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The Coke Brothers's avatar

"If you were an ailing pope, one of the metal things you could do is gut it through Holy Week out of sheer force of will and die on Easter Monday. RIP, Francis."

Avoiding a meeting with Satan Vance would have helped his state and maybe he'd still be around. Everything Vance touches, dies. Literally. From sports trophies to the Pope and to a whole country.

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Jeff Clabault's avatar

A man like Pope Francis, who was the embodiment of decency, fairness, and humility must have had a very difficult time looking into the eyes of a selfish, inhumane, and indecent guy like JD Vance.

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bitchybitchybitchy's avatar

I suspect that Pope Francis felt some compassion for a man who is so woefully lacking in empathy and who also has little or no understanding of how a true Christian would live their life.

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Gina Burton's avatar

The fact that Vance bullied his way in to see the obviously frail and ailing Pope (and was in fact his last audience) is horrifying.

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Bethany Prince's avatar

Hm . . . Maybe that's why Trump seems to avoid being in the same room as Vance

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Terry's avatar

Yup! I said he met with a disciple of the anti-Christ! He was doomed after that meeting.

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Robert Jaffee's avatar

Perhaps God wanted Francis to stare evil directly in the face before ascending into the pearly gates of HeavenтАж.:)

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Stephen's avatar

Perhaps God wanted evil to stare goodness in the face.

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Robert Jaffee's avatar

Touch├й!тАж:)

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MAP's avatar

No, don't give him that kind of power or credit. James David deserves neither.

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JJontheKonza's avatar

That was my first thought, the sleaze bag killed him.

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Bethany Prince's avatar

Maybe RFK jr should investigate this . . . Because at this point there's more circumstantial evidence that JD Vance killed the Pope than there is that MMR vaccines cause Autism.

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JF's avatar

Just breathing VanceтАЩs fetid air would be fatal to a good person.

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Stephen's avatar

I hope not. That's an enormous superpower the World could do without !

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Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

Probably being exposed to Vance's dark energy, if only for less than three or four minutes.

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Chris Spiess's avatar

Hope they kept detailed notes. I could see Vance exploiting the fact that he was one of the last to meet with the pope.

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The Coke Brothers's avatar

the Pope's private secretary most likely did.

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Chris Spiess's avatar

Any chance this positively impacts Vance? When the pope visited DC years ago it made quite an impact on Boehner. I know itтАЩs not very likely but being one of the last to visit the pope when he was alive has to have some effect, even the tiniest.

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Stephen's avatar

One thinks he would need a soul and a conscience for that to happen.

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The Coke Brothers's avatar

Vance is too beholden to his ambition and the $$ provided by his handlers (Thiel....). He is beyond salvation. So are the rest of them

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Chris Spiess's avatar

If it did Francis should get fast tracked through the canonization process because it would be truly miraculous.

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Kentuckistan's avatar

as a "cradle" Catholic I must say. There is something weird about a 40 year old guy that converts to Catholicism....In 2021, when J.D. Vance was asked at a conference why he had converted to Catholicism just two years earlier, he had a fairly simple answer.

тАЬI really liked that the Catholic Church was just really old,тАЭ he said.

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Frau Katze's avatar

How bizarre!

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Jennifer VN's avatar

That may well have been some final penance, if I was writing this as Bible Fan Fiction.

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Stephen's avatar

Some people do come to faith late, but in Vance's case it seems contrived. If age was the decider, maybe he should have tried Buddhism. Or, Judaism. Both much older than Christianity.

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CEO's avatar

???

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Rita Ritter's avatar

Vance likes the old pre Vatican 2 Church. A lot of us cradle Catholics liked the changes of that meeting. Vance has no idea of what the church was like prior to that.

And if he really wanted an old religion why not Judaism or the Hinduism of his wife?

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Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

Which says Vance did not choose to follow Jesus. He chose atmosphere. I'm sure his Vatican vacation gave him plenty of 'old' and gold to drool over....at our expense.

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Stephen's avatar

Then he should have followed the example of Prince Vladimir of Kiev. Given the options, he went with Byzantine Orthodoxy cause he liked the style and ceremony. Dynastic considerations also. That sounds like Shady.

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Maggie's avatar

This is very insightful comment.

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Don Gates's avatar

Has my man heard of paganism? Ahura Mazda? He may be a Zoroastrian tomorrow if antiquity is such a decisive factor.

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The Coke Brothers's avatar

That's about as deep as Vance can get. He's just such an excellent kissass.

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Terry Mc Kenna's avatar

I have a similar viewpoint. Still sing in a choir, even one cousin still a nun. I certainly don't think Vance understands the mindset of the pro-life Catholics who are against nuclear weapons, the death penalty ANd against abortion. Pro-life has no meaning unless it include support for life in all spheres.

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Mike Lew's avatar

Conversely, the loudest Catholics are cheerleaders for executions and nuclear weapons as long as they can save babies.

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Carol's avatar

IтАЩd say тАЬsave fetusesтАЬ because they donтАЩt like spending any money to save people after they are born.

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Mike Lew's avatar

Catholics pro-lifers try to help babies more than some other flavors of '"pro-life."

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Ginny's avatar

But Catholics still donтАЩt respect the life of the mother, who is already a living, breathing human being, and can have other children. I am a lapsed Catholic for this and many other reasons.

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Mike Lew's avatar

I'm also lapsed for a number of reasons. Part of what finally pushed me out the door was my former Archbishop Chaput. He was adamant that you can't call yourself Catholic and not completely obey them in the bedroom. A. F you, that's my business. B. You and your gang don't take a firm line when it's priests doing things orders of magnitude worse than my use of latex. They're still spending untold amounts of money defending those monsters while obsessing over the laity's behavior.

I don't miss it at all.

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Ginny's avatar

I wish I could hit reply all. I am on my second marriage and both of our ex-spouses were raging alcoholics. But do you think we could get an annulment without their cooperation? NoтАж They had to be among our witnesses. ANDтАжwe had to PAY $1600 to get our annulments consideredтАжnot grantedтАжCONSIDERED. We got civilly married in 2014, and both of them are now passed away. So, we could get married in the church, but we donтАЩt want to. Oh, and letтАЩs not forget the fact that my mom told me I was still married to my ex-husband when I got engaged to my current husband, and his mom told him him that he shouldnтАЩt marry me if weтАЩre not having children. So both of our Catholic mothers had this warped belief that we should live alone for the rest of our livesтАж but isnтАЩt Catholicism based on suffering?

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Mike Lew's avatar

I don't share your experiences regarding marriage, but my local parochial school was actively hostile to my autistic son's well being. Took years of therapy to get him past the experience. Silly me, I thought my parish's school would be a place of compassion. What a joke, even the most minor accommodations were just too much bother. Seriously, F them.

The staff at the public high school were beyond fantastic. By junior year he was off his IEP and thrived. I mourn for the opportunities we lost.

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Ginny's avatar

Oh yeah. My daughter has AspergerтАЩs SyndromeтАжand the lay teachers had more compassion for her than the nuns did. Additionally, our first Pastor tried to tell me I was imagining things. Then I changed schools, because I moved, and the second parish was far more welcomingтАжbut the principal was a lay person, so I think that made a big difference. Honestly, I think organized religion has no place in civilized society. It seems, sorry JVL, to be based in cruelty.

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Mike Lew's avatar

These guys love their dogma so F-ing much that they don't care how many lives it ruins. Turning pain into a profit center is beyond disgusting. I'm angry all again on your behalf.

To answer extent, I like the teaching that marriage is forever. Those vows should mean something. BUT the second abuse is even remotely on the table, that goes away.

Wasn't some of Jesus' anger directed toward those who used religious rules to put burdens on people? You'd think these men would actually try to understand the book they worship.

I'm genuinely happy that you're in a good place now. I have no doubts at all that God is smiling on your new marriage!

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Rita Ritter's avatar

Same here.

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Ginny's avatar

See my response to Mike above.

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Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

That's true of Evangelicals for the most part, but Catholic Charities is a different story and is also in Trump's target sights.

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Carol's avatar

Good point.

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Justin Lee's avatar

Yeah, I really wish one of Francis's last acts had been to snub Vance.

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Stephen's avatar

No, taking that visit when so sick shows his true dignity and class. Bet none of it rubs off onto Shady. RIP Pope Francis.

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Sherri Priestman's avatar

That would directly contradict the command of Jesus to love your enemy, and IтАЩm glad the Pope in his last days was obedient. I wish I could follow his example, and in my personal life I generally can, but boy I do not extend that grace to Vance and company.

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Linda Oliver's avatar

He wouldnтАЩt have done that anymore than Jesus wouldтАЩve turned away the tax collectors and sinners.

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The Coke Brothers's avatar

He no doubt gave him a dressing down in private. I assume Vance shouted some shit along the lines of "did you say thank you" and Francis got mad and had a stroke.

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Sumi Ink ЁЯЗиЁЯЗж's avatar

I guess we can now call Vance a Pope Killer along with everything else.

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