One of the few benefits of being Pope is that you are infallible – you don’t make mistakes. In all good games, there’s a special reward when you get to the top level, and in Catholicism anyone who gets to the top job gets infallibility (along with the frocks, the apartments and control of a small state in the middle of Italy). The Pope is always right.
Except, that is, when he crosses (no pun intended) the deluded and derailed figure that is Donald Trump, leading contender in the race to be chosen as Republican candidate for the US presidency – and, therefore, a man may be US President this time next year.
It all came about because Pope Francis ventured out of Europe and popped back over to South America (his home continent) to visit Mexico. He did the usual visitor things: held Mass, embraced some prisoners, held Mass, etc. He also visited the Mexican border with the USA: not a great departure from the routine, as he went there to hold a Mass – but this took a novel turn, as the Mass he held on the Mexican side of the border was simultaneously broadcast to a stadium on the US side of the border. During his visit, he spoke about immigration, urging governments to open their hears to the human tragedy of the refugee crisis and urging “No more death! No more exploitation!”
Pope Francis also had a chat with members of the press on the plane home – and that is where it all began.
Someone asked the Pope what he thought of Donald Trump’s idea of building a wall between the USA and Mexico to keep Mexicans out of the USA. Pope Francis said it wasn’t the sort of action advocated by the Gospel, which favoured those who build bridges, not walls, and it sounded like a bad idea – and, therefore, it didn’t sound like the act of a Christian.
Trump has gone ballistic, calling the Pope’s comment “disgraceful” and suggesting he is a pawn of the Mexican Government. He condemned the Pope’s statements, acknowledged that this is likely to ratchet up the global coverage of the Pope’s comments and stands by his plan to build a wall in order to stop illegal immigration and crime (a rather misguided hope in any event).
The most enjoyable part of Trump’s response is probably his statement that “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.” (Should this only be questioned by religious underdogs, rather than leaders? Or only by those who don’t follow a religion?)
Coming a close second is Trump’s opinion that the Pope will eat his words when ISIS attack the Vatican. “If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our ‘all talk, no action’ politicians.”
Trump is a Presbyterian – a small group of reformers who split from Catholicism half a millennium ago. He needs the Christian vote in the US if he is to become the Republican candidate. However, his reaction goes far beyond a bit of a worry that the Pope may compromise his chances of getting votes from committed Christians.
In the second comment quoted above, Trump is basically saying that if he becomes President, the US will launch an all-out war against ISIS and fight to the death. That is, of course, completely impractical: the US-led coalitions were not able to subdue Afghanistan and Iraq, let alone ISIS and similar organisations across the many countries where they operate. However, Trump really believes that this is what the US can do, and what it should do – and he doesn’t want no Pope or no one engaging in reasoned debate.
Unfortunately, even if Trump is not elected, he will still have encouraged people in and beyond the US to grasp the simple belief that all will be well if the US is just tough and resolute and annihilates Muslims. The ripples of Trump’s words will be with us longer than the man himself. Life, as Donald Trump has not yet learned, is not a video game and powerful men, particularly those whose power comes from wealth, need reigning in with the force of reasoned debate and greater understanding.
Things could be about to get a whole lot worse.
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