I guess I.Q.'s just dropped again. For why else would otherwise intelligent (read: non-catholic) people now believe that Jorge Bergoglio, the Vatican's latest figure head, is championing the world's poor by confronting the evils of global capitalism – just because he says he is?
Lots of popes have condemned capitalism over the years from atop their pile of riches, privileges and corporate investments, with the kind of outstanding hypocrisy Rome has always excelled in. Like George Carlin used to joke, as bullshit operations go, the papal religion wins, hands down. So Pope Francis' furtive rhetoric is hardly original.
Given all that, by way of an analogy, I somehow doubt that we'd have taken Don Carlo Gambino of the Brooklyn Mafia seriously if he'd have suddenly denounced organized crime. But then again, mobsters never claim to speak for God, although they are generally loyal, dues-paying catholics.
Words are cheap and easy, of course, especially for popes, who'd have us all believe that they alone speak for God, and that by paying the Vatican either cash or credit (the Almighty deals in both, apparently), we will somehow free the souls of our loved ones from an imaginary purgatory.
But for the sake of some honesty, people, let's forego delusions for a moment and stare at the cold reality of Mammon Central in Rome.
Despite all of Jorge's talk of dismantling capitalism, the Vatican Bank is still laundering mega bucks for the Mob and shearing the flock of over $50 billion every year, just from catholic collection plates alone. Nor has the Vatican disinvested itself from its shares in Monsanto, Big Pharma, the global arms trade or any of its other lucrative investment portfolios.
Jorge's audibly bleeding heart notwithstanding, all that looted wealth in the Vatican still rests in its grasping paws, along with the vast lands and resources stolen by Rome over the centuries. Nor have I heard Senor Bergoglio order the shelling out of church money to the poor, or the opening of catholic churches to the homeless.
Has the pope in his new found empathy asked for governments to annul all of the church's tax exemptions and privileges by which ordinary citizens are soaked every year? Realistically, if the pope was serious about dismantling capitalism, the first thing he'd do is to end such special favors, including by cancelling the lucrative financial concordats between Rome and over a hundred nations, that routinely channel your tax money into Vatican Bank coffers.
Of course, the last pope who tried reforming that Bank died of poisoning after 28 days in office, back in the fall of 1978. And Jorge Bergoglio is still very much alive. Go figure.
The truth of the matter, boys and girls, is that Pope Francis is lying. But there's a method to his mendacity.
Words are mere camouflage for the actual intentions of rulers: Machiavelli taught that centuries ago. And so when Pope Francis condemns “capitalism”, he's not referring to the whole economic system. Neither bankers nor pontiffs are that stupid. Rather, he's speaking of the western power bloc, specifically the American axis. For all the evidence shows that the Vatican has chosen sides in the geo-political battle for global supremacy being waged between Washington and Beijing - and not with Yankee Doodle.
Following the money is always good advice, and ever since Bergoglio's appointment as Frank the First, considerable millions from the Vatican Bank have been secretly transferred to German banks and “undesignated” offshore accounts tied to Chinese and Arab companies, according to church insiders. Equally significant is that, uncharacteristically, the Vatican has forged close diplomatic ties with “communist” China and even recognizes the “official”, state-funded catholic church in that country.
When in China, as they say; and so anti-capitalist rhetoric is just what the doctor ordered these days for an ailing Church of Rome seeking an ally in the east. And it's equally true that, as a Latin American, Jorge Bergoglio has had to play to his power base: specifically, the (by catholic standards) left-leaning clergy of that region. When one considers the magnitude of dirt on Bergoglio held by third world Bishops who are well aware of the pope's intimate ties with the former Argentine military junta, it's hardly surprising that Bergoglio is employing his Liberation Theology cue cards these days.
All of this adds up to the usual brand of realpolitic posing as morality that popes have practised for centuries. And of course, all this progressive talk is a huge distraction from the fact that the Vatican and its entire church was formally declared a Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) by international Tribunals in Belgium and America in August of 2013.
According to the United Nations, a TCO is any group that launders money, traffics people, or commits other crimes across borders: an apt description of the Vatican, Incorporated. Once convicted, such a body is a rogue organization whose assets and property are forfeited, and whose top officers can be arrested on sight. And so you can bet your rosary beads that Bergoglio and Company are shit ass worried, these days, especially in the wake of the deposing of a previous pope and top cardinal. And so, naturally, these convicted felons are all desperate for a new image.
I assume this is all obvious to some of you. So let me pause for a moment, and not ignore the Idiot Gallery and its Benefit of the Doubt concern that I may be going too hard on the kindly-looking guy in the white robe. What if, despite all of the above, Jorge is sincerely trying to “do good” (ouch) and reform the system? Shouldn't we give the guy a chance? That, at least, is what some of my less cognizant critics ask.
I guess my first response to such an attitude is to say that I was one of those odd Christian clerics who tried to bring honesty and dare I say, Gospel teachings, into a corporate church that has far fewer assets and corpses to account for than does the Church of Rome. And you all know by now what happened to me when I tried that. The truth is, no-one gets to where Bergoglio is without being a company man who long ago traded in his conscience for a position.
I also want to reassure those folks who so desperately need to see a positive quality in unaccountable rulers that granting them any sort of yea or ney is hardly within our power, since self-governing institutions are going to do whatever they want anyway, with or without our approval. If you want to believe against all the evidence that Jorge is really a saint in papal clothing, that's your choice. But whatever your attitude, you're still going to end up funding Mr. Bergoglio with your tax money, and thereby help him oversee the biggest child rapist protection racket in the world. And that makes you an accessory to a crime, under the law.
Criminal complicity sure is a bitch. But don't believe me. Just wait and see.
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