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 I smell the rabbis' lying claim that the тαℓмυd is "just a series of debates," a lie urging us to ignore the plain language imprecations against Jesus Christ, His Church, and His New Chosen People.

There is no "plain language" involved in the word "Yeshu".  It is normally translated into English as "Jesus." There are no explicit Jєωιѕн claims that it is intended is an insult.  There is a plausible theory that it was originally based on a blasphemous acronym, over a thousand years ago.  

I say "rubbish" to your exculpation.

It is hardly an exculpation.  It is an attempt to rationally examine all the facts.  

 Do you want to tell us Jorge's "Jesus sinned and made Himself the devil" is not recognizably тαℓмυdic?

You have misquoted him and I did not notice anything especially тαℓмυdic about it in context: 

However, “this dialogue, in which Jesus repeats three times: ‘you will die in your sins’, continues and, in the end, Jesus looks back to the story of Salvation and reminds them of something: ‘When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority’”. Thus, “the Lord actually says, ‘when you have lifted up the Son of Man’”, Francis pointed out.

Jesus’ words, the Pontiff observed, recall “what happened in the desert, which we heard about in the first reading (Num 21:4-9). The weary people, the people who cannot bear the journey, drift away from the Lord, speak ill of Moses and the Lord, and find those snakes which bite and kill”. Thus, “the Lord tells Moses to build a serpent out of bronze ‘and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live’”.

The serpent, Francis explained, “is the symbol of evil; it is the symbol of the devil: he was the most astute of all the animals in the earthly paradise”. Indeed, “the serpent can seduce with lies”; he is the “father of lies: this is the mystery”. Thus, “should we look to the devil to be saved?”, the Pontiff asked. “The serpent is the father of sin, the one who caused humanity to sin”. In reality, “Jesus says: ‘When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he’. Obviously this is the mystery of the Cross”, the Pontiff stressed.

“The bronze serpent brought healing, but the bronze serpent was a sign of two things”: on the one hand, “the sin committed by the serpent, the seduction by the serpent, the astuteness of the serpent”; and on the other, “the sign of Christ’s Cross. It was a prophecy”, Francis explained. “This is why the Lord says to them: ‘when you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he’”. We could say, the Pope added, that “Jesus ‘made himself to be serpent’; Jesus ‘made himself to be sin’, and took upon himself all of humanity’s filth, all the filth of sin; and ‘he made himself to be sin’; he let himself be lifted up so that all people could look at him, the people wounded by sin: us. This is the mystery of the Cross. Paul says: ‘he made himself to be sin’, and he took the appearance of the father of sin, of the astute serpent”.

“Those who did not look at the bronze serpent after being bitten by a serpent in the desert, died in their sin, the sin of grumbling against God and against Moses”, Pope Francis explained. At the same time, “those who, like the serpent, do not recognize in that upraised man the strength of God who made himself to be sin in order to heal us, will die in their sins”. Because “salvation comes only from the Cross, but from this Cross which is God made flesh: there is no salvation in ideas; there is no salvation in willingness, in wanting to be good”. In fact, the Pope continued, “the only true salvation is in Christ Crucified, because”, as symbolized by the bronze serpent, “only He could take on all the poison of sin, and thereby, healed us”, Francis explained. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2017/docuмents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20170404_in-the-sign-of-the-cross.html

 It is not тαℓмυdic to see the serpent lifted up in the desert as a type of Christ.  Our Lord Himself taught us this in John 3:14: 
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up." This idea has been around since the beginning of Catholicism.  It is not тαℓмυdic to believe "Him, who knew no sin, he hath made sin for us, that we might be made the justice of God in him." (2Cor 5:21).  The Crucifixion of Our Lord was our sin offering, a sacrifice for the expiation of our sins.  It made our salvation possible.  There is nothing in the тαℓмυd that suggests, as Francis says, "the only true salvation is in Christ Crucified, because only He could take on all the poison of sin, and thereby, healed us."

I really don't understand why you are carrying on about this speech when there have been so many truly problematic statements coming out of Francis.

Jorge's statement that "Jesus sinned and made Himself the devil."

There was no such statement.  Francis said,   “This is the mystery of the Cross. Paul says: ‘he made himself to be sin’, and he took the appearance of the father of sin, of the astute serpent”.  It is a meditation on how Our Lord's death on the Cross expiates our sin.  The underlying doctrinal assumptions all seem orthodox.  I do not see what your problem with it is.

You know the story of the boy who cried wolf.  If you make flimsy criticisms like this, then people won't take it seriously when you (and others) talk about comments from Francis that actually are heterodox or ambiguous.  

There was no such statement.  Francis said,   “This is the mystery of the Cross. Paul says: ‘he made himself to be sin’, and he took the appearance of the father of sin, of the astute serpent”.  It is a meditation on how Our Lord's death on the Cross expiates our sin.  The underlying doctrinal assumptions all seem orthodox.  I do not see what your problem with it is.

You know the story of the boy who cried wolf.  If you make flimsy criticisms like this, then people won't take it seriously when you (and others) talk about comments from Francis that actually are heterodox or ambiguous.  

You are quoting the Vatican Radio's incomplete revision/translation covering for Jorge, not what Jorge actually said.
Here is the original statement:


"E «sta bene», però «non solo come distintivo, come se fosse una squadra, il distintivo di una squadra»; ma, ha detto Francesco, «come memoria di colui che si è fatto peccato, CHE SI E' FATTO DIAVOLO, serpente, per noi; si è abbassato fino ad annientarsi totalmente»."


"And 'it's fine', but 'not only as a badge, as if it were a team, the badge of a team' [speaking of the Cross]; but, as Francis said, 'as the memory of him who became a sin, WHO WAS MADE A DEVIL, a serpent, for us; he lowered himself to the point of totally annihilating himself ".

You are quoting the Vatican Radio's incomplete revision/translation covering for Jorge, not what Jorge actually said.
Here is the original statement:


"E «sta bene», però «non solo come distintivo, come se fosse una squadra, il distintivo di una squadra»; ma, ha detto Francesco, «come memoria di colui che si è fatto peccato, CHE SI E' FATTO DIAVOLO, serpente, per noi; si è abbassato fino ad annientarsi totalmente»."


"And 'it's fine', but 'not only as a badge, as if it were a team, the badge of a team' [speaking of the Cross]; but, as Francis said, 'as the memory of him who became a sin, WHO WAS MADE A DEVIL, a serpent, for us; he lowered himself to the point of totally annihilating himself ".

Thank you for supplying a better source.  Is this your own translation of the Italian? If you have an English source, I would appreciate a link.   My own ability in the language is not good enough to work without a translation, so I felt stuck with the Vatican Radio version that I found.

At any rate, even in this original statement he is not making the statement that you claimed.  There is a big difference between saying that Jesus sinned and saying that Jesus became sin.  The former is a heresy and the latter is a quote from Scripture.  Even with this version,  I still don't see why you would find it theologically problematic.