The Foolish Pontiff: Why Pope Francis Needs to Shut His Trap

The Pope needs to shut his trap. Under Pope Francis, the Vatican's diplomats are working around the clock to clean up his inflammatory remarks. In an interview, he disgracefully called on Ukraine to surrender and negotiate with Russia – which his spokesman desperately tried to spin as a call for courageous negotiations. But this wasn't a one-off blunder. The Argentine pontiff has shamelessly accused NATO of provoking Russia's invasion by expanding into Eastern Europe, absolving Putin of blame. He has idiotically told the Israeli president that responding to terror only breeds more terror, and privately condemned the "genocide" in Gaza with no evidence. Each time, nervous cardinals scramble to walk back their boss's reckless words.

This amateur self-contradiction demolishes any possibility the Vatican could mediate conflicts. Pope Francis's skewed geopolitical views favoring the perceived underdog over the West are predictable given his Latin American roots where an anti-imperialist mindset still dominates. But his naive belief that war is always wrong discards centuries of Christian philosophies on just war dating back to Augustine in the 4th century. By arguing the victim must surrender to the aggressor, the Pope elevates the law of the jungle over the rule of law and established principles of self-defense. He needs to get off his moral high horse.