On the Pope

Dear Friends, I really, really wanted to like this new Pope. He seems so laid back, so modest – no Papal pomp for him! And washing the feet of all those prisoners, was it? Or lepers? I forget. Not to mention his: "Who am I to judge?" statement about homosexuals. He seemed like a kinder, gentler Catholic Church. Interestingly, when I was in Italy a week ago, I mentioned this to my friend, a lapsed Italian Catholic who as a young boy read about the Inquisition and wrote a letter to his Bishop telling him to drop him from the rolls… And this is what my friend said: "You have to understand this. The Catholic Church isn't a religion, it's a corporation selling a product. The Pope is the CEO. They are doing some rebranding at present because sales are down." Well!! That certainly put things into a new perspective for me, and just in time for the Pope's visit to Jerusalem. Unlike some others, I was ready to welcome him. After all, it's my city, and I am happy to have visitors, even CEO's, as long as they behave themselves. Unfortunately, Pope Francis didn't. He got out of his car and sought out a photo op at the security wall in Bethlehem covered in graffiti that comparedi Bethlehem to the Warsaw Ghetto no less. Right, how many Palestinians died of starvation today and yesterday? No one. And how many Jews were the Palestinians able to kill today and yesterday? Also, no one. Such baloney! And on top of that, HE KISSED IT, LIKE IT WAS THE WESTERN WALL! And then, to welcome Mahmoud Abbas, Yasir Arafat's right hand man, who helped to decimate the Christian community in Bethlehem, whose friends occupied and desecrated that same church only a few years ago, who put PLO gunmen in Bethlehem's Christian houses to kill Israelis in their cars, and to draw Israeli fire. If the Pope is Abbas' friend, then he isn't ours. I've got a ton more to say, but I'll let Caroline Glick say it. She does it so well. Every blessing, Naomi