RAY McGOVERN: Biden Cancels Trip; Pope Off the Hook

The cancelation has made it easier for the pope to duck the moral imperative to condemn outright the enabling of genocide in Gaza by “practicing Catholic” Joe Biden.

By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News

It is a safe bet that Pope Francis breathed a sigh of relief at the news that President Joe Biden’s planned visit to Rome on Friday had gone up in smoke, so to speak.

Pope Francis has shown he has some moral fiber as well as a heart for the poor. However, like all recent “vicars of Christ” (and, sadly, unlike Christ himself) Francis is also a political animal and, in all probability, a not well informed one.

Still, the prospect of Biden, in person, seeking what would be seen as papal blessing for his policies would have been awkward. Most popes try to avoid giving scandal. But all too often, politics prevail.

The visit’s cancelation because of the L.A. fires has made it easier for the pope to duck the moral imperative to condemn outright the enabling of genocide in Gaza by “practicing Catholic” Biden – AND, not least, by Donald Trump starting in 10 days. The president-elect — as well as the president — has shown no moral qualms about extinguishing Palestinians. And they both have ardent fans among many Catholics.

‘Vatican News’ (Versus Speaking Out)

There were recent signs that papal advisers of more soluble fiber had settled on a way to dance around Francis’ dilemma by pretending the issue of genocide was still up in the air.

The Vatican drew attention to a new book, Hope Never Disappoints, in which Pope Francis addresses the suffering from war and famine in Palestine. Francis writes:

“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.” [Underlining added.]

The pope’s book came out on Nov. 19, 2024. Was he unaware of the investigations already conducted over the past year by the World Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court?

Did no one tell him that CNN had already scooped the announcement of his book five days earlier? Here’s CNN:

“Israel’s war conduct in Gaza ‘is consistent with the characteristics of genocide,’ including mass civilian casualties and using starvation as a weapon, according to a new United Nations Special Committee report released Thursday. [Underlining added.]

Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population,’ the UN committee said in a press release.

… The UN committee added that Israeli officials have publicly supported policies to destroy ‘vital water, sanitation and food systems’ in Gaza as well as prevent access to fuel. Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza after weeks of intense Israeli military operations in recent weeks have described a chronic lack of food and people dying of hunger, as aid agencies warn that the area is on the brink of famine.

But after a U.S. deadline for Israel to improve getting humanitarian aid into Gaza expired this week, the Biden administration assessed that Israel is not blocking aid and so is not violating US law governing foreign military assistance. The State Department said that while changes were needed, progress had been made, so there would be no disruption to US arms supplies.”

‘Hope Never Disappoints?’

Sad precedent: During WWII, with very few exceptions, bishops (Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran) collaborated with the Nazis. Hamlet-like Pius XII kept trying to make up his mind as to whether he should put the Catholic Church at some risk, while Jews were being murdered.

A political pope, Pius XII chose not to speak out. But silence can speak as loudly as words. So Hitler had no need to visit the Vatican to try to get papal blessing for his genocide.

More recently, when German Pope Benedict XVI visited Washington in April 2008, he, too, gave scandal. He arrived amid intense discussion of the war of aggression on Iraq, torture and capital punishment. The Supreme Court, with a majority of judges calling themselves Catholic, was openly debating whether one gram, or two, or perhaps three of this or that chemical would be the preferred way to execute people. Always colorful prominent Catholic Antonin Scalia complained impatiently, “Where does it say in the Constitution that executions have to be painless?”

For this Catholic, the spectacle surrounding Benedict’s visit was far from painless. I was moved to write “What About the War, Benedict?” Here is an excerpt — relevant today — from what Albert Camus told a group of Dominican friars shortly after the war:

“In 1948, in the shadow of that monstrous world war, the French author/philosopher Albert Camus accepted an invitation from the Dominican Monastery of Latour-Maubourg.

To their credit, the Dominicans wanted to know what an “unbeliever” thought about Christians in the light of their behavior during the Thirties and Forties. Camus’ words seem so terribly relevant today that it is difficult to trim them:

‘For a long time during those frightful years I waited for a great voice to speak up in Rome. I, an unbeliever? Precisely. For I knew that the spirit would be lost if it did not utter a cry of condemnation…

‘It has been explained to me since, that the condemnation was indeed voiced. But that it was in the style of the encyclicals, which is not all that clear. The condemnation was voiced and it was not understood. Who could fail to feel where the true condemnation lies in this case?

‘What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out, loud and clear, and that they should voice their condemnation in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man.

‘That they should get away from abstraction and confront the blood-stained face history has taken on today.

‘It may be … that Christianity will insist on maintaining a compromise, or else on giving its condemnations the obscure form of the encyclical. Possibly it will insist on losing once and for all the virtue of revolt and indignation that belonged to it long ago.

‘What I know – and what sometimes creates a deep longing in me – is that if Christians made up their mind to it, millions of voices – millions, I say – throughout the world would be added to the appeal of a handful of isolated individuals, who, without any sort of affiliation, today intercede almost everywhere and ceaselessly for children and other people.’ (Excerpted from Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays)”

Camus had some hope; he was disappointed. Enough said.

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27 years as a C.I.A. analyst included leading the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and conducting the morning briefings of the President’s Daily Brief. In retirement he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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