Venezuela: Pope Francis’s Downfall?
The Wall Street Journal points out that while Pope Francis is not slow to denounce President Donald Trump, he is not so quick to take Nicolás Maduro to task – click here
The Bishops of Venezuela Appeal to Our Lady for Deliverance from Maduro.
From Francis, Only Silence.
by Christopher A. Ferrara
August 11, 2017
Francis and Maduro: Happy together?“Will Venezuela be Francis’s downfall?” That provocative question is posed by Monica Showalter in an important article at the American Thinker blog. There is no arguing with her opening line: “The world’s first Latin American pope isn’t exactly covering himself with glory as the hellfire of Venezuela immolates that God-forsaken nation.” There has been nothing but silence from Francis as the socialist tyrant Nicolás Maduro oppresses the Venezuelan people and destroys the nation’s once vibrant economy, reducing many to rummaging through garbage cans for food.
For their part, the bishops of Venezuela know a tyrant when they see one: during the run-up to Maduro’s sham election of a new “constituent assembly” to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution in his favor, the Venezuelan Bishops’ Conference posted this prayer to their Twitter account: “Most Holy Virgin, Mother of Coromoto, heavenly Patron of Venezuela, free our homeland from the claws of communism and socialism.” It seems certain that no such words will ever escape the lips of Francis.
The bishops’ prayer is most telling from this Fatima perspective. Our Lady of Coromoto is a title of the Mother of God the Church has assigned to Her apparitions to the chief of the Coromoto tribe in 1591 following the arrival of the Spanish in Venezuela. Instructed by the Virgin to undergo baptism in order to be saved, the chief at first complied but then changed his mind before receiving the sacrament. During a second most impressive apparition of Our Lady, the chief became enraged and tried to grab the Blessed Virgin, but She disappeared, leaving in the chief’s hand a kind of holy card relic, quite small in size, which is preserved to this day in a protective monstrance. It depicts the Virgin, with Child, seated on a throne, both bearing crowns on their heads.
No mere legend, the apparition of Our Lady of Coromoto received approbation from the highest authority in the Church, with Pope Pius XII declaring Our Lady of Coromoto “Patroness of the Republic of the Venezuela” at the request of the country’s bishops, whose successors appeal to Her today.
No such appeal to the Virgin on behalf of the poor nation of Venezuela can be expected from Francis. As one columnist notes in the Wall Street Journal (quoted here):
“Venezuela’s crisis doesn’t fit into Pope Francis’s standard way of explaining contemporary political and economic problems. It’s very hard for the pope to blame Venezuela’s problems on the tyranny of Mammon, financial speculation, free trade agreements, arms-dealers, nefarious ‘neoliberals,’ or any of his usual list of suspects.”
This is not to suggest (as do American neo-conservatives) that the Bergoglian list of usual suspects does not come in for legitimate, indeed harsh, criticism according to Catholic social teaching. Rather, the problem here is blindness to that same social teaching with respect to its equally harsh condemnation of socialism, summed up in Pius XI’s dictum in his landmark social encyclical Quadragesimo anno: “Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.”
It is an axiom of our religion that no person on earth can judge the Pope in the sense of a penal sentence with juridical effect. But the bar of history offers its own inescapable judgment of Popes. In that sense, I must agree with Showalter’s conclusion: “What it all points to is that the pope needs to either blast the nightmare in Venezuela or watch his own credibility go down the drain as civil war engulfs that country… Either he slays the Venezuelan dragon or the Venezuelan dragon will slay him.” Source
Comments invited…
Comments (18)
Nothing but silence from Pope Francis? Ah, not so surprising: silence is one of the left’s primary techniques with which facts are ignored. Specifically, facts and realities which contradict and destroy leftist lies, propaganda and illusions. Other techniques include: marginalize and isolate, through virulent orchestrated calumny and other means, those who publicly affirm inconvenient facts; create the illusion of large-scale public support for leftist lies; orchestrate praise for the purveyors of the lie among those who possess “professional credentials;” orchestrate protests and violence through well-funded subversive groups (though this technique might be a bit tricky in the Church); if necessary, murder and assassinations (again, tricky within the Church – but perhaps the very sword which threatens those who want to reveal the Third Secret and facilitate the Consecration of Russia).
Pope Francis has, other than silence, mostly the first technique at his disposal, through his endlessly spouted gibberish that masquerades as thought. For example, https://thatthebonesyouhavecrushedmaythrill.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-pope-francis-little-book-of-insults.html
RCA Victor,
That little book of insults needs updating. Pope Francis is now complaining about Catholics who think they’re “perfect”
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/08/09/pope-francis-im-saddened-perfect-catholics-who-despise-others
While he continues to ignore the plight of the poor oppressed people of Venezuela, nobody will accuse HIM of being perfect, LOL!
What has happened to this Country and the Money these Socialist Communist thieves have stolen from the people is a Worldwide Scandal that should have been denounced by Francis years ago . But as you have stated ED this doesn’t fit his ( put the boot in ) criteria. Maybe had this been a Godly Country with Rigid Catholics and thriving then that may have dare I say Indulged him to act and announce that they give all their profits to the poor . But what an example of how society with no Godly Commandments to show to the World . Despicable.
Faith of our Fathers,
The story of their Patroness, the Virgin of Coromoto gives hope for the future, though. It’s a beautiful story. I visited the website linked in the introduction and it is beautiful. So, I wouldn’t give up hope for Venezuela just yet, not with the bishops praying to her, in the prayer they put on Twitter. That gives a lot of hope for a good outcome. Our Lady will answer that prayer, I have no doubt.
““What it all points to is that the pope needs to either blast the nightmare in Venezuela or watch his own credibility go down the drain – “
This pope has credibility?
Margaret Mary,
LOL, great point! Sadly and incredibly, he seems to still have some, out there in Novus Ordo-Land….which is somewhere south of La-La Land….
RCA Victor,
After reading the postings from that daft troll with the split personality, I fully believe in “La-La Land”!
Spot – absolutely – ON!
Exactly M.M. Maybe he has some Cred in the Land of Mr Luther . Now whether that be Lex Luther or Martin Luther who can tell . Actually it used to be getting worse by The Month . Then it was the week . Now it’s actually by the Day . I know it’s maybe going off Topic a little but whilst reading into this a link led me to another Francis bashes Trump hails Clinton article in 1 Peter 5 .
To say it would make your Hair stand on end ( it won’t mine I have none ) is really something else.
This short video is very moving. I had no idea things were so bad in Venezuela before this crisis came on the news, yet this video is dated a year ago! I would urge prayers for these poor people.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbkhNXOrEO8&w=1131&h=636%5D
Edward C,
Very moving clip. The situation in Venezuela is very sad indeed, and we should pray very hard for the people there.
It’s a disgrace that Pope Francis is not speaking out clearly on this – as the Wall Street Journal piece indicates, he’ll take on Trump but not the Venezuelan dictator. Shame on him.
Comment removed – now identified as troll previously signed in as “Martin” and then “Fidelis Est Verum”
Please go away!
This article quoting Pope Francis on “justice” and “peace” shocked me. The “chant” he got the children to shout is terrible. I can’t believe it. Why did he make a show of consecrating his pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima when he obviously thinks her peace plan for the world is not the right one?
http://fatima.org/perspectives/sv/perspective732.asp
All the more wonder, though, that he isn’t keen to bring a “worldly” peace to Venezuela. I don’t get it. If it’s peace and poverty he wants to make a do about, what does it matter if the poverty comes from a capitalist president or a socialist one? I’m maybe not understanding the whole picture, but I don’t understand him at all.
Josephine,
That is a very telling article indeed. I agree about the chant – incredible. Wonder if it occurred to Pope Francis to get the children to learn some Gregorian chant! NEVER! Or even “chant” a Hail Mary. If only!
Adding a word for those misguided souls who may get the idea that we enjoy criticising the pope – any pope. We don’t. However, we’re entitled to fair comment on any public figure, including a pope, because too many souls are very easily led astray, their mindset being “if the pope says it, must be OK”. Well, it’s NOT OK to preach a message of false peace when Our Lady has taken the trouble to come to earth for the precise purpose of giving the popes of the 20th century/21st century, clear direction on how to achieve real world peace. If we tend to be a tad sarcastic in commenting on their successive ridiculous substitutions for the Russian Consecration (including planting trees, Assisi prayer-fests with every religion and none, and now children chanting a socialist message) then, I don’t think we’re being over-naughty. Yet. Stay tuned.
You can’t be a good Catholic, and a true Socialist.? WRONG !
You mean Popes Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius Xi, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, JPII and Benedict XVI were all wrong? Who knew?
https://www.tfpstudentaction.org/blog/what-the-popes-really-say-about-socialism
Dano,
If you read the encyclical, the popes make clear that a “true” socialist is an atheist. You can still vote Labour. The key word there is “true” – a true socialist is an unbeliever and obviously a Catholic cannot go with Socialist/Communist principles that deny God.
Lily,
That’s right about voting – we can vote Labour or Conservative, according to our conscience, because the Church condemns both extreme capitalism and true socialism.
I would be interested in bloggers’ views about this pamphlet on the Church and Socialism written by Hilaire Belloc, before 1917 – that’s what makes it interesting to me. https://archive.org/details/churchsocialism00bell
It’s interesting because it was written before the Russian revolution and before the Fatima apparitions.
Dano
No, Pius XI was absolutely correct! Socialism is Communism by any other name. It was born of Communism and every Socialist democracy today is, by its aggressive atheism, Communistic. Socialism in all of its manifestations is evil disguised as good, it destroys all godliness and every hierarchic structure in human society, ultimately robbing the unfortunate nations who adopt it of their wealth and morality. Pius XII made the same observation about Socialism. These Popes knew what they were talking about. Read their Encyclicals and you’ll be astounded at the prophetic wisdom they had.
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