George Neumayr is in Argentina and has heard some interesting comments about the Pope:
It appears that the Peronistas are on the verge of victory. As Brazil goes right, Argentina moves back to the left, such is its addiction to its socialist traditions.
My principal purpose in visiting Buenos Aires is to learn about its not-so-favorite son, Jorge Bergoglio, who still hasn’t visited Argentina since becoming Pope Francis. During my first few days here, I asked every Catholic I met to explain that anomaly. I got some blunt and brutal answers.
“We all know he is a son of a bitch,” said a former prosecutor to me. “We are ashamed of him. He represents our worst qualities.”
His friend chipped in that Catholics consider Francis “to be a fake, a make-believe pope,” not to mention, he added, an uncultured, ill-mannered flake.
The former prosecutor oozed contempt for Francis: “He knows nothing — not morals, not theology, not history. Nothing. Only power interests him.”
The description of Pope Francis as a power-mad ideologue is very widespread, I am finding. I spoke at length with Antonio Caponnetto, who is the Argentine author of several books on Pope Francis. “At seminary, his classmates called him ‘Machiavelli,’ ” he noted.
Caponnetto gives two reasons for why the pope has avoided his home country: one, at least half the country hates him, and two, Francis dislikes the supposedly “conservative,” pro-capitalist Macri regime. The latter reason is absurd: Macri is hardly conservative, as Argentine conservatives are the first to say.
Go here to read the rest. The next time a Conclave wants to choose a Pope from the periphery, to use one of the Pope’s favorite words, it might be good idea to find out what the people of the periphery think about the potential candidate.
I am not surprised in the least. His existence in the clergy is about self aggrandizement. I have called him the Caudillo Pope for a reason. Caudillo is the Latin American term for a tinpot dictator that seizes control of a country.
Not cited by Neumayr in this article is that Bergoglio has been accused of abuse cover-up in the Buenos Aires archdiocese.
Poor Argentina. This is a nation blessed with abundant productive land, a favorable climate, no natural enemies and they always manage to shoot themselves in the foot. In just three decades, Poland has surged past Argentina in economic growth and output.
It appears that the Peronistas are on the verge of victory. As Brazil goes right, Argentina moves back to the left, such is its addiction to its socialist traditions.
Unless the institutional architecture is quite odd in Argentina, the President bears responsibility for the antics of the central bank. Argentina’s excessive public sector borrowing might be laid at the door of the legislature (which the opposition has controlled right along), but not its escalating inflation rate. It wasn’t great when he took office (> 20% per year) and now it’s > 50% per year. The Argentine right had their first chance in over 70 years to craft and implement the central government’s public policy, and they blew it. It’s a society of Fredos.
He could be the spokesman for Lone Star Beer. Think of the publicity! He could take early retirement and pitch Texas beer. Armadillos like him.
I think the matter that made up my mind early against this man was that he tried to fake —-or at least allowed the impression to be created, and refused to correct it—-that he had a Ph.D in systematics from the Sahnkt-George theologate in Frankfort—I am told a difficult center of studies except for gifted students.
The matter is actually well-known among certain university Jesuit circles, but very hush-hush, that he washed out of the program and never even passed his comps. A German language newspaper, Der Tauber Zeitung, checked out the story of his supposed degree (specializing in Romano Guardini’s writings) within a few weeks after his becoming pope and confirmed this was the case. But you’ll be hard-pressed to find this in any English language news.
Indeed, a very crude, ill mannered, and not very knowledgeable man. Such a shame.