"Via discretionis": New "Solutions" for the Synod of Bishops -- Communion "Only at Easter"

(Rome) The Pontifical Family Council headed by Curial Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia  organized last February and March, a three-day international seminar behind closed doors on the question of remarried divorcees. Many invited theologians defended the sacrament of marriage. The seminar should, so say Roman voices, especially provide a platform for a certain thesis: the "Via discretionis", a refined and concretized variant of the Kasper-proposal.

The event took place in view of the forthcoming Synod of Bishops in October and was Top Secret. The theme was "Family and Church. An inextricable link." As it says in the conference proceedings, which has now been released by the Vatican publishing.

International Seminar Behind Closed Doors

At the seminar, no bishops were invited, only "experts". The focus was on the controversial topics of the Synod. The opinions of the speakers were  very heterogeneous. Many defended the indissolubility of marriage.

The left-leaning daily La Repubblica , the only newspaper that Pope Francis reads daily, unfailingly  fished out a  paper that is close to Cardinal Kasper's "New Mercy." The key words are "heal wounds", and "diminish suffering," of those who "have failed". This corresponds quite, so La Repubblica ,  with  "Pope Francis' desire for completion of the extraordinary session of the Synod in last October, calling to find concrete solutions to many difficulties and countless challenges that  families have to face.''

The proposals of the Paglia seminar "While committed to nothing," says the newspaper, "but to show the will of some theologians, that nothing can remain on the pastoral level, as it is". It's to make  "possible a new beginning for the divorced and remarried."

Via discretionis: symbiosis of the theses of Xavier Lacroix and Paul De Clerck

Proceedings "Family and Church"

The proposal is to introduce a "Via discretionis." This involves  a symbiosis of the texts by the theologians Xavier Lacroix and Paul De Clerck. Lacroix in favor of the admission to communion, but not for the recognition of the second marriage. De Clerck also represents the recognition of the second marriage after the model of the Orthodox Church.

The Via discretionis provides that each diocese should appoint a priest who only cares for the divorced and remarried. If necessary, these priests could be supported by a "team of experts". Its mission is to examine the intentions of the couple and to request the reasons that they are asking for re-admission to communion. The priest has first to consider the nullity of marriage and to refer the couple to the Church court. Because, according to the thesis, the cause of many separations is that marriages are in fact invalid. If the path of invalidity  is not possible, the authorized priest leads the couple to begin a penitential journey. It will not be short and will consist of several stages. "The motive is understanding what led to the failure of the marriage; be conscious of having betrayed a commandment of God; to go on in reconciliation with their own past,"  says a direct quote from the conference proceedings.

"In Some Cases Admission to Communion only at Easter"

This way "would also require a public character of penance to show the general consciousness of Christians, that the reconciliation of man whose marriage has broken down, means no frivolity of the Church in provision for the interpretation  of the Gospel, but  will  concretely  prove the actual obedience to this provision." In concrete terms,  the re-admission to the sacraments could "be full or partial." In some cases, admission to the Eucharist could be limited to a one-time annual Communion at Easter.

For the problem of how second marriages could be recognized, there was also a proposal. Most were in agreement that it could  not be called a sacrament in a second marriage. The sacrament of marriage remains unique. This could recognize  "the high human and spiritual value of the new union." Exactly what Cardinal Kasper has written: Where the faith today and the love at work and penance for the guilt for the failure of the first marriage are felt, it will also have a second marriage as  part of the spiritual dimension of Church life.

 La Repubblica : "Sure, in October the Synod has the last word and then the Pope. There are now at least within the Vatican Walls   new solutions which are on   terms of a Church of acceptance and puts  mercy in black and white on paper."

The Authors of the "New Solutions"

Xavier Lacroix and Paul De Clerck

The Belgian liturgist Paul De Clerck, born in 1939, is a priest of the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. He was from 1970-1998 director of the Centre d'études et théologiques pastoral de Bruxelles. De Clerck is professor emeritus of the Institut supérieur de Liturgy at the Catholic University of Paris. From 1986-2001 he was Director of the Institute.

The French moral theologian Xavier Lacroix, born in 1947, has taught ethics and moral theology since 1986 at the Université catholique de Lyon . From 1986-1994 he was director of the Institut des sciences de la famille at the Faculty of Theology, which he was dean from 1997 to 2003. From 1987-2004 he was a member of the National Council for Family Pastoral. Lacroix is an advisor of the French Bishops' Conference and the Pontifical Family Council in matters of family. Since 2008 he has belonged at the proposal of the President, to the 39 head National Ethics Council of France.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the organizer of the international seminar has  been noted mainly for statements encouraging the recognition of homosexuality since 2013. When his ticket was stamped for the Community of Sant'Egidio  by the Roman Curia, he left his diocese of Terni with a debt of 24 million euros.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil / UCL / ISL (screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Catholic Chapel in Antarctica Closed

The Catholic chapel in Antarctica is closed.

The National Science Foundation, the group behind the US Antarctic Programme, has asked the New Zealand diocese to cut a decades-old link to the ice.

A Protestant chaplain from the US Military and a Catholic priest from Christchurch had been posted at Antarctica for 57 consecutive summers, staying from October until February.

One of the reasons for the withdrawal was a decline in church-going, the diocese said.

Father Dan Doyle, who first went to Antarctica 40 years ago, said attendance at the Chapel of the Snows at McMurdo had been in steady decline, as had the number of residents using the chaplaincy. This is because the number of Americans has shrunk owing to budgetary cuts.

The Church had once offered religious services, personal counselling and support for as many as 2000 men and women stationed at McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott Stations and Scott Base.

The peak population was now about 1200 – a sharp fall from even 10 years ago.

Doyle said the call for religious services at the bases had also changed. When he first went to the ice in the mid 1970s, a ham radio was a vital link to the outside world, whereas now the staff could easily keep in touch by internet and email.


http://i.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/70494649/catholic-priests-to-leave-antarctica-because-of-decline-in-churchgoing

Bistro or Mosque? A Discussion With Uncertain Outcome -- Imam Proposes Occupying Christian Churches in France

Franciscan allows Muslims to pray facing Mecca, so
that Christians children, "learn how a man prays in Islam."

(Paris) The imam of the Great Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur said it frankly: "The currently existing mosques are not enough. Their number must reflect the faithful of our religion." And as the construction of new mosques costs and it is not always easy to obtain building permits, why not take advantage of the many vacant Catholic churches standing around in the country of Franceg you?

"This is a sensitive issue, but why not?" Boubakeur wrote in his book "An Open Letter to the French".  Previously, the father of Algerian Boubakeur was imam of the Great Mosque of Paris. The family derives its descent from Abu Bakr, the first caliph after Muhammad's death.

Ultimately, says the Imam, who was the President of the Islamic umbrella organization, Conseil Francais du Musulman, from  2003 - 2008 and 2013 - 2015 (Muslim Cultural Advisory of France), founded by the French Ministry of Culture,  there is a model already, which could be applied large-scale nationwide. In Clermont-Ferrand, the chapel of the Good Shepherd was left to the Muslim community for free for more than 30 years. Ultimately, "it's the same God", as the local superiors stressed.

After criticism the Imam Pulled Back

Given the immediate and above all unexpected protests, Boubakeur backtracked, claiming that he was  misrepresented, he had never asked for like.

The editor of the French magazine La Vie, Jean-Pierre Denis commented a few days ago, ironically: "I was surprised by just how I must confess that the media have taken this lie, although  these ideas appear in black and white on pages 270 / wrote down 271 of his book."

While the media willingly accepted  Boubakeur's lie, there is a reaction from the people: More than 40,000 French people already signed the petition, launched a few days ago: "Stay away from my church."

Among the first signatories there are 25 politicians of the Gaullist right and some intellectuals. Even ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy supports the call.

A survey reported by the Washington Post, emphasized that 80 percent of supporters of Sarkozy's UMP party reject the proposal of the would-be  Mosque transfer.

Among the supporters of the National Front (FN) it is as high as 83 percent.

But even among the voters of the ruling Socialist Party (PS), the enemies of the Boubakeur proposal with 58 percent are clearly in the majority.

Catholic Church itself split on  this issue

Dalil Boubakeur: Convert vacant churches into mosques

Unforeseeable was the split on this issue within the Catholic Church.

Various bishops responded immediately with sharp tones on the proposal and kept them up. 

The traditional friendly bishop of Frejus and Toulon, Msgr. Dominique Rey, whose diocese is one of the best placed of France, took the first position.  Without further adieu,  he called Boubakeurs foray as an "insult to our collective memory",  describing the proposal as an attack on "our culture and our roots." Bishop Rey made ​​it clear that "the Churches are neither interchangeable nor omnicultic."

Along the same lines followed Bishop Stanislas Lalanne of Pontoise: "I am absolutely against the idea, that churches could be sold to Muslims and converted into mosques. I understand the need to have places for prayer, but the proposal of Boubakeur is the wrong answer. "

However, some dissenting voices were heard. 

Msgr. Michel Dubost, the head of the Department of Religious Affairs of the French Bishops' Conference made ​​it known that it would preferable for him to have  the unused churches as mosques instead of bars and restaurants.

Dubost criticized the petition by stating, "to preserve the church from this fate" the best way is to "participate regularly in the Mass.".

"Churches are sacred places, they can not be used for other purposes"

Opposition came from Bishop Lalanne, who is also member of the Standing Council of the Bishops' Conference: "The churches are holy places. Even if they are not open every day to the faithful, they can not be used for other purposes that are not an expression of the Christian faith. We must not play with the symbols. These places are the memory of generations and generations of believers who have visited to pray," said the bishop.

It is noteworthy that Dalil Boubakeur is by no means an Islamist but is a representative of a "Euro Islam" or "liberal Islam". The imams of the Boubakeur family come from a Sufi tradition. In his interfaith efforts,  his proposals  and his dialogue with the state, Christians, Jews, and also with the Dalai Lama, he seamlessly blends into the secular state doctrine of France. From the Muslim side he is accused of being, as was his father, a Freemason. Evidence can be only so much that he was already a guest of honor in Masonic lodges, in 2002 in Loge Aequitas of the Grand Orient of France, whose roots are in France and Algeria.

Messa in Latino makes Boubakeur a  suggestion: "Our proposal is: Every church that is to meant to be made ​​to the mosque, should be given to a community of tradition. The fruit will not fail. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil / Riposte catholique

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Black Angel -- Priest Posing Nude to Promote Rock Album Relieved of His Duties by Archbishop

(Madrid) In 1970  the American composer George Crumb of the electrically amplified string quartet Black Angels, published Thirteen Images from the Dark Country .The album cover of that recording appears to have encouraged a priest of the Archdiocese of Zaragoza. The musician priest was photographed naked with tatoo, electric guitar and angel wings.

"Whether the image shows penchant for exhibitionism, for extravagance, because it is something with their heads or simply arises only from carelessness, I can not say.  I mean, however, that a priest should not pose nude,"  said Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña on InfoVaticana . "Least of all should he play with the appearance of a Dark Angels. Black Angels are plenty. They are the enemies of the priesthood and every righteous soul. "

Archbishop Vicente Jimenez Zamora discharged the priest after the scandal from his pastoral duties. "A pause for reflection is appropriate", said the archdiocese.

Rocking priest apologizes: "It is my desire to faithfully serve the Church"

Javi Sanchez, the rockingest of the Spanish archdiocese's priests, apologized now for his self-promotion. "I am aware that I have done damage, not only for the archdiocese, but for the whole Church." The strange image was made in order to promote his latest music production.

There was a discussion with the archbishop who discharged Sanchez "for the spiritual peace of the faithful" from his duties. Sanchez thanked the archbishop for his "fraternal correction" and apologized in an act of humility. "I apologize for the damage that I've done and reiterate that it is my desire to serve faithfully the Church."

The scandal became known through an interview of the rocking priest with the newspaper Heraldo de Aragon last July 13 in which the image of half-naked priest was published. "It's a representation in which light and shadow are unclear, blurred," said de la Cigoña.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: InfoVaticana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to katholisches...

AMDG

Christian Syria: Love in the Ruins

Marriage in Ruined Church in Homs

(Damascus) destruction and new beginnings are close together for the Christians in the Syrian city of Homs, as the images of a Christian wedding in the ruined Church of St. George show.

The attempt to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and his Alawites has laid Homs  in ruins. The third largest city in Syria to the west of the country, near the border with Lebanon, it is located in the fertile valley of the Orontes, as the river was called in ancient times. Today it is called the Nahr al-Asi.

In 2011 the Sunni made Homs a stronghold of anti-Assad protest. In 2012, however, it became apparent that hiding under the blanket of allegedly "pro-Western" and "democratic" rebels, were Islamist groups. In April 2012 it was announced that the Farouq Brigade of the Christians of Homs had to exact the Muslim jizya poll tax. In May 2014. Homs was recaptured by government troops.

Christian community alive even after almost 2000 years

Homs wedding in the ruined Church of St. George

The images of a Christian wedding in the ruins of the Church of St. George show the horrifying extent of the destruction. It is at the same time also an expression of a new beginning and to show that the Christian community of the city is alive even after almost 2000 years.

The ancient Emesa, this is the name Homs had in the time of Jesus, was one of the first Christian communities and was a bishop's seat after the second century seat. From the Diocletian persecution 303-305, the first bishop is also known by name. In 609 the Persians conquered Homs and destroyed the churches. In 628  the Christian reconstruction started. Weakened by the Persians, Byzantine Syria fell prey to the Muslims in 637. In 1785 Muslims and Greek, Syrian and Armenian Christians were still balanced in Homs. In 1907  a third of the population was Christian. Before the outbreak of war, Homs counted,  with its suburbs, around one million inhabitants. Of these, 60 percent  were Sunni, 20 percent Alawite and 15 percent Christian. In some districts like Fairouzeh and Zaidal  Christians represented a majority with  60 percent and more. Not far from Homs, several Christian villages are among Maalula, where almost all the inhabitants are Christians and where even Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is spoken. 

See the slide show...

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

The Martyrium of Oriental Christians and Europe's Loss of Identity

In the Midst of the Old City in Jerusalem is a
Memorial to Christians Murdered by Muslims

(Jerusalem) While little is seen and read in the Western mainstream media   about the fate of the persecuted and murdered Christians in the Middle East and North Africa,  the Coptic Orthodox Church has set an example in the middle of Jerusalem. At the 6th Station of the Via Dolorosa, the way of the Passion of Jesus Christ to Golgotha, there is  a big banner which laments the murder of Coptic Christians by the Islamic State of (IS).

Europe wants to help, offering a rather helpless and naive image. An irresponsible "welcoming culture" appeals to a  voluntary solution for the serious problems of the country. The attacks in Madrid, London, Brussels, Paris and Graz speak for themselves. The reason is that Europe through the progressive de-Christianization of its own identity is no longer clear. It has never been clearer than in the case of boundless immigration, that there is no longer a Europe without Christianity.  A de-christianized Europe is like a shapeless toy ball without identity  at the mercy of ideologies and non-European forces. The ideological upheavals of the 20th century were the forerunners of this truth. At that time they paid a psychic price, now physical.

In contrast to the externally colorful,  but internally, increasingly colorless Europeans, the Christians of Egypt and the Middle East know who they are, what history they have, and they are aware of their position. The Christians of Europe could learn a lot from them in terms of Islam and its relationship to Islam. In Europe, the Christians of the Levant are largely ignored, to maintain an equally wrong as much as romanticized, embossed in the German-speaking world with a  Karl May image. In this misconception,  the Arab world is only Muslim. At best, there is still room for Yazidis and of course since 1948 for the Jews of Israel.

Whether the Western view of the Middle East is now appreciated the Islamic or has the Jewish-Muslim conflict in focus, the Oriental Christians play hardly any role for Europe.  A form of haughty self-denial, as is also expressed in the indiscriminate opening of borders, while identifying  illegal mass immigration as a "humanitarian emergency" of "refugees."

Veneto's President Luca Zaia said just a few days ago, that at least two thirds of the "refugees" who are pushing daily into Europe are not refugees. At the same time the Italian police arrested several Muslims, sometimes living many years  in the country, who are accused of having recruited Islamists for jihad and recruiting new terrorists. This is a reality as it manifests itself in all European countries. The difference in the best case, is with what emphasis the opinion-forming media downplays or hides this reality.

That the persecuted Christians in the Middle East do not belong to the precious immigrants of the "welcome cultures" and that they are the same key media who report little about the fate of Christians in the Middle East, completing the vicious circle.

Text: Andreas Becker

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

(Camouflaged) Franciscans at Spiritual Exercises

Franciscans at Spiritual Exercises 

(Madrid) In the shadow of the great Franciscan religious innovator, mystic and preacher of repentance, Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562) spiritual exercises for members of the Franciscan order took place in Arenas de San Pedro.The well-known Catholic journalist Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña on InfoVaticana published a photo.

"The group of Franciscans is not numerous, but few are better than none. After all, the brothers who wear the habit, compared with those who have passed on their habit, is a slight majority. The two youngest among the brothers wear it anyway. About  a brother's shorts I am silent. With a minimum of respect for his status, he would have at least made it to   the back row. The older brothers, the more they seem to seek camouflage. The Franciscans once differed between shod and unshod brothers. Today they differ between Franciscans who are recognizable as such, and camouflaged Franciscans," said de la Cigoña.

Vocation crisis: Six Provinces Joined to One Province 

The Franciscans are from the Province of the Immaculate Concepcion, which has arisen due to the vocation shortage a few years ago from the merger of six provinces and one custody.

The Franciscan in the chasuble shows that the retreatants, as they appear, have just a Mass.

Peter de Alcantara reformed the Spanish branch of the Franciscan order and founded a new branch of the Strict Observance. He himself lived in the strictest asceticism. As confessor he was at the side of Emperor Charles V  when he abdicated and retired to a Hieronymite in Extremadura. Although the most powerful man in the world, he laid down the imperial crown, as he had recognized with the Peace of Augsburg, that he had failed in his role as Emperor to  preserve the unity of the Faith of the Holy Roman Empire. Peter de Alcantara was at an advanced age, also the spiritual advisor of St. Teresa of Avila. In 1622 he was beatified by Pope Gregory XV.  and canonized in 1669 by  Pope Clement IX. canonized.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: InfoVaticana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Imprecatory Psalm 108

Deus, laudem meam. David in the person of Christ, prayeth against his persecutors; more especially the traitor Judas: foretelling and approving his just punishment for his obstinacy in sin and final impenitence.

[1] Unto the end, a psalm for David. [2] O God, be not thou silent in my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me. [3] They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred; and have fought against me without cause. [4] Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me: but I gave myself to prayer. [5] And they repaid me evil for good: and hatred for my love.

[6] Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand. [7] When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin. [8] May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take. [9] May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. [10] Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg; and let them be cast out of their dwellings.

[6] Set thou the sinner over him: Give to the devil, that arch-sinner, power over him: let him enter into him, and possess him. The imprecations, contained in the thirty verses of this psalm, are opposed to the thirty pieces of silver for which Judas betrayed our Lord; and are to be taken as prophetic denunciations of the evils that should befall the traitor and his accomplices the Jews; and not properly as curses.

[11] May the usurer search all his substance: and let strangers plunder his labours. [12] May there be none to help him: nor none to pity his fatherless offspring. [13] May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out. [14] May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. [15] May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from the earth:

[16] because he remembered not to shew mercy, [17] But persecuted the poor man and the beggar; and the broken in heart, to put him to death. [18] And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing, like a garment: and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones. [19]May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually. [20] This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord; and who speak evils against my soul.

[21] But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name' s sake: because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me, [22] for I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me. [23] I am taken away like the shadow when it declineth: and I am shaken off as locusts. [24] My knees are weakened through fasting: and my flesh is changed for oil. [25] And I am become a reproach to them: they saw me and they shaked their heads,

[24] For oil: Propter oleum. The meaning is, my flesh is changed, being perfectly emaciated and dried up, as having lost all its oil or fatness.

[26] Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to thy mercy. [27] And let them know that this is thy hand: and that thou, O Lord, hast done it. [28] They will curse and thou will bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shall rejoice. [29] Let them that detract me be clothed with shame: and let them be covered with the their confusion as with a double cloak. [30] I will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth: and in the midst of many I will praise him.

[31] Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from persecutors.



http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=21&ch=108&l=17#x

Synod: Curial Bishop Laffitte Remains in His Position

(Rome) Curia Bishop Jean Laffitte remains, at least for the time being, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family . His appointment last July 4 by Pope Francis to Prelate of the Sovereign Order of Malta sparked speculation about his dismissal in the family council.

"Good news," said the well-known Catholic Spanish blogger Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña with good wire to Vatican sources. The personnel decision  before the "decisive Synod of Bishops on the family," said Riposte Catholique, "is not meaningless."

As secretary Msgr. Laffitte holds the second most important office in the pontifical "Family Affairs". The Frenchman Laffitte belogns to the Emmanuel Community , and is considered a serious defender of the marriage sacrament. The same can not be said of his immediate superior Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia.

The Italian Paglia belongs to  the Community of Sant'Egidio. He has fallen, since Benedict XVI., announcing his resignatio, into  homophilic statements, as on June 25 at the press conference to present the World Meeting of Families, which takes place  in September in Philadelphia (USA). With a "slick set" ( Riscossa Cristiana )   the Vatican's "Family Minister" signaled an acceptance of homosexuality (see Before the synod: Family Minister "Flashes" Homophilic signals - Vice is Maltese Prelate ).

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Riposte Catholique

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Vocations Crisis: Decline of the Diocesan Clergy -- Growth of Tradition

(Paris) In many areas in  secularized Europe a veritable spiritual desertification is taking place. Emblematic of this is the crisis of vocations in France. The figures speak for themselves: in 1966, France had 4,536 seminarians. A few years later, in 1975, their number had plummeted to 1,297. The decline had slowed, but it continued. In 1996, there were 1,103 seminarians. It was followed by another slump: in 2005 there were only 784. In 2011 they   finally achieved with 710 seminarians, the lowest since the time of the French Revolution.

If mathematics is not an opinion, the results since 1966 show a decline of 84 percent. "This is the result  of the modernist theologians turning to promote that with which they have destroyed the sense of the supernatural. The figures are of such clarity that they might bring even  ,modern' theologians to blush and should let them fall forever into a penitential silence. Anyway, they require no further comment," said the traditional  blogger Cordialiter .

What is needed is a serious analysis of a catastrophic situation. "Numbers are neither traditionalist nor modernist. They are facts that we need to take note of,"  says Cordialiter.

The situation in France is dramatic. In foreseeable next few years, there will be even fewer active priests.The average age of priests is in these dioceses is already at 75 years.

Key to the vocation crisis is ignored in the dioceses

"The situation is seriously dramatic. It is not a reason to sit back, but there is also no reason to despair," said Cordialiter. Within the vocation crisis, opposing trends can be observed. While the diocesan clergy almost threatens to go  extinct,  the orders and communities of the Old Rite are growing. The vocations that are growing  today, lead  young mento where the faith, the liturgy, the faithful to Christ,  Scripture and Tradition are taken seriously.

"The hope is that more seminaries will be opened, where it is makes ​​possible an even greater number of tradition-bound young men to strive for the Catholic priesthood. It is the holy priests, who will who will model their vocations." 

Where the Sacred Liturgy is celebrated reverently and worthily, where the teaching of Christ is faithfully proclaimed and the order of the Church is respected, there even today can be found vocations. These flourishing oases in the desert, the communities of tradition, some ancient monasteries and several new institutions should all come to the attention of Church leaders, for in them is hidden the key to overcome the crisis of vocations.

Astonishingly, the diocesan church leaders prove sluggish, disinterested or even hostile. "The dilemma is that the way to overcome the crisis of vocations is in front of everyone, but many - and I speak only of those who are responsible -. are looking pointedly away." One has the impression that they want no improvement. The reasons are complex and go deeper. It is not only "convenience" or "world adaptedness", but in many cases it is about a "different theology". In order to avoid having to address this  question, they would prefer to put up with the decline of priestly vocations. 

"The diocesan bishops are responsible for how they respond in their diocese to the vocation crisis, whether the good example is ignored or is imitated. They will be held accountable for it. Regardless of this  the dissolution of the diocesan clergy progresses and it is only a matter of time before the ordinations of  tradition exceed that the Novus Ordo, at least in France," said Cordialiter .

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: FSSP

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Erosion of the German Church -- Gäswein: "Shepherds Must Not Make Decisions Based on Media Applause"

Flashmob in Rio... Reduced to Ridicule

(Rome / Berlin) The Catholic Church in Germany has experienced a record number of almost 218,000 leaving the church last year. 39,000 more than the year before.

More even than in 2010, when the German Church was shaken by the sexual abuse scandal of minors and was under massive public pressure.

The figures highlight a sideshow: Between 2005 and 2013 Pope Benedict XVI was  annually blamed, if there wasn't  a merely  local "culprit", who could share the blame, like  Bishop Krenn in Austria or the bishops Mixa and Tebartz-van Elst in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Church Exit Numbers Were Instrumentalized Against Benedict XVI. - Since silence

"Controversial actions of Pope Benedict XVI. were to blame"  the "like exclusion of homosexuals ", "lack of equality for women"  or the "lifting of the excommunication for Lefebvrian bishops"  which was said, for example in 2010 by the Austrian pastoral theologian Paul Zulehner (Vienna) and Episcopal Vicar Willi Vieböck (Linz). But there has never been when all things are considered, more leaving the Church than under Pope Francis. Since then there is an awkward silence until the  among the wordy Church representatives and the media. Their "interpretations" are subsequently exposed as a church-political instrumentalisation.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, Church membership is directly coupled to tax aspect. The recognized denominations demand and  are payed the so-called "church tax", which is calculated and charged by the state  and sent to the churches.

Church-tax Secures Influence

The money supply is enormous. In 2011 alone, took the Catholic Church in Germany took in about 5.8 billion euros.

With 1.3 million employees, the Catholic Church is  the second largest employer in Germany next to   the public sector. The largest private company, Siemens, employs just over 400,000 employees.

With the bulging coffers, the German Church exerts considerable influence in the Third World.

Majority of the German Bishops Want to Change the Doctrine of the Church

Some commentators, such as the American George Weigel, writing of the growing erosion process, in addition to financial reasons, describes the tendency of most of the German bishops to trying to change the doctrine of the Church.

This includes marriage and sexual morality, especially the doctrine of the right to access the sacrament of marriage and the Eucharist. Concretely it  applies to the recognition of  second marriages and the admission of remarried divorcees to communion. It is exactly these issues that the Synod of Bishops will address this October.

What Curial Archbishop Geogr Gänswein Says

"It is interesting to hear what Curia Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Papal Household and private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI. has to say in a far more extensive interview," said Marco Tosatti. Interview by Jaume Figa i Vaello for the Catalan and Spanish website +1 Sumant Hostories of the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya .

Question: Some of these issues come from your native Germany. Why?

Archbishop Gänswein: Yes. It is true that not all the errors come from there, but the point in question is provided as follows: 20 years ago John Paul II  rejected, after a long and laborious negotiation,  that divorced and remarried would have access to communion.. We can not simply go and change things established in our Magisterium.

Question: Why do some shepherds want that  which is not possible?

Archbishop Gänswein: I do not know. Maybe they give in to the Zeitgeist, perhaps they can be  led by  the applause of the people, which is made by the media ... to be critical of the mass media, is certainly less enjoyable. A shepherd must not decide on the basis of whether the media applauds or not. The benchmark is the Gospel, the Faith, sound doctrine, Tradition.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

AMDG

Archbishop Apologizes for a Priest Doing His Job

(New York) Tim Ardillo, an avowed aberrosexual "married" to another man,  is claiming that he was denied Communion at the funeral of his dead mother on July 10 in St. Helena's Church in the Diocese of Amite Baton Rouge (Louisiana).  Ardillo wanted to receive the Body of Christ in  Communion, however, he was denied by Pastor Mark Beard.

Them magazine The Advocate stated that the Diocese of Baton Rouge has since apologized to Ardillo for the incident, personally from the archbishop of New Orleans himself, Msgr. Gregory Aymond.

According to Ardillo, pastor Beard had justified his refusal with it because he was "not married in church." The presumed reason, according to the aberrosexual, was that he had previously said  in the obituary  for his mother he was described as being "married" to a man.

The Secretariat of Archbishop Aymond declined to comment. The apology was neither confirmed nor denied. No one from the parish wanted to take a position.

"Those who receive Holy Communion unworthily, commits a grave sin"

"The status of gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church is complicated because the Church rejects same-sex marriage, but respect for LGBT people is recommended," says the magazine The Advocate .

According to the American Bishops' Conference , according to The Advocate,  a "homosexual tendency" in itself is no sin, but a "homosexual act" is "always objectively sinful". People with a "homosexual inclination" should therefore not be encouraged, says the Bishops' Conference,  to talk openly about their passion, but seek help and confide in a spiritual support.  At the same time "any unjust discrimination against any person" should be rejected, which also applies to persons with a "homosexual inclination".

Whoever receives Communion without authorization, "is committing a grave sin," says the paper quoted the Bishops' Conference.

Diocese will not tolerate  denial of Communion, "just because someone is gay"

What this meant in practice, at least in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, said the diocesan press officer, Donna Carville, a communion assistant (Eucharistic Minister): The diocese will not tolerate refusal of Communion to Catholics, "just because they are gay."

It was "very surprising that Communion was denied. This does not work  ... We do not have people refuse communion. Who are we to judge whether they believe [the Church's teaching on Communion] or not? This is a matter between them and God," said Donna Carville.

It should not be used to deny the Eucharist, because someone is not married in Church, seconded the canon lawyer, Roger Keeler, coordinator of the Canon Law Society of America, and a priest of the Archdiocese of Edmonton in Alberta State (Canada). "The Communion is not a weapon. It is not a reward for good behavior. It is food for tired souls," said Keeler. The priest could not know the marital status of those who come forward for Communion. 

"How should I know if someone is not in a state of grace?"

As an example, Keeler explained, he could have read somewhere that a woman has embezzled millions. But they could have previously atoned for everything: "How should I know if she is not in a state of grace," said Keeler. The difference is certainly significant because Ardillo himself announced on the spot and publicly, that he  lives in a "gay marriage".

Ardillo told the newspaper he would not go to Communion if the matter had been broached before the funeral mass for his mother. His mother is with the Holy Spirit, and he did want to connect through the communion with her.

After the incident, he took the hand of his "husband" and ran out of the church. A lesbian had then brought him back, mainly because he was the next of kin.

Ardillo lives in Indiana, as a boy he was an altar boy. He still believes in the Catholic faith, but was not sure  of his "place" in the Church. He prayed with his mother's rosary when they saw each other the last time.

But why did the Diocese of Baton Rouge and the archbishop of New Orleans  apologize for the denial of Communion?

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: The Advocate (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Another Poor Appointment for the USA: Media Celebrity to be Auxiliary of Los Angeles

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Edit: poor Los Angeles, what have you done to deserve this?

It was reported at 12 noon,  that the Rector of Mundelein Seminary, Father Robert Barron, is to be appointed the Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, California. Barron may not believe anyone's in Hell, but it's certain as Whispers in the Loggia suggests, that his appointment seems calculated to bank on his substantial media presence.  Maybe now that Barron's an Auxiliary in Los Angeles, even fewer of its substantial Catholic population will be going to confession to avoid it?

This appointment is another evil portent of the growing the problems with this papacy and the American Church in general, but it also underscores the continuing nadir of the once promising EWTN and Catholic media in general.

Some have even long been hailing Barron as another Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

Perhaps it's payback for some enthusiastic and uncritical praise for the Socialism in Laudatio Si?



Bishop Sheen on Hell:



The comparison is ridiculous.

Socialists Want to Block Establishment of "Fundamentalist" SSPX Capuchins

Edit: as Tiberge at Galliawatch notes, it's as if the Devil has commanded his minions to take action against a small settlement of good natured Capuchins who want to take over an abandoned Capuchin friary with the blessing of the local mayor.  Not even the mostly harmless local Ordinary doesn't seem to mind.  He'd prefer to avoid conflict. 

What is interesting to me is the similarity between the tactics, objections and what motivates the Socialists and those within the Catholic Church who use such strident language to attack the Society.

The councilor, Noëlle Aznar-Molliex explains herself at the Osons-Albertville website:  

 During the City Council meeting of July 6, mayor Martine Berthet had intended to put to a vote the turning over of the Clos des Capucins, a city property situated on mount Adolphe Hugues, at the entrance of the medieval village of Conflans, to the association of the Convent of Saint-François de Morgon, that hopes to renovate the site and install there a community.  

Osons-Albertville strongly opposes this plan. The truth is that the community of Capuchin monks of the Morgon convent, said to be "of traditional observance", is part of the line of thought of traditionalist and fundamentalist churches, that of the SSPX, and is not recognized by the church of Rome, because it has been in a state of schism since the Second Vatican Council. These communities reject ecumenism and all initiatives favoring inter-religious dialogue.

Link to Galliawatch...
AMDG

Stations of the Cross Removed: "Lack of Respect for Unbelievers and Muslims"

Stations of the Cross Removed: "Lack of respect for
unbelievers and Muslims."

(Madrid) The Socialist Natalia Nuñez was elected last May 24th as the new Mayor of Cenicientos in Spain. The municipality in the Autonomous Community of Madrid has a population of 2,073 inhabitants. One of the first acts of the PSOE representative was the removal of the Stations of the Cross in the small town by the pilgrimage church of Nuestra Señora del Roble, the city's patron.

The Mayor charged  the Way of the Cross with a "lack of respect" towards non-believers and those are who "profess the Muslim religion and culture." Nuñez described the Way of the Cross in interviews dismissively as "those stones".

The destructiveness of the "Alcaldesa" of Cenicientos caused quite a stir in Spain. The more so because the Way of the Cross represented by the stone steles  were only represented by the Roman station number, but without a cross or other religious symbol. Their  placement was financed by the citizens with a support of the Culture Programme of the provincial administration for 3,000 euros. It was at no cost to  Cenicientos. Only three months after its construction, now that the local elections had taken place, they were again removed. 

"If Stone Steles Offend a Muslim, Will You Want Tomorrow to Demolish the Churches and Chapels?"

A citizens' committee presented a collection of signatures, which were handed over on July 17 at the City Hall. The committee addressed the mayor the question whether the destruction of the Cross, even presented in this simplicity, shows no "lack of respect towards the Catholics." It calls for the return of the stone steles to their place.

Father Jorge González Guadalix, priest of the Archdiocese of Madrid, referred to the activism of the Mayor as "sectarianism". There is a "will not to respect Catholics and to insult them". InfoCatolica quoted the priest with the question: "How could stone steles without any religious symbol insult a Muslim. He doesn't even know their importance. If naked stones already offend, how much more must then churches and chapels 'insult'? Will they demolish them tomorrow?"

According to Father Guadalix this day is not far off for those who think this way: "The truth is that you want to make an end to   Catholics and with everything that reminds us of the Church. This is an old aim under which Spain has already suffered greatly. The 'fruits of this tolerance' we know all too well," the priest said, alluding to the anti-Catholic persecution in the 1930s.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Tempi

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

When the Pope Makes a Blooper -- The Pitfalls of Casual Free Speech

Pope Francis in Asuncion Paraguay

(Rome / Asuncion) the Pope used the word "hermeneutics", a word unusual for him, at a press conference on the flight back from the trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. Within minutes, he used this word eleven times and asked, it should also apply in the context of his words, "in fact it  is often suitable for two- and ambiguous interpretations," said Vatican expert Sandro Magister. Promptly, two days later,   Osservatore Romano dabbled in to be the first to offer  an interpretation of the papal words.  The blooper  Pope Francis had scored with his penchant for casual free speech in Asuncion was passed over in silence.

The Brazilian Msgr Dario Vignanò ventured to make an analysis of the free speech style of Francis. He dedicated his first public statement as the first prefect of the newly established Secretariat for Communication through the "communicative style of Bergoglio between oral form and concreteness". The actual title of the article reads: " Francis in the Global Village."

One-eyed Analysis of Papal Communication Style

Msgr. Viganò is the first head of dicastry in  o the Roman Curia who is neither a bishop  nor raised to Bishop  with his appointment. Viganò took over in 2014 from Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, the management of the Vatican Television Centre CTV, a task which he retains, and carries since 2004 receiving  the title of Honorary Pontifical Chaplain.

It seems that Msgr. Viganò  apparently randomly used the address by Pope Francis to the youth of Paraguay for his theses. The speech on the evening of July 12 was given extemporaneously by the Pope after he had rejected the prepared manuscript.

Viganò wrote: "I believe that the key to understanding the communicative practice of Pope Franzikus is to look in the now classic studies on the relationship between the oral and written. A prepared speech is boring, because it is a text, which has been designed in writing. We know how the written culture has prized abstract thinking, abstract thinking and objectivity over oral conciseness." 

"Rapid progress in zigzag style"

"The Pope's style, however, is a more than an ample style, capable of the ultimate strength of  context - the reference to the hermeneutics during the press conference on the flight back from South America was clear - and  captured the concreteness. By no means does redundancy appear negative, but rather as an intrinsic necessity for those who communicate orally, one the one hand, rapid steps forward rushing along the paths of the word and at the same time proceeding in a zigzag manner by associated by its frequent repetitions, what he has already said."

Viganò concludes:

"The speeches of Pope Francis is a revival of the ancient practice of word of mouth communication, in turn, facing a recognition and stability of actual community, by triggering a network, based on the pleasure of a rediscovered embrace between humanity and the Gospel."

Unprecedented Public Affront of Head of State

In a Church Praying for the Release of Edilio Morinigo

"Redundancy, repetition, zigzag exemplary striding ... Had Msgr. Viganò not spoken of Francis to the youth of Paraguay as the basis taken for his study, but the speech of the day held before the pope to the civil society representatives in Asuncion, he would have recognized not only the benefits but also the limitations of a too naive 'orality' of communication," said Sandro Magister.

There Francis said in his free speech:

"There are things that I want respect yet take before I close. And since politicians are present - also the President of the Republic - I say it in fraternal form.  Someone told me, 'Listen,  Mr. So and So has been kidnapped by the army. Do something!'  I am not saying whether it's true or not, whether it is fair or not, but one of the methods, which applied to the dictatorial ideologies of the last century, of which I have just spoken, was to remove the people, either by exile or by captivity, or - in the case of Nazi and Stalinist extermination camps - they were removed by death. Thus there is a real culture in a nation, a political culture and a culture of the common good, it needs swiftly clear processes, transparent processes. Another type of maneuver is not beneficial. A transparent, clear justice. This will help all of us. I do not know if there is such a thing here or not; I say it with all due respect. You told me so when I came in, they told me here. And may I  - for I do not know who - ask; I have not understood the names well."

Pope Confused Regular Army with a Communist Terrorist Organization and Accused President of a Crime 

Marxist-Leninist Paraguayan People's Army EPP

The name Francis had "not well understood"  is that of Edelio Morinigo, officer of Paraguayan Army (Ejército Paraguayo). Morinigo was kidnapped a year ago, but not by the regular army, which he himself belongs, but by a self-styled Paraguayan People's Army (Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, EPP), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization that was founded in 2008, which wanted to overthrow the Paraguayan government  and establish a communist republic.

Although Pope Francis himself admitted to know nothing about the case and had not even understood the name of the person concerned, he had no qualms, in complete ignorance of the facts to "brotherly" and publicly accuse the Paraguayan government and specifically the president of a crime, which he put into a context of the worst atrocities of the Nazis and Communists.

"Hats off to the attitude of Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, who was unaffected by any reaction to an impressive public affront," says Magister.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Settimo Cielo

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG