Alameen Templeton
Catholic apologist Andrew Mitrovica is gushing about the pope’s confrontation with Israel, after the pontiff described the Lawnmower’s 446-day-old Genocide in northern Gaza as “cruelty, not war” during his Christmas message.
That resulted in the Nazi state calling in its local pope representative for a dressing down in Al-Quds on Tuesday because the church had apparently failed to consider Israel’s security concerns or the cruelty of Hamas.
“In any event, I think the pope showed remarkable restraint. He could have described the grief, loss and anguish that Israel has wrought in Gaza and the occupied West Bank – without a moment’s regret or remorse – as obscene, abhorrent, or antithetical to decency and humanity, let alone the rules of ‘war'” Mitrovica writes on Al-Jazeera Thursday.
Remarkable cowardice
Others might say the pope showed remarkable cowardice and intellectual impotence in not calling out the Gaza obscenity for what it is – genocide.
And “remarkable restraint” is hardly appropriate when confronting mass murder executed gloatingly on social media while a country’s cabinet ministers call for more, always more, death and destruction.
The pope’s “remarkable restraint” is reminiscent of Joe Biden’s “red lines” or the visa restrictions slapped on right-wing settler leaders from the West Bank who have waged an unrestrained reign of terror against Palestinians. The prospect of cancelled holidays to the US or Britain are hardly going to stay the hand of people now accustomed to committing open murder.
As it is, most Catholics around the world are clearly praying for the success of the genocide as their governments in Europe and the US continue feeding the mayhem with more weaponry.
Clearly, if the pope was sincere in his expressed compassion for Palestinians, this would concern him – that many among his faithful flock of sheep have been praying for a successful genocide. How’s he going to lead them to heaven when they’ve been praying, for 454 days now, for hell?
That makes as much sense as stealing Muslim Semites’ land away in order to atone for persecuting Jewish Semites for 2000 years.
A blessed lie
Following on from the World War II holocaust, the church in 1965 rejected accusations of “Jewish deicide” and sought to improve relations with Judaism. It established the “Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews” during the Sixties. But relations with the Nazi state of Israel really kicked into high gear under pope John Paul II during the Nineties.
JPII recognised Israel, established diplomatic relations with it and acknowledged the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and faith. In other words, he bought into the whole Israel shibboleth while ignoring the obvious plight of Palestinians who find themselves landless on the land they and their real ancestors were born.
He expanded further and apologised to the Jewish community in 2000 when he did the whole concentration camp tour, prayed at the “wailing wall” in Al-Quds, deplored Hitler’s practice holocaust and said ““I assure the Jewish people the Catholic Church … is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place”, he added that there were “no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust”.
Article of faith
That wasn’t just a personal confession; the pope was telling over a billion Catholics around world that Allah subhaana wata aala had blessed Israel’s existence and legitimacy. It is an article of faith made imperative upon them by their leader’s blessing.
And, now, they’re praying for hell.
JPII’s successor, Francis I, is also struggling where Israel is concerned with words and one word in particular – genocide.
His institution has waved a papal blessing over the legitimacy of Israel’s existence and now finds blood and gore smeared over the sacrament, with the pope’s hands stained as red as Pontius Pilate’s.
It’s going to take a lot more than “remarkable restraint” to wash them clean again.
FI last month ordered a probe into Israel’s actions in Gaza, observing after 400 days of unremittent murder, that “it might be genocide”. The Gaza Health Ministry clock had just ticked over 43 000 dead Palestinians and the International Court of Justice had already found nine months previously plausible grounds that Israel’s actions amount to genocide.
But, it will take years, some say decades, for the ICJ to make a decision. Perhaps, the pope is waiting for that moment to arrive before turning to his heart, his personal conscience and connection to God for guidance.
But, until then, the pope’s presence be missed among the ranks of those who genuinely opposed the genocide and tried to stop it while it happened.
Methinks the pope doth not protest enough
Gaza: the pontiff will be missed among the ranks of those who opposed the genocide

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