Francis by Patrick J. Marrin for March 24, 2025

All true.

Tell it like it is! He and his Reichsmarschall just don’t care how many people are hurt, they’re having a gay (no pun intended) old time. Extreme wealth is mental illness.

Also true is the fact that he simply ignores the courts. He has Congress in his pocket, so no impeachment is likely. He attacks judges who defy him. He has swept out military leaders he doesn’t like. He is a menace. Oh, and because of his DOGE cutting funds for those most in need, veterans are denied VA beds, children in poor countries are dying (The Center for Global Development calculates that up to 5,000 children a day May die because of cuts to USAID). We are watching evil in action.

According to the GOP, the measure of a man is based on how many people he can hurt. That’s why Trump is in power. “Men” wanted a criminal in charge rather than a woman.

I’ve been a guy for 76 years and I’m not about to change now. However, I am ashamed to admit several things: that I am a man, that I am a Christian and that I am an American. The GOP has made a mockery of them all.

What irritated me is that 56% of my fellow Catholics voted for a twice divorced and remarried sexual predator, yet the hierarchy keeps preaching its Manichean view of sex. The hypocrisy of the hierarchy passes even Mike Pence.

Yes, he is, Gaby, and he doesn’t care who he hurts.

Mussolini, early in his fascist dictatorship, signed documents with a normal pen, and his cursive was fairly legible. But by the end of his tenure, he used a pen with a nib about 1/8th inch wide and his cursive had grown in size and degenerated into a sprawling, illegible scrawl, which Trump — if he does not plagiarize — at least imitates or emulates.

I weep for our country. I was taught Catholic Social Teachings when I was confirmed and IQ45 goes against every single one of them. It saddens me that Catholics have forgotten their catechism.

His “giant pen is” … not as giant as he thinks!

Stick writing about the Pope……Trump is doing okay for America!!

The Federalist Society founded by Leonard Leo, which authored Project 2025, is an ultra conservative wing of Catholicism with enormous societal influence [google total USSC and other federal justices associated with The Federalist Society, for the primary example of influence they’ve wielded to date) which not onlydoes not authorize, but adamantly opposes, the content of today’s comic.

amen

One should be very cautious when putting the word “is” after the word “pen.”

If you were to look for a comparison between trumpster fire and Francis on women’s rights, I haven’t heard anything about trumpster fire trying to take away women’s ability to hold office. Has Francis changed his opinion on women being ordained?:

When Stalin forced a weakened and sick FDR to agree to East and West spheres of influence after WWII, including the partitioning of Germany and Berlin, and including the Iron Curtain across Europe, it took decades to diminish the damage. Now, an empowered Trump is fostering the same spheres disaster… Yes, let Putin keep the conquered territory in Ukraine. Let Trump illegally seize Greenland and the Panama Canal. Unless there is a moral revolution in the GOP and strong public resistance to such idiocy, we are doomed to a half century of world turmoil. And by the way, let China dominate Taiwan and the Philippines and whatever else they want… Spheres of influence for all the dictators!

I figured out part of my problem.

People asked Jesus, “How shall we pray?” and he came up with the Lord’s Prayer.

Since then others have devised prayers for other occasions such as consecrating the Eucharist, baptizing people and even exorcism of evil spirits.

As far as I know, none have come up with a prayer for one’s enemy, of which I have many mostly in high-positions and their followers. Jesus commands us to pray for them and I do not know how.

For many of the followers and the leader himself, I do have a model, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.”

For their leader’s enablers, the “kissers of the Ring,” words of condemnation come most readily to mind. I am not proud to entertain these thoughts. I look at this situation as being in the dessert with Satan who offers me what would most satisfy my immediate desires.

I love to hate people who love to hate. Sometimes I can conquer hate, sometimes it consumes me. So let me post my supplication here first, Lord: How do I proceed from here? This is not your way. Show me the way and give me the strength to follow it.

So, leaving the brouhaha for a moment, I just want to say, the strip has not posted since last Monday. The big GC change is coming tomorrow, and I fear Francis may not be brought along.

If so, I just want to say thanks to the regular little group here. I’ve enjoyed your comments, and we all shared similar thoughts and concerns about the state of the world, even if there were different approaches. (I realize this is awkward to say on the heels of the above flame war started by a misguided victim.)

Anyway, just wanted to say, if we don’t get to meet here again, it’s been fun. Some of you I will see around on other strips. And, to everyone I hope you stay safe. Do take care of yourselves, and hold in your heart what’s important.

In the last panel, it looks like the words “pen” and “is” are run together. Gives Leo’s comment a whole new meaning. I wonder if that was intentional.