[Suddeutsche] At 8 pm, the Swiss Guards closed the gates of the Pope's summer palace in Castel Gandolfo. Then they left their posts. So they demonstrated on 28 February 2013 that Benedict XVI was now Supreme Pontiff emeritus, a Pope retired. Benedict retired to a convent in the Vatican and vowed to continue to live like a monk and leave the field to the successor.
Benedict however cracks open the doors again this Friday. It is then a book of conversations that the journalist Peter Seewald has had with the Pope appears in Germany and many other countries. The result was a mixture of autobiography, last testament and written defence. Therein Joseph Ratzinger tries to explain himself and his pontificate to the world.
The fine balance awaits for each of his words
Now the resignation of a pope is a tricky thing, because the old pontiff could contradict the new one. The history is rich with antipopes and schisms. According Benedict has lived in a reserve style since that February evening. If he talks about the strengths and weaknesses of his pontificate, cliques, religious doubts and his successor Francis, it is a delicate matter. The fine balance awaits for each of his words.
Here, the book is easy in style and anecdotes. The reader learns that the young theology professor Ratzinger often played "Ludo”, was blackened as a heretic and like "carousing" during the Second Vatican Council in Trastevere. Other passages are significant. He tells how much his election as Pope burdened him. However, he did know precisely, as a former prefect of the CDF, the dark side of the Church. Paedophile priests, opaque finances and corruption were the "dirt" in the church which he wanted to eliminate. But they were persistent. "Of course I wanted to do more than I could." After all, he had sacked hundreds paedophile priests and smashed a homosexual old boy network in the Vatican. "Whether that has formed again, I do not know."
Pope Francis: Blessing of a representation of Our Lady of Aparecida with a hint of political engagement
(Rome) Last Saturday the daily bulletin of the Vatican announced that Pope Francis in the Vatican Gardens has blessed a bronze statue of Our Lady of Aparecida. It's a religious act mingled in a "strange" way with a policy that is related to the dismissal of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
The previous day, the Cuban press agency Prensa Latina reported that Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president from 2003-2011, wrote the Pope a letter about the "serious" political situation "in Brazil and in the world". Rousseff and Lula belong to the same party, the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the left "Workers' Party".
Cuba published Lula's letter upon the impeachment of Brazil's President
Prensa Latina is a press agency controlled by the communist regime in Cuba. The fact that they published the Lula-letter in full, recognizes the regular connections between the PT and the island state of the Castro brothers.
Lula letter to Pope Francis
Lula informed Pope Francis in the letter that "conservative" political forces at work are on the "edge of legality" - wanting to "prevent" a "continuity and progressive projects and social development and free inclusion" by the Workers Party (PT).
In another letter Lula praised the "achievements" of the Workers' Party and sharply condemns the attacks against Dilma Rousseff. In order to take steps to "criminalize" Rousseff and the "social movements", especially the PT.
Lula demands that can the people must be able choose its President "freely" by which he implied that free elections by the "conservative" forces are under threat. , The Lula wrote: the "conservative" forces "fear that the people will choose me in 2018," and would therefore make him president again. The Brazilian constitution allows only two consecutive terms of a head of state. Meanwhile, Lula could run again.
Same letter from Venezuelan President Maduro
On Saturday it was announced that Pope Francis had received the exact same letter from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. In addition to the Cuban contacts, the common action of Lula and the "Bolivarian" President Maduro, reveals a political landscape that is situated with varying shades of social-democratic and communist, clearly left.
Observers doubt that it was an "accident". The letters and the cooperation of the Brazilian-Venezuelan-Cuban Left and the blessing of the statue of the Virgin of Aparecida, a Brazilian Marian shrine, "may be a coincidence, but it does not look like one," said Secretum meum mihi .
Pope Francis used the blessing to take a position on the situation in Brazil and did this by mixing religious and political aspects. The pontiff said that Brazil is experiencing "sad moments." That gesture and words as partisanship for Dilma Rousseff and the Workers' Party are to be understood, which the "Pope-Girlfriend" and Pope's biographer, Elisabetta Piqué assures with an article in the Argentine newspaper La Nacion.
"May the Blessed Mother sustain left governments and keep 'conservative' forces back?"
With the blessing of the statue of Mary, Francis announced differently than initially indicated, that he would not travel to Brazil in 2017 to take part in 300-year celebrations of the Marian shrine of Aparecida.
Piqué's articles in "La Nacion" on Pope Francis and his "Brazil-option" crisis
Francis asked Our Lady of Aparecida on Saturday, "to protect the Brazilian people in this sad moment and the poor, the marginalized, the abandoned elderly, to protect the street children; to save her people with social justice in the love of Jesus."
Piqué's article leaves no doubt that a certain political option is meant to be protected by the Mother of God. To say it in the sense of Lula and Maduro: "May the Mother of God sustain the left-wing government in power and keep the 'conservative' forces them away," said Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña.
Already in the course of the presidential campaign in Argentina, Pope Francis had chosen the left option and preferred the Peronist candidate, but the people elected the "conservative" opposition candidate, which has since led to a series of tensions in relations.
The same signaling by the Catholic Church leader took place on his Latin American visit in 2015. During the meetings with the leftist president of Ecuador and Bolivia were demonstratively friendly, Francis showed the "conservative" president of Paraguay the cold shoulder, to put it cautiously. In fact, he attacked him openly and completely without foundation.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Prensa Latina / La Nacion / Vatican.va / Wikicommons (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link to Katholisches...
AMDG
On the 100th year of death of Emperor Franz Joseph I, Schönbrunn Palace, also shows its religious side. A reading speaks of the downfall of the ancient world.
Vienna (kath.net/cz) 2016 brings the 100th anniversary of the most famous emperor of modern, Austrian history - Emperor Franz Joseph I. Historians speak of the Catholic Monarchs and mean the King of Spain. France is referred to as the eldest daughter of the Church - at least since the French Revolution, it is hardly still that. But the Emperor of Austria, the Habsburgs, are probably simply just the Catholic dynasty. And Emperor Franz Joseph was entirely in this tradition.
Influenced by his devout mother, Bavarian princess and afterwards, Archduchess Sophie, the emperor developed a very natural relationship with the Catholic faith. In Schönbrunn Palace one can see his worn pew and his personal rosary he prayed upon. An image showing the emperor in prayer for those who died in his time, often murdered, family members, his wife Elisabeth, his son Rudolf, his brother Maximilian of Mexico, his nephew Franz Ferdinand, etc.
The hymn written in 1854 in honor of his marriage to Elisabeth became imperial anthem. The official anthem of Imperial Austria says: God save, God defend our Emperor, our land - powerful because he supports the faith, he leads us with a wise hand ... the whole country was Catholic and focused on the faith and which it was above all, thanks to its former leadership, the imperial house. Therefore, his nephew, Otto von Habsburg once said that the de-Christianization of Europe was due mainly to the ruling classes, and therefore, it would also be their responsibility to rebuild the Christian West.
In many current discussions one seems to recognize the fact that the Christian West fallen with its faithful Emperor. Karl Kraus has made a monument of "The Last Days of Mankind." The Austrian actor Martin Ploderer, himself connected to the faith, will be reading on the 8th and 9th of September, at 7 o'clock, against the backdrop of the imperial hearse which led the emperor on his last journey, within the Schönbrunn Palace, from this epochal work. Ploderer is a highlight of the anniversary year of the Catholic Emperor, Franz Joseph I of Austria and his time.
Kretschmann described the pope as a "thoroughly impressive personality." Francis had a "watchful eye" and a "watchful heart".
Rome (kath.net/ KNA) Pope Francis appreciates German literature: Hermann Hesse's story "Beneath the Wheel" has been read several times by the head of the Catholic Church, according to Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann. Francis had met the Green politician and avowed Catholic Francis on Friday at a private audience and brought him a copy of this book. After the meeting, reported Kretschmann, Francis received the gift by saying, "I've already read this three times".
The Pope and Kretschmann had at the 30-minute conversation for which an interpreter was also present, discussing in particular the environment and the refugee problem.
The Catholic Church itself "could happily praise to have such an alert, attentive Pope who follows everything that happens in the contemporary world so closely, "Kretschmann praised Francis after the encounter. He described the pope as a "thoroughly impressive personality." Francis had a "watchful eye" and a "watchful heart".
Link...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
The result of state elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a slap in the face for the policy of Chancellor Merkel. One year after the opening of borders in Germany and the "We can do it" mantra of Angela Merkel, the decision of the voters was clearly determined in the northeast for a federal policy issue: the asylum policy and the influx of illegal immigrants to Germany.
According to initial projections, the CDU is falling to third place with 19 percent of the vote and thus was one of its historically worst election results. The party was outclassed by the AfD, which will move from the state with 21 percent in the state legislature. Equipped with the incumbency of the popularly respected Prime Minister Erwin Selle, the SPD held 30 percent, but lost also about 5 percent.
Increase in turnout: citizens feel they have an alternative to vote on
Noteworthy is the increase in turnout by as much as ten percentage points from 51 to 61 percent. After years of steadily declining participation, there are significantly more citizens going to the polls. The reason: Obviously, the start of the AfD has contributed significantly to the idea that citizens again have the feeling they have real political alternatives to vote for.
The success of the AfD is a success for democracy. Whether euro crisis, asylum chaos, national sovereignty or direct participation of citizens - at last it is not only in back rooms or social networks but that political decisions and decision-making are taking place in the place of a republic, namely the Parliament, to fight again with real pros and cons, which has you nothing to do any longer with an absurd all-party coalition.
The government tuteledge of citizens comes to an end
With this election result the triumph of AfD continues. It's all the more remarkable, since the party had to contend with massive discrimination and violent attacks by left-wing extremists. Upon the elections for the Chamber of Deputies in Berlin in two weeks, the young party founded only three years ago is expected to move into the tenth state parliament.
The established parties but also journalists in the mainstream media of the country must now accept that Germany has experienced the long overdue normalization of its political landscape. The governmental tutelage of citizens by a political class now comes to an end. We are experiencing a positive re-politicization of society, the emancipation from a far left liberal dominated public opinion. And that's good!
The Church is not split between traditionalists and progressives, but between Catholics and modernists.
Nicola Bux, a renowned liturgist of the Catholic Church, Consultor of the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith and the Congregation of Saints. Under Pope Benedict XVI., he was also Consultor of the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Pope. Pope Francis has replaced all Consultors of this office.
(Madrid) The Bishop of Tenerife forbade Freemasons from entering a Catholic church. In November the annual congress of high level Freemasons of the 33rd degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite in the Canary Islands will take place.
Bishop Bernardo Álvarez informed the Masonic Lodges of the Canary Islands, that it will not tolerate the presence of Masonic symbols in the church of Santa Cruz de La Palma. The Masons wanted to commemorate deceased lodge brothers.
The Bishop of Tenerife made his decision public, with which he forbid the presence of the Loge Abora No. 87 in a church of Santa Cruz de La Palma. The notification was issued to the master of the Masonic Lodges of the Canary Islands, which is celebrating the "Masonic Week" in these days.
The First Masonic march to Christ the Savior Church in Decades
According to the daily ABC, a meeting between Bishop Álvarez and the Socialist Jeronimo Saavedra (PSOE) took place. Saavedra was, from 1993-1996, Minister of the Socialist government of Felipe Gonzalez, from 1999-2003, Spanish Senator, from 2007-2011 Mayor of Las Palmas and has since been a Member of Parliament. Saavedra is also a leading Freemason in the Canary Islands. At the meeting, the bishop informed his former minister "No" for an official appearance of the lodges in a church.
Bishop Alvarez and former Minister Saavedra
Bishop Alvarez and former minister Saavedra
This week all of the big names in Spanish Freemasonry gathered on the island of La Palma, including Oscar de Alfonso Ortega, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Spain. This said, in the fall of 2015: "We are experiencing one of the best moments of Freemasonry".
The Masons are to hold a "Masonic march" around the Christ the Savior Church on Friday, 2 September. Such things have not been done in decades. "It is the first event of this kind since the return of democracy," said Saavedra.
Revival of Loge Abora No. 87
Iglesia del Salvador
Iglesia del Salvador site of"Masonic march"
Thus, the lodge brothers celebrate the revival of the Loge Abora No. 87 after 80 years of inactivity "for political reasons". Because of the national forces of the Popular Front in areas, Masonic lodges had to suspend their activities. On March 1, 1940 Generalissimo Franco issued the Ley para la represión de la Masoneria y el Comunismo, the Law on Suppression of Freemasonry and Communism. Spanish Freemasonry continued its work from the Mexican exile, where many Spanish masons found protection and asylum when President Lázaro Cárdenas of the dictatorial ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), himself a freemason.
Currently, in the Canary Islands there are 20 active lodges. The Loge Abora no. 87 adopted in 1875, took up its work. They are now part of the Grand Lodge of Spain, after the Grand Orient of Spain had become extinct at the end of the Spanish Civil War.
Tenerife was, before the Civil War, one of the most important Masonic centers in Spain. In 1900, the lodge Añaza was established that belonged to the Grand Orient of Spain, a large Masonic Temple. General Franco seized the tempt in 1936 and appropriated it for the Spanish Falange.
Congress of the high degree Freemason
Florentino Guzman showing his project for the renovation of the Masonic Temple
Florentino Guzman before the project for renovation of the Masonic Temple
The return to the lodge was not possible. The heavily Socialist city government (2011-2015) saw to it that the temple was declared a national monument and began renovations in 2015. According to the renovation plan, a third of the cost will be from the public sector and two-thirds are to be financed by the private sector. The driving force behind the renovation is the socialist Councilor Florentino Guzmán Plasencia.
This year's International Congress of High Degree Freemasons will be held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in November. It is organized by the Supreme Council of the 33rd and highest grade of the Old Accepted Scottish Rite (A.A.S.R.) and takes place every year at a different location.
The lodge brothers hope to keep at least the final event in the renovated Masonic Temple.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Wikicommons / Diario de Avisos / ABC (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link to Katholisches...
AMDG
(Rome) The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) has released a new propaganda video. The video shows a suicide bomber shortly before his deed. In his message he appears certain that Islam will carry "victory" and the followers of Allah will soon pray in Rome instead of the Christians.
The suicide bomber blew himself up shortly after recording his video message in Benghazi in Libya in the air. He turns in his message to the jihadists in Syria and Iraq, who he wants to "win" and to "pray in Rome".
Abdel Rahman el-Libi is the name of the Islamic kamikaze. He refers in his message to the "prophet" Mohammed, who had already predicted the victory over Rome. The Islamists should not fret neither the unity of the "crusaders," nor the Arab tyrants who were against them, Allah will give them victory. "We are a united nation and sharia will prevail throughout the world."
The video lasts 14 minutes and shows several pictures of suicide attacks in Libya and references inter alia to the Libyan General Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the army of the government of Tobruk.
According to the press agency Alwasat, Abdel Rahman el-Libi was killed in a suicide bombing last July 30 against a center of the Libyan army in Kawarsha in Benghazi. His video has just now been released by the Islamic State (IS) on the Internet.
Text: Andreas Becker
Image: SxS (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link to Katholisches...
AMDG
Update: a kindly reader corrects us that this is actually the Canadian Register of the demonic Salt and Light, which is in some ways worse than its American counterpart.
Edit: they may have gotten rid of a few bad eggs they could afford to lose, but they show their true character by uncritically reposting the unsubstantiated rumors being circulated by the Bishop's enemies.
They are truly vile, worse than the National Catholic Reporter, because of their undeserved reputation for conservatism and link to the network gone wrong.
VATICAN CITY – An Italian bishop who was a hero to traditionalist Catholics has resigned following a Vatican investigation into priests and seminarians accused of various scandals including posting naked photos on gay websites and sexually harassing parishioners.
The Vatican gave no official reason why Pope Francis on Thursday (Sept. 1) accepted the resignation of Bishop Mario Oliveri of the Diocese of Albenga-Imperia nearly three years before the official retirement age of 75.
But it was clear that Francis wanted him gone.
Oliveri’s small northern Italian diocese, which he had run for more than 25 years, had become a magnet for devotees of the old Latin Mass and other high church rituals.
(Rome) As predicted the tradition friendly Bishop of Albenga-Imperia, Msgr. Mario Olivieri, has been retired by Pope Francis at the age of 72 years.
As was announced in this day's Bulletin of the Holy See, "Pope Francis has accepted the resignation by S. Ex. Msgr. Mario Olivieri from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Albenga-Imperia (Italy)."
For successor, Francis has appointed Msgr. Guglielmo Borghetti, the former Bishop Coadjutor.
Bishop Olivieri was among the most tradition friendly bishops of the Catholic episcopate. A group of priests of his diocese had railed his appointment in 1990, but have had no success in removing him under John Paul II. And Benedict XVI.
Under Pope Francis there were changing conditions. The intra-diocesan critics saw a way up and began using a sympathetic media to make a new public campaign of accusations against the bishop.
On January 10, 2015 Francis appointed a coadjutor bishop, who has since held the governance of the diocese. Now Msgr. Olivieri has acted in obedience to the Pope's desire, to take a step back and offer him his resignation.
(Buenos Aires) The bergoglian Argentine bishops, the greater the confusion seems to be (see The contradictions of the Church "the open doors": Argentine President Must not be Godfather ). The Archbishop of La Plata, the historic opponent of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentine episcopate, criticized in a column the widespread "culture of fornication." His brother bishops distanced themselves from him.
The Case Macri and Political Antipathies
The newborn son from a Catholic family with many children was denied baptism in Bergoglio's Archdiocese of Buenos Aires because - according to an Argentine tradition, the sponsor for the seventh child is the President - who since December 2015, is the incumbent president Mauricio Macri, a remarried divorcee, who had been rejected as godfather.
Macri, who displaced the previously ruling (left) Peronist from power last fall, has ever since been the validly declared main enemy. It's a conflict that seems to have been transferred to the Church. That Pope Francis would have preferred the Left-Peronist candidate in the presidential palace, is an open secret. A donation of the new president to the Pontifical University Foundation Scholas Occurrentes was returned in April's return mail to the donor. In other words: The donation came from the wrong (political) area, with which one would not even have anything to do in terms of good works. It was a veritable papal disavowal of a head of state.
The same had happened already in July 2015 at the Pope's visit to Latin America. While the Catholic Church leader met with the left presidents of Ecuador and Bolivia, dazzling the mind and also expressed this in front of the photographer, Francis went against the conservative President of Paraguay on a collision course. He made unheard of public criticisms of the head of state to thousands citizens and the highest dignitaries of the country and they were also completely groundless allegations . It would be difficult to express (political) sympathies and antipathies more outwardly.
No wonder then that Argentina's bishops and pastors, at least those who want to be particularly bergoglian, follow the example of the Pope, and in turn disavow President Macri. The reel of rejection of Macri as godfather was opened at the Cathedral of Buenos Aires, the long-term "domestic church" of the current Pope, where he made his successor Msgr. Mario Aurelio Poli, a close friend and even created him a cardinal.
The Case of Archbishop Aguer
There isn't just friction between the Pope and President. There had been friction long before the papal election between the Archbishop of Buenos Aires and the "conservative" Archbishop of La Plata, Msgr. Héctor Aguer. Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the Argentine Bishops' Conference was like a leader of the "doves", while Archbishop Héctor Aguer was the spokesman of the "hawks".
Archbishop Aguer: culture of fornication
Since Cardinal Bergoglio had become Pope, he has been undermining the "hawks" by his new appointments, stripping feathers. But still the pugnacious archbishop of La Plata is in his office. In May 2018 he completes his 75th year.
In the daily newspaper El Día of La Plata Archbishop Aguer writes a regular column in which he knows how to swim against the current, as well as in his most recent column of August 23. Under the title "La Fornicación" to English "Fornication," where he raised his voice against "lewd culture", sexuality and love "trivialized".
What does he mean by a "culture of fornication," the archbishop explained with a practical example. He cited the Brazilian press, which had calculated that in just 17 days an average of 42 condoms were used by each participant at the Summer Olympics. Sexual intercourse with multiple partners, who are often perfect strangers, is a behavior that are in themselves, "animalistic," said the Archbishop. He used a popular Latin American gutter expression.
Among other things, Msgr. Aguer criticized the gender ideology and "other unnatural relationships." The Archbishop took up the cudgel for lifelong marriage in mutual love and respect between a man and a woman, and for the ability to bond, which sees destroyed contra naturam through the fornication.
In this context, the archbishop engaged clear criticism of aberrosexual relationships and the possibility for them to adopt children.
The "trouble of the Church"
Archbishop Héctor Aguer drew with this column not only the wrath of liberals and the aberro-associations, but also his brother bishops.
In the issue from August 28 the newspaper La Nacion, the Argentine "house organ" of Pope Francis, published the article "Trouble in the Church on the Nature and Language of Msgr. Hector Aguer". The article "reflects," says the author, the "reaction of the Church" (!) to the column by Archbishop Aguer.
The article quotes three bishops who take a position against the Archbishop of La Plata but remain anonymous.
"The same bishops who insisted in a conservative position in the case of Macri, represented in case Aguer the exact opposite, and therefore a liberal position," said Secretum meum mihi .
The distancing from Archbishop Aguer is established by the first anonymous bishops with "his language" and "his method."
The second anonymous bishop is quoted as saying that the column of Msgr. Aguer "is not representing the concerns of the Church, especially in a moment like this, with its much more important problems."
A third anonymous bishop reiterates the statement that it is indeed important that the people to know what the Church teaches on sexual morality and marriage, "but now tries to mediate teaching in a context of respect for individual freedom of believers."
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Wikicommons / El Dia
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link to Katholisches...
AMDG
Poor Little Tiziano Couldn't be Baptized in a Catholic Church Because His Godfather is the Divorced President, Mauricio Macri
(Buenos Aires) The new church line is coming snaking into the Argentina Church. Everything seems to have its order, but surely there is no one, let alone the people, who might pass by the signals into a skid. Or is it all just a matter of policy?
The double Synod of Bishops had the obvious target, remarried divorcees - to better integrate into the Church - with or without admission, to Holy Communion. In an interview with the Argentine newspaper La Nacion, Pope Francis said on December 7, 2014:
"They are not excommunicated, that's right. But they may not be godfathers, they may not be lectors at Mass, they may not give Holy Communion, they must not be catechists. They may not do seven things, I have the list here.Stop! When I put down the bill, then it seems as if they were de facto excommunicated! Therefore: we open the door a little. Why should they not be godfathers?"
That was shortly after the end of the first Synod of Bishops and before the Second Synod of Bishops on the Family.
Baptism as Aberro Spectacle
On 5 April 2014, and a few months earlier, a child conceived by artificial insemination was baptized in the Argentine city of Cordoba Cathedral whose mother lives in a lesbian relationship with another woman. The two women who are active in the gay scene were previously briefly in a "gay marriage".
Baptism as Aberro spectacle (left the birth mother)
The baptism became a media event for the acceptance of homosexuality. The former Left-Peronist President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner was designated a godparent. The event caused a significant tempest, there was reasonable doubt that the lesbian couple could ensure a Christian education of the child. The same was true for the godmother, who had enforced the "gay marriage" in her term of office and wanted to foster the introduction of abortion.
All of the concerns were from the cathedral minister were brushed aside, not without the support of the Archdiocese. This is about the baptism of a child, period. The girl wasn't just baptized in any chapel and in the absence of the media, but in the Archdiocesan Church and under a lot of hype.
Since there was no accompanying explanation, the impression remained that the Catholic Church recognizes aberrosexuality, "gay marriage" and artificial insemination of lesbian women. The sponsorship by State President Kirchner also gave the event a clearly political aspect and presented the baptism in the service of the aberro lobby.
With artificial insemination there is also the suspicion of selective abortion is given in relation to aberrosexuals. Lesbians prefer girls, gays want to adopt boys or have the delivery by surrogate mothers.
Transsexual as "Godmother"
In March 2014 a "transsexual" Enrique Martinez aka Solange Lisette Luna Navarro, a prominent gay activist, complained that he could not be a "godmother" in an interview with Radio Fénix. "The law agrees with me," said the "transsexual" citing a "legal right", referring to the law of the state, not to the law of the Church. Catholic doctrine had no influence on Martinez.
Shortly thereafter, the competent Archdiocese La Rioja published a press statement by the Vicar General, who announced that the "transsexual" may very well be "godmother." The reasoning of the General Vicar was based, combined, on the "new legal order" of the papal pronouncement: "Who am I to judge."
The baptism of a girl with "two mothers" and sponsorship of a "transsexual," although in both cases the persons concerned expressed their rejection of a part of Catholic teaching in public statement, was for not a problem for the Argentine Church, nor for demonstrably politically tinged sponsorship of anti-Church State President.
Refusal of Sponsorship by President Macri
Things look quite different for the new conservative president Mauricio Macri. Macri has been married since 2010 in third marriage with businesswoman Juliana Awada. Awada, daughter of a famous Lebanese business family in Argentina with a Muslim father, Catholic mother (Syrian Catholic), had been baptized and brought up Catholic as had been her four siblings.
Pope Francis with Mauricio Macri and Juliana Awada in Vatican
Tiziano, the now four months old godson of the President had to be baptized in a Protestant church, because no Catholic parish had offered their services. The reason? Because the president is divorced and remarried.
Tiziano is the seventh child of a Catholic family. One tradition after it is customary for the President to be upon request the sponsor of the seventh child.
The mother of seven, Natalia Alcalle, went "very happily" to the cathedral, the former episcopal church of Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio to there to ask for baptism. The surprising answer was "No". Then she approached the most renowned Marian shrine of Argentina, the Basilica of Our Lady of Lujan. The answer was again negative.
In three parishes they asked. Once the name Macris was mentioned, "we were faced with a wall" Mediamza wrote, citing the mother two days ago. After three rejections she had become "so embarrassed" that she did not dare a fourth request. "I was told everywhere, that is not possible, because the president is divorced and lives in concubinage."
After some consultation with the Presidential Chancellery, Pastor Victor Doroschuk of the Protestant Church "Vida y Paz" was finally consulted.
Pontifical signal to remarried divorcees
It was Pope Francis, who significantly changed the protocol of the Holy See changed abruptly, and President Macri had received last February 27 with Juliana Awada. Until then, the spouse of remarried and divorced State representatives were greeted by the pope only separately, and briefly in a separate room. Also, there was no common photo with the Pope. The protocol was in order to engage clarity and the conscience, to underline the difference between a regular and an irregular marriage connection.
The change means a few scant months after the end of the Second Synod of Bishops on the Family, a dramatic intervention in the Vatican protocol and it was understood as a signal of a change of course towards divorce and remarriage.
Pope "really links nothing" with President Macri
Overall, however, it is known that Pope Francis had preferred Macri's Left-Peronist opponent in the presidential election. Since then there have been several taunts. This included that Macri, who took office as head of state on 10 December 2015 last March who offered the Pontifical Foundation Scholas Occurentes a grant of more than one million dollars. "As of May 30th when the news came to the Vatican, the Pope took the anti-Peronist and Liberal Macri's victory very poorly, according to what his Argentine friends said," wrote the Vatican expert Sandro Magister. The money was sent back by return mail. Take no money from governments. However, that was something different under Macri's predecessor Kirchner. Argentine media reported a "disavowal" of the President, with whom Pope Francis apparently does not want to be associated.
Should political affiliations be decisive for baptisms in Argentina's Church under Pope Francis? Homosexuals, transsexuals and LGBT activists, yes, conservative politicians, no?
Education, training and information on Catholic doctrine and Sacraments in all directions and to all situations seem to be subject to the time of day.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: SMM / MiL / Vatican.va (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link to Katholisches...
AMDG
Edit: picked up this story from Reviewbrah and thought it might be of interest. The following report is from Portale Italradio, dated from the end of July. No more short waves fort two of the most followed lithurgical broadcasts of Vatican Radio. As from 1 August 2016, Latin Mass at 05:30 UTC and Rosary prayer at 18:40 UTC will be broadcast on the usual frequencies only on Sundays and catholic holy days. No motivation is until now available.
The decision has been taken earlier this week by the Vatican Secretariat for Communications.
Both broadcasts were especially meant to reach isolated people, travellers and all those who are prevented to attend a Mass in their country or to have a free access to the Internet.
Italradio express deeply concern for a totally inexplicable decision, a "hertzian-suicide" as we define it in a word.
As from 1 August the Mass is broadcast on SW only on Sunday and holydays: 15595 kHz. 3975 kHz
6070 kHz at 05.30 UTC. The Rosary prayer on 11625 kHz, 3975 kHz, 6070 kHz, 9660 kHz, 9755 kHz at 18.40 UTC.
The bishop's residence hit the headlines far beyond Germany's borders.
Trier / Limburg (kath.net/KNA) The future Bishop George Bätzing will not dwell in the Limburg bishop's residence, but work there. The current Vicar General of Trier said this on Sunday evening after his official acceptance of his new office in Trier, answering one of the most frequently asked questions in recent weeks. The residence on Cathedral Hill will be the official headquarters of the bishop, except for the living quarters, stressed Diocese spokesman Stephan Fast on request of the Catholic News Agency (KNA). The approximately six million euro home extends over two floors and comprises a total of 283 square meters. [Why no mention of Cardinal Marx's lavish dwellings?]
The bishop's residence made headlines far beyond Germany. [Cardinal Marx's did not.] A wave of indignation about the huge increase in costs of ultimately 31 million euros and the [alleged] concealment of these costs had significantly contributed to the resignation of Bätzing's predecessor, [the unjustly maligned] Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst in March, 2014.
The private rooms, which had a been the cause of particularly large discussions, was "being considered for sensible and appropriate alternative uses", as in cooperation with the adjacent Diocesan Museum. In addition, the total of 1,750-square-meter building complex should continue to be used on Cathedral Hill for meetings, events and gatherings. The diocese stressed that the overall solution has now been found to make permanent use possible at no additional cost.
Bätzing who will be introduced on September 18, as bishop of Limburg will temporarily live in the original cathedral sacristy- and later sister's house on Cathedral Hill, which also belongs to the building complex.
More permanently the 55-year-old cleric would live in a nearby detached house. It was in this house, which is part of the diocese, that Limburger Bishop Walter Kampe had lived for many years and passed away in in 1998. Currently, Franz Kaspar (78) resides there, who was from Vicar General from 2009 to 2013 and one of the closest collaborators of Tebartz van Elst.
Even right after his appointment as bishop of Limburg by Pope Francis on July 1st, Bätzing who is currently Vicar General in Trier, was asked whether he would be eating in the bishop's house. At that time he had replied that he had not yet looked at the house, but the apartment would suit him. And because he had "a bit of doubt."
The diocese also announced it will provide Bätzing a leased Audi A6.[Nice touch. Why not a more humble VW or a Prius?]
"Whoever speaks openly as convert to devout Muslims about his faith and does not hide his cross, is not safe even in Germany."
Maintal (kath.net/ idea)
An Afghan Christian (31) has been attacked in Maintal (near Frankfurt) by four Muslim Afghans. They are to have shouted "Allahu akbar" (Allah is great) and they wanted to kill him. This was announced by a volunteer of the Evangelical Free Church (FeG) Hanau, Benjamin Dauth (Maintal), with the Evangelical News Agency idea. The Afghan - his name is known to idea, however, not mentioned for security reasons - visited the community worship and worked as a volunteer translator in a refugee camp in the city.
The attack occurred on the evening of 17 August. While getting on his bike, the Afghan Christian was outside his apartment, an Afghan tried to prevented him. He is said to have been with three other Afghans who had been hiding earlier whom he called out, that this was the "opportunity." Then, to have punched and kicked him all four while shouting "Allahu akbar."
The victim tried to pull away. Then to one of the Muslims shouted "kill him!" One of the attackers then is to have pulled a knife and tried to attack the Christians.
Converts are in Germany not safe at this moment
At this point several residents had come outside because of the noise. The police arrived a little later, says Dauth, and have got the three attackers' personal details. The fourth had, however, escaped. At the hospital, bruises on the shoulder, forearm and face were found on the Christian. According to Dauth it was the third such attack on Afghan Christians. The situation is particularly difficult for him because he had converts from Islam to Christianity, "Who speaks openly about his faith as a convert to devout Muslims and does not hide his cross, is not safe in Germany.
"The Afghan Christian is still in the asylum procedure and has worked for a temporary employment agency. Three of the four attackers are housed, according to the victim in the refugee shelter in Maintal, in which he himself has worked as a translator. The fourth is allegedly living in Darmstadt.
As Dauth further said, other refugees from the Maintaler housing facility had warned the Afghan Christians of an attack. The Muslim Afghans had talked about it in advance. Police are investigating according details frim Dauth, for grievous bodily harm. idea asked the police on 26 August for an opinion. They want to address the incident "early next week.
(New York) On November 19, the third ordinary public consistory of this pontificate will take place for the creation of new cardinals. The message has not been officially announced by the Holy See, but comes from the progressive American Jesuit magazine America .
Pope Francis has convened the consistory for the conclusion of the Holy Year of Mercy. Total wants the Pope, the Jesuit magazine, appoint thirteen new cardinals. The names will be announced in mid-October.
Previously Francis has appointed 39 Cardinals altogether at two consistories. 31 of them are entitled to vote in the conclave. Eight of new cardinals will be 80 at the time of their appointment.
According to America it will fall to the Pope in the third Cardinal consistory to move the church "from the center to the periphery." An absolute majority of European cardinals will be "impossible" at the next conclave.
Currently there are 107 Cardinals in the Catholic Church who could act as papal electors in conclave.With the new appointments Francis will fill the electoral body to the ceiling established by John Paul II of 120 electors. 51 of the 107 electors come from Europe, which has, for a thousand years in the conclave and in for the first time ever in Church history to relinquish its absolute majority in the election of the Pope and humanly speaking, will never recover.
On November 20, the Pope will celebrate High Mass together with the new cardinals in St. Peter's.
