Are the Similarities Mere Coincidence or Something More?
Many commentators have noted that there are a remarkable number of similarities between President Joe Biden and Pope Francis.
A partial list would include the fact that one man is the leader of the Western World, and the other is generally conceded to be the world’s most important spiritual leader. Significantly, both men set about reversing the policies of their predecessors upon assuming office. Both men are, of course, Catholics. And beyond that, both adhere to a “progressive” version of Catholicism. Biden’s habits of making the sign of the cross during public appearances or fingering his rosary beads during interviews is meant to convey the impression that he is a pious traditional Catholic. However, a recent report sent to the American bishops identifies at least 32 times that Biden has violated fundamental Catholic moral teaching since being inaugurated. The most recent example, delivered during his State of the Union address, is his promise that “I will restore Roe V. Wade as the law of the land again.”
Unlike Biden, Francis is not often seen fingering his rosary. On the other hand he, like Biden, has been accused of violating Catholic teaching on several occasions. One might think, however, that there would be no similarity between Biden and the pope on the issue of abortion. Yet, despite his assertion that abortionists are “hit men,” Francis has refused to sanction or criticize pro-abortion Catholic politicians such as Nancy Pelosi. In fact, shortly after San Francisco bishop Salvatore Cordileone informed Pelosi that she should not present herself for communion, she popped up in Rome and received communion in St. Peter’s presumably with the blessing of Francis. On another occasion, Francis praised notorious abortionist Emma Bonino as one of Italy’s “forgotten greats.”
More similarities between the two leaders? Well, it’s been credibly alleged that both men may have benefited from rigged elections—Biden from a surfeit of mail-in ballots, and Bergoglio from the machinations of the “Saint Gallen mafia.” But many consider it impolite to dwell on the topic. So, let’s move on.
Both Biden and Bergoglio are men of the left, and are quick to embrace whatever new schemes emanate from the left. Both endorse radical climate change doctrine of the type that would destroy most third world economies; and both promote ideas about gender that are anti-reproductive and destructive of marriage and the family.
Both also believe strongly in diversity. That’s what they say, anyway. But when it comes to making appointments, the only diversity they allow is diversity of skin color and hair style. In several cases Biden’s appointments to high office seem to have been made solely on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity with no regard to any actual aptitude for the job. Thus, Karine Jean-Pierre is now the Presidential Press Secretary, Pete Buttigieg is Secretary of Transportation, and openly transgender Rachel (formerly Richard) Levine is Assistant Secretary for Health.
In like manner, Francis has promoted pro-LGBT clerics to numerous high posts in the Church. Several of these have been “in-your-face” appointments—people who are not only unsuited for the job, but have actively worked to subvert the mission of the organization to which they were assigned. Thus, Cardinal Vincenzo Paglia, a connoisseur of erotic homosexual art was put in charge of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family, while Cardinal “Tucho” Fernandez, a connoisseur of erotic poetry, was put in charge of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Biden, of course, has done the same thing. Some of his appointees seem to have been chosen for the sole purpose of sabotaging the mission of the departments which they now head. A prime example is Alejandro Mayorkas whose open borders policies ought to have immediately disqualified him from leading the Department of Homeland Security.
Not surprisingly, Biden’s concern with keeping the borders open is matched by Francis’s insistence that we should build bridges, not borders. The only difference between the two is that while Biden focuses on erasing the Southern U.S. border, Francis seems intent on destroying all of Europe’s borders. Francis is particularly keen on mass Muslim migration into the continent—a migration that may well spell the end of Europe as Europe. But, as Francis sees it, that’s a small price to pay for the added diversity.
Finally, both men are enablers of tyrannical ideologies. Biden has shown himself to be a good friend to China and Iran, and so has Francis. Indeed, Francis has become a defender not only of Iran, but of Islam itself, and he has frequently drawn a moral equivalence between Catholicism and Islam.
But what does this all mean? What do all these commonalities between Biden and Bergoglio signify? One could argue, of course, that the similarities signify nothing: that they are nothing more than coincidence. And in some instances, that’s true. For example, one should probably not read much significance into the fact that both men have the same initials—J.B. (Joe Biden, Jorge Bergoglio). Hmm. Did the respective parents have a glimpse into the future? Did they conspire with one another? That’s highly unlikely. Sometimes, as Freud once said, a cigar is just a cigar.
Of course, if both men smoked the same brand of Cuban cigars smoked by Fidel Castro, that might be cause for concern. Some coincidences are worth looking into. And most of the issues that unite Biden and Bergoglio are non-trivial. They concern world-changing shifts that challenge our basic concepts of human nature and of right and wrong. It’s quite feasible that powerful men might be tempted to conspire together to achieve such historic goals.
Moreover, the possibility of a conspiracy between a pope and a president is not at all far-fetched. How do we know? Because it has already happened. In the 1980’s, President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II plotted together and worked together to put an end to Soviet communism in Western Europe. Both men shared many things in common including a record of fighting communism and “strikingly similar” assassination attempts just 6 weeks apart.
In A Pope and a President, historian Paul Kengor reveals that Reagan and John Paul II developed a spiritual bond and a conviction that the Cold War struggle with communism was a spiritual war to which God had called them. According to Kengor, Reagan spoke privately of the “DP”: the Divine Plan to take down communism.
So, there is a striking historical precedent for the bond that has developed between President Biden and Pope Francis. It’s not surprising that President Reagan and Pope John Paull II should work together toward a common goal. And it shouldn’t be surprising that President Biden and Pope Francis would support each other in the pursuit of common goals. For example, when the American bishops were debating whether pro-abortion politicians such as Pelosi and Biden should be sanctioned, Francis stepped in and put an end to the debate in order to save Biden from possible embarrassment. Moreover, according to Biden (who keeps a photo of Pope Francis in the Oval Office), Francis has vouched that he is a “good Catholic.” It’s not difficult to imagine the two sharing ideas and strategies about immigration, climate change, and peace initiatives.
On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine Biden and Francis working together to defeat the evils of communism or to warn about the threat that same-sex “marriage” poses to natural marriage.
What differentiates the Biden-Bergoglio plan from the Reagan-John Paul II project is the objective. Reagan and John-Paul strove to eradicate an evil, while the Biden-Bergoglio “campaign” seems to be geared toward unleashing evil. Progressive Catholics may argue that it is good for us to become more open-minded, more tolerant, and more accepting, but when tolerance is not guided by history, scripture and natural law, it often turns into moral relativism, and an excuse for sin.
It’s frequently said that Francis has sown moral confusion, and he surely has. But after receiving mixed messages for the past 11 years, many are less confused. They’ve discovered that it’s better to pay less attention to what Francis says, and more attention to his actions and appointments. For example, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie recently said he now supports same-sex “marriage” and attributes his change of mind to Francis’s endorsement of blessing same-sex couples in Fiducia Supplicans. Defenders of Francis say that the document does not permit the blessing of same-sex marriages but, as an astute politician, Christie understands that this is only hair splitting. Francis has already signaled his approval of same-sex marriage in a hundred different ways.
It doesn’t take an Einstein to notice Francis’s permissive attitude toward sin. One of the main objectives of his “reforms” is to lessen the sense of sin—especially sexual sins. But this is an extremely destructive goal. The more you downplay the gravity of sin, the more you get. Moreover, in de-emphasizing sin, Francis takes away the whole rationale for the Christian faith—the belief that Christ came in order to save us from our sins.
Indeed, nearly all of the Biden-Bergoglio project is destructive in nature. Opening a nation’s borders to all comers inevitably results in the loss of its sovereignty and its security. Snuggling up with communists instead of standing up to them as Reagan and JPII did only ensures that they will eventually rule over you. And appointing saboteurs to head your most important agencies only guarantees that departments and dicasteries will be subverted and turned toward evil ends.
Planning in itself is not a bad thing. The “Divine Plan” that President Reagan and John Paul II put into action was highly successful and brought freedom to tens of millions of Europeans.
By contrast, the Biden-Bergoglio pact might well be dubbed the “Satanic Plan.” Instead of setting people free it traps hundreds of millions in slavery to sin, and exposes millions more to sex-slavery –a practice that is now widespread thanks in part to Biden and Bergoglio’s wrongheaded ideas about immigration. It’s the type of plan that Satan would devise if he got the opportunity—a deceptive strategy to sow confusion and chaos and, above all, to destroy his enemy’s Church and the civilization that sprang from it.
Fortunately, the plan has an inherent flaw that becomes more apparent with time. Both the plan and its promoters are detached from reality. Having rejected God’s law and the natural law the planners easily drift into crackpot territory, asking us, among other things, to deny both the evidence of our eyes and the evidence of biological science. They ask us to follow the science, but their own ideas are based not on science but on wishful thinking.
Moreover, the incoherence of the plan is reflected in the incoherence of the planners. For example, as I have suggested in a previous article, Joe Biden’s mental confusion might well be a heaven-sent sign that the policies he embraces are also deeply confused.
This might not seem to be the case with Francis. He does not suffer from dementia, and he seems of above average intelligence. Yet history teaches us that even some of the world’s most brilliant thinkers could on occasion be quite naïve. They were not above consulting astrologers, holding seances, and embracing occult theories. Although Francis seems quite shrewd when it comes to political matters, in other matters he seems to resemble the stereotype of the sentimental old fool who puts his trust in all the wrong people. Francis is suspicious of Latin Mass Catholics, but he seems to believe that if you are nice to communists and Islamists, they will be nice to you. In short, for all his shrewdness Francis is in some respects dangerously naïve.
What St. Paul said about the pagans in Romans seems to apply here:
“So they are without excuse; for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1: 20-22).
On the other hand, it could be that Francis/Bergoglio is not the least bit naïve. It may be, for instance, that he is fully aware that his encouragement of mass migration into Europe has resulted in a steep rise in crimes and violence. It may be that he fully realizes that the probable end result of mass migration will be civil war in Europe or else an Islamic takeover. It may be that he clearly understands that his “modernizing” efforts will have the effect of destroying the Church. If that’s the case, then the situation is worse than most imagine. If that’s the case, then we may well be witnessing the unfolding of the “SP”—the Satanic Plan.
Joe Biden clearly suffers from dementia. But perhaps we are being naïve in assuming that Francis is naïve.
Pictured above: Pope Francis
Photo credit: Pixabay
