Pope Francis has denounced the “brutal persecution” of religious and ethnic minorities, in his traditional Christmas Day address.
Departing quite charismatically from his text, he spoke emotionally of “children displaced due to war and persecution, abused and taken advantage of before our very eyes and our complicit silence.”
Without elaborating, he spoke of “contemporary Herods,” with blood on their hands, referring to the Biblical king who ordered children to be killed because he saw Jesus as a threat to his power.
But he conveniently left out white police brutality against African Americans in the United States only this year and the uproar those cop killings of Black teens generated across the globe.
The Pope failed to call the U.S. Justice Department ‘contemporary Herods’ as well, which is what they are, for their draconian enforcement of archaic and barbaric laws against African American youth because of a threat that a Jesus might yet come forth from amongst them.
In his second “Urbi et Orbi” – to the city and the world – Christmas message, the pontiff continued and highlighted the plight of victims of conflict only in Syria, Iraq and Nigeria.
“Too many people are being held hostage or massacred” in Nigeria, he added. He said the joy of Christmas was marred by the suffering of children in the Middle East and around the world.
And no place else?
The Pope forgot about African American children being incarcerated and being gunned down daily in the U.S. for absolutely no law enforcement reason.
His hesitation to bring attention to this renewed impudence in white police brutality against Blacks in the U.S. has drawn criticism across various minority groups, Catholics in Africa and African Americans living in the U.S.
“If anything at all, the Pope should have used his platform to call for the pursuit of justice in recent cop shootings of unarmed Black teens in the U.S. this year. The fact that he fails to do that speaks more to his prejudice and the bias of the papacy in general towards addressing racial issues in the U.S. and for that matter any European country.
“If he is truly the representation of Christ on earth, then he must be ashamed, even worse, God should be ashamed of him.
“The level of partiality shown by the Papacy degrades the Christian Faith and all that Jesus Christ stood for – a common humanity!” Mr Mo Sintim Jackson from the city of Chicago said in reaction to the Pope’s address.
Further, although Pope Francis urged dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, and condemned Taliban attacks in Pakistan, he failed to point the finger at Israeli military actions on Palestinian territory where innocent people continue to be killed and displaced.
“Israel is now the King Herod in that region, chasing out and persecuting innocent Palestinian civilians everyday”, Tania Stephane of the Peace Of Heart Foundation said after listening to the Pope’s address.
Tens of thousands of people turned out on St Peter’s Square to hear the Argentine Pope deliver his annual message for the second time since he took office.
He continued that Christians in Iraq and Syria had endured conflict for too long, and “together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution”.
His failure, or lack of effort thereof to draw a similar attention to racism in Europe and America has left many Catholics in Africa and minority groups in the U.S. astounded by the Pope’s parochial messaging.
“May Christmas bring them hope,” as indeed also to the many African Americans who are thrown into jail everyday, children who are shot at and killed for no law enforcement reason, and adults and elderly African Americans who cannot find any work even if they tried over and over.
Perhaps, the Pope’s ‘solemn’ thoughts might one day capture the disenfranchisement and the crimes against humanity that African Americans still suffer today at the hands of the U.S. Justice Department and its Law Enforcement Departments across that nation.
The Pope may have also appealed for an end to conflicts in African countries, but he stops short of admonishing the European countries at the heart of these conflicts.
He may have urged dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, but he stops short of pointing the finger at Israel. He may even have condemned the attack by Taliban militants that killed more than 130 students in Pakistan last week, but he also falls short of telling the U.S. to stop droning innocent civilians in the region and across the globe.
And he may have thanked those helping the victims of the Ebola epidemic, but he falls short of the help those victims need especially from the so-called ‘Christ-like’ Vatican.
Furthermore, Pope Francis may have made a surprise telephone call to comfort Christian refugees in a camp in Ankawa, Iraq. “You are like Jesus on Christmas night. There was no room for him either …”, but he fails to send a similar message to African American youth who are strategically left to the behest of violent white policemen in America and suffer the most brutal brand of racism everyday of their lives.
This sounds a lot like anti-Muslim talk from the Pope. I cannot take his words to heart if he will only present a one-sided view of the world and only interpret violence from an biased perspective.
The Pope my friend is a stooge of the Holy Western Empire. He doesn’t believe in God, what he believes in is western ideals – only they know what is best for the world.
And why would the Pope side against Syria, Nigeria, and Iraq? Because he is deep into Western pockets. He is not a religious or moral leader at all. He is just a mouthpiece for Europeans and the US. Nigerians this is your sign to form your own Catholicism if that is your religion of choice. This pope or any selected by Europe and the US does not have your interests at heart.
Not surprising. The pope is part of the white cartel. When will Africans and Latinos–the majority of Christians–realize this and form their own religions instead of following the white cartel? That will be surprising when that happens, because these groups are too busy listening to a pope who doesn’t care about them. I cannot choose how other people live their lives but I certainly will not listen to any pope who can’t condemn whites’ unnecessary violence against African Americans.
Correct!
The pope failed to take the opportunity to speak unto to the Christian world like a father with a good heart and a clear conscience. Instead he picked all the places with some trouble where moslems reside or are blamed for those troubles there. This kind of cherry picking is what has been symptomatic of western morals. They call it Catholicism, or even Christianity, but all they have tainted the religion with is tribalism.
When not a single religion has been birthed on a continent, like Europe, except of mysticism, magic, quark Science and Atheism, you wonder what kind of people must have lived there? The Pope, I don’t think, is man or Christian enough to critique the mighty devil, the U.S. of A, that’s all.
Be careful, I drone might be flying overhead! Be very careful.
The greatest thing in life are not achieved through appointment, they are achieved through an transformation of the soul towards a conscious that is God.
The opportunity the pope has missed to call attention to the plight of African Americans in the USA is really saddening. But we must hope so says Obama – we must believe that these people are not inherently racist, that they have a chance to attain a sense of humanity and hence probably approach Godliness.
As of yet, the KKK, and those white cops committed to the mutilation of Black bodies like their forefathers before them in the lynching of Black men in the U.S., have not achieved humanity, let alone Godliness. We must hope that one day, like Obama said, they might yet change! And be saved.
We’ve been waiting for these people to become human. Alas, they have not! The Germans warned us all. They really did.
For more than 4 centuries we have waited and hoped that they might yet become human, but they have not. How long is Obama saying we should wait, while he keeps on droning the rest of the world?
The Pope is confused, its not just about his faith but he seem terrible wanting in guiding the Roman Catholic church towards a future rooted in the principles of Christ.
You mean terribly wanting in guiding his on Christian faith to the truth. That I have to agree with you. The pope has lost his way.
The Christian faith is in bad shape if this is the man the leads the Catholic Church. Who’s going to become Christian?
Really though why even care write about this bastard of a Pope? Why bore us with his nonsense. We all know which side he’s on, its not God’s side, its America and Britain’s side. Everything he has done since he took office some 2 years ago has been to bend to American political pressure – gay marriage, gay people go to heaven too, all sorts of nonsense. But he is the pope and why human beings with brains continue to follow this one really beats me.
I don’t know why it has become so difficult for people to do the right thing? The pope needs to balance his duties as a Christian, a white man, and a pope. Only he has one problem. The vast majority of Catholics in the world are going to be increasingly Africans and Latinos. They face an existential problem as far as their cherished white supremacist ideology goes and their faith in Christ goes. I wonder how they will balance the two because Christ hated xenophobes, especially racists!
African Americans have suffered enough, someone needs to stand for them. Some leader somewhere in Africa needs to make the calling for justice for African Americans. Why is this something we keep putting away?
America needs a real reconciliation with the African American people – I mean sit down and apologize and pay up as well, This is overdue! I hope the pope can get around to making that point.