Schönborn: the Cross Should Make the World Fairer

Viennese Cardinal in "Today" -column: If the cross in the courtroom, classroom and hospitals is not for change, it is merely an ineffective piece of culture

Vienna (kath.net/KAP) According to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Cross has important functions in public space. "The cross should change something, make the world more equitable, otherwise it is an ineffective piece of culture," the Viennese Archbishop said in his Friday column of the free newspaper "Heute" in the current cross-debate. The symbol of Christians should not be seen as a "jewel in a cultural museum," but rather as a reminder.

In the courtroom, according to Schönborn, "it should remind the judges that God expects them to be righteous and not partisan," and that "the poor and defenseless are to be treated just as well as the rich and powerful." In the school, the cross calls to mind "that children are not bullied, that teachers should support the weak." In the hospitals, the cross shows "that the suffering man has his dignity, even if he is destitute."

The Cardinal has been at a distance from the current cross-debate, which was triggered by the discussion about head coverings and burkas. Some would call for "ideological neutrality" in public space and wanted to "ban or even ban anything that recalls a religion." Others have described the cross - but not the Burka - as part of the culture. "This discussion is a dead end," says Schönborn.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Pope Francis Writes Forward to Sex-Abuse Victim's Book

Freiburg i.Ü., 14.2.17 (kath.ch) For four years Freiburg resident, Daniel Pittet was raped as an altar boy by a priest. The 58-year-old father wrote a book about it. He describes to cath.ch the long path from abuse victim to the abuse book.

Maurice Page

"On August 15, 1971, at the age of twelve, I forgave the priest who raped me before I was out of his clutches," says Daniel Pittet in conversation with cath.ch. "It was the forgiveness of a child, sure. But on that day I heard him preaching about the Mother of God. People dried their tears with handkerchiefs. I knew I should be raped by Father Joël Allaz after the Mass. This was almost like a 'liturgy'. I said to myself, 'He is a priest, and what he says is right. There is another man in him, a creep, a pig. I made my accounting. I forgave him.'

The conversation takes place at the kitchen table. The former altar boy in Freiburg Cathedral recalls: "I have prayed to the Mother of God and to Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus (Thérèse of Lisieux, editor) to take me away from this man. I have cried streams, filled bathtubs. It took some time, however, before I was transferred to the St. Paul sisters, where my great aunt lived, who decided that I should not go to that Father Joel."

«I remain a fragile man»

Actually, Pittet does not want to return to the past, "because I was built on this. Who would I be today if I had not experienced this? I'm sure I would not be better. I have suffered a lot. I have learned modesty. The enthusiasm that I had as a child, I still have. I founded a family. I would not have found a better way, even if I am mentally and physically quite damaged. I remain a fragile man, but I know that what I am saying is true. I also know that certain people in the Church will be horrified. But you have to make a clean slate."

But you have to make a clean slate

Pittet comes from a broken family. The father left them when the boy was four years old. "When I told my grandmother and my mother that I was going to a Capuchin in the nearby cloister, they were very proud. They were glad to see that he took me up and brought me back. I have never dared to tell them anything. My mother had asked the priest to give me sexual education classes."

«Such facts break a family»

The priest regularly raped  boys from 1968 to 1972. "The most beautiful photo of my childhood comes from Father Joël. He published it in their magazine 'Foyers' and added a text that was full of ambiguous allusions. At school, the teachers noticed that something was wrong, but this led this to the death of my grandmother and the problems in the family after the departure of my father. I was also with a psychiatrist who did not find anything or say anything. He never addressed me on sexual matters. Either he hadn't done his job or then he assumed that a judge would never have believed me. Such facts leave a family broken. So no one dares to talk about it."

He took 'difficult' guys up there with him

«This is for me»

The Capuchin Joël Allaz was a person highly esteemed in Freiburg. "One of the brothers witnessed a rape and asked the priest to leave me alone. He told me not to come any more. Father Joël, however, chuckled him off with the words 'Shut up.' He was only a brother and probably did not dare to interfere."

"He was good, even very good, in the 'professional' field. When the matter became public, I had many problems with people who knew him. In the Order, he enjoyed much autonomy and did not have to account to anyone, both in pastoral care and finance. In La Roche (in the Friborg Voralpen, the editor) he rented a chalet from a women's religious order. There he took 'difficult' guys with him. He knew very well how he could make up children who suffered, and of those whom he thought: "This one is for me."

Happy years in Einsiedeln

Three years after Daniel Pittet had been freed from the priest's grip, the latter disappeared from his memory. The young man went to Einsiedeln where he was "protected as in a cocoon" in the abbey. Retrospectively, Pittet referred to this time as "four years of happiness for my reconstruction." He appreciated the spiritual life and worship. The past had disappeared from consciousness. "Father Joël was wearing the robe of the Capuchins, I that of the Benedictines. I was never aware that we were alike in any way."

But I wanted the capuchin leave children alone

Pittet worked as a novice in a regional hospital. When he was 22 years old, a woman who had suffered a traffic accident died in his arms. Pittet suffered from a severe inflammation of the brain [meningitis?]. He went back to civilian life and said good-bye to his career in the Order.

Faith or Non-Faith?

"I had to decide whether I wanted to keep faith or not. I followed the advice of Cardinal Charles Journet, for whom I had been a altar server: if you are suffering, then go nine times to Bourguillon (a place of pilgrimage to Marienwall near Freiburg, the editor.). OnAt the ninth time I met a girl in the chapel who was crying. I entrusted her to the Mother of God and had chosen to believe."

In Freiburg, Pittet joined the prayer movement of the Prayer Apostolate and became its president. Under his leadership in Freiburg, the Catholic meetings "Praying and giving testimony," which are directed primarily to church youth. In this context, he encountered other victims of abuse. In 1989, he came upon a victim of Father Joël. "It was like waking up. I fell into a trance. My whole story came back to the surface. "

Like a hot potato returned

Pittet did not want to swallow it anymore and contacted the official (judge) of the diocesan section of the diocese of Lausanne-Geneva-Freiburg, Jean-Claude Périsset, later Vatican diplomat and nuncio in Germany. This gave him faith. He confronted the Capuchin himself. Joel Allaz acknowledged the deeds. "At that time I was the only applicant." He received a paper confirming the facts. "But I wanted the Capuchin to leave children alone." He was transferred to France. "They told me he was going to be treated and that I should not take care any longer about the matter. Whatever I did."

First contacts with the media

The matter rested until 2002, when Daniel Pittet discovered that the Capuchin was still "active" in Grenoble, France. "The diocese had indeed returned Father Joel to the Capuchins like a hot potato, and the Provincial has sent him elsewhere."

The media became aware of the matter. A friend of the journalist contacted Daniel Pittet and asked if he knew anything. "I'm not quite sure, but there is me." The passage into the media relieved the victim, he gave anonymous information. But there were also people who suggested that he should keep his mouth shut. This led him to a depression. He was ill for several months.

Encounter with Francis

The well-known French homeless priest and longtime friend, Guy Gilbert, advised him to write a book, and made contact with his publishing house "Philippe Rey". With the help of the Freiburg author Micheline Repond, the book came about. The last impulse to publication was given by Pope Francis. Pittet met the Pope during the time of origin of his book , "Loving is Giving Everything."  Francis had asked him where his enthusiasm came from. During the conversation, I said: "I was raped by a priest for four years, when he took me in his arms" the Pope responded, "This is extraordinary." 

Francis wanted to know more and asked if the priest was still alive? "Yes." The Pope asked him to give witness to this in a book. Pittet promised to bring an Italian translation of the already existing manuscript to Rome. "I asked him to write a foreword. He did not answer me clearly but promised that we would meet again." The Pope wrote this preface.

When I saw him, it hurt

Victims challenge perpetrators

Pittet also considered that his "tormentor" could express himself in the book. He wanted to say to him, "Thanks to you, I was in shit. It must be for you too. You must be able to talk about your suffering." West Moravian bishop Charles Morerod sought the priest. In the afterward to the book, the bishop reported on the encounter.

Pittet continues: "When I read the story (of the priest, editor), I said to myself," That is terrible. I had even more sympathy with him."n There was also a meeting between the two in the monastery. "When I saw him, it hurt me, for it strengthened me in what I had been thinking for forty years: he was a perverse, sick pedophile." He spoke as an egoist only of himself and his suffering. He had no word for the victims.

It needs a preface from the Pope so that he will be excluded from the priesthood

He was convinced that he would end up in hell. "I replied," You are not the only one who has done terrible things. When you confess and the priest forgives you, we will meet again in heaven. It was as if I'd betrayed him with a 'trick' to go to heaven. I'm glad I could tell him that."

Open questions

Daniel Pittet is pleased today that he is supported by good persons, his wife, a close friend and also by priests and religious. He could now be "completely free" behind the book.

The diocese today takes the situation very seriously, but must go even more to the victims, who see him as a "flag carrier". The abuse of children is still not taken seriously anywhere. Thus the Pope had told him: "Pedophiles in Italy? That does not exist." Pittet hopes that his book will draw more people's attention to the problem.

There are unfortunately some drops of bitterness. The Capuchins have released Joël Allaz of all positions and pastoral tasks. But he was not excluded from the Order. Pittet: "It is presumably because of the preface by the Pope that he is excluded from the priesthood. But if he were not in the monastery, he would have resumed of his nature, or would have been killed." (Cath.ch / Translation to German from French: Georges Scherrer)

The book "Mon Père, je vous pardonne" by Daniel Pittet has been published by French publisher "Edition Philippe Rey". On request, the publisher declared that it was necessary to check whether a German-language translation would be given, but "assumes it".

Edit: the story was also covered in CNA, kind of a puff piece.  They don't go into Francis' own congtroversial statement, or that the priest himself is unrepentant and still in the order.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

The "Anti-Francis" Video About Which the New York Times Complained

Edit: since when does a non-Catholic at an anti-Catholic paper presume to speak with such authority about things Catholic?  Did Pope Francis make Jason Horowitz a Cardinal in pectore?

(Washington) What of the video "against Pope Francis" reported in the New York Times last February 7?

At that time, the New York Times published a detailed article by Jason Horowitz, who launched an attack series against Cardinal Burke and extended the anti-Trump struggle for the White House to the Catholic Church.

Horowitz mentioned in the article a video, which was spread on Youtube against Pope Francis, while he described the author of it as a rigid, self-described traditionalist "fundamentalist" and - probably not unintentionally - inspired by the Islamic state (IS) and its crude propaganda videos.

The video was neither published nor linked to by Horowitz. We publish it so that everyone can get a picture for themselves.

Photo: New York Times
Link Katholisches...
AMDG

Panorama: "Francis Fears a Schism in the Church"

 (Rome) "The Pope fears a schism in the Church" is the headline of an article in the today's edition of the Italian weekly magazine Panorama . "A ghost goes around in the rooms of the Vatican palace and poisons the pope," says Panorama editor Orazio La Rocca.

Tthe pope's worry about a possible schism robs him of sleep. The statement is not presented as a play on words or a mere hypothesis, as was recently claimed, that Francis had declared "self-critically" to the "smallest circle" that he could not exclude himself as the pope in the history who would divide the Church. Walter Mayr reported in the weekly Der Spiegel, just before Christmas. Mayr made the following quotation to the Pope:

"It is not to be ruled out that I may go down in history as the one that divided the Catholic Church."

La Rocca now wrote in Panorama:

"Without discounting the reforms of the papal dicasteries and beginning an inclusive work of purification in the shadows of the dome of St. Peter's for which, however, he has had to count on resistance and criticism, even those who contributed to his election. Francis continues to do this, even giving no weight to them in public. The Holy Father, one wonders at the Curia, fears that this criticism could split the church in the long run. His greatest concern is to keep the Catholics together and to avert any danger of schism. Worries and fears are heard in the Vatican, which have begun in the wake of public initiatives by some cardinals, for example, the famous open letter in which Cardinals Burke, Caffarra, Müller [sic] and Meisner asked for a 'clarification' from the Pope in Doubts (Dubia), which, according to them, had arisen through the admission of remarried divorced to Communion. Doubts, which the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, too, has adopted, has spoken in an alarming interview of 'Dangers' for traditional teaching. More or less veiled objections to which Francis, after months of silence, indirectly responded by giving his placet to the most criticized part by the conservative cardinals, namely the Communion for the remarried divorced, and the publication of a study of a canonical nature of cohabitation."

Issue 4000 of Civiltà Cattolica - Audience with the Pope

La Rocca is creating a simple black-and-white painting: there is the good pope, who is concerned about the church, there are the evil "conservative" cardinals who do not seem to matter. In his hapless reading his research is so inaccurate that he mistook Cardinal Müller for Cardinal Brandmüller among the four signatories of Dubia . It's a proof of how little the author has dealt with the internal Church discussion in the past months. What is firmly established by the article is that the concerns of the four cardinals mentioned are not taken seriously by La Rocca or by Pope Francis. Obviously, the ideologically defined role for La Rocca is so clear that it can be meshed into every (ecclesiastical) story.

All in all, La Rocca's portrayal appears to be unimportant. If Pope Francis were indeed concerned about a possible schism, he would have every opportunity to reply at any time to the Dubia of the four Cardinals, Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra, and Meisner. Or to invite these cardinals at least to have a conversation. Instead, he uses his energy to evade their questions for months, to send Cardinal Burke to Guam, and to let his closest collaborators publicly denounce the four cardinals. Taking the concerns of others seriously, should look different. If the Pope were to take seriously the concerns of the numerous appellants who had turned to him with appeals to Amoris laetitia, he would not have to worry about possible tendencies to splitting. Since he has not done this and still does not want to do it, La Rocca's report on the concerns of the pope is also unbelievable.

On the 9th of February, the Corriere della Sera published a preface of the discussion that Pope Francis had on the 25th of November 2016 with the General Superiors of 140 men of the order. The complete inscription, made by Father Antonio Spadaro, was published on 11th February in the jubilee edition of the Roman Jesuit publication, Civiltà Cattolica. According to the inscription, Pope Francis then said among other things, that in the administration of the Church there was also a "healthy menefreghismo", or a "healthy indifference".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Panorama / Civiltà Cattolica (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholilsches...
AMDG

Munich Priest Speaks of the "Natural Disobedience" of the Priest

Controversial Munich priest Schießler praises the DBK statement "free decision of conscience" for the remarried divorced and now calls for the "blessing of homosexual people", Catholic-Evangelical liturgy and abolition of priestly celibacy

Munich (kath.net) The German bishops have written "a word for renewed marriage and family pastoral in the light of Amoris Laetitia,"  the "individual, personal and free conscience of the person concerned" ... "finally!" Praised the Munich priest Rainer Maria Schießler in a guest commentary in the "Zeit" - entitled  "Christ & Welt". Then he went on to explain that the Church was "far from the end of this path." It is important to see, to formulate and to put into practice "many things: the blessing of homosexual people who simply have to realize that they are not capable of a heterosexual partnership; The communion with our evangelical sisters and brothers, because it is not about equality, but about the unity that we already possess in Christ; Or the free choice of life for all those who also aspire to the higher, that is, the priestly ministry, in the Church, because the priestly proclamation of the gospel can also be entrusted with good faith, even in people who live in a loving relationship."

In addition, Schießler warned "of a verbal disarmament in the tone". This was addressed to those whom he described as "the ultra-conservatives in our Church." Supposedly, they would speak of the "Communion of adultery." But those who were "concerned with statements of a Communion of adultery or other conceptions" would not "just injure men," but "inflict a considerable harm on the Eucharist". For "the Eucharist community of Jesus of Nazareth is not a body of perfects, as we would like to see. They are the unsaved, the broken, who have just been given a new (higher) life perspective through the communion with Christ."

At last, Schießler wrote in "Christus & Welt", "this ruthless rejection of the seeker is no longer valid," "finally the individual believer decides, in his own personal freedom, what he is called to." According to Schießler  "the former reward and punishment mentality on this subject" had nothing to do with the Church of a Jesus of Nazareth, who deliberately sought the failed and the stranded."

Schießler is incardinated in the Archdiocese of Munich as a pastor, TV personality and author of the bestseller "Himmel - Herrgott - Sakrament: auftreten statt austreten. [Heaven - Lord God - Sacrament: encounter instead of leaving.] He openly acknowledgesy "Gunda", who has been at his side for 20 years. According to his self-understanding, he does not violate his promise of celibacy, because "the sexual act is definitely excluded", but "tenderness" is "important", kath.net has reported. In other respects, too, he tends to be a media-active celebrity. For example, he had aroused anger when, in the summer of 2011, he built a beer table in front of the altar steps of his church and demonstratively enjoyed a liter of beer during an interview with "Munich.TV" (photo above), kath.net has reported. He once even expressed the wish to make a restaurant with a beer garden from a side chapel of St. Maximilian.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Raimundo Lull's Novel of 1284 About the Resignation of a Pope and "Perfect Charity"

Raimundo Lull and his novel Banquerna about a hermit, who becomes elected to the papacy
and resigns after realizing reforms.

The Servant of God Raimundo Lull (1232-1316), Franciscan and universal scholar who was from Mallorca. In addition to numerous other writings, he wrote the novel, Libre de Evast e Blanquerna, commonly known as Blanquerna, between 1283/1284. He portrays the life of the main character of the same name and is the first great literary work in Catalan.

Blanquerna is a figure of a deep and rich spiritual life and representative of an organic reform of the Church. Lull describes the seven deadly sins on the basis of the main character. Blanquerna decides, after a life that also makes him experience marriage and the birth of a son, to lead the hermit's existence.  Although he longs to be withdrawn, he soon becomes the abbot of a monastic community and eventually even becomes a pope. His pontificate is uneasy because he is subjected to hostility. He reorganizes the Roman Curia and reforms it from the ground in the right faith. He then declares his resignation and withdraws to his hermit's life.

The parallels to Pope Celestine V (1209-1296) are unmistakable. However, Celestine was elected pope ten years after Blanquerna's writing. Celestine's pontificate lasted only a few months, in order to overcome the stagnation in the election of the pope by mutually paralyzing parties. As soon as this had happened, he announced his resignation to the Cardinals to prepare for the election of a successor. As a precaution, he honorably left to prevent the danger of a schism in the church, since there can only be one pope. Celestine, who before his election was pope hermit and abbot, was already venerated as a saint during his lifetime.

There is another analogy in the office of Pope Benedict XVI. In February 2013 Brother  Amado Trujillo Cano, Vicar General of the Regulated Tertiary of St. Francis (TOR), wrote the corresponding description in Lull's novel Blanquerna.

Pope Blanquerna felt the desire to devote himself to a hermit's life, a passion that had accompanied him since he had decided to follow his vocation. This desire was always greater when he assumed new ecclesiastical responsibility and realized important and significant reforms not only for the Church, but also for the whole society.

Now that he had gathered with all the cardinals in a secret consistory, he proposed the creation of a ministry (in the etymological word of service) of prayer, whose leader was to devote himself to contemplative life in order to ask the Lord to give the excellent State of the Papacy and the Roman Curia, which had been achieved by the reform. When the Cardinals heard his suggestion, and his request to accept his renunciation from the papacy and to undertake with this new prayer, they tried to persuade him by all sorts of arguments. Blanquerna answered them with the request that they should have mercy on him. It was only because of this emphatic request that the Cardinals finally accepted his resignation, which pleased Blanquerna very much, because he could thus realize his heartfelt desire to devote himself entirely to contemplation in a hermit's life. He asked the Cardinals for their blessing and thanked them for their support. Then he immediately retired to the life of a hermit. The cardinals then elected the cardinal "Laudamus te" as pope.

The intended aim of Blanquernas's vocation calls in some way the path of the sanctification of Walter Map, who was a member of the Commission on the Third Lateran Council (1179) to examine the teachings of the Waldensians. He resisted the pauperistic path propagated by the new religious groups, which he regarded as false, for he observed that, while waiting for the papal confirmation, they humbled themselves, but when they were obtained, quickly abandoned their original resolutions, as soon as the call of their holiness brought them gifts and privileges. For Walter Map the unmistakable sign of holiness was the perfecta caritas, which was personified by three hermits who distinguished themselves by leticia perfectae caritatis, which was opposed to the hypocrites' tristes.

\On February 22, an exhibition on Raimund Lull will be opened in Rome in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Anthony (Via Merulana 124). The exhibition emtitled Raimundus Lullus, Christianus Arabicus - The meeting between cultures has been organized by the Pontifical University Antonianum in collaboration with the European Institute of the Mediterranean of the University of La Sapienza.

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

Underground Bishop Casimir Wang Dies --- 10 Years in Prison

Bishop Casimir Wang of Tianshui

(Beijing) In the early morning hours of the day, the Catholic underground bishop Casimir Wang Milu of Tianshui in Gansu Province died in the People's Republic of China. Msgr. Wang was 74 years old. He was not recognized by the Communist government as a bishop. His burial will take place on 18 February. There is currently no corresponding acknowledgment from the regime.

Bishop's chair of Tianshui vacant since 1955

Officially, the bishop's chair in Central China's Tianshui has only been vacant since 1972, but in fact it has been unoccupied since 1955. Tianshui was a mission area of ​​the German Capuchins. In 1946, Pope Pius XII. made the area into a diocese. The first diocesan bishop was the German Capuchin Peter Gratian Grimm. With the Communist takeover of power, the suffering period began for the Christians of the country. In 1955 all foreign bishops and priests of the country were expelled. Bishop Grimm also had to leave China and went to Indonesia in the mission area of ​​the Capuchins. With his death in 1972, the last official bishop of the Chinese diocese died.

In 1981, Mr. Casimir Wang was consecrated to be the underground bishop of Tianshui. The secret bishop gave him Bishop Peter Joseph Fan Xueyan of Baoding in Hebei, one of the charismatic leading figures of the underground Church. Bishop Fan spent 17 years in prisons and labor camps as well as the last five years of his life under house arrest and constant interrogation. China's underground Catholics are convinced that he did not die of "lung failure" in 1992, as it was officially called, but the consequences of torture. His beatification proceedings were initiated.

Ten years for Christ in prison

In 1983, Bishop Wang was also tracked and arrested by the regime. In Beijing he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Having been released after serving the punishment in the 1990s, he made use of the special powers the Pope had given to the Chinese underground bishops to consecrate other bishops without the direct consent of the Holy See. He had made use of it " excessively," which for him,  as Asianews says, he had been suspended by Rome, despite his ardent zeal for evangelization and his inviolable fidelity to the pope. He stayed in the province of Gansu and continued to work as a pastor.

In 2007 the special authority for the consecration of bishops was given by Pope Benedict XVI. in his letter to the Chinese Catholics in general.

Bishop Wang was born in 1942 as the son of a Catholic family. In 1979, he was ordained a priest. His younger brother, John Wang, also a priest, was consecrated to the underground bishop of Tianshui in 2011.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Asianews

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

+Cocco is a No-Show -- Cardinal Chickens Out!

[Mahound's Paradiso] This morning there was to have been an eagerly anticipated press conference featuring Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, answering questions about his recently published pamphlet endorsing the "liberal" interpretation of Amoris Laetitia.

However, Cardinal Coccopalmerio failed to show up, pleading a "diary clash." This was later explained as a conflict with a meeting at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

In his short work, published by the official Vatican publishing house on February 8, Coccopalmeriohad argued that all the sacraments including communion should be open to those "living in situations not in line with traditional matrimonial canons" including the divorced and remarried and even cohabiting couples.

http://mahoundsparadise.blogspot.com/2017/02/breaking-cardinal-coccopalmerio-is-no.html?m=1

See also:

http://voxcantor.blogspot.com/2017/02/bergoglios-puppy-coco-cant-even-show-up.html?m=1

AMDG

The Next Attack Against Cardinal Burke -- "The Pope will not let himself be stopped by populists, but will go full speed ahead."

(Lisbon) A concerted action seems to be taking place against Cardinal Raymond Burke. After the attacks of New York Times, Washington Post and La Nacion, yesterday followed the attack of the Portuguese daily, Publico.

There is hardly any chance of coincidence, especially since the tone and direction of leading media are the same in different countries.

"Burke. Orosto dos conservadores na luta contra o papa. "

"Burke, the Conservative's face in the struggle against the Pope," is the title of a detailed article which Cardinal Burke is not portrayed as a legitimate opponent in important questions concerning the office of the incumbent Pope, but as a dangerous enemy of Francis, whose attempts to "modernize" has been hindered by "conservatives."

Jason Horowitz threw the stone into the water in the New York Times when he created a connection between Cardinal Burke and the new US President Donald Trump. The connection exists only indirectly via Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon, nevertheless the intention of the NYTimes article seems to be, namely, to form fronts.

Donald Trump is so hateful in left circles that anyone who has to address Trump is motivated by the same hatred. According to this logic, Pope Francis is on the side of the "good". The Wallstreet Journal of 24 December saw him as the new leader of the global left after the leftist electoral defeat in the USA. Cardinal Burke, for whom Trump's current chief strategist Bannon, as head of Breitbart News found a word of praise for him in 2014, must accordingly belong to the "axis of evil" with Trump. In this way, Horowitz has extended the anti-Trump struggle to the Catholic Church. An interest in this may be the United States, where Catholics are by far the largest religious community. Since the US is a world power and the Catholic Church is a world Church, Horowitz's interference in internal church affairs leads to worldwide shocks.

Publico quoted the US-American Vaticanist John Thavis as saying:

"The Vatican is based on tradition, and when the different parts of this tradition begin to conflict, it is a dangerous sign."

The article is very Francis-friendly, whether it is Amoris laetitia or the Order of Malta, the blame is always pushed onto Cardinal Burke. The fact that Maltese internationally distributed contraception in emergency areas, including the abortion pill, is only known to the Portuguese daily, that a Vatican's examination commission had declared that there was nothing to it. That the attacks against Cardinal Burke are not a coincidence due to a connection with US President Trump, was apparent in the first press conference of Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, reappointed by Pope Francis as Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta (see Boeselager Press Conference or How I educate the international press I attack Trump).

The concluding speech was given by Father Antonio Spadaro (2 + 2 = 5), Pope's confidant, and the head of the Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, who saw Pope Francis as a guard against populism, whose chief exponent was Donald Trump. Pope Francis will not be stopped by the populists (whether Trump or Burke, is the context) in his reforms: "He goes forward, and fast forward," says Spadaro.

In the context of the Pope, some consultants seem to have taken an opportunity to see new alliances between the "Argentine" Church leadership and the mainstream of the Left.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Publico (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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"I was not a pedophile Priest, but a pedophile who was ordained a priest."

(Paris) France 3 broadcast its interview with a former priest who was laicized for the sexual abuse of children by the Church. His statements are frightening. His statement that he was not a pedophile priest, but a pedophile who was ordained a priest is truly remarkable.

"I was not a pedophile priest but a pedophile who was ordained a priest," is the clear and frightening testimony of a man who was a priest and condemned for pedophilia.

The man sketches his CV in the interview. His sexual "impulses" had been known to his superiors in the Church, but that had not hurt his career. Above all, he was ordained a priest. At the end of the 1970s this was not really an issue.

Before he was consecrated, he was told only to "be careful". No one had pointed out to him "that my victims might suffer from it."

The man relates that he was ordained as a priest in 1981. At that time a "pedophile impulse" had already been "known". Nevertheless, he was later employed at French grammar schools and universities in the position of a youth welfare counselor. His superiors had been "an authority of blindness and irresponsibility." At that time, the man admitted, he had abused various minors.

The complaints of the victims had caused him to be transferred and to be assigned tasks in which he should no longer be in contact with children. He himself then, as he assured, ended his abusive behavior.

In 2006, he was found guilty by a court and sentenced to 15 months imprisonment. Through the contact with the victims he finally became "really aware of the damage one can inflict on the lives of others".

In addition to self-serving admissions, the man's statements are an important point. In the public discussion since the connection with sexual child abuse by clerics, a link between pedophilia and the priesthood or at least priestly celibacy has been repeatedly established. An attempt was made here to instrumentalize the abuse  into attacks against the priesthood, the Church, and against priest celibacy.

In this context, it is interesting to note the fact that the former priest and condemned pedophile interviewed by France 3, who emphasized that he had not been a "pedophile priest" but "a pedophile, who was ordained a priest."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: France 3 (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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ADL Calls the Shots in Vatican?

Edit: as if there were really any question. Real Catholicism is to be squelched and undermined at any cost.

[Tablet] On Thursday, a delegation from the Anti-Defamation League met with Pope Francis at the Vatican; ADL director Jonathan Greenblatt said the pope’s “moral voice is so needed today.” In a speech to the delegation at the Hall of Popes, Pope Francis, who has spoken out against anti-Semitism numerous times, and has visited Auschwitz, showed his respect for the ADL while denounced anti-Semitism in all its forms.

Here is a large chunk of Pope Francis’ powerful speech, which should be read in full:

Whereas the culture of encounter and reconciliation engenders life and gives rise to hope, the “non-culture” of hate sows death and reaps despair. Last year I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. There are no adequate words or thoughts in the face of such horrors of cruelty and sin; there is prayer, that God may have mercy and that such tragedies may never happen again. To this end let us continue to help one another, as Pope John Paul II so desired, “to enable memory to play its necessary part in the process of shaping a future in which the unspeakable iniquity of the Shoah will never again be possible”: a future of genuine respect for the life and dignity of every people and every human being.

 http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/224500/pope-francis-anti-semitism-is-contrary-to-christian-principles-and-every-vision-worthy-of-the-human-person

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Steve Bannon Thinks Pope Francis is "Naive"

[German Section of Radio Vatican] US President Donald Trump will also meet the Pope during his visit to the G7 summit in Italy. This is what the Rome correspondent of the news site "Breitbart News" told  "Corriere della Sera". "Breitbart" had been headed by Steve Bannon until 2016, Trumps most important consultant. The past contact between Trump and the Pope was not a happy one, according to the correspondent Thomas Williams, a former member of the religious community "Legionaries of Christ".

 There was a "certain mistrust" between the Pope and Bannon. Bannon considers the pope "naive in the subjects of emigration and radical Islam," said the Breitbart correspondent. He also reported on the contacts between the American Cardinal Raymond L. Burke and Bannon. Both are not friends because they have different styles: "Burke is methodical, Bannon is impetuous," says Williams.

When Trump was to appoint a new American ambassador to the Holy See, things were unclear. According to the journalist, there was a very pious man in the conversation whom he, Williams, advised. The new US ambassador to the Holy See, even if he was a Catholic, must articulate the position of President Trump.

Thomas Williams is married in Rome to the daughter of the former US Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann Glendon.

The G7 summit will take place on 26 and 27 May in Taormina (Sicily). A few days ago, the Vatican described speculation about a possible meeting between Trump and Pope Francis as "premature".

Vatican Investigating the Fake Edition of the 'Osservatore Romano'

Fake edition of the Vatican newspaper contained a alleged replies from Pope Francis to the writing of the four cardinals' dubia to "Amoris laetitia" and had been sent by anonymous mail to cardinals, bishops and clergymen.

Vatican City (kath.net/KAP)  After the spread of a fake, papal-critical edition of the Vatican newspaper "Osservatore Romano", the Vatican police has launched an investigation, as Italian media reported on Saturday. On Friday the daily Il Messaggero reported on the fake issue, which had been sent in the past days by anonymous e-mails to cardinals, bishops, other clergy and "honorable men".

On the masthead of the fake "Osservatore": is an article in which Pope Francis replies to the questions of four cardinals to his letter "Amoris laetitita" - not with a "yes" or "no" as requested but with the answer "Yes and no". The Cardinals had publicly expressed their doubts about "Amoris laetitia" in November and demanded more clarity in dealing with remarried divorced people.

The director of the real "Osservatore," Giovanni Maria Vian, described the Fake edition as a badly made "slander" by "bunglers". The graphic of the original Vatican is much more elegant, and the genuine "Osservatore" uses the "Latin of the Curia," instead of the philosophical-medieval language of counterfeiting. Vian suspects a "circle of lay people outside the Vatican" as the originators of the Fake newspaper.

The Vatican and the Italian police are also investigating another case of unusual, public criticism of the pope: a week ago, unknown individuals had hung up more than 200 papal-critical posters in several Roman districts. On them was the pope's dark facial expression. Under the photograph in Roman dialect it read: "Francis, you have placed Congregations under the direction of a Commissioner, dismissed priests, decapitated the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate and Malta, ignored cardinals, but where is your mercy?"

The text of the posters was clearly indicative of ecclesiastical events that had led to criticism of the pope in conservative circles; Such as the resignation of the Maltese Grand Master, Matthew Festing, at the urging of Francis and the doubts of the Cardinals on "Amoris laetitia", which were also the subject of the falsification of the "Osservatore."

According to the Italian media, Italian media suspect political rights and conservative Catholic circles who reject Francis' course of reform. Concrete references to the perpetrators are not yet known. 

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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Bishop Egan: "Growing Problems" Because of Amoris Laetitia -- "Pray for the Church"

(London) While some Church representatives declare that everything is in order, others call for prayer because of "growing problems" because of Amoris laetitia .

The Archbishop Emeritus of Barcelona, Cardinal Sistach, declared a few days ago that everything was in order. The controversial post-synodal letter Amoris laetitia of Pope Francis was "clear" and "not ambiguous," which is why he could not understand why other Cardinals had Dubia (doubts).

The English bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth is of a different opinion. He notes "growing problems" in the Church. The reason for this is Amoris laetitia . Because of the interpretation of this papal document, which accuses the critic of ambiguity in the decisive passages, there is growing disagreement and "discord" in the diocese and the parishes.

As Bishop Egan announced, the priesthood of his diocese raised the question of whether the priests should follow the pope or the bishop. Behind it lies the Interpretation-chaos (New York Times), which has split the church since the publication of Amoris laetitia . With reference to ecclesiastical marriage and the ordinance of the sacraments, Bishop Egan had declared that once again married divorced persons would be denied admission to the sacraments if they were not abstinent in the new union.

This interpretation of the pastoral guidelines is in open conflict with other bishops, decidedly calling for their new doctrine and practice on Amoris laetitia .

Because of the growing conflict in the Church, which has been created by Amoris laetitia , Bishop Egan has called upon the faithful to "pray for the Church" on Wednesday.

Literally, the bishop wrote after the meeting of the priests of his diocese:

"Council of Priests yesterday: Whom do we obey, the bishop or the pope? I'd say Both! But there's a growing problem: let's pray 4 the Church. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Twitter (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG