Pope Leo IV: A religious leader who blessed the troops, believed in country as the equivalent of religion, and was quick to decide that whatever bad things happen in the world can be traced to the sinfulness of people (whom he identified, of course–himself not being one of them). He was concerned about buildings and establishing a base. He was inevitably drawn to whatever the 9th-century equivalent of photo ops were (he seemed to always be shaking hands with dignitaries and offering blessings at battlefields). He hated Muslims. He hated Christians who did not agree with his religious or political beliefs. He hated non-Christians.

When a large swath of Italy had been devastated by warfare, Butler writes:

The good pope considered the sins of the people as the chief source of public disasters; and being inflamed with a holy zeal he most vigorously exerted his authority for the reformation of manners and of the discipline of the Church.

Note this: what “good” Pope Leo IV did not do is quite telling: he did not send relief to the war-torn areas; he did not set up hospitals; he did not go himself to console the suffering and the mourning; he did not create places of asylum or shelter for war refugees. No, Leo blamed the victims and called for more Christianized control of people’s lives through means of the institutional church that he controlled–after of course cleansing said church of heretics (aka rivals) and those who questioned his authority.

Here is what Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson had to say, just two days after the horrific events that occurred on 9/11/2001:

Clearly the Falwell/Robertson response to such a tragedy was to blame (specific) Americans for this colossal disaster, to do nothing to offer care for those directly affected, and to underscore the need for people of the country to take up their belief systems with the hope that God will then again protect this country of ours.

Enough said. More than enough, in fact.