Farc Rebels Kill Columbian Governor

Farc rebels in Colombia have killed a provincial governor hours after kidnapping him in a bold commando raid, marking a return of political kidnaps.

Clad in his pyjamas, Luis Francisco Cuellar was taken from his home in Florencia, capital of Caquetá province, on Monday night after at least eight suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) blasted the door down with explosives, according to local officials.

His body was found hours later in a rural area. President Alvaro Uribe said last night that Cuellar's throat had been slit.

The acting Caquetá governor, Patricia Vega, told local radio that the government had confirmed Cuellar's body was found near a vehicle abandoned by the commando squad. "Unfortunately we have to accept this painful reality," Vega said. The Farc has yet to issue a statement.

Officials said information from peasants led troops to the body after Uribe had offered a $500,000 (£313,000) reward for information. Uribe's father was killed in a botched kidnapping in 1982.

Troops combed jungles and mountains of the region throughout Tuesday, searching for Cuellar and his abductors


Link to original...

News site uncovers political party affiliations of Chicago bishops, chancery staff

December 22, 2009

An investigation by an independent Chicago Catholic news site has found Democrats and Republicans among the Archdiocese of Chicago’s auxiliary bishops and key members of the chancery staff.

Those who requested Democratic ballots in 2008 included retired Auxiliary Bishop John Gorman, retired Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Lyne, archdiocesan chancellor Jimmy Lago, and Father Raymond Baumhart, SJ. Those who requested Republican ballots included Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Father Daniel Flens (Cardinal George’s secretary), and Father Thomas Baima, vice president and provost of Mundelein Seminary. In addition, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry said that he voted for presidential candidate John McCain in the general election.


Link to original...

Anarchist Priest Encourages Thievery in the UK

More theological error and anarchy in the CoE.


A clergyman has been criticised as 'highly irresponsible' after advising his congregation to shoplift following his Nativity sermon.

Father Tim Jones, 41, broke off from his traditional annual sermon yesterday to tell his flock that stealing from large chains is sometimes the best option for vulnerable people.

It is far better for people desperate during the recession to shoplift than turn to 'prostitution, mugging or burglary', he said.

The married father-of-two insisted his unusual advice did not break the Bible commandment 'Thou shalt not steal' - because God's love for the poor outweighs his love for the rich. [Preferential option for the poor in Liberation Theology]

But the minister's controversial sermon at St Lawrence Church in York has been slammed by police, the British Retail Consortium and a local MP, who all say that no matter what the circumstances, shoplifting is an offence.

Delivering his festive lesson, Father Jones told the congregation: 'My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift. I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.
'I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.

'I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need.
'I offer the advice with a heavy heart and wish society would recognise that bureaucratic ineptitude and systematic delay has created an invitation and incentive to crime for people struggling to cope.'

He added that he felt society had failed the needy, and said it was far better they shoplift than turn to more degrading or violent options such as prostitution, mugging or burglary.


Read more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237470/Priest-advises-congregation-shoplift.html

Pilgrimage to Shrine of St. Lazarus in Cuba

A pilgrimage combining two faith traditions has taken place in Cuba at the shrine of St Lazarus.

It is a religious event which has managed to continue uninterrupted, even in the face of oppression in the past.

Michael Voss reports from Havana.

See video images...

EWTN's Arroyo Hosts Reform CCHD Reps Who Reveal Shocking Evidence Against USCCB Anti-Poverty Arm

From Catholic Answers:

The ALL compilation is quite instructive; it links to the USCCB list of grantees as well. Skimming through the USCCB list of grantees and descriptions, I did a word search for "empower" and got 24 hits. Is that evil? No, but it means that the grantees are often more political than charitable in nature, usually associated with a "progressive" social agenda.

Link to original...

Revolutionary Basque Priests Decry New Bishop

As was the case with Fr. Gerald Warner in Linz, this conservative Basque Bishop is being shouted down by a group of most revolutionary clerics with an animus delendi.

Madrid - Catholic priests in Spain's Basque region have taken the unusual step of criticizing Pope Benedict XVI's choice of bishop for San Sebastian, media reports said Wednesday.

Nearly 80 per cent of the priests in the diocese of the port city said Jose Ignacio Munilla, who is due to become bishop in January, was not 'suitable' for the post.

The priests issued a manifesto describing the choice of Munilla as 'discrediting the ecclesiastical life of our diocese.'

The protest, which was described as unprecedented in the recent history of Spain's Catholic Church, was believed to have a political background.

The Basque church is known as being relatively progressive and sympathetic to the Basque nationalist movement, which contains separatist currents.

Munilla, on the other hand, is known as being close to the conservative line of Madrid Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco, head of the Spanish bishops' conference, who was believed to have recommended him to the pope.

'A part of the Basque church has shown more sympathy for the killers (of the violent separatist group ETA) than for their victims,' the daily El Mundo charged.

Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1519512.php/Basque-priests-reject-bishop-appointed-by-pope#ixzz0Zs7IBwQD

Marxist Bishop has Close Contacts with Terrorist Group

By MICHAEL WARREN (AP) – 7 hours ago

ASUNCION, Paraguay — When he was a Roman Catholic bishop, Fernando Lugo taught liberation theology to uplift the poor. Now he is president, he has sent special forces into Paraguay's northern forests to hunt kidnappers whose leaders include a former student and his former altar boy.

The ties between Lugo and the kidnappers of a wealthy rancher are providing fuel for an effort to impeach the president, whose election last year ended 61 years of unbroken right-wing Colorado Party rule. Lugo's government calls it a hypocritical campaign by politicians who committed far worse sins under the nation's long and brutal dictatorship.

Lugo, known as "bishop of the poor," [it's just PR] was elected in large part for his advocacy of liberation theology, a Catholic movement that found inspiration in faith to push for social change, though the Vatican suppressed many versions and discouraged its teaching. Lugo renounced his church vows, saying he could do more for the poor as president than as bishop. [A most honest response for anyone who embrace Liberation Theology to do is to leave the Church, for if this Communist thinks he can do more as a political organizer than as a Bishop, he truly does not understand the mission of the Church]

The kidnapping of rancher Fidel Zavala to finance what the band has called a revolutionary movement for the poor now threatens to turn Lugo's past against him, taking his nonviolent idealism in a criminal direction.

The kidnappers — a group linked to several bank robberies and other kidnappings in the past decade — showed up Oct. 15 on Zavala's ranch wearing military uniforms and calling themselves the Paraguayan People's Army.

The rancher's family pleaded with Lugo not to send in the police, fearing Zavala would be killed. But Lugo is in a tough spot. He is accused by critics on the right of coddling the kidnappers while those on the left say he has potentially violated the rights of poor forest dwellers by sending in police armed with U.S.-provided anti-terror equipment.

"Fernando Lugo continues to be deeply tied to the kidnappers," Colorado Party Sen. Juan Carlos Galaverna declared on television last week. He accused the president not only of mentoring the future kidnappers, but continuing to act as their "chief, or at least the protector of the band."

Interior Minister Rafael Filizzola told The Associated Press that the allegation "defies common sense."

"They're trying to stigmatize the Paraguayan left because of this, but the left has always been nonviolent," he said. "The violence came from (Alfredo) Stroessner, a right-wing dictatorship that tortured and killed. The violence never came from the left, nor the church."

Filizzola described the kidnappers as dangerous. On Monday he asked Paraguay's Congress for $1 million to finance the special forces' overtime and to pay for tips on Zavala's whereabouts.

"We have the objective of finding them, capturing them and making them face justice," he said.

The kidnappers' leader, Osvaldo Villalba, has been a fugitive since 2001 after claiming a $2 million ransom to release the daughter-in-law of a former economy minister. Police later recovered $600,000 and arrested several members of the group, including his sister Carmen Villalba, who is among about 40 people serving long prison terms.

The Villalbas — eight brothers and sisters in all — were raised in poverty by a mother who trained as a nun in Europe and promoted liberation theology while working for a bishop who, like Lugo, provided some refuge to opponents of the brutal 1954-89 dictatorship.

While Lugo denies knowing any of the kidnappers personally, Monsignor Adalberto Martinez of Lugo's San Pedro diocese acknowledged that several probably studied in the seminary directed by Lugo in the 1990s. Osvaldo Villalba's brother Jose also told the AP that one of the leaders was Lugo's seminary student, and a former kidnapper, Dionisio Olazar, said another member of the band, Manuel Cristaldo Mieres, served as Lugo's altar boy.

According to Interior Minister Filizzola, the People's Army comprises a core of about 20 uniformed combatants with military training and heavy weapons, a larger group whose members hold day jobs but sometimes participate in crimes and a much larger group of backers who occasionally provide logistical support.

Filizzola rejects the idea that liberation theology inspired the gang to become kidnappers, and says there is little evidence of any guiding ideology since they began calling themselves guerrillas. [Denying the clear and obvious truth, since Lugo's former seminary students and an altar boy belong to the organization]

But the group clearly expresses political goals in pamphlets and statements delivered anonymously to local journalists. "We will look for radical and revolutionary changes, the only way to dignify the suffering and hunger of our poor people," one reads. [The same rhetoric of Liberation Theology]

Jose Villalba, a carpenter who also raises chickens and pigs on his subsistence farm, says armed revolution is a necessary response to extreme poverty.

"This president promised us poor people during his campaign that he would bring change, but now that he's in power, he doesn't do a thing," Villalba said by telephone from the village of Santa Rosa.

Lugo's opponents have cited Zavala's kidnapping as evidence of a "failure to fulfill his presidential duties," a vague but impeachable offense in Paraguay.

There were more than a dozen high-profile kidnappings during the previous president's tenure, and no one pushed for impeachment then, but the threat is real in Lugo's case because he has so little support in Congress — only three sure votes among 125 lawmakers.

Filizzola said using the Zavala case to push for Lugo's ouster "is an act of opportunism for the same people who supported the dictatorship, who supported political assassinations, tortures, persecutions."

Associated Press Writer Pedro Servin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Pope Benedict Warns of the Dangers of Liberation Theology

Vatican City, Dec 7, 2009 / 11:42 am (CNA).- In a meeting with a group of Brazilian bishops on Saturday, the Holy Father warned of the dangers of Marxist liberation theology and noted its grave consequences for ecclesial communities.

During the ad limina visit, the Pope recalled that “last August marked 25 years since the Instruction “Libertatis nuntius” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on certain aspects of liberation theology. The document "highlights the danger involved in the uncritical absorption, by certain theologians, of theses and methodologies that come from Marxism."

The Pope warned that the “more or less visible” scars of Marxist liberation theology, such as “rebellion, division, dissent, offenses, anarchy, are still being felt, causing great suffering and a grave loss of dynamic strength in your diocesan communities.”

For this reason, he exhorted all those who in some way feel attracted or affected by “certain deceitful principles of liberation theology” to re-visit the instruction and be open to the light that it can shed on the subject.

Benedict XVI also recalled that “the supreme rule of faith of the Church in effect arises from the unity that the Spirit established between Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church, in such reciprocity that they cannot subsist independently of each other,” as John Paul II explained in his encyclical “Fides et Ratio.”

The Instruction “Libertatis nuntius” was published on August 6, 1984, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Its purpose was to focus the attention of pastors, theologians and all the faithful on the deviations of certain forms of liberation theology that are dangerous for the faith and for the Christian life and that are based on Marxist thought.

It warned that the grave ideological deviations of Marxist liberation theology inevitably lead to the betrayal of the cause of the poor and that a Marxist analysis of reality leads to the acceptance of positions that are incompatible with the Christian vision of man

link to original...

The Forces of Liberalism Are Attacking the Church

John Allen writes in NCR on the Pope's "headaches" that Holy Father might need the aspirin of liberalism to remedy the old nationalist headaches of populists; is it Pat Buchanan he is thinking of as well as remote Lombards and Venetians? As we read this we thought about the comparison between populist Catholics, assuming our definition is the same as Allen's and that he means to actually slur conservative (read actual) Catholics as being synonymous with nationalists and fascists, many of whom never the less, echo Oriana Fellaci's instinctual but rationally formed concerns for European Civilization in relation to Islam. Interestingly, Allen correctly points out that many Italians in the North, particularly the more nationalistically and Catholic minded, perhaps echoing similar intellectual movements in France like the Action Française, cling strongly to their Catholic identity, yet do, as John Allen maintains, retain a certain degree of anti-clerical feeling. Well, in a sense, who can blame them and in another, one wishes for a higher motivation still, that they may realize after all that the globalists (Allen calls them "centralists") who are strongly represented in the Vatican are, if we are really honest with ourselves, liberals who favor stronger centralization, government control and diminution of the things that define the nation.

The real issue then, John Allen's posturing notwithstanding, is the brain tumor of modernism. Pain is a good thing. If populists are causing the Holy Father a "headache" it must only be nature reminding him that something is wrong, and that reforms are needed to restore the heart of Europe to its everlasting Christian youth.

There are some evil men like John Allen's masters behind the furor in the Sex Abuse Scandal in the developing world. Of course, the liberals behind all of this aren't making us aware of the absolute deprivation of the poor in places like South Africa and Rhodesia whose regimes they lobbied for vociferously for more than a decade. They're much more concerned in getting some headway against the Irish Church and robbing its money by using the abuse scandal as a reason. They're already in the process of absconding with some 166 Million from the Christian Brothers, and they've used a convenience of accounting in San Francisco to finagle another 14.4 Million.

No doubt, lusting after the Church's millions, the Irish Republican Government and Gordon Brown's Labor Government have, like the Martians in HG Well's sci-fi novel, feasted their covetous eyes on the property of the Catholic Church after their failed social programs have failed to yield heaven on earth and left hell instead.


Ironically, men of their type had more to do with the scandal than does the Catholic Church itself. These liberals will blame "secrecy", but the real issue is the liberalism, and this media event was manufactured by them to whip up anger against Ireland's oldest and wisest institution by forces no one, not least of all those who are angered by this, understand.

Abuse takes place in government (and private schools) at a much greater rate than they have in Catholic schools, but there's a difference. First of all, the Government isn't interested in creating another shortfall, other religious denominations don't have any money, at least not compared to Catholicism and besides, the Church teaches a lot of things that many Europeans despise and let's face it, put a damper on living in the sleek world of tomorrow without guilt and all that medieval stuff.

The Church is easily demonized and it's wealthy. It sounds like a recipe for nationalization of assets to us.

Pope, President, Archbishop to discuss abuse scandal in Dublin.

Protest in Dublin, by 10 people with VOTF, another self-interested organization that will harp on pre-ordained issues which actually have nothing to do with the problem. They will insist that "secrecy" and "medievalism" are the problems when the real problem is something they themselves embody: liberalism. It really is indicated by the fact that VOTF wants to "change the structure of the Church."

Hopefully the Church strikes back against this non-sense by pointing out the liberals in their midst, as they have with Senator Patrick Kennedy. We need to do the same with the Bishops whose mismanagement gave the pretext to the government in the first place.

PITTSBURGH -- Catholics from the Pittsburgh area teamed up with the Washington DC group Insurrecta Nex to protest at the office of Sen. Bob Casey.

The Friday protest was to ask Bishop David Zubik and all U.S. bishops to deny Communion to senators who vote for health care reform covering abortion.

“If you vote for this bill, there’s child killing in it, then you will not be able to receive Holy Communion,” said one protester. “We’re tired of the treachery and the cowardice of so-called Catholic politicians who rebel against the teachings of Christ.”

Zubik responded in a statement that said, “The Church … has the responsibility to protect the sacredness of the Eucharist from any abuse, inclusive of politicizing Communion. If a time came where I must engage any individual for any reason in regard to reception of the Eucharist, that would be solely between myself as pastor and that person as a member of my flock.”

Zubik went on to say it would not be debated publicly.

Link to article....

The Guidelines aren't so Strict, Minnesota Archbishop Soft on Marxism

Dennis McGrath, the mouthpiece of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul, Minnesota, insists that a controversial speaker, Father Kevin Burke SJ, who is about to speak at a local parish, Our Lady of Grace in Edina, is a priest in good standing and there is no cause to invoke any sanctions against his coming visit and talk. While Mr. McGrath admits that the Church has admonitions about Liberation Theology, he won't admit that it condemns this Marxist ideological approach. McGrath insists that, "condemnation is much too strong a word." In reality the Church has condemned Liberation Theology and even if a specific condemnation weren't available at this point, many of its underlying principles. The Communications Director of the Archdiocese is wrong, the Church has condemned Liberation Theology and the Archdiocese (link) is hosting a well-known advocate of Liberation Theology and Homosexuality in opposition to his own rules not to host speakers whose writings are not in harmony with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Father Burke SJ has written and not retracted various treatises on Liberation Theology in praise of Marxists like Ignacio Ellacuria, who became a casualty of war when he assisted Soviet backed guerrillas in the Salvadoran civil war.

He also heads a faculty in Berkeley that features "Queer Studies". It's hard to see how this amounts to "being in harmony with the teachings of the Church."

When we brought this to the McGrath's attention, he accused the interviewer of not "loving homosexual persons" and went on for a while, insisting that they are certainly welcome in the Archdiocese.

We'd suggest that the Communications Director, given the large salary he receives to represent the Archdiocese in these matters, actually read the directives and teachings of the Church and Archdiocese he claims to represent.

At this point it seems clear where the Bishop and Dennis McGrath, ever eager to make false allusions himself, stand with regard to the teachings of the Church. We would in no way, of course, say that Archbishop Nienstedt or any of those under his leadership are Marxists or Homosexuals, naturally.

Related Articles:

Stricter Guidelines for Catholic Speakers.

Kevin Burke SJ.

Archbishop Nienstedt defends CCHD.

Socialist Snakeoil in the CCHD

Capital Research Center

That’s not quite the way I see CCHD. The charity only reluctantly cut off ACORN last year and continues to fund the equally radical community organizing group Industrial Areas Foundation that was founded by Saul Alinsky himself. It also funds PICO, DART, and the Gamaliel Foundation.

The most noteworthy thing about this is the name Saul Alinsky, Hillary Clinton's mentor, who was one of the intellectual lights behind Cultural Marxism in the United States. Notworthy in all of this is the Bishop's tacit support for Marxist organizations that talk a good game about charity and fishing, are actually engaged in destablilizing what's best in the Republic and turning the Church into a government controlled Bureaucracy.

Link to CRC...

Christmas could be killed off by Harman's Equality Bill, bishops warn

Mail Online
By Kirsty Walker

Harriet Harman's Equality Bill strengthens protection for minority groups by placing new equality duty on public bodies

Christmas celebrations could be banned under Harriet Harman's controversial Equality Bill, Catholic bishops warned yesterday.

The bishops said they feared that the complex legislation could have the 'chilling effect' of town halls and other organisations clamping down on Christian festivities.

Monsignor Andrew Summersgill, the general secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, has written to MPs expressing his concerns about the new legislation.

His submission warns that the Equality Bill will fuel Britain's 'risk averse' culture.

The bishops pointed to bizarre decisions made in recent years to ban Christmas decorations for fear of offending other cultures.

Oxford city council last year provoked outrage by renaming the city's Christmas festival as the 'Winter Light Festival' to make it more inclusive.

Read further...

A Day without a Mexican (A New Film?)

Day without a Mexican shot in 2004 is a film with the premise of how terrible life would be without illegal aliens around. I can see Cardinal Mahoney watching the film approvingly and scowling disapprovingly at those who might find the intrusion of a group of people that systematically abuses social services and breaks laws with rabid frequency a little much, forgetting of course, his own mistreatment of his largely immigrant Mexican (and presumably legal) workforce.

It strikes us as odd that people, like Catholic Bishops, would want this situation to prevail, especially since Illegals engage disproportionately in organized crime, have high incarceration rates, abuse of social services, lowering of the cost of labor and raise the expense of health care when they receive treatments for procedures they aren't insured for or intend to pay.

Illegals kill!

It's at this point when we wonder what life would be like without a Mexican and you could imagine a film with a similiar premise, but contradictory conclusion. Life without Mexicans wouldn't be too bad. You could start by asking the recently murdered New Jersey priest, Fr Ed Hinds, (white like the ghost of Jacob Marley) who confronted a man named Jose Feliciano because of his history of fake identities, and for previous to his employment, indecent assault and corrupting a minor. Father Hinds was just firing him, nothing to lose your life over. Sure, it's not clear whether or not the murderer was an Illegal Alien, but since he had a few fake identities, it's entirely possible that he had a fake SSN and ID, a common practice among Illegals.

The Catholic Council of Bishops is very eager to defend the rights of these people who break the laws of the country they find themselves. It's strange that they're willing to lend their spiritual capital, as depleted and devalued as it is to this date, to a cause that is so clearly aligned to Marxist front groups like La Rasa or the Southern Poverty Law Center who love, with sickening predictability, to take on cases like these for the "poor and downtrodden" like a latter day Lillian Helman.

It's really little different than other liberals who favor attitudes and legislation promoting the degradation of the society and increasing disrespect for the rule of law, and as it so happens, disrespect for the lives of others.

You might also ask any number of other Americans what they think life without a Mexican would be like. Just ask the liberal writer Adrian Shelly, who wrote and appeared in the film Waitress in 2004 and was herself murdered by an Illegal. Heck, while we're at it, we might ask any one of the 9,000 Americans murdered every year by Illegals what they think.

Since the beginning of the War on Terror, more Americans have been killed by Illegals than by Insurgents. Perhaps they are one in the same? It's not as if La Rasa identifies itself with the USA, they detest it.