Jorge Mario Bergoglio A.K.A Pope Francis was born in Argentina in 1936, that means he lived through Peron and all the Argentinian dictatorships plus was witness to the mass immigration of Europeans (German, Italians and Spaniards) getting out of a post-war Europe. The abuses suffered by regular citizens by the hands of the secret police are well known to any Argentinian of his time, even during periods of “elected” government.
I have covered this before (damn, 10 years ago) but it bears repeating. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. “The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life; and the killing of the aggressor. . . . The one is intended, the other is not.”
Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one’s own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow…
Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm.
This is pretty clear: The Catholic Church allows for self-defense, period. Nowhere in the Catholic Church doctrine specifies that can only be done with certain objects because it was never about the objects but the individual’s hear and soul.
How are we supposed to defend ourselves? Say couple of Hail Marys with a mouthful of garlic while presenting a cross and a spray bottle full of Holy Water? Only if the bad guys are vampires and only in the movies.
Shut up Old Man. You are the most embarrassing pope in a couple of centuries, probably three or four.
I was born and raised a Roman Catholic, but I struggled mightily with my faith and the religion throughout my teens and early twenties. The elevation of Jorge Bergoglio to his current position (I will not dignify him with the title nor insult the office by calling him by it) was one of the final straws for my metaphorical camel’s back.
Under Pope John-Paul II, I felt like the Church understood my life and sympathized with my struggles with faith. Under Pope Benedict XVI, I felt like the Church sympathized with my crisis of faith and was willing to provide me with answers to my questions, explanations to my misunderstandings, and basically that both popes wanted a Chruch that wanted to be a Church.
Bergoglio doesn’t want to run the Church, he wants to run a Soviet Socialist Republic; he doesn’t want me to help me struggle with the divine, he wants me to have a public Struggle Session where I confess my venial sins of bourgeoise morales, middle-class education, and driving an internal combustion engine, before flagellating myself for the mortal sins of being a cisgendered “white” male from North America.
I don’t want to be a part of any organization that would elect Bergoglio to run it.
ISTR Christ told his followers to arm themselves.
He’ll go down as an Antipope, I suspect.
Seriously. I think Papa Emeritus would be a more Christian Pope than Francis.
Fine, as long as the Swiss Guard goes without first.