A Photograph Of A Woman With The Pope

"Pope Francis meets with former prostitutes assisted by the Pope John XXIII Community in Rome Aug. 12, 2016. Credit: L'Osservatore Romano." [1]

Seeing the pope caressing the face of a woman in the photograph above had initially evoked a combined sentiment of love, kindness and compassion.  That wonderfulness vanished after reading the article that followed, quoted in part: "On Aug. 12 [the pope] met the 20 women, all of whom have suffered severe physical violence  and live under protection, who are cared for at the 'Pope John XXIII Community' in Rome. Pope Francis has met with members of the community at the Vatican on several occasions." [2] [Emphasis added.]  It is "a special community for women freed from prostitution and violent abuse." [3]

Call this blogger a cynic, an unrepentant sinner, because in his subjective opinion, what the pope was doing was not done with a heart of absolute purity, the Heart of Jesus.  He hopes to be wrong, and would be glad to change his opinion. At this time, however, he is somewhat troubled because he had sensed that something Satanic had overcome the pontiff.  May the Lord forgive him if he had sensed wrong, and forgive the pope if he had sensed right.

Above is a photograph frozen in time, not a video.  Whatever the woman's movements were before and after the picture was taken, only those present at the scene would know for certain.  This blogger will speculate, rightly or wrongly, that all of the things that could have been been going through her mind when the pope approached her and touched her, none of them, in his opinion, was gratitude.

If this blogger could be so impertinent as to create a fiction (a silent soliloquy if there is even such a thing), inspired by the photograph, and manufacture words that have never existed, these would be the words (from his deranged mind): "I do not need your pity.  I have gone through a lot and I have managed to survive.  Why do you feel me in this way? Is it necessary for you to put your head right next to mine?  I do not care to smell your body odor and feel your body heat. Why can't you simply just touch my hands, and communicate to me nonverbally the sort of kindness and unconditional love that Jesus communicated to 'Peter's mother-in-law [who was] lying in bed with a fever'? [4] Yours is a touch I had felt many times before.  It is not a touch of unconditional love.  It is a touch of desire, a desire I have no interest in fulfilling.  It is a touch that is disgusting to me, but I cannot defend myself, like I was unable to defend myself so many times in the past, when I had been sexually abused, so I will shut off my mind and my feelings toward you.  I will remain motionless, as if I were an object for you to get as close to as you please, to touch as you please, to caress as you please, for as long as you please.  Whoever you are, whatever your clothing represents, I am not impressed. You are but just another dirty old man.  Must you betray your conscience with this unwelcomed embrace?  Do it quickly and be gone, and leave me alone."  This blogger apologizes to this woman if his fictional non-verbalized soliloquy inspired by the photograph above offends her in any way.  However, if this "art" of imagined words that had been put together did in some small way turn out to imitate life, then the time spent in creating it would not have been a total waste.

While dreaming up such a fictional soliloquy, this blogger kept wondering why the pope found it important to meet with members of the community of women (now supposedly protected from sexual and violent abuse) "on several occasions" at the Vatican, as reported.  This pope seemed to have quite a bit of spare time on his hands to meet with a specific category of victims multiple times.  Were there no other groups of victims to meet, such as victims of pedophiliac priests, so that pictures of him hugging those victims in the same manner as he hugged the woman in the photograph can be taken?  Did he not have time for them?



[1] http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/former-prostitutes-get-special-visit-from-pope-francis-81221/
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+8%3A14-15