Opinion/Editorial 

NEW HOPE

 

 The pope died, long live the pope…and so on. Pope Francis passed, and the conclave of Catholic cardinals came together and voted to select either one of their own or almost anybody else to take his place. God supposedly does not prevent them from choosing any living human on the planet. They chose one of their own, of course, which they almost always have, even though the only requirements to be considered by the college of cardinals are that the person be male and a baptized Catholic. What is this new hope that titles the article you are reading?

The pope oversees and guides well over a billion humans on the planet. With China and India, with populations of 1.4 billion each, this makes the new Pope Leo guiding or leading a mass of humans of about the same size, again at 1.4 billion.  President Trump leads, or attempts to lead, about 375 million people, by comparison.  The pope is a force to be reckoned with, as his rank and file are taught, almost from birth and through their lives, that when the pope speaks officially, and with his full authority, on matters of faith and morals, he is protected from error by the Holy Spirit Himself.  No other living leader, except the leader of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (with about 17 million followers) can or does make that claim.

What does the selection of the new Pope Leo portend for the United States and the world?  The writer of this article firmly believes that this ‘long shot’ selection of an American man of 73 years of age who has proclaimed often that he never wanted to be pope was made very quickly by a conclave of cardinals who were as afraid of the Donald Trump about as much as most of the rest of the world’s population.  An American like Leo will be deeply imbued with an understanding of the culture, the social orders within it, and the complex political system that serves as the foundation for the exercise of its huge power both at home and worldwide.

The New Testament is quite and very often clear about how human conduct and leadership should be exercised but as time and technology have advanced at stupendous speed the reality is that even much of the Catholic Church flock has strayed away from the sacrifice, pain and suffering that must be endured to be Christlike in thought and actions.  Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, understood this fact and subtly worked to bring the Catholic Church back from the brink of selfish, mean-spirited, openly hostile, and even violent leadership seen in today’s USA and many countries around the world.  Feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, and forgive those who trespass against you, resound and are ever repeated within the New Testament books of the Bible, but do not resound through the actions of most of the world’s leaders or those who have been following them.

This pope can bring everyone new hope. Hope that’s been all but crushed by a cold, damaged leadership of the USA, and also by the country’s mass media, which has sold itself out for money.  The Pharisees back in the days of Jesus Christ had nothing on these media moguls, as the world has been so consistently lied to, and the sins of those leading have been buried or converted somehow to blessings for one and all to be informed of, but never witness in the real world in person.

With four more years of uncertain chaos and potential fear and terror penetrating deep into its very heart, there is cause to consider the potential of what hope may be offered by the election of a an honorable and dedicated man in control of a huge swath of the world’s population and what he might be able to accomplish to mitigate, minimize and even undo some of the true evil bad and corrupt leadership can bring about to an entire population…or even the entire world’s population.

Many fallen-away Catholics may well return to the fold to support this new pope.  The writer of this article and his family are one of those fallen away Catholics, and that’s going to change.  We must all invest our time, thoughts, and money into supporting the hope of what this man can become and the acts he may perform.  One does not have to believe the pope is infallible to follow him and be a practicing Catholic.  One does not have to go to confession or communion or even attend regular masses. Being a sinner is part of being a Catholic, but still, one can be all those things, do or not do those things, and still follow the New Testament while basking in the effects of what a Christlike man might be able to accomplish. There is a new pope and a new hope. God bless you all, and him too.

~~ James Strauss

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