OPINION:
Gibberish is still emitting from the pope as he travels to and from the Far East. Now he is safely home in the Vatican, so only his close advisers will hear his claptrap as he tries to placate the Chinese and the Russians. Who knows — maybe he is even aiming his rhetoric toward North Korea and the Palestinians. He has kind words for anyone who is anti-American or anti-Western.
Recently in Mongolia, Pope Francis addressed a small group of Chinese Catholics. They had braved Chinese censors to visit with him and see what was on his mind. According to The New York Times, they covered their faces “for fear of reprisals,” presumably from communist intelligence officers who were watching them while they visited Mongolia.
Mongolia is a safe place for Chinese Catholics to visit. The country, which is roughly the size of Alaska, contains only about 1,400 Catholics, and how many of them could be communist informers?
The pope had nothing but polite gibberish to utter about China. Said the heir to the Chair of St. Peter: “The relations with China are very respectful — I personally have great admiration for the Chinese culture. They are very open, let’s put it this way.”
He went on to say from his papal airplane, according to the Times, that “he hoped there would be more exposure to Roman Catholics in China so that the Chinese citizens did not think that the church had intentions to shape their culture and values or that it was ‘dependent on another power.’”
What other power the pope had in mind, I do not know. As I said, his message was gibberish.
The pope does have his bugaboos, but apparently China is not one of them. Even Russia is given a dispensation from his wrath.
On the other hand, the “authoritarian” West rouses his hackles. The Times reports that Francis excoriates “what he considers the authoritarian streak of Western nationalists, the reactionary ideology of American conservatives in the church and the un-Christian hardheartedness of leaders in Washington and Europe who don’t open their borders to migrants or act to protect the environment.”
As for China, the pope is much more forgiving. China is the top carbon dioxide emitter in the world, responsible for more than 30% of the world’s greenhouse gases, while the U.S. contributes less than 15% of greenhouse gases, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The pope’s relations with the West have always been a mystery to me. Where does he think the funds to cover the day-to-day expenses of his vast array of churches and charitable organizations come from? The Chinese? The homeless? Oprah Winfrey?
For that matter, how does the average donor manage to come up with donations for the church that keep it going? Most of it comes from free-market transactions, not from socialism.
Now let us change our focus a bit from politics to theology. Why is the pope kowtowing to the godless Chinese communists? Did St. Paul bow to the Romans?
For that matter, how many of the saints sniveled to the Romans as Pope Francis sniveled to the Chinese in his recent trips abroad? I can well imagine this hubristic pope dismissing sainthood as an old-fashioned contrivance. What is he going to replace sainthood with? Are his faithful followers going to follow him in joining yoga classes? How about modern dance?
Some people may say that I have written an unserious column, but the more I think of the pope, the more I am driven to conclude this is an unserious pope. He addresses the Chinese communists as though they were not contemplating war with Taiwan but planning war games.
Nor has he taken the war in Ukraine seriously. He has never held Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his government accountable for the war in Ukraine, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians alike. Instead, he parades around the world as though he were a welcome guest.
Well, tell that to the people of Ukraine and, for that matter, the people of Russia. My guess is that both sides in this horrible war would tell him they have had enough.
Glory to Ukraine!
• R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and the author most recently of “The Death of Liberalism,” published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His memoirs, “How Do We Get Out of Here: Half a Century of Laughter and Mayhem at The American Spectator — From Bobby Kennedy to Donald J. Trump,” will be published by Post Hill Press in September and can be ordered online now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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