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

Monday, December 11, 2017

Broadcaster of the Archdiocese of Toledo Recommends Liberation Theologian

Leonardo Boff's Book: Francis of Rome and Francis of Assisi. A New
Springtime for the Church?
(Madrid) The television station rtvd of the Archdiocese of Toledo recommends to the audience the writings of Leonardo Boff and other liberation theologians.
The diocesan television station of the Archdiocese of Toledo publishes reading and gift recommendations. Among them are books by Leonardo Boff and Pedro Casaldaliga, two leading figures of Liberation Theology.
"49 or more" (49 o mas) is the name of the new program of the diocesan TV station that wants to recommend "good literature". The book recommended by Boff is called "Francis of Rome and Francis of Assisi" (Francisco de Roma and Francisco de Asis). The former Franciscan wants to connect Francis of Assisi with Pope Francis in a wide arc.
Boff had joined the Franciscan Order in Brazil in 1959He completed his studies in Munich. He is considered one of the most important and best known liberation theologians. While criticizing the Church as an "institution" and its "hierarchy" as "fundamentalist," he showed open sympathy for communist regimes.
When, under Pope John Paul II, the Congregation of the Faith, under the leadership of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger condemned the Marxist liberation theology, Boff accused the later Pope Benedict XVI. of "religious terrorism".  Boff had been accused not only of Marxism, but more in the dissemination of theological heresies, including syncretism.
When Boff did not abide by the public silence imposed by Rome in 1992, he was dimissed from his order and suspended from his priesthood. At a state, Brazilian university, he received a chair of ethics specially designed for him.
While Boff had called for schism under Pope Benedict XVI., he showed sympathy to the incumbent Pope at the beginning of the pontificateWhile Leonardo Boff scattered flowers to the new pope from Argentina, his brother Clodovis Boff, Servite Father and former liberation theologian, expressed himself quite differently:
The Archbishop of Toledo is Msgr. Braulio Rodríguez Plaza, who is also the Primate of Spain. Although this position dates back only to the 11th century, when the city was reconquered in the wake of the Reconquista, it refers to the fact that Toledo was the capital of Spain before the Islamic occupation of the Visigoths. As local bishop, Archbishop Rodriguez Plaza is responsible for the diocesan television station.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi 
Image: 49 o mas / Youtube (screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Monday, January 23, 2017

Pope Francis: "Liberation Theology Was a Positive Thing in Latin America"

Pope Francis in Interview with El Pais
(Rome) The Spanish daily El Pais published in yesterday's Sunday edition an interview with Pope Francis. In this, the leader of the Catholic church said that "liberation theology was a positive thing for Latin America," that "one can practice religion in China" and that he "must be much more incomprehensible because of my sins." An excerpt.

On Liberation Theology

El Pais : Do you not think that the Church has lost many positions for the benefit of other religions and sects even after the failed attempt of liberation theology? Why is that?
Pope Francis : Liberation theology was a positive thing in Latin America. The part was condemned by the Vatican which opted for the Marxist analysis of reality. Cardinal Ratzinger issued two instructions when he was prefect of the Congregation of the Faith. It was very clear about the Marxist analysis of reality, and a second in which he came back to the positive aspects. Liberation theology had positive aspects, but also deviations, especially in the Marxist analysis of reality.

To the People's Republic of China

El Pais : Can Vatican diplomacy  soon be broadened in China?
Pope Francis : In fact, there is already a Commission working with China and meets every three months, once here [Vatican], once in Beijing. And there is a lot of dialogue with China. China has always had the aura of mystery, which is fascinating. Two or three months ago they were happy with the exhibition of the Vatican Museum in Beijing. And they will come to the Vatican in the coming year with their things, their museum.
El Pais : Will you soon travel to China?
Pope Francis:  When I am invited. They know that. In China, by the way, the churches are full. They can practice religion in China.

Europe

El Pais : Do you think, Holy Father, that the signs are similar in Europe today, which were present in Germany in 1933? [It's like Hitler!!]
Pope Francis : I am not a technician in it, but on today's Europe, I refer to my three speeches. The two in Strasbourg, and the third, when I received the Charlemagne Prize, the only prize which I have accepted as a service because of the moment which Europe is going through. These three speeches say what I think about Europe.

About Paul VI. And misunderstanding

El Pais : 50 years ago there was almost everything. The Second Vatican Council, the journey of Paul VI. And the embrace with the patriarch Athenagoras in the Holy Land. Some say to understand you, they should come to know Paul VI. At a certain moment he was a misunderstood pope. Do you also feel a bit like an uncomfortable pope?
Pope Francis : No, no. I think I am much more misunderstood because of my sins. Paul VI was the martyr of disagreement. Evangelii gaudium  was in the framework of the Pastoral.  What I want to give to the Church now is an update of Evangelii nuntiandi of Paul VI. He is a man who went forward in history. And he suffered, suffered much. He was a martyr. And many things he could not do, because he knew as a realist that he could not, and so he suffered, but he offered that suffering. And he did what he could do. And what Paul VI did best: sow. He sowed things that were later harvested in history. Evangelii gaudium is a mixture of Evangelii nuntiandi and the Aparecida document [2007 Latin American Episcopal Conference]. Things that have grown from below. Evangelii nuntiandi is the best post-conciliar pastoral document and has lost none of its topicality. I do not feel misunderstood. I feel accompanied, accompanied by all types of people, boys, old people, ... Yes, some out there are disagreeable, and that's their right, because if I felt bad, because some disagree. that would be the beginnings of the dictator in my attitude.  You have the right to disagree. You have the right to think that the road is dangerous, that it could bring bad results, that ... they have the right. But always on the condition that they enter into a dialogue, and not that they throw stones and hide their hand, not that. No man has a right to that. [Except for you and your close circle of intimates who rules the Vatican like oriental despots?] Throwing a stone, but hiding the hand is criminal. Everyone has a right to discuss, and hopefully, we will discuss a lot, because this is what sets us apart. The discussion unites. The discussion with good blood, not with slander and all that ... [Unless it's you who's doing the slander, Holiness?]
Introduction / translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: OSS / El Pais (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
 to press

Monday, February 22, 2016

Fernando Cardenal Dies -- Jesuit Liberation Theologian and Sandanista

Fernando Cardenal SJ (in civilian clothes first from the left) with FSLN
Commander Daniel Ortega

(Managua) He was a Minister Sandinista government. Under Pope John Paul II. he was suspended a divinis and expelled from the Jesuits. He was later reinstated into the order. He was not only a theoretical, but also a practical representative of Marxist liberation theology.

Now he has died at the age of 82 years and stands before the judgment seat of God. There is talk of Fernando Cardenal, the younger brother of Ernesto Cardenal. Both entered the Society of Jesus, were both politically active before their entry into the order, both were Catholic priests, they were both militant representatives of Marxist liberation theology and both were Ministers of the revolutionary Sandinista government that ruled Nicaragua from 1979-1990. With the collapse of the communist bloc, the Sandinista regime collapsed. Concealed, like some communist parties of Europe, the Sandinista Liberation Front FSLN today belongs to the Socialist International and is a sister party of the SPD, Social Democratic Party and SPS.

Revolutionary from a wealthy family

Fernando Cardenal was born in 1934 in Granada, Nicaragua, the son of a wealthy Spanish-born family. Together with his brother, Ernesto, he joined himself early to the Nicaraguan opposition and Marxist liberation theology. The brothers Cardenal became its most important practical representatives and participated in the armed struggle of the Sandinista underground FSLN (Sandinista Front of National Liberation) that fought against the Somoza government.

After the Sandinistas had violently overthrown the government in 1979, the brothers Cardenal took over leading tasks in the revolutionary government, which enjoyed great sympathy and support from the orthodox and unorthodox Left of Europe. Fernando was deputy chairman of the Sandinista Youth League.

The Brothers Cardenal as Ministers: suspension a divinis

The better known, older brother, Ernesto, became Minister of Culture of Nicaragua in 1979. His younger brother became Minister of Education in 1984 under Sandinista Daniel Ortega. The Vatican called for, as previously acknowledged by his brother, their immediate resignation. Fernando refused as previously his brother refused. A withdrawal would have been a "grave sin" explained Fernando Cardenal later to the BBC. "I can not think of a God, who would have required of me to let the people down."

Because of his disobedience, and because he had joined the armed struggle, he was suspended a divinis in Rome. Thus, he could no longer present himself as belonging to the Jesuit Order. The Order excludes a direct exercise of public office. So it had to meet the Roman demands and exclude Cardenal. However, the relationship between the brothers Cardenal and the Order remained benevolent.

The return to the Jesuit Order

In 1990 Sandinistas were voted out. After another six years, Fernando Cardenal was re-adopted by the Jesuit Order. After that, he had to repeat the novitiate for a year that he, so the biography went, spent his time "among the poorest of El Salvador", when he was admitted in 1997 back in full into the Order.

Since 2011, he headed has directed one of the order's own initiatives in Nicaragua. It was founded in 1955 by the Chilean Jesuit José Maria Velaz (1910 to 1985) in Venezuela. The movement is called Alegria y Fe. "Faith and Joy" is engaged, at least according to it's own report in "literacy" and "social and political awareness".

In the 1970s, Alegria y Fe became ideological and made ​​liberation theology its own. The 1974 movement was also active in Nicaragua. It maintains more than 1,000 schools and 53 radio stations in Latin America today.

On February 20, Fernando Cardenal died. Yesterday, in the ballroom of the Jesuit- led Central American University in Managua (Universidad Centroamericana, UCA), the Requiem took place . This was followed by burial.

Unlike his brother Ernesto, who opposed the social democratization of the FSLN resisted and the more radical, co-founded Movimento de Ronovacion Sandanista, the Movement of Sandinista Renovation (MRS), Fernando has not been politically active recently.

"May the Lord greet him with infinite mercy," said the Spanish columnist and opponent of liberation theology, Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: La Republica (Ecuador) (screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Friday, January 29, 2016

Pope Invites Evil Dominican Head of "Gay Lobby" to Secret Meeting

(Rome) Bishop José Raúl Vera López, Dominican and Diocesan Bishop of Saltillo in Mexico, is held to be the "bishop of the gay lobby" in the Catholic Church. The Liberation Theology "inspired" chief shepherd has been known in recent years primarily for his vociferous defense of homosexuality. On the day before the opening of the Synod of Bishops in 2015 on the family,  Raul Vera was a "special guest" at a meeting of a "Catholic Gay Network" in Rome. Next February, he will be one of a small circle of selected persons with whom Pope Francis meets during his Mexico visit in secret.

For Aberrosexuals: "You are our savior"

When homo-meeting in Rome Bishop Raul Vera said to aberrosexuals: "You are our savior." He continued: "Who are small but well-organized, to defeat the monsters, and you are well organized and will conquer." That was considered just "little infidelity" by many. However, there was no Apostolic Visitor seen by Bishop Raul Vera in Saltillo, let alone being deprived of his office, as compared that has been issued to Opus Dei  bishops, including Bishop Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. [And +Finn of Kansas] The Mexican media have already been writing since 2011 about Raul Vera: "People think that the bishop is not a Catholic."
The  journalist Emiliano Ruiz Parra wrote benevolently about him: "The Bishop of Saltillo is convinced that there is no salvation in heaven without liberation on earth. (...) He defends the Central American migrants, the miners, the homosexuals, the indigenous people, sex workers, the families of the disappeared in the Civil War. "  It pleased him to be "different".
In an interview with El Pais, Bishop Raul Vera told proudly what he said to a mother who had come to him to complain to him of her sorrow that her son was gay: "You have to condemn yourself, because your son has become that way in your belly. If he became the way he is, then it was in your stomach."
To have for each battle of the political left and let the unborn child in the lurch: Bishop Raul Vera

Catholic teaching on homosexuality "insane"

"Homophobic", is what the bishop says of all who reject homosexuality, who are "insane". Thus the bishop describes the Catholic doctrine and Catholics as "insane", are what protesting Catholics write in their letters to Rome.
In fact, Raul Vera made fun ​​in 2013 at the 33rd Congress of Liberation Theology in Madrid  of what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about homosexuality. The Congress was supported by organizations representing abortion and gender ideology. For Raul Vera it's no problem. By 2011, the bishop called for the legalization of abortion in Mexico and started a collaboration with abortion organizations. For this he has been proposed for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 "because of his struggle for human rights."
For his 25th anniversary, Bishop Raul Vera invited all leaders of Marxist liberation Theology, from Gustavo Gutierrez to Jon Sobrino. In 2011 he was warned by the Vatican because of his support for homosexual groups, which has changed nothing.
Following the example of the Bishop other priests in Saltillo talk in the sense of "gay lobby." Don Pedro Pantoja, director of the Casa del Migrante of Saltillo, is just one of them. In 2014 he told the press: "The Church can not reject the adoption rights for homosexuals out of respect for diversity."
"Padre Gofo" (left) in strange costume, Bishop Raul Vera (right)

"Padre Gofo" and Bishop Raul Vera 

Adolfo Huerta Aleman, popularly known as "Padre Gofo", is a priest of the Diocese of Saltillo, who has denied the existence of God and publicly boasted to entertain "frequent and alternating sexual relations". Nevertheless, Bishop Raul Vera only suspended him "temporarily" until July 2013, only after the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome had become involved.
Criticism of Pope Benedict XVI.  appearing in the church newspaper of Saltillo were de rigeur.  Raul Vera has described himself  as a "controversial bishop". From a part of his diocese, he is rejected as a "liberal" who "twists the gospel" and "betrays the Catholic Church".

The closed and the open doors of Pope Francis

The late Bishop Livieres Plano left a flourishing diocese. His diocese, with just one-tenth of the Catholics of Paraguay, had three times as many seminarians as all other dioceses together. Which is a - not only - Latin American theme of vocations - and the shortage of priests. Argentina native went to Rome in September 2014  and  was deposed during his absence from his diocese by Pope Francis. In Ciudad del Este, it is said that he was downright "lured" to Rome, because once there the bishop was simply allowed to stand before closed doors. The reason for the dismissal was given that he had disrupted the community of the Paraguayan Bishops. Despite his repeated entreaties, Pope Francis refused a discussion.
Quite different is the case Saltillo.  Bishop Raul Vera is invited for next February by Pope Francis, where during a pastoral visit to Mexico,  he will meet privately, wrote InfoVaticana.  To be precise, it is a semi-private meeting at which only a small group of selected journalists and bishops will participate, a total of 20 people. And Bishop Raul Vera will be one of the elect.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Images: Wikicommons / InfoVaticana / El Gatopardo (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

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.
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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...
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