In chronological order below, starting December, 2016 (an arbitrary date that was selected), are a select number of articles that this blogger was able to find online. Because Bergoglio had made a point to let the world know that he had prayed for victims of terrorism, articles were written to report just that. (In many posts, Bergoglio had been misspelled as Bergolio -- this blogger wants to thank the handful of the readers of his blog for their patience, for tolerating his repeated mistake, that not being the only one.) The list of articles that follow is not intended to be exhaustive; it merely serves as an introduction to this entry.
12/11/2016 - Cairo. Vatican Radio: Pope Francis prays for victims of terrorist attacks. [1]
02/19/2017 - DR Congo and Pakistan. Vatican Radio: Pope prays for victims of violence in DR Congo and Pakistan. [2]
02/19/2017 - Iraq and Pakistan. Catholic News Agency: Pope prays for victims of terrorist attacks in Iraq and Pakistan. [3] This article shares the same date as the one above, except that Iraq is included. (As an aside, the article begins with a photograph of the pope, who looked liked he had an itchy nose or he was sad or pretending to pray but not prayerfully supplicating. The caption under the photograph is noteworthy, quoting it: "Pope Francis prays with journalists on the papal flight en route to South Korea. Aug. 14, 2014." Is using a photograph that is approximately 2½ years ago that has no bearing upon the Feb. 19, 2017, article, by a "Catholic" new agency no less, respectable journalism or misleading journalism?)
05/23/2017 - Manchester. CNS News: Pope, English church leaders offer prayers after Manchester Arena attack. [4]
06/04/2017 - London. Vatican Radio: Pope Francis: prayers for victims of London terror attacks. [5]
06/09/2017 - Tehran. Catholic News Agency: Pope Francis prays for victims of deadly Tehran attacks. [6]
There are also many other incidents of terrorist attacks that Bergoglio never mentioned, some of which were fairly recent that took place in Southeast Asia, as reported in a NPR.org article dated June 11, 2017, entitled How Big A Threat Is Extremism In Southeast Asia? [7] One does not need to guess how big it is since a running total of the number of terrorism and fatalities around the world in 2017 is available online. As of June 11, 2017, the website is showing "565 attacks, 3,873 fatalities" [8], [9].
Is it appropriate for a supposedly Catholic pope and a representative of Christ to selectively dramatize his prayer for some victims and not for others, only after considering the count of victims per incident, after seeing if there is death or just injury and after weighing the political impact and factoring in his personal (discriminating) preferences? Given the number of terrorist incidents that had not been mentioned, is it appropriate to ask how truly universal is the Catholic church and how uniting are those who are ensconced within it?
It seems like whenever the Catholic Church wants to give the appearance of universality, it resorts to expediency and lumps people and victims into groups even though each person is individually crafted by God and is known by a name. Even Satan cares more about every single soul that God has clothed in the flesh than the Catholic Church since it works tirelessly to present to each one a unique path to Hell.
It takes a pope who burns with faith, prays devoutly and loves genuinely and who is blessed by God to speak stirringly to the heart of man, deep down where it is "wired" to God's goodness, to help slow the spread of terrorism that has been unleashed by Satan's powerful minions on earth. It is a waste of time for a fake politician pope to condemn selective acts of terrorism, as if those that had not been condemned were implicitly sanctioned, and to pray symbolically for selected victims, as if those that had not received the pope's prayers and blessings deserved to be forgotten.
This is a sick world and in it, there is a sick Catholic Church.
[1] http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/12/11/pope_francis_prays_for_victims_of_terrorist_attacks/1278279
[2] http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/02/19/pope_prays_for_victims_of_violence_in_dr_congo_and_pakistan/1293587
[3] http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-prays-for-victims-of-terrorist-attacks-in-iraq-and-pakistan-91862/
[4] http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2017/pope-prays-for-victims-of-barbaric-attack-in-manchester.cfm
[5] http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/06/04/pope_francis_prayers_for_victims_of_london_terror_attacks/1316873
[6] http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-prays-for-victims-of-deadly-tahran-attacks-33610/
[7] http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/06/11/530949383/how-big-a-threat-is-extremism-in-southeast-asia?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news
[8] https://storymaps.esri.com/stories/terrorist-attacks/?year=2017
[9] The numbers in quotation changed (were lowered) after they were quoted during the draft on June 12, 2017. They were re-quoted right before posting on June 13, 2017. These figures are assumed to be somewhat reliable.
NOTE--June 14, 2017: This entry inspired a comment, quoted below with hyperlinks and a referral to Anonymous' own blog (something about hair loss and estrogen) omitted:
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Pope Prays For Victims In _______ (fill in the bla...":
É evidenciado: Contra fatos negativo existem motivos!
Posted by Anonymous to Place de la Paix at June 14, 2017 at 7:03 AM
Thank you, Anonymous, for your participation.
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