Trump, Going Ever Lower, Attacks Pope

AT THE PRECISE MOMENT when you become certain that the great reprobate can go no lower, he does. I suspect that I have begun other essays with this exact observation, maybet oo many essays to remember. Is it even remotely conceiveable that any halfway decent person would verbally attack a person of such dignity and virtue as the Pope himself? I have developed a new defense mechanism against memory loss, bane of old age. The loss of short term memory serves as an adequate but not complete defense mechanism against the avalanche of inanities of a demonstrably psychopathic American president. I'll give it that. The Pope, being an American, the firstAmerican to ever assume the papacy, isa man well known to American Catholics,espeiallythosin and around Chicago. I don't remember Pope John; he ascended into heaven in 1963, when I was but eight years old. Pope Paul the sixth was my fisrt Pope, and by 1978, the year of his heavenly ascension, I was twenty three years old. Although I have known from an early age, eight years oldor so, that I was not religious and probably never would be, I was, and have remained to this day a "fan" of the Pope,all Popes, regardless of which one headed the Roman Catholic church. Despite my agnosticism which tends towards atheism, and which has evolved over the years into pantheism, love and wisdom are the central tenets of all religions, including Catholicism, and I have always remained a "fan" of the Pope, whhch ever one headed the church and happened to occupy the papal throne at any given time. I havesaid that religion is nonsense,andI mean it. I refer of course to religious dogma. Hinduism, which encompasses all religions, surrounding them like a circle, is, ironically, relatively free of dogma, dogma which arises from the divisive effects of varied interpretations of religion and reality. There are an estimated four thousand and two hundred organized religions in the world, as many as half of which are various Christian denominations. Ultimately there is but one religion, or must surely be, beause we are aware of only one universe. The present Pope, unlike past Popes, stands ready to acccept and embrace them all. He is a prodcut of the twentieth century, a century in which the seemingly unending human conflct engendered by religious differences seems poised to fade and blend into a harmonious global whole, a whole by which humanity understands that whereas we humans have our many and sundery inerpetations of reality and reality's creator, we ultimately derive from a single source, whatever precisely that source may be. Popes have evolved.They now accept the transparent reality that they are not perfect. "If I make a mistake, just correct me",said a recent, enlightened Pope. This is progress, this is enlightened spiritual and intellectual evolution. Inour age of rapid scientific advancement, religion is arguably becoming outdated, obsolete. It will remain relevant aslong as we humans need it,and no longer. We still need religion. We have not weened ourselve off it, as our descendants likely will. We need the Pope, with all his kindness, gentleness,and wisdom. We need a Pope who speaks truth to power, unafraid to stand up against a bullying head of state, and we have one. What we do not need is a psycopathic American head of state who lashes out at a good man for having the courage to speak truth to power. But tragically, that is precisely what we have.