1. Trump and Francis.
Pope Benedict had presented to us excellent example of Blessed John Newman. Newman was exemplary in his quest for the truth. This zeal for the truth is what brought him into the Catholic Church, into the priesthood, into the cardinalate and finally into being one of the Blessed in heaven.
John Newman got no help from any human being; not from a priest, not from a bishop, not from his friend a cardinal and not even from the Pope; even if the quest hurt him so much and hurt so many around him.
He went back to the rich fountain of Divine Revelation, to the so-called Fathers of the Church, like St. Augustine, prayed a lot, meditated a lot…….and, voila!…he became a Catholic and a saint even before he was baptized and even before he was canonized.
2. Man was made for the truth and the good.
God made man with a mind to seek the truth; and a free will to love the good. Before we can chose what is good for us we must first find out if it is the truth.
I am a Catholic priest. I read the news about the Pope and Donald Trump. And my natural reaction should be; ‘hey, don’t you dare touch my Pope.’ But no. I am a creature created by God with a mind for the truth and a free will for the good. I must search for the truth because that will be what is good for all of us.
3. Pope Francis’ comment; ‘Trump is not a Christian.’
My past posts have been focused on this most important topic that confronts us today. Who is Catholic and who is not. Or who is a Christian and who is not. Almost all of those who had made judgments that this or that person is or is not a Catholic never gave any proofs for their allegation. Most of them are bishops.
A popular international news magazine made that attempt some time ago; ‘Is the Pope Catholic?’ It answered; ‘Yes,’ then it gave the wrong reasons.
4. Visible proofs of those who are Catholic or Christian.
The proofs that one is a Catholic is identical to the proofs that one is a Christian because the proofs were established by Christ, Himself, and, therefore, should apply both to Catholics and Christians alike. In fact, it should apply to all religions because those proofs came from the only true God who created all things.
These proofs can be found in the natural law. But it can be found more specifically and concretely from Divine Revelation.
And the official proofs that one is a Catholic or Christian can be found in the Nicene Creed; One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. And the Fathers of the Church had elaborated their explanations of these four visible signs. My favorite is the recently English translated work of the Jesuit saint and Doctor of the Church, St. Robert Bellarmine, upon whose work the document on the Church ‘Lumen Gentium’ is based on. Bellarmine describes 15 Marks of the true Church; this should also be the true marks of a true Christian or Catholic. And it should also be the mark of a Christian. All visible signs must be present for any church or person to deserve to be called Catholic or Christian.
At this point we will have to throw ‘whom am I to judge’ to the dogs because we are forced to judge. Somebody started it.
5. Is Pope Francis judgment that Trump is not a Christian right?
Since he had judged Trump, let us see if his judgment is right.
Does Donald Trump have the four visible signs of a Catholic as found in the Nicene Creed? Well, no. Trump does not have all of them. And as expected he does not have the 15 expanded marks of the true Church enumerated by St. Robert Bellamine either.
Trump may belong to a Christian sect not recognized as Catholic because it does not have the four visible signs of the true Church found in the Nicene Creed. These churches are those who claim they follow Christ but do not have the four visible signs or the 15 marks of the true Church. In this sense Trump belongs to this Church. So Pope Francis is wrong. Trump is a Christian in this sense but not in the sense of being a Catholic which Trump does not claim to be.
But Pope Francis does not have the four visible signs of the Church as we have proven in previous posts. He does not have neither the 15 marks of the true Church enumerated by his confrere St. Robert Bellarmine, the Jesuit saint. Without those signs Pope Francis is neither a Catholic nor a Christian. In which case, not only is he wrong in calling Trump as not a Christian; he had no right to judge Trump because he is neither because we cannot find any of the visible signs of true Catholicity or Christianity in him. Maybe he has those signs but we cannot find them. But judgments are based on what we see.
Not having the signs of Catholicity as enumerated in the Nicene Creed of the 15 marks enumerated by St. Bellarmine, maybe Pope Francis is at least a Christian like Trump. Basing it on Pope Francis’ book ‘Church of compassion and mercy,’ written earlier in Argentina as a Bishop, it seems he is a Christian without the visible signs found in the Nicene Creed. Then he would be just like Trump. Being on equal ground, he cannot belittle Trump’s not being Christian enough.
Conclusion? Pope Francis was wrong in calling Trump not a Christian. At first sight, the two of them are of the same kind, Christians without the visible signs of Catholicity. And no one should look down on the other. That would be un-christian.
6. Trump’s judgment that the Pope’s comment was disgraceful.
If one takes the ideas of Trump and compare them with the ideas of Pope Francis, some of Trump’s ideas are more Catholic than the Pope. Not perfectly Catholic but closer to the teachings of the Catholic Church than the Pope’s. For example, Trumps idea on how to handle immigrants, like from Mexico, is more in accordance to the teachings of the Catholic Church as proposed by past Popes than the idea of Pope Francis which is more like the secularist, modernist ideas of Obama and the European relativist heads of states who are the good pupils of the French Revolution.
And Trump is probably right that when ISIS attack the Vatican Pope Francis would want this non-christian Trump to be around to defend the Vatican.
Is the Pope disgraceful? Well, maybe very irrational and slightly ignorant of his theology and ‘Lumen Gentium’ a document he helped write. So, is the Pope disgraceful? Why don’t we just say ‘who are we to judge,’ and go to more important things like ‘am I ready to die and face my Divine Judge?’ Isn’t that more exciting?
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