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Speaking of Pope Francis (as an atheist) [1]

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Date: 2025-04-23

This is what I admired the most about him…

x Palestinian, and Palestinian Christians in particular, have lost a dear friend today. Pope Francis was beloved in Palestine. He conveyed true compassion to Palestinians, most notably to those in Gaza during this genocide. His pastoral heart was evident in his insistence on… pic.twitter.com/wDvgExuEhR — Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) April 21, 2025

Here is the full text of Mother Isaac’s tribute

Palestinian, and Palestinian Christians in particular, have lost a dear friend today. Pope Francis was beloved in Palestine. He conveyed true compassion to Palestinians, most notably to those in Gaza during this genocide. His pastoral heart was evident in his insistence on calling the Christian community besieged in Gaza on a constant basis, even from his hospital.Some years ago, Pope Francis visited Bethlehem. We all remember the iconic image of him praying at the Wall. This is what I wrote about this incident in my book “The Other Side of the Wall”.When Pope Francis stopped, touched the wall, and said a prayer, it was truly a monumental moment that made waves in world news. Pope Francis couldn’t help but notice the ugliness of this concrete structure at the heart of Bethlehem. This wall should make us all uncomfortable. To this discomfort, the Pope couldn’t help but react and reach out. By responding in this manner, the Pope touched more than the wall. He touched the ugliness of the occupation and war. He touched the depth of our suffering. With humility and weakness, he looked injustice in the eyes, and challenged it.What did he say in his prayer? The truth is, I don’t want to know. Some words are better left unspoken. The image of him standing next to the wall and praying will forever be engraved in our memories. For me, this image went everywhere. On my office wall, Facebook page, desktop wallpaper. For us as Palestinian Christians, this image was stored deep into our memory. And when this wall falls one day (not if, when), we might go back to this moment and this prayer as one of the key moments that led to its fall.At the end of the day, the Pope left, and the occupation and the wall remained. But we were left with a renewed sense of hope—knowing that we are not forgotten. We were left with a mandate to continue lamenting the current situation, to fight against injustice . . . and to pray. (The Other Side of the Wall, pp. 182-183)The Pope left our world today, and the occupation and the wall remained. Even worse, he left our world while a genocide continues to unfold. Back in November he wrote: “I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory… According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”Today I wonder: Will the millions who will mourn his death these coming days respect this wish of his? Will they care for Gazans and Palestinians the way he did?May his soul rest in glory with his Savior. Humanity lost a special soul today.

You don't have to be a Christian, or a Catholic to acknowledge that this particular Pope was a good man.



So, shame on those who are denigrating this particular Pope...whether they are atheists or otherwise. Yes, he presides over a Catholic Church that has been shamefully tolerant of sexual abuse (or whatever it is that those denigrating comments were about). But this particular Pope was a good man.

There is plenty of shame to go around. Palestinian Christians do feel betrayed by American Christians (to understand why, click on this link for an article by Nick Kristof)

Evangelical leaders have been calling on the White House to “reject all efforts” to constrain Israeli control over the West Bank, in the words of a group called American Christian Leaders for Israel. These evangelicals often cite God and the Bible as authorities for their position that Israel should annex Palestinian lands. I couldn’t reach God for comment, but I suspect that the divine press office would have referred me to the Eighth Commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.” Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas, has favored Israel’s annexing the West Bank and has said, “There is really no such thing as a Palestinian.” In the face of this American Christian enthusiasm for crushing Palestinians while saying it is God’s will, I wondered what Palestinian Christians thought. So I visited Bethlehem and asked them. “Do we feel betrayed?” mused Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran Palestinian pastor who is president of Dar Al-Kalima University and, like many Palestinian Christians, against annexation. “Yes, to some extent. Unfortunately, this is not new for us.”

So there is some anger to be directed at whatever system of beliefs leads you to bring such vile hate towards people who have been victimized for so long. And it is valid to question whether belief in Christianity itself leads you to such vile position. Personally, I think the answer is more complicated.... but that is not the purpose of this diary.



The point is that whatever the underlying causes, that anger should not be directed at Pope Francis.



I would be amiss in not narrating my personal story.

I am an atheist, but my father was a devout Hindu. He somehow packed me off to a Catholic school, where my favorite teacher happened to be a Catholic Priest from Belgium. The first time I laid eyes on him, I thought I had seen a ghost… a tall white man in a strange white dress will have that effect on a 5 year old that has not seen anything other than a brown/black skin. Many years later, when I was in 8th grade, this priest became the headmaster. As headmaster, he was entitled to put up some posters of inspiring material outside his office. One of them happened to be a poster depicting evolution and the creation of life. Bacteria in water to fish to turtles to apes to humans. He caught me looking at that poster one day. When I was finished, he asked me simply “did you like what you saw”. I said yes… so he spent the next 30 minutes speaking about Darwin and evolution. (And also about Eugenics, and other places where those ideas had gone off the rails). I was in 8th grade, so I did not understand the significance of a Catholic priest explaining evolution. But now I look back, and I go...damn !!

I am an atheist, but if there is a heaven, and I was allowed one ticket for someone to be sent to heaven, I would punch it for that guy (my parents would come in next, and my dog after that).

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