Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin attends a plenary session during the Summit on Peace in Ukraine on June 16, 2024. (Credit: URS FLUEELER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Vatican City, Nov 7, 2024 / 11:25 am (CNA).
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and other Holy See leaders have shared their well wishes for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump following his resounding election victory this week, conveying their hopes for wise leadership on both domestic and international affairs.
“We wish him great wisdom, because this is the main virtue of rulers according to the Bible,” Parolin said at an event in Rome.
“I believe that, above all, he has to work to be the president of the whole country and so overcome the polarization that has occurred, which can be very, very clearly felt at the moment,” he indicated.
Trump obtained a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 6 presidential vote, surpassing the 270 electoral votes needed to return for a second term to the White House.
Called to be a peacemaker
In addition to working toward unity among people within the U.S., Parolin also expressed his hope for Trump to “be an element of détente and pacification in the current conflicts that are bleeding the world.”
“Let’s hope, let’s hope. I believe that not even he has a magic wand,” Parolin said.
“To end wars, a lot of humility is needed, a lot of willingness is needed. It really is necessary to seek the general interests of humanity rather than concentrate on particular interests.”
While Pope Francis and Donald Trump have not seen eye to eye on issues including migrants or the environment, Vatican Undersecretary for the Dicastery for Culture and Education Father Antonio Spadaro, SJ, told Italian journalists Nov. 6 that the Vatican intends to “seek dialogue” with the U.S. leader.
“Catholics don’t have homogenous party affiliations or political convictions in the United States or anywhere else,” he said. “It’s held the compass of values steady, but without taking sides, precisely to avoid a spurious mixing of religion with politics.”
“The perspective of the Holy See is always broad, international, recognizing that the United States has an important role in avoiding that the conflicts currently under way in the world, from martyred Ukraine to martyred Palestine, don’t get worse,” Spadaro said. “It’s necessary to find solutions.”
Following Trump’s election, speculation around his foreign policy measures have been in the media spotlight again, with particular attention being given to his pledge to end the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
In the run-up to the election, the American leader repeatedly stated that he would end the conflict in “24 hours.”
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Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jul 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The guiding document for the final part of the Synod on Synodality, published Tuesday, focuses on how to implement certain of the synod’s aims, while laying aside some of the more controversial topics from last year’s gathering, like women’s admission to the diaconate.
“Without tangible changes, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible,” the Instrumentum Laboris, or “working tool,” says.
The six sections of the roughly 30-page document will be the subject of prayer, conversation, and discernment by participants in the second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held throughout the month of October in Rome.
Instead of focusing on questions and “convergences,” as in last year’s Instrumentum Laboris, “it is now necessary that … a consensus can be reached,” said a FAQ page from synod organizers, also released July 9, answering a question about why the structure was different from last year’s Instrumentum Laboris.
The guiding document for the first session of the Synod on Synodality in 2023 covered such hot-button topics as women deacons, priestly celibacy, and LGBTQ outreach.
By contrast, this year’s text mostly avoids these subjects, while offering concrete proposals for instituting a listening and accompaniment ministry, greater lay involvement in parish economics and finances, and more powerful parish councils.
“It is difficult to imagine a more effective way to promote a synodal Church than the participation of all in decision-making and taking processes,” it states.
The working tool also refers to the 10 study groups formed late last year to tackle different themes deemed “matters of great relevance” by the Synod’s first session in October 2023. These groups will continue to meet through June 2025 but will provide an update on their progress at the second session in October.
The possibility of the admission of women to the diaconate will not be a topic during the upcoming assembly, the Instrumentum Laboris said.
The new document was presented at a July 9 press conference by Cardinals Mario Grech and Jean-Claude Hollerich, together with the special secretaries of the synodal assembly: Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa and Father Riccardo Battocchio.
“The Synod is already changing our way of being and living the Church regardless of the October assembly,” Hollerich said, pointing to testimonies shared in the most recent reports sent by bishops’ conferences.
The Oct. 2-27 gathering of the Synod on Synodality will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021.
Participants in the fall meeting, including Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from around the world, will use the Instrumentum Laboris as a guide for their “conversations in the Spirit,” the method of discussion introduced at the 2023 assembly. They will also prepare and vote on the Synod on Synodality’s advisory final document, which will then be given to the pope, who decides the Church’s next steps and if he wishes to adopt the text as a papal document or to write his own.
The third phase of the synod — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” according to organizers.
Prominent topics
The 2024 Instrumentum Laboris also addresses the need for transparency to restore the Church’s credibility in the face of sexual abuse of adults and minors and financial scandals.
“If the synodal Church wants to be welcoming,” the document reads, “then accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority.”
It recommends effective lay involvement in pastoral and economic planning, the publication of annual financial statements certified by external auditors, annual summaries of safeguarding initiatives, the promotion of women to positions of authority, and periodic performance evaluations on those exercising a ministry or holding a position in the Church.
“These are points of great importance and urgency for the credibility of the synodal process and its implementation,” the document says.
The greater participation of women in all levels of the Church, a reform of the education of priests, and greater formation for all Catholics are also included in the text.
Bishops’ conferences, it says, noticed an untapped potential for women’s participation in many areas of Church life. “They also call for further exploration of ministerial and pastoral modalities that better express the charisms and gifts the Spirit pours out on women in response to the pastoral needs of our time,” the document states.
Formation in listening is identified as “an essential initial requirement” for Catholics, as well as how to engage in the practice of “conversation in the Spirit,” which was employed in the first session of the Synod on Synodality.
Pope Francis and delegates at the Synod on Synodality at the conclusion of the assembly on Oct. 28, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
The document says the need for formation has been one of the most universal and strong themes throughout the synodal process. Interreligious dialogue also is identified as an important aspect of the synodal journey.
On the topic of the liturgy, the Instrumentum Laboris says there was “a call for adequately trained lay men and women to contribute to preaching the Word of God, including during the celebration of the Eucharist.”
“It is necessary that the pastoral proposals and liturgical practices preserve and make ever more evident the link between the journey of Christian initiation and the synodal and missionary life of the Church,” the document says. “The appropriate pastoral and liturgical arrangements must be developed in the plurality of situations and cultures in which the local Churches are immersed …”
How it was drafted
Dubbed the “Instrumentum Laboris 2,” the document released Tuesday has been in preparation since early June when approximately 20 experts in theology, ecclesiology, and canon law held a closed-door meeting to analyze around 200 synod reports from bishops’ conferences and religious communities responding to what the Instrumentum Laboris called “the guiding question” of the next stage of the Synod on Synodality: “How to be a synodal Church in mission?”
After the 10-day gathering, “an initial version” of the text was drafted based on those reports and sent to around 70 people — priests, religious, and laypeople — “from all over the world, of various ecclesial sensitivities and from different theological ‘schools,’” for consultation, according to the synod website.
The XVI Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, together with consultants of the synod secretariat, finalized the document.
According to the working tool, soliciting new reports and feedback after the consultation phase ended is “consistent with the circularity characterizing the whole synodal process.”
“In preparation for the Second Session, and during its work, we continue to address this question: how can the identity of the synodal People of God in mission take concrete form in the relationships, paths and places where the everyday life of the Church takes place?” it says.
The document says “other questions that emerged during the journey are the subject of work that continues in other ways, at the level of the local Churches as well as in the ten Study Groups.”
Expectations for final session
According to the guiding document, the second session of the Synod on Synodality can “expect a further deepening of the shared understanding of synodality, a better focus on the practices of a synodal Church, and the proposal of some changes in canon law (there may be yet more significant and profound developments as the basic proposal is further assimilated and lived.)”
“Nonetheless,” it continues, “we cannot expect the answer to every question. In addition, other proposals will emerge along the way, on the path of conversion and reform that the Second Session will invite the whole Church to undertake.”
The Instrumentum Laboris says, “Synodality is not an end in itself … If the Second Session is to focus on certain aspects of synodal life, it does so with a view to greater effectiveness in mission.”
In its brief conclusion, the text states: “The questions that the Instrumentum Laboris asks are: how to be a synodal Church in mission; how to engage in deep listening and dialogue; how to be co-responsible in the light of the dynamism of our personal and communal baptismal vocation; how to transform structures and processes so that all may participate and share the charisms that the Spirit pours out on each for the common good; how to exercise power and authority as service. Each of these questions is a service to the Church and, through its action, to the possibility of healing the deepest wounds of our time.”
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 27, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- On October 23, CNA interviewed HE Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, Grand Chancellor of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, about the religious order’s international work and ongoing p… […]
Vatican City, Jun 1, 2020 / 04:04 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Monday promulgated a new law intended to prevent corruption and control spending in Vatican City State and Holy See financial transactions.
The law, “Norms on the transparency, control an… […]
26 Comments
I wish two things:
1. That the Vatican cease defining itself as a State. We are a Church. We exist in the world but are not of this world. States are creations of this world.
2. Stop interfering in the temporal affairs of the United States. As a Catholic, I find the Vatican’s statements unwelcome.
The Vatican has been both the Church and a city-state ever since the 1929 Lateran Treaty recognized the papacy as more than a “prisoner of the Vatican” (a consequence of the revolutionary loss of the Eternal City and the historically curious papal states to the new and larger nation-state of Italy, in 1870). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
The status as a state among states renders possible an ear and a voice among the current political idiom of nation-states, although membership in the United Nations remains that of a non-member Permanent Observer State, since 1964.
This distinctive membership restriction is surely a good thing, since it protects the Vatican and the universal Catholic Church from being identified as just another member among the 193 member states–as you correctly argue should never be the case.
@ Peter Beaulieu. Always thought it curious too that the Church became the equivalent of a nation. Although the title was modified to papal states. Certainly an oddity on the surface.
You’re probably aware that Pippin King of the Franks ceded the territories it had wrenched from the expanding Germanic Lombards. At the time during the 8th century it also benefited the papacy to rely on Frankish protection rather than the Eastern Byzantine empire due to imposition of taxes, and growing disagreement on doctrine examples, iconoclasm, filioque clause.
It can be argued either way whether Italian unification during the late 19th century resulting in the loss of the papal states benefited Catholicism. The transition from a temporal power [we even had a warlord Pope Julius II expanding territory] to a visibly more spiritual authority. From the day of revolutions of Pius IX to the despotic political movements of Pius XII the greatly territorially reduced Vatican State seemed a greater presence for the advocation of justice.
Deacon, I’m not sure if my understanding is correct. If you have time, please clarify for me. Thanks. My understanding is that Vatican City is a “state” like any other nation–a very tiny State, but still a state with a seat and vote at the United Nations and the right to offer opinions, defend itself, send troops to war, provide aid for nations experiencing a disaster or conflict, etc.
But Holy Mother Church is a Church, THE Holy Catholic Church that Jesus Christ Himself founded.
One question that I have–is the Pope the “president” or “mayor” of Vatican City, or are other leaders, perhaps even non-clergy or non-religious, elected or appointed? Or is Vatican City a monarchy with no other leadership than a king (the Pope?).
The latter Mrs. Whitlock. The Pope is the Head of State. He probably has infinitely more power when it comes to the Vatican City/State than the King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland who is a Head of State. He can name and depose at will. He answers to no human person.
Yes “ in the World but not of the World” I’ve been saying this for a long time, but that said the reality is that the Vatican IS a state and as such must operate as one. Unfortunately the Pope has to wear two hats as both head of State and head of Church. Not an easy task and not of his making. Thus he has an obligation to act as a voice and mediator in temporal affairs. Not to take sides or make alliances like other nations do is very difficult. To study the position of the Papacy during the Second World War illustrates how difficult this can be.
Perhaps one day we will have to abandon the Vatican and become a pilgrim people, but until then we must operate within this very messy and imperfect arrangement and allow the Pope to make mistakes just like any other temporal ruler.
I wouldn’t advocate abandoning the Vatican. The Vatican is no larger than any major university campus in the USA. I just think we need to stop thinking of the Pope as Head of State. He is a moral/spiritual leader of Catholics and the Catholic Church. He should be seen as if he were a CEO. There are probably bishops in the USA who have control over large swarths of real estate but have no temporal authority. The Pope is simply Bishop of Rome – primus inter pares.
Most Catholics do not know tht DT saved the NY Catholic schools. During the Wuhan virus crisis, the NY Catholic schools were dire need of funds. They needed billions to survive. The Cardinal called DT for help to save the Catholic schools: “We need billions or we will have to close.” President DT picked up the phone and in 15 minutes he raised billions. Thus he saved the Catholic schools. Amazing. See his speech at the annual Al Smith Catholic dinner for October 2024 in the presence of the Cardinal. His speech starts at min. 29:00; during the speech he looks at the Cardinal and recollects this episode at min 56ff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwbHmrplak
Okay let’s ignore his lack of morals; his admiration of dictators; his desire to become one; his racist attitude; his threats of violence toward those who disagree with him;
May God have mercy on him and all of us who will lose precious rights under his presidency. I pray for his soul and all who voted for him
Dont bother praying for me, darling. I will pray for you. How sad that you have swallowed whole all of the untrue and slanderous propaganda about Trump which was spread around by the DEMs and their media minions. This is my third time voting Trump , and I am thrilled that he won. I have a Masters Degree,live in an urban area of a blue state, and am not remotely uninformed. Had more people not believed the untruths about him the last election, the country and the world would have likely been saved a lot of pain these last 4 years.
In this election, Trump gathered not only an electoral win but ALSO the popular vote by close to 5 million votes people who are sick of being disparaged and demeaned. A joke about being a dictator is just that–a joke. If you imagine its ok to disparage half the population of the country you need to check your thought processes. I have NEVER heard Trump make a racist remark ( another lie). And if by your fear of “losing precious rights” you are talking about the preservation of abortion, you are on the wrong forum. Trump has never suggested taking away ANY rights from any citizen( unlike the Dems, who have used censorship and lawfare with abandon and continue to do so with abandon against Trump and his lawyers). Maybe Dem governors could speak to their people about the recent election results, and liberal loss, with a tad less hysteria. It might help them.
silly and untrue description of the president. He never threatened violence against those who disagreed with him.. where did you get that? Peace? .. only under him has there been peace, not under biden or obama. How is he racist? He funded black universities, which obama refused to do. Admiration of dictators? I don’t even know how to deal with that one… check your facts.
Wisdom? We shall see. All this talk of revenge and retribution is hardly wise. Trump has an opportunity to be statesmanlike. Let’s hope that he takes the high road for a change.
I have never heard Trump talk about revenge. Although, WINNING is the best revenge I suppose. The only people talking about revenge and fighting are the democrats right now. Like the govs of California, NY and Illinois. What news media are you watching?? Take a look at something with more balance.
silly and untrue description of the president. He never threatened violence against those who disagreed with him.. where did you get that? Peace? .. only under him has there been peace, not under biden or obama. How is he racist? He funded black universities, which obama refused to do. Admiration of dictators? I don’t even know how to deal with that one… check your facts.
Who cares if the Vatican is a state or a reclgious conclave of murmuring old MEN? We need to focus and renew our hopes for a saner world. I hope Trump will forge that new path , but his vial rhetoric and actions cause me pause. I may need help from God.
Cardinal Prolin: ““We wish him great wisdom, because this is the main VIRTUE of RULERS according to the Bible,” Note the word VIRTUE. Colossians 3:12 – “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” UNfortunatly, I saw none of this during Trump’s campaign or in his daily life. “VIRTUE”?
I still remain hopefull that November 5, 2024 will not be “a day that will live in infamy”. FDR
Colossians 3:12 – “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Unfortunately, I saw none of this during Trump’s campaign or in
his daily life.”
To be fair, regular readers here have not witnessed any of those qualities in your hateful TDS posts either. Maybe people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
So the countless acts of personal charity by Trump, to total strangers as well as friends, do not count as any sort of virtue in your applied understanding of scriptual admonishments? And is virtue better served by your propensities for insulting characterizations that seem to infect most of your commentary?
I wish two things:
1. That the Vatican cease defining itself as a State. We are a Church. We exist in the world but are not of this world. States are creations of this world.
2. Stop interfering in the temporal affairs of the United States. As a Catholic, I find the Vatican’s statements unwelcome.
The Vatican has been both the Church and a city-state ever since the 1929 Lateran Treaty recognized the papacy as more than a “prisoner of the Vatican” (a consequence of the revolutionary loss of the Eternal City and the historically curious papal states to the new and larger nation-state of Italy, in 1870). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
The status as a state among states renders possible an ear and a voice among the current political idiom of nation-states, although membership in the United Nations remains that of a non-member Permanent Observer State, since 1964.
This distinctive membership restriction is surely a good thing, since it protects the Vatican and the universal Catholic Church from being identified as just another member among the 193 member states–as you correctly argue should never be the case.
Cardinal Parolin, the architect of Communist-Party-Secret-Accords is a man who should not be posturing about governing with “wisdom,” etc.
And citizens faithful to Christ have no interest in getting “dialogued” by the apostate-and-homosexual-art-curator Spadaro.
The word obtuse seems apt.
CHRIS: You say it better than I. Thanks
@ Peter Beaulieu. Always thought it curious too that the Church became the equivalent of a nation. Although the title was modified to papal states. Certainly an oddity on the surface.
You’re probably aware that Pippin King of the Franks ceded the territories it had wrenched from the expanding Germanic Lombards. At the time during the 8th century it also benefited the papacy to rely on Frankish protection rather than the Eastern Byzantine empire due to imposition of taxes, and growing disagreement on doctrine examples, iconoclasm, filioque clause.
It can be argued either way whether Italian unification during the late 19th century resulting in the loss of the papal states benefited Catholicism. The transition from a temporal power [we even had a warlord Pope Julius II expanding territory] to a visibly more spiritual authority. From the day of revolutions of Pius IX to the despotic political movements of Pius XII the greatly territorially reduced Vatican State seemed a greater presence for the advocation of justice.
Deacon, I’m not sure if my understanding is correct. If you have time, please clarify for me. Thanks. My understanding is that Vatican City is a “state” like any other nation–a very tiny State, but still a state with a seat and vote at the United Nations and the right to offer opinions, defend itself, send troops to war, provide aid for nations experiencing a disaster or conflict, etc.
But Holy Mother Church is a Church, THE Holy Catholic Church that Jesus Christ Himself founded.
One question that I have–is the Pope the “president” or “mayor” of Vatican City, or are other leaders, perhaps even non-clergy or non-religious, elected or appointed? Or is Vatican City a monarchy with no other leadership than a king (the Pope?).
The latter Mrs. Whitlock. The Pope is the Head of State. He probably has infinitely more power when it comes to the Vatican City/State than the King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland who is a Head of State. He can name and depose at will. He answers to no human person.
Yes “ in the World but not of the World” I’ve been saying this for a long time, but that said the reality is that the Vatican IS a state and as such must operate as one. Unfortunately the Pope has to wear two hats as both head of State and head of Church. Not an easy task and not of his making. Thus he has an obligation to act as a voice and mediator in temporal affairs. Not to take sides or make alliances like other nations do is very difficult. To study the position of the Papacy during the Second World War illustrates how difficult this can be.
Perhaps one day we will have to abandon the Vatican and become a pilgrim people, but until then we must operate within this very messy and imperfect arrangement and allow the Pope to make mistakes just like any other temporal ruler.
And, yet, there’s a difference between the Vatican and the Holy See.
These two terms are not interchangeable. Here are the new details about how all this fits together: https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2023-06-05/vatican-city-state-pope-francis-issues-new-constitution/
I wouldn’t advocate abandoning the Vatican. The Vatican is no larger than any major university campus in the USA. I just think we need to stop thinking of the Pope as Head of State. He is a moral/spiritual leader of Catholics and the Catholic Church. He should be seen as if he were a CEO. There are probably bishops in the USA who have control over large swarths of real estate but have no temporal authority. The Pope is simply Bishop of Rome – primus inter pares.
Most Catholics do not know tht DT saved the NY Catholic schools. During the Wuhan virus crisis, the NY Catholic schools were dire need of funds. They needed billions to survive. The Cardinal called DT for help to save the Catholic schools: “We need billions or we will have to close.” President DT picked up the phone and in 15 minutes he raised billions. Thus he saved the Catholic schools. Amazing. See his speech at the annual Al Smith Catholic dinner for October 2024 in the presence of the Cardinal. His speech starts at min. 29:00; during the speech he looks at the Cardinal and recollects this episode at min 56ff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwbHmrplak
Okay let’s ignore his lack of morals; his admiration of dictators; his desire to become one; his racist attitude; his threats of violence toward those who disagree with him;
May God have mercy on him and all of us who will lose precious rights under his presidency. I pray for his soul and all who voted for him
Dont bother praying for me, darling. I will pray for you. How sad that you have swallowed whole all of the untrue and slanderous propaganda about Trump which was spread around by the DEMs and their media minions. This is my third time voting Trump , and I am thrilled that he won. I have a Masters Degree,live in an urban area of a blue state, and am not remotely uninformed. Had more people not believed the untruths about him the last election, the country and the world would have likely been saved a lot of pain these last 4 years.
In this election, Trump gathered not only an electoral win but ALSO the popular vote by close to 5 million votes people who are sick of being disparaged and demeaned. A joke about being a dictator is just that–a joke. If you imagine its ok to disparage half the population of the country you need to check your thought processes. I have NEVER heard Trump make a racist remark ( another lie). And if by your fear of “losing precious rights” you are talking about the preservation of abortion, you are on the wrong forum. Trump has never suggested taking away ANY rights from any citizen( unlike the Dems, who have used censorship and lawfare with abandon and continue to do so with abandon against Trump and his lawyers). Maybe Dem governors could speak to their people about the recent election results, and liberal loss, with a tad less hysteria. It might help them.
silly and untrue description of the president. He never threatened violence against those who disagreed with him.. where did you get that? Peace? .. only under him has there been peace, not under biden or obama. How is he racist? He funded black universities, which obama refused to do. Admiration of dictators? I don’t even know how to deal with that one… check your facts.
Well, 72 million people disagree with you. What’s the probability that they’re all wrong and you are right? That would be zero according to my math.
Wisdom? We shall see. All this talk of revenge and retribution is hardly wise. Trump has an opportunity to be statesmanlike. Let’s hope that he takes the high road for a change.
I have never heard Trump talk about revenge. Although, WINNING is the best revenge I suppose. The only people talking about revenge and fighting are the democrats right now. Like the govs of California, NY and Illinois. What news media are you watching?? Take a look at something with more balance.
What virtue postering from the morally bankrupt socialist left!
I’d be happy if the Vatican tended to its own wisdom instead of lecturing others.
Given their Marxist march towards a full embrace of moral relativism, wisdom is something they they can’t even stumble over.
silly and untrue description of the president. He never threatened violence against those who disagreed with him.. where did you get that? Peace? .. only under him has there been peace, not under biden or obama. How is he racist? He funded black universities, which obama refused to do. Admiration of dictators? I don’t even know how to deal with that one… check your facts.
Did Pope Francis not call to congratulate Pres Trump? Why not?..he called Biden, and on other occasions too.
I don’t want to be negative. Lord forgive me.
Who cares if the Vatican is a state or a reclgious conclave of murmuring old MEN? We need to focus and renew our hopes for a saner world. I hope Trump will forge that new path , but his vial rhetoric and actions cause me pause. I may need help from God.
Cardinal Prolin: ““We wish him great wisdom, because this is the main VIRTUE of RULERS according to the Bible,” Note the word VIRTUE. Colossians 3:12 – “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” UNfortunatly, I saw none of this during Trump’s campaign or in his daily life. “VIRTUE”?
I still remain hopefull that November 5, 2024 will not be “a day that will live in infamy”. FDR
Colossians 3:12 – “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Unfortunately, I saw none of this during Trump’s campaign or in
his daily life.”
To be fair, regular readers here have not witnessed any of those qualities in your hateful TDS posts either. Maybe people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
So the countless acts of personal charity by Trump, to total strangers as well as friends, do not count as any sort of virtue in your applied understanding of scriptual admonishments? And is virtue better served by your propensities for insulting characterizations that seem to infect most of your commentary?
Enough with the hand-wringing; it’s unbecoming for a man.