Is Pope Leo Just a Stupid Democrat? No, He’s Not

I certainly hope Mr Flanders is correct. Unfortunately, more and more, I'm seeing Pope Leo as Francis 2.0, and that is not a pleasant sight!

From One Peter Five

By Timothy Flanders, MA

I was in Ohio staying at friend’s place, on my way to the CIC conference when I heard the news that Pope Leo had made several comments which, prima facie, seemed to be some Cardinal Bernardin-style “seamless garment” stupidity.

But when I read his comments, I did not think he was that stupid. Not for a moment. (But I could be wrong – we’ll get back to that).

The reason I did not think Pope Leo was stupid is because I had previously studied Peru and the experience of Fr. (then Bishop) Prevost there. I did this with my friend, Luis Medina, over at the Meaning of Catholic:

Many traditionalists get frustrated when people misunderstand Archbishop Lefebvre and believe all the lies against him. Such lies are unjust and false. They come from a superficial understanding of his life and work.

To understand Lefebvre, it is absolutely essential to understand 
Africa.

This is the experience that formed his whole priesthood.

As I’ve studied the modern crisis further, I discovered something else that might shock Trads: the same is true for Pope St. John Paul 
II.

The best critiques of John Paul II that I’ve read (here and here), seem to have the same superficial understanding of Wojtyła as many have of Lefebvre.

To understand John Paul II, it is absolutely essential to understand post-World War I Poland.

This is the experience that formed his whole priesthood.

So that’s why I spent time delving into Peru with Luis Medina. Watch this clip of his actions as bishop:

Real Poverty Changes Everything about How You View the World

One of the most important things to understand about Peru is that Peru is real poverty. In Europe and America, we really have never seen real poverty. Our poverty is luxury compared to the world’s poor. I know this because I spent two summers living in the garbage slums of Cairo.

I can tell you from experience, that when you see that in real life, it alters your whole perception of reality.

Because of this, people who live in luxury in America (even those considered “lower class” here), are really living in a fantasy world and are out of touch with the “real life” of the rest of the world.

Pope Leo made reference to this fact when Crux asked him about LGBT issues. He said something like “well, that’s just not what the world is concerned about.” What world?

The Global South. The southern hemisphere, especially Latin America and Africa. (Those are the places, in particular, where Catholicism and Christianity are exploding, read The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins.)

Charlie Kirk is What Real Marxism is Like

Now here’s the next thing Prevost experienced of real life in Peru: real Marxism.

In America, we just had a taste of real Marxism a few weeks ago: Charlie Kirk was assassinated. This is what real Marxism always leads to, because its fundamental lie is that the ends justify the means.

But people who are struggling with real poverty, especially in Latin America, have been struggling with assassinations and murder for decades.

Decades.

Just imagine, fellow Americans, if you had to deal with Charlie Kirk-level leadership getting assassinated every few years. Or your friends and family members getting abducted or murdered.

Now, in this situation of corruption and poverty and Marxism, do you really think pushing the death penalty is the best way to deal with the common good? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

But the point is that I really don’t think Pope Leo is just a stupid Democrat. And I don’t think he’s just a Modernist, claiming we have a “new understanding of human nature” and therefore, no death penalty. I highly doubt that.

Same for his immigration comments. Think about the starving families he knows personally in Peru. You think he takes kindly to Trump’s bombastic rhetoric which is making little immigrant children in America scared that they’ll never seen their parents again?

(Obviously, the American government needs to fix the massive immigrant issue – there’s tons of human and drug trafficking that is being manipulated by the Marxists – I voted for Trump three times. But let’s look at this how Pope Leo probably looks at it.)

The fact is, the Republican Party has been corrupt for decades now by using the label “Pro-Life” in order to gain political power. The vast majority of Republicans are not pro-life in the Catholic sense (and that includes President Trump by the way), but are merely using a label to gain power.

When the rubber meets the road (as we say in the States), Republicans don’t care about the unborn, the immigrant, or the widows and orphans that their unjust wars create worldwide.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are consumed with Marxism and do not know their right hand from their left.

The point I’m trying to make is this: we really need to understand Pope Leo before we go railng against him on the social media complaining corner.

First: how is that helping your prayer life, and your ability to overcome mortal and venial sin? Complaining is toxic to your heart.

Second, we should really act like good sons of the Church and ask Pope Leo: “Your Holiness, did you really mean those comments like an American “Catholic” Democrat, or was there something else going on here?”

He owes us an explanation. I get it. But we should also give him what we owe him: basic respect, and yet more: filial reverence.

But I could be all wrong about my first impressions here. Let’s remember how it started with Pope Francis – we gave him the benefit of the doubt until we couldn’t do that anymore. But listen to what someone older and wiser said: I want to be the last to give up on Pope Leo, that last person giving him the benefit of the doubt. (Mr. Michael Matt said as much recently.) That’s the attitude of a faithful son of the Church and son of the Papacy.

For more age and wisdom, I encourage all to listen this podcast from our editorial board member, Dr. Mike Sirilla, who talks about the origins of OnePeterFive and his office as a theologian in the Church. You can see in his humble attitude, even as a theologian, that we have a lot to learn to help us navigate the era of Pope Leo: