Pope Francis Warns Germany About Hitler – He Thinks
March 9, 2017
For a couple of centuries, the Left has abandoned objective truth for the dialectic – and the dialectic has served them well.
Nonetheless, they sometimes get tripped up when confronting something they really don’t like. Calling it “bad” won’t work (even lefties can have a “bad hair day”); the word “evil” is forbidden because it supposes a metaphysical opposite. And Orwell’s “doubleplusungood” just doesn’t have that special ring to it.
As a result, the Left has seldom been able to condemn anything as “evil” without resorting to Hitler.
Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot – even Ron Paul – just won’t do.
Now comes Pope Francis, who tells an interviewer that “populism,” which he cannot define, of course, “is evil and ends badly as the past century showed.”
Now the Pope has every right to talk about good and evil. In fact, it’s his duty. The Church identifies many objective evils, some of them quite popular these days (viz. abortion), but populism is not among them.
And it’s no accident that the Holy Father shares this view with the editor of a German (ahem!) newspaper. He is relying on the assumption that it will automatically shame his German audience, implying that their opposition to mindless open borders is just like you-know-who.
The pope is renowned for his penchant for moralistic browbeating, and unfortunately, the German editor (undoubtedly swallowing hard) let that insult pass. But he missed the obvious follow-up:
“Your Holiness, you’re referring to Juan Perón, right?”
The Best of Christopher Manion

