Il Va’ … Para La Molienda

So, this guy in a white suit goes to the steel mill on a Saturday morning, and doesn’t get even a speck of soot on his smock.  But, thinking of some recent visitors to his home, he has something to say about getting the job done:

lost chains

Speaking to some 3,500 industrial workers at the ILVA steel factory in Genoa, many in overalls or hard hats, Francis distinguished between good entrepreneurs, who “share the labors of workers and share the joys of work” to create something together, and speculators who are not bothered when they fire workers in a search for profit.

“The speculator doesn’t love his business, doesn’t love the workers, but only sees the business and workers as a means to make profit.  One sickness of the economy is the gradual transformation of entrepreneurs into speculators,” the pontiff said.

Evoking il soffitto di Cappella Sistema

 

After the visit at the mill, Francis met with bishops, priests and nuns at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.  Later he planned to meet with refugees, prisoners, poor and homeless people.

Ay! La Culebra!

Craft Brewery

If you’re gonna go on a witch hunt, you obviously don’t want to do a half-assed job: you wanna deploy the finest witch-hunting expertise available.  Which means you gotta go back to the roots, to Africa, where the craft began.

Chief Pembamoyo of the Chewa-speaking people of Vubwi district in Eastern Province has warned his subjects against preventing their children from attending school [so that they can participate in] witchcraft training and practice.  The chief says it is sad to learn that many parents and guardians in his chiefdom are encouraging their children into witchcraft rather than going to school.

Chief Pembamoyo said that he has directed his Indunas (subchiefs) to investigate more such cases and that anyone found lacking will face the wrath of the law.  Induna Chikoka admitted that such cases were on an increase in his area.  He said that last week the Vubwi district traditional court had imposed a fine of two goats on a man whose 10-year-old son confirmed that his father had sent him to witchcraft practice rather than to school.

 

The phenomenon of witch-hunts in Africa is ancient, but the problem is reportedly on the rise due to urbanization, poverty, social conflict and fragmenting communities.  In Congo, it is estimated that there are 25,000 homeless children living on the streets of Kinshasa.  More than half (60%) were expelled from their homes because of allegations of witchcraft. However, there is often an economic motive behind the claim of sorcery:  in traditional African societies, a suspicion of witchcraft is the only justifiable reason for refusal to shelter a family member, no matter how distant the relation.

Evangelical pastors are helping to create this new campaign of violence against young Africans. Self-styled pastors and prophets, greedy for cash, teach their parishioners that many problems they are facing —poverty, joblessness, financial crisis, sickness or poor harvest— are all caused by a witch-child hiding in their families. The superstitious parents then try to guess which of their six, seven or eight children is a witch.  The suspected children are forced through torture to confess that they are witches. Those children are severely beaten, cast out of their homes, mutilated or killed. All of this is due to a blend of Christianity and native paganism that has been brought inside the church.

 

Perhaps the contemporary meaning of this timeless parable will become clearer to you after a suitable period of sober reflection and introspection.  Or maybe not.

 

Basket Caseload

Yeah, definitely, the end is nigh. Gotta be, once these freakin’ basket cases start mining Lunghu’s old material for their off-the-cuff insults!

What’s next?  I’m waiting for another elderly elephant to go berserk in Lizy-sur-Ourcq …