On Wednesday, Pope Francis released
his long-awaited Apostolic Exhortation on the Amazonian Synod, Querida
Amazonia, which can best be described as an insidious attempt to secularize
the Catholic Church.
Specifically, the pope in his
exhortation:
Advocates an "inculturated liturgy" that
incorporates Amazonian dance and rituals, and introduces the idea of
establishing an Amazonian liturgical rite.
Recommends granting lay people formal authority over
Amazonian parishes, and mentions their ability to "celebrate certain
sacraments" (excluding the Eucharist and Confession).
Says women should be given formal positions in the
faith community as a result of a "commission from the bishop."
Endorses the Amoris Laetitia approach of
allowing Communion to those living in adultery, saying there is no
"room … for a [traditional] discipline that excludes and turns people
away."
Defends idol worship as witnessed with the veneration of Pachamama at the Synod, saying that it is not superstition.
Concerning idols, Francis says
that we “should
esteem the indigenous mysticism that sees the interconnection and
interdependence of the whole of creation, the mysticism of gratuitousness that
loves life as a gift,” as well as the “sacred wonder before nature.”
So Catholics are now exhorted to esteem "the indigenous mysticism" of the occult that is generated by "the prince of this world." (John 12:31) Shall we esteem voodoo too?
“Ecological
Conversion”
The
exhortation then spearheads the Amazonian Synod’s plan to unite the Catholic
Church with the world, that it might be ecological, ecumenical – one world. For
it “exhorts” the Church to bow to the planet in idolatrous fashion – a planet
symbolized by Pachamama.
The historic Amazonian Synod that
convened in Rome this past October 6-27 brought to fever pitch this globalist
plan to merge the Church with the environment. This perfidious attempt was
captured live on film in a deplorable scene inside of St. Peter's Basilica—a
nude Mother Earth idol [Pachamama] along with Pope Francis and various
cardinals chanting, dancing, and praying before the statue. The synod was all
about making "reparation" to “Mother Earth” for the environmental
"sins" committed against her.
In keeping with the synodal theme,
the exhortation urges us to forget things eternal and to be absorbed with
things terrestrial. Its clear and unabashed endorsement of profaning the liturgy
with pagan dance and ritual is in itself justification for decrying it. And
while its proposals are applied to the Amazon region for the moment, the Amazon
is only being used as a trial balloon. As Francis himself says in his
exhortation:
"I am addressing the present Exhortation to the whole
world. … the Church’s concern for the problems of this area obliges us to
discuss, however briefly, a number of other important issues that can assist
other areas of our world in confronting their own challenges."
The ploy was to first implement
these changes in the Amazon so that other areas of the Church
"deprived" of these "rights" could cry
"discrimination" and clamor for these same innovations, whereupon the
Vatican would concede to their wishes with the justification that the plan thus
far had been "successful" in the Amazon.
Baited With Slick Political Maneuver
While the exhortation doesn't
explicitly support the idea of ordaining married men to the priesthood as some had anticipated, it appears that
this was never a key part of the plan to begin with. The ploy was to initially
scare conservatives with this proposal with the plan of easing up on it at the
last minute in order to pacify the faithful and better gain their confidence in
Francis' environmental program.
This is typical of the political
maneuvers used by Francis to elicit the Church's support of controversial
proposals, e.g. down-talking gay-marriage so that we will feel relieved and
even gratified by his mere endorsement
of gay unions.
Pagan
The bottom line is that "enculturating
the liturgy," giving lay persons authority over parishes, empowering women
in religious matters, giving Communion to adulterers, and bowing to idols are heinous insults to God’s Majesty that the faithful may never
accept. It is our duty to denounce these pagan innovations.
And so, while many are
"counting their blessings" that Querida Amazonia hasn't
formally endorsed married priests, they should well consider that they have
been baited into swallowing the gist of its message that we betray Jesus
Crucified and be one with a pagan environment.
[ABC] A teacher at a Catholic seminary in Buffalo, N.Y. has been arrested and charged with cyberstalking after he allegedly made a series of threats against an investigative reporter whose work focused on the ongoing scandal surrounding the handling of sex abuse claims against local clergy.
Paul E. Lubienecki, 62, of Hamburg, N.Y., is an adjunct professor at Christ the King Seminary within the Diocese of Buffalo, which recently announced that the seminary will “cease operations” at the end of the current academic year amid financial troubles.
On the same day that announcement was made, Lubienecki allegedly called Charlie Specht, an investigative reporter for local ABC affiliate WKBW, who had first reported on the alleged mishandling of sexual misconduct complaints at the seminary, and left him a message in which he threatened to kill him.
Pope Francis: People who are fixed on the ordination of viri probati or female deacons will be disappointed with the letter "Querida Amazonia"
Vatican (kath.net) Pope Francis in a conversation with some US bishops from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming on Monday during the "ad limina" visit made it clear that people fixated on ordaining viri probati or female deacons, will be disappointed by the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Querida Amazonia". The letter will be published tomorrow, Wednesday. This is reported by CNS.
Bishop Oscar Solis of Salt Lake City informed the agency that the Pope did not provide any details about "Querida Amazonia", but made it clear that he did not currently believe in the ordination of viri probati. The discussion about this should not be over, however. The Pope also warned the bishops that many in the avoidance are only focused on these two points. For him, however, the focus is on the social, pastoral, ecological and cultural challenge.
kath.net video blog with Jan Ledóchowski, President of the Platform for Christian Democracy: https://christdemokratie.at/
Swiss law "against homophobia" is a gross restriction of private autonomy!
Vatican City (AFP) - Seven years after his surprise resignation, Benedict XVI -- weakened by age but still intellectually spry -- appears unable to remain in the shadow of his Argentinean successor Francis, creating the appearance of "two popes" at odds.
On February 11, 2013, at the age of 85, the German intellectual Joseph Ratzinger announced in Latin to astonished cardinals that he would cease being pope, a situation unheard of for seven centuries.
For five years, the unusual cohabitation in the smallest state in the world between the 265th pope in retirement and the 266th, Francis, went on without a hitch.
Francis and the Amazon Synodal - sophisticated regional circles with pre-fabricated results and global ramifications.
By Roberto de Mattei *
The message we anticipated was in the air. The confirmation is sent to us confidentially by some bishops who have received part (not all) of the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation from Pope Francis on the Amazon Synod. This part essentially deals with paragraph 111 of the Synod's final document.
“Many church communities in the Amazon region have enormous difficulties in accessing the Eucharist. It takes months or years for a priest to return to a church to celebrate the Eucharist, to offer the sacrament of reconciliation, or to celebrate the anointing of the sick for the ill in the church.
We value celibacy as a gift from God insofar as this gift enables the missionary disciple ordained to the priesthood to devote themselves fully to the service of the Holy People of God. It stimulates pastoral love, and we pray that there are many vocations that live the celibate priesthood. We know that this discipline 'is not required by the nature of the priesthood itself' (PO, 16), although there is a ratio of usefulness to it for many reasons. In his encyclical on priestly celibacy, St. Paul VI. upheld this law and exposed the theological, spiritual, and pastoral motivations that motivate it. In 1992, the post-synodal exhortation of St. John Paul II for priestly training confirmed this tradition in the Latin Church (PDV, 29). In view of the fact that legitimate diversity does not affect the community and unity of the Church, but expresses it and is at its service (cf. LG, 13; OE, 6), as evidenced by the existing diversity of rites and disciplines, we propose that within the framework of Lumen Gentium 26, the competent authority shall lay down criteria and provisions for the ordination of suitable and recognized men of the congregation to priests who practice fruitful permanent diaconate and receive adequate priestly training to support the life of the Christian community to be supported by preaching the word and celebrating the sacraments in the most remote areas of the Amazon. "
So the breach has been made. There is then no reason to ban what other regions of the world will allow in some areas of the Amazon. The German bishops, and not just them, are ready to open priesthood to married men who are deemed appropriate by the competent authority. What is thereby liquidated is not only a changeable "Church discipline", but a law of the Church, which is based on a commandment of divine and apostolic origin.
Fifty years ago at the symposium of European bishops in Chur in July 1969, Cardinal Leo-Joseph Suenens read an appeal by Hans Küng to abolish the celibacy of priests in his closing speech. This demand coincided with the role assigned by the progressive theology of sexuality: an instinct that man should not suppress by asceticism, but "liberate" by finding a form of "realization" of the human person in sex. Since then, this demand has expanded and has gone hand in hand with the Church's process of secularization and self-destruction.
In reality, the violations of celibacy and simony were always the great plagues that afflicted the mystical body of Christ in times of crisis. And the call for abstinence and poverty, as the Gospel calls it, were the banner of the great saints of church renewal. In the coming days of February, the anti-reformer will not, as is so often the case, be a bishop or a group of bishops, but the successor of St. Peter.
Ecclesiastical celibacy is the glory of the Church, and what makes it so is the will of Christ, which the apostles have handed down to our times.
Is it conceivable that the Catholics can remain silent in the face of this scandal?
* Roberto de Mattei, historian, father of five, professor of modern history and history of Christianity at the European University of Rome, chair of the Lepanto Foundation, author of numerous books, most recently in German translation: Defense of Tradition: The Insurmountable Truth of Christ, with a foreword by Martin Mosebach, Altötting 2017 and The Second Vatican Council. A previously unwritten story, 2nd adult Edition, Bobingen 2011. [His books are available in English on Amazon.com]
Books by Prof. Roberto de Mattei in German translation Martin Mosebach's books can be obtained from our partner bookstore.
Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
Klosterneuburg Abbey near Vienna looks back on 900 years of tradition. Its huge dome bears the imperial crown with the cross.
By Wolfram Schrems
Sometimes there is discussion about what constitutes Europe and what it is based on. The discussion then comes to the "influence" of Christianity, to the "three hills" Golgotha, Acropolis and Capitol and to the "Leitkultur." But all of that is idle. We would simply not exist as peoples and as individuals without the work of the Catholic Church.
A few basic thoughts on this topic from an Austrian perspective:
During the land grabbing by so-called “refugees” in autumn 2015, I spoke to a Hungarian diplomat about the role of Christianity in the development of the peoples of Europe. I hypothesized that without Christianity the Hungarians would have remained a primitive and predatory nomadic people. The answer of my interlocutor surprised me, but in retrospect it turns out to be smarter than my only half-thought. He said: Without Christianity, there would be no Hungarians at all, they would have disappeared from history.
Obviously, the historically conscious Hungarian had recognized something that underpins the radar of today's everyday consciousness. However, nowadays there is not only a certain sluggishness in perceiving (and pronouncing) natural things but also a kind of censorship:
The question of how Christianity is the "foundation" of Austria and Europe is sometimes raised. However, the discussion is not very knowledgeable. This is also the case because even Church leaders refuse to use the expression "Christian West" and prevent any meaningful discussion, at least in the area of the Church. Therefore, if you actually come to this question among Catholics with a contemporary spirit, you will encounter mute ignorance.
The orb, the world dominated by the cross of Christ
The thesis of this essay is based on the diplomat's conviction: Without the motivating power of the Catholic faith, there would be no European civilization, and consequently no European peoples. There would not be "us" as individuals because our ancestors would not have been created. There would not be "us" as a nation because without faith there would not have been sufficient cohesion and self-assertion.
Because Catholics, and especially monasticism, which is a more intensive realization of the faith, created the structures on which our culture and our existence as European peoples are based, amid immense sacrifices. We still draw on what is left. Catholic Christianity is thus not only a “contribution” to European civilization among others, but also the reason for it and the actual foundation.
So to the individual points to support this thesis:
Monasteries as structure-building centers
The existence of the monasteries in this country has become so self-evident to many that they stop thinking about their origin and meaning. At most, some people come across their “wealth”. But there is no further thought here: the monasteries are "rich" because generations of monks have labored without pay and have accomplished enormous work to feed and afford modest accomodation for the poor. These range from pioneering activities such as clearing and building, to agriculture, to welfare, science, medicine, fine arts and music. The monastery school and hospital are Catholic inventions. They are an answer to Christ's judgment speech, the main sentence of which is: What you do to the least of my brothers, you did to me.
After all, the knights of the monks contained Islamic aggression for several centuries and made the development of Christian Europe possible in the first place.
Another fact is considered by many too little:
Work as a source of added value
The Benedictine Ora et Labora made the call to work culture-defining. If you don't want to work, you shouldn't eat, as the Apostle Paul says, and: The thief should no longer steal, but work and earn something with his hands so that he can give it to the needy.
This access to work has created solid and lasting economic structures, including welfare work (poor relief). This approach differs from an economy that is based on usury, begging, extortion or caravan robbery and therefore neither produces anything nor creates jobs nor cares for the needy, on the contrary, it produces them.
As is well known, Greek and Roman paganism despised physical labor and therefore kept slaves. Islam also has this attitude. But Christianity strives to sanctify work, even the “low” work, and itself through work. The Benedictine rule prescribes physical work and nobody has to be too good for it.
Under early medieval conditions, this can be understood as a social upheaval towards the positive.
There is something else associated with permanent work:
Stabilitas loci: prerequisite for stability
Benedictine monasticism usually implies (usually) lifelong ties to a particular monastery. It differs from the missionary work of the Anglo-Saxon and Irish traveling monks and from the mendicant orders founded in the 13th century. We also owe a lot to both groups in Europe. The focus here should be this: The stabilitas loci was a haven and anchoring during the time of the migration of the peoples. It was an alternative lifestyle - and of course it is also at a time that “migration” celebrates as a value in itself.
Beyond the life of the individual monk, the monasteries achieved tremendous temporal continuities. This fact is also little anchored in the collective consciousness: Even relatively short-lived monasteries, e.g. those that fell victim to the Josephine monastery storm [When Freemason Emperor, Joseph II looted the monasteries and "put everyone to work"] in this country, worked over a period of time that affected all current political continuities, far outshines the existence of the Republic, the EU, and the USA among other things. The Gaming Charterhouse may serve as an example, having only run as a monastery for over four hundred years. That is more than five times as long as the existence of the second Austrian republic.
Incidentally, in the 14th century, the building was so solid that all of the parts of the former monastery are still usable in Gaming - only to illustrate the contrast to the "modern" design. (And because we are talking about the continuities: When Gaming was founded, the Benedictine monastery Kremsmünster had already stood about six hundred years, but one normally does not think about it and it is not subject to the opinion published in the [!].. Fake news media. )
The continuity and reliability of the monasteries therefore contributed as crystallization points to the formation of cultural and political continuities.
This is related to the following:
Education: theology and tradition of ancient culture
The monasteries were and are places of education. The complete Benedictine imperative is yes: Ora et labora et lege. Any accusation of “hostility to science” against the Catholic faith is absurd given the facts. Theology also holds the building of science together as the keystone, illuminates the naturally recognizable reality with supernatural light and prevents science-drivers from misusing their knowledge, as does a Promethean, even satanic alchemy and magic.
Within this framework, science was able to develop in the service of human needs. Just think of the life-saving monastic medicine.
For our question about the foundation of European culture, it is also important to see that the best of ancient wisdom about the monasteries has come to us. According to the Catholic faith, everything true, good and beautiful has a part in the eternal Logos and comes from it. The Gospel of John says that "in the beginning", in principio , ie "in principle", was the Logos, the word, the meaning, the understanding, not the absurd.
References to logos can be found in ancient thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Cicero. Based on its own traders, ancient philosophy, which de facto hardly shaped the political life and culture of their contemporaries, would have disappeared without a trace. One must not believe that a Plato has met with great interest on a social scale. The circle of the academy was too small. Plato was unsuccessful politically. His dialogues would have been lost. But it was the monks who copied the testimonies of ancient wisdom and therefore preserved them and made them fruitful for Christian philosophy and theology, and thus for the development of culture.
It is therefore obvious that Athens and Rome, i.e. the Acropolis and the Capitol, the two “hills” next to Golgotha (after a dictum by the German Federal President Theodor Heuss), have shaped Europe only because the Church has the best of them, Philosophy and jurisprudence. The three hills are not "equal", if you want to put it that way, because they are not equally effective in history.
Ancient thinkers, state theorists and lawyers then found their place within the framework of the revealed faith. Of course, this does not reach that of the bearer of the express revelation, so it is not a scripture, but it must not be despised either.
summary
The motivation of the monk, like any other Catholic, is not to provide cultural achievements as an end in itself, but to give glory to God and to attain eternal life. This can only be reached via a steep and narrow path. The above-mentioned tangible and intangible assets were then created through indirect profitability. The instruction of the Sermon on the Mount came true on a large scale: First look for the Kingdom of God, everything else will be added to you. This allowed a true “culture” to emerge from colere : cultivate, maintain, refine, cultivate and worship the true God. The villages and towns grew around the churches and monasteries. What held the communities together was the common belief.
At the same time, the peoples gained their profile. As is well known in the missio of Christ, he says: Make all nations my disciples. Not only the individuals, but the peoples as a whole should implement the teaching of Christ. This practically made the Church the inventor of “ethnopluralism”, if you put it that way. Obviously, the uniform Latin liturgical and scientific language was no obstacle to the development of the national peculiarities within Christianity. Thus, Germans, French, English, Poles, Croats, Hungarians and all others were united to Christian peoples, in the Church under the Roman Pope and through the Latin language in an uncomplicated understanding.
The content of the Catholic faith proved to be plausible in its action, the moral regulations as beneficial, the central imperative of love for God and neighbor as liberating. Faith opened meaning and peace of conscience and let its confessors come to terms with it. The horror of paganism with its idols and human sacrifices disappeared.
Paradisiacal conditions were neither attained nor sought because the Church faith precludes any conception of such conditions on earth. The alleged “consolation” to the hereafter has proven to be a real consolation for the people of the Migration Period and the “Middle Ages” and has led to the aforementioned cultural achievements.
It is therefore irrelevant whether the present thoughts may be perceived as "romantic" or "idealizing": we are there as individuals and as a nation only because of this and can only look back on 1500 years of Catholic culture in our homeland because our ancestors were creators of life-promoting and community-building structures. We are there because countless of our ancestors have received medical help in Catholic hospitals and orphanages and have therefore been able to stay alive longer and start a family. Circumstances, as they were, led to the generation of our ancestors, from whom we descended.
We should always be aware of this.
If the Church had not gained a foothold in Europe, Europe would have remained a meaningless Eurasian peninsula. No peoples would have developed that were worthy of historiography. A conglomerate of descendants from ever-invading and massacre pagan hordes could not have enabled national continuity, cultural and human development.
So the Hungarian diplomat was right.
At a time when churches and monasteries are often little more than empty shells due to the apostasy of hierarchies and devotees, the destruction of faith will also entail the destruction of the cultures and peoples that have arisen from it. In Fatima it was said that peoples who do not convert will disappear from the face of the earth. Well, as you can see, it doesn't require atomic bombs.
Text: MMag. Wolfram Schrems, Vienna
(This essay is the revised version of an article that first appeared in the Attersee Report , the publication of the Attersee Circle within the Freedom Party of Austria , No. 21, 2019, p. 14. It is a pleasant surprise that it appears in the FPÖ gives those responsible who are at least interested in Catholic positions and who always offer a platform to an articulating author of this kind. WS)
