Pope Francis Appeases Communism

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
In 2016, Pope Francis said, “It it has been said many times and my response has always been that, if anything, it is the communists who think like Christians. Christ spoke of a society where the poor, the weak and the marginalized have the right to decide. Not demagogues, not Barabbas, but the people, the poor, whether they have faith in a transcendent God or not. It is they who must help to achieve equality and freedom”. [emphasis added]

The pope's capitulation to communism has now kicked into a higher gear.

The Church in China has two versions.  The church the Chinese government recognizes, and the church it does not recognize.  Regarding the latter, Pope Francis has asked those bishops to step down from their post in order to make way for the installation of new, illegitimate bishops, hand-picked by the communist government of China.  Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian is being pressured to retire in order to allow a state-sanctioned and excommunicated bishop to take his place while “another Vatican-appointed bishop was asked to downgrade himself as the assistant of an illicit bishop,” according to a report in AsiaNews.

The news comes six months after Cardinal Joseph Zen, the first Cardinal from China and a key adviser to Pope Benedict XVI regarding China-Vatican relations, denounced a Vatican agreement with the Chinese atheistic Communist government. The Cardinal indirectly accused Pope Francis of backing a “fake” church in China. 

“But the whole thing is fake. They [the Vatican] are giving decisive power to the government … how can the initiative of choosing bishops be given to an atheistic government? Incredible. Incredible,” he said at that time.

Considering Pope Francis is a South American Jesuit, the Vatican acquiescing to the communist Chinese government is not a surprise.

The genuine Catholic Church in China operates underground while the government runs the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, a counterfeit church of communist-approved and monitored clerics. Bishops and priests of the underground church, which have been loyal to the pope and not the communist government, have faced imprisonment for their loyalty to the Vatican.

Last year, Cardinal Zen, the Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong and China's highest-ranking prelate, pleaded with the Vatican not to “sell out” China's Catholics by striking a deal with the Communist government, which seeks nothing less than “total surrender.”

The news also comes amid reports of Christian churches being demolished in China while clerics and other faithful are being jailed for their associations with churches not sanctioned by the state.

More than 1,500 Catholic and Protestant churches in China’s Zhejiang province “have been targeted for demolition or cross removals in recent years, sources have said in a campaign against churches not coming under state control,” according to the UCANews report. “Chinese authorities are increasingly using property regulations to remove crosses and demolish churches.”

The Chinese government has “physically abused, detained, arrested, tortured, sentenced to prison, or harassed adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups,” according to a 2017 U.S. State Department report.

The Bible is adamant against communism:

2 Thessalonians 3:10: For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

2 Corinthians 9:7: Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

While, as Christians, it is important that we care for those who need caring for, that is something we are commanded to do as individuals, voluntarily.  Communism has a history of tyranny, genocide, and misery, and for the pope to even consider capitulating to the communists in China is unacceptable.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary