I’m not a religious person at all and I can’t tolerate religious nonsense forced upon others, but of all the Popes over my life, Pope Francis was easily the one who most embodied Christian values and his constant advocacy for the weakest and poorest amongst us marks him as a true highlight when it comes to Popes.
I think one of the best insights was from the brilliant Australian commentator Caitlin Johnstone…
The Pope Has Died, And The Palestinian People Have Lost An Important Advocate
Pope Francis has died after using his Easter Sunday address to call for peace in Gaza. I don’t know who the cardinals will pick to replace him, but I do know with absolute certainty that there are transnational intelligence operations in the works to make sure they select a more reliable supporter of Israel. They’ve probably been working on it since his health started failing.
Anyone who’s been reading me for a while knows my attitude toward Roman Catholicism can be described as openly hostile because of my family history with the Church’s sexual abuses under Cardinal Pell, but as far as popes go this one was decent. Francis had been an influential critic of Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza, calling for investigation of genocide allegations and denouncing the bombing of hospitals and the murder of humanitarian workers and civilians. He’d been personally calling the only Catholic parish in Gaza by phone every night during the Israeli onslaught, even as his health deteriorated.
In other words, he was a PR problem for Israel.
I hope another compassionate human being is announced as the next leader of the Church, but there are definitely forces pushing for a different outcome right now. There is no shortage terrible men who could be chosen for the position.
…That is how I feel as well.
Francis leaves a true legacy of advocating for those with no voice, I suspect the conclave won’t allow that mistake to be made again and we will get some appalling hardliner.
RIP Francis, you actually made Christianity meaningful again and you made those of us who don’t believe in God feel that if there was one, Francis embodied his true values.
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Churches in New Zealand are some of the few who offer a sense of community and sharing in otherwise a money grubbing neo-liberal desert of ” I’m sorted “. So, the Catholic and Protestant Churches but of course the Maori Maraes giving belonging and acceptance to Maori people. The opposite of soul destroying foreign parasitic exploitation by privatisation impoverishing all but the ” I’m sorted “. We’re a small Island nation 1200 miles S.E. of Australia we can’t afford the traitors of ” I’m sorted ” neoliberal foreign ideology if we are to survive as a decent community. Too late! but stop PRIVATISATION.
Blessed are the ‘bottom feeders’, for they shall inherit the earth.
Neither capitalism nor its flip-side communism can abide a mass strong sense of religious belief or devotion, which is why both have to target religion and undermine it. Both ideologies are fundamentally materialistic, atheistic and see everything as reducible to economics, the polar opposite of ideologies like Christianity.
The Pope fought off a devastating illness so he could continue to do God’s work on Earth
Then he met JD Vance.
RIP pope Francis.
Martyn – Thank you for writing this…He, The Pope, was a man of Peace who truly believed in people…missed already.
Nathan. Yes. And I am hoping that just for once, apostate King Charles 3 will desist from quoting the Koran to mark this monumental occurrence within the Christian family as he usually does.
Hollyhock of the Valley – Me too!
That’s an interesting Post of yours @ MB. I did truly respect the old bugger. Not for religious reasons because I’m not a religious person and perhaps that explains why I’ve been almost struck by lightening. I ran like fuck inside a shed before God adjusted the sights.
In the Godless little rural primary school I went to I got strapped, whacked, abused and subjugated by psychopaths. I got my first ‘six of the best’ when I was about half way through being six years old, then on one particular occasion a young, lumpy, blond, female human set to me with a hardwood blackboard pointer which left me with bruises down my lower back and legs. Rural schools had a system of teacher training which saw us country kids with new teachers every year. The lumpy one tortured her way through her year then vanished. Hopefully under sheep truck full of fat weathers.
From that point onward it was hunting season for the wee red headed freckly kid born out of wedlock to his fathers wife’s sister, so in rural Southland it was game-on for wee-bastards hunting season.
I literally brawled my way through that hideous little school and none of the itinerant-teacher bastards ever drew a tear from me. I’m now, however, as mad as a Meth Hare which I quite like about me to be honest.
I was fourteen when I started high school at St Peters College. A Godless angry little heathen was about to fuck shit up. Instead, I found my place to stand. A scrawny white-boys turangawaewae. And the reason for that was the fabulous teachers there. Brothers and Sisters and Fathers and all British and European. All kind and intelligent people doing their calling to arm, protect and empower their snotty little shits for the carnage called ‘life’.
Brother Tedesco, a fabulous Italian Brother was a chain smoking lunatic who taught mathematics and was always getting tickets for speeding. He was a lovely, gentle Italian with a huge heart. The headmaster, Father Hurdage, was required once to whack me on the arse with a piece of crudely fashioned linoleum for fighting. It felt like getting a beating with a feather duster. He hated doing it but discipline etc. I came to feel ashamed that I’d put that old bugger through such a humiliating affair which put me on the ‘right course’ more than any whacking could ever have.
I went to St Peters College as a non Catholic. I was treated with kindness and respect by an alien population of strange foreigners in black gowns from all over while by contrast, the little country school I went to was a torture chamber of psychopaths. How ironic. The other irony was, once I developed a mind of my own I came to learn that I was, in fact, an Irish Catholic from Galway Bay dragged here in the loins of lunatics. I always thought I was a fucking Presbyterian but no. So today, I’m blessed to understand that I have no work ethic and not at all guilty about it. True freedom, surely.
Dear old Pope Francis reminded me of my teachers at St Peters and for that he gets my blessing. The rest of them can g’wain fuck themselves.
Fantastic – thanks. And still brilliant, even if not a word of it is true!
This was the guy who promoted open borders but lived in a walled city surrounded by armed guards.
Andrew – Correct…although he stopped promoting this in the last few months due to the damage this was having on selected European cities.
Andrew He also promoted liberation theology, which was very much the message of Christ, and there may be a link between the two, albeit not, as things have panned out, a very pragmatic one.
Agree, Pope Francis was a true embodiment of authentic Christian values, really saddened by his passing
There is few things more powerful than someone’s last words.
From EDA News:
These Were Pope Francis’s Last Emotional Words Before Passing Away
Hours after a historic Easter Sunday, the Vatican announced the death of Pope Francis
21/04/2025 11:26:00h
by Daniel H. Marín
https://edatv.news/en/news/pope-franciss-last-emotional-words-before-passing-away
Despite his delicate health, Pope Francis wanted to keep his appointment with the faithful. In a wheelchair and without oxygen, he appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. From there, he gave his last Urbi et Orbi blessing.
</After the blessing, he surprised everyone by getting into the popemobile. He toured the square for several minutes, greeting and blessing. He even stopped to bless some children, although his movements were visibly slow….
……that was to be his last public appearance because, hours later, the Vatican confirmed his passing. The Camerlengo cardinal declared: "Dear brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the passing of our Holy Father Francis."
The EDA journalist, Daniel H. Marín who wrote this report wrote: “unknowingly”.
I think Pope Francis knew he was living his last hours.
In my personal encournters with carers and ambulance workers, they tell me people often know, even if there are no apparent visible symptoms to us, that they are living their last hours or days.
Pope Francis knew and made it count.
.
This is a beautiful post – you speak of the very meaningful last actions of a dying man, who dedicated his whole life to Christ. I’m awed that after a month in hospital battling double pneumonia, Pope Francis took up the cross and resumed his duties, however frail. What an example to us all.
Yesterday, within hours of the Pontiff’s death and his final message, Netanyahu delivered a rant in Hebrew denouncing all those calling for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.
I could not find a direct Hebrew to English translation of his speech.
But I did find this AI generated video translation. AI may be a bit dodgy, and I think the AI even altered the video feed to match Netanyu’s lip movements to match the AI generated English words.
The AI has even used Netanyahu’s own voice and accent.
From Times of India yesterday
AI TRANSLATED VIDEO SPEECH
‘Hamas Aren’t Stupid’: Netanyahu Screams At Israelis; Admits He Cannot Fool Gaza Fighters | Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H53tcpZXu5o
36,766 views Apr 20, 2025
The pressure from civil society around the world calling for a lasting ceasefire is having an effect, an effect mirrored in the statements coming from world leaders like the UN Secretary General and not least the late Pope Francis, is being felt inside Israeli and even inside the Netanyahu war cabinet. To this end, we must step up the pressure from civil society on the Netanyahu regime and its representatives and apologists.
Combined with calls from the Israeli anti-war left, with in Israel, aligned with the families of the hostages, together we can bring this genocide to an end.
Looks like God has chosen – and it ain’t the Palestinians.
Only heretics speak for God.
Really?
Do you really believe, Xenophon, that God culled Pope Francis because he dared to call for a ceasefire in Gaza?
What about the rest of the vast majority of humanity who oppose the ongoing genocide in Gaza?
Should we be worried?
Is God going to cull the vast majority of the world’s population in a heavenly global genocide?
Are we truly living in the “End Times” where the majority of humanity are going to be thrown into the pits of hell to burn for eternity, and a tiny minority of genocide denier evangelicals will get to experience the rapture?
” . Francis had been an influential critic of Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza, calling for investigation of genocide allegations and denouncing the bombing of hospitals and the murder of humanitarian workers and civilians. He’d been personally calling the only Catholic parish in Gaza by phone every night during the Israeli onslaught, even as his health deteriorated. ”
The Palestinians who are being exterminated as a race of people had in the Pope a limited powerful advocate who stood against this holocaust and tried to stop it.
The Palestinians have lost one of the few public figures that didn’t turn away and stood against the cruelty and evil of the Zionist Regime.
Consensus re the pope. Me too. Shameful hypocrisy from many here who (unlike the Pope) simply refuse to demand the return of the hostages or condemn Oct 7. The Pope did both. And yes also has shown the Palestinian innocent civilians steadfast humanitarian concern.
https://www.africanews.com/2025/04/21/who-will-be-the-next-pope-a-look-at-potential-candidates/
yes< a visit from apolitician from the great satan-you"d want to shuffle off too
” Shameful hypocrisy from many here who (unlike the Pope) simply refuse to demand the return of the hostages or condemn Oct 7 ”
Hypocrisy no.
This blog condemned the atrocious actions of Hamas and the loss of many innocent civilians. The Palestinian men women and children have suffered much more injury and death than the attack of October 7th.
Its hard when you use words like hypocrisy that somehow justifies the deliberate annihilation of an entire race of people that completely overshadows the events of October 7th.
Hypocrisy is the right word to use when the government of your own country refuses to stand up against the destruction of a proud people and their homeland by an invading Zionist aggressor who even butchers paramedics trying to give aid and treatment to the many victims of this holocaust and brutal war machine.
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