The Pope's Racist New Video

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Africans have a certain joie de vivre. God bless their little hearts.

This blog previously noted the odd absence or rarity of black people in many of the Pope Videos, as well as the cringeworthy stereotypes - one video features a white family swimming in a nice pool vs. a black family wearing grass skirts and standing in front of a hut (the father is clutching a spear).

The new Pope Video features mostly black people.

Black people fighting each other.

The video condemns the "fratricidal wars" in Africa, and asks Christians in Africa to "give prophetic witness to reconciliation, justice, and peace.”

That Christians anywhere should always bear such witness is obviously a given.

But, believe it or not, the continent of Africa is actually a more peaceful place than it has been at any time in recent history.

The four most horrific wars, in terms of the number of casualties, of the last 50 years were fought in Africa, and that continent also played host to the worst incident of genocide in a generation.

Those conflicts came into being due to a variety of different causes, and involved a number of different ideologies and motives, including Marxism, anti-colonialism, Islam, ethnic differences and outright bloody non-ideological competition to capture or hold onto government power.

• 2nd Congo War (1998-2003) - 2.5 to 5.5 million dead
• Biafra (1967-1970) - 1 to 3 million dead
• Ethiopian Civil War (1974-1991) - 500,000 to 1.5 million dead
• Angolan Civil War (1975-2002) - 500,000 dead
• Rwandan Genocide (1994) - 500,000 to 1 million dead

See, black people are pretty violent.

Almost as violent as white people.

Though the Asians have often given both of them a run.

Thankfully, those African wars are now in the past.

But, as we all know, Africa is currently far from peaceful.

What the Pope did not mention is that the common denominator of most of the current wars, civil wars and terrorist insurgencies in Africa is radical Islam. The growing or ongoing conflicts in North Africa, North-West Africa, Nigeria and Somalia all pit Islamic rebels and terrorists against non-Muslim, mixed religion or more "moderate" Muslim governments. And perhaps the most prominent conflict to not include a large Muslim element - the civil war in South Sudan - grew out of hostilities initiated by Islamic forces.

• The Muslim Brotherhood and now ISIS in Egypt
• Al Qaeda and ISIS in Libya, Tunisia and Algeria
• Al Qaeda, ISIS and Muslim rebels in Mali, Mauritania and the Central African Republic
• Boko Haram in Nigeria, Northern Cameroon, Niger and Chad
• Al Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya

If Islamist fighters across Africa were to suddenly throw down their arms and renounce their claims to forcibly impose Sharia (or, a much more likely alternative, were, by some miracle, to be simultaneously defeated), Africa would experience an almost unprecedented era of relative peace.

Would there still be violent conflicts in Africa, as well as the threat of new ones? Of course. Unfortunately, even just victories over evil ideologies - the defeat of the Nazis in WW2 and of Soviet Marxism in the Cold War being among the most famous examples - don't guarantee permanent justice and peace. New evils will always arise.

But standing back from the current conflicts in Africa and merely labeling them all "fratricide" is grossly ignorant at best and racist at worst.

As if they were all caused by arms merchants.

Or, you know, the untamed impulses of those primitive darkies.

Though in that same video, the Pope does claim that Africans also have a certain "joie de vivre."

I'm not making that up.

And here's another thing I'm not making up - the words of then Archbishop Bergoglio, speaking on the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War:

We come to pray for all who have fallen, sons of the homeland who went out to defend their mother, the homeland, and to reclaim what is theirs, that is of the homeland, and it was usurped.

White people often fight good wars, you see. Or, at least, white Argentinians do.

Pope to Youth: Do You Selflessly Accept the Challenge of Helping to Destroy Western Civilization?

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The new Pope Video is out.

It's called "Youth"

I'm not sure when it was officially released. The YouTube stamp says April 4th. That would make it three days late. I'm honestly sorry it didn't come out on April Fools Day.

It's the sixteenth such video. Attentive readers of this blog will know that I stopped reviewing them a few videos ago. I was tired of it, to tell you the truth. They have become annoyingly predictable - pseudo-slick productions endorsing the latest secular liberal cause of the day, often in implicit contradiction to Catholic teachings.

Back in January, taking a suggestion from St. Corbinian's Bear, I did an analysis of the video traffic for the videos. It seemed clear that it was rapidly dropping off. At this point, I doubt very many people look at the damn things anymore - whether they're Catholics or non-Catholics, Francis fans or detractors. The current YouTube video has only 2,332 views so far. Admittedly, there are a few other ways to watch it, but still. Given that there are 1.2 billion Catholics and over 7 billion "citizens of the world," many if not most of whom have access to this sort of thing, that's a ridiculously low number.

At this point the videos exist primarily to nurture the Pope's ego and enrich La Machi, the Argentina based production company.

For those readers who don't wish to burn 1:07 of their lives on Francis tripe, here's the text:

I know that you, young people, don’t want to be duped by a false freedom, always at the beck and call of momentary fashions and fads. I know that you aim high. Is that true, or am I wrong?

Don’t leave it to others to be the protagonists of change.

You, young people, are the ones who hold the future! I ask you to be builders of the world, to work for a better world. It is a challenge, yes it is a challenge. Do you accept it?

Pray with me that young people may respond generously to their own vocation and mobilize for the great causes of the world.

So, as expected, there's one "change," two "challenges" and three "worlds."

No "God," "Christ" or "Church."

One "pray."

The central story, not apparent from the words, is that the young female volunteer, fresh from working out in the gym, is helping to unload Muslim "refugees" from a boat onto the (presumably) Italian dock. Interestingly, the video makes no attempt to stock this boat with women, children or families. There are perhaps two women wearing hijabs, although it's hard to tell as they're sort of in the background. The rest of the passengers appear to be mostly young adult males.

Once again, Mahound's Paradise would also like to point out the curious absence of black people, or at least of very black people. These refugees are pretty white, as refugees go. They wouldn't look out of place on, say, the Boca football field in Buenos Aires. Maybe that's where La Machi found them.

The volunteer wears a mask to protect herself from refugee cooties. Or perhaps it's to protect the noble boaters from Italian cooties.

The actual message of this particular video is pretty gross - for Catholics or non-Catholics. Pope Francis believes that the among the highest callings of today's "youth" is to facilitate Muslim mass-migration into Europe, and thus collaborate in the destruction of Christian or post-Christian or whatever-you-want-to-call-it Western civilization.

As well as making life in much of contemporary Western Europe increasingly unpleasant. Of course, it's possible that these particular arrivals won't rape anyone. I would advise the young woman to leave her spandex workout costume in the gym and be careful of those tight jeans (featured earlier in the video). Wearing the helmet - with its red crescent - off of the dock might also help.

But before the boat scene, there's the old man, pointing his finger at us again. Do we accept the challenge?

No, actually.

It's being increasingly reported that Francis has lost the support of most Italians, whether they be Catholic or no, largely because they perceive him as being the chief proponent of an invasion - let's call it by its name - that they naturally oppose.

And more and more Catholics and Christians in Italy, Europe and around the world are certainly praying for something having to do with this Pope.

But it's not exactly the prayer that Francis had in mind.

Pope Video 9: More Marxist Mush

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City of Man

Yes, Marxist. For those who may not be familiar with the term, it refers to a now somewhat obscure theological theory that was popular in Jesuit seminaries in the 1960's.

Yes, mush. And there isn't even any brown sugar on it. Plus it's cold.

Don't blame Francis for not including Christ, God, Church or any other Christian or Catholic reference in his latest video. After all, he only had 63 words to work with.

At least the narrations are getting shorter.

It's sort of like those progressive editions of the Newspeak Dictionary.

What one word are we going to end up with?

Solidarity?

Humanity?

Actually, my bet is on

Me.

Humanity is experiencing a crisis that is not only economic and financial, but is also ecological, educational, moral, and human. When we talk about crises, we talk about dangers, but also opportunities. What is the opportunity? That of solidarity. Come, help me. For everyone to contribute to the common good and to build a society that puts the human person at its center.

Pope Video 8: Finally a Black Man Who Isn't Holding a Spear

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I'm glad they finally let him on the team.

The new Pope Video is out and it begins with a black man kicking a soccer ball at the camera.

I have written previously about the curious absence of black people in the first seven Pope Videos, made all the more jarring by the rainbow of other races and by the nature of the few exceptions - two African kids on a rusty bed in what looks like a shack and a child's drawing of a "typical" African family with Dad wearing a grass skirt and carrying a spear.

It's an Argentine thing, I think.

From Pope Video 4

In any case, it might be claimed that the new video is basically unobjectionable. Who wouldn't be in favor of sport as something that, among, other things brings, people together for peaceful competition. That was after all one of the primary goals of the ancient and modern Olympics. And it is of course a laudable one.

In the new video, there's a black male soccer player, a white female tennis player, an asian male ping pong player (stereotype alert), a scary white male rugby player (obviously meant to placate Vikings) and a female Indian volleyball player. The mercifully short narration by the Pope emphasizes the value of sport in fomenting a culture of encounter and helping the cause of world peace: 

Sports make it possible to build a culture of encounter among everyone for a world of peace. I dream of sports as the practice of human dignity, turned into a vehicle of fraternity. Do we exercise together this prayer intention? That sports may be an opportunity for friendly encounters between people and may contribute to peace in the world.

For Pope skeptics such as myself there are of course the usual annoyances - the failure to mention any Christian or Catholic things - Christ, God the Church, etc. - the use of the Pope's favorite buzzwords - culture of encounter - which for skeptics like me may contain quasi-sinister connotations and so on.

There's also the unbelievably narcissistic implied claim that after, say, 120 years of modern international Olympic competition, finally someone (Pope Francis) has come along who really understands that sports may help people from different countries come together in mutual brotherhood, and that finally someone (Pope Francis) has enunciated a plan to further effectuate that.

If you think I'm being unfair about this, consider his words. If sports as a "vehicle of fraternity" had been already happening, why would the Pope say he only has a "dream" of it?

The weirdest thing about the video is the reoccurring image of a wall being breached - not being broken down exactly, but literally being penetrated in rapid succession by a soccer ball, tennis ball, rugby ball  (the ping pong ball was too small, I guess) and volleyball.

When I saw the soccer ball hit the wall for the first time to a kind of downer note in the music - brong! - I actually thought the video was turning into "if at first you don't succeed, try try again" message - the poor guy meant to kick the ball into the net but hit some wall on the sidelines instead, and he even chipped off a bit of the plaster on it. How embarrassing.

Of course it's a metaphor for breaking down walls - the same ones presumably that Donald Trump, international finance capital, weapons manufacturers, Cardinal Burke and all the other neo-pelagians are busy erecting, patching up, extending, reinforcing, etc.

But the balls hit the wall with a force that Serena Williams could only dream about. They look like they've been shot out of howitzers - as all the while the Pope mentions and re-mentions the word "peace." I suppose the effect could have been intentional. Tennis balls as rocket grenades.

Irony.

New Pope Video: Indigenous Peoples

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The latest Pope Video, Indigenous Peoples, was released today. In it, Pope Francis asks us to "respect indigenous peoples, threatened in their identity and even their existence."

The bespectacled Argentinian white man appears a few seconds after we are shown clips of diverse "indigenous" men and women, including our gross lipped friend.

By the way, the lips, or what's inside them, are officially called "lip plates" and they are perhaps most famously worn by members of the Kayapo tribe in the Amazon. 

Let's just say it. Lip plates are grotesque, horrific and disgusting. If any indigenous tradition deserves not to be respected, it's that one. Okay, maybe cannibalism too, but you get the idea.

I'm not just saying that from my own Western point of view. I am confident that an unbiased referee from, say, the Andromeda galaxy would heartily agree.

And, yes, white people do gross things too.

But I want to make a serious point. The Pope claims that he "wants to be a spokesman for the deepest longings of the indigenous people," which as far as the video implies seem to be made up of not much more than body mortification and wearing colorful hats.

That's racist.

The greatest longing that all of have - whatever continent or culture we are from - is to come home to our Father. And I'm not just talking about Catholics or Christians. Every man, woman and child since Adam has had such a longing. It's built in. And it's racist to imply that, say, South American Indians are in any way different. 

Of course all of us also have another built in condition, one which is in direct conflict with that longing and has the potential to permanently frustrate it--the disposition to sin.

The job of the Church - in one sense the only job of the Church - is to help us satisfy the first and combat the second.

The Pope seems to think the job of the Church is to relentlessly promote liberal political causes. Ot at least that's the charitable interpretation. And in the Pope Videos (now numbering seven) he ticks them off one by one.

The Kayapos deserve better.

The New Pope Video is an Anti-Catholic Attack on Motherhood and the Family

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Tell me about it. We have four pre-school age children and a smaller kitchen.

Yeah. It is.

(Just so there's no confusion, I'm referring to Respect for Women, the May "Pope Video" released two weeks ago.)

It's true that Pope Francis first claims that

the contribution of women in all areas of human activity is undeniable, beginning with the family.

Except that the video doesn't begin with the family. It begins first with what looks to be a female professor drawing a chemical formula on a classroom glassboard and then shifts to a female doctor looking at an x-ray. 

Then there is a mother helping her daughter paint a ball. Or I assume it's a mother and daughter since the words "beginning with the family" first appear here. Then again, the fact that they appear to be sitting in a classroom is odd.

Finally, there is a mother making sandwiches for her two (count them, two!) children. We know this because there are two kids backpacks on the counter. Notably, she looks tired, depressed and even slightly bitter. She's probably thinking, "What? I gave up a promising career as an x-ray technician for this?" 

Then, twenty or so seconds later comes the take away: 

We must . . . remove the barriers that prevent [women's] full integration into social, political and economic life.

These days, of course, I would argue that those "barriers" are largely nonexistent for most women--with the notable exception of women in Muslim communities (not that Francis cares about them). And since virtually no one is against the basic proposition that women and men should be treated as equals in general or per se, then either that "barriers" statement is of no effect, or else it means something different than what it seems.

I think it's the latter.

The familiar call for a sort of permanent revolution (I say permanent because whatever is actually done, they say we're not there yet and we thus have to redouble our efforts) to solve a problem that isn't very real anyway is of course merely a stalking horse for the belief that women can and should get their primary satisfaction in life from jobs and careers--or to put it another way, from things other than being a mother. Women must be, you know, fully integrated. And if we see that anyone--male or female--disagrees with this, then we should just keep pushing. Disagreement (so goes the view) is a barrier in itself.

And by the way, if you're a woman and you don't agree, then you're no doubt repressed and suffering from false consciousness. Or you're wedded to the old ways and don't hear the Holy Spirit whispering "100 K plus benefits."

If you're a man and you don't agree, then you're just one step below rapist. You're certainly not a supportive husband or father. Nor are you going along with the fresh winds of change (that have been freshly blowing for the last fifty years). Oh, and if they catch you writing about it on your Facebook page, say goodbye to your 100 K plus benefits.

This is, of course, the greater part of the the modern feminist message. 

And it's a lie--a deeply anti-Christian and anti-Catholic lie that continues to inflict massive damage on women, children, motherhood and the family.

And no, I'm not going to waste any space defending myself against the charges that I'm a sexist or chauvinist or that I'm exaggerating the Pope's innocuous plea for fairness or whatever. And of course, calling the video Respect for Women is part of the lie.

What's going on is clear to anyone with eyes to see.

Francis wants to be loved by the world. This is more important to him than standing up for Christ, His Church or faithful Catholics in general. Then again, I cannot say for certain whether the Pope still even believes in Christ or the Church. Or rather, I do not think that he does.

These videos are insidious. They are poisonous. They are evil.

In their cloying liberal secularism they are anti-Christian and anti-Catholic,

And they were made by someone who is called Pope.

The Pope Videos: Where are the Black People?

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Happy white family

The fourth Pope Video, called Small Farmers, is now out.

It's a minute and a half of quasi-Marxist bilge.

But that's not what I'm going to write about today. Rather I'm going to consider a question that occurred to me while reading the Bear's short review of the fourth Pope Video:

The supporting actor is a middle-aged white farmer with a hoe and one donkey.

That got me thinking. Up to two-thirds of the people in these videos are white (counting what are sometimes called "Hispanics" as white--I hope that doesn't offend) though in each of the videos there is a noticeable attempt to also include a wide diversity of other races and cultures. So there are Central and South Americans, North Americans, Europeans, Arabs, Indians, Tibetans or Burmese, South-East Asians, Chinese, Japanese and so on.

But where are the black people?

Or to put it another way, where are the Africans or people of African descent?

Africans and people of African descent do, after all, make up a sizable percentage of the world's population as well as comprising a sizable portion of the world's Catholics (and probably an even more sizable portion of the world's practicing Catholics).

But in more than six minutes of video that includes well over a hundred human figures, only two of the figures are black. It's a little boy and girl playing on what looks like a cheap metal bed in what could be some sort of shack. The clip lasts no more than two seconds.

(There is also one drawing of an African family, but in truth it might have been better not to have included that. See below for why.)

Now, I'm not one of those who believes you must have a mathematically proportionate representation of races in everything you do. But one of the underlying messages of the entire Pope Video series is the value of ethnic and cultural diversity. The whole thing is infused with a We are the World/UNESCO/United Colors of Benetton vibe that's impossible to miss. That makes the near-complete absence of black people all the more weird. Indeed, the more you think about it, the more incredibly weird it becomes.

Where is the footage of African farmers nobly toiling (Video 4) or African urbanites coughing up pollution created by capitalism (Video 2) or African families just hanging out (Video 3) or maybe even an African Muslim or Catholic or two? (Video 1).

They don't exist, apparently.

For the fun of it, I actually made a list, starting at the first scene of the first Pope Video and proceeding through the rest. Everyone who appears is counted (and that includes off-camera voices and faces and even some children's drawings). But to be fair, no one is counted more than once, even if they reappeared.

If you've gotten this far, take a look. I think it's quite interesting.

People Featured in the Pope Videos So Far

Argentinian Buddhist (white)
Argentinian Muslim (middle-eastern)
Argentinian Catholic (white)
Argentinian Jew (white)
Pope (white)
Burmese (?) Buddhists (asian)
Eastern Orthodox prelate (white)
Argentinian Jew (white)
Argentinian/European little girl (white)
Argentinian/European little boy (white)
Bicyclist wearing Respro mask (white or asian)
Muslim (?) man (middle-eastern)
Elderly Argentinian/European (white)
Turbaned man (asian)
Chinese woman (asian)
Irish/Scandinavian etc. woman (white)
White hand brushing flowers (white)
Argentinian/European yuppy (white)
Two white hands exchanging a clover (white)
Pony tailed person staring into sea (white or asian)
Argentinian/European face staring into sea (white)
White feet dangling over dock (white)
Indian mother and two sons (asian)
Two African children laughing over book on cheap bed in shack (black)
Argentinian/Southern European family on nice couch (white)
Argentinian/European father and son swimming (white)
Argentinian/European little girl (white)
Her arguing parents (white)
Her brother (white)
Drawing of Spanish family (white)
Drawing of family in front of mountains (white)
Drawing of family, including father with extremely long legs (asian or white)
Drawing of family near tree and lake (white)
More abstract drawing of family (indeterminate)
Drawing of African family in front of grass hut with father holding spear (black)
I'm not making this up.
Drawing of Arab family in desert (middle-eastern)
Drawing of happy family with red cheeks (white)
Campesino older man (white)
Campesino older woman (white)
Four campesinos (white)
Chinese/South East Asian rice farmers (asian)
Farmer with boots, gloves and head covering (indeterminate)
Pakistani or Indian farmer (middle-eastern or asian)
Tired small farmer (white)
Frenetic capitalists on floor of New York City Stock Exchange (white)
Central American migrant farm workers (?) (white)
Japanese (?) farmer (asian)
Old Arab man (middle-eastern)
One or two additional farmers (white)

Happy black family

Against the rainbow of ethnic diversity presented above, the lack of black people stands out. Maybe they're hiding in the hut.

What does it all mean? How could someone on the political left (which, let's admit it, the Pope quite obviously is) forget about black people? How could someone who many believe cares so much about people in general and the poor and downtrodden in particular, effectively ignore 20% of the world's population including many of its most poor and downtrodden, especially those on the African continent? Or to flip it, why didn't they include more black people just, you know, hanging out--sitting on couches or swimming in pools or running on beaches. Don't black people like to do those things too?

Am I alleging that the Pope and/or his Argentinian video production company is in some sense racist, at least in terms of ignoring black people or shuffling them off to the side or just not considering them to be as interesting, photogenic or important as other people?

Yes.