Is the Pope's Dream Our Totalitarian Nightmare?

by Susan Warner • September 22, 2015 at 5:00 am

Some high-profile commentators think they smell a Marxist clothed in white papal robes, who dreams of redistributing the world's wealth. Pope Francis insists that he has little interest in Marxism and that his political advocacy against materialism, capitalism, greed and idolatry are largely religious in nature. However, the flavor of some of his statements might suggest otherwise.
The Pope also knows that the UN is poised to strong-arm member nations to sign on to an impossible globalist agenda that will require a total shift of the world's wealth, and a restructuring of international politics and economics with a one-world government and a universal religion at the steering wheel.
Even to the Pope's admirers, that sounds a less like peace and love and more like a utopian totalitarian nightmare.

Pope Francis visits former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro at the latter's home in Havana, Cuba, on September 20, 2015. (Image source: BBC video screenshot)

The world press is in high gear for Pope Francis's visit to Cuba and the United States this week. Recently, the Pope has stirred up a stew mixing world poverty, the evils of capitalism and global warming into an elaborate narrative that is likely to keep journalists awake for weeks to come.

As the first ever Pope to address a joint session of Congress, he is expected to take some shots at the structural evils of free market capitalism and the unequal distribution of wealth. As early as 2013, when he penned his Apostolic Exhortation, in which he laid out his broad vision for the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been clarifying his positions on these topics.

With the subsequent release of his controversial encyclical on global warming in June, he established two pressing themes that will likely monopolize his coming visit.

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Pakistan: ISIS Plans Terrorist Campaign against Christians

by Lawrence A. Franklin • September 22, 2015 at 4:00 am

The wave of anti-Christian attacks will allegedly include Pakistan's Christian churches, schools, and hospitals.
Few Pakistanis will shed a tear for people who do not, in their eyes, represent Pakistan's Islamic values.

An office at the Public School Compound in Peshawar, Pakistan, after the December 16, 2014 terrorist attack that killed 132 boys and nine members of the staff. (Image source: BBC video screenshot)

The Pakistani government and military have warned the nation's tiny Christian minority that Islamic terrorist groups plan to target Christian religious institutions in the near future. The wave of anti-Christian attacks will allegedly include Pakistan's Christian churches, schools, and hospitals.

The warning issued by Pakistan's leading generals represents an extraordinary, positive development in the military's relationship with minorities in general and with Christians in particular. Their warming relationship appears to be a calculated political move to complement the military leadership's ongoing offensive against the terrorist havens in the northwestern corner of the country.

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