Finding A Job For Francis

There is an excellent blog post from Louie Verrecchio imagining what Francis would say if he were… a Catholic interested in Catholicism instead of a faithless, wordly old man interested in his own self-aggrandisement. I suggest you click here and read the post in its entirety.

I would like here to develop a bit on the point and wonder whether this disgrace of a Pope could not see in environmental issues a way to achieve popularity the easy way.

We all know Francis has already put a huge bomb under the chair of the Church, but the reaction of sincere Catholics who actually believe in heaven and hell defused the bomb before the explosion. The following months showed even to the most stupid (and Francis is not so stupid) that a huge conflict awaits him if he pulls a stunt in Kasper style next October. The events in October also indicate that this here is not a brave man; and we already know that he is a real Jesuit, intended here in the usual meaning of “sly, oily, slippery, accommodating little piece of work”.

What is, then, such a man to do? Could it not be that faced with the choice of being remembered as the Pope of Destruction or the Pope of the Environment, he would choose the second role and a quiet life?

Francis might be content with becoming the Apostle Of Mother Earth. The White Mandela for the stupid masses looking for the World Uncle. The Friend Of The Squirrels. You get the point.

This is easy to do, and not fraught with the potential for self-destruction a Kasperite Campaign starting in October would have not for the Church (which is Indefectible) but for his own very backside.

The issue of the environment would allow him to reach both these objectives: self-promotion among the unthinking masses, and avoidance of a nuclear conflict that could well destroy him in the reputation, if not in the office.

A Pope lives of his being seen as the spiritual guide of Catholics. As the spiritual guide of hippies amidst the ferocious condemnation of Catholics no Papacy has ever been, is, or will ever be worth a dime. And yes, the world at large would still recognise who are the Catholics; even – actually, first of all – those who insult them all the time.

I do not know what the man thinks. I think he is cunning, but I do not think he is intelligent. Actually, he seems to me clearly less endowed than average in that department. He might well feel safe in October, and perhaps use his own environ-mental popularity overdose to think he can pull the Kasper-stunt without danger. But this is rather far-fetched, and contrasts with the obvious CV of a man who was, all his life, not prone to vocal conflict, particularly when dangerous to him. Francis always went for the easy way: the populist rhetoric, the Pinocchio masses, the rides on the bus, the ecu-maniacal stunts, all that pleases the crowds, without ever risking being transferred to the Tierra Del Fuego.

Enviro-Idiot. That would be one possible role for Francis, particularly if it helps him to spare us a nuclear conflict of communion for adulterers. He might well warm to the job. I even hope he will, so that his mind is occupied – and his ego satisfied – elsewhere. Until we get freed from his presence, and pray and hope that a better successor will be given to tend to us.

How we have fallen. Reduced to hope that a Pope might be inducing by wordly popularity to forgive Christ a tad less, or not spit to his face like a mad Roman soldier…

One day all this will be gone. Let’s hope that day comes soon.

M