In Bitter, Bizarre First Post "Love" Homily, Pope Lashes Out at Critics, Calls Judas "This Poor Repentant Man," Blames Jewish Priests for Judas' Death (They Were Bad Confessors and had No Mercy)

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"Please help me."

The Pope appears to be growing increasingly unhinged.

Is the aggressive crazy talk a response to perceived opposition or a post Amoris victory lap?

Vatican Radio reports on today's homily at Santa Marta. The first part deals not with Judas but with those who clutch to "the letter" of the law. It is impossible to believe that Francis is not referring to opponents of the "pastoral solutions" proposed in Amoris Laetitia: 

Pope Francis on Monday spoke of the importance of taking stock of what is in people’s hearts and lives instead of only taking the law into account. 

...the Pope spoke of the Doctors of the Law whom – he said - passed judgment with their hearts closed to God and to prophecy; all that mattered to them – he explained – was to uphold the Law. 

Pope Francis was reflecting on the Reading from the Acts of the Apostles in which the Doctors of the Law accuse Stephen of speaking “blasphemous words against Moses and God” because they “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.” 

They even instigated false witnesses to uphold their claims, he said. 

“Their hearts, closed to God’s truth, clutch only at the truth of the Law, taking it by ‘the letter’, and do not find outlets other than in lies, false witness and death” he said. 

Then Francis presented a novel theory on Judas. As far as I know, no one ever in the history of the world has ever directly blamed the Jewish chief priests for Judas' suicide:

Pope Francis said: "It hurts when I read that small passage from the Gospel of Matthew, when Judas, who has repented, goes to the priests and says: ‘I have sinned' and wants to give ... and gives them the coins. ‘Who cares! - they say to him: it’s none of our business!’ They closed their hearts before this poor, repentant man, who did not know what to do. And he went and hanged himself. 

And what did they do when Judas hanged himself? They spoke amongst themselves and said: 'Is he a poor man? No! These coins are the price of blood, they must not enter the temple... and they referred to this rule and to that… The doctors of the letter. " 

The life of a person did not matter to them, the Pope observed, they did not care about Judas’ repentance. 

The Gospel, he continued, says that Judas came back repentant. But all that mattered to them “were the laws, so many words and things they had built”.

Francis appears to be arguing that Judas' return to the priests was tantamount to trying to make a confession to them. But the priests were bad confessors and rejected him. No doubt they lacked mercy.

This is of course demented.

It is tedious to observe that:

1. The Jewish priests (being Jewish priests) had no power to forgive sins in that sense.
2. Neither Judas nor the priests believed they had such a power.
3. In any case, while looking down at Judas for being sort of a rat, the priests obviously wouldn't think that acting against Jesus was a sin per se.
4. Most Biblical commentators attach significance to the particular Greek word used for "repentance" in this passage as opposed other passages. The common understanding is that his repentance was more akin to "I'm sorry I find myself in this position now" rather than "I'm truly sorry that I betrayed my Master and friend."
5. This is reinforced by the fact that Judas did not try to save Jesus or go back to the other apostles in order to reconcile with them, etc. Rather, he killed himself.

Perhaps Francis believes in what some have called the "blood libel."

But concerning Judas not Jesus.

Interestingly, he concluded the homily by repeating a sort of anti-Catholic blood libel--that the Church has a long history of burning dissidents and so on:

"History tells us of many people who were judged and killed, although they were innocent: judged according to the Word of God, against the Word of God. Let’s think of witch hunts or of St. Joan of Arc, and of many others who were burnt to death, condemned because according to the judges they were not in line with the Word of God” he said.

The above isn't Catholic. It's anti-Catholic.

Enough.

Who will stand up to it?