Good evening.
*Please forgive the grammatical errors. My stroked-out brain sometimes glitches like a 1998 Apple Imac.
Not gonna lie, since the death of Pope Francis my shoulders have been hunched up to my ears with stress.
Once upon a time this was not the case but in 2025 I now own only two pieces of jewelry and that's it. I don't wear both silver pieces, but I pray over them regularly. One silver piece is my cross. The other silver piece is a necklace pendant of my dad's fingerprint taken after he died of throat cancer ten years ago. God rest him.
Since the death of Pope Francis, I've been seeing oh-so-many religious debates on several social media platforms. I'm going to address three of those debates here. I wish content creators would stop stirring this pot but here we are. If you're an atheist and you don't believe in God, then absolutely nothing I say at this point should matter to you. I know some of you will continue to read simply to get angry which makes zero sense to me, but you do you.
Catholics and Christians,
He that believeth in me and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Right?
Here we go.
Firstly,
Heaven or Hell, boys and girls. Heaven or Hell. Purgatory is not a thing is a Catholic thing protestants like me don't believe in. Conveniently they say it's explained in added books in the Catholic Bible protestants don't have (or need). If you want to scare your kids into being good threaten them with hellfire and brimstone. Works every time if you do it right, trust me. Look, you had a lifetime to achieve the Lord's blessing into Heaven, and honey it don't take much... unless you're Catholic, that is.
My dad converted to Catholicism (from Morman) when he was 50-something years old and it, as we say in Minnesota, was a deal. He had to study the catechism, RCIA and the sacrament, first Holy communion, confirmation, which is all kind of odd watching a grown man go through as Catholics generally like confirming you by the time you're twelve. It was winter in Minnesota when my dad was baptized. It was done in a kiddie pool. I was baptized into the Catholic church against my will when I was an older baby. There's a photo of me grabbing (I'm assuming) rosary beads and strangling the Priest with them, or so it looks like in the photo. Yeah, that's what you get Priest, for baptizing a protestant against her will she says jokingly. And people have asked me why I don't get re-baptized into the Lutheran church and my answer to that is, why should I. I'm already confirmed. Same God. It would just be virtue signaling if I did that. Bu-u-u-t if I ever want to be a Reverand I guess I would have to. Wait, would I? Need to look into that. *Post it.
I'm not a preachy preacher; I just like reminding people who act horrible yet claim they are Catholic or Christian what the Bible says. Catholic Bible is longer than protestant Bible but it's still the same God, therefor I'm guessing the same or nearly the same catechism, we say the same prayers, same ten commandments, and we all arrive at Heaven by following the teachings of Christ.
Sigh.
Secondly,
I miss Pope Francis already. I knew he was cool when he basically said in his Pope-y way, "Look, I don't agree with your lifestyle (be them tattoos and piercings for example) but you're a human being who deserves to be treated as a human being. You're a child of God and deserve prayer, blessings, favor, and you already have the love of God." He did that right out the gate as Pope, hello, like Christ teaches in the Bible. That's how I knew he was an ok guy. When people asked him, "Can gay people be Christians" he was like, "Yes. Of course." It would have been epic had he said "DUH!" afterwards but that was probably asking for too much from the new guy. *Oh! And he was a Jesuit priest. I forgot about that. I like the Jesuits from what I've read about them.
Thirdly, and this irritates me more than anything...
It's not that people like Trump-o don't deserve forgiveness, we all deserve forgiveness, it's that people like him don't think they're doing anything wrong ever no matter how loony toons he gets like his buddy RFK Jr attacking M&M's and Skittles for whatever cuckoo reason. Oh no, not the green M&M! Even the younger priests on TikTok will tell you every person needs to ask God for forgiveness at some point in their lives, in their daily lives. At some point in the years you have already lived you have committed a trespass against God that requires forgiveness regardless how small you might think it is. Repent. Ask forgiveness. Easy. But oh no, that orange inflatable tube donkey thinks he's perfect, infallible, superior to God, and that in Biblical definition is a sin against God. He literally sins against God every day. That said, people who say they want a "more conservative Pope" need to first address the hypocrisy of having a president who sins against God every single day.
Literally,
Commandment #1: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
To call any president of the United States a "Messiah" is a sin of Biblical proportion.
AND ANOTHER THING
Martin Luther's reformation calls out the hypocrisy of the Catholic church. If you serve the church in any priestly way, you sirs took an oath of poverty, fidelity to the ten commandments, chastity, and obedience to God and only God.
You pray for a "more conservative Pope", fine, but I pray a "more conservative Pope" will address his wayward disciples first like his cardinals, priests, archbishops, and even deacons, with wealthy possessions, and police records. Um. Excuse me (poke-poke) how are cardinals still allowed to be cardinals when they have a police record? I don't have a police record, okay no wait, I had a jaywalking ticket in 1991 but I paid the fine and that's it and I'm from the 80's! Depending on the offense, if you had a police record before you became a cardinal that's open for discussion, but if you got a police record after you became a cardinal and I don't care for what, you sir should not be a cardinal anymore, and don't even get me started on certain priests and their atrocious sins who were allowed to keep their collars. You repented and went into confession, fantastic, but you still should not be a cardinal or priest (or whatever clergy) anymore. Ozzy Osbourne urinated on a national treasure in Texas and was banned from San Antonio for like ten years, but a cardinal breaking one of the ten commandments he swore fidelity to resulting in a police record and not get booted out of the college of cardinals seems pretty, you know, WRONG.
AND I KNOW what the excuse for cardinals not getting booted out of the college of cardinals after being found guilty breaking the law and one or more of the ten commandments is, but he is just a man. Cardinals and priests are just men. THEY didn't die on a cross and resurrect. They are just men, so that whole mediation of holy authority business... NO.
Remember folks this quote from (film) Walk the Line:
Sam Phillips: You know exactly what I'm telling you. We've already heard that song a hundred times. Just like that. Just... like... how... you... sing it.
Johnny Cash: Well you didn't let us bring it home.
Sam Phillips: Bring... bring it home? All right, let's bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you're dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin' me that's the song you'd sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it's real, and how you're gonna shout it? Or... would you sing somethin' different. Somethin' real. Somethin' *you* felt. Cause I'm telling you right now, that's the kind of song people want to hear. That's the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain't got nothin to do with believin' in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believin' in yourself.
Amen.
Okay, I'm going to go and try to unclench my shoulders from stress.
A small evening prayer:
I thank you, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear son, that you have graciously kept me this day, and I pray that you would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let your Holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
Goodnight, all. God bless.
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