Pope Lenin I.

Via Anon, et. al.

Man, Freepers and Pope Francis. Either secular or evangelical protestant, Freepers are love-hate about Catholics to begin with. But they'll sign up if Catholics sound like Rick Santorum. And even when they don't, even the most anti-catholic Freepers seem to invest the Pope with some authority.
When Pope Francis speaks approvingly of "the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state," Freeper's often half-baked conviction of the exclusive morality of the market collides with moral principle, and drives especially crazy.

Gamecock gives us our title:

Pope Lenin I.

The Iceman Cometh does not take to tact or respectfulness:

This pope can suck it. What a hypocritical bag of feces.

Slambat - like Obama before him, this Pope is a secret Communist.

“Francis urged the U.N. to promote development goals that attack the root causes of poverty and hunger, protect the environment and ensure dignified labor for all.”

Well spoken in the words of Stalin, Hitler, Lenin and
all the rest, like a true died in the wool communist.
I’ve been saying all along, this pope is a stealth
communist/fascist and part of the homosexual agenda.
Next he will be putting the finishing touches on the
churches acceptance of civil unions for same sex couples.
This guy is as big a fraud as Obama.

Uncle Miltie neglected to note the "legitimate" part.

Thou shalt not steal.

GladesGuru rewrites the 10 Commandments for clarity:

IMHO, “commie in a cassock” fits all too well.

This is all Moses’ fault. He wrote down “Do not steal” and forgot the “nor enlist church or state to steal for you” part.

SamuraiScot thinks everyone who is poor is lazy:

Poverty is caused by behavior, not a lack of cash. That's why expropriating funds from anyone by force to transfer them to the poor does no good.

conservativeimage.com - Satan Pope! Judas! Wicked!

Get thee behind me Satan Pope.

Government wealth redistributors are Judases who use the poor as a means of becoming powerful. Wicked! You are wicked!

Defiant thinks this Pope just handed the US to the Soviets.

Reagan had JP2 and Maggie and took down the Soviets. We have Obama and Francis and Fidel, and the Soviets will take us down.

ZULU either has little faith or thinks this is clever somehow:

The first post-Christian Pope.

steve8714 has a better idea for the Pope - Holy War!

God help us all. the Pope is now officially advocating the forcible taking of the fruit of one man’s labor to benefit others. What is it they used to call that? Why not do this; reform the Crusades and take from the Muslims all they have stolen over the centuries. Redistribute that, if you want.

sand88 knows the problem is the Jesuits:

I have been a Catholic all my life. When a new Priest came to our Parish I always cringed when I discovered they were a Jesuit.

It didn't take long for Marxist liberation theology to creep into the Sermons. It was disheartening. I made sure to go to another Mass, one that was not held by a Jesuit trained Priest.

kingattax declares all income taxes illegitimate, despite the Constitution:

the IRS and all income and payroll taxes should be abolished.

govt has no legitimate right whatsoever to tax income.

we need to put the federal govt back in it’s constitutional box and adopt a national sales tax which would be more than adequate to fund it.

sport is one of many to require total sacrifice to be a legitimate advocate:

His own mouth makes a liar out of him. If he believed that, he would “re-distribute” the money of the Catholic Church.

taterjay thinks all the rich in the US are Democrats:

The Pope needs to tell these capitalists to live their Christianity. It seems to me at least in this country top capitalists are Democrat and ignore their Christian upbringing. At the least the Pope needs to start with his own flock beginning with one Joe Biden who gives what 1000 bucks to charity and does not follow other teachings either. Freedom will take care of the problems much better than demanding governments do it.

Trapped Behind Enemy Lines thinks the problem is the Pope's Latin American upbringing.

The fact that Pope comes from Argentina may explain his complete lack of understanding of basic economics.

Yeah, Third World Catholics are always of inferior quality.

Post5203, apropos of nothing:

Stop all breeding in third world countries.

Scotswife is one of the few still hanging on and spinning furiously:

I just read his statement in context. He shared the story of the conversion of the tax collector who had been cheating people & keeping a cut for himself.
He converted & “redistributed” money to those he cheated & began to share his wealth.
“Legitimate” - voluntary - from the heart.

Once again- the left is fantasizing that the Pope is their new mascot

Mamzelle wonders if there was Pope voter fraud or something:

Glad this is not the religion forum, where my response to this would get me called a "hater." This is entirely predictable considering his resume. I sure found his ascension suspicious.

NELSON111's theology seems weird and possibly Buddhist:

Jesus already addressed the issue of liberation theology. In Matthew 26, Mark 14 and John 12. He said all that needs to be said about it. Period. And that's why the Gospel is NOT a social Gospel. The ills of the world can only be solved by the Great Physician, not mortal attempts by ungodly rulers.

The disciples were indignant about the waste of money and thought it should be redistributed to the poor. Jesus said "The poor will always be with you."

The Pope...and a whole LOT of people...need to understand that being poor is not a man's primary need. SALVATION through Christ alone is that primary need. Preach THAT and righteousness...and everything else will fall into place. Once you have that, God gives you the grace to know how to abound...or be abased...to have plenty or want (Philippians 4:12).

RinaseaofDs would like to dump on the Jews:

the Jews are worse at learning from history than even the Catholics.

Responsibility2nd - all poverty assistance must not only be voluntary, it must be approved by him:

My sister and brother-in-law, musicians and dyed in the wool liberals, participate in a charity which sends musical instruments to Haiti, for victims of the hurricane to use in schools. They actually purchase and ship the instruments, with help from others in a group.

Last year we were arguing over Obama and liberal vs. conservatism. I said does it feel good to do that charity work? Yes they said, a great feeling of helping those in need. Do you volunteer to do it of your volition? Yes again. You’ve donated hard work and money? Yes. a lot.

How would you feel if Obama told you you had to do that work or some other project, and if you didn’t you would be penalized?

Crickets. Seriously? Haitians are living hand to mouth in conditions that are little better than a garbage dump and your sister and brother-in-law are sending them guitars?

Liberalism is truly DEFINITELY a mental disorder.

Christ, what an asshole. And that's not counting the comment he's replying to's strawman excluded middle.

ridesthemiles worked hard to get where she is, and had no children, and resents that the lazy poors work better than she does:

I respect the Pope, even tho I am not Catholic.

However—I would politely point out to The Church that they have told their believers for centuries that they should produce “as many children as God will give them”.

God also provides ‘many children’ for feral cats, but we push for spay and neutering for our pets.

The poorest in the world, based upon my 70+++ years of life are primarily those who have continued to have children they cannot feed, or support in expected standards for their area.

Ordering ME or others to continue to support such behavior is wrong.

I don’t have a lot, but I certainly have more than many ‘poor’ people in the USA & certainly more than those in Africa & other areas where they live in huts & scrape to survive. I don’t live where Boko Haram is marauding, but I do live where the EPA interferes with too many things. I confess to not always being able to tell the difference between the 2 groups.

I digress....

I will fight against those who demand that I ‘give up my ‘wealth’ because there are so many poor people.

The factors are far more complex than that. In the USA, we have had over 50 years of ‘helping the poor’ under the label WELFARE.

It is now so out of hand with the give-aways & payments to welfare ‘poor’ people that they live better than I ever did.

I took my own PBJ sandwiches to school...even thru high school. I bought my first car with money I EARNED at a JOB. I was just shy of 18 y/o. I bought my first house at age 26 in 1966 with $5000 from my mother’s estate. I bought the only car I ever bought NEW a year prior to the purchase of the house. I drove that car for over 444,000 miles & sold it to a guy in Sweden who restored it. It still ran just fine & I sometimes wish I hadn’t sold it.