Showing posts with label Liberation Theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liberation Theology. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

"No Compromises of the Church's Teaching" -- Cardinal Müller on the Bishops' Synod, SSPX, Medjugorje and Liberation Theology

(Rome) There will be "no compromise of the Church's teaching" in the Bishops' Synod this autumn. This was affirmed  by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the CDF. It is meant to seek pastoral ways to better integrate people in difficult situations in the community. While there is, says the Cardinal, no "substantial news" regarding  the SSPX, there would be a decision to Medjugorje in the fall.  Katholisch.de, the media portal of the German Bishops' Conference published an  an interview with the Cardinal.

Renewal and Deepening of  Marriage Preparation Necessary

Overlooking the Synod of Bishops on marriage and family  the German cardinal stressed that the Church must help "the people, even Catholics, ...to re-understand what the point is to marry and so, also publicly, to bind a person." While the discussion is so far turned mainly to the "failure" of marriages, Cardinal Müller stressed the need for "a renewal and deepening" of marriage preparation.
The cardinal also confirmed that the "ordinary general assembly" of the CDF will deal this "autumn" with Medjugorje: "The opinion of the Congregation will be  submitted  to the Holy Father for a further decision."

Various encounters with SSPX , "which should enhance mutual trust"

When asked whether the "unification efforts were suspended or postponed," since "recently" the  Priestly Society of St. Pius X had "become noticeably quiet," said Cardinal Müller that there was  "no substantial news in this issue." "The Holy Father wants us to keep at it: with 'determination and patience.'" In the "recent months", there were "encounters of various kinds, which should enhance mutual trust." "A prerequisite for a full reconciliation" said the Cardinal again, "is the signing of a doctrinal preamble, to ensure full compliance in the essential matters of faith." The Prefect's response   suggests that this singing the Preamble of 2012 is not required..
The recent trip to Latin America by Pope Francis has shown "that the Church must use an authentic liberation theology." He, Müller, has worked "for many years in accordance with the instruction of the Congregation" which the Marxist liberation theology was condemned in the 1980s, "for such a theology that is not aligned ideologically, but interested in the good of man and society." The election of Pope Francis on the Chair of Peter is "providential" because the majority of Catholics today live in Latin America. "Pope Francis has strengthened the believers  on his journey from the Gospel and encouraged and called the peoples there to  a peaceful and equitable coexistence. This is an order of the day," said Müller.

"I have Totally Committed my Life in Fidelity to the Pope"

When asked about his statement, there is a need to " theologically restructure" the pontificate of Pope Francis, the cardinal affirmed that "the specific task of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. . It has to promote the faith and morals throughout the Catholic Church on behalf of the Pope and protect his personal relationship with the reigning pope." Cardinal Müller said: "Personally,  I have totally committed my entire life in loyalty to the Pope."
Addressing eco-Encyclical Laudato Si, Müller said, that he is "very grateful for the encyclical" to the Pope. The document had a "very strong social-ethical component" and leads from "the tradition of the social encyclicals."  It "seems" to him that the Pope  proposed, "to open the eyes of all people of good will to the problem of environmental and human ecology and promote dialogue with each other  at all levels."
About the controversial issues is the allowance of remarried divorcees to Communion and the acceptance of homosexuality, with which the Synod of Bishops will deal next October, Cardinal Müller said: "Here the Synod faces the challenge to find pastoral ways of greater integration in the community, without compromising the Word of Jesus and the Church's teaching based on it. The family is irreplaceable importance for the future of the Church and of society. "
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: katholisch.de (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG








Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The Hermeneutic of Communism? Pope Francis' "Beatification" of Marxist Jesuit

(Rome) On the return flight to Rome Pope Francis answered a few questions for the accompanying journalists on the plane. The Catholic Church leader was asked also to explain the provocative gift made the Pope of the hammer and sickle with Christ from the Bolivian President Evo Morales. Vatican Radio published the questions and complete answers in the original language.
Aura Vistas Miguel (Portugal Vaticanist): "Holiness, how did you feel when you saw the gift of President Morales with sickle and hammer with Christ? What became of this subject?"
Pope Francis: "I - it is strange - did not know that and did not know that Father Espinal was a sculptor and a poet. I have learned that during  these days. I've seen it and it was a surprise for me. Secondly: It can qualify as a genre of protest art. For example, there was an exhibition by a brave, creative Argentine sculptor  in Buenos Aires a few years ago. There was protest art, and I remember a work that showed a crucified Christ on a bomber coming down. This was a critique of Christianity, which is allied with imperialism, represented as a bomber. 
First point: So I knew nothing about it; Second point: I qualify it as protest art that can be offensive in some cases. In some cases. Third, for this particular case: Father Espinal was killed in 1980. That was a time when the liberation theology had many different currents, one of them was the Marxist analysis of reality, and Fr. Espinal belonged to this. I knew because I was at that time Rector of the Faculty of Theology and they talked a lot about it, and who their representatives were in the different currents. In the same year  the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Father Arrupe, wrote a letter to the whole society about the Marxist analysis of reality in the theology that he stopped a little, saying, No, you can not. These are different things, you can not do that, that's not right. And four years later, in 1984, the CDF published the first small volume, the first statement of the Liberation Theology, which criticized it. 
Then came the second, which was more open to the Christian outlook. I simplify, of course. Let's take a hermeneutics of that era.   Espinal is an enthusiast of this Marxist analysis, as well as theology, for which he used Marxism. Hence comes this.  The poems of Espinal belong to this genre of protest, but it was his life, it was his way of thinking, he was a special man with a lot of human genius, and who fought in good faith. As I have done such a hermeneutics, I understand this. For me it was not an insult. But I had to make this hermeneutics, and I say this to you, so that no false opinions arise. This object is with me now, it's coming with me. You may have heard that President Morales wanted to give me two honors, the highest award of Bolivia and then the Order of Fr. Espinal, a new order. Well, I have never accepted a ceremony that does not suit me. But he did it with a lot of good will and the desire to do me favor. And I thought that that comes from the people of Bolivia - I've been praying for it and I thought: If I bring it to the Vatican, where it goes to  a museum and no one sees it. So I thought to offer it to the Virgin of Copacabana, the Bolivian Mother, so that it goes to the Sanctuary: The work will be in the Sanctuary of Copacabana, together with the two awards that I received. Christ, however, I take with. Thanks. "
Translation if: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican Insider
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Thursday, July 9, 2015

What is the Origin of the Hammer and Sickle Crucifix? -- Marxist Jesuit

(La Paz) Evo Morales gave a gift that was as tasteless as it was blasphemous to the Pope on Wednesday.  What is it about the hammer and sickle and the Crucified One, which   Pope Francis will take back to Rome?
The communist symbol of sickle and hammer with the crucified body is the "symbiosis" of "social commitment and Christianity" and was a "tribute" to the Spanish priest Luis Espinal, who had distinguished himself through his "commitment to social struggle". "Morales probably meant Socialism and Christianity '" said Infovaticana .
The newly created icon was placed around Pope Francis' neck as a pendant (see picture).

The Jesuit and Marxist Luis Espinal Camps

Luis Espinal Camps was a Spanish Jesuit and Marxist, who was murdered in 1980 in Bolivia.
Born in 1932 in Catalonia, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1949, was ordained in Barcelona in 1962, in 1963 gained his licentiate in theology and after that attended  a course in journalism and audiovisual media at the Catholic University of Milan in Italy. The Jesuit was described as a gifted communicator.
Under the influence of socio-political left movement in Latin America, he went in 1968 at his own request to Bolivia. It was the time that  left and right engaged in a military struggle for power   in Bolivia, where communist guerrilla groups had been formed in the country and Che Guevara, who had arrived with Cuban guerrillas and Soviet support to enforce the armed revolution, had just been killed by the military.
Unlike other Latin American countries the left and right  took turns in Bolivia exercising  the government inscrutably in a fast rhythm.

Fight on the side of left movements

Espinal at a rally of miners unions and students 1979
Fr. Espinal, who considered himself a "worker priest" remained in the capital, La Paz, where he lived in a poor neighborhood with two other Jesuits. He worked as a theater critic for the daily newspaper Presencia and initially designed his own show on national television, in which he reported on the "worker priests" and took interviews with members of the Marxist guerrilla movement Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN). In 1971 he was awarded Bolivian citizenship. From that year until his death he was a member of the Jesuit radio station Radio Fides and chief editor of the weekly newspaper he founded, Aquí as a mouthpiece left "popular movements". He supported the miners' movement, founded in 1976 the human rights organization, Asamblea de Derechos Humanos and joined a public hunger strike in 1977 with the demand for democratization.
Luis Espinal was one of a number of Jesuits and got closer to various forms of Marxism. Unlike his brothers he did not go over to armed struggle.
When the Leftist Nationalist, Lidia Gueiler Tejada from the interim Revolutionary Nationalist Movement of Bolivia, was the President of the Republic, Espinal was abducted and murdered on March 21, 1980. Whether the offenders were sent by the drug cartels that soon afterwards supported the dictatorship of Luis García Meza Tejada, or from one of the various rapidly changing, and disempowered military rulers could never be clarified. Espinal followers see the reason in his public criticism of an amnesty for crimes during the tenure of President Banzer.
During the Pope's visit it has been repeatedly pointed out that Espinal was assassinated just two days before Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. An attempt to put the Jesuit into a new line of geopolitical saints.

State-honored Christian-Marxist "Folk Hero"

 Hammer, Sickle and crucified, "Socialism and Christianity" on a chain that  was placed around Pope Francis' neck.
In 2007 President Evo Morales declared March 21 the "Day of the Bolivian Cinema" in memory of the assassination of Luis Espinal. Pope Francis prayed today in the place where Fr. Espinal was murdered. Here the Catholic Church's  leader said:
"Good evening, dear sisters and brothers,
I have come to a halt in order to greet you, and especially to remember. At that resembles those a friend, one of our brothers, a victims of interests, that did not want him to fight for the freedom of Bolivia. Fr. Espinal has preached the Gospel and this gospel bothered, and that's why they eliminated him. We hold a minute's silence in prayer and then we pray all together.
[Silence] "
President Morales declared to Pope Francis that the scandalous gift that he made to the head of the church is  a "memento" of Luis Espinal,  who was "known for his religious beliefs and stood up for the defense of the poor, the marginalized and the sick."
However, Father Luis Espinal received sharp criticism during his time in Bolivia mainly by the Church's sharp criticism and his sympathy for the revolutionary, Marxist movements. The weekly newspaper he founded in 1979, Aquí celebrated him today as a "martyr", "folk hero" and "symbol" of liberation theology . For his followers, and thus  is he honored by the presidency of the left-wing populist Evo Morales as well as official Bolivia, Luis Espinal is a leftist symbol in the fight against a flexibly defined "rights".
Several organizations presented Pope Francis a letter in which they expressed their desire for the beatification of Luis Espinal.

Update: apparently, the Pope wasn't angry and didn't say, "no, this is wrong" or variations on that.  Thank you Father Lombardi.  Catholic Snooze Service tries to downplay Espinal's obvious Marxism, and gets it wrong.  Bolivia was ruled by a Leftist President at the time Espinal was dealt with.

The Neocons trying to play damage control were also wrong.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Infovaticana
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG




Friday, April 10, 2015

Benedict XVI.: Liberation Theology is a Falsification of the Christian Faith

(Rome) Benedict XVI. wrote the foreword for a book about his predecessor John Paul II.. "By the side of John Paul II.  Friends and Colleagues Tell" is the title of a forthcoming book. The publisher is the Polish Vaticanist Wlodzimierz Redzioch. Corriere della Sera published some preliminary statements.
Benedict XVI.  personally checked the translation of his words into Italian.  On the question of the "doctrinal challenges," he had to make together with Karol Wojtyla, during his tenure as prefect of the CDF, he replied :
"The first great challenge we faced was liberation theology, which spread in Latin America. Both in Europe and in North America it was common opinion that it constituted a support for the poor and was therefore of course approved. That was a mistake. The poverty and the poor were undisputedly the subject of liberation theology, but in a very specific perspective. (...) It was not about aid and reform, but  the great revolution, from which a new world should emerge. The Christian faith was used as a motor of this revolutionary movement and thereby transformed into a political force. (...) Of course, these ideas were in different variants and they not always appeared with absolute clarity, but overall this was the thrust. Such a distortion of the Christian faith had to be resisted, especially out of love for the poor and the service that would be provided in their favor. " (...)
John Paul II. "Guided us, on the one hand to unmask a false idea of ​​liberation, on the other hand, to show the authentic vocation of the Church to the liberation of man."
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Chiesa e postconcilio
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Friday, October 17, 2014

Jesuit School Happily Honors Condemned Liberation Theology Professor and Employs Predator

 Edit:  A liberation theologian, who is also a sexual predator and byproduct of St. John's University Theology department in Collegeville is in good standing with the Jesuits of Loyola.  What are the odds?

But Michael Diaz holds the "John Courtney Murray University Chair in Public Service"!  Miguel Diaz who propositioned his colleagues so much they complained about him, is somehow qualified to teach theology at a "Jesuit" school.  Well, if evil means good, ugly means beautiful, and so on, then, maybe modern Jesuits are Catholic too?



As this article reports from College Fix:
Advocate of ‘liberation theology’ gets honorary degree;  disgraced professor left nearby school after married couple’s allegations 
Loyola University-Chicago has a soft spot for liberation – from both oppressors and sexual restraint. 
The Jesuit university said last week that Jon Sobrino, S.J., would visit Loyola in November to participate in activities celebrating Ignatian Heritage Month. 
Twenty-five years ago, the Salvadoran Army killed six Jesuits in the rectory where Father Sobrino resided during the civil war that wracked El Salvador. A fellow Jesuit wrote in the National Catholic Reporter that Sobrino survived that day because “he happened … to be in Bangkok.” 
The school will give Sobrino an honorary degree and he’ll deliver a public address, Loyola said in an email to the community, asking for faculty and students to sign up early for events: “We expect Father Sobrino’s address to draw a lot of interest.”

Link to The College Fix 

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Pope Writes Forward to Cardinal Designat Müller's Book on the Topic of Poverty

Francis writes among other things: Yet when an economic power only produces value ​​for individuals and it deprives others, it creates inequality

Rome / Milan (kath.net / CBA) Pope Francis has contributed a preface to  a new book by the Curia Cardinal-designate Gerhard Ludwig Müller. The work of the Prefect of the Congregation is entitled "Arm for the Poor" which will be presented on Tuesday in Rome.

  In the essay, which is published in advance in the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" (Wednesday), it is said that money is to be a "good way" to enlarge the freedom and capabilities of the people and to allow it toward  good works in the world. However, if an economic power only produces value only ​​for individuals and it deprives others, it creates inequality.
In this case, the money loses its initial positive value, says Francis. It then ultimately turns against the people. Money and economic power would become an instrument that "turns people away from  people and restricts them to a self-centered and selfish horizon. In contrast, solidarity is asked for that it becomes  a "vital virtue to life." 

The Pope urged a new connection between profit and solidarity. There was a "fertile cycle between profit and gift-giving, the attempts to break and occlude sin."  Christians should "rediscover this valuable and original unit of profit and solidarity,to live it and proclaim to all." 

The word poverty spontaneously resolves upon discomfort and refers to something bad, writes Francis. The West identifies poverty with the lack of economic power, but there are is also physical, mental, social and moral poverty. [Liturgical poverty, too] Human life depends not only of goods. 

People should be able to count on each other. It should be clear that each person is valuable.    Rather, social life in which public welfare remains not only an empty and abstract word should be questioned. This could only be achieved through genuine repentance, wrote Pope Francis. 

In the Summer of 2012  Pope Benedict XVI. (2005-2013) brought a native of Mainz, the dogmatist and Regensburg Bishop Müller to Rome and made ​​him his principal theological consultant and head of the central authority of the Curia. Müller knows the Church and Theology in Latin America well, and was one of the first prefects Pope Francis confirmed in office.

 During the World Youth Day Rio 2013 visited Pope Francis at his own request Rios slum Varginha 


(C) 2013 CBA Catholic News Agency. All rights reserved.
AMGD

Monday, September 16, 2013

Cardinal Cipriani: "Müller is a Bit Naive" -- Impulsive Clelia Luro: Has Liberation Theology Really Changed?

Ripping my Collar Off to do some "Real" Theology!


(Rome) on 11 September, Pope Francis received the "Father of Liberation Theology," the Peruvian Gustavo Gutierrez, in audience. Gutierrez had been invited to Rome by his friend, the new Prefect of the CDF Gerhard Archbishop Ludwig Müller. Müller presented with Gutierrez the recently published Italian edition of a book jointly written by the two. There was very little enthusiasm about it given by the highest representative of the Peruvian church, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima. He described Müller's pretense toward the topic of Liberation Theology as, "a bit naive". The Papal reception for Gutierrez, was also announced by the impulsive-progressive "Bishop's Widow" Clelia Luro, according to her own definition describing herself as a "Pope-friend".

Cardinal Cipriani Behind Cardinal Bergolio

Cardinal Cipriani Criticizes New "Courting" of Gutierrez and Liberation Theology in Rome

Cardinal Cipriani was critical in courting the new Liberation Theology in Rome. It is a purified form of Marxism and Liberation Theology that has become quite toothless, but the word still evokes bad memories, as the "Liberation Theology" in the 70s and 80s, worked as a Marxist idea-gate into the Catholic Church. To those who have concerns, include the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne. As a Latin American and a Peruvian, in particular,  he really knows exactly  the left slogans that reinterpreted a liberation from sin into a liberation of "social oppression". The South American cardinal is therefore also curt to the Roman "approach" to the theology of liberation, at least on Gutierrez. When asked about Archbishop Curia Müller the archbishop of Lima said, he is "a good German, a good theologian, a little naive." Thus, the unflattering commentary by Cardinal Cipriani last Friday on RPP radio .
"Bishop's"  Widow.

About the audience between  Gutierrez and  Pope Francis, the Cardinal said: "My reading is that he [Müller] wanted to do a favor for his friend [Gutierrez], who is dear to him, wanted to do a favor, and wants to help him in any way, to correct himself and incorporate him in the Catholic Church." According to Cardinal Cipriani, the Pope had only received Gutierrez at the request of Curial Archbishop Müller and not officially.

Francis Pope (front), Cardinal Cipriani Thorne (rear) Cardinal Cipriani: Liberation Theology Caused the Church "Great Harm"

The Cardinal is of the opinion that the unofficial audience was abused last Thursday in order to gain recognition of a theology which has done "great harm to the Church". The cardinal recalled that Gutierrez was never actually found guilty of that in the first half of the 80s by the then Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith,  Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, but he asked him, to "correct two of his books", one of which was the book "Theology of Liberation" which was to give the whole movement  the name. Whether Gutierrez is now "corrected, I do not know," said the Peruvian Cardinal.

The Church, says Cipriani Thorne, had never been closed to the social question and the misery of the people. It belongs to the distortion of liberation theology, claiming to have such an impact, in order to present itself as being the only truly "evangelical" theology. In fact, the liberation theologians, however, have swapped basic truths of the faith.

Pope Francis Has not Forgiven Gutierrez a Discourtesy

The Vatican expert Sandro Magister noted that Pope Francis, has truly received Gustavo Gutierrez but that the position of the Pope nevertheless is clearly distinct from that of the Prefect of the Congregation, Curial Archbishop Müller. As Latin Americans know, Pope Francis is very well aquatinted with Liberation Theology and its seduction. As a Jesuit provincial and even as a bishop in Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio sharply criticized  Liberation Theology. In addition, still playing into a personal touch, there is that the distant relationship to the head of the Catholic Church with Gutierrez, says Magister.

Just the fact that Gutierrez does not appear in the official audience schedule of the Vatican and the Holy See after the meeting with the Pope, issued no opinion as to whether there is evidence of a benevolent attitude that the Curial Archbishop has toward his friend Gutierrez is shared by Pope Francis.

Impulsive "Bishop Widow" and "Pope friend" Clelia Luro Speaks Again

Clelia Luro appears with the picture of her husband Jeronimo Podesta, a former priest, ex-bishop, Marxist Liberation Theologian and probably excommunicated. The rudeness, that the Pope believes Gutierrez to be guilty of, according to Magister, is a grudge, which is admittedly a bit confused because it plays on a very personal level. The source is again, the impulsive Clelia Luro, who, however, shall not be the only one since the election of Pope Bergoglio who was used as a media tool, will call attention to their own interests. In early July, the Argentine widow received a certain noteriety in the German speaking world when the Austrian newspaper, Die Presse quoted her as saying that - in her opinion - Pope Francis will "soon" abolish priestly celibacy. It's a hobby horse of Luros' that has to do with her own personal flaw. A battle the now 87-year-old woman has led for decades. She proudly says that she had called the current Pope as Archbishop of Buenos Aires every Sunday. It's a practice that apparently arose after the death of her husband. Also, since his election as Pope, he had already called her several times, most recently on the 7th of September.

Clelia Luros message was not treated with disinterest. She is primarily a crusader on her own behalf or that of her late husband, around whom everything revolves with her ​​and seeks the "honor" to defend it. Luro is immediately, not only the widow of a former Catholic priest, but a bishop. Her husband, Jose Jeronimo Podesta (1920-2000) was ordained a priest in 1962 and bishop in 1946. As the Diocesan Bishop of Avellaneda, located as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Podesta mixed heavily in politics. The President Juan Carlos Ongania, who gained power through a military coup in 1966, urged his removal. In order to avoid a diplomatic clash, Podesta was led to resign as Bishop of Avellaneda in 1967 and appointed a titular bishop. Podesta continued his political activities, including the Union Christian Peace Conference  (CFRP) steered by the Soviet Union. His political and religious radicalization led to an increasing distance from the Catholic Church. In 1971 he returned back to the Church back and in 1972 he married his secretary Clelia Luro that coincided with his anti-Church, Marxist political and religious struggle in the name of Liberation Theology.

"Bishopess" Mayr-Lumetzberger Received "Apostolic Succession" from Luros Mann

In old age, Jeronimo Podesta was discovered in all sorts of strange circles. These included the Austrian Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger from Linz and the German, Gisela Forster in Munich, both of whom happen to be for women priests in the Catholic Church. They were ordained by a "bishop" Romulo Braschi to become "priestesses" and consecrated "bishops". Braschi maintains for his side to have been illicitly but validly ordained by "Bishop" Podesta. But this in turn is contested by Podesta's widow, Clelia Luro, however. Besides the fact that the "apostolic succession" of would-be bishops is on thin ground, all parties, "consecration" and "sanctified" received excommunication anyway.

Podesta died in 2000 in poverty, but, the tradition, that the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio had hurried to his deathbed, who was the only one of the ecclesiastical hierarchy to do so. It is not known whether Podesta had died reconciled with the Church. Clelia Luro anyway confirms in Bergoglio, this gesture as an example of great humanity. From their previous battle positions, however, they have moved little.

Pope to Call Luro on the 7th of September? - Liberation from Liberation Theology?

Clelia Luro made this event public in a letter to Gustavo Gutierrez.  Her letter was published on the progressive Catholic website Redes Cristiana. Luro writes this that she had received a phone call from Pope Francis on the 7th of September. The Pope told her he had not forgotten the impoliteness Gutierrez had shown to her husband, Podesta.

As Gutierrez was to have held a lecture at a meeting of the Association of Priests of the Third World in Cordoba, which also included the former Bishop Jeronimo Podesta, the Peruvian Liberation Theologian was invited to speak, but he refused to give his presentation, "if Jeronimo would have remained in the hall." Gutierrez only began to speak as Podesta had left the room.

In the same letter, Clelia Luro, makes accusations against Gutierrez but also equally against other famous Liberation Theologians, and also ex-priest Leonardo Boff. "If liberation theology brings us to be the judge our brothers, then we would also need liberation from this theology," this was what the "bishop's" widow wrote, utterly moralizing about the ideologues, as she still seems to have militant Liberation Theologians close by her. [Divide et Impera?]

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Iglesia Descalza / Marco Longari / Triregnum
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com


Link to katholisches...
AMDG

Monday, September 2, 2013

Interview with Secretary of State Parolin: “With Francis, the Impression of a Besieged Church Has Changed to an Open Church"


(Caracas)  Pope Francis accepted  the resignation last Saturday of Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the new Secretary of State. On 4 August the Venezuelan newspaper published an interview with the former nuncio and future cardinal. The Vatican diplomat Archbishop Parolin is a man of few words, and those he uses, he weighs carefully, as it is expected of a diplomat. It was not easy to persuade him to be interviewed, writes Manuel Isidro Molina, the journalist of the pro-government daily newspaper Ultimas Noticias, who conducted the interview. The answers give some insight into the person, his understanding of diplomacy and thus also a preview of how he will fill the highest office of the Roman Curia behind the Pope.
It took place at the end of July at the Apostolic Nunciature in Caracas, shortly after Nicolas Maduro, the successor of Chavez   returned as Venezuelan president from visiting the Vatican with Pope Francis. The responses of the nuncio and the new Secretary of State of the Holy See took place against the background of Venezuela, which is dominated by Bolivarism,  a left national state ideology with nationalist and Marxist elements.
What has happened in the Church since last 13 March as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen as the new Pope?
I think that nothing new is happening in the Church in the sense that something is new and normal.
Getting ready for renewal?
That's right, always, because the main actor in the Church is the Holy Spirit.
How do you interpret the "phenomenon" Francis?
What moves me and what I consider to be a miracle of the election of Pope Francis is the abrupt climate change, which was perceived immediately. Previously there was a pessimism entirely unjustified, as I add, because Pope Benedict XVI. has done everything humanly possible to renew the Church, if we think for example of the great commitment in the fight against pedophilia.
It seems that to have to face the pressure of pedophilia and corruption, have exhausted him ...
Yes, I suspect that too. We were focused on these issues and it seemed as if the Church were not able to renew itself: but suddenly, after this election and the first utterances of the Pope, the situation changed completely. It made a climate of hope, renewal, a broad future that previously seemed hopelessly blocked. And I really look upon as great miracle. The courage and the humility of Benedict XVI.  to take a step back, goes in the same direction as the courage and the humility of Pope Francis to accept the papacy, and the new wind that he has brought.
What impressed you most in the pontificate of St. Francis?
What impresses me most is the complete change of perception that it was for the Church. From a besieged Church with a thousand problems, one might say, a little sick Church, we have moved to a Church that has opened.
He has revitalized it ...
Exactly, and now we look with great confidence in God's future. It seems to me that that's the best thing that has happened to us.
What does it mean that the Pope made his first trip to Brazil?
That's a coincidence, because it was already decided that the World Youth Day will be held in Brazil. Therefore, it fell to the Pope, any Pope to be there.
A chance also that Pope Francis has taken a decision for the poor and that Brazil was the cradle of liberation theology?
To liberation theology, and I say it with all my heart, because there has been much suffering, things are clarified.These painful, passionate years have led to clarify things. The Church, that’s right, has a preferential option for the poor.This is a decision that the Church has made on a universal level. But it has also clarified that the option for the poor nor is it an alternative option.
But preferential...
Yes, a preferential. However, this means that the Church is church for all. The church offers all the Gospel with a special attention to the poor, because they are especially loved by the Lord, because you know, you can accept the gospel only in an attitude of poverty.
The simplicity, Francis proclaimed ...
Pope Francis goes in this direction. This attention he has shown since the first moments of his pontificate, represents a fundamental option in the center of the Church, which applies to everyone, but with a special attention to the poor.
This is a reading that is true for Latin America and the Caribbean believers. Which reading there might be among the African believers?
There are differences. Liberation theology had less resonance in Africa than in Latin America.
And in Europe with the worker priests ...
Yes, of course, but not in Africa. The attention of Pope Francis for the poor is good news for Africa, which experienced conflicts and forms of inequality in different countries. I think the emphasis that sets the Pope, is also important for Africa,  for the whole area, which relates to the issue of social justice and peace, which were treated by the two synods held in the Vatican for Africa.
The issue of poverty is a human issue for the Church. For Marxists, it is also a question of class ...
The Church can not accept the Marxist categories of class struggle. One point among the various problems that existed with those who represented the liberation theology, was the use of the Marxist category of class struggle in their teaching. The Church is always aimed as a first step in the conversion of hearts and the education of human solidarity, a solidarity which not only personally enables, but structurally  overcomes the problems of society.  The Church receives an enormous treasure, namely its social doctrine.
Which measures the weight of church corruption as the cause of these problems?
The Pope has drawn attention. It is a topic that the Church, because she knows that corruption harms the character of the society and attracts many consequences for how the gennanten. It is important that we fight corruption, especially through education, which is a core area for the church. The education of the people to law-abiding, to be honest, the match between word and deed, so that people are able to reject these temptations and to build a healthy society, a positive society.
Pope Francis has inspired increased inter-religious relations, at least between the monotheistic religions ... What is true for the mixture of Latin American and Caribbean beliefs?
,The Pope has expressed ecumenical dialogue between Christians and the inter-religious dialogue in terms of its predecessors, for example, of the meeting with John Paul II in Assisi. Pope Francis is very clear: we must continue on this path.
And the mishmash of Latin American-Caribbean beliefs?
The Church follows the principle of St. Paul to take note of everything and take what is good and healthy. All that is compatible with the Gospel may be adopted.
Are there signs of a possible visit of Pope Francis in Venezuela?
I can not say. We do not know what  the intentions of the Pope will be.
President Nicolas Maduro has invited him on his visit to the Vatican ...
According to my knowledge, he has not invited him. According to yours?
He has opened him the opportunity to come ...
Yes, but a formal invitation, I think there seems to be no. The President is to have said something like the gates are open to Venezuela.
In any case, he did not tell him that they are closed ...
[Laughter] No, not that. At this moment, as far as I know there has been no formal invitation to the Pope to come to Venezuela.
Is  the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the opinion that this meeting was good?
Yes, yes.
Was there an immediate impact?
The evaluation of the meeting of Pope Francis with President Maduro was positive in terms of the dialogue that advances the Church. It was a testimony of dialogue. The Pope is always ready to welcome all.
He has proved it: with the Argentine President Cristina Kirchner there were rumored  disagreements.
The Pope received and embraced her.
He has received President Maduro, in which you claimed that there were differences ...
That's right, the Pope is open to receive all and talk to everybody. It seems to me that the meeting with President Maduro was helpful for a dialogue with the Church here in Venezuela.
An improvement in the quality?
At least, contact channels are open and  dialogue is seen as a means of solving problems.
To understand the problems?
To understand and solve problems in a peaceful, humane and Christian way.
What perception does the Church have of the social suffering that prevails due to the economic crisis in different European countries?
The Church and the Christians, as the Second Vatican Council says, is currently celebrating its 50 years, to make all the dramas of the contemporary  their own. The Church has appealed that human suffering be taken into account in solving the crisis suffered by Europe.
And what happens to the "wild capitalism” as John Paul II has criticized it?  Benedict XVI. has criticized it and Pope Francis criticizes it. Nevertheless, this direction continues to dominate Europe?
This is a worrying thing. The Church is continuing its demand that all this is corrected, so that the human is measured against  the economic, according to  ethics and morality. Man must come before the economic laws. This creates a sense of love for the poor, solidarity, a truly human economy that helps people develop and that they not be humiliated and have their dignity offended. This is a fundamental discourse for the Church, and we all have papal encyclicals from Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII. up to Caritas in Veritate of Benedict XVI.
Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Don Antonio Lasierra / La cigüeña de la torre
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD




Saturday, June 29, 2013

Brother of Leonardo Boff: "We Should Have Listened to Ratzinger"

(Rio de Janeiro) During these days the media duck made the rounds, the prefect of the CDF, Curia, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller had called for a "reconciliation" with the liberation theology, the brother of the most famous liberation theologians of the world, Leonardo Boff has spoken up, and in a very different sense.

Liberation theology was one of the worst disasters of the Catholic Church. Its inventors are the theologians Gustavo Gutierrez, a Dominican, and Leonardo Boff, a Franciscan. It was created after the Second Vatican Council and is supposed to interpret and respond to the dramatic situation of mass poverty in Latin American countries. That's as far as the noble intention.

In reality, they mingled with the theology with the current fashion and seemingly unstoppable Marxism. First they justify class struggle, then armed struggle which leads inevitably to violence. And many Catholics, including priests, religious and seminarians have followed this siren song. The result has been great suffering and serious cracks and splits in the Catholic Church by priests who bartered the cross with the machine gun. Clerics, who, instead of following the example of the saints, rather imitated the example of Che Guevara and fought in the guerrilla struggle through the cities and the jungle and were eventually shot by the police or military.

For this reason, the Latin American bishops condemned the contagious Marxist theology in 1979. The same was done in detail, explained by the doctrinal congregation, under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the express request of Pope John Paul II, who was from in the Soviet-controlled Eastern Bloc, and was particularly sensitive to the topic. The CDF studied the phenomenon from the perspective of orthodoxy and the social doctrine of the Church. The condemnation was accomplished with two documents: Libertatis Nuncio (1984) and Libertatis Conscientia (1986). In both, it was noted that liberation theology was in a dependent relationship to the Marxist critique of society and is therefore incompatible with the Gospel message.

Leonardo Boff, today, with other colleagues of the anti-Church boulevard magazine Fatto Quitidiano has this intervention Ratzinger never forgiven. He turned his back on the church and began a personal vendetta against them, including through its Brazilian "Base Communities". A kind Brazilian Don Gallo .

Recently Boff was reported to praise again and speak of Pope Francis effusively. And the media habitually gave him quite a hearing. It had been Boff, who had demanded on behalf of the Council, to the media, that "someone like Bergoglio" should not even be admitted to the conclave. The reason for the Boff did not mention, of course, is that Cardinal Bergoglio had met in Argentina Marxist liberation theology up close and dislikes. Bergoglio rejected the theses of Marxist theology and opposed his brothers in the Jesuit order, who joined Boff and Gutierrez. The result was a still ongoing resentment from parts of the Order against Bergoglio. As Boff has never forgiven him for the condemnation of the theology he created, so have some have the same Jesuits never forgiven Bergoglio.

It is interesting in this context an interview that the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo was held with Clodovis, the brother of Leonardo Boff. Clodovis, a member of the Servites, contradicted his brother:

"In the two documents published by Cardinal Ratzinger, he defended the original core of liberation theology: the commitment to the poor because of the faith. At the same time he criticized the Marxist influence. The Church can't do this. It's not like a civil society where people can say what they want. We are tied to a belief and if someone professes another faith, he closes himself from the Church. From the outset, it was clear the importance was to make Christ the foundation of all theology. In the hegemonic discourse of liberation theology, however, I have noticed that faith in Christ only appeared in the background. The anonymous Christianity of Karl Rahner was a great excuse to neglect Christ, prayer, the sacraments and the mission in which the focus was only on the change of social structures. "
Clodovis Boff, formerly himself a representative of the Teología de la Liberación , who was already critical of it in 1986 and finally distanced from liberation theology in 2007, added: "In the 70s Cardinal Eugneio Sales withdrew my teaching license of Theology at the Catholic University Rio. Sales told me in a friendly way: "Clodovis, I think you are mistaken. Doing good is not enough to be a Christian. The center is to confess the faith ... " He was right. In fact, the Church was irrelevant for us. And not only Her, even Christ Himself "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Wikicommons

Link to katholisches...

Friday, February 22, 2013

Liberation Theology Will Get a Boost if Cardinal Turkson


Edit: right now, he’s the most favored to be the next Pope. This article identifies some of his political views which are in line with Liberation Theology and Marxist thinking. Right now Cardinal Turkson is the overall favorite to be next Pope according to Paddy Power, despite attempting to take himself out of the running by telling the press what he’ll do when he becomes Pope.

There is a world where it is possible to ‘wipe the tears from the eyes of those who suffer injustice‘. So says the man tipped by many to become the 294th successor to St. Peter as Pope and spiritual leader of the world’s one billion Roman Catholics.

Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, who currently serves as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is a renowned champion of the poor and marginalized.

In a lecture at Durham University Centre for Catholic Studies two years ago, Cardinal Turkson argued that:

“…despite the naysayers, economic resources do exist that could help wipe the tears from the eyes of those who suffer injustice, who lack the basics of a dignified life, and who are in danger from any deterioration in the climate.”

In a call to action, he added that the poor “benefit from champions in solidarity who believe that injustice can be reduced, that harmonious relationships can be fostered, that our planetary ecology can be made sustainable, that a world of greater communion is possible”.

In October 2011, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace he heads set out a radical critique of global financial arrangements, which skew wealth and power away from developing countries.

Read further...

Another Bishop with connections to Ghana is Bishop Terry Steib S.V.D. of the Diocese of Memphis Tennessee in the USA. Interestingly, the coat of arms shows a connection to Marxist causes of black power movement and East Germany.

It’s not surprising that this Bishop is a very enthusiastic supporter of aberrosexuality.

 Part of his coat of arms even has a red chicken, symbolic of the Convention People's Party of Marxist agitator  Kwame Nkrumah, who was backed by the Soviet Union


Here is a description of Bishop Steib’s coat of arms, since none of the examples on line can be blown up successfully to give a decent picture:


The arms of Bishop Steib feature a tri-colored field - black, red, and green - which recalls the Flag of the Black Liberation Movement [represented by the cockerel]; this in turn is based on the Flag of the nation-state of Ghana, whose independence in 1957 gave rise to the general decolonization of the African continent. The colors represent, respectively, the great people that has sprung from this land, the blood shed in its defense, and the green plains of Africa. [It looks a lot like the flag of Communist East Germany, too]


H/t to Jay’s Analysis 


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Secretary of State Scolds New CDF


Edit:  Archbishop Müller attempts to go over the head of the local ordinary, the Pope, even lies about it, on behalf of his Liberation Theology friends in Peru. 

(Lima) In the Andean country of Peru, there is a rebellious university, which was deprived by Rome of the right to continue to call itself a "Catholic.”  The competent Archbishop and nominal chancellor of the academic institution withdrew the right to teach theology from the entire faculty.  After a heated session, which took place a few days ago in Rome, the Holy See insisted  that the university will continue to rebel without theologians. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone had been invited to the meeting. The senior participants made the intention of the Prefect of the Congregation, Archbishop Curia Gerhard Ludwig Müller to thwart the ruling. He had tried to take the side of the Peruvian rebel party. A "gross error” for the keeper of the faith, as it is described in Rome.
Several dicastries were invited to the meeting  to consider a letter from Archbishop Müller to the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Cipriani Thorne at the end of January. Therein the Prefect demanded an explanation as to why the Peruvian Cardinal had revoked the Church’s permission to teach theology for all the university professors of theology department.   This had notified the university authorities in December of disciplinary action by which the Holy See had withdrawn by its decree of June 2012, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru right to continue to describe themselves as “Papal" and call themselves "Catholic".

University must not describe itself as "papal" and "Catholic" - withdrawal of entire faculty's theology teaching license

The disciplinary measure which took place with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, has lost none of its legal validity, since the university boards continue to refuse to reform the statutes and ecclesiastical regulations to implement the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae for higher education institutions.
Although the Roman decree at the time of appointment of the Bishop of Regensburg to Rome had been adopted, and the new CDF Prefect was active, according to which the rebellious professors had then turned to complain to him. According to this the withdrawal of permission to teach, it was made from "reasons of doctrine." Müller felt thus responsible, and called on the Archbishop of Lima, despite his own existing decision, to let the regular teaching  in theology continue. Müller justified this unusual step by saying that the Holy See had not yet decided the question.

CDF Prefect Müllers' interference in Lima and in the Vatican was not viewed well

The new Prefect’s interference came to nothing in Archbishop's Palace in Lima or in the other departments in Rome. Therefore, the Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone  addressed the situation at the aforementioned meeting at which the Muller's letter was canceled. It was annuled on the grounds that it had merely been a “personal" intiative by the Prefect, who had not even consulted his experts at the Congregation. Mueller also failed to send the letter through the regular channels of the Apostolic Nunciature in Lima. The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Cipriani had instead simply just gotten a fax. The document has ignored the canon law, the other departments, which the competent diocesan bishop for the right to grant and revoke the teaching license.
The result of the meeting was immediately sent through diplomatic channels to Peru. It can be summarized as follows: The letter from Archbishop Mueller is null and void the decision of Archbishop Cardinal Cipriani has undiminished validity.

Müller's letter null and void - “Heavy Blow" for the new Master of the Holy Office

The former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, whose acronym of PUCP has shrunk in UP, does not have enough teachers who are willing to teach without church permission at the university.
The outcome of the meeting chaired by Cardinal Bertone was a "serious blow all around to the new Prefect, such as Andrés Beltramo Álvarez wrote for Vatican insider. To the Roman Curia  the question is whether the "new German in Rome "is really the right man for such a central post, which requires maximum discipline and allows neither improvisation nor formal or editorial errors".
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana

Friday, August 19, 2011

Ortega Accused of Religious Pandering by Former Culture Minister

Edit: in a country where almost sixty percent identify themselves as Catholics, the Leftist President, Daniel Ortega, now enjoys the support of Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo who was critical of him when he ruled the country beginning in 79 when he toppled Somoza thanks to the benign neglect of President Jimmy Carter.

All is not well, however, Jesuit Ernesto Cardenal, former Sandista Minister of Culture publicly reprimanded by Pope John Paul, and Bishop Abelardo Mata are more cynical about Ortega's newly found faith in God.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Religious processions and chants have become common at the re-election campaign rallies of leftist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who is highlighting his Christianity in his bid for re-election.

The image put forth by Ortega's Sandinista Party has dismayed Roman Catholic Church officials, who say the leader's spirituality is a ploy to deceive Nicaraguans who will elect a president in November.

"It's legal, legal, legal," Ortega said at a recent rally when addressing criticism that he is running a campaign tinged with religion. "No one can ban us from using the word Christian. No one. The Vatican hasn't said a word about it."

Link to AP...

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Msgr Aloysius Winter is Dead

Editor: He said the Latin Mass for the local Diocese. He will be missed by many.

A Catholic Priest

The former rector of the Theological Faculty of Fulda, Prelate Aloysius Winter (79) is dead, according to the 'Fulda Zeitung' yesterday.

The story about his injuries was run on Saturday in Saarland which happened as a result of a robbery in his home in Fulda.

Prelate Winter was attacked on 25. June 2010 in his home in Haimbacher Street in Fulda by a then, 31 year old heroin addict.

The perpetrator broke the bedroom door of his victim down and struck like a beast against the clergyman.

A coroner at the University of Giessen has been directed in legal proceedings to report that the defendant had kicked and stomped his victim at least eight times on the head and trunk.



That had produced among other things, a hemorrhage. This is something from which the Prelate will not recover.
"
A few days after the accident he lay in a Fulda Clinic in a coma and had to have a stomach tube put in, sat on a wheel chair and was cared for around the clock.

Then he came to the rehabilitation center near Bernkastel an der Mosel.

"After that he started to speak in complete sentences, then his health came crashing down" -- said Brother Wilhelm according to Br. Wilhelm.

Since this time Winter can no longer communicate with his environment.


And in order to better serve his health his relatives decided to take him to a new convalescent home, placing him in the area of his birth area of Perl-Besch in Saarland.

"Thre we have visited him daily -- up to his last day. He is said to have died at five o'clock", explained his brother Wilhelm.

According to his own desire he will be interred at his birth place.

Prelate Winter was described by all of his acquaintances as someone with a good temperament but was also very ascertive.

Link to original...kreuz...

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Liberation Theology is Back?


Will Liberation Theology be Exhumed?

Vatican, today the new neo-Conservative Archbishop João Bráz de Aviz takes up his new office as Prefect for the Congregation for the Institutes of Religious Life. For the occasion, the Vatican daily, 'Osservatore Romano' published an interview with him wherein he defended the Old Liberal Liberation Theology. That which is found as a "preferential option for the poor" is being sold as a "holy imperative option for Evangelization". Already the supposedly holy John Paul II has said that Liberation Theology is "not only useful, rather also necessary".

From kreuznet.