'Mother' should not be used to describe a bomb, Pope says

[rooster59]

'Mother' should not be used to describe a bomb, Pope says

 

Pope Francis stands following a meeting with President of Switzerland Doris Leuthard at the Vatican May 6, 2017. REUTERS/Andreas Solaro/Pool

 

MILAN (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Saturday criticised the naming of the U.S. military's biggest non-nuclear explosive as "the Mother of All Bombs", saying the word "mother" should not be used in reference to a deadly weapon.

 

The U.S. Air Force dropped such a bomb, officially designated as the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) on suspected Islamic State fighters in eastern Afghanistan last month. The nickname was widely used in briefings and reporting on the attack.

 

"I was ashamed when I heard the name," Pope Francis told an audience of students on Saturday. "A mother gives life and this one gives death, and we call this device a mother. What is happening?"

 

Pope Francis is set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on May 24 in a potentially awkward encounter given their opposing positions on immigration, refugees and climate change.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-07

[boomerangutang]

There's another similar giant bomb called "The Daisy Cutter"  ....what's the Pope's spin on that?  Do I care?

 

The Pope should spend more time finding and punishing child molesters within his ranks.  Instead of allowing their transfer to other places where they can molest new kids.  Priorities, dude.

[overherebc]

Better still just sit his big chair and check the money coming in.

[Crossy]

One assumes he knows that "Mother Of All Bombs" isn't its official name, or maybe he doesn't.

[vogie]

Maybe the US should have called it Brian?

[DoctorG]

So, the pope believes that mothers can not kill?

[boomerangutang]

How about calling it:  CHRIST

 

Christians' Holy Revenge on Islamists to Suffer in their Tombs

[overherebc]

25 minutes ago, vogie said:

Maybe the US should have called it Brian?

CEDRIC

Clears 

Everything

Directly

(and)

Removes

Innocent

Civilians.

Sure someone can improve on that.

[geriatrickid]

It is wonderful that the Pope has his priorities in order. Those kids dying in the favelas of Brazil or the women being infected with HIV because  his company is opposed to condoms, or the epidemic of  overpopulation and poverty in the Philippines because of his cruel opposition to  to basic birth control access are not important enough to merit his attention.  Thanks papi.

 

[ezzra]

Sadly, the papal institute is getting less and less irrelevant as days

goes by and the only person who doesn't see is the pop himself,

the gods of social media and terrorism ahs taken over....

Edited May 7, 2017 by ezzra

[johna]

The Pope would describe the inquisition as attitude adjustment

Edited May 7, 2017 by johna

[halloween]

I can think of 6 letters to add to mother, but he probably would like that even less.

[Tchooptip]

The name being MOAB meanings "Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb"

it was probably a servicemen's joke to call it mother of all bomb,

then I guess some journalists called it like that too , many people believing latter it was its official name...ri di cu lous!

[klauskunkel]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"I was ashamed when I heard the name,"

The US Air Force has since apologized to Pope Francis and announced it will drop the "Mother" portion of the nickname and instead use "Pope".

"The Pope has given us an excellent propaganda idea: just imagine the impact (pun intended) on Muslim terrorist targets when they learn we will be dropping the "Pope of all Bombs" on them."

[ballzafire]

Oh, yeah?

And a human being should not be used to describe a SACRIFICE...

Edited May 7, 2017 by ballzafire

[ballzafire]

ezzra, you mean, "...less and less RELEVANT."

(and it's not 'sad', either. If people only knew the level of evil hiding behind the Catholic Church, they would not call themselves Catholic...)

[ballzafire]

boomerangutang: but the Pope's overseeing the child molestation (and worse...).

Edited May 7, 2017 by ballzafire

[Salerno]

In the same vein, paedophiles shouldn't be called Father either.

[sanukjim]

3 hours ago, overherebc said:

Better still just sit his big chair and check the money coming in.

Pope Frances .What a Dxmb Axx.!

[chilli42]

I suspect it's a cultural thing, he is from Argentina.  He is been rather too literal.  Depending on your cultural background some words are charged with different meaning.  There are numerous examples, some of which I would not mention here for fear of upsetting our mutual hosts.  I suspect his point is that motherhood should be revered and not used for something useless or destructive.

[Jingthing]

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

One assumes he knows that "Mother Of All Bombs" isn't its official name, or maybe he doesn't.

The better question is if trump knows that. trump has referred to the bombs as Mother.

trump is really into those crass branding names, and appearances, over substance.

I seriously doubt "Mad Dog" Mattis would have gotten the big job with trump if he was known as "Think First" Mattis. 

Edited May 7, 2017 by Jingthing

[sirineou]

All talk and no magic.

instead of talking he should get some of his  "saints" to do their magic and fix some of this Shi%

 

[Jingthing]

The Pope trumps trump on this one, BIGLY. 

[Andaman Al]

If I remember right the "mother of all" came in as a piss take during Gulf War 1 when Saddam or Baghdad Ali the spokesman kept using the term (mother of all battles or mother of all wars?). We quickly got on to "mother of all  - everything". I still use the term, only yesterday saying on the phone we were in the mother of all thunderstorms. If the Pope is feeling sensitive as to what a mother is capable of then maybe he should read the tragic story in Australia of the Mother that killed 8 children. Maybe now would be a good time for the Pope to explain why they promote God as being masculine - our Father. Surely a Father would not wantonly destroy his children and curse them with disease, hunger, suffering, poverty and death. God our Father seems to kill a whole lot more every day than the Mother of all bombs.

[billd766]

3 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

How about calling it:  CHRIST

 

Christians' Holy Revenge on Islamists to Suffer in their Tombs

 

Perhaps the Pope did not realise that people of other religions used the term Mother long before this.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_of_all_battles

 

The phrase Mother of all battles has been used to refer to:

The Gulf War (used by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein)

Operation Rah-e-Nijat (used by Pakistani officials)

The Battle of Aleppo (used by Syrian pro-government media)

The Battle of Mosul (used by Western media)

[Panda13]

3 hours ago, halloween said:

I can think of 6 letters to add to mother, but he probably would like that even less.

The M<deleted>OAB , sounds good.

[williamgeorgeallen]

pope should probably be expressing his unhappiness that the world is in such a state that these massive weapons of mass destruction are being used. does it really matter what they are being called?

 

[dick dasterdly]

2 minutes ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

pope should probably be expressing his unhappiness that the world is in such a state that these massive weapons of mass destruction are being used. does it really matter what they are being called?

 

The pope should be giving a large part of the vatican's vast wealth to the poor catholics/getting rid of pedophile priests and encouraging the poor to use birth control IMO.

 

Understandable though that he prefers to talk about relatively minor issues....

[55Jay]

OK, thanks for your input, Mr. Pope. 

[Khon Kaen Dave]

The pope thinking he has the right to have an opinion of the name of a bomb, is as relevant as a celibate priest having the right to an opinion on how people should run their sex lives.