June 10th: The Pope, Mr Putin and the Media

After sitting open-mouthed and aghast at the headlines today regarding the visit of the Russian president to Pope Francis I had to sit back amused at the workings of the media gnomes.

The US ambassador to the Vatican, and reliable toady of the Obama administration, Kenneth Hackett, got the US' take spread all over the media outlets fast, beginning last night.  It went something like this: "We hope the Pope will use this opportunity to pressure Putin into taking a stronger stand against Russian aggression in Ukraine".  Immediately all the major news outlets ran with this, each one dutifully repeating America's veiled threats with the utmost seriousness; one had to plod through the search engines to find a story that didn't repeat this.  Funnily enough neither Mr Hackett nor the presstitute media bothered to mention the fact that it was the USA that brought the turmoil to Ukraine in the first place.  But no matter.  The USA wants Francis to publicly scold Putin so they can win another propaganda coup that the world media can publicize day and night.

Clearly this was a US ploy to pressure the Vatican into falling in line with the other nations it has pressured to do so, like France, Germany, Canada, England, Australia, Poland, etc.

Other news reports came to the totally unsubstantiated conclusion that the Pope was urging Putin to stop the rush to World War 3.  Using a simple phrase of Francis', that Mr Putin work for peace in Ukraine (which he has been doing since February 2014 by not only refraining from invading but by brokering the Minsk Agreements) and that Mr Putin do all he can to offer humanitarian aid (which Russia has been doing since the mess started), the news media twists that into having the Pope demand that Putin not start WW3.  It is utterly fascinating how the media can paint a picture which is patently untrue and yet sound as if they are reporting actual reality.  It takes real skill to manipulate the public so deftly.

The other endlessly repeated mantra was that the meeting was "fraught with tension, blah, blah". Since no official communique of the meeting has yet been distributed as of this writing I scarcely think it likely that such a statement could be made.

Then there were the headlines.

"Putin keeps Pope waiting, gets told off by Francis on Ukraine", from the Daily Beast "Did the Pope Diss Putin?" and another good one: "When Popes Meet Dictators".  (I don't seem to recall one like that when Francis met Obama.) Of course nothing of the kind happened but that doesn't stop an irresponsible media from their penchant for yellow journalism.  What else can one expect from a media now pushing the government's pro-sodomy, pro-war agenda?  It is extremely funny, in a dangerous and deadly sort of way, to see the spin machine running at full throttle.

So the media spin means nothing, really. The truth is that at this point we don't know what they talked about for nearly an hour.  Ukraine, certainly.  And the Middle East.  We can only surmise the rest. Perhaps we will never know much about this long, private conversation.

As to the players in this drama I can say that I am not in my own mind certain that this is the right Pope to be dealing in a matter of such delicacy, the relations between Rome and Russia.  I can only hope that cool heads in the Vatican, with a solid understanding of world events, were able to brief him before the meeting.  The Obama regime has been leading the pack in spreading false information and inflammatory rhetoric that in other times would have brought about a war.  And flunkeys like Ken Hackett have undoubtedly been filling the Pope's ear with the approved propaganda line.  A similar tactic was used by Washington to get John Paul II to back America's Iraq adventure back in 2003 but John Paul wasn't buying.  Even Washington's sending neocon reliable Michael Novak to Rome didn't move the Pope.  So we can entertain some hopes that the current irrational hatred of Russia and its leaders as exemplified by Washington did not find a hearing in the Vatican.  Time, however, will tell.

All we know about today's meeting is that the country that did the most to bring turmoil to Ukraine is urging the Pope to back their actions and, so far, the Pope doesn't seem to be going along with it.  In fact he gave Mr Putin an "Angel of Peace" medallion, something sure to enrage those who have both a visceral hatred for Putin and a scant acquaintance with the alternative media. Considering that Mr Putin has kept his cool in the face of outrageous accusations against him, troops and missiles stationed within three miles of the Russian border, worldwide opprobrium against him whipped up by Jewish and corporatist media and unjust sanctions against his nation this writer would say that he has more than earned his Angel of Peace medallion.

But the uncertainty that the Pope exudes still presents problems.

Pope Francis, alas, has not distinguished himself in his governance of the Church thus far, allowing confusion, treason and outrage to go on in the Church unhindered and contributing to it himself directly with some sorry episcopal appointments and undeniably strange words and actions.  Can this be the right man for this job at this time?

But, who knows?  Maybe this meeting was fortuitous in a way that only God knows. That the Russian Federation is clearly trying to heal itself from its ugly past by its slowing down the abortion monstrosity and the homosexual juggernaut must, one hopes, make an impression on Francis.

It is also true that in another instance the recognizing of the State of Palestine by the Vatican under Pope Francis has righted a great wrong.  In the words of Brother Andre at St Benedict Center, "Recognition of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people is a simple matter of justice."

Many of my fellow Catholics find this troubling but I would urge them to investigate the truth of what is really going on in the Holy Land before passing judgment.  That truth is readily available on the internet; it is not readily available on TV, Rush Limbaugh or in the fevered imaginings of Robert Spencer and his mentors, David Horowitz and Pamela Geller.

The point is that even a Pope who has fumbled so badly in some areas is still capable by God's grace of doing the right thing in other areas.  That is why, I presume, the Church requires us to pray for our pontiffs. Whether or not he is doing the right thing vis-a-vis Russia is something that will be revealed to us in God's good time.

Other than recognizing the breathtaking (and mind-numbing) dishonesty of the news media and the federal government over this meeting between the Pope of Rome and the Russian president there is really nothing much more to say until more details come out, if any.

Vladimir Putin and his Angel of Peace medallion