Five Crucial Myths Pope Francis Preaches: Why?

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
February 18, 2015

http://christiancatholicism.com/five-crucial-myths-pope-francis-preaches-why/

WARNING: PAPAL MYTHS CAN HARM CHILDREN AND OTHERS  

Myth No. 1: The Catechism of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI overrules the inspired Bible and informed biblical scholarship — only a pope can infallibly interpret them both, even when he interprets them contrary to suppressed historical facts and/or available scientific evidence.

Myth No. 2: The Catechism “proves” that Jesus’ “top man” on earth is the pope who is linked directly to the Apostle Peter.

Myth No. 3: The pope is the ruler of a real sovereign nation that altruistically offers valuable wisdom otherwise missing in world power politics.

Myth No. 4: The pope values satisfying the desperate needs of a majority of the powerless 99% more than promoting the selfish agenda of some of the powerful 1% who fund the pope significantly.

Myth No. 5: The pope values the security and dignity of hundreds of millions of impoverished and innocent children and women more than that of 5,000 “not so impoverished and innocent” cardinals and bishops — these clerics have vowed obedience and silence as they supinely serve and frequently fund the pope’s needs, in exchange for the pope’s grant to these clerics’ of an unaccountable monopoly on local power and obscene personal wealth.

{In my future remarks, I expect to discuss separately each of the five papal myths in more detail.}

Myths are over simplified stories with a supernatural twist — believed deeply and docilely by many, often from their youth. These “mythical stories” tend misleadingly to “frame” problematic issues for believers, even when unsupported by sufficient facts and/or contradicted by realities that believers irrationally neglect.

Papal myths are ones that modern popes have propagated to Catholics, beginning at seven years old during initial sacramental indoctrination, if not earlier through their Catholic parents and teachers.

These myths promote papal power and prosperity with no questions asked, even when rationally warranted — Pay, Pray & Obey!

Many Catholics habitually and irrationally accept these myths, thereby avoiding the need to make tough decisions to act as real Christians that are honestly called for by viewing papal reality unfiltered by papal spin.

Even some purported Catholic scholars and journalists, often seemingly out of ambition and/or intimidation, are influenced by these mythical “frames” when viewing papal reality.

Pope Francis is preserving, as did his immediate predecessors, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, by internal intimidation, external propaganda and media manipulation, at least five crucial myths underlying current papal power and wealth.

Evidently, the pope fears that the present risks of prosecution and imprisonment for Catholic Church leaders arising out of child abuse and financial scandals will increase, even faster than they presently are, if the full and unvarnished truth of some Church leaders’ misdeeds were to be uncovered.

The Vatican seems clearly to be relying heavily on these five myths, among others, to obscure reality as it faces a major and plausible “once in 150 years” threat. Francis is expected, it appears, to try to meet this threat and buy time, as an interim “media friendly, globe trotting” papal distraction — like John Paul II also was.

The threat that the Vatican faces is the imprisonment of the Catholic Church’s top leaders for criminal conduct involving child abuse and financial corruption scandals. The ex-Pope and Cardinals Angelo Sodano, Tarcisio Bertone and William Levada slipped out of the International Criminal Court female prosecutor’s grasp for now, but likely not forever. And other prosecutors are gathering in the wings, in Australia. the UK, and likely the USA, Germany and elsewhere in due course.

Pope Francis has recently expanded the Vatican’s longstanding and successful intimidation policy that has already silenced alternative views, including many cowardly clerics and ambitious scholars who have seen the fate of a few persecuted prophets. Few of them possess Fr. Hans Kung’s courage and intelligence, no?

Pope Francis is now even intimidating internally his opposing episcopal subordinates — first mainly by his embarrassing public Christmas harangue of Vatican officials. This staged scolding was surely a purposeful prelude to his more recent secret and intimidating ultimatum to the world’s cardinals. These seeming prince/puppets rubber stamped Francis’ continuing consolidation of papal power until either Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (Cardinal Sodano’s long time protege) is ready to be pope, or until another showpiece globe trotting, media appealing pope can be installed to front for Parolin.

Similarly, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI fronted mostly for their very powerful Secretaries of State, the real powers behind the papal thrones, including Cardinals Sodano and Bertone.

Unfortunately for the Vatican’s cynical self preservation plans, a few intrepid journalists and persistent prophets are uncovering the actual truth. This is now being accelerated and amplified by instant Internet communications and social media, as well as by a 24/7 news cycle. The pope’s media technology is a double edged sword.

These uncovered truths are steadily dispelling the papal myths more quickly and effectively than the pope’s massive media machine, and well compensated journalist shills, can spin and re-package them.

For two years, the Jesuit pope, often relying on one or more of the above myths, has cunningly “fed” to the docile, and even in some cases, lazy media, and to diverse Catholic religious factions, some of whom saw their own advancement opportunities and delusional dreams in, Francis’ many contradictory and/or ambiguous, but also intentionally quotable, remarks.

The overall implications and fatal flaws of Francis’ present approach, notwithstanding the papal mythology, are discussed further in my remarks, “The Crisis Pope Francis Faces” here [Christian Catholicism] .

We now know much despite the many myths, including ten matters that Pope Francis strongly prefers:

-Preserving a secretive monarchy with “rubber stamp Cardinals”

-Keeping women barefoot&pregnant with no Pill or plastic surgery

-Pumping the Catholic birth rate to “outbreed the Muslim threat”

-Maintaining exclusive Vatican control of criminal bishops&priests

-Putting gay folks back in “the closet” with still “closeted” priests

-Maximizing German Church tax subsidies from divorced Catholics

-Electing a “right wing, low tax” US president, preferably Jeb Bush

-Pleasing China, oil rich nations and “low tax” billionaire donors

-Invading the Middle East to protect papal donors’ oil rich allies

-Making as next pope, Pietro Parolin, protege of pope’s ally Sodano

Papal mythology is still a serious problem. It enables the pope to get a pass on many of his inconsistent words and deeds. Ponder here some of the latest Papal Wizard’s misleading meanderings down the Yellow Brick Road (in bold italics):

Don’t breed like rabbits, just don’t use the Pill or, God forbid, plastic surgery.

It is selfish not to have children,  and more are surely better.

Help the poor, but honor, like he (the pope) seems to do, the crony capitalist billionaires from Wall Street, Big Oil and Big Media who help keep the poor, well poor, and the Catholic Church’s leaders rich.

Protect children, but don’t report priest child abuse to the police unless legally obligated to do so, unless you are a bishop like Finn, then you do not even have to obey the law, or a cardinal like Pell, then you can almost crush victims of priest child sex abuse.

Say loudly that bishops should be held accountable, then study how to do so forever.

Slap your kids, but do so respectfully.

Protect women, but keep them barefoot & pregnant and oppose treaties that actually seek to protect women.

Be nice to abuse survivors, but go bankrupt to avoid compensating them justly, or if you are in a hierarchical position like Pell was, then grind the victims mercilessly into unconditional surrender. 

Don’t judge gay folks, just ostracize them from Catholic Church institutions, as Archbishop Cordileone is now doing in San Francisco, as he prepares to attend Francis’  “womenless” and absurd Final Family Synod in less than eight months.