Egypt's Most Famous Convert Imprisoned Again -- Because of "Proselytism"

(Cairo) Bishoy Armiya is the most famous Egyptian convert. On 4 December, the Christian was again arrested by the Egyptian police.

Before his conversion he was called Mohamed Hegazy and was a Muslim. After he had converted to Jesus Christ,  Bishoy Armiya was desperate to avoid the current practice that conversions of Muslims to Christianity are not recognized officially in Egypt. Other converts become Christians, but do so outside of constraints by the authorities. Armiya however, began a protracted battle in order to be officially accepted that he is not Muslim, but Christian.

Specifically, he demanded that his religion is changed in his identity card. For this he was arrested in 2010. The charge was "proselytizing". In police custody Bischoy Armiya was severely maltreated. Through torture, the police tried to force him to return to Islam. Several fatwas were imposed against  Christians, in which he was condemned to death as a "renegade". Armiya was forced to move several times for safety with his family.

On Wednesday, Egypt's best-known convert was arrested again. The charge is again "proselytism". This time, however, Armiya is accused of persuading other Muslims to apostasy from Islam and to have them converted to Christianity.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi 

Photo: Christian News

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

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Will The Dismissal of Cardinal Cañizares be Announced Today? -- Change of Direction

(Rome / Madrid) Tomorrow, Saturday, it will be made ​​known in Rome that Pope Francis will appoint Cardinal Cañizares Llovera Antonio as the new Archbishop of Madrid. This was reported by the Spanish Church Historian and well-known blogger Francisco de la Cigoña. The appointment means he will be transferred from Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and  removed from Rome. "They tell me that the appointment of  Cañizares as Archbishop of Madrid will be announced on Saturday," said de la Cigoña. "On Saturday we will see if these rumors are confirmed," said the personal informant of the most well-informed Spaniards.

The appointment of Cardinal Cañizares as Archbishop of Madrid would be a classic case of ecclesiastical "path clearning" and would confirm the rumors that Pope Francis is removing those cardinals like the Prefect of the Roman Curia, who were especially close to Pope Benedict XVI. and his understanding of the Churches and liturgy.  Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, a student of Cardinal Siri, has already been replaced as prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and appointed last September as Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary. Benedict XVI. had asked him after the failed attempt to put him at the top of the Congregation for the Clergy, to raise the Cure of Ars as patron and model of priests. A strengthening of the sacramental priesthood, which came within the church and also in the Curia  met   some violent resistance and led to the removal of the Cardinal from his office in the new pontificate.

Cardinal Piacenza represented the priest image of Benedict XVI., as Cardinal Cañizares Llovera supported the liturgical renewal of the German Pope, which received  no less hostility. Due to several signals observers have expected for months then that even the Spanish Cardinal would be removed by Pope Francis from his post as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Unclear is also the future of Kardinl Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Cardinal Cañizares was raised to the Prefect in 2009, Cardinal Ouellet, like Cardinal Piacenza, in 2010. If Cardinal Cañizares is actually replaced, an intention by Pope Francis of a change in direction from areas that were practically important to Pope Benedict XVI  will be confirmed.  Each pope is to appoint his own employees; however, each appointment is also a choice of direction, which will be slowed down,  which positions reversed or which to be promoted.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: ACI Prensa

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholishes....

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"Total War" Against the Franciscans of the Immaculata? The Unspeakable "Blemish"

(Rome) No other order has suffered such dramatic consequences on  the change of pontificate in late winter 2013  as  the Franciscans of the Immaculate. In July,  the Order  was placed under provisional administration by order of the Congregation for Religious  with papal approval.  Although the Order actually exactly corresponds to what Pope Francis wishes, namely evangelical poverty, missionary zeal and new evangelization, of which the  Franciscans of the Immaculate are one of  the only orders, against which the new pope has proceed with drastic measures. 

So dramatically that even a progressive Vatican expert like Marco Tosatti has now asked what should have these poor friars have only arranged, yes, done wrong, to deserve such a harsh punishment?  He could not fine an answer because he could not find a "crime", with which to  burden them. He therefore published a letter that describes the radicality with which the Order is being rebuilt. The question remains: Why did you destroy a thriving Order?

Young, Poor, Missionary and Evangelizing, but with a "Blemish" ...

The answer is in fact to look at a whole different level and observe the punished innocently. It  immediately arives at the level of intrigue. As  a cold as well as brutal coup by a minority in the Order. This was possible but only because this minority has been heard by the  Congregation for Religious  and in his  turn heard by the Pope. The Order had a major "flaw."  The "flaw" was that under the leadership and guidance of Pope Benedict XVI. they rediscovered the traditional rite and implemented it internally within the Order. The pastoral care of the Order was bi-ritual, internally it was old ritual. All in perfect accordance with the applicable rules and the canon law.

The Order is one of the few orders that have numerous vocations and can be described as a flourishing religious family in both the male and the female branches. The cons discovery of the liturgical riches of the Church makes the Franciscans of the Immaculate more to a unique phenomenon in the Catholic Church. Franciscan, missionary, flourishing and altrituell. Was unique to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, that a New Order was changing  to the Old Rite. It was a  combination that didn't only win  the Order  friends in the Vatican. With the rediscovery of the ancient liturgy,  the Order began to intensively study  the Second Vatican Council and of its examination and interpretation took place, working  in the light of the ever valid tradition.

The Order  Followed Benedict XVI. and discovered the Old Rite

A "flaw",  which was all the more serious,  because the Order had numerous vocations. A "blemish",  that certain  church circles of  little friendliness  and probably envious, did not dare to criticize under Pope Benedict XVI.. All the more uninhibited and with incredible haste they struck after his resignation. And Pope Francis gave them leave. For none of the other  orders  were effected in the change of  pontificate  more dramatically  than for the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

Let us hear so what Marco Tosatti wrote in the newspaper   La Stampa  on Wednesday:

"We received a letter from a layman who is close to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, a small Order, which is under an acting manager  (a highly debatable matter), and he complained of a special hardness posed by the new management. Based on many years of experience, we know of the cruelty in dealing with fellow brothers in church circles toward those other circles inferior to nothing. But just as Pope Francis, who signed the provisional administration, demanded in his interview with the chief editor of the Civilta  Cattolica  an attitude of Compassion 'and softness'. He was as  one of those in the Church, who entered the field hospital after a battle  and said, I see clearly that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds,'  because, 'Nevertheless, there are people weary of authoritarianism '.

Each reader should decide for themselves whether in fact the  authoritarianism plays a role in the  Franciscans of the Immaculate  and arrogance among the Sisters.   What  have these  poor men done? Have they speculated in money, sexually abused minors or maintained an immoral lifestyle? So here's the letter. "

Letter from a layman who is close to the Franciscans of the Immaculate

Little is known about how things went on after the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate was placed under provisional administration. Therefore, a brief summary is necessary. 

After Father Stefano Maria Manelli, the worthy and pious founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FI) was placed under charges that he had led the brothers away from their founding charism, without explaining this to date, of which the father is said to have concretely carried anyone away; then, the priests' celebration of the old rite was prohibited, a ban that applies to this day, and has been followed in the Order with absolute and faithful obedience; after which the brothers, who are faithful to the charism of the founding fathers, were hastily charged in summary proceedings and removed, and all those brothers who support the "new" line were promoted in the various monasteries around the world,  then  without a visible reason, the General Procurator Father Apollonio, Director of the Theological Seminary and Guardian of the Cloister Roma-Boccea was dismissed and sent to Portugal, as the Order's Superior of Florence was dismissed and sent to Austria;  then Father Settimio Manelli and Father Siano, were dismissed as Rector and Vice Rector of the Order Seminary and sent to Africa; then they were replaced by  two brothers of the "new" line, one of which does not even have  a degree; then Father Budani, who was in the middle of completing his studies of the canon law to end overnight and without possibility of completing his studies was sent to Africa; then, after Founder Father Stefano Manelli was deposed as Superior General and exiled and even though he has met all instructions and guaranteed absolute obedience, even his closest relatives are forbidden to visit him, and it is forbidden to make phone or receive phone calls and any contact with the outside world is denied to him ... after all, now it's the Apostolic Commissioner, the Capuchin Father,  Fidenzio Volpi, with the assistance of Father Alfonso Bruno, who is the new powerful man in the Order, and it's all-out war against the laity who are in continuing connection to the Order. 

By a letter dated 27 November, he forbade any activity of the lay members of the Mission Immaculate Mediatrix (MIM) and the Third Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (Tofi). He refused that the Tertiaries to wear their robes. 

Is it resolving alleged internal difficulties claimed f a thriving religious community with such incredible hardness and such Stalinist purges? Or  its charisma be destroyed instead, which was not only able to arouse increasing number of vocations and to attract and expand the Order on all continents, but was, until yesterday, praised and promoted by the highest ecclesiastical authorities. Just think that the now outlawed Father Manelli and Father Lanzetta, were once welcome until a few months ago by cardinals and bishops and were welcome in the columns of the Osservatore Romano Publications were even open to them.

Text: La Stampa / Giuseppe Nardi
image: Franciscans of the Immaculate
Link to Katholisches....
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Tolkien and Faerie

This the main body of a letter I wrote some years ago to a friend of mine in response to a question about Tolkien and his apparent belief in existence of a faerie world. [1]

"There are some things which, perhaps, should not be subjected to the systematic prying of man, whose beauty is not from any theological niceties but rather intertwined with the mystery of it. At the same time my mind is of such an inquisitive nature that some explanation- though likely inadequate by far- should be sought. 

What then is the nature of faerie? It is the same nature as that of the hills and the forests and the soil.. When our fathers perceived the nymphs of the waters and the dryads of the woods it was because of their intimacy with the land. Faerie is far too earthly to be angelic. King James VI & I, in his Daemonologie, took the position that it was demonic, but a Calvinist of his calibre cannot be expected to be as tolerant of faerie as his Catholic predecessors certainly were.  

Something else entirely then? The evidence- both folkloric and scholarly- to support the existence of all manner of phantasms and spectres is truly immense. Like the folk of faerie these are beings far too bound to this world to be angelic. Many are no doubt demonic; others may be the souls of men- purgatorians (though visitations from the damned are by no means unheard of), although one could debate whether they roam beyond purgatory or if their place of purgation is somehow upon this earth; but there are others still which can only fall into a third category, beings 'neither of the Heavenly Host nor of the Infernal Horde', as you say. A number of Renaissance Neoplatonists believed in discarnate intelligences which were neither angels nor demons, and connected somehow with the celestial bodies. Blessed Anne-Katherine Emmerich spoke of such 'planetary spirits, who are entirely different from devils, but who may yet have to be judged'. Of the Fathers of the Church I do not know. In regards to faerie itself, Fra' Sinistrari posits the existence of rational creatures possessing body and spirit, but distinct from man- scripture attests to the existence of such a race once, the antediluvian giants, offspring of incubi. [2]

A more earthy creature is described by St. Jerome in an event from his life of St. Anthony of Egypt, where the holy hermit comes across a faun and, confused as we might be, assumes the thing to be demonic and douses it with holy water, to which the faun responds by positively, clearly indicating that it is something else entirely. [3]

As I said in my last message, I am sure our fathers did indeed 'see' faerie. But did our ancestors behold these creatures in the same way as one man may behold another? They may have spirit and body, as Sinistrari suggests, but is their flesh like the flesh of man? Are they material in the same manner as we are material? Or do they partake of a matter more subtle than our own flesh? Like all living things they must possess souls- though these must not be immortal as our own, but mortal and utterly bound up with the earth. [4]

That is how I am inclined to answer anyway, a Tolkienesque perspective as you might say. Truly, the more I read Tolkien's mythologies the more I am certain that in them he has accurately represented an entirely Catholic- though distinctly Platonic- metaphysics and ontology. As the professor himself lamented, too many people try to read his legendarium with an allegorical eye, as they might Lewis, rather than as literature for the sake of literature. And yet in its themes and worldview it is the most Catholic of fiction literature. His letters and essays on other topics of course reveal a far more expressed relation to a Platonic and Catholic worldview. Tolkien presents a mode of thought that is indeed a very much needed breath of fresh air. I also see such thought as a call to return to our roots.  

..."

[1] This letter was a response to a question about a line attributed by myself at the time to J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to Arthur Greeves.

"[Family life must have been different] in the days when a family had fed on the produce of the same few miles of country for six generations, and that perhaps was why they saw nymphs in the fountains and dryads in the wood – they were not mistaken for there was in a sense real (not metaphorical) connections between them and the countryside. What had been earth and air and later corn, and later still bread, really was in them. We of course who live on a standardized international diet…are artificial beings and have no connection (save in sentiment) with any place on earth. We are synthetic men, uprooted. The strength of the hills is not ours."

With more recent research into the origin of this quote I am able to correct my earlier mistake. This is actually from a letter by C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves in which he paraphrases Tolkien. The full quote is thus:

"Tolkien once remarked to me that the feeling about home must have been quite different in the days when a family had fed on the produce of the same few miles of country for six generations, and that perhaps this was why they saw nymphs in the fountains and dryads in the wood–they were not mistaken for there was in a sense a real (not metaphorical) connection between them and the countryside. What had been earth and air and later corn, and later still bread, really was in them. We of course who live on a standardised international diet (you may have had Canadian flour, English meat, Scotch oatmeal, African oranges, and Australian wine to day) are really artificial beings and have no connections (save in sentiment) with any place on earth. We are synthetic men, uprooted. The strength of the hills is not ours."

The final sentence is a reference to the fourth verse of Psalm 95 in the King James Bible, "In his hand are the deepe places of the earth: the strength of the hilles is his also."


[2] This is a reference to Fra' Lodovico Sinistrari, a 17th century Franciscan priest and advisor to the Holy Office of the Roman Inquisition, and his work, De Daemonialitate.


[3] The story of the Faun is not from a life of St Anthony of Egypt, but rather from St Jerome's Vita Pauli monarchi, though the protagonist is still the same St Anthony. Nor is it a Faun that St Anthony first encounters but a "hippocentaur". St Jerome is uncharacteristically unsure whether, "the devil took this shape to terrify Anthony, or whether it be that the desert which is known to abound in monstrous animals engenders that kind of creature also, we cannot decide." Following this episode St Anthony finds the faunus, which speaks and gives some indication of its nature: "I am a mortal being and one of those inhabitants of the desert whom the Gentiles deluded by various forms of error worship under the names of Fauns, Satyrs, and Incubi. I am sent to represent my tribe. We pray you in our behalf to entreat the favour of your Lord and ours, who, we have learnt, came once to save the world, and ‘whose sound has gone forth into all the earth.' ".


[4] The existence of "subtle matter" was defined by the Second Council of Nicea in approving the following passage by John of Thessalonica:

"Respecting Angels, Archangels, and their powers, to which I also adjoin our own Souls, the Catholic Church is indeed of the opinion that they are intelligences, but not entirely bodiless and senseless, as you Gentiles aver; she on the contrary ascribes to them a subtle body, aerial or igneous, according to what is written: "He makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a burning fire." Although not corporeal in the same way as ourselves, made of the four elements, yet it is impossible to say that Angels, Demons, and Souls are incorporeal; for they have been seen many a time, wearing their own body, by those whose eyes the Lord has opened."

Pharmacist Dismissed Because She Refused to Sell the "Morning After Pill" in France

(Paris) A French pharmacist refused to sell the early abortive morning after pill out of conscience and has now been discharged. Jacqueline F. had asked a colleague to serve a customer the morning after pill. The customer received the product that has both a contraceptive and abortifacient effect. A complaint was brought against the pharmacist.

The question of conscientious objection concerns in France don't just include the mayor who refuses "gay marriage",  who they want to compel by the socialist government by state law. The French law also prohibits pharmacists of conscience to refuse sale of the morning-after pill. Who does so anyway, risks losing their job, as happened to Jacqueline F. In a report by  the  Objection Association she made ​​known her case.

The woman had completed her pharmacy degree two years ago and has since worked as an employee in the branch of a major pharmacy company. The idea that she would have to sell the morning-after pill as a contraceptive, but also with an abortifacient effect, and thus contribute to the killing of an unborn child, put her under ever greater strain. After a long struggle with herself, she trusted her manager and pharmacist colleagues as to her conscience problems. To her amazement, she found that they shared her concerns and themselves had difficulties with selling the killing medication. "He made ​​me the proposal, to refer customers who wanted abortion products to other colleagues," said Jacqueline.

Hasenhüttl Sees No "Serious Movement" In the Direction of Progressive Demands Under Francis

(Berlin) The suspended priest, theologian and critic Gotthold Nathan Hasenhüttl sees no "serious movement" under Pope Francis   towards progressive demands and cites as an example that Franzikus "strictly refuses women to the priesthood". Hasenhüttl said, leading to  an interview that the Saarbrücken newspaper on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

The former Professor of Systematic Theology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Saarland  became  known when he  celebrated Mass in  support of the Ecumenical Church Council in Berlin, where he also expressly invited  Protestants and non-Catholics to the reception of the Holy Eucharist, and which he in the current interview referred to as the "most beautiful church service I have held in my life."  2004 saw his suspension from the priesthood by the Vatican, 2006, the withdrawal of permission to teach by the then Bishop of Trier, Reinhold Marx. In 2010 Hasenhüttl , who considers himself  "through and through Catholic", departed from the Roman Catholic church, since he felt "much the same as before," he told the  Saarbrücken news. He is proud that he had "frequently met students,  that I had freed from a Catholic corset."

Hasenhüttel Proud of his Theology Students From Having "Catholic Corset"

Hasenhüttl admits the new Pope is indeed "sympathetic in his way. as he approaches people" . But he misses the next "new momentum", which are the actual reforms as Pope, "you have to look exactly at what he really does. So far, there are mostly announcements. Particularly bad says Hasenhüttl , that  Francis does, is the encyclical "Lumen Fidei" signed by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.: "This is a very reactionary encyclical which repeats what the theology in the 19th Century has said. "

When asked which of the six popes who Hasenhüttl  liked the most  since his ordination in 1959, and his "views on the next" coming, he exclaims "without a doubt. John XXIII. He then yes also considered whether to lift the celibacy law",   the suspended priest claims to know. He continued: "As we all had high hopes that the 2nd Vatican Council  would be that something would happen in terms of openness and new movements. John XXIII. has opened the windows and doors of the church. But the popes have not only closed a window to others, but even bricked it in part. In this way, the reactionary forces have prevailed in the Church. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Rorate Caeli

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Katholisches...

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Holland's Bishops in Rome -- Holland's "Progressive" Direction "Manifesto" to Pope Francis

(Amsterdam) There are rumors on the progressive wing of the Catholic Church in the German speaking nations, that the Lower German Dutch are to be added. From theologians Manifesto "We want women Cardinals" about the uprising German Bishops and Ordinaries against the indissolubility of the marriage sacrament, on the demand for priestesses by the new President of the Superior Conference of Male Religious Communities in Austria, is immediately seconded by the President of the Association of Women's Orders of Austria to the memorandum Cologne Catholics for an anti-Meisner as the next Archbishop of Cologne, the bandwidth registers nervous twitches. The latter demand is reminiscent of the desire for an anti-Benedict XVI. as the new Pope. The bishops of the Netherlands are on an ad limina visit to Rome. These progressive groups have written a "manifesto" to Pope Francis, in which they make statements of support for the new head of the Church as a "defender" of the Church and of the Church's heritage. However, the ulterior motives are different.

Horror Missae: Church as a Play Space for Children -- and Saps

Liturgical Carnival (New York / Munich) to American hard Thanksgiving was in the Calvert Hall College High Schoo, a "Thanksgiving Liturgy' celebrated in Maryland's Aula Magna of the Institute. Rorate Caeli published that picture speaks for itself. The same applies to the interdenominational project for youth churches in the German language area.

Dozens of projects of these youth churches there are dozens of these projects in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. "Engaged know-how" supplier with several full-time employees is the association Juki (youth church). The project is funded by youth churches of the Catholic Church and Protestant churches. Service's performed without discrimination.

Among the promoters in Austria, is Vienna's Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, who already participated in youth churches himself. Some pictures from youth churches in Catholic churches, threaten to deface, mask, caricature, camouflage and dechurch to lure young people into the church? Where the truths of faith wane, the symbols of the faith and the Church lose their meaning and have to be replaced by new "symbols". Without fuss, booming music, light show, dance performances, Flash Mob, climbing wall and swimming pool in the church, you can not keep the young people there? This opinion seems to be that of the youth churches and diocesan youth ministry responsible for supporting such projects. Otherwise, they would all "committed" expenses outside the church to perform where it belongs, and call the young people for prayer in the Church and the Holy Mass before or after. If only! But there will only images that cause pain.

Ed: you may visit the site and look at the blasphemy for yourself in  a slide show.

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