Jürgen Moltmann, obituary for the father of the errors of contemporary theology

With his book "Theology of Hope" from 1964, Jürgen Moltmann became the impetus for all currents of political theology 

By Stefano Fontana*

On June 3, the Protestant theologian Jürgen Moltmann died in Tübingen at the age of 98. He is usually referred to as the "theologian of hope" because of his major work, "Theology of Hope," which was published in Germany in 1964 and then in numerous other languages. This memory of him is not wrong or too short-sighted, because this work did not aim to deal with one chapter of theology, namely hope, but to reformulate it in its entirety.

From hope came a new explanation of all traditional theological themes: revelation understood not so much in its doctrinal but rather in its historical character, transcendence understood as the future in a temporal rather than a spatial sense, sin as the rejection of hope, grace as the gift of the possibility and ability to hope, conversion as turning away from the present and turning towards the future. Hence the revolutionary impact of his theology, linked to the pan-Protestant idea of the mature world, secularization as a Christian phenomenon and the need for a secular theology, which was also expressed the following year, in 1965, by Harvey Cox in his book The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective, as coordinates of the new theology that we find in all subsequent theology, including Catholic one.

A secular theology with political language

The illusion of earthly "paradise"

In both the Old and New Testaments, according to Moltmann, God is not understood as a consecration of times and places, but is linked to a word of promise. The promise binds man to the history that stands between the promise and its fulfillment. This is the space for human responsibility, for the future, morality and practice. The theology of hope is elaborated in an eschatological key that henceforth entrusts the theologian with the task not of "interpreting the world, history and human nature, but of transforming them in anticipation of a divine transformation". The place of God's revelation becomes history, and God reveals himself through historical promises and historical events starting from the Exodus. The task of the Christian is not so much to ask who God is and what qualities he has, but to recognize where God is at work in history and to actively participate in his work of redemption. It is necessary to eliminate all metaphysical dualism and all spatial conceptions of God in order to create a secular theology with a political language: "This means that we recognize where God is at work and thus participate in his work: this incessant action is a way of speaking: in doing this, the Christian speaks of God." Truth becomes action. Who God is is not said by the theologian through speeches, but by the practice of Christians.

With Moltmann, the dimension of history enters theology and confuses its connotations. The aforementioned Harvey Cox approached theology of hope, arguing that "God loves the world, not the church" and uses the world, not the Church. In his book The Christian as Rebel, he states that "it was professional baseball, not the church, that took the first steps toward racial integration. We are way behind on this whole thing. We must hurry to catch up with what God is already doing in the world."

The real breakthrough in contemporary theology

As we can see, the "church that goes out" has distant origins. Moltmann's new proposals were taken up by Johann Baptist Metz in his Political Theology, and Karl Rahner would also adopt the same assumptions, starting with secularization, which required us to think that the revelation of God took place in human history before the Church. It can be said that the real innovative turn in contemporary theology was brought about by Moltmann. All other theologies will in fact follow the path he took. The theology of hope can therefore be compared to an explosion that sets off others in a chain reaction. He was able to deal with the theology of revolution and liberation, and was the midwife of black theology and feminist theology. He was also at the centre of the dialogue between Christians and Marxists.

This last keyword leads us to another important chapter in Moltmann's story. I am referring to the dialogue of ideas with the East German Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch, who so strongly influenced Moltmann's theology at that time and later. Bloch's principle of hope and Moltmann's theology of hope relate to each other. Bloch reformulated Marxism under the category of utopia, he sees all reality as determined by the future and driven to self-overcoming, he reads the Bible as an expression of a "transcendence without transcendence", future and history are as much features of the Christian religion as of the secularized world, the God of Israel is the God of the eighth day, "who was not yet and is therefore more authentic", and Christ has nothing spiritual, but is the man who sat not at the right hand of God but in his place, because Christianity is liberating and therefore atheistic. In this way Moltmann met not only with Marxism but also with the atheistic nihilism of modernity.

To pass judgment on Moltmann's theology is also to pass judgment on much of contemporary theology. To celebrate his thought by praising it is to condone the great errors of that theology and of the theologies that followed. I have limited myself here to recalling some basic assumptions. Readers, if they wish, can train themselves to recognize the negative effects of Moltmann's thought on theology since then and also on the practice of the Church.

Stefano Fontana, Director of the International Observatory Cardinal Van Thuan for the Social Doctrine of the Church ; his recent publications include “La nuova Chiesa di Karl Rahner” (“The New Church of Karl Rahner: The Theologian Who Taught Surrender to the World”, Fede & Cultura, Verona 2017), together with Archbishop Paolo Crepaldi of Trieste “Le chiavi della questione sociale” (“The Keys to the Social Question. Common Good and Subsidiarity: The Story of a Misunderstanding”, Fede & Cultura, Verona 2019), “La filosofia cristiana” (“Christian Philosophy: A Complete View of the Areas of Thought”, Fede & cultura, Verona 2021).

Translation: Giuseppe Nardi 

Image : National Archives of the Netherlands (screenshot) 

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.clom 

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Safety for women from harassment? Paris gives a Third World answer

Paris is in a state of security emergency, but the government is turning a blind eye for ideological reasons.

[Katholisches] Almost nine out of ten women said they had been victims of harassment, sexual assault or even rape on public transport in Paris. These figures were recently published by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition. Don't be amazed at the curious name of the former Ministry of Transport, but pay attention to the dramatic figures that reveal a real security emergency in France's capital, one of Europe's most important metropolises. Safety on public transport is a powerful indicator of the state of a society.

But how do politicians and RATP, the state-owned public transport operator in Paris, intend to react to this? France has been governed by the Socialists since 2012 and Paris since 2001.

The aim is to create so-called "safe spaces" in all metro stations of the Paris Métro. The term comes from the woke sociologist language of the USA and refers to protected spaces that create an "inclusive environment" in which people should be "free from discrimination". Instead of taking action against the evil and eliminating it, women should take refuge from harassers in a safe space. The state and the city capitulate to the increasingly unbelievable violence. They do this because the violence comes from foreigners.

The first shelter was opened on 11 December at Auber station. By the end of 2024, there should be a total of 30. There are a total of 308 stations in Paris.

"You can ask for help if you're being harassed on the street, if you feel unsafe, or if someone is aggressive," Pauline Vanderquand, co-founder of the Umay app, told the media. Users who download the app will be able to locate themselves geographically and find the nearest protected location.

Fourteen days after the opening of the first anti-harassment room, there were already ten cases where it was visited.

"We have almost one victim a day," says Pauline Vanderquand.

Staff were trained to receive the victims, reassure them and give them information. But what became of civilized Paris, where women could feel safe on the streets?

With Sandrine Charnoz, the RATP has its own commissioner for combating sexual and sexist violence. It emphasizes that the employees of the protected area support the employees of the transport companies and vice versa:

"All people need to know that they can turn to any RATP employee, especially our staff in the train and metro stations, but also to a bus driver or inspector."

Hasn't that been the case so far?

The "Safe Spaces" initiative is the result of pressure from the political left and feminists. However, it serves to gloss over it, because it is intended to circumvent the real problem, namely the drift of the multicultural society. The unbelievable increase in violence, the victims of which are mainly women, is not due to the French, but to immigrants from foreign cultures, whether with or without a French passport.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, which is suspected of not wanting to show the reality in all its harshness for political reasons, in Île-de-France, which includes the Paris metropolitan area, 69 percent of thefts and physical and sexual violence on public transport were committed by foreigners (not even taking into account naturalized citizens of foreign descent). 52 percent of the perpetrators were of African descent.

Although the violence mainly affects immigrants from Islamic countries, the ruling left does not want to talk about the issue to, as it says, "not be considered racist" or, to put it less charitably, to affront the political competition that raises the issue as "racist".

A representative of the so-called Brigade anti-frotteurs, a plainclothes police unit that takes action against harassers who abuse the evening hours to sexually harass women, confirmed that the attackers are of non-European origin. It is precisely this aspect that the woke left is trying to hide. They don't want to admit that immigration policy has failed. They prefer to put the safety of women in Paris at risk.

The Brigade focuses mainly on the northern area of the urban transport network, in particular lines 2, 4 and 13, which pass through the most criminal areas of Greater Paris, but where there are still tourists. The latter factor apparently plays a role in plugging the security holes. Resources are limited, which is why we have to focus on action. What is meant by this is that at least appearances should be preserved to a certain extent. A member of the brigade recently told Le Figaro:

"In the ten years I've been doing this work, there have been some Europeans and one Chinese, but the vast majority of the attackers I've stopped are of Maghreb origin."

These voices of reality are not perceived by the self-proclaimed "benefactors". In order not to "stigmatize" a certain group of the population, reality must be concealed. Thus, the idea of "protected spaces" is also similar to the proposal of Caroline de Haas, the founder of Osez le féminisme, the oldest feminist movement in France that advocates lesbianism and abortion. In 2017, De Haas had proposed to combat sexual harassment in the multicultural district of Chapelle-Pajol, where hardly any women dare to take to the streets, to "widen the sidewalks".

Text: Andreas Becker
Image: Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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Feminist Agenda at Vatican II

By David Martin

In 1982, Cardinal Carlo Caffara, founding President of the John Paul II Institute forMarriage and the Family was told by Sr.Lucy of Fatima that “the final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family.”

Sr. Lucy’s prophecy is unfolding in our time, evidenced by the fact that Rome has actively abetted environmentalists in their quest to make “Mother Earth” a safer place through population control. It is no secret that since 2013, the Vatican has repeatedly invited abortion advocates like Jeffrey Sachs, Ban Ki moon, and Paul Ehrlich to speak to the Church about their vision of a safer and better world through abortion and contraception.

Hence, defense of life is a top priority among the true defenders of the Faith who have come forward today to expose this collusion with anti-life. Taking a stand against abortion is certainly one of the key ways of defending the Faith in these turbulent times

Defending Life Means Denouncing Feminism

But defending life also means denouncing feminism, which reared its head at Vatican II, because feminism is the foundation of abortion. There is an urgent need to reiterate the Church's continuous teaching that the man is the head of the household. “Because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. For the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man.” (1 Cor. 11: 7-9)

A woman's vocation as wife is to submit to her husband, not to compete with him as an equal. Adherence to this rule is what will effectively offset the ensuing culture of death that feminism has brought with it, whereas the tumor of abortion will never cease as long as the cancer of feminism is cultured in the Church.

Unfortunately, Vatican II helped to spawn today’s culture of death, because the seeds of feminism were planted in the conciliar documents. In Gaudium et Spes, it states for instance:

“Women claim parity with men in fact as well as in rights, where they have not already obtained it.” [9] “It is regrettable that those basic personal rights are not yet being respected everywhere, as in the case with women who are denied the chance to freely choose.” [29]

What is reflected here is the basic protest or "dogma" of the feminist, not the dogma of Faith. In God's eyes women do not stand at “parity” with men, nor must they assert themselves as men, whether in the home, in society, or in the Church. St. Paul says, “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence.”(1 Timothy 2:12) The woman is the husband's helpmate, not his equal. And whereas she is to be treated with love and respect, she is not to compete with her husband, because God first created the man to his own image (Genesis 2:7), and then he formed the woman from the man, and for the man. (Genesis 2: 21-25)

The majority of divorces and broken homes today are due to the fact that women generally no longer submit their husbands. St. Paul teaches that in the same way the church must be subject to Christ, so wives must be subject to their husbands. “Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: Because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body.” (Ephesians 5: 22,23)

In the Vatican II statements on marriage, there is absolutely nothing stated along these lines. The documents make no mention of this essential teaching, but rather lay the groundwork for feminism. The Vatican II Council denounces “underrating women's legitimate social advancement” (GS, article 52), and cites it the duty of all to “ensure the recognition and implementation everywhere of the right of every person to human and 
civil culture in harmony with the dignity of the human person, without distinction of race, sex, nation, religion, or social circumstances.” (GS-60)

The Vatican II Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, Apostolicam Actuositatem, states: “Since in our days women are taking an increasingly active share in the whole life of society, it is very important that their participation in the various sectors of the Church's apostolate should likewise develop.” (AA-9) Here the Council advocates that the Church should follow the world’s advice concerning the role of women, yet in his encyclical “Quadragesima Anno,” Pope Pius XI condemned women's participation in ministry as “a grave disorder to eliminate at all cost” since it “takes mothers of families” away from their duties at home. (AA S 23)

Consistent with this is the fact that a great many cardinals at Vatican II spoke up in favor of artificial contraception—a treasonous act that triggered backlash from Pope Paul VI—and it was this conciliar fight over contraception that eventually led to the issuance of Humanae Vitae on July 25, 1968.

What the Vatican II feminist agenda has produced is a spirit of rebellion. The Church was called to be the Spouse of Christ without blemish, but at the Council she became unruly and threw off her wedding veil and began flirting with the world. Consequently, a spirit of infidelity has set in, evidenced even by the way women no longer cover their heads in Church. The eternal mandates for women set forth in 1 Corinthians 11 to wear head coverings during prayer are no longer observed, and are even rejected by many priests and nuns, some of whom are now involved with abortion. It's all part of the false religious liberty that was a central theme of the Second Vatican Council—a discordant theme that didn't harmonize with God's plan for life.

When God's plan for the sanctification of women is again promoted from the pulpit, abortion will decrease and the bountiful fruits of life will again be evident as before the Council. God's plan in no way deprives women of their privilege to advance on the path of true success and liberty, but it must be done on God’s terms. What the Lord has endowed women with is the right to do what is right, that they might be liberated from wrong. St. Paul says, “She shall be saved through child bearing; if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety.” (1 Timothy 2:15)

It is God above all who seeks the honor and sanctification of women, and what He requires is that women submit to their husbands and remember their place in the home with their children. 

No Women on the Altar  

Accordingly, they must remain off the altars of God and be silent in the Church, remembering the words of Holy Scripture: “Let women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be subject.” (1 Corinthians 14: 34)

This is not to imply that women should be recessive in proclaiming the truth in our discordant world. On the contrary, we need fighters from the ranks of women who will stand up against these Femi-Nazis and break their horns before the public. God's will for women is their sanctification, and we need more Joan of Arcs who will come forward and thunder against sin by proclaiming family values without respect to persons. The Lord wants women to be strong, not weak, but they can never be strong as long as they embrace the weakness of pride.

NOW is the time to declare that the women's rights movement that began fifty years ago has ruined it for women, their children, and society. Women today are discouraged about their identity where they feel they must be ashamed of their gender, and this poor example

of mothers is what has turned many a young man against women where they now seek illicit relations with the same sex. The pedophilia scandal among the clergy is the sorrowful end of this curse (homosexuality), so if women truly want to be “actively involved” with the good of the Church, they must embrace family values in the home and look to the husband as the head of the household.

For their encouragement, let them look to the example of the Blessed Virgin, who was never once seen on a soapbox preaching in public. She left this to the men, and her humility is what gave her the power to crush the head of Satan.

True Liberation

By following the example of Our Lady, women too can share in this power over Satan and be liberated from this fear that compels them to impress men with their “equality.” When faith and love reign in the heart there is no need to impress anyone, since we live for God, being dead to the world.

What today’s sophisticated woman needs is liberation from silliness, and a true pastor of the Faith will always encourage her to accept this challenge. Let them ponder the words of St. Paul who taught the way of true liberty:

“If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God.... Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols. For which things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of unbelief.” (Col. 3:1-6)


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Does Cardinal Casper Want Women Cardinals? Women Should Have a Say in the Conclave

(Rome) Cardinal Walter Kasper has adopted gender ideology and is calling for the participation of women at the next conclave.

Whether the German cardinal also calls them Cardinalettes, is not clear coming from his remarks.  Anyway, if it were up to him, women would vote as papal electors in the next conclave.

"It is theoretically possible that women participate in the election of a pope. The composition of the group, which is tasked to choose a pope is not the subject of a divine mandate. This thing can change."

The cardinal expressed those words last Monday in Rome at the launch of the new special edition "Maria's Daughters - The Church and Women" by Herder Korrespondenz,  as katholisch.de the news page of the German Bishops' Conference reported.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.clom

Link to Katholisches...

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