Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Dietfurter Franciscan: Zen (Buddhism) Instead of Francis of Assisi

(Munich) St. Francis of Assisi? Old news! Today, Far Eastern Zen is in. That's how the Franciscans of the Friary of Unterdietfurt think anyway. And not only today. Since 1977, they have expanded the monastery into a Zen center and are proud to be "so to speak, the oldest Christian Zen monastery in the German-speaking world" as they write on their website.
Katholisches.info reported on September 1 of the dissolution of the Franciscan monastery Reutte in Tyrol.  Although the Franciscan  Friary of Unterdielfurt  in Bavaria belongs to another province of the Order, there seems to be a correlation existing between the one and the other event.

Inculturation the Other Way

Five Franciscans currently inhabit the monastery in Unterdietfurt.  The Franciscan establishment is well known in the Bavarian Oberpfalz as the  Meditation House of St. Francis . Actually to a point it is mainly in advertising slogan "Zen in the Franciscan Friary". The house offers "from Zen to Ikebana to T'ai Chi Ch'uan" all in Eastern spirituality,  Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto or Taoist in origin, as the website promises. Inculturation the other way.
"In Zen practice we follow  mainly the tradition of Sanbô-Kyôdan here, as the foundation laid for our house by P. Lassalle and continued to be led by P. Victor Löw." The Dietfurter Zen Franciscans place great stress on the assumption: "This tradition gives us complete freedom with respect to  confessional and religious affiliation." Today's guide is the 49 year old Samuel Heimler.

Guardian Heimler: start the day with "harmonization of Qi" 

Zen meditation House St. Francis
Brother Heimler is a Catholic priest. That's the best that can be garnered from the CV published by him in the Internet.  Although the ordination should be the most important stage of his life, it is not mentioned. What is mentioned is that he has  professional training with reinforced concrete contractors and entered his  in 1988 to study theology, training in communication skills, to shape educators, and is a family counselor and a Neuro-linguistic Programmer (NLP). In Dietfurter Zen Friary,  the Franciscans put emphasis on "other" matters.
Heimler is Guardian of the monastery and head of the meditation house staff for youth ministry "Orientation to Francis" and (presumably priestly) Assistant to the Secular Franciscan Order (FG).
Samuel begins his day  with Qigong, a form of Chinese movement, concentration and meditation exercises in order to "harmonize and regulate" the qi in his body. Qi is  Chinese for energy, fluid or breath and is a central part of the Far Eastern religion of Taoism. In the summer, Heimler does not sleep in his monastic cell, but in a cabin in the monastery garden because he or she can feel more in t  contact with nature.

Far Eastern Buddhist Practices, Shinto, Taoist Origin

Heimler not look back in 34 years towards the east, but in the Christian and Franciscan sense of ex oriente lux . Heimler looks further into the geographical East and says to find what seems to him to Christianity seem to be missing in the Far Eastern religions. As Guardian and Head of meditation house, he is the "model" of his confreres. His life is marked by Qigong, which is also derived from Taoism, the "personality development" serving martial art Taijiquan, Japanese, derived from Buddhism and Shinto art form Ikebana, the sacred dance and especially the Zen Buddhism.
Almost 2,000 participants participate in the 48 courses offered in the course of a year in Dietfurter Zen Center. There are religious and lay people, believers and unbelievers. The confessional or religious affiliation plays no role in the courses. A specifically Christian,  or a course  recognizable as Christian does not exist. The crowd was so large that the Zen Franciscan was no longer sufficient to meet the demand. Moreover, to enhance the prestige as a Zen center, therefore, known Zen masters are also invited from abroad to conduct courses in the Buddhist-style center.

From the Franciscan monastery Zen Friary

The Jesuit and Zen Master Hugo Lassalle
Since 1665 there has been a Dietfurter branch of the Friars Minor of St. Francis of Assisi. The conversion of a Franciscan Friary into a Zen monastery took place  not primarily by a Franciscan, but by the Jesuit Father Hugo Lassalle.  Born in Nieheim in Westphalia in 1898, Lassalle came from a Huguenot family originally. In 1919, he entered, after the experience of the First World War, in which he had served as a soldier, into  the Jesuit Order. Ordained a priest in 1927, he was sent in 1929 by his order to the Japan mission. Looking for ways to  spread  the gospel in Japan, he studied  Zen Buddhism there. With its help, he hoped to understand the basics of the difficult access for Christianity into Japanese society.  It was a job that was not generally suitable for  him.
Instead of finding an approach for the Evangelization of Japan, he was taken with Zen Buddhism. In 1943 he participated in the first sesshin in part, a form of concentrated Zen meditation. Under the name Makibi Enomiya he became a Japanese citizen in 1948 and vicar general of the diocese of Hiroshima. His chosen name has both a reference to the Shinto shrine of Hiroshima and Buddhism.
Lassalle said after the Second World War,  the defeated Japanese lead him "by Buddha to Christ."  "The strengthening of the religious base in the form of Buddhism was supposed - after reinterpretation of Buddhist rites - to serve for the Christian teachings and ceremonies as a starting point," writes Michael Ihsen in the Biographic-bibliographic Church Encyclopedia of the German Jesuits. "The practice of egolessness seemed desirable to him also for Christianity", says Ihsen. Lassalle was taken with the idea to promote Buddhism, "Christianize" and thus to evangelize Japan.
With the Zen Buddhist monks,  after the defeat of the  war, he saw common ground with them    and went with them on lecture tours to raise up the basis of a common ethics in Japan again. Both the Jesuits and the  Buddhists  were marginalized until  the war ended in Japan, and attributed the war and defeat of the island nation  to Confucism and Shintoism and saw the opportunity now to take their position in Japanese society.
Lassalle's path eventually led, not to evangelize Japan, but to give Buddhism access to the Christians in Europe. Lasalle's "best sellers" especially paved the way, like: "Zen Path to Enlightenment," which appeared in 1959 with the permission of Father Pedro Arrupe in book form. Arrupe, the Jesuit General who was to become the Father General in 1968,  was then the first Provincial of the newly established province of the Order in Japan. He encouraged Lassalle's Zen studies and allowed him to build a Zen center on the site of the Jesuit establishment. There, Lassalle created among other things, a "Grotto of the divine darkness". Arrupe supported his German confrere also then, as in 1960, the then Superior General of the Jesuits, Father Jean Baptiste Janssens, forbade both Lassalle's book as well as any further involvement with Zen Buddhism by members of religious orders.

The Jesuit Hugo Lassalle and the Second Vatican Council

The Jesus-Buddha, the essence of the Christian Zen Buddhism or Zen Buddhist Christianity
But times were to change quickly. Accompanied in 1959 by Pope John XXIII's first appointed  Bishop of Hiroshima, Dominic Yoshimatsu Noguchi, Father Enomiya-Lassalle took part in the Second Vatican Council, where he held talks on liturgical inculturation. The new edition of his book received  no imprimatur at first, because even Karl Rahner identified Zen as monistic and explained it as incompatible with Christianity.
Lassalle  even borrowed from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, to correct deficiencies in his doctrine. However, atmosphere of the council initiated  an "understanding" with the Eastern religions with the help of the Father General, Pedro Arrupe, who soon ascended to become one of the most important representatives of the "Christian-Buddhist dialogue". However Lassalle was threatened several times with exclaustration if there were too many problems with religious in his Zen-project  along the way.
Father Enomiya-Lassalle intensified his Zen practice, but the Kensho experience , a Buddhist "awakening experience", failed to materialize. That was when he decided continue with the Zen-project without the Kensho experience. His promotion of Buddhist inculturation of Christianity he reasoned against critics again and again so that Zen "was indeed religious in origin, but includes lessons that are outside of the Buddhist doctrine."  Yet there were always new doubts.
Father Enomiya-Lassalle was convinced that through Zen "the soul goes to meet God to the utmost limit of the possible". In 1973 it had come: Lassalle was finally recognized as a Zen master. The recognition of his Kensho was carried out by Yamada Koun Zenshin, a leading exponent of Zen Buddhism and founder of one of the many Buddhist sects. Yamada Koun (1907-1989) was, however, unlike other Buddhist Zen masters leader involved, to win many Christians for Zen Buddhism. One of them was the Jesuit Hugo Lassalle.

Lassalle's "Zen Eucharist" and the (lack of) consciousness quantum leap

Lassalle drew other religious in Europe under his spell such as the Benedictine Willigis Jäger, the Jesuit Brantschen, the Pallottine John Kopp, whom he brought  in contact with Yamada Koun in contact and formed them. Even the later Niederalteich Abbot Emanuel Jungclaussen was influenced in the 70s by Lassalle. The Buddhist sect leader, Yamada Koun were "consecrated"together with the  Münsterschwarzacher Benedictine Abbot Boniface Vogel,   the Zen Center of Willigis Jäger in 1980. They all believed they were able to fully perform in the Far Eastern spirituality, a quantum leap of consciousness. The former  immediately started after the Second Vatican Council and the revolutionary cultural upheaval of 1968, with their Zen Mission in German-speaking countries. Kopp in the diocese of Essen, Jäger in the Abbey of Münsterschwarzach in the diocese of Würzburg,  Brantschen in the diocese of Basel. Lassalle was, as mentioned, instrumental in the creation of the "Zen monastery" of Unterdietfurt in the diocese of Eichstätt, among other things in 1977. The inauguration of the Meditation House  of St. Francis was made ​​in his presence by the then bishop of Eichstätt, Alois Brems.
Accordingly there was  expectant criticism by Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar, who pointed out, among other things, that zen-practicing priests give up  their priesthood, their leave their orders  and even lose their Christian faith, was unheard in Unterdietfurt, as well as in Münsterschwarzach and elsewhere. They also wrote: "From the history of religion perspective,  it is an outstanding achievement of cooperation between Lassalle and Yamada, that Christian ministers withdrew the teaching license of the Buddhist sect." Indeed! Cui bono?
Father Hugo Makibi Enomiya-Lassalle died in 1990, a year after Yamada,  to whom the whole idea of "Christian" Zen Buddhism goes back in the West. At his request, Lassalle's body was cremated and the ashes transferred to Japan.

The Weakness of the Dietfurter Franciscan Victor Löw for Eastern Spirituality

It was the Dietfurter Franciscan Father Victor Löw, who had turned to Father Lassalle, and thus started the stone rolling at Dietfurter Zen Friary. Loew, a native of Budapest, had been imprisoned in 1949 by the new communist authorities. In prison he met a disciple of the Indian guru Ramana Maharshi who taught him Hindu practices. After the anti-communist uprising of 1956, Löw fled to the West. In 1967 he joined   the Franciscan Order in Bavaria and was ordained a priest in 1972. In 1974,  Löw contacted  Lassalle, because he wanted to make the far eastern wave, which then rolled over the West, usable for Christianity - as the declared intention. Indeed he was, as  his resume shows, pulled early under a spell into Eastern spirituality.  Löw, who died in 1994, was   finally made a  Zen master by Lasalle and traveled like this "from monastery to monastery to hold meditation classes" as the Dietfurter Franciscans write. Lasalle complained of the "spiritual poverty" of the Catholic religious orders in the West and would not be resolved.  The monasteries have since, however, "emptied".
The Dietfurter Zen Franciscans, however, see a very positive future and emphasize on their website with a self-justifying tone, "a celebration of the Eucharist [Zen Eucharist] is served daily in the small chapel in the meditation area offered on a voluntary basis, which always is very popular. Quite a few students have experienced the effect of Zen meditation at the Eucharist new and can deepen their faith or regain access to the Christian faith, they believed lost. Many people find their spiritual home here. Here they return to come to their senses and find new strength for their lives everyday. "
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Franciscan Unterdietfurt / Wikicommons
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Cause for Bishop Sheen Suspended



 EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a news release from the Diocese of Peoria. It was distributed to the media on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014.

-----
It is with immense sadness that the Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, Bishop of Peoria and President of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, announced today that the Cause for Sheen’s beatification and canonization has for the foreseeable future been suspended. The process to verify a possible miracle attributed to Sheen had been going extremely well, and only awaited a vote of the Cardinals and the approval of the Holy Father. There was every indication that a possible date for beatification in Peoria would have been scheduled for as early as the coming year. The Holy See expected that the remains of Venerable Sheen would be moved to Peoria where official inspection would be made and first class relics be taken. Subsequently, the Archdiocese of New York denied Bishop Jenky’s request to move the body to Peoria. After further discussion with Rome, it was decided that the Sheen Cause would now have to be relegated to the Congregation’s historic archive.
Edit: Too anti-Communist, obviously?

"Benedictine" Abbey Removes Porn by "Artist" Monk

Tupa and Abbot Klassen 
Edit:  this priest's artwork looks like something made by a serial killer during arts and crafts in a Federal Prison.
We were linked here and decided to draw more attention to the article.  Here's  an excerpt plus links from Pine Curtain:
Sadomasochistic and Violent
[Pine Curtain] Father Jerome Tupa - a priest from Saint John’s Abbey and the subject of a December 12, 2012 letter [ View ] to Father Bob Rolfes at the Diocese of Saint Cloud – no longer has a web site at jerometupa.com and he no longer sells his art/pornography at https://eelement.appolis.com/jerometupa/ In addition to serving as pastor at Saint Joseph Parish in St. Joseph, Minnesota, where he acts as confessor and spiritual counselor to hundreds, Father Tupa currently sits on the board of All Saints Academy [ View ] with schools in St. Joseph and Waite Park, Minnesota.
Samples of Father Jerome Tupa’s NSFW art are still available Here.
Father Jerome Tupa’s SFW art is available Here.
Media: Please request additional samples of Tupa’s NSFW artwork Here.
Photo from dedication of Gathering Space...

"Our Chavez" -- Venezuela's President Prays a New Our Father


(Caracas) More new blooms drive Venezuela's Chavism . This includes the most recent anti-Christian provocation: President Nicolas Maduro made a partisan statement, in the future the new "revolutionary" Our Father "Chavez Nuestro" prayer in honor of the deceased predecessor Hugo Chavez.
Chavism is named after the late president and revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez (2013) by the Venezuelan government since he wanted to implement a Bolivarian Revolution after their 1999 acquisition of power. 
The reigning  president since 2011, Nicolas Maduro of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) bases his power on the state-sponsored cult of personality around his predecessor ,Chavez. The presidential elections in April 2013 Maduro had won with a wafer thin 50.66 percent of the vote  for himself. 
During an internal training session for party functionaries of the ruling PSUV, the Chavisten were encouraged by Maduro, to continue to pray a socialist version of the Our ​​Father. It was written in honor of the deceased  late President Hugo Chavez as reported by  the Venezuelan television channel Globovision  on Monday.
In the new "Bolivarian prayer of the Chavista delegates" it says:
"Our Chavez will in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in us, the delegates, hallowed be thy name.Your heritage come to bring it to the people here and everywhere, give us your light today, so you lead us every day and lead us not into the temptation of capitalism, but deliver us from the evil of the oligarchy and the crime of smuggling, for we are the country, the peace and the life, eternity, Amen. Viva Chavez!"
President Maduro took the "revolutionary" step so that the "Revolution is in a phase that requires to reinforce the value of education... The Venezuelans should be fortified for  daily street fighting for the values ​​of the revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez," said Maduro in his address at the end of the event.
Hugo Chavez had a very difficult  relationship with the Catholic Church and also did not hesitate to let his followers storm the Archbishop's Palace in Caracas. His affiliation with the Catholic Church was still clear. The religion of his successor Maduro however is unclear. The son of a Jewish-born father and a Catholic mother was, as the President himself declared, "socialist educated." Maduro himself  has made anti-Catholic as well as anti-Semitic statements and is a supporter of the  Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba, who is deceased since 2011.
The video shows the party meeting at which the "prayer of the Chavista delegates" was first presented.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Founder of Juventutem Invited by Benedict XVI.

 (Vatican) Benedict XVI. received two representatives of tradition on 1 September, : the founder and treasurer of the Foederatio Internationalis Juventutem (IFJ)  traditional youth and the director of the International Pilgrimage of Tradition, Populus Summorum Pontificum.  From 23-26th October 2014  there will be  a third International pilgrimage to Rome.
Cosimo Marti of Juventutem and Giuseppe Capoccia of Summorum Pontificum Populus received late Monday afternoon in the Vatican.   Cosimo Marti had asked in vain for an audience with the Pope before the resignation of Benedict XVI. Last July, he received a surprise letter from the Apostolic Nunciature in Bern. In the Swiss capital, the headquarters of Juventutem.
The Nunciature sent a letter from Curial Archbishop Georg Gänswein. It contained an invitation,  no longer expected,   to a meeting with Benedict XVI.  Marti had assumed that his application had been filed with the resignation and had not expected a reaction.
The letter stated that he could bring a companion. Marti chose Giuseppe Capoccia, Director of Summorum Pontificum Coetus Internationalis , who has organized the International Pilgrimage of Tradition in Rome since 2012 Summorum Pontificum Populus. The pilgrimage will take place in 2014 for the third time at the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, Peter, in St. Petersdom. The pilgrimage  is being held out of gratitude for the 2007 Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum granted by Pope Benedict XVI., to free  all priests in the celebration of the traditional form of the Roman rite.

2014: 10 years Juventutem


Juventutem, the Youth of Tradition
Since the International Federation Juventutem 2014 is having ts 10th anniversary, there is a pivot point of this year's pilgrimage. Cardinal George Pell, the prefect of the Economic Secretariat of the Holy See will celebrate Pontifical High Mass on this occasion on October 24 in the church of the Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini of the Fraternity of St. Peter in Rome. Ecclesiastical Assistant of Juventutem is Father Armand de Malleray of the Fraternity of St. Peter .
The highlight of the pilgrimage will be on Saturday, October 25,  at the Pontifical Office in St. Peter's Basilica, which will be celebrated in 2014 by Cardinal Raymond Burke. On Sunday, October 26, the youth from Juventutem   will visit the Benedictine Monastery of Norcia, where Cardinal Walter Brandmüller will give a sermon and Holy Mass in the Immemorial Rite.

Immemorial Mass for Juventutem at WYD 2005 in Cologne signaled a Liturgical Turning Point

Cardinal Pell had already celebrated the Traditional Rite for Juventutem in 2005 at WYD in Cologne  as the umbrella organization of traditional youth organization took part for the first time in an official event of the Catholic Church. WYD 2005 was also the first time once again, that the Old Rite had been celebrated in an official event, a major Church. The Old Mass at World Youth Day in Cologne signaled, only a few months after the election of Benedict XVI., the beginning of a liturgical change.
Two years after the Cologne, the same Pope granted the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum . He is also thought of  the thousands of young people with Juventutem who had come to Cologne, where he wrote in the accompanying letter to the bishops, which was published with the motu proprio:
"Immediately after the Second Vatican Council it was presumed that requests for the use of the 1962 Missal would be limited to the older generation which had grown up with it, but in the meantime it has clearly been demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, particularly suited to them. "
The former opinion, that the "request" was restrictive to the older generation, or should be limited, seems to be something to which the successor of Benedict XVI., Pope Francis is still attached. In the ad limina visit of the Czech bishops last February, Francis wondered aloud to Archbishop of Olomouc Graubner in January at the fact that young Catholics interested in the traditional rite:
"When I think about it more thoroughly, I find that it is rather a kind of fashion. And because it is a fashion, therefore we must not give it so much attention. "
The contents of what took place on Monday during the meeting with Benedict XVI. is not yet known. Before the meeting Cosimo Marti and Giuseppe Capoccia, said the French site Notions Romaines, it was their desire to express the loyalty and gratitude as representatives  of traditional youth to Benedict XVI.. Otherwise  the encounter was left to Providence and the emeritus pope.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Notions Romaines / Juventutem
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG



Windows to the Past: Protestant Theologian Urges the Rejection of Schema "De Ecclesia"


Edit: some will remember that the original schemata which were rejected, especially De Ecclesia.

It's hard to imagine that undue attention was paid to voices like  the Protestant Edmund Schlink, who was an observer at the council.

Despite assurances to the contrary,  and the tacit understanding with respect to Protestants described by Dr. Schlink, Protestants are no closer to Catholics half a century later.  There may be fewer Protestants, and they may be far less relevant than they were in 1963 when this was written, but these concerns are still raised.  They are echoed by Progressivist counterparts in the Catholic Church who themselves, might as well be Protestants.

This entire "discussion" has taken place at the expense of the Catholic Faith and to the scandal of the faithful.

The following is from an article we found:

IN THE OPINION  of Professor Edmund Schlink, a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany and an observer of the Second Vatican Council, the council's schema De Ecclesia, if adopted as it now stands, will seriously jeopardize rapprochement between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches.  Dr. Schlink told a press conference in Rome that he is particularly disturbed by one schema statement which implies that "the one holy, catholic, apostolic church is the church directed by the Roman pope, thus identifying the church of God with the Roman church."  He noted that the schema refers to non-Catholic individuals but not to non-Catholic churches.  The conclusion he draws from this fact is that the Roman Catholic Church can recognize and claim as its own all Christians whose baptism is identical with that of the Roman Catholic Church but cannot recognize the existence of non-Catholic churches as churches.  Professor Schlink has not raised a captious and irrelevant complaint but has uncovered a basic issue standing between Protestants and Roman Catholics.  "Separated brethren," to use the Roman Catholic euphemism for Protestants and other non-Catholic Christians, belong to churches.   Their churches are just as truly the body of Christ to them as the Roman church is to Roman Catholics.  To imply, as De Ecclesia is said to do, that gulf between non-Catholics and Roman Catholics will be bridged by a return of individuals to Rome without regard to their churches is to misinterpret Protestant and Orthodox hopes for unity and to misunderstand the ecumenical movement as it relates to Protestant and Orthodox hopes for unity and to misunderstand the ecumenical movement as it relates to Protestant and Orthodox churches.  Professor Schlink raised a timely reminder when he said: "Non-Roman Christendom consists not merely of individual Christians, but of churches.  Non-Roman Christians are certain of salvation as members of their own churches.  It is not through the Roman church, but through their own church, that they have received baptism, and that they have come to the faith through the gospel,"  We hope that Dr. Schlink's reminder will be taken into account before the Vatican Council takes a position on so important a matter.  His statement does not assume that non-Roman churches are immune to change; it does assume that all the changing will not be done on one side.

November 20, 1963

Monday, September 1, 2014

Cardinal Müller: US Rebel Sisters Have Lost Their Identity -- More Women in the International Theology Commission

(Rome) The Prefect of the CDF, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, contrary to what is   widespread  of certain circles in the United States in connection with the rebellious nuns of the LCWR, that the Roman Curia is misogynistic. "We are not misogynist!" The cardinal said in a conversation with the woman's section of the Osservatore Romano . It is a matter, the rebellious nuns "to help them rediscover their identity." Cardinal Müller also announced that at the request of Pope Francis, the number of women in the International Theological Commission will rise "from two to five or six".
Since May 2012  a monthly supplement appears in the main Italian edition of Osservatore Romano   Women, Church, World . In the latest issue a conversation on  1 September  took place with Prefect Cardinal Müller. The former Bishop of Regensburg announced that the proportion of female members of the International Theological Commission shall tripled. This was the wish of Pope Francis, the Cardinal said in an interview with the responsible editor of the women's supplement, the historian Lucetta Scaraffia.
The International Theological Commission is one of the "young" institutions of the Catholic Church. It was established in 1969 by Pope Paul VI., as a result of the first Synod of Bishops, which took place in the fall of 1967. The task of the 30 strong Commissio Internationalis Theologica (CTI) is to "assist in the investigation of doctrinal issues that are of greater importance" to the Church's Magisterium, particularly the CDF. Therefore, it has been presided  the Prefect of the CDF  Cardinal Müller, since 2012.  Since 2011, it's Secretary-General has been  the French Dominican Father Serge-Thomas Bonino.

Increasing Share of Women in Theological Commission to "Five or Six"

The members are appointed by the pope for five years. The 8th Quinquennium ending in 2013 to be reappointed by Pope Francis has not yet occurred. The period 2009-2013  had  two female members. It is the German Domgatic Theologian and Professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, Barbara Hallensleben, and the American nun and professor at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake (Mundelein Seminary) of Chicago, Sr. Sara Butler.   Sister Butler belongs to the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity (MSBT), an American woman religious order which was recognized by the Holy See in 1932, but  whose origins already   go back to the year 1909. She teaches Christology, Sacramentology, Christian Anthropology  and Mariology in Chicago.
The appointment of the members of the 9th Quinquennium of the International Theological Commission by Pope Francis is imminent, as Scaraffia has reported. She only addressed Cardinal Müller indirectly at  this point : "He assured me the newly anticipated International Theological Commission, which is to be appointed by the Pope soon, will have a higher proportion of women than the outgoing: It seems to me as I understand that they will increase the number from two to five or six."

Accept Women in Their Character, Not as an Imitation of Men

The cardinal stressed importance of women in the Church and that they are to be recognized in their individuality in the Church, not in imitation of the male model. The Cardinal made a special point to emphasize that the Church is "mother" and must not be an institution because an institution could not love you, but a mother can love.
The Prefect also spoke to Scaraffia  about the American rebels,  Sisters of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). He himself had overseen  "complex negotiations" recently. Above all is to remember that it is "not all American women religious" who are  the rebellious nuns, but a group of religious women in North America who have partnered in the LCWR. The CDF had received "many letters" from other sisters that belong to the same Order, "but on the direction" of the rebel sisters are very disappointed and "deeply grieved".

Loss of Identity: Rebel Sisters Have "No More Vocations"

"Serious doctrinal problems" have reigned for years among the rebellious nuns of the LCWR  in the field of Catholic doctrine, Church discipline, liturgy, morality, right to life, homosexuality and gender ideology. Cardinal Müller  recalled in this connection: "In addition, these orders have no more vocations. You run the risk of disappearing. We have especially tried to build less conflictual relations and reduce tensions, thanks to Bishop Sartain," leading the talks on behalf of the CDF and is "a very gentle man," says  the Cardinal. The general aim was clear to the rebels sisters that "we are not hostile to women and do not want to eat a woman every day!  Without a doubt we have different understandings of religious life. We hope to help them rediscover their identity," Cardinal Müller.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Osservatore Romano
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

"Sign of the Times" -- Franciscans Give up Cloister in Reutte Tyrol

(Innsbruck) And again a monastery less. The last four brothers of the Franciscan Friary in the town of Reutte in the Tyrol have left their posts. After 386 years, the Franciscan monastery in the market town on the Lech has been abandoned. The Provincial of the Franciscan province of Austria, Father Oliver Ruggenthaler, justified the abandonment  to  ORF [Austrian Broadcasting] with the words: The small number of brothers was a "sign of the times".
Certainly it is a "sign" for the continued decline of a [once] glorious 800-year-old Order. The population of Reutte wanted to ask the Order to stay by a petition. An expression of solidarity and of feeling upon the departure of losing a part of one's identity. In addition to a piece of religious history, a piece of Church history comes to an end. But  the lack of religious youth can not be fixed with petitions. Nor can the lack of priests  be replaced by  "active participation of the laity in the pastoral space" (Mayor Alois Upper).
The Franciscans were came to Reutte in 1628, where they were summoned  the sovereign of  Tyrolea then, Archduke Leopold V of Austria. The original fifteen Franciscan monasteries Tyrol together with two smaller branches attest to the deep roots of the Order in this area. The oldest monastery of the Order in Bolzano originated most likely in 1221 during the lifetime of St. Francis of Assisi. At its peak the province of the mid-18th century had about 500 brothers. At that time also was included the Bavarian monastery  and monasteries in western Austria (Vorarlberg, Baden, Württemberg, Alsace) to the Tyrolean province. The 1927 for the annexation of South Tyrol by Italy made for a division that was overcome in 2001 by the unification in a single Tyrolean province of the Order, but has not halted the further decline of the Order. In 2007 there was a merger with the Austrian chapter.
Today there are eight monasteries in Tyrol. The branches of Kufstein, Klobenstein, Hinterriß, Maia and last Innichen (2012) and Reutte (2014) had to be abandoned because of a lack of growth. . The Monastery of Cortina d'Ampezzo still exists, but since the interwar period, it is part of the Venetian Province of the Order.
From 1977-2000 the Provincial Novitiate of the Order was located in Reutte. The vacant monastery has passed over to the Community of Reutte and is to be converted into an assisted living facility.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Franciscan Province
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG





Sunday, August 31, 2014

Court: Homeschooling Continues as a Danger for Children

Edit: aren't they talking rather about the Greens?
About a year ago the German government robbed the couple, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich of their four children as the Darmstadt family will not educate their children by the state, but instead  wanted to give their own lessons. At the time, wrote Katholisches : "Last Thursday, August 29, 2013, at eight clock in the morning,  20 police officers and staff of the Youth Office, stormed the home of the Wunderlich family in Darmstadt to snatch all four children from the care of their parents. We know nothing about the whereabouts of  children ages 7 to 14  as yet. This massive intervention against the natural rights of the family has been published with the assistance of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which is known as the largest and most important international organization for defense  of the right to homeschooling. In the German media landscape there is no response to the police action that can be heard, while within two days already, several English-language news sites have reported of the case."
Even now it is again thanks to the HSLDA that a wider public has learned of a recently defeated court decision finding that the family court judge had acted wrongly in the late summer of 2013, where he  removed  the parents' custody. At the same time the court ruling called, however, that homeschooling continues to constitute a hazard and children should go to school.  Just how safe state-regulated schools are is demonstrated by  the rampages of Emsdetten, Winnenden and Ansbach in the last ten years. In addition, public schools are  known to be a major threat to the soul and mind of the student, whether it is about the so-called "sex education", religious instruction, or the endless propaganda in politics hour.
Dirk Wunderlich was understandably delighted with his wife to now have  custody of their own children back: "The court said that the removal of our children was not reasonable - only because the authorities had to apply very high fines and  prosecution. But this decision maintains the absurd idea that homeschooling is a danger to the child and an abuse of parental authority."  The Wunderlich family must prepare themselves now for fines in the mid-five figure range and prison sentences. "That should not be tolerated in a civilized country."
Petra Wunderlich expressed her thanks to the HSLDA: "We could not have done without the help of HSLDA. No family can fight against the powerful German state - it's too much, too expensive."  This, of course, and this was noticed only in passing, not only for matters such as homeschooling, but for everything else the respective ruling class does not like.  
Michael Donnelly of the HSLDA expressed his outrage at the behavior of the German state: "imprisonment and fines for homeschooling are outside of what free societies, which respect fundamental human rights, should tolerate. The laws of the German state and the country that allows the ban on home schooling must be changed. Such laws in a leading European democracy threaten not only the rights of tens of thousands of German families, but establish a dangerous example, which other countries may be tempted to copy."
Text: Benedict M. Buerger
image: Private
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Continued in St. Paul: Church of St. John's Gutted and Handed Over to Muslims

Mehmet IV Entering Hagia Sofia 1453

Whether unarmed or well-equipped, march on and fight for the cause of Allah, with your wealth and your persons. - 9:41

Edit: we'd reported on this in early June of this year when it happened.  St. John's was a fairly conservative presence in the Archdiocese.  Now it will be turned into a Mosque, it's cross hacked off its spire, to be replaced by the hateful symbol of Mohamedism.

This is something which should send a chill over those of us who are Europeans, because this is one of those symbolic events that accompanied the Muslim conquest of our cities.

It's unclear what's happened to rererdos, the portion behind and around the altar, but some men from another parish have come to take away the volks altar (Cramner Table), the altar in front of the reredos, but the confessionals have already been thrown into a dumpster.

There are many photos



Link ...   

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Immemorial Mass of All Ages Celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica by SSPX

Edit: as reported by Rorate, permission was granted, but this has been going on for some time, with Society Priests saying Mass at St. Peter's.

The Mass in the Vatican Basilica was celebrated by Fr. de Sivry on August 9, 2014, during this special centennial year of thedies natalis of Saint Pius X.

Italian Police Arrest Terror Suspects



According to media reports, the authorities have charged the identified suspects in the Veneto region, inter alia, of the recruitment of fighters for the "holy war". The detainees are reportedly to non-Italians.

Rome (kath.net/KNA) The Italian police have arrested five Muslims, who are closely related to the jihadist organizations in Syria and Iraq. According to local media reports on Wednesday that authorities have identified suspects in the Veneto region, inter alia, of the recruitment of fighters for the "holy war". The detainees are reportedly non-Italians. They are in the cross hairs of investigators in the course of the nation's increased security measures against militant Islamists. The Italian Interior Ministry fears that Islamist terrorists might deliberately mingle with the large numbers of boat people coming across the Mediterranean.

On Tuesday, the Vatican had denied reports that Islamic terrorists could be planning an attack on Pope Francis. This unfounded, said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, as kath.net reported. The Italian newspaper "Il Tempo" had reported that the terrorist militia fighters "Islamic State" could prepare an attack on the Pope. Citing Israeli sources, their leader, the self-styled "Caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, stated that he had ordered attacks in Europe and in particular against Francis as "the greatest representatives of the Christian Religion" and "supporter of false truth".

(C) 2014 CBA Catholic News Agency. All rights reserved.
  Link to kath.net...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Police Confirm: Fire in Berlin Mosque Was Arson



Berlin's Senator Henkel: "If religious buildings burn in our city, regardless of whether they are churches, synagogues or mosques, then I take that very seriously."

Berlin (kath.net) The fire in the Mevlana Mosque in Berlin two weeks ago was apparently a result arson. A police spokesman explained that a technical defect was ruled out as cause of fire, also negligent arson was considered very unlikely. This was reported in various media. There was no evidence for offenders. A political background could be neither excluded nor confirmed at this time. The state authorities have indicated as kath.net has reported.

The fire broke out on August 12 in an unfinished section of the mosque and caught fire, especially building materials. The mosque facade was heavily blackened. Traces of accelerants were detected.

As of last Saturday Sigmar Gabriel, Minister of Economic Affairs and Vice Chancellor, spoke during his visit to the Mosque of an "assassination" and determined that arson attacks on mosques, synagogues and churches are also "an attack on the center of the society." Even Berlin's Senator of the Interior, Frank Henkel (CDU) said on Tuesday during a visit to the Mevlan Mosque: "If religious buildings burn in our city, regardless of whether they are churches, synagogues or mosques, then I take that very seriously." To mark the event, a protest was staged where undreds of believers prayed on the road. There were also two fires started in mosques in Bielefeld in early August within a week. Link to kath.net... Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com AMDG

Liturgical "Sensibility" of Pope Francis Leads to the Demotion of Cardinal Cañizares

Cardinal Cañizares with Pope Benedict XVI
(Rome / Madrid) It had already been written for a few days. Now the confirmation has been made. Pope Francis today named Archbishop Carlos Osoro of Valencia as the new Archbishop of Madrid. The deposition of Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis was already expected a few weeks after the recent conclave. Now the Argentine Pope is sending him back to Spain as the new Archbishop of Valencia. The decisive factor is not in the move, the in rank is more like a demotion, but a reposting away from Rome.
So, this is the  second dismissal of a prefect of the Roman Curia, which was expected by observers since the late spring of 2013. With the election of a new pope all offices of the Roman Curia are forfeit.  In the course of his staff restructuring of the Curia, Pope Francis removed those two from a total of nine prefects. Their understanding of the Church was the closest to Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Mauro Piacenza was already  replaced as Prefect of the Congregation of Clergy on September 21, 2013. Today, even the delicate department the Holy Liturgy and the Sacraments follows. Delicacy, not least because of questions as to how Pope Francis has exhibited low liturgical sensibility.

Liturgical Abuse for Francis is No Offense? - There is Already the Liturgical Dignity of the Old Rite  

While the Pope previously confessed no connection to criticism the widespread liturgical abuses especially in the West, he had repeatedl incomprehension, yes even a recognized aversion to the traditional Roman Rite, especially against the faithful who adhere to this rite.
That there would never have been a  Motu Proprio under Pope Francis, Summorum Pontificum, with which Pope Benedict XVI. 2007, corrected the liturgical reform of 1969, the imbalance in the innermost core of the faith and gave the traditional Rite far reaching rights of citizenship and equal rights in Church law again in addition to the Novus Ordo, is not doubted in the even more broad environment of the Argentine incumbent.
Cardinal Piacenza and Cardinal Canizares of Pope Franzikus outclassed
Cardinal Piacenza and Cardinal Canizares Whom Pope Francis deposed as prefect of a Roman Congregation
The aversion towards the efforts of his predecessor was already visible during his first public appearance, against attempts in the  Church to reclaim the understanding of the sacred, continues with the deposition of Cardinal Cañizares. A replacement has not yet been made. Traditionally connected circles harbor fears. Among the candidates in the past year most frequently mentioned, there was also Curial Archbishop Piero Marini, the [evil] papal master of ceremonies of John Paul II.

Too Close to the Understanding of the Church of Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Piacenza was connected with the  attempt of Benedict XVI to provide the clergy with  Saint John Mary Vianney, a saint, as a model, who was anchored steadfastly in the traditional churches and religious understanding. A "priest in the pre-Conciliar image", which has been so violently resisted within church,  so violently that the attempt failed.
Cardinal Cañizares was connected with the effort of Benedict XVI.  to strengthen the sacredness of the liturgy and to reinforce this effort mainly by the appreciation of the traditional Rite. Benedict XVI. not only ended the monopoly of the Novus Ordo, he put it  under pressure through the Vetus Ordo. In fact, the papal action bore immediate fruits worldwide. A process that  has been increasingly put to a halt by the election of Pope Francis. Critics have blamed Cardinal Cañizares, of scarcely responding to liturgical abuses in the Novus Ordo.

Lack of Understanding of Liturgical "Restoration"

With personal integrity, but not particularly combative, the cardinal celebrated several times in the traditional form of the Roman Rite, as well as in autumn 2012 on the occasion of the first International Pilgrimage of Tradition to Rome . It was the first time since the reform of the liturgy that it was celebrated at a main altar of St. Peter again in a larger scale Sacrifice of the Mass in the Old Rite.
Cardinal Canizares Celebrated the Old Rite in 2012 in St. Peter's Basilica 
Cardinal Piacenza had just turned 69  at the time of his dismissal. Cardinal Cañizares is 68. Neither the one nor the other cardinals were close to retirement age. Both were, as it is custom of the Church, resigned with melodious and prestigious offices.  However, the key point to the line-up of changes, is the underlying directional decision. Pope Francis wants to correct the pontificate of his predecessor, Benedict XVI not only by gestures but by facts. But  that is why he was ultimately chosen.

Detente with Prime Minister Rajoy?

Antonio Maria Cardinal Rouco Varela, the former Archbishop of Madrid,  is retiring  from office because he has reached the age limit.  As usual under Pope Benedict XVI. he  left him two years longer in office. It was just another year, because Pope Francis wanted to take sufficient time  for this personnel decision. Spain plays a more important role in the Spanish-speaking world, to which Argentina is one,  than other European countries.
Cardinal Rouco Varela was a determined opponent of the socialist Zapatero government and its social policy. Because of his personal weight and as chairman of the Spanish Bishops' Conference he exercised a decisive influence on the appointment of bishops in Spain. Politically, he was close to the right wing of the bourgeois Partido Popular (PP). But that's not currently the acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose search for a  majority would prefer a quiet Church. 
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: 30Days / MiL / Asianews / Le Forum Catholique
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Resignation of Benedict XVI From a "Handicapped Pontificate"

Pope Benedict XVI. and a Ceaseless Multiple
Attacks From Within and Without Handicapped
Pontificat, Which Ended With His Resignation 
(Rome) Cordialiter, which is a blog of  Catholic tradition with a restrained and balanced editorial line, has published a quite credible eyewitness account. Credible in connection with  its evidence about that "disabled pontificate" of Benedict XVI. LIke no pope in recent history,  Benedict XVI. was not attacked from outside, but handicapped by open disobedience from inside.
The description confirms the existence of an apparent dichotomy between tradition and neo-modernism. It's also  visible that besides the so-called "crypto-Lefebvrians", of which the Apostolic Commissioner of battered Franciscans of the Immaculate spoke, there is a strong group of crypto-schismatics there that are in no way limited to those parts of the German, Austrian and Swiss episcopate and their apparati.

On the Resignation of Benedict XVI.

I would guess that I do consider the resignation of Benedict XVI  to be valid. What I am describing today is from  a dear friend who gave me permission to publish the message on the condition that their names not be mentioned.
In the cloistered convent, where she lived, modernist priests often came to propagandize  the sisters, to "aggiornare" [Bringing them "up to date"]. One of these priests asked the nuns to pray that Benedict XVI. resigns. My friend, who preferred to keep her  traditional friendly attitude from these priests, and thus made friends  with  a priest, a leading representative of the modernist movement. He confided to her  quite openly that he and others like him among the clergy and the religious gathered thousands of signatures to urge Pope Benedict XVI. to resign. 
My friend asked the priest what will happen in the event that the Holy Father were to refuse to resign. The Modernist replied that the Pope had already been informed about it: If he does not resign, they would establish a new, separate church of Rome. And it will not be a small church.' According to what was known to him, many Church leaders would be willing to join the new modernist church. The crypto-schismatic clergy also laid emphasis on the finding that they preemptively support had been assured by those already who control some of the leading mass media and the media would promote the new church.
Some time later, on February 11, 2013 Benedict XVI  actually announced his resignation. My friend told me many more details, whose the publication of for several reasons would be unwise.
Now many will think: If things are to be so, then the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. is invalid. Because in order to be valid, it must be done voluntarily and without any compulsion. To me it is still hard to believe that Benedict XVI. could have made such a serious step to make a false resignation leaving the church in the hands of a false pope (regardless of ever being elected in the conclave).
Therefore, I am of the opinion that Benedict XVI., as he saw himself besieged by a flood of conspirators who were willing to schism, the most stressful thing that can happen to a pope, who was already 86 years old, no longer felt the power to effectively govern the Church and to resist the subversion of the modernists, who preferred to abdicate.
Ultimately, he did not renounce his office, because he was put under pressure, otherwise the resignation would be invalid, but because he no longer felt the physical and spiritual strength because of his age, which he considers necessary in order to oppose the modernist movement.

Reason for Withdrawal too Banal For Office and Office Holder?

Cordialiter's argument remains weak on this point, that Benedict XVI. precisely because of the underlying, but noticeable  refusal to follow by  many church leaders could not guarantee that a Pope they desired would emerge from a conclave. The validity of this described also can be due to lack of secure data check difficult to understand why it is easy to brush off or could be initially dismissed even as a belated construct. The good reputation of Cordialiter guarantees sufficient credibility, not to omit any of the facts.
The  nun's description proves in any case, that the spectacular and completely unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. is still something of a mystery and which preoccupy many Catholics. The withdrawal is a serious shadow on the pontificate of this great thinker and prince of the Church who has had his legacy severely damaged. Ultimately, because that he did it himself and thus only official reason seems so banal. Too mundane for this office and this office holders.

Benedict XVI. Year and a Half After Withdrawal of "Extraordinary Mental Vigor"

This fueled speculation which will continue to boil as long as Benedict XVI. is in such good health, demonstrated in how he has held for the second time since his resignation the Schulkreis for his former students and celebrated Holy Mass  for the meeting with his on Sunday. He showed at the same time, in spite of all age-related restriction, to be intellectually and theologically clearly superior to the reigning Pope. Father Stephan Horn, spokesman for the Ratzinger student circle reported on the question to Vatican Radio : "What was it like to celebrate with the Pope Emeritus"
"Wonderful! The joy of the Holy Father, the solemn Holy Mass with an address is how he always does it, the theme of the Gospel and reading. We hope that we can publish this speech one day on our website. He has really preached freshly. This has been shown also in the subsequent meeting that he has worked almost livelier than a year ago. Of course he's a little older, and he feels that it is no longer as easy to walk. But his mental vigor was quite extraordinary."

The "Murder Plot" and the End of the Pontificate

In connection with the Cordialiter report, namely that:  it is also important to recall  the "secure message" which Archbishop Paolo Cardinal Romeo of Palermo and his European travel companions, mostly businessmen, gave in the mid-November 2011 during a trip to the People's Republic of China, where he announced that the pontificate of Benedict XVI. will only last more than one year. Pope Benedict XVI. was informed  by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos in a personal letter  deliberately written  in German language letter about it in January 2012.
The precise details of the end of the pontificate came from Romeos' interlocuters, of which the Colombian Castrillon Hoyos was informed, who had come to the conclusion that there was a murder plot afoot against the German pope. The anonymous note about Romeos' China discussions to Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos was dated 30 December 2011.   The frightening term "murder plot"  was  used by the Colombian cardinal, who had come to the same conclusion, then he wrote explicitly in his letter to Benedict XVI. and the person who brought the letter to the Pope   with the inscription on the envelope: "Strictly confidential". Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, then responded to the letter and content, and was limited to the words: "It seems so incredible that I do not even want to comment on it."

The Pastor Initiatives as Leverage Against Benedict XVI.

The nun told Cordialiter of signatures from clergy, with which the modernists wanted to use to force Benedict XVI.  to resign.  That could have been the Pontificate's interaction with the Pastor Initiatives since 2006, which were initiated in Austria and spread in the following years in many westernized countries. In June 2011, the "Call to Disobedience" followed. That the internal Church confrontation was decisive on this front, it witnessed what was for many observers the   direct rebuke of the rebellious cleric by Benedict XVI,  at the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, 2012, ten months before the announcement of his official resignation. He refused for the world Church to hear the demands of the priest rebels. He took every effort,  to which the Austrian episcopate could not  or or did not want to implement.  Only the "radicality of obedience" is an appropriate requirement for a "real renewal" in the Church, said the leader of the Catholic Church  to the disobedient ones.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Chiesa e Postconcilio
Trans: vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG