Pope Names New Personal Physician --- Fabrizio Soccorsi Will Accompany Him to Cuba

Next foreign trip to Cuba (Francis with Raul Castro in photo).
His new personal physician Fabrizio Soccorsi will
accompany him.

(Rome) Professor Fabrizio Soccorsi, former chief physician  of hepatology at the Roman San Camillo Hospital and advisor to the Department of Health and Hygiene of the Governorate of Vatican City was named by Pope Francis to be his new personal physician. This was announced by the Holy See Press Office.

Fabrizio Soccorsi was born on 2 February 1942 in Rome. After completing his studies in medicine and surgery in 1968 at the University La Sapienza  he began an extensive activity as a physician and lecturer. He was chief hepatologist and director of the Department of Liver Diseases, Digestive System and Nutrition and the Department of Internal Medicine at the San Camillo Hospital in Rome

Soccorsi has published hundreds of scientific papers. He was peritus of the medical advisory board of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In late July, Pope Francis had separated  the former personal physician from his position.

Predecessor remains personal physician of Benedict XVI.

Professor Eneo Polisca remains President of the Medical Advisory Board of the Congregation of Saints and continues as personal physician of Benedict XVI.

Last week, Pope Francis appointed the endocrinologist Professor Alfredo Pontecorvi from the Gemelli University Hospital as the new director of the Department of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City. Thus, the two offices of the papal physician and the Vatican health director are no longer united in one person.  Before Eneo Polisca held this  office,  for more than 30 years before it was Renato Buzzonetti for 30 years, who  also served four popes, Paul VI., John Paul I, John Paul II. Benedict XVI. 

Soccorsi will accompany Pope Francis on his future foreign trips. His first foreign assignment will be the pastoral visit of the Pope in Cuba and in the United States. He will be accompanying the pope also with the anesthesiologist Giampiero Vetturini, who was already number two under Polisca in terms of health of the Pope.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Christian News

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to katholisches...

AMDG

Nablus: Father of 18 Year Old Girl Killed in Arson Attack Succumbs to Burns

Photo of 18 Month Old Child Killed in the Fire

(Jersualem) On Saturday morning, the father of an 18 month old child has died, who herself was killed as a result of the arson attack by Jewish settlers in Nablus. The 32-year-old man died as a result of the severe burns he had suffered the attack. In critical condition are his wife and first-born child of four years.

On July 31st, the House of the  Dawabsha family had been set in fire in Duma near Nablus by Jewish settlers in the occupied territories. The younger child in the family died instantly in the flames (see Palestinian child dies in attack by Jewish settlers in Nablus ). The parents and the elder son were taken to hospital with serious burns.The father, Saad Dawabsha has now succumbed to serious injuries. He suffered second-degree burns all over his body. The condition of his wife and four year old son is still critical.

According to witnesses, Jewish settlers threw firebombs against the family home. On house walls were the slogans "revenge" and "Long live the Messiah."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as "terrorist".

Text: Asianews / Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Asianews

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Francis, the Remarried Divorced and the Media

Pope Francis: General Audience of 5 August, 2015

(Rome) The Pope, who makes the difference. Does he make a difference? That question was raised to Francis not for the first time since August 5, but yet one time more.

Two days ago, Pope Francis addressed the divorced and remarried in his catechesis at the general audience. Actually, he repeated almost verbatim what Pope John Paul II said in his 1981 Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, which was released a year after the Synod of Bishops on the family in 1980. But only almost.

Pope Francis announced the double-Synod of Bishops on the family of 2014/2015,  by pointing out the Synod from 1980 had not dealt with all the challenges that marriage and family are facing today.

Pope John Paul II on November 22, 1981:

"Together with the Synod, I would like to exhort the shepherds and the whole community of believers to  cordially assist the divorced in solicitous love, so that they do not consider themselves separated from the Church, since they can participate as baptized persons in their lives, and are even obliged to. They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to pray regularly, to support the community in their works of charity and initiatives to promote justice, to educate their children in the Christian faith and to cultivate the spirit and the works of penance  in order to call down God's grace from day to day. The Church is to pray for them, encourage them, to show them as a compassionate mother and so strengthen them in faith and in hope."

Pope Francis said on August 5, 2015:

"These people are not excommunicated: You are not excommunicated! And are absolutely not to be treated as such: You are always a part of the Church. [...] I earnestly call upon pastors and the whole community of the faithful to help the divorced, and with solicitous care to make sure that they do not consider themselves as separated from the Church, for as baptized persons they can, and indeed must, share in her life.”

Identical statements with some differences

The two statements are almost identical with a few differences. "Francis exchanged a word and remained silent to a certain point," said the Vatican expert Sandro Magister.

Instead of the words "not separated" from the Church, Francis said that the divorced and remarried are "not excommunicated."

Pope John Paul II continued in Familiaris Consortio with the words: "However, the Church reaffirms its argument based on the Scriptures  in practice not to allow divorced and remarried to the Eucharistic banquet. They can not be authorized because their state of life and their living conditions are in contradiction to that objective covenant of love between Christ and the Church, which the Eucharist makes visible and present. In addition, there is a special reason of pastoral nature: admitting such people to the Eucharist would cause errors and confusion among the faithful concerning the Church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage."

While John Paul II. clearly affirmed that divorced and remarried are not admitted to Communion, Francis remained silent on this point.

The silence makes (calculated or not?) the difference

The Argentine canon lawyer José Durant Mendioroz confirmed in his analysis of the papal speech that Francis gave  on August 5, just to the constant teaching of the Roman Church (to see Durant Mendioroz Synod of Bishops - An Argentine Lawyer shows the Pope on What's Going On )

In any case the omission makes the big difference. The silence made for a "media bomb". Mass media claimed that the Pope had cancelled the excommunication of the divorced and remarried  and approved allowing them to receive sacramental Communion.

Once again the question of the "hermeneutics" of the Pope's words will be raised: How are statements of the Pope to be interpreted? On the return flight from Paraguay to Rome Francis introduced the journalists themselves to the "hermeneutics" of his words  (see "Beatification" Marxist Jesuits by Pope Francis ). A real clarification wasn't forthcoming. So the question remains affirmed whether the media reaction was a calculated effect or not.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

It Should Have Been the Largest Bloodbath of Christians -- Jihadist Shoots Himself in the Foot

Massacre of Christians Prevented in France

(Paris) He wanted to inflict the biggest massacre on Christians in France. The attack was held on Sunday,  April 19. Sid Ahmed Ghlam stood ready, armed with a Kalashnikov to penetrate during the Sunday Mass in the Catholic Church of Villejuif. His goal: to kill hundreds of Christians. Then the jihadist accidentally shot  himself in the foot ...

On April 19,  an emergency call center was contacted.  A man asked for help. "I'm outdoors. I've been shot in the foot," the duty officer in the emergency center carefully asked for a clarification:  "Shot in the foot! With a gun? "

Bombers had Chosen Two Churches in Villejuif Near Paris

It is hard to imagine what would happen to would not undermine the Islamic terrorists Sid Ahmed Ghlam the misfortune.The 24 year old Muslim Sid Ahmed Ghlam comes from Algeria and was planning on that Sunday, April 19, 2015 to storm  the Catholic church Sainte Therese of Villejuif in Val de Marne south of Paris. He had two chosen among the churches of Villejuif, Saint Therese and Saint Cyr-Sainte Julitte. He wanted to cause a bloodbath like the Islamist militia Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabaab in Kenya. Wanted, with the difference that Sid Ahmed Ghlam would wreak carnage in the middle of Europe and therefore attract a lot more attention. He named his assassination target even after his arrest.

Three months after the "prevented" assassination   the daily newspaper Le Monde reported the background.

As Sid Ahmed Ghlam was brought bleeding from an ambulance to the hospital, arrived and police. Then it happened in quick succession. The police followed the trail of blood and went to his car. In the vehicle they found a Kalashnikov, two pistols, a bulletproof vest and written evidence of a planned assassination, including accurate location information to the two churches of Villejuif.

Murder of young mother Aurelie Chatelain

He is accused of the murder of 32 year old Aurelie Chatelain, mother of a five year-old daughter. Chatelain had been shot and then set on fire in her car. When the police found the charred body, initially a robbery was suspected.  Meanwhile, the investigators believe that Chatelain had to die because Ghlam mistook her for a police officer in plain clothes.

Ghlam claims meanwhile, to have nothing to do with the murder of Chatelain. He confirmed that an attack had been planned at the church, but wanted another person present at the scene to commit,  which was prevented. He had suffered the gunshot wound.

When the police carried out a house search at the home  address of Ghlam, they found three Kalashnikovs and other bulletproof vests. Who had armed him? According to Le Monde, Sid Ahmed Ghlam was "remote controlled from Syria" to the last detail. His direct contact man was a French citizen of Toulouse, who had converted to Islam and has joined the battle of the Islamic State (IS) in 2014 in Syria. Previously, he was incarcerated in France five years in prison for supporting terrorism. Ghlam also maintained contacts with Mohammed Merah,  Islamic terrorist, who committed three separate attacks in Toulouse and Montauban on March 2012 in which three French soldiers, a Jewish rabbi, whose two children and the daughter of the Jewish headmaster were killed. Another soldier survived, seriously injured, as well as a 17 year old Jewish student. On March 22, the Islamist bomber was located ​​and killed.

Islamist network in Europe: contacts with assassins of Paris, Toulouse, Montauban and Nice

2013/2014 Ghlam lived in Reims. His apartment was only a few meters away from that of  Saïd Kouachi, one of the two bombers to the editors of Charlie Hebdo.

In addition to handlers in the Middle East  three additional personas have helped Sid Ghlam in opbtaining  the arsenal.  One of them, Rabah R., is known  to the French secret service as an "old acquaintance". Several times he was questioned in connection with the Islamic terrorism. The other two men were not yet known to the security forces. As it turned out, they were close to Moussa Coulibaly who had attacked three French soldiers last February in Nice, and had contacts with a Moroccan jihadist group.

In the home of Sid Ahmed Ghlam the police discovered documents proving connections to other people in the Islamist network. Sid Ahmed Ghlam is just one of the ticking time bombs who is preparing, under  the protection of Europe's legal and social order, a  cathartic terror act. The attack on the church in Villejuif should have caused many more deaths than the assassination of the editor of the satirical leftist weekly Charlie Hebdo. At the church selected by Ghlam, 300 people participate in Holy Mass every Sunday.

In  2001, he came for the first time with his family to France. In 2003 he returned to Algeria. After finishing school, he moved in 2010 in the wake of "family reunification," all the way to France.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Tempi

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Lombardi's Clarification on the "Mouth of Truth"

The famous photo of Jorge Mario Bergoglio:
the young man behind him is his Press Speaker, Federico Wals

(Rome) Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi SJ responded with a letter to Vaticanist Sandro Magister  on his using  Lombardi's statements in the August issue of National Geographic about Pope Francis. Statements that show a very different pope, other than that which is generally celebrated (see The "Mouth of Truth" - Vatican Spokesman Lombardi on Pope Francis " ).

The text of Father Lombardi's letter with its "clarifications"  are an "interesting and enlightening enrichment" of the article, says Magister.

Dear Dr. Magister,

Referring to your article, which reproduces some of my statements that have been published in the report on Pope Francis from National Geographic, I would like to make some clarifications.

To be honest, I was a little surprised at the approach of the National Geographic. We have been standing for them for months for their pictures, and apart from a first conversation a few months ago, in which they explained what they wanted to do, they've never asked me anything about the Pope. Now, however, they are using quite extensively what Federico Wals reported about me, a person who is located in Buenos Aires and I have seen only briefly many years ago [the picture shows Wals behind the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, whose press secretary he was, note, Sandro Magister].

A - "confused" - jocular remark I might have said with a smile at some point (if I had said anything) was certainly always accompanied by reflections on the learning phase that I went through, as it happened, as I   should myself behave in the new situation, about which I would say at the same time that it was an extremely interesting situation that marked an extraordinarily positive dynamic.

Pope Francis in National Geographic

In addition, for example, is what I said about the nature of the two popes at specific audiences, I would say, was not balanced. It is true that I have spoken always and without problems, in different places, on this difference, but always so that I emphasized the exceptional "Charisma" in the encounter of Francis with other people and his interest in this is distinguished in the conversation while the Secretary of State is left to the deepening of specific and technical issues.

Finally, the remark about the relation between the  Secretariat of State and the Economic Secretariat, since the latter was constituted only recently and relations were only to be defined (there were no statutes, etc.), is something I would obviously  talk differently  about   today. Although I speak of "spontaneity" in connection with Pope Francis,  I do not mean a lack of reflection, but rather the honest and transparent expression of an inner attitude.

In short, I do not feel very comfortable when a visitor a long time ago from Buenos Aires, Wals, when words said to him are picked up by an editor of National Geographic and brought to an audience, and moreover also by you. But patience, as it happens sometimes, is not completely understood.

Sincerely

Federico Lombardi

Introduction / translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Settimo Cielo

The Hidden Catholics of Tibet

A nomad in Tibet

(Hong Kong)  "In the middle of Tibet, in areas away from the main roads, which are often accessible only by foot, Tibetan Catholics have preserved their faith, even though they no longer have a priest for more than 50 years." The Vatican expert Marco Tosatti is concerned in an article with the destiny of a forgotten Catholic community on the "roof of the world." Tibet, from a European perspective, is a land of mystery and unfulfilled longings, known mainly because of the Himalayas with the highest mountain peaks in the world and the seemingly mysterious Lamaist Buddhism. But Tibet also has a Christian history that is as old as the Buddhist.

Buddhism arrived in the 6th century to Tibet for the first time and started there in the centuries that followed spread. Christianity arrived at the same time, so 1,500 years ago for the first time in the barren highlands, as the historian of religion Philip Jenkins confirms. It was the Church of the East of the Nestorian Christians who brought the gospel even then to China. In 780 Timothy, the Catholicos of the Church of the East, wrote as "the Holy Spirit has anointed a metropolitan for the Turks in those days, and we are preparing the ordination of another for the Tibetans."

Catholic Villages in the Himalayas - Secret Catholics in Japan

The plant of the Christian mission was pulled over the past fifteen hundred years in China and in Tibet again and again by political upheaval. The situation today of Tibetan Catholics in their survival in the isolation recalls that of the Japanese Catholics who survived almost 300 years from the 16th to 19th centuries in the underground, and without a priest, completely hidden.

The existence of hidden Tibetan Catholics became famous recently by the French travel writer Constantin de Slizewicz who has  lived in the PRC for several years. In Les peuples oubliés du Tibet (The Forgotten People of Tibet), he reports on the middle location in the Himalayan village Baihanluo. It can be reached by mule tracks only on foot or in the saddle of a pack animal. In Baihanluo is a church in the middle of Tibet. It is made ​​of wood and dates from the late 19th century. It was built by Catholic missionaries of Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP). The Society of  Foreign Missions of Paris  was one of the 17th century missionary orders, to whom the evangelization of Tibet had been entrusted. The French Indochina missionaries followed the course of the valleys up out into the highlands of Tibet and founded "Persian Missions", as Mission offices in particularly dangerous and wild areas were described.

In 1949  the Communist Party came to rule  China, which was soon followed by the invasion of Tibet. As already several times in China and Tibet's history all foreign missionaries were expelled or murdered by the new rulers. The local Christians had to submit  and usually renounce their faith, if they wanted to stay alive. The Communists did not act differently.

The secret hope that one day the priests will come back

The Catholic Church of Bainhanluo

"The churches were closed or converted into  storehouses or schools. The Christians had no right  to carry religious articles. They were threatened with the arrest," writes de Slizewicz. Those who had a leadership role among Christians, was persecuted and interned in concentration camps called laogai, where they had to perform forced labor.

Some areas that are particularly isolated and were far away from the political centers, escaped the wave of persecution. Some remote villages even preserved their own churches. Catholics no longer have their priests. In this regard, the Communists had done a great job with their hunt. For half a century the Catholics persevered without priests.  They gather in their churches for prayer, as taught to them by the French missionaries and long for the times when they had a priest.

Despite the severe persecution, the Catholic faith has survived in the rural population in the underground. And in spite of the radical break that the communist regime imposed upon Catholics 50 years ago, by taking  all their priests from them, "the Tibetans felt drawn closer to  God" as de Slizewicz reported. "They have dedicated their lives to the faith. These Tibetans converted to Catholicism do not do it as half-baked. In nearly 50 years without a priest and sacraments, they have not forgotten a word of what they were taught by the missionaries in the last century." And they hope that one day a priest will come back to them.

They maintain the graves of the missionaries - In the nativity scene are a yak and mule

A Catholic Church in Tibetan Yunnan

In the most remote villages they cultivate with devotion the tombs of the first French missionaries, they have never ceased to pray, celebrate Easter and Christmas, the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Instead ox and ass they put a Yak and a female mule in the nativity scene. Thus they  have not forgotten the Latin and pray the Our Father in the Church language of Rome.

In Baihanluo which is situated in the midst of the highest mountains in the world on a ledge,  among the 400-500 people  in the Catholic village community of de Slizewicz  there still lives a vivid memory of Brother Zacharias, a catechist and lay missionary from the people of the Lahu, who live in the mountains of Yunnan  and speak a Sino-Tibetan language.  Zacharias was in his mid-40s when the Communists took power. Before the persecution he fled to Nationalist China, then Formosa, now Taiwan. When he retired, he wanted to return and resume his job as a catechist at their homeland. He slipped in to the hidden Catholics of Tibet, among whom he taught and died ten years ago at the age of one hundred years. "Zacharias was in all the churches pouring holy water from Lourdes in the water," said the residents. Lourdes and the Marian apparitions  were well known among them. "If someone fell ill, he was given a drop of it, and three days later he was well again."

In addition to the hidden villages of Catholics there are is also a vibrant underground Church in Tibet 

Tibetan Catholics at Communion

In the outlying churches the damp books left behind by French missionaries are still carried. Among them are prayer books in the Tibetan language, which were printed in the late 19th century in Hong Kong.  The mountain Catholics are supsicious of  the outside world. Even with the underground Church loyal to Rome in the more developed areas of Tibet they have no contact.

As Deng Xiaoping, Mao's successor granted opening in the state and party leadership,  previously destroyed churches were rebuilt in some places, as in Zhongding, a more accessible valley of Tibet. There  Annet Génestier buried, a French missionary of the Puy de Dome, is buried, who died in 1937 in Zhongding. Catholics maintain his fife as a souvenir of his arduous missionary journeys through Tibet. Today there is the 39-year-old Chinese priest Francis Han Sheng.  Because of state paternalism, all Catholics in the regime are forced to obey the  Patriotic Association, there are besides  the hidden Catholic villages in Tibet, also a lively underground Church true to Rome. Since of the Chinese occupation of Tibet,  Catholic association close to the regime is irrelevant in the highlands.

Francis Hang Sheng says that there are more than 10,000 Catholics in Tibet. There is a lack especially of priests and resources. He supervises 16 churches in the area, celebrates  Holy Mass,  offers the sacraments and  strengthens the faithful.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican Insider / Robert Hutchinson / China Daily News (screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

AMDG

Father Lombardi Calls Pope's Public Statements, "Confusing"

Edit: Sandro Magister has commented on an interview which appeared in National Geographic, of the Pope's mouthpiece, Father Lombardi, wherein the Vatican's Press Secretary confides some interesting views about the Holy Father's style, describing it as "confusing".

Father Lombardi also demystifies Pope Francis’s strategy in the field of geopolitics.

He makes the comparison between what Benedict XVI would tell him after a meeting with this or that world leader, to allow him to summarize the contents of the conversation in a statement, and what Pope Francis tells him today:
“It was incredible. Benedict was so clear. He would say: ‘We have spoken about these things, I agree with these points, I would argue against these other points, the objective of our next meeting will be this’ – two minutes and I’m totally clear about what the contents were. With Francis: ‘This is a wise man; he has had these interesting experiences.’ Diplomacy for Francis is not so much about strategy but instead: ‘I have met this person, we now have a personal relation, let us now do good for the people and for the Church.’”

Father Lombardi later writes Sandro Magister asking for a retraction. [Later]

 H/t: Katholisches... AMDG

Famed Shaolin Temple Surrounded by Charges of Scandal

Beijing (AsiaNews) – China’s controversial Buddhist monk, who earned himself the nickname of “CEO monk” after being accused of running the Shaolin Temple like a business, has been accused by a former monk of fathering illegitimate children, stealing monastery funds for his lover, acting with little religious disposition and showing no spirituality.

The monastery has denied all the allegations and has reported Shi Zhengyi (meaning, "interpreting justice" in Chinese) to the police for "fabricated and malicious insults and libel,” according to a statement on its website. However, many want the authorities to investigate the affair.

Shi Zhengyi posted allegations online saying that Shi was an “embezzler and womaniser” with illegitimate children, that he had been kicked out of the monastery in the late 1980s following accusations of theft made by his own master.

Asianews.it...

"No Compromises of the Church's Teaching" -- Cardinal Müller on the Bishops' Synod, SSPX, Medjugorje and Liberation Theology

(Rome) There will be "no compromise of the Church's teaching" in the Bishops' Synod this autumn. This was affirmed  by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the CDF. It is meant to seek pastoral ways to better integrate people in difficult situations in the community. While there is, says the Cardinal, no "substantial news" regarding  the SSPX, there would be a decision to Medjugorje in the fall.  Katholisch.de, the media portal of the German Bishops' Conference published an  an interview with the Cardinal.

Renewal and Deepening of  Marriage Preparation Necessary

Overlooking the Synod of Bishops on marriage and family  the German cardinal stressed that the Church must help "the people, even Catholics, ...to re-understand what the point is to marry and so, also publicly, to bind a person." While the discussion is so far turned mainly to the "failure" of marriages, Cardinal Müller stressed the need for "a renewal and deepening" of marriage preparation.

The cardinal also confirmed that the "ordinary general assembly" of the CDF will deal this "autumn" with Medjugorje: "The opinion of the Congregation will be  submitted  to the Holy Father for a further decision."

Various encounters with SSPX , "which should enhance mutual trust"

When asked whether the "unification efforts were suspended or postponed," since "recently" the  Priestly Society of St. Pius X had "become noticeably quiet," said Cardinal Müller that there was  "no substantial news in this issue." "The Holy Father wants us to keep at it: with 'determination and patience.'" In the "recent months", there were "encounters of various kinds, which should enhance mutual trust." "A prerequisite for a full reconciliation" said the Cardinal again, "is the signing of a doctrinal preamble, to ensure full compliance in the essential matters of faith." The Prefect's response   suggests that this singing the Preamble of 2012 is not required..

The recent trip to Latin America by Pope Francis has shown "that the Church must use an authentic liberation theology." He, Müller, has worked "for many years in accordance with the instruction of the Congregation" which the Marxist liberation theology was condemned in the 1980s, "for such a theology that is not aligned ideologically, but interested in the good of man and society." The election of Pope Francis on the Chair of Peter is "providential" because the majority of Catholics today live in Latin America. "Pope Francis has strengthened the believers  on his journey from the Gospel and encouraged and called the peoples there to  a peaceful and equitable coexistence. This is an order of the day," said Müller.

"I have Totally Committed my Life in Fidelity to the Pope"

When asked about his statement, there is a need to " theologically restructure" the pontificate of Pope Francis, the cardinal affirmed that "the specific task of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. . It has to promote the faith and morals throughout the Catholic Church on behalf of the Pope and protect his personal relationship with the reigning pope." Cardinal Müller said: "Personally,  I have totally committed my entire life in loyalty to the Pope."

Addressing eco-Encyclical Laudato Si, Müller said, that he is "very grateful for the encyclical" to the Pope. The document had a "very strong social-ethical component" and leads from "the tradition of the social encyclicals."  It "seems" to him that the Pope  proposed, "to open the eyes of all people of good will to the problem of environmental and human ecology and promote dialogue with each other  at all levels."

About the controversial issues is the allowance of remarried divorcees to Communion and the acceptance of homosexuality, with which the Synod of Bishops will deal next October, Cardinal Müller said: "Here the Synod faces the challenge to find pastoral ways of greater integration in the community, without compromising the Word of Jesus and the Church's teaching based on it. The family is irreplaceable importance for the future of the Church and of society. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: katholisch.de (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

When a Bishop Cites Uncomfortable Passages from the Old Testament

Bishop Huonder has published his presentation at the "Joy of Faith" Congress - presentation of the bishop as a video on kathTube

Fulda (kath.net)  The Bishop of Chur Vitus Huonder has published an opinion on the distorted media reports on Monday that arose during his lecture at the congress "Joy of Faith" last Friday: Kath.net documented the opinion of the Bishop of Chur from today: I am sorry if my 50  minute lecture in Fulda on 2 August 2015 which deals with the biblical basis for marriage and family, was occasionally understood as a reduction of homosexual people in the media. It was not meant for that. I quoted in the  the lecture several uncomfortable passages from the Old Testament that affect generally the marriage, sexuality or family.

I want to clarify that I have no desire to in any way diminish homosexual people with the presentation, whose main theme is the marriage from a Christian perspective,  and that I, when it comes to homosexuality, quote what is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church also in the annotations Lecture:  

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, [Cf.Gen 19, 1-29; Rom 1.24 to 27; 1 Cor 6,10; 1 Tim 1,10.]141  That the Church tradition has always declared that "the homosexual acts are wrong in themselves" (CDF, ​​explanation. "Persona humana" 8). They violate the natural law, because the transmission of life is excluded the sexual. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.  They should not approved in any case.


 2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

These words from the Catechism are the basis of the pastoral charity also towards people sensitive to homosexuality  who I have emphasized in the lecture in Fulda and in the unity of faith, apply to all of our Church pastors.

 Presentation of the Bishop of Fulda in video

Link to kath.net...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Vatican Observatory on Kepler-452b: "Forms of Intelligent Life Possible"

Director of the Vatican Observatory:  Extraterrestrial life is
"conceivable"

(Rome) for the director of the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana), Father José Gabriel Funes SJ, thinks there there may be "a form of intelligent life" on the newly discovered extrasolar planets Kepler-452b. 

The scientists of NASA disovered planet Kepler-452b with the space telescope Kepler discovered which is regarded as Earths "twin planet," because it is circling at a similar distance to a Sun-like star, Kepler-452. In Kepler-452b there could be water and thus life, which would result in many questions, says the Jesuit who succeeded his confrere Father George Coyne who has directed the Vatican Observatory since 2006.

The 1578 basic set Specola Vaticana is the oldest now active astronomical research and educational institution in the world. The popes have entrusted its direction to the Jesuits.

"Creative freedom of God has no limits"

The detailed study of Kepler-452b is taking place, above all at a removal of 1,400 light years from Earth. It's a distance that can not be overcome with the current level of technology. For the discussion about the relationship of faith-reason, this is not a problem, says Father Funes. On the planet, "there could be life and maybe even a form of intelligent life" even if he does not believe that "we will  find Mister Spock there."

2008, the Director of the said Specola Vaticana the Osservatore Romano that the "possible existence of extraterrestrial intelligence does not contradict the Church's teaching". God's "creative freedom"  has set "no limits." He speculated that alien life forms may have "remained free of original sin in perfect friendship with their Creator".

The doctorate astronomer Father Jose Gabriel Funes comes from Argentina. He received his Doctorate at the University of Padua in Italy. In Argentina he studied philosophy and in Rome theology at the Jesuit Gregorian University. In 1995 he was ordained a priest and 2000 a research associate of the Vatican Observatory, which he has headed from 2006. The research institutes of the Specola are today, because of light pollution, in the Arizona desert.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Infovaticana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches..

AMDG

The Dubious Foundation of Kasper's Theology -- Friederich Schelling and The Bishops' Synod

Cardinal Kasper and the foundation of his theoloical
thinking.

(Rome) Don Antonio Livi, the former dean of the Faculty of Arts of the Pontifical Lateran University is concerned with the "dubious basis of Kasper's proposal" ( Disputationes Theologicae ) on the divorced and remarried for the Synod of Bishops on the family in October. Pope Francis opened a games room for German Cardinal Walter Kasper to attack the  teaching and practice of the Church  by attempting to replace it with a new theology. It is a basis enough to illuminate the fundamentals of Cardinal Kasper's theology. 

The first part of Don Antonio Livi's analysis was published on the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, to which  Pope Francis belongs, in Disputationes Theologicae entitled "The Eucharist Kasper."

In addition to the danger of profaning the Sacrament of Penance, "we stand before the final attack of Gnostic-Masonic thinking against the Church of Christ", says Disputationes Theologicae . Don Livi is concerned with the implications of the conflict, by exposing the "Eucharistic theology" behind the Kasper-Propsal.

Kasper's writings are "not very" original, suffering from an "obvious lack of proper theological methodology"

Antonio Livi's "first consideration" was to "primarily ecclesiologically and pastorally" find that Kasper's theological creativity shows  "a lack of proper theological methodology evident in them." His theses "rarely" have original features, as Kasper is "content to repeat what was already represented his teachers, especially Karl Rahner."

"In every single one of the theses  advocated by Kasper" there is a lack, viewed from an epistemological point of view,  of "that epistemic consistency indicated by true theology." Kasper's "theological research are not hypotheses (and also don't raise the claim) of offering a scientific interpretation  of the Church through  the Holy Scriptures, the dogmatic doctrines, liturgy and faith." They were "rather an ambiguous expression of a religious philosophy, an expression with which I refer to those arbitrary interpretations of Christianity's own religious terms by the major systems of historicizing idealism like that  Hegel and Schelling brought forth in the 19th century."  Of these systems of thought,  "that are epistemologically, purely philosophical, primarily in the Lutheran milieu in which they have arisen, can be regarded  theologically, to have affected many Catholic theologians including Walter Kasper in the 20th century whose formation was carried out by those at the Tübingen School, as he complacently writes in one of his early works. They have launched "a renewal of theology and of the entire German Catholicism"  in the encounter with Schelling and Hegel, according to Kasper in his book on the absolute in history. Philosophy and Theology of History in the Later Philosophy of Schelling, Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz, 1965.

Kasper's "Throwback to the ideological positions of theologians condemned by the Holy See in the 19th century"

The so-called "encounter with Schelling and Hegel" was believed by the theologians of the Tübingen School as necessary to "renew" all the "conciliar" theology and with the Church, which is in fact an obscure throwback to the ideological positions that theologians (not coincidentally also German), who were sentenced in the 19th century by the Holy See because of the application  of Hegel's and Schelling's  categories of idealism to theology ".

"The fact that in the 20th century Catholic scholars wanted a struggle against the metaphysical tradition in theology through the systematic adoption of a religious philosophy conflict that was developed in the Lutheran world and always criticized the Catholic, can have no other plausible explanation than in their psychological dependence on the Lutheran theologians, whose hegemony in German culture has always been absolute (Consider that  even Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel emerged and remained within the  Lutheran  religious culture). "Between Hegel and Schelling"  Kasper preferred latter, whom he "called, 'the solitary Great' " ¹ , and "from the Gnostic character of his philosophical and religious studies, showed himself intrigued without feeling even any embarrassment because of their clearly pantheistic result.".

Kasper's picking up "specifically Schelling's themes" recalls the analogous methodical decision of another German Catholic theologian, that of Klaus Hemmerle, in whose school Piero Coda has also been formed. This operates as  a "theological method that is radically inconsistent with that of the true theology".

Kasper's Summary of Schelling "a meaningless accumulation of words"

Kasper  "seems to unreservedly want to replace  the inner-worldly premises of the philosophical analysis of the Christian faith with Schelling". In his words, "with whom he is convinced to renew the Catholic theology based on these assumptions,' you can clearly perceive that it lacks that critical sense, the necessary prerequisite of a scientific research, which is why his summary of the religious philosophy of Schelling is a meaningless accumulation of words: "Schelling summarizes namely the relationship between natural and supernatural is not static-metaphysical-over time, but dynamic and historical. The essence of  Christian revelation is just this that it is history. " ²

"What does it mean that the Christian revelation is essentially 'history'? The history of what, history by whom? Is the history of men (what Kasper calls nature) in relation to the action of God (the supernatural)' to understand)? "In this case, said Livi, it was about the theological concept of "salvation history", the salvific Initiative of God, Creator and Redeemer, who was revealed by God Himself to man, first through the prophets, then definitely by the Incarnation of the Word.  "But that can not be Kasper's understanding, because that would correspond to all the traditional theological doctrine which is rejected according to Kasper  but, since it implies a 'static-metaphysical-timeless' way,  'to conceive the relationship between natural and supernatural,'" says Livi. Kasper had admitted "(unconsciously) the distinction between the world (creation) and God (the Creator)" where God can not be equated with the "history", "unless you would ultimately exclude God from theological discourse, and only talk of  the world and its affairs, even when it comes to the religious life and the Church. But that is what Kasper says, as will be shown. "

In a Worldly Ecclesiology there for the Eucharistic mystery not theological place more

"The frequent changes of theological propositions that have characterized the scientific and journalistic work Kaspers' leave, remember that" so much a viable proposal for the interpretation of the dogma of the "ultimate purpose" of his work is driven by the desire of its salvific implementation not in the lives of believers, but the urge to impose public opinion as a leading figure of the progressive wing of contemporary theology, especially in the context of ecumenism, thus the 'dialogue' with the Protestants, overlooking ritual and doctrine for an 'approach' between them and the Catholic Church."

"In any case," Kasper's  constant appeals for "reforms" in the Church - "whether institutional, liturgical, pastoral reforms - miss any necessary relation to the constitutive 'form' of the Church as a divine institution.'" That is clear "from the devaluation of the specifically theological principles of ecclesiology, the first place to the express recognition of the divine nature of Christ as the Incarnate Word,  that the he founded the Church to continue his salvific mission through instructing the faithful preaching of the supernatural mysteries and of sanctifying grace the sacraments."

"The specific theological principles of ecclesiology had been linked in the years before the Council to another theologian of the 20th century, the Swiss Charles Journet, who confirmed  the Christological dogma (and also the Marian)", in his treatise L'Eglise du Verbe incarné ³ whose doctrine gets to be seen for the most part in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, especially in the eighth chapter, where the Council speaks of Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church. ⁴

The anti-metaphysical struggle of the "conciliar theologian" Kasper

Kasper, who as a "counciliar theologian" presents himself, however, ignoring systematically the specific theological concepts of ecclesiology, but he claimed the Catholic faith of the "forms and formula" to "clean", even though they have just been to the effect solemnly confirmed by the Second Vatican Council, because these forms and formulas' ensure the supernatural (transcendent) character of the divine reality and the worship that pays the Church of Christ, who is God, the eternal Word, 'Who became flesh' in time and truly present in the Eucharist, as it justifies the devotion to Mary, the Mother of God is recognized as since it is true Mother of Christ, who is God. ⁵

The "struggle for the abolition of the theological concepts with a metaphysical 'taste' that is claimed to be purely pastoral needs (the usual requirement, that  the people of today are allegedly adverse to incomprehensible and unacceptable language), is aimed in reality at the elimination of all basic principles from Catholic ecclesiology starting with the Annunciation, by subjecting them to a systematic, rationalistic criticism, beginning with the phrase, 'Word made ​​flesh.'" Kasper had this reduced this notion in his famous work "Jesus the Christ" ⁶ to immanent terms, outlining it by "his anti-metaphysical" Christology. "In reality," it was dealing with a reformulation of Christian dogma in the sense of the religious philosophy of Schelling. In this way of thinking is the self-revelation of God, Christ, no longer as a mediator between God and men ⁷believed and worshiped, but reduced to a historical manifestation of the "economic" Trinity. ⁸

Kasper is unable to emancipate himself from Schelling - denial of the divinity of Jesus Christ

"Kasper is unable to emancipate himself from Schelling's revelation philosophy, which, however, flourished in the same German environment as Romano Guardini ⁹, and so he went off track as a Catholic theologian in an absurd work of deconstruction of the traditional Christological dogma. Even the historical evidence of Christ's divinity, whose intention  was to prove his omnipotence  and so to support the faith of his disciples, are subjected by Kasper to  doubt," and finally  "in order to deny what they really are, namely the empirical evidence of divine intervention." "From the implicit denial of the divinity of Christ occurs because the persistent use of the expression Kasper uses, 'God of Jesus Christ', as well as the title of one of his works is (The God of Jesus Christ), and God by separating the name from the name Christ semantically, implies the denial of the divinity of Jesus. " ¹⁰

"In fact, Kasper belongs entirely to those ideological current, which was headed by Hans Küng and Karl Rahner, and understands theology as anthropology, by recommending the Church, not so much from God, but to speak of the people. ¹¹  In accordance with this precise speculative orientation, Kasper puts aside the discourse on the dual nature of Christ, the eternal Word,   and reduces Christology to a phenomenological discourse on the conscience of Jesus, as a person who speaks of God,'" said Don Antonio Livi, who was from 2002 to his retirement in 2008, Dean of the Faculty of Arts of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

Introduction / translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Disputationes Theologicae

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholishes...

AMDG

Exorcism by Helicopter

(Rome) An exorcism was conducted from a helicopter over an entire site. The unusual event took place in Italy.This evil should be "expelled" from the region. In the town of Castellammare di Stabia, several churches and religious representations were profaned, destroyed and graves were desecrated.

"Satan has taken over the place", say the media of unrest that spreads in the population. Castellammare di Stabia is located in the Gulf of Naples, near the town of the same name. With its nearly 65,000 inhabitants, Castellammare di Stabia is famous for the large yards and the beaches with the picture-postcard view of Mount Vesuvius.

Broken Tombs, Upside Down Crosses Were Cause for Concern

Exorcism of Castellammare di Stabia

Broken tombs, upside-down crosses and destroyed statues of Mary were not only cause for discussion in the small town, but also for growing concern. "These acts of evil put the presence of the devil near" and "show that  devil worshipers are working their mischief in the city," said Info Vaticana, quoting residents of the southern Italian city.

For this reason, they asked a priest whose identity is kept secret, to liberate Castellammare di Stabia  from evil. Satan was "possessing the place," which is why only an exorcism could return peace and quiet again. A group of faithful contacted a priest who asked not publicize his name publicly.

He was provided a helicopter, he carried  an exorcism from from the air directly above the place. The aim was "to  liberate the place from evil," to clean the sins of the people and call down blessings upon Castellammare di Stabia".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Infovaticana / Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches..

AMDG