Francis’ Understanding of History: Russian Killers of Catholics – Good; American Defenders of Catholicism – Bad.

Russia, since the Union of Brest, has hated Catholicism. The Blood of the Ukrainian Martyrs, from St Josaphat on, cries out, but Francis is deaf!

From Rorate Cæli

Yes, the Cold War still plays inside the tiny little head of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. And, as in his youth, the KGB Regime and Imperial Russia play the good part, while Evil America plays the bad part.

Two examples - first, a statement that has been causing huge scandal among the Catholic faithful in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries where Russian persecution led to thousands upon thousands of martyrs. From the Wall Street Journal:

On Friday, speaking by video to a gathering of Russian Catholic youth in St. Petersburg, Pope Francis urged them to follow in the path of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, whom he called rulers of a “great, enlightened empire of great culture and great humanity.”

The comments on Peter and Catherine, which came at the end of the pope’s speech, weren’t included in the official transcript released by the Vatican, but were released by the Catholic diocese of Moscow and later in a video from Siberian Catholic television, a church agency.

Putin has cited Peter, who expanded Russian territory and curtailed Ukrainian autonomy, to justify the current invasion. Putin has used the term Novorossiya, or New Russia, for Russian-occupied southern Ukraine—using a term that dates back to Russia’s conquest of southern Ukraine under Catherine in 1764.

Catherine also harbored the Jesuit order, of which Pope Francis is a member, during the order’s suppression by Rome in the late 18th and early 19th century.

The Ukrainian government declined to comment, but the pope’s remarks drew angry reactions on social media, especially in countries near Russia. Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves called the comments “truly revolting” on X, formerly known as Twitter. Nexta, a Belarusian media outlet based in Warsaw, Poland, posted on the same platform: “By the way, the Catholics of Poland, Lithuania and Belarus raised uprisings three times against this ‘enlightened empire’.”

Oops. One can't escape one's mental prisons. At the same time, the same man who praises the Czars who killed thousands of Catholics criticizes... serious American Catholics.  Catholic faithful, who happen to be Americans, whose only fault is to defend the Catholic Faith of all time. "Reactionaries", that's what he calls them:

Pope Francis blasted what he described as groups of "very strong, reactionary" American Catholics, warning against becoming "backwardists" who oppose change in the Catholic Church. 

"The situation in the United States is not easy: There is a very strong, reactionary attitude. It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally," said the pope. "I want to remind these people that backwardism is useless, and it is necessary to understand that there is a correct evolution in the understanding of questions of faith and morals." (Source)

So, the summary of Francis' understanding of history: Russian killers of Catholics - good; American defenders of Catholicism - bad. Curiously enough, REACTIONARIES was exactly the invective Russian Communists loved to use against Americans, and Western governments in general, back in the day -- plus ça change, huh? Les Marxistes ne changent jamais...