"Could one think of a religious war? No." Why Does Bergoglio Say Weird Things?

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On route to Poland

The proximate impetus for this post was the set of bizarre statements - once again given on a plane - by Jorge Mario Bergoglio concerning war and religion. The statements were meant to apply to the current terrorist crisis - what some have called the "war on terror,""war on ISIS," "war against radical islam" or even "war against Islam." But I think it's obvious Bergoglio also meant them to apply generally.

Pope Francis on Wednesday responded to recent violence across the globe by saying that the world is at war. 

“When I speak of war, I talk about it seriously, but it’s not a war of religion. It’s a war for money, for resources, for nature, for dominion. This is the war,” Pope Francis told journalists on his July 27 flight from Rome to Krakow. 

“Could one think of a religious war? No. All religions want peace. Others want war,” he said. “Is that clear?”

Yes. And the claim is preposterous. 

Why does Bergoglio say weird things?

I've made a list, focusing on this particular set of statements. But obviously everything on the list could be applied in other contexts.

Why did Bergoglio say,“Could one think of a religious war? No. All religions want peace"? 

1. Hatred of the "old" Catholic Church. By that I mean, hatred of the Church up until, well, himself, or at least up until Vatican II. In other words, hatred of 95%-99% of it. Since the Catholic Church has always had a "just war" tradition, and the Church actually ordered the Crusades, among other things, saying that "all religions (including Catholicism) want peace" is his childish way of taking another poke at the "old" Church.
2. Sympathy with Islam. Why Bergoglio would have sympathy with a demonic bloodthirsty ideology that has always been in violent opposition to the Catholic Church is another question. But there is no question that he does have sympathy for it. Since Islam is the most conspicuous example of a religion that does not want peace, saying that "all religions want peace" is a way of defending Islam.
3. Positioning himself as a world leader of religion, rather than the leader of the Catholic Church. Bergoglio is often friendly with atheists and non-believing political allies. But he also likes to emphasize the things he believes all religions have in common - often setting up an alleged quasi-conflict between religion and unbelief. Obviously. stressing that all religions are peaceful and wars are always a product of other causes, is an example of this. As to why he might seem more comfortable promoting religion in general, as opposed to, say, Christianity or Catholicism, see 7, below.     
4. Quasi-Marxism. I do not believe Bergoglio is a systematic enough thinker to actually be a Marxist, but he came of intellectual age as a Latin American Jesuit in the second half of the twentieth-century, which means he soaked up a lot of it. History is filled with what most people call or think of as "religious wars," but the Marxist (while no friend of religion) would say that such wars are really about other things - generally having to do with economics. Sure enough, for Bergoglio, two Muslims shouting "Allah (God) is Great!" attacking a Catholic priest, nuns and worshipers during a Catholic church service - what would seem to be an almost paradigmatic example of religiously based conflict - is not about Islam, or Catholicism or religion but really about "money, for resources, for nature, for dominion." That's a Marxist analysis if there ever was one.
5. Pop theology. Modern pop theology declares that all religions are good and that to the extent that there seems to be religious aggression, conflict or violence is actually the product of extremism or extremists within the various religions. Bergoglio didn't explicitly claim that here but he has said as much on multiple other occasions.
6. The narcissistic desire to say something unexpected, new, different or profound. "You think that X, but I am here to tell you that really Y." We see the same sort of phenomenon in many "liberal" homilies. Priests have been giving homilies for 2,000 years. One wouldn't suppose it would even be possible to say anything new. But "liberal" priests think they're supposed to shake things up, make us think and all that (as well as challenge or contradict what ever came before). After all, isn't that what Jesus did?
7. Demonic influence. Given Bergoglio's record, any faithful Catholic who hasn't at least considered this, hasn't been paying attention. The devil or his demons do not simply lie. They mix lies with truths, half-truths and claims which are simply incoherent. The object is to cause confusion and despair. Hopefully (to them) people will not only come to doubt revealed Christian truth but also the notion that there is any truth. A large part of this demonic rope-a-dope strategy is the spouting of literal non-sense.
8. Dementia or Senility. Okay, admittedly, I've provided a long and varied list of other explanations, above, but I think part of it is actually this simple. We live in the world and the world has rules - of physics, biology and so on - that make some people lose their mental faculties with age. It happens.       

I'm obviously long past the point where I care about being called uncharitable or not a faithful Catholic (because I'm being highly critical of the Pope from the position of a small-time blogger) or whatever. But if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the greatest threat to the Catholic Church of any man alive. If I (or anyone else) cannot speak out on that, then Catholicism is not much more than a Dear Leader cult. Obviously, I do not agree that it is.