A Crazy World Gerry OShea
I thought of
the Christian Crusades recently when reading about Russian Patriarch Kirill 1
giving a fulsome benediction to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Back in the 12th
and 13th centuries various popes offered all kinds of spiritual
benefits, including the forgiveness of sin, to men who agreed to participate in
one of the many armies marching east to defeat the Muslims forces occupying
Jerusalem.
These
crusading wars represent a shameful part of the Christian story, generated by a
basic misunderstanding of the core gospel message. Leaders wearing cassocks and
miters urging their followers to slaughter members of a different faith convey Roman
leadership at its worst.
In March of
this year Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill consulted, thanks to the power of
zoom. It did not go well! Kirill read a
20-minute diatribe against the West, justifying the Russian mayhem in his
neighboring country. He called Putin’s long leadership tenure “a miracle of god,”
praising his strong defense against the liberal conspiracies that allegedly promote
“gay parades” in Kyiv and other cities.
Francis
attempted to advise him that as leading churchmen they should not be acting as
deacons for any belligerent government, certainly not in support of a country attacking
a neighbor. Kirill was not impressed and left Francis questioning why his
counterpart in Moscow was acting like “Putin’s altar boy.”
A patriarch providing
a blessing for the Russian planes strafing the villages and towns in the Donbas
region is only one of a host of events and happenings that remind us what a
topsy-turvy world we inhabit. Our systems are in disarray, lacking any rhyme or
coherent reason.
Doug Mastriano
easily won the Republican nomination for governor in Pennsylvania, a swing
state that has alternated between the two parties in presidential elections over
the last half century.
Mr. Mastriano
is still promoting the Big Lie, that somehow Donald Trump won Pennsylvania and
the 2020 presidential election. He expects him to be the Republican candidate
again in 2024 and, with a clear glint in his eye, he assured a recent audience
that, irrespective of the popular vote, as governor he will appoint the
secretary of state who in turn names the presidential electors, so there will
be no repeat of the 2020 steal.
Keep in mind
that there is no subterfuge here. Mastriano is giving public notice of his
intentions to disregard the legal result if the need arises. This approach is
not without precedent. In the months leading up to the November 2020 election,
Donald Trump, who was behind Joe Biden by a few points in most polls, declared
that only he could win the November showdown. Any other result would be
fraudulent. More recently, Mr. Trump urged Dr. Oz to claim victory in the close
Republican senatorial primary in Pennsylvania before all the votes are tabulated.
Mastriano is
not an isolated voice. The New York Times published a review of legislative
votes, records and official statements of Republican leaders in the
battleground states. The results of this study found that 357 party leaders
have used the power of their office to seek to overturn or, at least, discredit
the results of the 2020 presidential contest. In Arizona this applies to 81% of
these top Republicans; in Pennsylvania just a little less at 78%; Wisconsin
scored at 73% and Michigan just under half at 48% of local lawmakers, all of
whom favor overturning the official results.
Just more
than eighteen months ago President Trump and his docile vice-president, Mike
Pence, were campaigning for re-election. They lost. The vice-president did his ceremonial job in
certifying the results. Trump urged him not to fulfill his important legal obligation
but, instead, to send the results back to be re-assessed by state legislators.
Pence correctly disregarded his boss’s pleas and Joe Biden’s victory was
affirmed. The January 6th rioters turned on their vice-president,
hanging his effigy.
Today, the
former president and vice-president no longer engage in civil conversation, and
in fact, each campaigned for different Republicans vying to become governor of
Georgia. Pence supported the current governor, Brian Kemp, who defied Trump’s
urging to invalidate the election, while former Senator David Perdue, at
Trump’s behest, spent millions promoting
the coup to override the real results.
Kemp won by
over 50% while Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state who, more than anyone
drew Trump’s anger by refusing to “find” the 11,780 votes he wanted for
victory, also hammered his Trump-backed opponent, Congressman Jody Hice.
American
Catholic leaders also seem to have lost their way. The dictum pronounced in
every seminary, Roma locuta est, Causa finita est (Rome has spoken;
their decision is final) no longer holds.
Pope Francis
strongly advised against using the eucharist as a disciplinary tool. He
stressed that communion should not be seen as a reward for saints but as a
sacred food for sinners. He welcomed President Biden in the Vatican calling him
a good Catholic, despite his approval of the Roe decision on abortion. He
recognized that the policies Biden espouses on dealing with poverty and caring
for the environment are far closer to his teaching as set down in two encyclicals
than Republican ideas.
Archbishop
John Cordileone decided to politicize the abortion issue by banning Nancy
Pelosi from the altar rails in the archdiocese of San Francisco. This extreme
and unprecedented punitive act, based on her support for a woman’s right to
choose, was acclaimed by some church hardliners, but most Catholics stand with
Francis who would have no problem affirming Mrs. Pelosi, a woman who defines
herself as a devout Catholic who always attends to her weekly mass obligation.
The most
damning contradiction between a sane society and its opposite is again on
display after nineteen children and two teachers were mowed down by a
frustrated and angry 18-year old in Uvalde, near San Antonio. This horrific
incident was a sequel to another young man of the same age who executed ten
Black people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Both killers had easy
access to deadly weapons.
Repeated
opinion polls reveal that close to 90% of Americans support a mandatory
background check on any applicant for a firearm, with ownership of automatic
guns confined to law-enforcement personnel. Other sensible and popular
requirements require some minimum training in firearm use followed by a basic
test as applies in getting a license to drive a car.
The powerful
and rich National Rifle Association (NRA) claims that 18-year-olds should be
entitled to carry weapons, including quick-firing semi-automatic ones. Republicans
support them and so, just in the last two years, sensible enactments
restricting gun ownership passed the House but failed in the Senate.
The cries of
a classroom of helpless fourth graders and their teachers touch a new depth of rage among ordinary
people. How could they compete against an armed frustrated bully? Where will
the next outrage be? Are we any closer to legislation that would curb this
madness? Or are we doomed to continue in a dark system where a clear majority
of the citizens say that gun ownership calls for a background check but nothing
happens and we await the next school massacre?
Gerry
OShea blogs at wemustbetalking.com
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