Cardinal Ruini's Mission to Pope Francis: "In seeking after lost sheep, do not put the faithful sheep in danger"

Cardinal Camillo Ruini's Mission to Pope Francis: Praying to
the Lord, that the papal quest for the lost sheep does not cause
difficulties for the faithful sheep

(Rome) The Corriere della Sera published an extensive interview yesterday with Camillo Cardinal Ruini. The occasion was the publication of his new book C'è un dopo? La morte e la speranza (Is There a Thereafter? Death and the Hope) published by Mondadori. At the end of the interview the cardinal made a statement, "which has to do with the big question mark over the current pontificate," reports the daily newspaper Il Foglio :

"I ask the Lord that the indispensable search for the lost sheep does not trouble the conscience of the faithful sheep."

The petition expresses the wish that the misleading and ambiguous gestures and words of the reigning Pope for the benefit the non-believers, do not give rise to misunderstandings and overlook the faithful. The search for lost sheep should not lead to bringing the faithful sheep in danger.

This refers to spontaneous statements made by Francis for the press like those on (Islamic) terrorism, which is nothing compared to wars. Or the equally irritating statement about baptized Christians, who "kill" their mother-in-laws, and therefore are not much better quality than those two Islamic jihadists who,  during Holy Mass, ritually slit the throat of a Catholic priest at the altar in Rouen and  then decapitated him.

Cardinal Ruini's plea expressed concern that such irritating papal messages will probably not lead those who are distant to the faith, but are more likely to hurl the faithful into confusion and give rise to more or less intense, internal Church disputes and conflicts. This will not revive the ever apathetic acting Church in the West, but rather keep it from a renewal, says Il Foglio .

Kardinl Ruini with Cardinal Müller (right)

"The words of Ruini make another observation: The daily revolution triggered by the Bishop of Rome  - always seems more inclined to engage in a dialogue with the non-Catholic world and not always to exhort the Catholics with fatherly tone - causes discomfort which is detected not only by columnists or so-called nostalgic traditionalists, but also by many Catholics who have no Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas lying on their bedside table. Ruini's gloss is an indication of a lack of orientation, with which   the Italian episcopate dully stammers forward, which Ruini knows best, even now, where its fresh forces were grafted who are close to the new course, the search for shepherds with the smell of sheep," said Matteo Matzuzzi, the Vatican expert of Il Foglio .

Cardinal Ruini was the closest collaborator of Pope John Paul II. In Italy.  From 1991-2008 he was Cardinal Vicar of Rome and at the same time from 1991-2007, President of the Italian Bishops' Conference. Ruini's rise in the Church began when the then auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Reggio Emilia and Guastalla in 1985 delayed the post-conciliar "swing" in Loreto at the second Italian "Church Congress", where he boldly countered the then progressive majority in the Italian episcopate, which was included then leading Cardinals, Anastasio Ballestrero OCD and Carlo Maria Martini SJ and the young Bruno Forte, who was then allowed to make the introductory speech, much as Cardinal Walter Kasper at the Cardinal Consistory in February 2014. Ballestrero was confirmed by Pope Paul VI. In 1977, as  President of the Episcopal Conference. Ruini had taken a turn against the prevailing progressive majority within the Church  which Pope John Paul II initiated and which was rejected by the progressives as "an atttempt at restoration."  Already that year, Ruini was appointed by John Paul II as General Secretary of the Bishops' Conference.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Assisi and the Absent Prefect of the CDF: 1986 Ratzinger, 2016 Müller

(Rome) The images are repeated with shifted accents. In 1986 Pope John Paul II attended  the first World Prayer Meeting Religions for Peace to Assisi that was organized by the Community of Sant'Egidio. The prefect of the CDF, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, his closest collaborator, refused and remained in Rome.

In 2016 Pope Francis attended the 30th world prayer meeting in Assisi. The prefect of the CDF, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, remained in Rome. Those present did not notice the absence. Anyway, it seems, in contrast to 1986, to have disturbed no one,  the least of all, Pope Francis.

Cardinal Müller took a position in his own way to the battery of problems by taking a position on the issue in Assisi. He traveled to Regensburg for another anniversary. Ten years ago, on 12 September 2006,  Benedict XVI. held his historic Regensburg speech about the unity of faith and reason, with two specific areas: western relativism and Islam.

Cardinal Müller described the speech as his "finest hour"."Prophetic"  where Benedict XVI. analyzed Western society in crisis and Islamic terrorism.

Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, saw the matter differently and distanced himself. "I do not identify myself with the words of the Pope," he did this through his press spokesman Don Guillermo Marco for Newsweek. When a Pope does not recognize the "values of Islam," he destroys in twenty seconds, that which was built in the last twenty years, was his indictment of the Regensburg speech by Benedict XVI.

The Vatican was not pleased with this stab and demanded an explanation. Bergoglio was to distance himself from his the statements or those by his press secretary. The primate of Argentina was ready to do neither to do one nor the other. Half a year later, as even the Argentine government criticized Marco for something else, the speaker was been replaced. Officially,  the archdiocese spoke of a "restructuring in the press" of the archdiocese "to optimize the relations with the media." Bergoglio had not distanced himself from his criticism of the Regensburg speech.

Guillermo Marco, whose star remained undimmed with his superior, now elected pope, at the beginning of 2016, appeared in the first and most controversial "video of the Pope."  The video caused outrage because of its syncretistic message that Marco made even stronger in an interview with " abstruse theories." Whith that, we come full circle to Assisi IV.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Massive Fire in Pope's Immigrant Camp: Arson Suspected

About 3,000 residents of Moria camp are homeless on Lesbos - situation risks due to precarious conditions and raises the dire mood.

Athens (kath.net/KAP) After a fire in refugee camp Moria in Lesbos,  which Pope Francis has visited in April, more than 3,000 residents have fled the hotspot on Monday night to other parts of the Aegean island. About 60 percent of the facilities were destroyed according to local information, by the fire, while nobody was injured.

The Greek police are convinced this is deliberate arson. 18 refugees and migrants were arrested, according to the Athens daily "Kathimerini" (Tuesday). They are expected to be responsible for the fires and for previous riots.

According to media reports, before the fire, refugees of different ethnicities had gotten into an argument. The mood was particularly fueled by rumors of an impending mass deportation of people back to Turkey. The precarious conditions in the overcrowded reception center played a role: On Lesbos, there are currently held around 5,650 refugees, while the accommodation there offers only room for 3,500.

Because of the fire camp residents were left homeless, and now according to estimates by the Mayor of Lesbos, Spyros Galinos, further escalation is threatened. He asked Athens for help; it must not ultimately be that only 15 municipalities throughout Greece should shoulder the entire refugee problem, Galinos criticized on Tuesday in a radio interview.

Moria reached the public's attention in the spring, as Pope Francis traveled to the camp and met refugees there. He spoke to them in solidarity with his visit, of courage and called on them to mutual affection and solidarity; surprisingly, he then took twelve Muslims from Syria on his return to Rome  from Syria, including six children; in June he took nine other residents of Moria; two of them were Christians.

Kathpress...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

15 Cloisters Dissolved: What Remains of the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate?

What Remains of the Franciscans of the Immaculate?

(Rome) How far has the destruction of the Order of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate progressed? This is the updating of a chapter that is like a dark shadow on the pontificate of Pope Francis.

In 1969 two Fathers Minor, Stefano Maria Manelli and Gabriele Maria Pellettieri, asked the Father General of the Order, after a thorough study of Fontes Franciscani, to be allowed to start a "new experience of Franciscan life" back to its original rigor. In 1970 an abandoned monastery of the Order was made ​​available to them where they gathered more men over time, and with the establishment of a female branch, women also joined. In 1990, the Community was canonically recognized as a separate order.

The Peculiarity of the Young Order

The Order represented an anomaly of Catholic orders until July 2013. While the old religious orders steeped in tradition suffer decline and waste away, the young Franciscan Order saw a veritable blooming of vocations.

New Bergoglian Bishop of Tulsa Shuts Down Priestly Society of Exorcists

Edit: from Hirsch Files, Okie Traditionalist. He is shutting down the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother, which has been operating in the diocese since it was established there in 2015 by the retired friend of Catholicism, Bishop Slattery.

[Hirsch Files] Remember how great and traditional everyone thought Bishop Slattery was? Well, he's retired now, and been replaced by one of Pope Francis' picks. A former college chaplain, Bishop Konderla is now the bishop of Tulsa.

Looking back upon my college experiences, I recall the university chaplains as having a superficial touch when it came to the depth of our Faith--which is to be expected, since on a university campus, you are surrounded by students blind to reality, living in an artificial world of unrealistic career hopes.

In any event, I've learned from some anonymous sources that this new bishop is likely going to be nothing like Bishop Slattery. Indeed, it seems that he is going to close up shop for the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother, an exorcist society that includes Fr. Ripperger.

Blessing of Aberrosexual Couple in Sicily -- The Church as "Social Centre"

Don Scordato Blesses Life Partners in Palermo

(Rome) What is true in Spain, is also possible in Italy. A priest of the Archdiocese of Palermo, where Pope Francis recently installed a "Bergoglian" as archbishop, "blessed" a lesbian couple. "I hope that the church will one day  bless gay unions," said the priest.

The Sicilian case is reminiscent of those in Castellón in Spain, where a priest "blessed" a lesbian couple in the Church. The priest then denied the blessing: He had "only" blessed the "love."  The two lesbians had however sent "wedding invitations."

The former Jesuit church of Palermo, which is dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, has long been "committed" to  the acceptance of aberrosexuality.

Don Cosimo Scordato, parish as a social center

Pastor Cosimo Scordato called two lesbians last Sunday before the start of the Mass on the altar, to announce their upcoming civil "marriage". The Italian parliament decided last February, referring to a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, for the legalization of a de facto legal institution for aberrosexual liaisons.

Don Scordato congratulated the lesbian couple explained his decision and blessed it in the church. He called upon the church to "impartially receive and to pray for the couple," the two lesbians.

The incident not only drew attention all over Italy in the leftist media but was also part of a documentary about and for "gay marriage" in Italy.

The two women, Elisabetta Cina (49) and Serenella Fiasconaro (46) are not practicing Catholics. But both are active in the gay scene and are committed sociopolitically for the recognition of homosexuality. Both have appeared already in T-shirts with provocative inscriptions in public.

Critics accuse the pair and Don Scordato of putting on a subversive act with the aim of overthrowing the doctrine of the Catholic Church on aberrosexuality.

"The two women one day came to me and asked me to bless their wedding rings. The Church does not allow the sacrament of marriage for homosexual couples. I have invited them to come to Mass to introduce themselves to the community, because the Church has to accept all," said Don Scordato last Sunday before calling the lesbian couple to meet him at the altar. Then he called on the faithful, "to greet the two and their love with a round of applause."

Palermo's former Jesuit and parish church of St. Franz Xaver

A prompt, docile acquiescence prevailed among those present in the majority. "Don Scordato was fantastic," said the two lesbians. "His naturalness surprised us."

"My hope is that the Church will accept one day to bless homosexual relationships," said Don Scordato. At the same time he announced other gay couples in the same way and his desire to bless them. "Things are changing - slowly, but" said the church rector.

In 2011  Don Scordato had criticized Benedict XVI. publicly as "homophobic" and thus harvested the applause of gay organizations, "The gays have the right to love," said the diocesan priest, because "what matters is love."

From his parish, which he took over in 1986, he made a (left) Social Centre. It is "politically independent", but "not apolitical" about being "non-denominational" but "open to all". Don Scordato says of himself that he is "in love with liberation theology."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: La Repubblica / Wikicommons (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

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Pope Francis and the Left Option for Brazil -- "Political" Blessing of a Marian Statue of Aparecida in Vatican

Pope Francis: Blessing of a representation of Our Lady of
Aparecida with a hint of political engagement

(Rome) Last Saturday the daily bulletin of the Vatican announced that Pope Francis in the Vatican Gardens has blessed a bronze statue of Our Lady of Aparecida. It's a religious act mingled in a "strange" way with a policy that is related to the dismissal of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

The previous day, the Cuban press agency Prensa Latina reported that Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president from 2003-2011, wrote the Pope a letter about the "serious" political situation "in Brazil and in the world". Rousseff and Lula belong to the same party, the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the left "Workers' Party".

Cuba published Lula's letter upon the impeachment of Brazil's President

Prensa Latina is a press agency controlled by the communist regime in Cuba. The fact that they published the Lula-letter in full, recognizes the regular connections between the PT and the island state of the Castro brothers.

Lula letter to Pope Francis

Lula informed Pope Francis in the letter that "conservative" political forces at work are on the "edge of legality" - wanting  to "prevent" a "continuity and progressive projects  and social development and free inclusion" by the Workers Party (PT).

In another letter Lula praised the "achievements" of the Workers' Party and sharply condemns the attacks against Dilma Rousseff. In order to take steps to  "criminalize" Rousseff and the "social movements", especially the PT.

Lula demands that can the people must be able choose its President "freely" by which he implied that free elections by the "conservative" forces are under threat. , The Lula wrote:  the "conservative" forces "fear that the people will choose me in 2018," and would therefore make him president again. The Brazilian constitution allows only two consecutive terms of a head of state. Meanwhile, Lula could run again.

Same letter from Venezuelan President Maduro

On Saturday it was announced that Pope Francis had received the exact same letter from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. In addition to the Cuban contacts, the common action of Lula and the "Bolivarian" President Maduro, reveals a political landscape that is situated with varying shades of social-democratic and communist, clearly left.

Observers doubt that it was an "accident". The letters and the cooperation of the Brazilian-Venezuelan-Cuban Left and the blessing of the statue of the Virgin of Aparecida, a Brazilian Marian shrine, "may be a coincidence, but it does not look like one," said Secretum meum mihi .

Pope Francis used the blessing to take a position on the situation in Brazil and did this by mixing religious and political aspects. The  pontiff said that Brazil is experiencing "sad moments."  That gesture and words as partisanship for Dilma Rousseff and the Workers' Party are to be understood,  which the "Pope-Girlfriend" and Pope's biographer, Elisabetta Piqué assures with an article in the Argentine newspaper La Nacion.

"May the Blessed Mother sustain left governments and keep 'conservative' forces back?"

With the blessing of the statue of Mary, Francis announced differently than initially indicated, that he would not travel to Brazil in 2017  to take part in 300-year celebrations of the Marian shrine of Aparecida.

Piqué's articles in "La Nacion" on Pope Francis and his "Brazil-option" crisis

Francis asked Our Lady of Aparecida on Saturday,  "to protect the Brazilian people in this sad moment and the poor, the marginalized, the abandoned elderly, to protect the street children; to save her people with social justice in the love of Jesus."

Piqué's article leaves no doubt that a certain political option is meant to be protected by the Mother of God. To say it in the sense of Lula and Maduro: "May the Mother of God sustain the left-wing government in power and keep the 'conservative' forces them away," said Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña.

Already in the course of the presidential campaign in Argentina, Pope Francis had chosen the left option and preferred the Peronist candidate, but the people elected the "conservative" opposition candidate, which has since led to a series of tensions in relations.

The same signaling by the Catholic Church leader took place on his Latin American visit in 2015. During the meetings with the leftist president of Ecuador and Bolivia were demonstratively friendly, Francis showed the "conservative" president of Paraguay the cold shoulder, to put it cautiously. In fact, he attacked him openly and completely without foundation.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Prensa Latina / La Nacion / Vatican.va / Wikicommons (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

"Culture of Fornication": Argentina's Bergoglian Bishops -- Case Macri to Case Aguer

 (Buenos Aires) The bergoglian Argentine bishops, the greater the confusion seems to be (see The contradictions of the Church "the open doors": Argentine President Must not be Godfather ). The Archbishop of La Plata, the historic opponent of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentine episcopate, criticized in a column the widespread "culture of fornication." His brother bishops distanced themselves from him.

The Case Macri and Political Antipathies

The newborn son from a Catholic  family with many children was denied baptism in Bergoglio's Archdiocese of Buenos Aires because - according to an Argentine tradition, the sponsor for the seventh child is the President -  who since December 2015, is the incumbent president Mauricio Macri, a remarried divorcee, who had been rejected as godfather.

Macri, who displaced the previously ruling (left) Peronist from power last fall, has ever since been the validly declared main enemy. It's a conflict that seems to have been transferred to the Church. That Pope Francis would have preferred the Left-Peronist candidate in the presidential palace, is an open secret.  A donation of the new president to the Pontifical University Foundation Scholas Occurrentes was returned in April's return mail to the donor. In other words: The donation came from the wrong (political) area, with which one would not even have anything to do in terms of good works. It was a veritable papal disavowal of a head of state.

The same had happened already in July 2015 at the Pope's visit to Latin America. While the Catholic Church leader met with the left presidents of Ecuador and Bolivia, dazzling the mind and   also expressed this in front of the photographer, Francis went against the conservative President of Paraguay on a collision course. He made unheard of public criticisms of ​​the head of state to thousands citizens and the highest dignitaries of the country and they were also completely groundless allegations . It would be difficult to express (political) sympathies and antipathies more outwardly.

No wonder then that Argentina's bishops and pastors, at least those who want to be particularly bergoglian, follow the example of the Pope, and in turn disavow President Macri. The reel of rejection of Macri as godfather was opened at the Cathedral of Buenos Aires, the long-term "domestic church" of the current Pope, where he made his successor Msgr. Mario Aurelio Poli, a close friend and even created him a cardinal.

The Case of Archbishop Aguer

There isn't just friction between  the Pope and President.  There had been friction long before the papal election between the Archbishop of Buenos Aires and the "conservative" Archbishop of La Plata, Msgr. Héctor Aguer.  Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the Argentine Bishops' Conference was like a leader of the "doves", while Archbishop Héctor Aguer was the spokesman of the "hawks".

Archbishop Aguer: culture of fornication

Since Cardinal Bergoglio had become Pope, he has been undermining the "hawks" by his new appointments, stripping feathers. But still the pugnacious archbishop of La Plata is in his office. In May 2018 he completes his 75th year.

In the daily newspaper El Día of La Plata Archbishop Aguer writes a regular column in which he knows how to swim against the current, as well as in his most recent column of August 23. Under the title "La Fornicación" to English "Fornication," where he raised his voice against "lewd culture", sexuality and love "trivialized".

What does he mean by a "culture of fornication," the archbishop explained with a practical example. He cited the Brazilian press, which had calculated that in just 17 days an average of 42 condoms were used by each participant at the Summer Olympics. Sexual intercourse with multiple partners, who are often perfect strangers, is a behavior that are in themselves, "animalistic," said the Archbishop. He used a popular Latin American gutter expression.

Among other things, Msgr. Aguer criticized the gender ideology and "other unnatural relationships." The Archbishop took up the cudgel for lifelong marriage in mutual love and respect between a man and a woman, and for the ability to bond, which sees destroyed contra naturam  through the fornication.

In this context, the archbishop engaged clear criticism of aberrosexual relationships and the possibility for them to adopt children.

The "trouble of the Church"

Archbishop Héctor Aguer drew with this column not only the wrath of liberals and the aberro-associations, but also his brother bishops.

In the issue from August 28 the newspaper La Nacion, the Argentine "house organ" of Pope Francis, published the article "Trouble in the Church on the Nature and Language of Msgr. Hector Aguer". The article "reflects," says the author, the "reaction of the Church" (!) to the column by Archbishop Aguer.

The article quotes three bishops who take a position against the Archbishop of La Plata  but remain anonymous.

"The same bishops who insisted in a conservative position in the case of Macri, represented in case Aguer the exact opposite, and therefore a liberal position," said Secretum meum mihi .

The distancing from Archbishop Aguer is established by the first anonymous bishops with "his language" and "his method."

The second anonymous bishop is quoted as saying that the column of Msgr. Aguer "is not representing the concerns of the Church, especially in a moment like this, with its much more important problems."

A third anonymous bishop reiterates the statement that it is indeed important that the people to know what the Church teaches on sexual morality and marriage, "but now tries to mediate teaching in a context of respect for individual freedom of believers."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Wikicommons / El Dia
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

13 New Cardinals -- The Third Cardinal Consistory by Pope Francis -- Third World Church

(New York) On November 19, the third ordinary public consistory of this pontificate will take place for the creation of new cardinals. The message has not been officially announced by the Holy See, but comes from the progressive American Jesuit magazine America .

Pope Francis has convened the consistory for the conclusion of the Holy Year of Mercy. Total wants the Pope, the Jesuit magazine, appoint thirteen new cardinals. The names will be announced in mid-October.

Previously Francis has appointed  39 Cardinals altogether at two consistories. 31 of them are entitled to vote in the conclave. Eight of new cardinals will be 80 at the time of their appointment.

According to America  it will fall to the Pope in the third Cardinal consistory to move the church "from the center to the periphery." An absolute majority of European cardinals will be "impossible" at the next conclave.

Currently there are 107 Cardinals in the Catholic Church  who could act as papal electors in  conclave.With the new appointments Francis will fill the electoral body to the ceiling established by  John Paul II of 120 electors. 51 of the 107 electors come from Europe, which has, for a thousand years in the conclave and in for the first time ever in Church history to relinquish its absolute majority in the election of the Pope  and humanly speaking, will never recover.

On November 20, the Pope will celebrate High Mass together with the new cardinals in St. Peter's. 

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Soros Foundation Spends $650,000 to Influence Pope Francis USA Visit

Edit: this is something which has been going on for a long time and the channels through which this money and influence flow have been part of the way the government does business with the Church in American politics from the very beginning.

What role did Thomas Rosica play in all this?  To listen to him, you'd think he was on Soros' payroll. 

August 23, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Leaked emails through WikiLeaks reveal that billionaire globalist George Soros - one of Hilary Clinton's top donors - paid $650,000 to influence Pope Francis’ September 2015 visit to the USA with a view to "shift[ing] national paradigms and priorities in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign." The funds were allocated in April 2015 and the report on their effectiveness suggests that successful achievements included, “Buy-in of individual bishops to more publicly voice support of economic and racial justice messages in order to begin to create a critical mass of bishops who are aligned with the Pope.”

The monies were granted to two US entities that have been engaged in a long-term project, according to the report, of shifting “the priorities of the US Catholic church.” Grantees were PICO, a faith-based community organizing group, and Faith in Public Life (FPL), a progressive group working in media to promote left-leaning ‘social justice’ causes. Soros has funded left-wing causes the world over and was just foundto have been funding an effort to eliminate pro-life laws around the globe.

Board Minutes from the May 2015 meeting of Soros’ Open Society Foundation in New York reveal that in the planning stages of the papal visit initiative, the group planned to work through one of the Pope’s key advisors, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, naming him specifically in the report. In order to seize on the opportunity provided by the Pope’s visit to the US, says the report, “we will support PICO’s organizing activities to engage the Pope on economic and racial justice issues, including using the influence of Cardinal Rodriguez, the Pope’s senior advisor, and sending a delegation to visit the Vatican in the spring or summer to allow him to hear directly from low-income Catholics in America.”

Link...

Cardinal Duka Levels Criticism Against "Welcoming Polity" and Islamism and Was Censored by His Own Newspaper

Cardinal Dominink Duka was censored because of his criticisms
of Islamism and Mass Immigration by his own Catholic Newspaper

(Prague) Novinky , the most important Internet portal of the Czech Republic reported yesterday on an article by Cardinal Dominik Duka, Archbishop of Prague and Primate of Bohemia, he had written after the assassination of the French priest, Abbé Jacques Hamel. Abbé Hamel had his throat cut on July 26, while celebrating Holy Mass in the church Saint Etienne du Rouvray in Rouen. The priest was then beheaded. The two murderers were shot dead by police. The  Islamic State(IS) took credit for the act. Cardinal Duka sent his response to the renowned Catholic weekly Katolický Týdeník . This, however, refused to publish the article. The cardinal then published it on his Facebook page.

The Catholic cardinal had expressed himself critically in the past about Pope Francis' "welcoming culture". In his article, he warned of a "disproportionate and ruthless welcome policy". An expression which the Cardinal apparently was missed by the censorship of his own subordinates.

The caution and wisdom expressed by the Primate of Bohemia against Islamic immigrants sparked polemical attacks. The advocates of "welcoming culture" are well organized and deeply rooted, especially in the media, even in the Catholic media, as the Cardinal's  bitter experience demonstrated.

Cardinal Duka was bitterly attacked by  Msgr. Tomas Halik, one of the most famous Czech priests. The sociologist and philosopher of religion, who was ordained a priest in the 70s underground, became the General Secretary of the Czech Bishops' Conference and advisor to President Vaclav Havel in the 90s. Halik is Professor of Sociology at Charles University and rector of the University Church. He attacked his bishop: "The real allies of the Islamic State against the Western world are those who do not know the difference between Islam and jihadist terrorists."

Murder of Rouen: "All who have downplayed such acts, should now think"

Czech Catholic weekly Katolický Týdeník

Full disagrees Cardinal Duka. For him, the killing of Abbé Hamel was a "lesson" for all be those who previously downplayed similar incidents and downplayed the perpetrators as mentally ill and frustrated.  Furthermore, to remain silent "would be suicide for our society," said the Archbishop of Prague. He also called for more to pray for the victims of terrorism and to seek fewer excuses and apologies for terrorists.

The Cardinal ends with a reminder and an invitation: In Islam, says the primate,  there are hidden  violent tendencies, which is why those Muslims who do not share these tendencies, should react against if they wish have any share in credibility.

It is piquant to note that the weekly Katolický Týdeník, which imposed censorship on the cardinal for his critical attitude towards  mass immigration and the Islamization of Europe, belongs to the Czech Bishops' Conference.

In the time of the Czechoslovak Soviet Republic there had indeed been a Catholic journal, but one which had been controlled by the communist regime. It had the task to drive a wedge between Catholics, which is why it enjoyed little prestige among  these. After the collapse of the communist dictatorship, the new Catholic weekly was founded by a private publisher.

As Katolický Týdeník got into financial difficulties in the 90s, the paper was adopted, rescued and supported by the Czech Bishops' Conference. The journal is in fact the Church newspaper for the entire Czech Republic. Chief Editor Antonin Randa censored not only his own bishop but also his own publisher.  Cardinal Duka is namely, also, President of the Czech Bishops' Conference.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Picture: Youtube / Katolický Týdeník (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG