The Pope’s Rope-a-Dope. Let’s Hope!

Ali, the great Ali Mohammed brought rope-a-dope into our language. It is defined as “relating to or being a strategy in which one behaves passively or with little aggression until an opportune moment arises for successful action.” Ali used the term to describe his actions in his major fight with George Foreman where he seemed to let Foreman batter away at him as he stood still leaning against the ropes of the ring.

How is it we no longer have boxers like Ali? Was the McNeeley – Tyson fight the end of boxing as we once knew it. With my son I watched a Pete McNeeley fight immediately before Tyson’s. He almost lost to a fat guy with a losing record brought in from Canada. But that’s something for another day.

Today the Pope is in the ring. I’d be tempted to call the Pope a dope but reverence and respect for the idea of a representative of Christ on the earth who leads many millions of followers, including most of those in the cavaran we find ourselves talking about, forbids me doing that. So I have to assume the Pope is feigning weakness while having something up his white sleeve which he’s going to whip out to justify his recent actions. One can only hope the Pope is not a dope.

You have to consider the Pope’s action in light of the actions being taken by China against the Uighurs under its rule. These people consider themselves culturally and ethnically close to the people from Central Asia.  Unlike the Tibetans who had their homeland and religion stolen by force by China they have lived in China although were very much a separate people being Muslims. They have always had a position commensurate with African-Americans in the Jim Crow days. Lately, because of their ill-treatment they have lashed out violently in a handful of much publicized incidents.

China brooks no dissent. Its answer to this which is presently ongoing under Xi is a massive re-indoctrination program to make the Uighurs give up their Muslim religious beliefs , customs, and culture and become Han Chinese clones. To this end China has created a massive gulag including one huge prison, I mean re-education camp, that can hold a million people. I suppose it’s a forcing of the idea of “when in China do what the Han Chinese do.”

Xi with unrestricted power is using the Mao tactics of the Cultural Revolution against the Uighurs. The Cambodians under Pol Pot used a similar method of thought control which became known as the Killing Fields. The Soviets under Stalin did it to the Ukrainians by using the famine weapon and to the Tatars in Crimea by forced transfer to Siberia. These countries had one belief in common: Communism.

Communist governments violently suppress dissent. Individual rights that diverge even slightly from the established policies aren’t allowed to exist. The people exist according to the whims of the masters.

Shouldn’t the Pope know this? Shouldn’t he understand that beliefs not approved by Xi and his henchmen are not allowed to exist? Why then is he trying to do a deal with Xi whereby he will recognize the Official Catholic Church whose doctrine is approved by the Communist Government and require the underground Catholic church which adhered to the teachings of the Church despite the arrests, harassment, imprisonment, and killings of its bishops, priests and members come out of hiding and join the official church. Doing so will cause the true believers to be chewed up by the Government.

The former underground Catholic bishop of Shanghai wrote about this. He says the Pope is enamored of Communists. Strange to suggest that such a man would have that attitude toward an atheist society where religious people are imprisoned, tortured and murdered.

One can only hope this is not true. One can only hope that there is something up the Pope’s sleeve. If not, then its a tragic time when you consider the many who have fought and died at the hands of Communists to keep the faith alive.