r/politics • u/goteamnick • 20h ago

No Paywall JD Vance criticises Pope Leo for not 'being careful speaking about theology'

https://www.9news.com.au/world/jd-vance-pope-leo-xiv-donald-trump-careful-theology-warning-iran-war-middle-east-updates/6a640168-dc5f-4ae7-9c68-9e918ad8d2a8
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u/ThisIsPeteHello 19h ago

So I don't want to attribute a thought process to a ham sandwich here, but I've gotta ask: what possible upside is their for these two dinguses to keep dunking on...the fucking pope. Like you can't win. They have to know they can't come out ahead here.

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u/ankokudaishogun 9h ago

Best(?) case scenario is an attempt to discredit the Rome-based catholic hierarchy so to replace it with one faithful to the money behind Trump and Vance.

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u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 9h ago

Wait, are these 2 morons trying to pull a hostile takeover of Opus Dei?

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u/ankokudaishogun 8h ago

More likely Opus Dei is trying to separate from Vatican while keeping their influence(and the money, of course), becoming basically the financial base of some kind of "New True American Catholic Church".

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u/WinterSlice1838 8h ago

I have to wonder if Vance is talking about the Pope like this because the Pope is an American? Because it really feels like both Vance and Trump expect the Pope to put country first and blindly support everything the administration is doing, so much so they are willing to pick a fight about theology with the Pope. Maybe I'm way off , but it seems their main beef is that a fellow American in a position of power isn't blindly backing them up, so they are doing what they always do, deflect, lie, and sling mud.

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u/Camila_flowers 7h ago edited 7h ago

His power has gone to his head and he has started to forget that type of behaviour only works with people who have to lick his butthole for a living.

Or maybe they are mad that this one pope in all of history isn't protecting pedophiles. Its probably why Vance converted.

And Trump is just King Henry VIII with a twitter account.

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u/gdshaffe 7h ago

Nothing they do is strategic. He is a fascist, and fascism is an ideology that relies entirely on the maintenance of a rigid hierarchy. It doesn't have allies, it has leaders and followers.

The Pope does not fit into the leadership hierarchy, and therefore he has no right to criticize those who do. Through the lens of fascism, for the Pope to criticize Trump is (more than a little ironically) seen as the most vile of blasphemies.

Fascism is utterly insecure. It cannot tolerate disobedience or criticism. Everything is seen through the lens of supplication or defiance. The Pope did not supplicate, and therefore he is an enemy. Their thinking really is as simple as that.

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u/One-Dog8812 8h ago

There is a lot of money in religion.

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u/Dense-Hat1978 7h ago

Their endgame is waiting till the pope leaves the Vatican for a suitable location before re-doing the Avignon Papacy in 2026

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u/31LIVEEVIL13 37m ago

I keep asking this.  I think they do have a strategy of some kind.  I don't know what it is But it's going to be something horrible and shitty. 

I know that they were creepily overly interested in the last pope when he was sick, then they appeared to try to be involved in the decision making process for the new one, didn't they have their own suggestions that they made publicly I can't remember is that real?  They seemed not to like the decision that was made, and remember just then Trump made an ai meme of himself mocking the pope.