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October 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Even before Donald Trump became President, Pope Francis showed his willingness to engage in political interference in the US electoral process by commenting during the Presidential primaries that Trump was “not a Christian” because he was for building the border wall. Unbelievably, during that same in-flight press conference in 2016, the Pope was asked to comment on same-sex legislation going on in Italy, to which he replied, “The Pope doesn’t get mixed up in Italian politics the pope is for everybody and he can’t insert himself in the specific internal politics of a country. 

This of course makes no sense. Good Catholics can come to different conclusions on immigration and the need to have adequate border security – including a wall – very much like the huge wall that surrounds the Pope’s own nation-state Vatican City. Good Catholics cannot however accept homosexual civil unions – as Church teaching has clearly stated, in reference to homosexual acts, “under no circumstances can they be approved.” 

So, the Pope could very well, and should, come down on the murderous policies of the Democrat Party that stand proudly behind the murder of one million innocent American children each year via abortion, but has no business in taking on issues where Catholics are free to differ and sovereign states are free to decide within the realm of natural law. 

The antagonism toward Trump from the Pope has continued ever since. The Pope has compared Trump to Herod, the border wall to the Berlin wall, and even publicly questioned Trump’s pro-life values. 

The release of the Pope’s latest encyclical timed perfectly to affect the US Presidential election, is no exception.  

Read with a political lens, it is painfully obvious that the Pope is pushing for Trump’s defeat, even going so far as to downplay the importance of abortion to Catholics in a manner threatening the Catholic faith itself. 

I found it very interesting that the main paragraph that could be read as bashing President Trump, not by name  but there is no way to miss the reference —  is the paragraph with the same number as Trump’s presidency. Trump is the 45th President of the USA and Fratelli Tutti paragraph 45 read this way: 

Things that until a few years ago could not be said by anyone without risking the loss of universal respect can now be said with impunity, and in the crudest of terms, even by some political figures. Nor should we forget that there are huge economic interests operating in the digital world, capable of exercising forms of control as subtle as they are invasive, creating mechanisms for the manipulation of consciences and of the democratic process. The way many platforms work often ends up favouring encounter between persons who think alike, shielding them from debate. These closed circuits facilitate the spread of fake news and false information, fomenting prejudice and hate. 

 

And reading the encyclical one finds a steady drumbeat of socialist talking points coming from the Pope which seem more like catchphrases from the Democrat playbook than statements worthy of the Vicar of Christ.   

There are many other anti-Trump statements in the encyclical which is why all the leftists are gleefully using clips all over twitter in a vain attempt to cajole pro-life Catholics into voting for pro-abortion socialist Joe Biden. 

Francis hits out at “myopic, extremist, resentful and aggressive nationalism” which he sees in some countries where “a concept of popular and national unity influenced by various ideologies is creating new forms of selfishness and a loss of the social sense under the guise of defending national interests.” He criticizes “populist political regimes, as well as certain liberal economic approaches, maintain that an influx of migrants is to be prevented at all costs. 

But any truly pro-life Catholic who reads the nearly 200-page encyclical will be convinced of the need to pray for the conversion of the Pope, rather than convinced to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – the most pro-abortion US ticket in American history.

Pro-life didn’t even make the cut in the paragraph where the Pope laid out what he says should be the “biggest concerns” for politicians! “Human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime,” were on that list.  

When the Pope talks about “the principal threats to peace and security” abortion doesn’t make the cut either. The list there is “terrorism, asymmetrical conflicts, cybersecurity, environmental problems, poverty.” 

Anyone who has worked for the right to life of the unborn would think first and foremost of abortion when Pope Francis speaks of “extreme situations that may come to be seen as solutions in especially dramatic circumstances, without realizing that they are false answers that do not resolve the problems they are meant to solve and ultimately do no more than introduce new elements of destruction in the fabric of national and global society.” But no. Pope Francis says they are… “war and the death penalty.

I kid you not. Please do your own research and look it up.

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John-Henry is the co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.com. He and his wife Dianne have eight children and they live in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.

He has spoken at conferences and retreats, and appeared on radio and television throughout the world. John-Henry founded the Rome Life Forum, an annual strategy meeting for life, faith and family leaders worldwide. He is a board member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. He is a consultant to Canada’s largest pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition, and serves on the executive of the Ontario branch of the organization. He has run three times for political office in the province of Ontario representing the Family Coalition Party.

John-Henry earned an MA from the University of Toronto in School and Child Clinical Psychology and an Honours BA from York University in Psychology.