The problem is that Pope Francis and his entourage live in their own tiny bubble, with agents of the West’s intelligence services on all sides.
Although most readers outside of Italy’s great Salesian institutions might not care that Pope Francis is elevating St. Titus Brandsma, “a Dutch Carmelite priest, journalist and martyr” to the role of patron saint of journalists that St Francis de Sales, “patron of Catholic writers, the Catholic press, the deaf, journalists, adult education” previously occupied, they should read on to appraise themselves of the wider picture.
Brandsma was a Dutch Carmelite friar, who actively opposed the Nazi ideology both before and especially during the Occupation, or at least up to 26 July 1942, when the Nazis euthanised him. Because Brandsma was undoubtedly an advocate of publishing and be damned, one wonders if he fits the bill for those not cut from the same cloth as Julian Assange, Seymour Hersh and their type. One may wonder if the good Dominican nuns of the Perpetual Rosary of the Blue Chapel in Union City, or someone wishing to help them, will send Assange, a Catholic in good standing, this poster of St Titus, which reads: “Father Titus Brandsma, Rector Emeritus Catholic University of Holland, Martyred at Dachau”. As with St Titus in Dachau, so also, it seems, with Assange in Belmarsh. Out of sight and out out of mind, but we will sing an Ave to you 80 years after you die.
Though I tip my hat to those gallant Dominican nuns, I cannot do the same regarding Pope Francis, who should be playing a more active, evangelising role in all this. Although I have nothing against St Titus or St Maximilian Kolbe, whose halo is also in the ring for some odd reason, none of this seems quite kosher.
If St Titus gets the gig, fair enough, but what has all of this to do with Catholics or journalists in general? What good is it to those who work for Russia Today and other blacklisted sites? What about those three Syrian journalists who were with me, with Italian Catholic radio, with the Vatican’s Syrian Ambassador and with Syria’s Christian leaders in Maaloula on Easter Sunday 2014, but never left as they were all murdered by NATO’s moderate rebels? Why not give one of them the gig? Or, the devil between us and all harm, how about Palestinian Catholic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, whom the Israels martyred on May 11, 2022, because she was a Catholic Palestinian journalist? How about Stephen Sahionie, a Syrian journalist, who writes for this publication? What relevance has a long-dead Dutchman got for him and the millions of his compatriots who are under constant Israeli bombardment? Are they children of a lesser God? Although the Lord hears the prayers of the poor, as it seems all Western editors this side of the Pearly Gates are deaf to their plight, or that of the Yemeni or the Russian speakers of Eastern Ukraine, St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of the deaf, dumb, blind and stupid might be the best ticket for them.
And then there is our much-maligned Serbian contributor Stephen Karganovic, whose well-informed and well-written articles deserve a much wider audience; his recent piece on Serbian priest Fr Anthony, a saint cut from the same cloth as Brandsma, is a cracker all true devotees of St Titus should read.
As should Jeremy Corbyn who is at the business end of vitriol from the pals of Pope Francis. Here, for example, is Anglican cult leader Justin Welby, just recently back from cheering on Ukraine’s Azov Nazis, defaming Corbyn in the Jewish Chronicle, an outlet, as I previously pointed out, with its own disreputable history. Why, in the name of St Titus, was Pope Francis knocking around with that Welby creep in Africa when he could have been doing the work of the Lord elsewhere, in Syria, for example?
The problem is that Pope Francis and his entourage live in their own tiny, emasculated bubble, with agents of the West’s various intelligence services on all sides, exploiting the myriad cracks and petty rivalries in the Vatican’s court. It is not so much St Titus they need but McKinsey and Boston Consulting to get their ship in order.
If we look at the Catholic media in Britain and Ireland, its journalists, many of whom are seconded from Fleet St, is markedly pro-Israeli and therefore solidly against the Christians of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, for whom we are occasionally asked to pray, as if these modern-day Brandsmas and Kolbes cannot pray for themselves. Not only are these Israeli-controlled Catholic gatekeepers of Britain and Ireland an insult to those martyrs but they are an insult to Catholicism, journalism and basic humanity as well.
Catholic analysis is tepid at best; there is absolutely no speaking to power, no calling the major Israeli, British and American criminals to account. Gone are the days of Fr Daniel Berrigan SJ, Fr Denis Faul, Sr Sarah Clarke and in are a bunch of narcissists who imagine they would stand up to the Nazis, as Brandsma and thousands of other Polish, French, German and Dutch priests did. Fat chance!
As the Third Reich is gone, opposing their savagery is moot. Zelensky’s rump Reich is still with us and his Gestapo is roughing up harmless priests and murdering journalists. Though I have no doubt where St Titus or, for that matter, the obnoxious Welby creep, would stand on such savagery, Pope Francis is a different matter.
His Jesuit Order have always tried to be all things to all people, hedging their bets and, so they like to believe, worming their way into the levers of power. But that ship has sailed. The Pope can appoint all the patron saints he likes and perhaps the more the merrier. But the rest of us must make a choice, the right choice, to stand with the oppressed, with the Christians of the Levant, the Mandaeans and Chaldeans of Iraq, the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine. And be like Stephen Karganovic and German martyr Aline Lipp, who is, in ways, a more fitting martyr than St Titus, as she has not actively sought martyrdom but has simply spoken truth to power, German power which, as St Titus attests, has an unenviable track record in martyring our saints.
But Germany’s obnoxious leaders are not alone in all that; one only has to look at the battle honours of America, Albion, France and their cronies to see that, or look at the persecution Russian speakers in the Baltic statelets and Zelensky’s rump Reich are experiencing. Though there is not a peep from the journalists of the Economist, the Guardian, the BBC and NATO’s other media outlets on all of that, we can expect Te Deums in the Vatican if any of those reincarnations of Der Stürmer so much as mention St Titus in passing. As regards Alina Lipp, Karganovic, the Chaldeans or the Mandaeans, don’t hold your breath as they, like Catholic journalist and political prisoner Julian Assange are, as Welby and his chums will tell you, children of a lesser God, not quite kosher, not quite the sort who will leave the Pope’s gilded cage cocooned, unsullied and unstained from the raw blood of today’s martyrs.
And so, good luck to you, St Titus in your new role. However, don’t expect too many Aves from me until you get Pope Francis to do the right thing and salute all the Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi, Yemeni and Russian journalists, priests and nuns who have been recently martyred in NATO’s killing fields. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them. Lest we forget!
