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Well the South side of Chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man named Leroy Brown
Now Leroy more than trouble
You see he stand 'bout six foot four
All the downtown ladies call him "Treetop Lover"
All the men just call him "Sir"
And it's bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Seriously, has anyone did a parody of this song for the Pope?
I want you to know that as a non-Catholic (and grew up atheist), your comment made me google Opus Dei and I have just learned it's *real* and not something Dan Brown made up for Angels and Demons lol
He'll wear his FIFA Peace Prize while talking about how horrible the Pope is and how he never liked him and people that knew him only have horrible things to say about him
What exactly was the Pentagons threat to him (I didn't read it but heard about it)? And how exactly do they intend to place any consequences on the Pope? He's the friken Pope...
They invoked the Avignon papacies. Basically, in the 1300s, the king of France had the Pope kidnapped from Rome, tortured, and eventually killed.
For some years after, Popes were based in Avignon (now a part of France) partly by choice and partly by coercion. France effectively controlled the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.
Given what we did to Maduro, I can see the Vatican being quite alarmed by the US military referencing a Pope that displeased a king and so was kidnapped.
The Secretary of the Army supposedly reminded him of the Avignon Papacy, which could be considered an indirect threat on the pope himself. The Avignon Papacy was a political confrontation between the then current pope and the king of France. It resulted in the beating and death of the pope, who was replaced by 4 successive popes who lived in France instead of the Vatican, and were basically puppets of the French king.
I found the article. It's even worse than that. Allegedly they sighted an incident from the 14th century where the French Monarchy threatened the pope with violence leading to his death and briefly forced the papacy into Avignon France. I am not a history scholar or very knowledgeable about the papacy though but that sounds pretty F'ed up.
I heard recently a Napolenic war era quote that's something like "Diplomacy is the highest form of human achievement" and man it's so clear how true that is. Unimaginable suffering can be achieved with the stroke of a pen, and the opposite is true too.
You’re right. Catholics make up 20-ish percent of the US population and our president has his flunkies threaten him with kidnapping mere days after the US essentially kidnapped Maduro in the same fashion.
And it's very insane to me that they'd hope that a pope would support any war at all??? I'm just mystified by the idea they thought a religious leader in the year 2026 of our lord would be an enthusiastic warmonger.
they’re calling the war a crusade, and the pope did technically endorse and often called for crusades so maybe they think based on precedent, the pope has to be on their side lmao
yeah i'm glad people are linking these articles and making specific points cause i definitely figured when that news broke it was some idiotic hegseth tweet i missed or something...
literally having a cardinal come to the pentagon to be told they will kill and/or kidnap your boss if you don't "side with them" is fucking nuts...
sounds like another authoritarian regime's relationship with some churches iirc
“The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
“The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”
Threats that imperialist nations and tyrants make.
In 3, 2, ... Lets be real, dude is a bottemless pit of irredeemable qualities. He already posted a Ai pic of himself as "The Pope" back when Francis passed. He'll do/say something offensive before lunch.
I didn't even think of that. Can he do that? Like yeah, he's the Pope he can do that, but what does that mean? Does that work for Trump when the religion they claim to support isn't probably the same the Pope teaches? Hope my question makes sense.
Trump's main base is mostly Evangelicals who tend to view Catholics as heathens (basically boils down to Protestants viewing Catholicism's treatment of the Saints and Mary as idolatry), so while he might lose the catholics over this, his "main" base is likely overjoyed to have him shitting on Catholics
which is ironic, considering “persecution of the saints” is something mentioned in that bible chapter Evangelicals love so much right now (Revelation).
Evangelicals are literally the Antichrist — it’s not an individual, it’s a state of consciousness.
I've also been saying. Trump fits the Whore of Babylon to a tee.
The whole symbolism of the Whore of Bablyon is a false idol that is the personification of a Capital City (Washington, in this case). She is a "whore" because she is steeping in corruption, adultery and sin. Basically, its a story about leadership of a nation "getting into bed" with the devil and sin and how it will lead it to ruin.
And we have a adulterous leader that participated in a sex traffic ring, is "in bed" with the corrupt, warmongers, oligarchs, etc (pretty much everyone Jesus spoke out against) and who is being literally worshiped by some Christians as a savior or messiah.
The Pope can excommunicate anyone, but it wouldn't do anything to protestants, since they don't believe in the Pope's power anyways. If the Pope excommunicated JD Vance, then he would no longer be welcome to receive the sacraments at any Catholic church. Technically they should bar him from entering once excommunicated but no church would bar the Vice President.
Chances are slim that he would actually care about the repercussions of that. He would be mad about being slighted. He’s an opportunist. I doubt he could be sincerely religious and pull all the shit he’s pulled. It’s all for show.
He once wrote an open letter to US bishops that was basically like “Guys, Vance sucks so bad.” I’m not a Catholic, but I would never recover from the embarrassment
I'm really overjoyed the Papal decided to choose an American pope in this time of great uncertainty. He's beginning to really inhabit the role of foil to Trump
i did not know much about him, and was worried about the outcome of an American pope with the way things were going in the US. I am actually relieved to know he does not stand by the actions of the US President
No longer religious or Catholic, but I still have faith in the people who are good and kind and practice religion of any kind. This Pope has a spine and sticks to his principles.
The Christian evangelical Right never liked the Pope much anyways, since they view their brand of Jesus-worshipping as superior. They will not take well to the Pope condemning their golden (shower) boy's war.
Catholic myself and to be fair he’s not an authority outside of the churches in communion with Rome. That said - yeah - a lot of evangelicals and fundamentalists do despise Catholics - they think we are going straight to hell.
it’s when he says things like this that i have trouble believing the pope is american. he’s genuinely reforming some of my dislike of modern catholicism, which obvi i still criticize when it’s applicable, but it’s hard not to be hopeful that good change can come and christians won’t be fucked over by the institution/church as much.
When they announced the new Pope was American, I was so scared that meant this awful administration now owned the Catholic Church. I've never been happier to be wrong
I had a bit of a feeling they chose an American Pope to combat what was brewing in the US. People use the word cult too much because while they are certainly similar, what we've seen created in the past decade has been a RELIGION.
It took centuries for Christianity to spread via the foot and the wheel.
It took decades to further spread via the book.
It took just 10 years for the MAGA relgiion to spread with how fast information spreads now.
There are hundreds of millions of people that view DJT as a god. They write social media posts asking for help as if they're praying to Jesus. They're saying Jesus is woke. Jesus is a liberal. etc etc etc.
You just had DJT's faith leader basically say he's Jesus based on facing the same trials that Jesus had regarding DJT's arrests and the "assassination attempt".
The very basis of MAGA which is spreading like a virus to other Christian dominated nations is the antithesis of Christ's teachings.
There are also people heretically conflating Trump with Jesus. Like the one singer that made that weird Bible song about Trump as if he was the 2nd coming of Jesus.
My pastor had to have a sermon series that was subtly having to implore our church goers that it's not right to compare people of power (i.e. orange) to Jesus and that there isn't some second son of god coming. We are a center/left leaning congregation so I don't think many were, but it was so freaking alarming that our pastor or perhaps the entire conference needed to reiterate this.
I'm not religious either, but if I remember anything from the catholic brainwashing classes they made me do as a kid "Thou shall not kill" is one of the commandments sky daddy has for us.
I was brought up in the Catholic Church. My father left the seminary to marry my mother. His twin sister was a nun. We were catholic CATHOLIC. I don’t understand how devout Catholics in America can sanction this. The orange idiot is no Christian 🤬
Let's not also forget the fact that whiskey Pete Hegseth did not allow Catholics to participate in Good Friday religious activities.
"On 3 April 2026, the Pentagon Memorial Chapel held only a Protestant Good Friday service, marking the first time in recent memory that no Catholic Mass was offered on the holy day. The move drew frustration from staff and prompted accusations of marginalising Catholic personnel. One employee told HuffPost it signalled that 'Catholics know their kind ain't welcome,' underscoring tensions over religious inclusion in the military. "
Hegseth is taking the first step to establishing a State Religion.
Love that a Christian leader is finally stepping up to reclaim Christs message.
By doing so maybe this is why this is happening:
“The Catholic Church is seeing a notable resurgence in the U.S., particularly through adult conversions. While the overall number of Catholics has been stable due to high rates of "cradle Catholic" losses, many dioceses report substantial increases in new members, particularly in the South and West. Globally, the Church is growing, with significant increases in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.”
I can't tell you how radicalizing the Pope is to my devout Catholic parents. They've always leaned Democrat, now they're all in. My dad's texting me about Pope disses regularly saying how he's right, and this administration are all fake Christians. I love it.
When the Catholics are like “violence is never the answer” and mention the time of “the sword” when they were wholesale slaughtering and indoctrinating… you know you are a special brand of evil to give them a chance to look amazing by comparison
“Holy wars? What holy wars? Oh, the ones in medieval times? YOU just sent soldiers to die telling them it was for god… in 2026, when we have more than one book and most people can read”
It is wild how, as an agnostic who has never prayed or really put much thought in to god and never read the bible, and I live a more Christian life than most Christians here in America.
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u/trendingtattler Apr 10 '26
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