You have blood on your hands, the Pope responded. When the secretary of "war" is openly praying for Jesus to slaughter the external enemies of the US, the Pope condemned him and said that God doesn't listen to his [Hegseth's] prayers.
I'm a recovering Catholic, baptized and schooled in Catholicism. I like this Pope Leo, from my hometown, Chicago. I like that he speaks openly about wealth, material things, as if amassing money and things is the measure of anyone's worth. That wasn't Jesus' understanding of life and the role of humanity toward its species and the planet. I don't recall the M16-toting Jesus. I wasn't taught that he sat in US fighter planes on the right side of pilots, directing where to drop bombs.
I don't recall such a vicious, mean-spirited Jesus. In fact, just the opposite. We speak of love, not indifference of hate because of this non-white man, who, nonetheless, embraced all of humanity, all of life!
The world now knows, as does many in MAGA, that this man is demonic. Yet, what are we doing? Why is Trump still in office? Unlike Pope Leo, too many Americans, not just Republicans, still fear this man. Who is he and his wealthy friends that we should be so fearful of?
On Monday morning, April 13, Trump was asked about his AI-generated image of himself as Jesus. Is it Jesus? Or a doctor? He sees himself as a "doctor." According to the New York Times, Trump called the backlash as product of "fake" news. "'I was like the doctor, you know, as a little fun playing the doctor and making people better. So that's what it was viewed as. That's what most people thought.'"
He didn't depict himself as "doctor." When has he made people "feel better," unless we are talking about his friends again or his son-in-law, in charge of everything or his sons? The war profiteers feel better, I'm sure. They have Trump.
What do we have? Because the American people, the whole sane world, isn't feeling better.
As the NYT reports, even some of those "powerful constituents that helped elect him to a second term," are becoming vocal critics, along with the Pope. Trump's focus is on threatening the Pope and the Vatican. In his mind, Trump is the most powerful man in the world. He can do anything! And so he informs Pope Leo that if not for him, Donald J. Trump, the Pope wouldn't be Pope!
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