Book reviews

Biased Views of a Red Pope

Phillip Mericle

Review of Life – My Story through History by Pope Francis with Fabio Marches Ragona;
trans. Aubrey Botsgord. Harperone, 2024, 232 pp.

Pope Francis' autobiography Life - My Story Through History collects his memories of the many and momentous events that transformed the world in the 20^th century. Born to Italian immigrants fleeing Fascism the Argentine born Bergoglio’s earliest memories involve hearing of the horrors of World War II. He taught during the social upheaval of the decades that followed. His bishopric survived the Argentine purges. Now he presides as Pope in a world that seems once more to teeter on the brink of war and calamity.

Pope Francis saw firsthand many of the forces that sought to shape human society into what we live in today. His opinion and perspective, therefore, cannot be discounted no matter how much one might disagree with his unorthodox positions.

Curious opening

When opening the pages of an autobiography of the living Vicar of Christ on Earth, it is understandable one would expect a work that dwells on the providence of God, Christ, Church History or theology. The tonus of such a book should, after all, reflect the tonus of the man who is leading the Catholic Religion.

One cannot avoid being surprised, then, as the author opens with his first chapter railing against the West over immigration, and then dedicates nearly the entire second chapter to decrying the suffering of the Jews, our “elder brothers in the Faith.” This bizarre departure from matters of Faith and Morals is only the beginning.

As a testament, this book is filled with so much material that outright contradicts Catholicism that the reader could almost be forgiven for thinking Francis was a type of new Luther installed in the Church trying to destroy her from within.

The minorities’ Pope

Bergoglio remembers well that singular and defining event of the 20^th century: World War II. Throughout the book he hardly goes one chapter without trying to use the suffering of that war as a curious excuse to rail against the West for not opening its doors even wider to the endless hoards of Islamic migrants now overwhelming borders all across the Western world.

Overloaded immigrant boats line up on Lampedusa, straining Italy's resources

The Pontiff reveals in his writings a vital aspect of his nature: his direct appeal to emotions. One nearly hears his weeping as he dwells extensively on the plight of migrants who just ever so badly need the West to let them in, regardless of circumstances, limitations, resources or even hostile intentions.

It is curious that Francis makes such an appeal in 2024, a time when the West is already being swarmed by aliens. Reports of immigrants – sometimes armed and violent – overrunning borders in Italy, Spain, the USA and elsewhere are a near daily occurrence. Europe is filled to breaking point. Crime is skyrocketing while immigrants fail to integrate themselves into society.

There virtually is no border in many places, yet despite all this Francis stands atop his hill amidst the flowing sea of migrants and screams that the few remaining Westerners are not opening their gates wide enough. Given the book is an autobiographic interview, Bergoglio devotes far too much of his own part to raging and wailing against anyone who has even the slightest reservations over unlimited immigration.

The reader is left with the impression that so long as a single Westerner remains on this earth, Francis shall shriek that he is a xenophobic racist for having the audacity to so much as take up space that could be occupied by an immigrant.

Jewish Anti-Westernism

While peppering his book with continual lamentations over immigrants, Francis takes special care to degrade the office of the papacy by verbally grovelling at the feet of Judaism. Our “elder brothers in the Faith,” as he calls them, have an unparalleled monopoly on suffering and thus must be accommodated in all things. It is notable he uses the preferred Hebrew term shoah, rather than holocaust, for the events of World War II.

Dozens killed & wounded in Israel air raids on Gaza refugee camps

Going further, Francis speaks out on how atrocious it is that there could be anti-Jewish sentiments over their continuing murder of Palestinians in Gaza. The Pontiff deliberately trumpets how he personally visited the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and begged forgiveness for the persecution of Jews, as if we are all today still responsible and must make recompense for every historical slight and injury that happened more than 80 years ago.

With disregard for how the Allied forces destroyed Nazism in Europe and indirectly freed the Jews from that persecution, Bergoglio’s autobiography is sprinkled with comments seemingly designed to incite Western guilt. Nearly every page references the evils of the West for past racism, our vileness for not giving up more of our lands to the floods of immigrants, and, somehow, our collective atrociousness for what the Jews suffered under the Nazis.

The red Pope

Recounting his life, Bergoglio foreshadows a revolutionary papacy. He decries the execution of the Rosenbergs, the spies who sold atomic secrets to the Soviets and thus helped bring the world close to nuclear annihilation. He claims, incorrectly, that the Church is unequivocally against the death penalty. Perhaps the Pontiff is misremembering the many Popes and Saints who affirmed the need for capital punishement to keep society healthy.

Francis joyfully receives a hammer & sickle crucifix from fellow communist Evo Morales

As the pages turn, Francis openly admits his admiration for communist activists during the various political turmoils of his Argentina. He even played a part in saving communists from persecution, authorizing the burial in Church's lands of a proclaimed atheist.

Concluding thoughts

The end of Pope Francis’ autobiographic interview leaves one with a settled opinion on the character of the man who lived through such extraordinary times. Any doubt about his lifelong leftism can be disregarded.

One could almost summarize this book and his thinking by saying: “Behold how I love minorities, how much I favor immigration, how I promote the LGBT agenda, how much I decry all tradition and want to do away with everything that once represented the Catholic Faith!”

As Bergoglio begins to show his age it seems his autobiography is a type of pledge, a final proclamation of his progressivist beliefs even as it is increasingly clear that Catholics are losing their trust in him and denying his papacy their obedience...

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Posted September 23, 2024

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