The Next Pope

All the latest reports coming from the Vatican reveal a seriously ill Pope Francis, whose time on this earth might be nearing an end. Allow me for a moment to separate the man from the activist. I pray for Pope Francis, I pray for God's forgiveness of his sins, I pray he's judged by God with an emphasis on his virtues, and I pray that God accepts him into His everlasting kingdom as a parent would embrace a son returning home.

I've written extensively about what are, in my opinion, Francis's shortcomings, abandonments, and downright betrayals as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. But now is not the time to chortle and sneer. Should Pope Francis soon depart this world, we should all advocate for the salvation of his soul, not as moral superiors fit to observe the speck in others' eyes, but as fellow travelers mired in the same world of sin and death, all of us groping blindly in the dark for a better path.

Having said that, it's no secret to anybody paying attention that Pope Francis's tenure has been an absolute disaster not only for Catholicism but for the entire Christian world. Now that his term is nearing its conclusion (or, at least in the functional sense), the overriding question is whether his papacy was an accidental fluke or a sign of a darker permanency. Will the College of Cardinals correct this mistake, or will it double down?

That question will only be answered with the next papal election. The Cardinals have two clear, distinct, and incompatible paths to choose from. I hope they choose wisely. I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that millions of Catholics, across the world but especially in the West, will use this election to determine whether or not to stay with the Church.

But if New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan is an accurate weathervane of the direction the Church is headed, then things don't look good. This Lenten season, he posted a video not about Lent, but about the start of Ramadan for our "Islamic brothers and sisters," and how our Ash Wednesday is "kind of like our Ramadan." 

Setting aside its historical and theological untruths (already dissected by Robert Spencer here at PJ Media), the depths to which such a pandering, slavering statement plumbs only reveals either a childlike naivete so unfathomable it's almost criminal, or a Capo-like I'll-be-your-stooge-if-you-promise-to-kill-me-last cowardice. Either way, it's unbefitting of leadership in any capacity.

Cardinal Dolan, the graveyard you're whistling past inters the murdered bodies of Christians who've been unfortunate enough to live too close to those Islamic "brothers and sisters" to get a taste of just how brotherly and sisterly they can be. Two weeks before your pillow-biting performance art in honor of Ramadan, ISIS-linked "militants" rounded up 70 Congolese Christians, herded them into a Protestant church, and massacred them with machetes and hammers. This occurred not in the tribal backwaters of Kandahar Province but in a majority Christian region that houses not a single mosque.

For some reason, we rank-and-file still cling to a hope, perhaps just as naïve, that our so-called religious leaders might pipe up in defense of these persecuted, martyred Christians rather than admonishing the remaining living Christians for not opening their doors and borders to their would-be killers. Guess not.

Keep it up, Cardinal Dolan, and you'll simply continue to drive away committed Catholics, just as the Pride and BLM signs drove away committed Presbyterians, just as the erasure of traditional marriage drove away committed Methodists, and just as the submission of the Archbishop of Canterbury to eventual sharia law drove away committed Anglicans.

I love the Catholic Church. It represents a magnificent faith with beautiful traditions and a rich history that evokes both pride and humility. Most Western and secular criticism of Catholicism, of its theological tenets, and its customs is drenched in ignorance, the shallowness of which barely ripples beyond the monosyllabic dialogue of a Kevin Smith film. Its institutions and its congregants are worth defending, as is any Christian denomination that prioritizes the spreading of the Gospel and the well-being of its community.

But Pope Francis and too many cardinals and bishops have not spent their time defending the Church. Quite the opposite. And speaking personally from my own conversations with fellow Catholics, we are sick of it. We are sick of the deference to hostile political ideologies. We're sick of the pandering to wokeness. We're sick of the anti-American and anti-Western bigotry being spewed under the guise of compassion. Many of us are one papal election away from leaving the Church permanently or, at any case, at least until it gets its act together and gives us a pope worthy of the seat of St. Peter.

Give us another Pope Leo I who, armed only with the Gospel, stood at the gates of Rome in 452 AD and convinced Attila the Hun and his armies to spare the city from destruction.

Give us another Pope Urban II, who recognized that the continuous and bloody expansion of Islam into Byzantium and southern Europe wasn't just localized attacks on those particular kingdoms but a theologically-sanctioned extermination of all of Western Christendom and who launched the First Crusade in 1095 AD to reverse this expansion.

Give us another Pope Innocent III, Pope Sixtus V, Pope Adrian VI, or any number of other popes who relentlessly rooted out institutional corruption.

Give us another Pope Pius XII who, though living in fascist Italy, openly condemned Nazism and established a rescue network which was responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of Jews from genocide.

Give us another Pope John Paul II, who stood up to both communism and secular hedonism, who helped liberate Poland, and who was instrumental in helping to bring down the Soviet Union.

Give us the popes who built breathtaking cathedrals, who united and defended Christendom, who led by example, and who were unapologetic about the faith.

Pope Francis and his ilk not only fail to defend the religion itself, but they also attack the very downtrodden and voiceless they're charged with shepherding. They dilute the timeless teachings of any real meaning. They shatter the trust and reliability they're supposed to uphold and strengthen. They rob the faithful of their very dignity by scolding them for their right to protect their own homes. And they do so from atop the very high, very secure walls of the Vatican. To quote Dickens, "Oh God! To hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!"

The Catholic Church — indeed, most Christian denominations — all have their own Deep States to contend with. These "Christian" bureaucracies all push the woke agenda that differs little from what the Squad peddles and, as a result, the Christian world continues to shrink at the expense of an aggressively colonialist and genocidal Islam. This is bad for everybody, including atheists and leftists, many of whom erroneously assume they're not being exploited as easily manipulated, useful idiots to be disposed of once their usefulness subsides.

If the woke trend continues in our churches, it won't mean that believing Christians will simply stop believing. But it does mean they'll stop coming to church. And it means that Christendom will become more isolated, more fractured, and more powerless.

The Christian world is screaming at the top of its lungs for real inspiration and leadership, not finger-wagging lectures from liberation theology Marxists in pastors' clothing about how our desire to stem the flow of Islamic rapists and mass murderers into our civilization nations makes us all evil racists.

So I beg, I implore, I plead with the College of Cardinals to get the Church back on track. Call it the MPGA (Make the Papacy Great Again) election. Parishioners vote with their feet. We can't force your choice of pope, but you can't force our choice of attendance. We day to day Christians will continue to serve God regardless, but Christendom would be much better served if we work together.

The ball is in your court.

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