TrapCast Express
TrapCast Express, it's Monday, September 3rd, 2018.
Well, it took him long enough, but Francis has finally broken his silence on the emergency afflicting the church.
Here is what he said verbatim, quote,
We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic.
Here, too, our active commitment is needed to confront this emergency, unquote.
That was from his message for the fourth annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, delivered this past Saturday, September 1st.
And that speech has a few more real beauties in it that I want to share with you.
Like this one, for example, quote,
Water invites us to reflect on our origins.
The human body is mostly composed of water, and many civilizations throughout history arose near great rivers that marked their identity, unquote.
Or how about this one, quote,
Let us pray that waters may not be a sign of separation between peoples,
but of encounter for the people of the world.
The human community, unquote.
So not even the oceans are safe from this guy's blather.
Unbelievable.
Here's another one, quote,
Let us pray that those who risk their lives at sea in search of a better future may be kept safe, unquote.
Yeah.
And let us also pray that those who have to accept all these migrants will be kept safe from them.
Funny, you never hear Francis talk about that.
Then Francis also prayed, quote,
For those who help reflect on the issues involving maritime ecosystems,
for those who contribute to the development and application of international regulations on the seas,
in order to safeguard individuals, countries, goods, natural resources,
I think, for example, of marine fauna and flora,
and coral reefs or seabeds,
and to guarantee an integral development in view of the common good of the entire human family
and not particular interests, unquote.
You know, St. John the Apostle writes about people like Francis in his first letter, chapter 4, verse 5, quote,
They are of the world, therefore of the world they speak.
And the world...
Heareth them, unquote.
Now, to be fair, yes, Francis did also mention our Lord in his message on the fourth annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
He did mention our Lord briefly and even said that the water he gives is capable of quenching human thirst forever.
Unfortunately, he didn't take the opportunity to elaborate on that
and simply said that...
Quote,
And then, of course, he quickly went on to talk about giving drink to the thirsty as a corporal work of mercy.
Folks, at this point, Francis has spoken more about coral reefs and ecosystems
than he has about what Carlo Maria Viganò,
accused him of in his 11-page testimony released on August 25th.
But that's an ocean of filth and corruption that this eco-maniac does not want to touch.
Now, today is the first Monday in September,
and that means that the summer break in the Vatican is over
and Francis is back to his daily homilies at the Casa Santa Marta.
And so he had plenty to say today,
and you can probably guess what the main topic was.
Keeping silence in the face of unjust accusations for the sake of humility.
Even though that had virtually nothing to do with the gospel passage that was read today,
which is Luke 4, 16-30,
Francis tried really hard to make it look as though
what he was saying was an exposition of the day's gospel.
The Novus Ordo news agency, Zenit, reported on Francis' homily today as follows.
Quote,
When Jesus was confronting the devil, Francis noted,
Jesus adopted this attitude.
Jesus' humility, he said, opens the door to his first words meant to construct a bridge,
but instead sows doubt immediately changing the atmosphere from peace to war,
from amazement to fury.
To those who wanted to throw him out, he said,
to those who wanted to throw him out, he said,
to those who wanted to throw him out of the city,
Jesus responds with silence, the Pope said.
They were not thinking, they were shouting.
Jesus stayed silent.
The gospel passage ends with,
but he passed through the midst of them and went away.
Jesus' dignity, Francis continued,
shines through the silence that triumphs over his attackers.
On Good Friday, the Pope observed the same thing would happen again.
The people who were saying crucify him had praised Jesus,
on Palm Sunday, saying,
Reflecting on our dignity, the Pope continued, saying,
The truth is humble and silent and is not noisy,
acknowledging that what Jesus did is not easy.
However, the dignity of the Christian is anchored in the power of God.
Even in a family, he said,
there are times when division occurs because of discussions,
on politics, sports, money.
Pope Francis recommends silence and prayer in these cases.
Unquote.
Aww.
Francis, the humble, innocent little lamb,
so evilly persecuted by those sowers of scandal and division.
You know, this man always has his mouth open,
but when he's credibly accused of covering up sex abuse
by one of his own people,
suddenly he has nothing to say.
Oh, that just proves his innocence, right?
Well, I guess I've got a hot tip then for all sex abusers and their enablers.
If you ever get accused in public,
just keep silent and say it's an outrageous attack
by people who only seek to cause scandal and division,
and that you're just being humble and Christ-like
by not dignifying these accusations with a response.
This strategy seems to work great.
Yes.
At least if the mainstream media is on your side.
But wait a minute.
Christ didn't respond to false accusations, right?
Actually, he did.
That is, he did until his hour was come,
and he was tried by the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate.
But no, when the Pharisees accused Christ in the presence of many people,
when they accused him of working miracles by the power of the devil,
when they accused him of healing on the Sabbath,
of eating with public sinners,
of his disciples not washing their hands, and so forth,
Christ responded.
He responded and confounded them every single time.
That's precisely why, in the end, they decided to kill him,
because they knew that they could not prevail over him
by trying to convict him of sin
or by getting him ensnared in the speech.
So, that just as a side note, okay?
Yes, Christ most certainly did.
He didn't respond to false accusations.
All right, a final point for today.
In our prior podcast, Tradcast Express number 65,
we had played some soundbites of the arch-layman of Chicago,
Mr. Blaise Cupich, which had been released by NBC5 Chicago.
You'll probably remember that was the rabbit hole remark
and the Latino remark, okay?
Well, that was the rabbit hole remark, and the Latino remark, okay?
Well, Cupich has since claimed that his interview was edited unfairly
and that he was taken out of context.
NBC5 has denied misrepresenting him,
and so they've released the entire unedited footage of the whole interview.
So, in the interests of justice and accurate reporting,
I would like to make listeners aware of that.
And so, let me briefly quote now from the transcript
what Cupich says that,
supposedly shows that his remarks were distorted.
First, regarding the soundbite about the rabbit hole
and the bigger agenda of Francis.
Here's that portion in context.
So, this is Cupich speaking.
Quote,
So, the news media now needs to go and press him,
meaning Viganò, for information.
I read the Washington Post and other major newspapers
and their first line always is,
he's made these accusations but offered no proof.
Let's let the news media do their job here.
But for the Holy Father, I think to get into each and every one of those aspects
in some way is inappropriate.
And secondly, the Pope has a bigger agenda.
He's got to get on with other things of talking about the environment
and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the Church.
We're not going to go down a rabbit hole on this.
Unquote.
Now, as far as the Latino remark,
Cupich had been asked whether there was currently a civil war underway in the Church
and this is what he responded.
Quote,
Well, I would say, I would say not a civil war.
There's a small group of insurgents
who have not liked Pope Francis from the very beginning.
They don't like the fact that he's calling for more lay involvement.
They don't like the fact that he is calling for a synodal Church.
Where we get the advice of people.
They don't like that he's talking about the environment or the poor or the migrants
or that the death penalty is something that we should outlaw.
They don't like the fact that he is saying that economies kill.
There are people who don't like that message.
And so there's an insurgency of people who don't like that.
And quite frankly, they also don't like him because he's a Latino
and that he is bringing Latino culture into the life of the Church,
which we have been.
We have been enriched by and I think that that's part of all of this too.
Unquote.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the immediate context for both of these remarks.
Maybe next time, Cupich will take Francis' advice,
be immensely holy and just, you know, keep silent.
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