Scalfari, The Bard of the Bergoglian Double-Magisterium Has Died

 

Eugenio the friend of the pope, or: The pope who had a freemason and atheist as a friend and did not convert him.

(Rome) Eugenio Scalfari, the atheist friend of Pope Francis, died yesterday. The newspaper La Repubblica published an obituary by Pope Francis today about the founder of this newspaper. The relationship between Pope Francis and Masonic atheist Eugenio Scalfari is among the most telling and enigmatic pages of the current pontificate. It is significant and puzzling, if not surprising, that the obituary is a eulogy.

Eugenio Scalfari, born in 1924, was a journalist and publicist all of his professional life, he came from an upper-class family with a long Masonic tradition, earned his first spurs in fascist daily newspapers and was a co-founder of the radical-liberal, anti-clerical Radical Party in 1955, 1962-1968 editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Espresso (comparable to the German Spiegel), as an independent member of parliament for the Socialists till 1972, in 1976 he founded the daily newspaper La Repubblica to the left of the upper-class liberal Corriere della Sera, of which he was editor-in-chief until 1996 and then its publisher. His self-description was, an atheist. Although he never described himself as a Freemason, he was happy to show the ancestral gallery of his direct ancestors, who were brothers in the lodge.

The editors chose the following words as the headline for the papal obituary:

"Eugenio, my laicist [secularist] friend, I will m[iss talking to you."

 

Son from a good family with a generation-old credo of the Grand Orient

Since the 1950s, Scalfari himself has been involved in every socio-political struggle intended to lead the world a little further to the left. In addition to the political right, the main targets of his media activism were the indissolubility of marriage, the inviolability of human life and again and again the Catholic Church and its dogmas. He was successful as an extra-parliamentary spokesman in many struggles: in the 1970s, divorce and abortion were legalized, as were “gay marriage” and euthanasia a few years ago.

It was all the more striking that Pope Francis found his most enthusiastic fans, one cannot call it any other way, in the ranks of the anti-Church Radical Party, that radical liberal micro-party which, as a hinge between the Marxist left and left-liberal bourgeoisie, exerted great influence on political developments in Italy and beyond. The bandwidth of these fans ranged from Marco Pannella to Emma Bonino ( after all, former Foreign Minister, EU Commissioner and Soros Prize winner and for Pope Francis a "very big one") to the now deceased Eugenio Scalfari.

All of them came from well-to-do bourgeois families, were open to Socialism, but never joined communism, but internalized the emancipatory drive of liberalism, which still predates socialism, which is why they were able to become leading exponents of the political left in numerous struggles. Their fight was for the legalization of divorce, abortion, euthanasia, drugs and "gay rights". As a powerful doyen of Italian left-wing journalism, Eugenio Scalfari led this struggle from the columns of the daily newspaper he had founded.

Marco Pannella, the "Mangiapreti" (priest-eater), another of Scalfari's friends, became an "electrified" fan of Francis. Pannella, who died in 2016, still had under Pope Benedict XVI. demonstrated against the Church on St. Peter's Square with the slogan "No Taliban, No Vatican" and put the Vatican on the same level as the Islamist Taliban. Under Pope Francis, the same Pannella exclaimed, unforgettably: 

"Viva il papa! We radicals love him very much”, so much so that Pannella wished: “I want to become a citizen of the Vatican”.

 

Pannella and Scalfari were two leading founders of the Radical Party.

Eugenio Scalfari is decorated by the Duce of Fascism Benito Mussolini.

Eugenio Scalfari's interviews with Pope Francis became downright notorious. In November 2014, Katholisches.info wrote for clarification:

"The jubilation of the Scalfari and Pannella is not the jubilation of those who have found or rediscovered faith, but of those who feel they have 'conquered' even the Vatican with their positions."

How could such adamant abortion lobbyists see Francis as a "friend"? Were they even deceived by the Pope, as some of their supporters suspected? Nothing like that.

Bergoglio made it clear at the beginning of his pontificate that the struggle for "non-negotiable values" is not his struggle. Rather, he made a serious break and described the attitude of his predecessors in the question of the right to life as "obsessed". Francis did not formally change the Magisterium in a very Bergoglian way, but in fact he did, entirely in accordance with the principle he advocated that practice comes before theory. For Scalfari and Pannella, this counted for far more than an occasional but inconsequential criticism of the killing of unborn children. Francis' recent stabs in the back at the majority of US bishops on the communion issue for abortion politicians reinforced this papal maxim.

In this way, Francis was able to establish an unofficial, parallel teaching post , the bard of which was his friend Eugenio Scalfari. This "new magisterium", also known as the " Scalfari magisterium" and never really denied by the Holy See, promulgated a new doctrine more like that of the Lodge than the Church. In 2019, all the conversations, interviews and phone calls that Scalfari subsequently reported to the world were collected in the book I l Dio unico e la società moderna' ('One God and Modern Society'). It contains all the statements of the reigning pope that caused considerable irritation in the church in the past and will probably do so in the future. Scalfari always insisted on their authenticity - unchallenged. Scalfari clarified a bridging in the subtitle of the book, because the publication included all "meetings with Pope Francis and Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini". The latter had already died in 2012, not without Benedict XVI two months before his death. vigorously urged to resign.

In 2019, Katholisches.info wrote :

“Eugenio Scalfari is twelve years older than the Catholic Church leader. How can their relationship, which is obviously deliberately surrounded by an aura of the unclear and opaque, be described? Most likely as congenial, since a certain kinship of spirit can hardly be denied after six years of irregular 'collaboration', which has continued despite all the criticism."

Tenets of the Bergoglian Scalfari Magisterium are:

• 
  
• that for Christians there is no "absolute truth";
• that good and bad are merely subjective opinions;
• that there is "no Catholic God";
• that Mary the Blessed Mother under the cross perhaps wanted to ask herself whether she had been "tricked" because the messianic promises must have seemed like "lies" to her;
• that Jesus Christ is “not” the Son of God;
• that "sin is done away with";
• that "hell is abolished";
• that mankind should merge into a “mestizo” through racial mixing;
• that conversion is not necessary.

The atheist Scalfari wanted to "build a tailor-made, fluid and relativistic Christianity", according to Il Giornale at the end  of 2013. And Francis supported him in this.

The Vatican spokesman at the time, Fr. Federico Lombardi, objected embarrassed and half-heartedly, but soon realized that Santa Marta had not issued any order for a denial. So the statements remained unexplained in the room. It was obviously intentional. Even more: The Vatican publishing house even published the first and most irritating interview in book form . It probably doesn't need any more confirmation. 

In 2019 the second book " Grand Hotel Scalfari. Confessioni libertine su un secolo di carta” (“Grand Hotel Scalfari. Libertine Confessions over a Century of Paper”, Marsilio Editori, 2019), a benevolently conceived biography in the form of a conversation book. Katholisches.info wrote enlighteningly :

Handshake between Christian Democrat De Mita (right) and Communist Berlinguer. Eugenio Scalfari acted as mediator of the "Historical Compromise". Keep moving the country to the left.

“Scalfari, who has long since given up the editorship, has retained his weight and his column. Some, including Catholics, lulled by accusations of spreading conspiracy theories, don't like to hear it, but it's important for Scalfari: he's proud of his Masonic heritage. Although he is silent about his own affiliation with a lodge, he likes to point out that his grandfather and his great-grandfather and his great-great... were brothers and founders of the lodge. 'My ancestors founded lodges all over the Catanzaro area', Scalfari himself quotes in the book as a Masonic friend who said of his grandfather, a 'staunch socialist', that he was 'like an old Lucifer who catches fire'. Similar allusions abound throughout this book, while he suggests, more clearly than before, that he entered the lodge in San Remo immediately after the war. He does this, not without pointing out that in 1874 the Lodge in San RemoLiguria , predecessor of the lodges that work there today, and published the newspaper Lucifero ( Lucifer ). For the brothers in the lodge, Lucifer is not the personified evil of Christianity, but the 'bringer of light' who is worshiped in lodges and whose knowledge is striven for.”

Having said that, we publish Pope Francis' obituary of his friend Eugenio Scalfari:

"Eugenio, my lay friend, I will miss talking to you"

by Pope Francis

I am saddened by the death of Eugenio Scalfari, founder of La Repubblica newspaper. In these painful 

hours, I am close to his family, loved ones and all those who knew and worked with him. He has been a loyal friend to me. I remember him telling me at our meetings at Casa Santa Marta how he was trying to grasp the meaning of existence and life, exploring everyday life and the future through meditation on his experiences and his great readings. He described himself as a non-believer, although in the years I've known him, I've also thought deeply about the meaning of faith. He always wondered about the presence of God, about the last things and about the life after this life.

Our conversations were pleasant and intense, the minutes with him flew by, punctuated by the cheerful confrontation of our respective opinions and the exchange of our thoughts and ideas, but also by moments of joy.

We talked about faith and worldliness, about everyday life and the great horizons of humanity in the present and future, and about the darkness that can envelop man and the divine light that can illuminate his path. I remember him as a man of extraordinary intelligence and an ability to listen, always searching for the ultimate meaning of events, and always eager for knowledge and testimonies that might enrich the understanding of modernity.

Eugenio was an intellectual open to the present, courageous, transparent in describing his fears, never nostalgic for the glorious past but looking forward, with a touch of disillusionment but also with high hopes for a better world. And he was excited and in love with his work as a journalist. He left an indelible mark on the lives of many and charted a career path that many of his collaborators and successors have followed.

At the beginning of our exchanges by letter and telephone, and during our initial conversations, he had expressed his astonishment at my decision to call me Francis and wanted to understand the reasons for my decision. And then he was very fascinated by my work as a chaplain of the universal church, and in this sense, he argued aloud and in his articles about the church's commitment to interreligious and ecumenical dialogue, about the mystery of the Lord, about God, source of peace and Source of paths of concrete brotherhood between individuals, nations and peoples.

He emphasized the crucial value - for our society and for politics - of sincere, fruitful and continuous relations between believers and non-believers. He was fascinated by various theological issues, such as mysticism in the Catholic religion and the passage in Genesis that states that man was created in the image and likeness of God. And the composition and characteristics of the population groups that will inhabit the common house in the coming decades.

From this day on, I will keep in my heart the kind and precious memory of the conversations I had with Eugene during those years of my pontificate. I pray for him and for the consolation of those who mourn him.

And I commend his soul to God for eternity.

Text/Translation: Giuseppe Nardi

Photocredit: Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Mega-Interview from Pope Francis: "I don't like how the world is overcoming the pandemic"

About Corona, climate and disinformation: "Without the commitment of young people, we are finished" 

Mega interview with Pope Francis

Edit: his adulation and admiration for the murdering, bloodthirsty figures of the Latin American revolution was what caught my attention. 

Rome) Pope Francis granted an extensive exclusive interview to the Argentine press agency Télam, which was published yesterday at noon Roman time. However, it was not entirely “exclusive”. In the past, there have been some disagreements between the Communications Dicastery established by Francis and his arbitrary interviewing activities. As is well known, this happened repeatedly without regard to their own ministry. It was different this time.

In the past few years, it could be that those responsible for communications at the Holy See only found out about interviews with the Pope from the media. Santa Marta didn't bother to notify the proper authorities.

So it was that the Vatican media, such as VaticanNews and the Osservatore Romano, lagged behind the secular media and only published excerpts of the interviews. This, in turn, did not satisfy Francis, who wanted people to be able to read and hear his statements directly and fully.

In this regard, there seem to have been refinements: the Télam interview was made available to the Vatican media in advance so that translations could be made. When the original Spanish version of the interview was published, the Vatican media were able to publish translations in other languages that had already been prepared. VaticanNews published the papal responses in English and Italian. The Osservatore Romano was able to print the original version in its Spanish weekly edition that appeared yesterday, for which it needed four pages. The German service of VaticanNews. On the other hand, as in the past, contented itself with making only an abridged version available to the readership.

Katholisches.info initially wanted to publish the complete interview in an annotated version. We don't do that. The readers can get an unbiased picture. Some comments are still allowed, but will only be added at the end.

Own logo for the interview

Bergoglio Receives Award from Jewish Frreemasonic B'Nai B'rith

Bergoglio receives award from the B'nai B'rith 

Edit: this is from TIA.  I haven't seen this anywhere else in Catholic media, and until more Catholic organizations comment unfavorably on these kinds of events, nothing is going to change for the better.

In the photo above, we see the CEO of B'nai B'rith International Daniel S. Mariaschin giving Pope Bergoglio a gold chalice with Jewish inscriptions and symbols. This was a symbolic award to thank Francis for his constant support for this Jewish Masonic organization. This took place during a meeting in the Papal Library when Francis received a delegation of 27 members of that organization on May 30, 2022.

Commenting on the encounter, Mariachin told the Jerusalem Post: “From his years as Cardinal in Buenos Aires until today, Pope Francis has expressed a special interest in furthering Jewish-Catholic relations." He continued, “Our audience with him gave us an opportunity to demonstrate our appreciation for this support, to confirm our shared aspirations for peace and mutual respect." 

 In a formal speech, the president of the Jewish organization Seth Riklin asked for papal support for the Abraham Accords, which is a Jewish initiative to make Arabs recognize the State of Israel. This was an implicit request for the Holy See to exercise its influence over the Middle East Arab countries to accept Israel. This is what B'nai B'rith calls its work for fraternity and peace.

AMDG

Synodality -- A Codeword Under the Magnifying Glass

Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini and Pope Francis, a way to "complete" Vatican II.

(Rome) “Synodality” is a keyword of Pope Francis' pontificate.  At first, even inveterate Vaticanists thought it was a lapse when the new pope used this hitherto unknown word.  Even the Vatican press office believed he meant “collegiality,” a term not found in any document of Vatican II but which became a progressive code word in the post-Conciliar period.  However, Francis stuck to his neologism.  Only after a delay did the Catholic world begin to realize that the Argentine Pope was referring to far-reaching changes intended to give the Church a “new face”.

Katholisches.info wrote in November 2018: "From Martini's collegiality to Bergoglio's synodality".  In fact, there is an inner connection.  The two terms are in line, the latter, however, as a further development of the former.

From Martini's collegiality to Bergoglio's synodality

Collegiality was a key word of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini (1927-2012), Archbishop of Milan from 1979 to 2002, President of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences and a Jesuit like Bergoglio.  For almost 20 years, Martini was the spiritus rector of the secret group of Sankt Gallen, an association of the highest progressive churchmen to sabotage the pontificate of John Paul II and install a successor they liked.  The extended arm of this group became active in 2013 as Team Bergoglio.  Next August 31st marks the tenth anniversary of Martini's death.  It was he who vigorously called for the immediate resignation of Benedict XVI. behind closed doors in June 2012.  A few months later when Martini had died in the meantime, the German Pope, actually and surprisingly did exactly that.

In the 2005 conclave, Martini himself had hopes for the papal throne, but had to recognize his hopelessness for this cause.  He then brought Cardinal Bergoglio into play to at least prevent the election of Benedict XVI.

Martini and Bergoglio, although both members of the Society of Jesus, did not really see each other, mainly for personal reasons.  Martini came from a completely different social environment and was intellectually superior to the Argentine - and was himself convinced of it.  However, both had one thing in common: They had been protégés of the same man, Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe, who led the order from 1965 to 1981/83 and revolutionized it to his detriment.

Martini was the declared opponent of two popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.  The cardinal already saw himself in the antechamber to the papal throne, which is why, in a coquettish play on words, he did not describe himself as anti-pope, but as ante-pope.  The allusion was explicit nonetheless.  Although Martini did not make it to the papacy in 2005, his self-assessment proved to be true, albeit in a slightly different sense: he became the ante-pope, the one who preceded the pope of his election.  A few months after his death, this wish was granted in the 2013 conclave.  Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian bishops, headlined three days ago, May 17, that Martini "anticipated Pope Francis".  In fact, it was Martini who was the first to say that God was "not Catholic."  On this point, too, in his first, spectacular interview with Eugenio Scalfari for La Repubblica in autumn 2013, Francis was already following a predetermined path.

Synodality is taking shape

In the fall of 2014, “synodality” began to take shape with the first Family Synod taking place.  It quickly became apparent that the wind had turned.  The rules of the Synod have been changed.  The Pope emphasized “free speech”.  But that was only a sham for the public.  In reality, what only few noticed, the synod was trimmed down to the last detail by the papal direction for a specific result.  Opposing opinions were obstructed and hidden from the outside world.

Was that the "synodality" Francis meant?  Just an optical illusion, but in reality a well-crafted instrument of power to enforce his line?  Observers of Church events tried to understand.  But Francis is rooted in leftist thinking because of his formation through people and ideas.  It is therefore about structural changes.

On September 18, 2018, the Vatican published the Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis Communio signed by Francis three days earlier.  A document of almost explosive scope, which, however, received little attention and has not yet been applied.  So far, the synod of bishops introduced in 1965 by Pope Paul VI.  was only advisory in character.  Since Episcopalis Communio, they can also have magisterial authority.  Pope Francis stated in article 18 of the new constitution regarding the final report of the synod:

 "If expressly approved by the Pope, the final document is part of the ordinary magisterium of the successor of Peter."

 “Should the Pope give the synodal assembly decision-making authority in accordance with can.  343 of the Code of Canon Law, the final document, once ratified and promulgated by him, is part of the ordinary magisterium of the successor of Peter.”

The approach is reminiscent of the EU as revealed by then EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker:

 “We decide something, then put it out there and wait a while to see what happens.  If there is no big shouting and no riots because most people do not understand what has been decided, then we will continue - step by step until there is no turning back."

An advisory body became (if necessary) a decision-making body.  At the same time, Pope Francis stressed suspiciously often that he didn't want to change anything, just initiate processes - albeit irreversible ones if possible.

In this sense, Episcopalis Communio  became a legal norm in reserve, for the right moment.  It can be applied at any time.

The next step

Meanwhile, on March 19, 2022, the next step was taken with the Apostolic Constitution, Praedicare Evangelium.  In the course of the reorganization of the Roman Curia and the associated redistribution of responsibilities, two words have been omitted.  A little thing that is easy to overlook at first glance – a supposed little thing.  This constitution, with which the curial reform was implemented, which Francis had declared to be one of the main concerns of his pontificate and which had been demanded for years and decades, above all by progressive Church circles, ultimately went down almost “modestly” on the stage.  But the devil is known to be in the details.  Who likes to read laws and rules of procedure?  In addition, this central constitution for the reorganization of the Roman Curia is only available in Italian to this day.

The change?  Instead of the "synod of bishops", as it was called in the Italian documents, Praedicare Evaelium only speaks of "synod".  This opened the way to an undefined, broader understanding of the synod, which is completely foreign to the Orthodox Church and has hitherto been in the Catholic Church.  With exceptions.  In the German-speaking world, experiments were carried out in the 1970s in the sense of a Protestant synod understanding, above all the Würzburg Synod 1971-1975, which were then stopped by John Paul II.  With the "Synodal Path", the German Bishops' Conference is making another attempt, with the expected catastrophic consequences.

The difference?  Not only do bishops meet and are entitled to vote, but also lay people.  The Protestant understanding of "assembly" is carried over to the leadership level of the Church.

This coincides with another, no less drastic innovation by Praedicare Evangelium.  Authority no longer derives from the consecration of a bishop, but from the missio canonica, the ecclesiastical commission.  This is a double axis shift, down and sideways.  Every priest, every theology professor and every religion teacher is equipped with one.  Everyone can also lead the highest curia office and everyone can participate in synods and be entitled to vote.

Both changes show the intention of reorganizing the hierarchical constitution of the Church in the sense of Protestant and democratic elements.  However, this affects the nature of the Church.  According to the zeitgeist, everything has to be inclusive.

 The "Synodal Church"

If the Church is "synodal" - Francis repeatedly spoke of a "synodal church" - then this implies that the synod is the central element of that church.  Initially, some thought that Francis wanted to weaken the papacy in favor of a collegial governing body of bishops like the Holy Synod known to the Orthodox Church.  However, Francis thinks far beyond that.

In papal circles, synodality was already defined as a state of "permanent synod".  The power of governance would pass to a permanent synod, which would be a kind of inclusive parliament, using Episcopalis Communio.  This idea of ​​a "permanent synod" also goes back to Cardinal Martini, to which Cardinal Michael Czerny, also a Jesuit and close confidante of Pope Francis, referred with satisfaction on Monday in Milan.  The occasion was the presentation of Martini's collected works, which are published by the Bompiani publishing house of the foundation named after Martini.

In April 2019, Francis was supported by the Council of Cardinals he created to introduce “synodality” at all levels and admit women to all positions of leadership.  This practice of gender equality hides the fact that the question is not about women or men, but about clerics or lay people and about bishops or non-bishops.  The noticeable suppression of the sacrament of Holy Orders and the ministry of Peter under Francis shines through.  The latter seems paradoxical, since Francis' rule is more authoritarian than any of his immediate predecessors.

Francis goes the way there by convening ordinary and extraordinary synods, double synods, preliminary synods, recommending state synods and also multi-year synods, such as the bishops’ synod on synodality, the so-called “synod synod”, which lasts until 2023.

The synod as a workshop for experiments

It is known that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, prior to his election as Pope, was displeased with Roman interventions, corrections, additions and deletions in synodal documents.  Some suspect that he therefore resorted to the unusual means of having all paragraphs of the working paper published, including those that did not win a two-thirds majority.  All were published at his behest, along with the respective voting results.  An approach that was not without criticism, as some recognized the promotion of a polarization that contradicts the synod principle of community and unity practiced up to now.

The polarization was exacerbated by Francis with the convening of the Amazon Synod, which took place in October 2019, and the circumstances in which it came about and its one-sided, little-confidence-inspiring preparation.  Overall, at no point was the Amazon Synod geared toward consensus, but rather a largely one-sided event by a particular segment of the Church.  The accusation was therefore voiced early on that the synod was not intended to solve problems at all, but to promote a certain progressive agenda.

Francis pulled the handbrake at the last moment.  How this came about is not entirely clear.  The fact is that Cardinal Robert Sarah, together with Benedict XVI.  published a plea for celibacy and the priesthood, to the great annoyance of Santa Marta.  After Francis had nurtured expectations in the above-mentioned circles for years to abolish celibacy for priests and to open the priesthood to lay people, especially women, a bitter disappointment followed for them.  Approval for his pontificate has continued to decline since then.

It became clear to everyone that synodality is actually not a synonym for collegiality, that Pope Francis rather regards synodality as a workshop for experiments, even at the expense of collegiality.  In doing so, he pays close attention to sounding out how far he can go without exposing himself to great resistance and even more serious accusations of heterodoxy.  Francis acts deliberately and strategically.

However, his person is to be distinguished from the structural changes that he undertook through the two constitutions Epicopalis Communio and Praedicare Evangelium.  A successor could see things differently and apply the possibilities opened up by Francis more radically.  The conditions for this were created by the Argentine Pope.

Synod final report without vote and German special way

Speaking of a two-thirds majority: So far, in the case of synods of bishops, which are a product of the Second Vatican Council and take place every three years, that is only forwarded to the pope for his post-synodal letter that can be based on the approval of at least two-thirds of the synod fathers, has been the rule.  The completely different practice of Francis is not without consequences.  Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops since 2020, demanded that the final document of the Synod of Bishops should come about according to new rules, i.e. without a final vote.  All paragraphs should be sent to the bishops' conferences, whose amendments will be obtained and only then published.

Cardinal Grech was previously Bishop of Gozo (Malta) and a particularly ardent supporter of Pope Francis.  He made a name for himself in Santa Marta in 2016 with the implementation of the controversial post-synodal document Amoris Laetitia.

And as on other points, Francis' pontificate means support for the German "Sonderweg" [German Special Way].  It is no coincidence that two of the four cardinals of the so-called Bergoglio team, which organized his election to the papacy, came from the Federal Republic of Germany.  It appears that there was agreement among them on the essential points in the run-up to the conclave.  In all steps taken by the majority of the German Bishops' Conference in the direction of their "revolution", they use doors that Francis previously opened, whether to the homosexual agenda, intercommunion or "synodality".

 That is exactly what Francis wants.  He initiates and expects others to pass the ball on.  But he wants to keep control of the game, which is a trait of his character.  In this respect, things do not always run smoothly between him and the German progressives, who have a firm stranglehold on the Church in the German-speaking world.

 The “synodal path” in Germany, like the state synods in Ireland and Australia, go back to Francis.  In Italy, the pope even loudly called for a synod in March 2019 because he was dissatisfied with developments.

He opened Pandora's box and initiated a "trial" with unforeseeable consequences because each of these Bergoglian synods represents a potential threat to the unity of the Church, the German one in particular. 

And as always, Francis is holding back, hardly appears to the outside world and does not interfere.  This is based on a Hegelian principle.

The same path leads from Martini's collegiality to Bergoglio's synodality.  It is about the "completion" of the Second Vatican Council, as implemented by the Jesuits in the spirit of Pedro Arrupe.

 Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ put it this way on May 16:

 “Cardinal Martini was a prophet.  His visions foreshadowed avenues in the Church.”

It is Pope Francis who is walking these paths.  Martini, Czerny, "did what the Council demanded of him".

 Text: Giuseppe Nardi

 Image: Wikicommons/MiL

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

The Decline of the Catholic Church in Latin America Accelerates Under Francis

 

The decline of Catholics in Latin America continues unabated. It increased under Pope Francis.

(Rome) For decades, Latin America was considered a “continent of hope” for the Catholic Church. In fact, it is losing ground there day by day. The reasons are complex but partly homemade. At the 2013 conclave, a well-meaning section of the pope's electorate was convinced that the election of the Argentine to the throne of Peter would halt the process of erosion. This was suggested to them by interested parties. The reality looks not only sobering but devastating. The most visible “response” so far has been the Amazon Synod. Church leadership seriously believes that this is the solution. Meanwhile, Catholic Latin America continues to erode.

The election of Pope Francis was engineered by European cardinals who were not primarily concerned with Latin America, but with the West. Their program is that of the '68, which they want to push through in their own countries. To do this, they chose the detour via Latin America. The Amazon Synod was driven by the same agenda. There is talk of Indians and the rain forest on the equator, but the desired program is that of the ecclesiastical 68ers with the aim of pushing through their agenda somewhere outside the European horizon in order to then re-import it into the old Occident. This strategy follows a clear logic after the direct route was recognized as having failed.

The eroding process of the Church in Latin America as far as the part of the Church is concerned, goes back to the wrong course that was set by European missionaries on the Iberian-influenced subcontinent. This includes, above all, Marxism and its thought pattern. This is how Liberation Theology developed and other currents. They are accompanied by a latent or open hostility to Europe. A paradox? It seems so. In reality, it reflects a partly consciously, partly unconsciously intentional decomposition, as practiced in Europe. It is the rejection of one's own identity, carried out with gradually varying degrees of intensity, and thus radically or to some extent also of Christianity, in Europe as well as in Latin America. 

The fact that the 500th anniversary of Christianization is partly "forgotten" is an alarming portent, after all, it was only then that civilization found its way onto the continent. In 1492 the discovery by Columbus, a man of deep Catholic character, was commemorated. However, the commemoration was overshadowed by polemical interference.

In 2019, the Mexican bishops extended an invitation to Pope Francis to come to Mexico for the 500th anniversary of the evangelization of mainland America. The first church on the American mainland was built in Tlaxcala in 1521 and dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi. However, Pope Francis showed no interest in traveling to the celebrations – and that had nothing to do with Corona, which then messed everything up a bit.

The Tlaxcaltecs could never be subdued by the cruel Aztecs. It is historically no coincidence that they allied themselves with the Spaniards and also quickly mixed with them through marriages. Together, the Spanish-Tlaxcaltec coalition defeated the Aztec Empire and ended its cruel cult of human sacrifice and cannibalism.

While the occasion was not sufficient for Pope Francis to travel to Latin America, Mexico's leftist leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, called for an apology from the Church to the "native peoples" (the term indigenous is used by political correctness is avoided) – for Christianization. However, the same Obrador considers Pope Francis to be “one of the finest popes” in Church history.

media and source

Telemundo, part of NBCUniversal ( USA), the third-largest media company in the world, and other media outlets, yesterday published reports on the decline of the Catholic Church in Latin America. The headline and tenor of Telemundo are exaggerated. No regrets can be expected from the authors. Rather, they indicate that the Church opposed abortion and euthanasia, but that its erosion entails socio-political changes. Thus, with the help of massive and planned pressure from the US and European NGOs, several states have legalized the killing of unborn children and "gay marriage". The same movement is also taking place toward the introduction of euthanasia.

The published figures come from Latinobarómetro and are certainly worth considering, albeit with a caveat. The market and opinion research institute based in Santiago de Chile is described by Wikipedia as an "independent private non-profit organization", but where it says "independent" today, independence is rarely to be found. Founder and Director Marta Lagos serve on the Chilean Board of Directors of Women's World Banking ( headquartered in New York), Advisor to the World Bank based in Washington, the United Nations Development Program UNDP based in New York, the Inter-American Development Bank Washington-based IADB and member of a UN Expert Committee on Public Opinion. The advisory board of Latinobarómetro includes a representative from Eurobarometer, a not at all "independent" institution of the EU Commission.

UNDP and IADB, the Ibero-American Summit OEI and the Development Bank of Latin America CAF, as well as the Norwegian and Swedish governments, are among Latinobarómetro's major donors.

The latest numbers

Latinobarómetro compares the development from 2000 to 2020 in ten-year steps. The number of Latin Americans who describe themselves as Catholic fell from 76 percent in 2000 to 70 percent in 2010 and 57 percent in 2020. This is double the decline compared to the previous decade.

In return, the Protestants and the non-religious have grown. The proportion of Protestants in Brazil grew from 13 percent (2000) to 25 percent (2020). If you add the proportion of those who waver, according to other institutes, the proportion of Protestants in the largest Latin American country is as high as 31 percent. In Guatemala, their share has even risen from 19 percent to 41 percent since 2000, while that of Catholics has fallen to 41 percent.

At the survey's launch in Mexico City on Wednesday, the only reason given for this development was that "young people now have a wider range of options to choose from," that Protestant groups have increased their recruitment; that New Age movements incorporate pre-Columbian traditions and that faith in the Catholic Church is at an all-time low.

Nevertheless, Catholicism continues to be influential because it is socially rooted in culture and folklore, "even among non-practicing people". This even applies to Uruguay, the least Catholic country in Latin America, where only 34 percent call themselves Catholics. Nevertheless, Catholic holidays are held, such as Holy Week, which has been called “Tourism Week” since 1919, when a law of strict separation of Church and state came into force.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image : Wikicommons/MiL

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG