What Awaits the Corrupt?

It is striking how many times, dozens of them, Pope Francis has spoken about the corrupt since he became Pope. He has said very harsh things: that Jesus Christ did not say they should be forgiven, that they bring dirty bread home to their children, that they and their families are hungry for dignity, and so on.

This Pope has broken the mold in the way he speaks about these people. It seems a perfect fit for us to have at the head of our Church a shepherd who is not afraid even to confront the Sicilian mafia, which he excommunicated a few days ago.

Last week, in a homily at the Casa Santa Marta, the Pope said one of the strongest things I have ever heard in my life. He asked Christians to pray hard for the conversion of the corrupt, because if they do not manage to repent, ask forgiveness and give back everything! they stole, “the dogs of hell will drink their blood.”

If any corrupt person (all the more one who calls himself Catholic) is reading this article and does not believe that a Pope as gentle and warm as Pope Francis could have said this, here is the link to the video so you can see and hear with your own eyes and ears the terrible thing the Pope said about you: http://www.romereports.com/pg157318-francisco-si-los-corruptos-no-se-convierten-oelos-perros-del-infierno-beberan-su-sangre-es

The issue of corruption is truly hellish. Besides being a tragedy for the corrupt themselves and their families (I recommend the film “Blue Jasmine,” which portrays the life of the corrupt masterfully), the harm they do to society by stealing the nation’s assets to grow richer and richer (because they are insatiable) is beyond words.

In Venezuela the corrupt are guilty of many deaths and of great injustices, sins that cry out to heaven, for which both the corrupt and their accomplices will one day have to answer to God, because no one lives forever and the hour of death comes for us all.

Here, in my own words, is the substance of what Pope Francis said in that homily, so that we grasp the magnitude of his words about the corrupt. He connected today’s corruption with the Old Testament passage telling of the martyrdom of Naboth at the hands of the corrupt King Ahab.

Whoever takes the road of corruption, the Pope said, takes life, usurps and sells himself. After Ahab had Naboth killed and seized his vineyard, the prophet Elijah called the king corrupt because he had stopped being a person and become merchandise, something bought and sold. That, he said, is the definition of the corrupt: merchandise. And the corrupt harm the innocent and the poor, because it is the poor who end up paying for the party of the corrupt.

He went on to say that the corrupt provoke God’s people and lead them into sin. Jesus said clearly that whoever causes scandal would be better off thrown into the sea with a stone around his neck. The corrupt scandalize society and God’s people, and the Lord announces their punishment because they cause scandal and exploit and enslave those who cannot defend themselves. The corrupt, he said, are traitors.

He then summed it up in three points. First, the definition: the corrupt person is one who steals and kills. Second, what awaits the corrupt: God’s curse, because they have exploited the innocent, those who cannot defend themselves, and done it with white gloves, from a distance, without getting their hands dirty. Third, is there a way out for the corrupt? Yes. When Ahab heard the curse that was coming to him, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, fasted, slept in sackcloth and walked with his head bowed. He began to do penance.

When we read in the newspapers that this or that person is corrupt, the Pope said, our duty as Christians is to ask forgiveness for them and to ask the Lord to give them the grace to repent, so that they do not die with corrupt hearts; otherwise, he warned, the dogs of hell will drink their blood.

The only way out for a corrupt politician, businessman or prelate, he insisted, is to ask forgiveness and give back everything they stole. Yes, the corrupt must be condemned, he said; but let us ask God for the grace not to become corrupt ourselves, and let us pray for their conversion.

So we will, Holy Father. Hard as it is to pray for those who have done so much harm to our country and to our fellow Venezuelans, we will pray for them. God grant that they manage to be converted, ask forgiveness and give back everything! they stole. They would be doing themselves a great favor, and they would not suffer what you and Jesus Christ warn they may suffer in hell!