Tuesday, Tom Homan said some very offensive and insensitive things about the Pope. He failed to show the proper respect when speaking about the religious leader of 1.5 billion Catholics around the world.
And it warmed my heart.
From a Reuters story regarding a letter the Pope wrote to American bishops:
The pope, who last month called Trump’s plan to deport millions of migrants a “disgrace”, said it was wrong to assume that all undocumented immigrants were criminals.
“I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church … not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” said the pontiff.”
Francis, pope since 2013, has long been critical of Trump’s immigration policies. In 2016, during Trump’s first White House campaign, the pope said Trump was “not Christian” in his views on immigration.”
Responding to that letter, Border Czar Tom Homan (a lifelong Catholic himself) said, “I’ve got harsh words for the Pope.” He continued, “He ought to fix the Catholic Church and concentrate on his work and leave border enforcement to us.”
Kaboom. Well, that’s a solid gut punch delivered. Basically: Clean up your own matters with pedophila and global pervert trafficking. Until that’s done and well in the past maybe you get to lecture people again. Maybe, if there are any Catholics who still listen to you.
Now, there’s a lot that can be dissected in this reply by Homan, but my point here is to say something about the Pope.
First, I don’t like this man. I think this man is a socialist born of the Liberation Theologies of the 1980s. I was a reporter for a Catholic newspaper in the 80s while a seminarian for the priesthood, and had to cover a lot of protests by militant nuns, peace and justice activists, and Jesuits like the Berrigan brothers who liked to make their points by throwing blood on stuff. A lot of this type of behavior was fueled by Jesuit thinking. At the time, I was attending Rockhurst College (part of the Jesuit system like St. Louis University, Fordham, Creighton, etc….I was studying for another order, not the Jesuits, by the way), and these assignments did not particularly sit well with my gut.
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Anyway, in the 80s, we were getting periodic stories over the Catholic wire services about pedophile priests. And we would print them, to my editor’s credit. I’m not sure how the Bishop felt about it, but I don’t think he ever intervened and told us to stop. Fast forward to the last several years when it became public about the Church’s role, and by extension the Vatican’s, that pedophile priests were being caught and exported to other parishes and, well…countries. When I learned that, I decided I couldn’t hang with the religion anymore. But getting back to his comments about Trump’s deportation plans, it seems especially disturbing, if not ridiculous, that the Pope wags his finger at those while issuing actual Vatican decrees for those who might break through the walls surrounding his own city.
According to the document, if you do, you will be fined between 10 and 25 thousand euros and may get tossed into jail for up to four years. Now, that’s some brotherly love right there. Sure it’s hypocrisy codified, but you know, Laws for thee.…etc etc. Clearly a case of it here. What I find really crazy though, is the outright defiance of something the Jesuits taught me called The Double Standard. We all know what this is, but in college, they referenced it in every one of the 27 credit hours that I spent in philosophy classes at Rockhurst. Basically, if you’re going to apply a double standard in your moral convictions, you have no convictions at all, as your principles are merely situational. Malleable. Prone to manipulation by events and others. You’re a “squish.”
Well, Homan delivered not only the correct response to the Pope but the perfect response to the Pope. And in my opinion, the Pope is a squish and should be ignored. We’ll see who comes along next.
