism was designed for them by a real and loving God.
Unlike Islam, for example, or the more nominalist excesses of scholasticism, or Presbyterianism, or other extravagances, Catholic Christianity does not consist of an exhaustive book of rules (which, in the case of Sheikh Khomeini, includes detailed instructions on how to clean oneself).
We are told to become individual saints, though we must recognize that such sanctity is beyond us; yet we must persist in our attempt. We are told not only «thou shalt not kill,» but also to live and let live in this theater of the Divine. And we have been given the possibility of faith and reason in the pursuit of these mysterious and enduring goals.
When we face an enemy who is very evil, and who has repeatedly announced his intention to exterminate us, Americans and Jews, and has acted whenever he could according to that intention, we do not need a priest’s permission to respond aggressively.
We need the command and obedience of soldiers.
About the author
David Warren was editor of the Idler magazine and columnist in Canadian newspapers. He has extensive experience in the Middle East and Far East. His blog, Essays in Idleness, is now at: davidwarrenonline.com.