Pope Francis Advisor Tells Axios Church Aims to Be Active on Climate, 'Racial Equity,' Refugees
Pope Francis advisor Cardinal Turkson interviewed with Axios on HBO. And, aside from one defense of Catholic teaching on the priesthood, it seems to have been rather a poor showing. The cardinal asserted that the Catholic Church would be stepping up activism in the areas of “racial equity,” the climate, and “refugees.” Considering that the Vatican made a deal with the Chinese Communist Party, and made up to Fidel Castro, I question the true charity of such a project.
From Axios AM today, Oct. 4:
“In an interview in Rome for ‘Axios on HBO,’ Cardinal Peter Turkson — a close adviser to Pope Francis — told me the Catholic Church plans to be increasingly active on climate, refugees and racial equity.
Both Turkson and the pope plan to attend the UN Climate Summit that begins in Scotland on Oct. 31, bringing what Turkson, echoing His Holiness, calls ‘the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.’”
The little secret behind Pope Francis’s constant talk of mercy and empathy is that, in critical situations, the pope has shown anything but kindness to the oppressed. His pontificate not only made but renewed the infamous agreement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an agreement that has increased persecution for faithful Chinese Catholics. Not only that, but, of course, the CCP is a regime committing genocide against ethnic minorities and practicing live organ harvesting on its prisoners.
And when the pope came to Cuba in 2015, he fraternized with now-deceased Communist dictator Fidel Castro, while a group of the Cuban Ladies in White dissident group were arrested and physically and verbally assaulted for trying to attend the pope’s Mass (behavior consonant with usual reports of Cuban police behavior to the Ladies). The Ladies in White are a group whose relatives are “prisoners of conscience” in Cuba.
By the way, the Fidel Castro with whom Francis was being chummy was not only a murderer, who had even children executed (think Che Guevara), but “Almost immediately after being elected Fidel Castro released propaganda citing Catholics as ‘social scum.’ By the 1960’s Fidel Castro had banned Christmas from being celebrated on the island. He made sure to shut down churches, silence priests and parishioners, and monitored all church activities that could possibly be going on in Cuba at the time.” It’s not as if Castro had some big public repentance for his former life, even if he did allow religion some operational capabilities later on. “Pope Francis has visited Cuba with the blessing of the Communist Party, receiving praise from Fidel Castro,” Breitbart reported on July 14, 2021, commenting on the lack of support from the Vatican for the Cubans protesting their oppressive regime.
Pope Francis seems more interested in being an activist for woke ideologies than in really carrying out Christian evangelization and helping the truly oppressed who cry for his aid. The refugees fleeing Cuba did not exactly receive enthusiastic support from the pope. The climate is not about to die, but persecuted minorities in China are. Not only that, the CCP causes massive climate pollution. And if there is any regime in the world today that carries out genocide based on race or ethnicity, it is the CCP. At the very least, I question Francis’s—and Turkson’s—real dedication even to the causes they espouse. And I question how important their activism is in their chosen areas while those who may need help even more are ignored.
Anyways, having called out some of that papal hypocrisy, back to Francis’s advisor Cardinal Turkson.
“The cardinal himself is proof [of Vatican’s attitudes]. Long considered a favorite to be the first Black pope, Turkson heads an office created by Francis, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Turkson’s remit includes climate, migrants, and victims of armed conflict, torture and natural disasters — a lot.”
Oh, you mean like the persecuted Catholics and Uyghurs in China! Oh, wait. . .no, only victims of regimes the Vatican doesn’t happen to be allies of sorts with.
“Pope Francis has changed church law to give more rights to women. But Turkson — like Francis — remains conservative on women becoming priests. I asked him if he personally struggles with the issue.
‘Personal struggle, no,’ he said. ‘The struggle will be there if that kind of thing became an issue of denial of rights, OK? ... Not even men who are ordained consider that to be a right.’”
Finally, Turkson actually said something good. Let us give credit where credit is due. Being ordained is not a right, as Turkson correctly identifies. Furthermore, an all-male priesthood is rooted in unchangeable Catholic doctrine and a deep and rich theology, which I do not have the space to go into here. The Catholic Church cannot open the priesthood to women—it has not the power. And frankly, it is insulting to women to act as if they are only valuable in the Church if they are priests. I think the great, very impactful female saints like Hildegard von Bingen and Catherine of Siena would have a thing or two to say about that. Remember, the most important saint in Catholicism is a woman, Mary—and the Church teaches that Jesus chooses to let all graces come to His people through the conduit of Mary.
“I asked Cardinal Turkson about a first in U.S. history: All three branches of government have practicing Catholics at their heads — President Biden, Speaker Pelosi and a majority of the Supreme Court justices.
‘We thank God for the change ... to a point that people’s faith does not constitute an obstacle to the service that they can render to a state,’ he said.
Asked about the lessons of the fall of Afghanistan, Turkson said world powers need to ‘talk more,’ suggesting they should fight less.
I asked him if that lesson had been learned. He replied: ‘There’s still time to learn it.’”
And Cardinal Turkson lost it again. I must note in passing that the Taliban (at least) in Afghanistan is likely to do anything but stop fighting—peace only works if both sides agree.
Aside from that, let me focus a moment on the claim that America is being run by Catholics. Considering that Biden, Pelosi, and at least one “Catholic” SCOTUS justice are radically pro-abortion, they are terrible examples of Catholics. It takes more than a title and an occasional appearance at Mass to be Catholic—one must believe all the teachings of the Church and live them out. Pelosi and Biden actually boast about their support of policies directly contradictory to Church doctrine. So pretending that Biden and Pelosi and their fellow “Catholic” Democrats are being good Catholics while serving America is outrageous. But hardly surprising. After all, Pope Francis himself bestowed an honor on a pro-abortion activist. As Jesus said, “Not everyone who saith to me ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt. 7:21) Your actions must match your words.