S4 E17 - Pope Francis: The People's Pope or Political Figure?

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Critiquing the Legacy and Actions of Pope Francis

 

In this episode, the host examines the legacy and actions of Pope Francis, who recently passed away. Known as the 'people's Pope,' Francis was both celebrated and controversial. The host questions his popularity and discusses his positions on various social issues, including his stance on homosexuality, his outreach to other religious leaders and marginalized communities, and his involvement in political matters. The episode critiques Francis’s approach, arguing that he deviated from his fundamental role of preaching the gospel and emphasizing Christian beliefs. It suggests that while his intentions may have been noble, his actions fell short of fulfilling the core responsibilities of the papacy.

 

00:00 Introduction: The People's Pope

00:31 Pope Francis' Popularity and Controversies

01:33 Mixed Messages on Homosexuality

02:24 Addressing Other Social Issues

03:14 Interfaith Relations and Marginalized Groups

04:07 Critique of Pope's Focus on Wars and Poverty

05:59 The Pope's True Job: Preaching the Gospel

07:17 The Core Message of the Gospel

08:00 Pope Francis' Failures in Preaching

10:35 Christian Beliefs and Western Values

12:20 Conclusion: The Role of Christianity in Global Peace

Commentary on trending issues brought to you with a moderate perspective.

Episode Transcript

The Tenth Man (00:00):
He was Pope for 12 years and they called him the
people's Pope, but if he was thepeople's Pope, what people and
who did all those other guysrepresent?
The death of Pope Francis todayon the 10th Man.
I woke up yesterday morning tolearn that the Pope had died.

(00:23):
I didn't quite know what tothink.
I was not immediately sadknowing that he was basically a
good man and had gone onto hisreward.
He was a very popular pope.
Being popular doesn'tnecessarily mean that you're
good or good at your job.
Just look at President Trump.
He's been popular, he's beenunpopular, and there have been

(00:46):
people who thought he was doinga good job and people who
thought he was not.
But looking at Pope Francis, oneobvious question is"popular with
whom"?
Among Christians in general, andCatholics in particular, he was
not just controversial, butactually unpopular with many.
What do these people know thatthe other people, the

(01:10):
non-believers do not?
Pope Francis supported themarginalized, they say.
Marginalized is a woke word withno real meaning, and it's
applied quite liberally togroups that have problems of
their own making.
Who are we talking about in thiscase?

(01:30):
Well, one group is the gays.
Pope Francis told priests thatthey could bless gay couples.
He said being gay was a sin, butamong all the sins that exist,
this one could be blessed.
Regardless of your feelingsabout homosexuality, this mixed
message seems designed to seekpopularity over, what should we

(01:55):
say?
Righteousness?
He went on to say thathomosexuality, while it is a
sin, still should not beillegal.
He's really departing from hisown lane there; are all the
problems in the church solvedsuch that he has to find other
problems in the world ofpolitics that only he can solve.

(02:17):
The gays seemed to be getting onquite well, actually.
They're far from beingmarginalized.
Maybe he could address anothersexual sin that has more
widespread evil consequences,and that would be having
children out of wedlock.
Maybe he could proclaimpremarital sex to be a sin, but
at least use birth control.

(02:39):
No wait, he's still condemningbirth control.
There's a complex social issuefor him to address that has real
significance, but probably wouldnot lead to his being popular.
Another marginalized group he'smet with is prisoners.
Is it because they were unjustlyimprisoned?

(03:00):
Was the food not to theirliking?
Did he visit them to tell themthat their imprisonment was the
price of their sins, and to askthem to pray for the victims of
their own crimes?
The Pope had meetings withpeople of the Buddhist faith and
with Muslims.
These photo ops made usCatholics wonder, are you the

(03:23):
leader of the Muslims and theBuddhists, and are you telling
the Muslims and Buddhists thatyou accept them?
Because I don't think theyshould really care whether you
accept them or not.
I know I don't care whether theBuddhists acknowledge me as a
Christian.
What might make more sense wouldbe for him to meet with the
Muslim and Buddhist leaders andtry to work out differences at

(03:47):
that level, and those Muslim andBuddhist leaders would agree
with me because I haven't seenany Imams on a tour across
America shaking hands withBaptists and Lutherans and
telling them that they areloved.
But that again, that would be ahard meeting.

(04:07):
He was the pope of themarginalized poor, and those
suffering from war, but whichpoor and which war?
When he says poor, does he meanthe obese poor of the West?
We have lots of poor who don'thave jobs and are demanding free
medical care to include Ozempicfor their obese children.

(04:30):
Is that the poor that he means?
I know he means the poor peopleof Venezuela who are poor
because they have followed theprinciples he is proposing,
communism, where you takeeverything from the rich and
then no one has anything andthen you just run to the United
States.
And he also means the poor inGaza who had everything they

(04:53):
needed.
But now because of a war, a warthat he supports, that side at
least, they've lost everything.
Well, no, actually they're stillvery well fed because somehow
the Pope is not concerned withthe people of Yemen, people who
are truly in need, not thegreedy poor, who just want more,

(05:17):
but people actually in need.
A quarter of a million peoplehave starved to death in Yemen.
Only because the Imams, who hewill not talk to, are sending
food and weapons to theterrorists that run the country.
That's the Houthis, while thepeople in the countryside starve
to death.
The Pope is or has beenpreoccupied with the wars in

(05:40):
Ukraine and in Gaza, both ofwhich are pure wars of greed,
which neither side can truly andfully justify.
While the oppressed people ofYemen who are actually wasting
away and starving are completelyforgotten by the Pope, by the
United Nations and everyoneelse.
So with all we've heard aboutthis Pope, with all the things

(06:02):
we've heard that he's beendoing, we've heard nothing about
him doing his actual job.
He is got the title of people'sPope.
Well, congratulations Francis,but you're supposed to be the
Pope of our Lord representingJesus Christ on earth.
Not all Christians accept thistitle, and I don't fully buy it

(06:23):
myself, but that is the jobdescription and he wasn't doing
it.
And he knows what the jobdescription is all Christians
do.
It's in Matthew chapter 28,verse 19, and if you're dreading
a Bible sermon, hang on, becausethat's not what this is.
Well, it might be because thegospel is a powerful section of

(06:45):
the Bible, so be careful.
You might be converted, but herewe go.
Matthew 28 verse 19 says, go yeinto all the world and preach
the gospel unto every creature.
That's the Pope's job.
Now, he could do all these otherthings that he's been doing as
long as he's also preaching thegospel.

(07:06):
But the thing is, he could justpreach the gospel and everything
else takes care of itself.
And that's because of this.
What is the gospel?
The gospel is some of thosethings that Pope Francis was
living himself, but he wasliving it without preaching it.

(07:27):
It's reverse hypocrisy.
The gospel is this.
The first part is the Shema.
A prayer that Jews still saytoday.
Thou shalt love the Lord thyGod, with all thy heart, with
all thy soul, with all thy mind,and with all thy strength.
So love God.
But even if you don't believethat, there's the part that

(07:48):
Jesus brought and that was thoushalt love thy neighbor as
thyself.
Now, here's where Pope Francisreally screwed that up.
All those visits he made to theso-called marginalized people,
or if you think they'remarginalized, fine, but he
forgot to tell them, now go andsin no more.

(08:12):
He failed to do what Jesusalways did, and that was tell
those people what they needed tohear.
When Pope Francis visited thepoor and sympathized with them,
he left them with the impressionthat it was somebody else's
fault that they were poor.
And hold on, maybe it was, butwhen Jesus was on the earth, he

(08:36):
was constantly correcting peopleto say no.
I'm not here to create a greatkingdom, a great society for
you.
I'm not here to solve all yourearthly problems.
I'm here to tell you what youneed to do for yourself.
So, hey gay guys, I'm sorry thatpeople condemn you for being gay

(08:56):
and hey, Indians or indigenouspeople or First Nations we're
sorry, the Canadians with thehelp of the Catholic Church or
the Americans provided schoolsfor your kids to go to.
And hey criminals, we're sorryyou're in jail and that nobody
loves you anymore.
Jesus had messages for the rich.
Jesus had messages for the poor.

(09:18):
Jesus had messages for therelatively just and upright, and
Jesus had messages for the worstsinners.
And those were the taxcollectors by the way.
But he never gave anyone themessage that someone else owes
them something.
Oh yes.
He told the rich young ruler tosell all you had and give it to

(09:39):
the poor.
But there's more to that storywe won't cover here.
But the message was one for theruler.
He didn't tell the poor to goand take anything from that
rich, young ruler.
And if the Lord came to Americatoday and said, give half of
your GDP to Africa, and if youdo this, they will prosper.

(10:01):
We would do it in a minute, butthat's not Jesus' message.
The message he's given us is tolove God, to love our neighbor,
and to believe on the Lord JesusChrist.
Now as it happens, people who dothose three things seem to be
blessed and to prosper here onearth.

(10:21):
While people who have stuffgiven to them do not prosper
ever.
I don't know how, and I don'tknow why this happens.
I just know that it happens.
My ancestors were told a longtime ago by missionaries sent
out by that Pope of that time,sent to England and to Ireland

(10:45):
to teach us our forefathers, tolove God, love our neighbors,
and believe on the Lord.
And they did that.
And we have been blessed and wehave prospered.
Not everybody in our countrybelieves in God, but they're
still living in a Christiannation, one that's founded upon
the principles of Christianity.
And most Americans, indeed, mostwesterners, have a belief that

(11:09):
we should treat others fairly.
The only proselytizing I'll doright now is to say, don't take
it for granted.
Those are Christian beliefs, notWestern beliefs.
Other countries don't have themunless they have a Christian
background.
And that's why I say PopeFrancis didn't do his main job
because he should have beenfighting for Christian beliefs

(11:31):
throughout the world.
Oh, he could have called themWestern beliefs since he wants
to be a politician more than aclergyman.
But since he's the Pope, heshould have been sending
missionaries to Yemen and toGaza.
He should have been sendingmissionaries to parts of Africa
that have been taken over byterrorists and sending
missionaries with armed guardsdemanding protection from the UN

(11:53):
or the United States.
Or maybe freedom of religionamong all the freedoms is just
not that high on his agenda.
Because regardless of whatevercriticism you might have for
Christianity, oh, and heavens,let's talk about the child
molestation crisis, you have toadmit that any Christianity

(12:14):
would be better than what any ofthose countries have there right
now.
And it's okay to support thepoor.
Of course, God loves the poor,but that's because he loves
everybody.
God even loves rich Americanswho are straight, go to church,
go to work, work hard, paytaxes, and raise families.

(12:37):
He might even love them a littlemore, but in any case, the more
people who come to theconclusion that everyone has
human dignity and is deservingof respect, the closer we will
be to having peace on earth.
Tell a friend about the 10th ManPodcast.
Thank you for listening.