Showing posts with label Malta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malta. Show all posts

Saturday, May 5, 2018

Chancellor of Knights of Malta Loses Case — Being Asked to Step Down


ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - As the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is welcoming its newly elected Grand Master, senior knights are calling for the Grand Chancellor to step down. Leaked documents obtained by Church Militant reveal widespread discontent towards Albrecht von Boeselager, after a German court judged him to be untruthful.
"We cannot have a Grand Chancellor whose truthfulness has been impugned by a court of law," said one senior knight. "He must resign. It is as simple as that."
An internal email dated April 30 sent to all members of the Order of Malta begins,

AMDG

Friday, October 20, 2017

Pope Sends Letter to Family of Murdered Journalist Who'd Exposed Clintons

Pope Francis has sent a rare letter of condolence to Malta following the murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, amid calls from her sons for the island’s prime minister to resign and mounting pressure for an international investigation.


In a highly unusual gesture from the Vatican after the death of a private citizen, Francis wrote on Friday to the archbishop of Malta to say he was praying for the journalist’s family and the Maltese people “at this difficult moment” and was “saddened by the tragic death”.
Five days after Caruana Galizia’s death in a powerful car bomb yards from her home in the rural north of the island, an autopsy was being carried out on her body, but police have warned it could take several weeks before the evidence gathered from the site was fully assessed.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/20/pope-writes-rare-letter-of-condolence-after-of-daphne-caruana-galizia

[The Conservative Fighters] As The Free Thought Project reported in April 2016, the Panama Papers had a direct effect on the United States by revealing both elite and criminal donors who helped to finance the careers of Hillary and Bill Clinton through unethical offshore tax shelters.

http://theconservativefighters.com/news/world-renowned-journalist-exposed-clinton-foundation-found-dead/

Monday, June 1, 2015

El Papa Solitario: Only 20 Percent of the Bishops are For Franciscus? -- The Shadow Cabinet of Santa Marta

(Rome) Pope Francis (almost) place for all merciful words, but when he talks about the bishops of the Catholic Church, "he seems to pick up the stick," the Corriere della Sera. Italy's bishops had to be told some of the pontiff at the opening of its spring conference on May 18. They had strives startled in the days before, to take cover and Francis to appease (see "Cicero's" Stab in the Hornet's Nest - Italy's Bishops to Take Cover and Rehabilitate even the Ghostwriter of the Pope ).
For months the bishops registered pain not only in Italy, and to their surprise, a rigor of Argentine Pope, with whom she had not expected. A rigor that is directed against them.
Behind expressions of loyalty and fidelity to the Holy Father, there is palpable  discomfort in the episcopate. As much as  the Italian bishops also endeavor to recognize the Pope's cultural coordinates, to understand and to follow these, they seem increasingly convinced that the Argentine Church leader - despite Italian roots - cherishes an anti-Italian prejudice  whose edges are difficult to dull.

Pope of "epochal turning point" has trouble finding followers in the episcopate

The discomfort affects not only the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Vatican. Staff at the Roman Curia have been left pretty hang dog since being  papally diagnosed with 15 diseases diagnostics before Christmas 2014. The mood disorder has been detected also in other countries and their church hierarchies. Francis, the Pope of the "epochal turning point" (Corriere della Sera), seems to be, thanks to media support, easy to do, acting as a popular triumph. Much more difficult, i is for the head of the church to find a convinced followers in the church hierarchy. Moreover, the consensus of Francis seems to sink among the bishops.
According to the Corriere della Sera from last May 20th the numbers 20, 70, 10 apparently reflect the mood of the Roman Curia.  Among all the employees of the pope  there are only 20 percent who would support him with conviction in his government. 70 percent said they would form a "silent majority", which would remain "neutral" to fulfill their cause and wait for the next pope. Ten percent are strongly, however, among the group (though not always stated) who are opponents of Argentina's pontificate.
These figures would tossed around in the papal residence of Santa Marta, in the Argentine community in Rome and in Argentina. The Corriere della Sera talks about a "potential geographic and strategic break".

Bishops Take Pontificate as Truly "Anti-Italian, Anti-European, Anti-Western" 


Catholic bishops
How accurate these figures are, can not be said on the basis of the newspaper's vague source. The fact is that not only in Italy is  the pontificate of Pope Francis perceived as "anti-Italian, anti-European and anti-Western." But  was he not exactly what the Cardinals in conclave wanted? Apparently not quite.
The Fifth General Conference of Latin American Bishops' Council in 2007 in Aparecida, whose final document was then still largely dominated by Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires,  was in the forefront  of Latin American church leaders. Pope Francis register "exactly" that there are cardinals and bishops who never mention Aparecida. In turn, can be heard by high church officials that they did not understand the "reforms of Francis". And ever is the "model Buenos Aires" simply not applicable to the whole Church. It would involve "a" experience, but not "the" experience of the Church.
From the Latin American, especially Argentinean environment of the Pope, however, the   claim is fast at hand among European bishops, and  above all the Western bishops, have the habit to  still to see thsemselves "almost like princes."
Pope Francis seems to do nothing to prevent this divergence between a culturally diverse understanding of the Church at the episcopal level or wanting even merge the two ways of thinking.

Francis "el jesuita" always looking for new ways to reach the goal

However, Francis is quite Jesuit, which is why he seeks the targets in the most viable way. If the opposition to a way is too big, he does not care to insist   and looks for another way to target the same goal. This process repeats itself tirelessly until the set goal is achieved. The probability that a goal was to be closed, is quite low, because it presupposes that the target is recognized as wrong.
A concrete example: When Pope Francis came to Rome, he wanted to change the Roman Curia radically and largely dissolve it. He now had to recognize that this goal is not attainable. The existing Curia but still not to be trusted,  but he has created within the Roman Curia his own "Curia in reduced form".
The remaining Curia he described in turn in his Christmas message of 2014, as the "Levites". Clearly his disapproval of an entire institution could not be missed. Some Vaticanistas felt that the Pope had thus undermined his own pontificate. But Francis sees it differently. In this part of the curia he does not rely in any case. His mansion is a small part of a real existing parallel Curia.

Pope's own parallel Curia - cursus honorum : assets cancelled  with resignation of Benedict XVI. 

In previous preparations of the repeatedly announced eco-encyclical, Francis has not availed himself of the Curia. Rather, the entire preparatory work bypassed the curia. He consulted with it personally, but principally with his team of advisors, selected personalities and experts. For the transcript, he let his ghostwriter from Buenos Aires work. Titular Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernandez, had largely written the instruction of Bergoglios  final document of Aparecida. The text shoul be subjected to in recent weeks to a further revision. The trusted people who crafted it on behalf of the Pope hand, have but remained the same.
And as for the Bishops, Francis does not rely on structural changes, but to a radical change of the cursus honorum ."So, it's as if all balances after the resignation of Benedict XVI. have been canceled," says the Corriere della Sera .

"Insulated" Pope or self-isolation?

More voices of an "isolated" Pope do not refer to a lack of support of the Pope by diocessan bishops or curia representatives, but in a form of self-isolation. It is the Pope, who merges the traditional hierarchies of the Church, ignoring the usual decision-making processes at the Vatican. "I do not know how long the Pope will succeed in  steering the process and to master that which he has set in motion,"  cited the Corriere della Sera  an unnamed "concerned European cardinal". You've seen it in the Synod of Bishops last October. The pope "was in danger, that it slips from his hand," said the same Cardinal.
More significant  is another concern. As the Pope points his finger again and again at all in the Church, Francis' strength, indeed himself, but weakens the Church. Francis has changed the image of the Church. Conflicts such as Vatileaks, the Vatican bank, pedophilia would now felt far less traumatic than under his predecessor. At the international level, the Church is more active than ever in political issues of Ukraine on the Middle East to Cuba. In an indication that there are many in the Church, also in a leading position, who do not understand the reform plans of the Pope, is countered by the   of the circle of the Pope with a standardized statement: Only those who would say that are those who don't want to change anything.

Francesco Cardinal Montenegro

Lightning careers: From unknown province bishop to cardinal

The Pope tried fractures and fissures that open up because his actions -despite his best efforts- are not understood by a part of the Church, to engage   his charisma.  How long this will be possible is also indicated by the Corriere della Sera on the outstanding issues. Above all there has been no match in language between the Pope and many bishops.
Who agile, as the Archbishop of Agrigento, Francesco Montenegro, whose diocese is in  the headline-grabbing  Lampedusa, has experienced a meteoric rise from unknown provincial bishop to be made a cardinal and this overnight possibly the future Pope, theoretically he may even be a contender for the successor of Peter.

The shadow cabinet of Santa Marta

These capricious personnel decisions reinforce the gap between the "People's Pope" (Corriere della Sera) and the bishops. They feel outclassed by the all overshadowing figure of Francis. Yet they do not say it. However, they complain about the Pope's  attempts to govern the universal Church on  demand by means of a shadow cabinet in Santa Marta. Not all seems to be aware that this criticism also means that the procession of the Pope from the Apostolic Palace to Santa Marta more than just a gesture of humility was that gave him much sympathy in the media and among the people. Santa Marta would then not only form a virtual, but  an actual break between the Pope and the Roman Curia.
Pope Francis always makes for new construction, but the resulting internal church problems and fractures do not seem to concern him in any way. It seems as if the constant unrest, unease and a latent discontent is a means of government for him. Above all the last  , two years, two months and two weeks after taking office have been uncomfortable, especially for the critics of Argentine Pope. Francis himself still seems to literally enjoy his pontificate.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corriere della Sera / Angelo Gelo
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches....
AMDG

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Francis the Unmerciful: Cardinal Burke Dismissed and "Shoved Off"

(Rome) Since last September there have been rumors, now it has become reality. Pope Francis has removed the US Cardinal Raymond Burke  as Cardinal Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and appointed him Cardinal Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Thus, the cardinal is removed from  Church leadership, to which he belonged as head of the Supreme Court.
The punitive action against the unpopular opponent by Pope Francis took place shortly before the start of Bishops' Synod about the family in the space following when Cardinal Burke emerged in the months previous  as one of the leaders of the defense of the Church's marriage and morality against the "opening" mottos of Cardinal Kasper (see Malta Exile? Final Papal Purge of Cardinal Burke? ). The threat did not intimidate the Cardinal a but. Rather, he was the most visible opponent of the new course supported by Pope Francis at the Synod of Bishops. With sharp words the Cardinal Burke also criticized outside the Synod Hall, the procedure of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, but also of the pope (see Cardinal Burke: Pope has "Done a lot of Damage" - Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura Confirmed Impending Dismissal as Pope: "Who am I, to judge? "- Burke:" We need to judge acts " ).

Vindictive Retaliation by Pope

Only a few weeks after the completion of the Synod of Bishops the "sending away" of the cardinal appears as revenge and retaliation by Pope Francis. So  the reigning pope seems to have acted in quite a hurry. On November 3, just 15 days after the end of the Synod, he approved a Rescriptum of the Cardinal Secretary of State, with the retirement provisions for bishops and cardinals eligible for papal nomination were tightened. It entered into force on 5 November, and the Rescriptum required all Cardinals over 75  (except  Cardinal Prefects of the Roman Curia) to immediately offer their resignations.
This also affected the previous patron of the Order of Malta, Cardinal Paolo Sardi. The resignation offered by  Cardinal Sardi  was immediately accepted by the Pope, thus clearing a space, to which Cardinal Burke could be deported in an "elegant" way to a management function in the Roman Curia with an honorary function.

Praise of Benedict XVI. Did Not Help

The demonstrative praise of Benedict XVI. from his self-imposed exile in a greeting message to the International Pilgrimage of Tradition  where the celebrant in St. Peter's Basilica in the Old Rite was Cardinal Burke on October 26, describing  "great cardinals," did not help.
The dismissal of one of the most prominent and recent cardinals of the Catholic Church is an affront for a significant part of the universal Church, which is intended by the papal retaliation that Cardinal Burke will be punished.
The measure has confirmed some Argentine voices, which described Jorge Mario Bergoglio since his election as  the head of the Church, as very resentful and would not to tolerate criticism of his person and opposition to his plans. They also confirmed that Pope Francis is the actual director behind the "new Mercy", which  was represented by Cardinal Kasper as a spokesman.
By deposing Burke from his post as head of a dicastry, he can no longer participate ex officio at the Synod of Bishops on the family in the coming year. Pope Francis has silenced the Cardinal with his "reshuffle" in the Synod.  It's a signal that the Argentine Church leader seems willing to make up for in 2015, that which has not been achieved at the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in 2014 and to push through his "new mercy". A "new Mercy", which can be very cruel.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: MiL
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Malta's Jacobins Continue to Chisel Away at the Church's Influence

Editor: a brief look at Dr. Orlando's CV should reveal some unsavory anti-Church associations. Now they want to reduce the influence of Church tribunals.

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, the co-presenter of the divorce Bill, raised an issue that has been mentioned quite a lot in the last few months – the 1995 concordat between the Vatican and Malta – saying it should be revised.

The concordat states: “The Republic of Malta recognises for all civil effects… the judgements of nullity and the decrees of ratification of nullity of marriage given by the ecclesiastical tribunals and which have become executive.”

This means that the ecclesiastical tribunal has supremacy over the civil courts since civil annulment proceedings have to be suspended if Church annulment proceedings are under way.

Link to Independent...