BERGOGLIO’S PACEM IN TERRIS
Daniele Scalise
Jorge Mario Bergoglio really can’t stand them. He maintains that “attacks, even targeted ones, cannot be the solution” and is certain that “they do not help to follow the path of justice and peace.” Instead, they “generate even more hatred and revenge.”
After the pogrom of October 7, the mass rapes, beheadings, and dismemberments proudly documented by the killers’ bodycams, after the declared commitment to exterminate every Jew walking the earth and to dominate every infidel to subject them to Islamic law, after the ayatollahs’ pledge to wipe Israel off the map, and after the pro-terrorist demonstrations by many foolish sons of this even more foolish West, it is difficult to conceive of a greater measure of hatred and revenge. But if he says so, and he certainly knows about hatred and revenge given that the millennial history of the Church is filled with it, we’ll think about it. But not now.
So, no ‘targeted killings’. Now the question is: how can the Israelis defend themselves legitimately without incurring Vatican disapproval? Is it acceptable for the resident of Santa Marta that the IDF seeks to flush out the mortal enemy where they hide? That is, in schools, hospitals, mosques, and tunnels? It seems that this, too, does not sit well with the pope. Last November, the communist newspaper ‘il manifesto’ reported with barely concealed satisfaction that Francis, after receiving twelve relatives of the hostages and then immediately a group of about ten Palestinians—because, you know, one-to-one, ball in the center—had declared that “this is not warfare, this is terrorism.” In saying this, the Argentine pope was careful not to mention Hamas or Hezbollah, who certainly aren’t like the boys from Pál Street. In conclusion, he recited a pacifist rosary with a South American twist, something that always seems to evoke a great deal of sympathy. Leading the chorus is Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who, with a gentle yet resolute posture, bears the crown of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Last May, Pizzaballa traveled to Gaza to “bring a message of hope and solidarity” to the “suffering population,” but even there, not a single mention of the mass rape, the hostages, or little Ariel Bibas and his brother Kfir, whose mere thought burns the soul. Question: Could it be that they just don’t like Jews? How else can one explain such incomprehensible, ineffable, and infuriating “goodness”? How can one interpret the sorrowful indulgence mixed with blatant sanctimony? As far as I’m concerned, they can keep it. Just as long as, maybe a few years from now, they don’t recycle the tale of a pope who knew nothing. When, in fact, like the one who preceded him eighty years ago, he knew everything. Because, like it or not, we all know everything.