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IMAGES such as the one above, which shows the Pope in 2024 urging Ugandan LGBT+ activist Clare Byarugaba to continue fighting discrimination in her homeland, did not go don’t well with the many who believed that Francis was leading the faithful away from the bigotry that formed the basis of Catholicm for centuries.

As recently as February this year, it was reported by France 24 that “the conservative clan of the Roman Curia — the powerful governing body of the Holy See — accuses him of a laxist vision of Catholic doctrine, particularly regarding the status of homosexual couples and divorced people in the Church.”

The outlet added:

Since the death of his predecessor Benedict XVI at the end of 2022, pressure on Francis’s pontificate has intensified. The pontiff’s unprecedented and controversial decision on December 18 to authorise priests to bless homosexual couples under certain conditions is causing endless controversy. The “anti-Pope Francis” clan now seems more determined than ever to pursue its objective: push Francis out of office.

And in 2017 The Guardian‘s Andrew Brown declared:

Francis is one of the most hated men in the world today.

Those who hate him most are not atheists, or protestants, or Muslims, but some of his own followers. Outside the church he is hugely popular as a figure of almost ostentatious modesty and humility. From the moment that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became pope in 2013, his gestures caught the world’s imagination: the new pope drove a Fiat, carried his own bags and settled his own bills in hotels; he asked, of gay people, “Who am I to judge?” and washed the feet of Muslim women refugees.

He added:

But within the church, Francis has provoked a ferocious backlash from conservatives who fear that this spirit will divide the church, and could even shatter it. This summer, one prominent English priest said to me: ‘We can’t wait for him to die. It’s unprintable what we say in private. Whenever two priests meet, they talk about how awful Bergoglio is … he’s like Caligula: if he had a horse, he’d make him cardinal.’ Of course, after 10 minutes of fluent complaint, he added: ‘You mustn’t print any of this, or I’ll be sacked.’

Brown referred, in his analysis of the Francis’ papacy and his views that had traditionalists spitting tacks, referred to the Pope’s support of immigrants, “driven from their homes by a boundlessly rapacious and destructive capitalism, which has set catastrophic climate change in motion.”

Image via YouTube

Among those who set his face against the Pope’s frequent calls for mercy to be shown to immigrants was the Catholic League’s ghastly head, Bill Donohue, above.

Under the heading “Pope’s Idea of Poor Immigrants is Flawed”, the blockheaded anti-LGBT+ bigot wrote:

On the eve of the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Pope Francis called him a ‘disgrace’ for pledging to deport illegal aliens. The pope said that doing so ‘makes poor wretches, who have nothing, pay the price for the imbalance.‘

If the typical illegal alien were a ‘poor wretch‘ who owns ‘nothing,’ the Holy Father’s criticism would have merit. But such is not the case. To be blunt, his understanding of who these migrants are is flawed.

Historically, the poorest of the poor are rarely, if ever, the ones who migrate from poor countries to rich countries. Quite frankly, the poorest of the poor are so undernourished, and physically disabled, that they don’t have the stamina to migrate. It’s those who don’t share these characteristics who migrate.

Donohue concluded:

A prudent approach to the problem of illegal aliens requires that some basic distinctions be made. It also behooves us not to see them as ‘poor wretches’ who own ‘nothing. Indeed, this is true of almost none of them.

Today, on learning of Francis’ demise, Donohue referred to some of the Pope’s other “errors of judgment.” These include his approval of a Vatican document that allows priests to bless same-sex couples which was “met with widespread criticism. Indeed, it was so divisive that it seriously undid much of the goodwill he previously earned.”

And in November 2024, the Pope “stunned Catholics and Jews alike when he called for an international probe of Israel’s decision to defend itself from Hamas terrorists; he inquired whether this constituted genocide.”

Finally:

In what proved to be a real eye opener, the pope admitted that as a young man the person who did more to shape his thinking about politics was a female communist atheist, Esther Ballestrino. She introduced him to prominent communist publications.

Francis was not a well man when he made an appearance from the balcony of St. Peter’s basilica to address the crowd on Easter Sunday, but to my mind what may have hastened his demise was having to shake the hand of “baby” Catholic convert, US Vice President J D Vance on Easter Sunday.

According to AP Vance, on social media, had defended his administration’s America-first policies by citing centuries-old teachings on “ordo amoris,” or the order of love, saying people must prioritise their families and those closest to them. Francis, in a subsequent statement, said a true understanding of that teaching is reflected in a “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” The Pope cited the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, who took care of a wounded stranger.

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