I don't know about you, but I'm more than sick and tired of reading about another of Pope Francis' "informal" press conferences on board the pontifical plane taking him back to Rome after another of his international jaunts into the politics of other nations.
Apparently, it's impossible for this man to make the trip with his staff and friends and just let the reporters find another way home.
The problem with these trips is that apparently Francis decides to relax and let his hair down – what little there is of it – and talk, just like one of the guys.
In these cases, the guys are reporters, and apparently Francis has enough of an ego that he thinks reporters flock around him because he's wonderful.
He hasn't learned – and apparently no one has told him – that reporters are sharks who swarm around any famous person when they smell blood in the water, hoping to get that money quote for the headlines.
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With Pope Francis, it works every time.
The problem for Francis is that when he has another of his attacks of verbal diarrhea on the plane, his words get him into a heap of trouble – not only with the Church but worldwide, with Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
When that happens, headlines explode. Just like clockwork, the Vatican gets in on the act with pails of whitewash, and it issues official statements that the pope was taken out of context and he really didn't mean what he said.
Lost in this somewhere is that Pope Francis is a grown man with enough education and experience to know how to put one word in front of another. I simply do not believe that he is so naïve as to get himself in hot water so often by accident. I think he says what he means and means what he says, no matter how hard the Vatican press flacks try to walk it back. And they do – it's become a full-time job.
Let me say right here. I am a Roman Catholic, a cradle Catholic as they say. I have never, and will never, be tempted to change my religion or my beliefs. But one thing I've learned over the years of my life, is that the people who wear the collars in this religion of mine, are, when it all comes down to it, just human beings – like the rest of us. It matters not whether it's the local parish priest or the big guy in Rome.
My Church teaches that the pope is infallible – meaning not able to make an error in what he says – only when speaking of matters relating to Catholic faith and morals and when speaking "ex-cathedra," meaning making a statement that does have the force of religious law, if you will, only for Roman Catholics.
Everything else they say, whether in a sermon or just gabbing with reporters on his private plane, they are just that – informal statements and words. When he sounds off on domestic political issues of other countries, or the effects of capitalism or climate change – it does not mean he is right or that people need to do what he says.
Pope Francis, please, stop it. You make things difficult for yourself, your Church and for millions of Catholics worldwide.
You've made it clear you have no problem with people illegally crossing borders into other countries. Your only measure is that if they are poor and needy, then it's OK for them to break the laws of civilized countries and ignore the right of those countries to have border regulations to protect their own citizens.
Whether it's the massive movement of millions of Muslims swarming into European countries laws or the millions of illegals crossing into the United States, you say those illegals must be accepted and cared for. That the migrations in Europe are literally changing the face of the continent and the countries therein makes no difference.
The Vatican, we are told, has accepted two Syrian families – and you've declared that every family, church and whatever must accept these migrants into their midst.
Where is your compassion for the countries being inundated by the mass movement, the destruction of their economies, to say nothing of the destruction of their cultures? And we're not talking about Christian immigrants; they're Muslims, part of a religion that has declared its goal as being the destruction of Christianity.
Check your history, Pope Francis: Those massive walls around the Vatican were originally built by Pope Leo IV, and added to later by other popes, to protect the Vatican from the Saracens, Muslim raiders who had looted the treasures of Rome.
And speaking of walls, when you took a breath between criticizing just about everything the United States has done and stands for, you really stepped in it when you said Donald Trump, a candidate for our presidency, was not a Christian because he favors a wall on our Southern border.
Why do you have no compunction about inserting yourself into U.S. politics?
Your celebration of Mass at the Mexican border was a slap in the face of our president, our government and all Americans who value our country, our laws and our security.
For whatever reason, you saw fit to insinuate yourself into our politics by saying that a man you have never met isn't a Christian.
If that weren't insulting enough, you also insulted me and every Catholic and Christian and anyone else in this country who believes that, because of governmental laxness, we need a border wall to prevent illegals from crossing our borders.
You keep trying to make us feel guilty because illegals can die on their journey – but you ignore thousands of injuries and deaths of American citizens and law enforcement officials at the hands of illegals on our side of the border.
I'm afraid I'm an American Catholic who's tired of seeing your laughing face as you pander to people who break our laws and then insult us for trying to protect what we have worked so hard to have while you criticize our work ethic, business success and standard of living.
Americans have no desire to return to kerosene lanterns, outhouses and dirt roads.
The people you sympathize with are trying to get away from that. They want what we have, but we worked for it, and it's immoral for you or anyone else to demand that we give it away.
This country has done more to help needy people worldwide than any other county – ever. It's time you acknowledge that and thank us. What would Europe be like had Adolf Hitler won World War II?
What will it look like if Muslim immigrants take over now?
Pope Francis, you, and all of us, should pray fervently that your philosophy doesn't prevail, or you might see a modern-day "sacking of Rome" – and it won't be pretty.
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