While Pope Francis Tells Us to Weep for War and Suffering, President Obama Tells Us He Has All the Answers

Pope Francis has taken aim on war, particularly world war, and namely, World War III. When any Pope makes multiple references to any subject, it becomes a topic for wide consideration. But, Francis has done more than make reference to World War III. He has visited war sites, arranged for political leaders to go to the Vatican to pray with him for peace, and he has declared that World War III may already be upon us. ~~~~~ Last July, during an address to the faithful in the Vatican's St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis put aside his prepared speech to call for peace in conflict zones around the world, from the Middle East and Ukraine to northern Nigeria and the Central African Republic. His voice filled with emotion and tears welled up in his eyes when he told the crowds : "Please stop, I ask you with all my heart, it's time to stop. Stop, please. Brothers and sisters, never war, never war!" ~~~~~ Then, last September, when Pope Francis visited Italy's largest military cemetery, a memorial to the 100,000 Italian soldiers killed in the battle that saw the largest single-engagement casualties of World War I, he said : "Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction....War is madness....War ruins everything, even the bonds between brothers. War is irrational; its only plan is to bring destruction: It seeks to grow by destroying." ~~~~~ And a week later, during his visit to Albania - a country that is 59% Moslem, 10% Catholic and 10% Orthodox, and the first European capital visited by him - Pope Francis spoke out against the "perversion, distortion and exploitation" of religion to justify violence : "Let no one use God as a shield while planning and carrying out acts of violence and oppression," Francis said in an address to the Albanian president, state officials, religious leaders and diplomats. "May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman." Pope Francis used Albania as an example of peace among religions : "What the experience in Albania shows is that a peaceful and fruitful coexistence between persons and communities of believers of different religions is not only desirable, but possible and realistic." ~~~~~ Next, last September 22, the Pope and a group of Jewish leaders met in the Vatican, where Pope Francis compared the current persecution of Christians in the Middle East to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. The head of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, was quoted by the UK's Telegraph as saying : “Pope Francis told us privately that he believes we are in World War Three. First it was your turn and now it is our turn.” Lauder explained what he thought the Pope's words meant : “In other words, first Jews suffered savage attacks that were met with the world’s silence. And now it is Christians who are being annihilated and the world is silent." ~~~~~ In the period last autumn when the world was watching Christian massacres in the Middle East and the starvation of Yazidi refugees trapped on a mountain in Iraq by ISIS, Amnesty International labelled ISIS’s violent rampage through Iraq and Syria as ethnic cleansing on an “historic scale.” It was then that the Pope went to Albania and talked with Jewish leaders. Francis, who often condemns war waged in the name of God, said that the international community would be justified in using force to stop ISIS from slaughtering more innocent people in the Middle East. The pontiff said : “In cases like this, where there is an unjust aggression, then it is licit to halt the aggressor.” The Pope did make sure to add that he stressed the word “halt.” “I don’t say bomb, or make war,” he said, “But rather, stop him.” ~~~~~ On the first leg of the pontiff's Asian trip last week, he visited Sri Lanka. Francis emphasized the two poles of war and peace there, as well. Sri Lanka's holiest Christian site, the Our Lady of Madhu shrine, which has a remarkable, centuries-long history as a place of refuge for Christians fleeing war and persecution. Pope Francis traveled to the jungles of northern Sri Lanka to visit the shrine and pray before its statue of the Madonna. The shrine dates from the 16th century when Christians fleeing persecution in the kingdom of Jaffna established a sanctuary in the area, bringing the statue with them. The current shrine dates from 1670 when Catholics fleeing persecution - this time from Dutch colonizers - built the blue and white house that now holds the Madonna. During the recent 25-year civil war that wracked Sri Lanka, civilians sought refuge in the shrine, though in the war's final months the villages surrounding Madhu emptied out as residents fled deeper into rebel territory to escape the government offensives. At one point, the priest in charge of the shrine fled for safety with the statue, but both returned. Francis held the statue in his arms, saying :"May this shrine always be a haven for prayer and for peace." ~~~~~ The idea that World War III was actually the Cold War is held by some military historians, who have concluded that the Cold War was World War III because it was fought, by proxy, on a global scale, involving the United States, NATO, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries. Eliot Cohen, the director of strategic studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, declared, in Street Journal, that he considers World War III to be history, writing: "The Cold War was World War III, which reminds us that not all global conflicts entail the movement of multi-million-man armies, or conventional front lines on a map." But this view of the Cold War as World War III is not widely held. Historians and analysts who disagree have claimed that the world has changed and war has changed, and so World War III will not be a conventional or even nuclear war, as was the spectre in the Cold War. Some claim that the " War on Terrorism" is World War III, with the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City on Tuesday, 11 September 2001 the 'Pearl Harbor' that dragged the United States into a terrorism fight, as the UK and Israel were already fighting, in a way similar to World War II. ~~~~~ What is clear is that the next, or current, World War - whether WWIII or WWIV - is the war on terrorism and fanatical, barbarically violent religious extremism. Hence, Pope Francis' denouncing all war waged in the name of God, calling for mankind of all beliefs to learn to live in peace together, and recognizing that it is legitimate to stop ISIS from slaughtering innocent people. But, Francis uses a particularly visual image in referring to the quest mankind must undertake. At the Redipuglia war memorial, Francis used the imagery of tears to describe mankind's need to address the issues of war profoundly : "Humanity needs to weep, and this is the time to weep." Tellingly, Pope Francis used the same imagery of tears again in Manila last Saturday, when 12-year-old Glyzelle Palomar, who used to live on the streets but now has a home thanks to the ANAK-Tnk Foundation, asked him a tearful question about why God allows suffering. Francis answered, "I don't know" and then said : “Certain realities in life can only be seen through eyes cleansed by tears.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, this Argentinian Jesuit singled out to be Pope has a strong message for the world. Whether it is respect for the poor and families, not using dogma to "breed like rabbits" or calling out for people to feel the world's suffering enough to weep. His message is infinitely more urgent and profound than others we hear every day. Tonight, for example, the American President will tell the US Congress that he has all the answers. But where is Barack Obama's compassion. Where is his outreach to Middle East Christians and Jews and other minorities. Where is his heart. Where are his tears?