"Moderate Bergoglian" New President of the Italian Bishops' Conference -- Cardinal Bassetti

The outgoing Cardinal Bagnasco and newcomer, Cardinal Bassetti 

(Rome) The Italian Episcopal Conference has great weight in the world church and a new President is Gualtiero Cardinal Bassetti, the Archbishop of Perugia. He replaces Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa, in this function. The new President Bassetti is almost a year older than the outgoing Bagnasco. For the first time the President was appointed according to the change of the statutes by Pope Francis. Thus the lot fell on the most moderate among the "Bergoglianians," who is considered a "friend" of the pope.

"By hearing the news of my appointment as the President of the Italian Bishops' Conference, my first thoughts are those of gratitude to the Holy Father for the courage he has shown to give me this responsibility at the twilight of my life. It is really a sign that he believes in the ability of the ancients to be able to dream ... "

With these words begins the first public statement of Cardinal Bassetti as the new president of the Italian Bishops' Conference. On the 7th of April the Cardinal completed his 75th year. Where some bishops, including archbishops, even in the best of health, are retired by Francis, like Archbishop Luigi Negri of Ferrara, while others [less able and orthodox] are extended in office. With Francis, much is a question of the content, but also of personal sympathies, as it is described in Rome.

In his first statement, the Cardinal also emphasized that he wanted to be "in the service of the last", the "poorest" and those "thrown away by the world."

Cardinal Bassetti enjoys the personal sympathy of the pope

Gualtiero Bassetti was born in 1942 in Tuscany. In 1966 he received priestly ordination and was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Florence. After parish work and schooling, Cardinal Benelli appointed him as rector of the archbishop's seminary in 1979. Under Benelli's successor, Cardinal Piovanelli, he became Vicar General of the Archdiocese in 1992.

Cardinal Bassetti, "friend" of the Pope

In 1994 Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Massa Marittima and in 1998 Bishop of Arezzo. He is known in Italy during 2008 for his commitment to the workers of the Buitoni factory of Sansepolcro, who were threatened with dismissal because of the sale of Nestlé to Newlat. Pope Benedict XVI promoted him to the archdiocese of Perugia in 2009 and gave him the pallium. Since 2009 he was deputy president of the bishops' conference.

Pope Francis summoned him as a member of the Congregation for the Bishops in Autumn of 2013 , created him as a cardinal in February 2014 and called him into the Congregation of Clergy.

While important bishops' seats such as Venice went empty, Archbishop Bassetti was elevated to Cardinal by Francis, which indicated a special papal sympathy. In 2016 Francis commissioned the Cardinal to formulate the meditations for the Via Crucis at the Colosseum.

At the same time, Bassetti belongs to those bishops, who, following the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, also celebrated Holy Mass in the traditional form of the Roman Rite. This was certainly true in 2011 when Benedict XVI, reigned.

From the "Sirian" Bagnasco to the "Bergoglian Bassetti"

Cardinal Bagnasco, whom Bassetti replaces, had been the president since 2007. Bagnasco is not only a successor of Cardinal Giuseppe Siri as Archbishop of Genoa, but is also considered to be his pupil. For this reason, Benedict XVI put him at the top of the Episcopal Conference.

The papal appointment is subject to a special clause: Article 26 of the Statutes. While the Bishops' Conferences around the world choose their presidents themselves, there are two exceptions. One is Belgium, the other is Italy. In Belgium, the respective Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and the Primate of the country is also automatically president of the bishops' conference. Since the Pope is also Bishop of Rome, and therefore, head of the Bishop's Conference, he is automatically its president. Just as the Pope does not personally fulfill his duties as Bishop of Rome, but appoints a cardinal vicar, he also appoints a representative, who presides for him in the bishops' conference.

With the election of Pope Francis, it was soon clear that the spiritual consensus between Cardinal Bagnasco and Pope Benedict XVI. was no longer a given. Francis had Bagnasco in office, but disempowered him. The Pope can also appoint the Secretary-General of the Episcopal Conference. Francis invoked Bishop Nunzio Galantino, who since then has been the leading man in the Episcopal Conference and will probably remain.

The choice of a trio

In 2014, Pope Francis Francis had changed the statutes of the bishops' conference, which had now come to the fore for the first time. According to the new regulation, the Episcopal Conference now has to submit to the Pope, by an absolute majority, a proposal of three, from which he determines his legates.

Holy Mass in Immemorial Rite (2011)

On May 22, the Bishops' Conference began its Spring Conference. It included more than 200 bishops. A good third of it was already appointed by Francis. This shift in the axis was also reflected in yesterday's three-stroke rally. One thing was already clear in advance that because of the special situation, no candidate could be proposed to the pope and the actual president who did not meet his expectations.

All three of the three candidates who were elected yesterday were therefore "Bergoglians". Beside Bassetti it was the Bishop of Novara, Franco Giulio Brambilla, and the Bishop of Agrigento, Cardinal Francesco Montenegro. Like Bassetti, Montenegro too had been elevated to Cardinal by Francis.

In the trio Bassetti was the most appropriate "Bergoglian". This is also the reason why he received the most votes from the bishops. In the third ballot to the first ballot, in which only the two most voted were left, he won 134 votes against Brambilla, who came in with 86 votes. Already in the first two polls were Bassetti, Brambilla and Montenegro above all others.

Bassetti was at the top of the three-man suggestion to the Pope yesterday. Francis appointed him to be the new president of the episcopal conference. This morning Cardinal Bagnasco announced the papal decision after the morning Mass to the bishops.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: CEI / Diocesi Perugia (Messa Tridentina Perugia (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Stronger "March for Life" in Rome -- The Hush About it Begins in the Church

(Rome) This year's March for Life took place in Rome on Saturday. Tens of thousands of participants once again put a strong appearance for the right to life of unborn children. Since the March for Life in Italy has evolved into a major event within a few years, the mainstream media have moved to a new strategy. Since it is not possible to make fun of the March for Life because of lack of success, it is silenced - because it is too successful.

Daily newspapers and television, which, when politically appropriate, report about rallies from a handful of people, conceal the Seventh March for Life with thousands of participants. They have concealed it in advance, so that as few citizens as possible can know about it and come up with the idea to take part in it, and they conceal it afterwards. Success and failure are also driven by this. At least an attempted influence is also to be seen in it.

March for life Media Out, march for immigration media In

While the March for Life is largely ignored in the reporting, a simultaneous March for the Immigration in Milan found the greatest media attention. In Milan - no matter what the media acrobatics - hardly any more people took part than the march in Rome. The difference? The march for boundless immigration, organized by numerous leftist groups and some left-catholic associations, obviously fits better into someone's mind. This is not an ideological antithesis, one would like to make believe that the proponents of life are against the advocates of the immigration. It is to understand that life itself is always holy and unconditionally holy, 

Thus, too, Catholicism is by no means is Catholic. The director of the Italian National Broadcasting Service frequents certain Catholic circles who were involved in the pro-immigration march in Milan, but could not be seen in the pro-life march in Rome. Correspondingly, the reporting failed. The millions of children murdered since the legalization of abortion are considered taboo in these circles.

When the march is concealed for life, this has nothing to do with the media (and those who have influence on the media). It starts in the Church itself. Behind the scenes, the legalization of euthanasia appears to be a matter of fact. Since then, the Church has been silent, as has been the case for years on the subject of abortion. If she has to talk about it, then it does not receive too much notice in the public. Above all, she does not go out into the streets for the unborn children: one should not exaggerate  "the love of life", for the question is decided that the Zeitgeist is the same, the fight against it an overwrought thing of past times. Certain faithful and traditional Catholics remain, who do not want to accept the modern taboos.

Pope and bishops remain silent on abortion in Western Europe

As in the German-speaking world, the Church is also silent on abortion in Italy. This silence, of course, contains the necessary minimum, here and there a fleeting clue to signal that the Church still thinks as she always thought. Is this true? Is she really doing that yet? Doubts are appropriate. A real concern is that neither Pope Francis nor most West European bishops are concerned about the law of life. The homoeopathic dosage with which they employ themselves is lacking any initiative spirit, which is expressed elsewhere. It seems to be more a matter of appeasing those Catholics who have preserved an idea of the holiness of life. If these have occasionally dared to criticize, they may be referred to by this and that only casually.

Cardinal Caffarra: "With abortion and homosexuality, Satan challenges God"

In the run-up to the March for Life, the Rome Life Forum took place last Friday. Cardinal Carlo Caffarra said that "Satan challenges God with abortion and homosexuality". The history of mankind is a constant clash between these two forces. The final victory has already been decided, but up to that point, each man should decide, on the basis of his free will, in this struggle for one side or the other.

Today the consciousness has evaporated, "abortion is an obvious sign of the anti-creation," so says Cardinal Caffarra. The diabolic rebellion against God, which manifests itself in abortion and homosexuality, is a "sign of the apocalyptic times" that we experience, according to the Cardinal. We are not to talk about it at all. One must only have to accept and remain silent.

Riccardo Cascioli, the chief editor of Nuova Bussola Quotidiana , wrote in connection with the March for Life :

"It is no coincidence that there are voices about the establishment of a Vatican Commission even for the review of Humane Vitae. In the case of the two episcopal synods over the family, more than one bishop has raised such a demand. It is no coincidence that at the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia was put in charge, a bishop who immediately set about destroying the work of John Paul II. Even the embassies of the Italian Episcopal Conference on the Day of Life avoid talking about abortion, although the day was introduced as a direct response to the abortion legalization of 1978."

Cardinal Burke and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider

Among the participants of the March, Cardinal Raymond Burke and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider were again present this year. Pope Francis sent a greeting message, which can be seen as progress, in view of the coldness with which it has encountered in the past several years of the right to life initiative. At first the March for Life took place on Sunday and was led to St. Peter's Square to participate in the Regina Coeli with the Pope. Francis greeted various groups, but not the March for Life. In the meantime, a decoupling of the two events took place. Obviously the Vatican entertains a meticulous distinction between a brief papal greeting from the State Secretariat and a personal greeting from the Pope in Saint Peter's Square,

Despite the opposition of the abortion lobby, the March for Life quickly became the most important date for the Life movement and the most visible event for the unborn children in Italy. Delegations came to Rome from 20 countries on Saturday to emphasize the international importance of the commitment to the right to life.

Coda Nunziante: "A nation that does not promote life is a nation that dies"

This year the march was under the motto "Uncompromising for Life". The President of the Organizing Committee, Virginia Coda Nunziante, said in her speech:

"This place, so abundantly occupied, wants to reveal the beauty of life, but, with a firm determination from our politicians, to demand that our rulers stop financing our suicide with our taxes. Instead of killing our children, we ask for concrete help for the families so that they can raise their children. We are convinced that the economy would also recover. A nation that does not promote life is a nation that dies. And that is the demographic prediction that our country is making true."

She also referred to the 100th anniversary of Fatima Apparitions.

"Fatima is the most extraordinary event of our era. The Mother of God has come and asked us not to offend God any longer. In the hundred years since, however, the situation has deteriorated decisively, because almost all states have laws against life, against the family, and against the nature of man."

Coda Nunziante quoted from a letter that Sr. Lucia dos Santos had written to Cardinal Caffarra in the 1980s. In this letter, the visionary of Fatima said that the final battle between God and the devil will be on the subject of life and family. Coda Nunziante cited it for the March for the Life.

"We face this challenge in the certainty that with the help of God, life will always win over death."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: NBQ

Trans: Tancred verkron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Pope Bergoglio Surprise Creation of New Cardinals

(Rome) Only six months after the recent consistory on the creation of new cardinals, Pope Francis announced yesterday the next cardinal appointments. Such a short-term succession of cardinal appointments was the last thing that happened in 2012 immediately before Pope Benedict XVI's surprise resignation.

The announcement made by Pope Francis on Sunday said that he felt an urgent need to appoint new cardinals who were eligible for election in an imminent conclave.

The full number of the papal electors currently stands at 120 cardinals who have not yet reached 80 years of age. At present, this includes 116 cardinals. In the first half of 2018, seven current papal electors will leave for reasons of age. Then the number will remain constant until the end of January 2019. With the five new cardinals, 49 of the 121 pope voters will have been appointed by Francis.

With the announcement of the creation of five new cardinals, Pope Francis will even slightly exceed the full figure for eight months.

The Cardinals' Consistory was announced by Francis for the 28th of June. Of the five new cardinals, four come from the margins:

Msgr. Jean Zerbo, Archbishop of Bamako (Mali)

Msgr. Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona (Spain)

Msgr. Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm (Sweden)

Msgr. Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, Apostolic Vicar of Paksé (Laos)

Gregorio Rosa Chávez, Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador (El Salvador)

Three of the five new cardinals are from the Diaspora, which is why the question of the representation of the Cardinals from countries and dioceses, which are hardly known to Catholics (Mali, Sweden, Laos), have been raised. Whether the periphery or the center ( Pope Francis allows for an overweights from the periphery once again), a "Bergoglian" identity is common to the appointed men.

Above all, the appointment of an Auxiliary Bishop to the Cardinal raises questions. The reigning Archbishop of San Salvador is younger than his auxiliary bishop coming to the purple. Monsignor Rosa has been an auxiliary bishop since 1982 and was appointed by Pope John Paul II. Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas was appointed in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI.

In the Cardinal, and thus to his advisors, the Pope can appoint whom he will, but the elevation of Monsignor Rosa is at least unusual. Auxiliary Bishop Rosa is the oldest of the new Cardinals at 74 years.

On the 28th of June there will be a total of 227 cardinals.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG:

"The Jihadist Couldn't Behead Me and Asked: 'Who Are You?'" -- The Witness of Abuna Nirwan

(Jerusalem) Abuna Nirwan is a Franciscan from Iraq. Before his ordination he had completed a medical examination. When he went to the Holy Land in 2004, the Dominican Women of the Rosary gave him a relic and a rosary from their founder, which Father Nirwan always carries with him.

Maria Alfonsina Ghattas and the Dominican Women of the Rosary

Maria Alfonsina Ghattas

The Dominican Women of the Rosary, a missionary order, were founded by Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas, a Palestinian Catholic who was born in 1843 in Jerusalem, which was still part of the Ottoman Empire. At a young age, she joined a French religious order, but in 1880, according to a vision, she founded her own order for Arab girls.The missionary community, now spread in eight countries of the Middle East, is the only order founded by the Latin Patriarchy, which was reestablished in 1847 in Jerusalem.

In 2009 Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas was beatified in Nazareth's preaching base. On May 17, 2015,  she was canonized by Pope Francis. Her liturgical commemoration day is the 25th of March, when she died in 1927 in A Karim near Jerusalem (then the British League of Nations Mandate for Palestine).

When Benedict XVI in 2009, had ordered the investigation for a miracle for the Beatification of the religious, as usual, he ordered the Exhumation of the Corpse. The local bishop instructs a doctor. With the exhumation of the body of Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas, Father Nirwan was commissioned because of his training, and he also wrote the medical report.

Father Nirwan (center) as head of exhumation

As the Spanish Opus Dei priest Santiago Quemada, who lived in Jerusalem, reported on his blog Un sacerdote en Tierra Santa (A Priest in the Holy Land), two years before, extraordinary events had taken place. The report by Quemada has now been taken up by various media.

What was reported occurred on July 14, 2007. Abuna Nirwan, who had been working in the Holy Land for three years, paid a visit to his family in Iraq. In Jordan, he got in a taxi, as he explained it in spring 2016 in the sermon in the almost completely Christian Palestinian town of Beit Jalla near Bethlehem.

"It was not then possible to visit my family by plane. That was forbidden. As a means of transport, therefore, only the car could be considered. My intention was to get to Baghdad and from there to Mosul where my parents lived. 

The driver was frightened because of the situation that prevailed in Iraq. A family - father and mother with a two-year-old girl - had asked if they could go with me. The taxi driver told me they had asked him to. I had no objection. They were Muslims. The driver was a Christian. He told them that there was room and they could come along. We stopped at a gas station, where another young Muslim asked if he could go to Mossul. Since there was still room, we also took him.

The border between Jordan and Iraq was closed until the morning. As the sun rose, the roadblock opened and the 50 or 60 vehicles were slowly moving in succession.
We continued our journey. After more than an hour we came to a checkpoint. We made our passports ready and stopped. The driver said, 'I am afraid of this group'. It was a military control post. However, as it turned out, an Islamic terrorist organization had killed the soldiers and taken control of the position.
When we were at the checkpoint, our passports were checked while we stayed in the car. Then they left with the passports. A person came back and said to me: 'Father, we need to continue to review. You can come to the office.'  "Well," I said, "if we are to come, we'll come." We then walked a quarter of an hour, until we came to a barrack, which had been directed to us.
Once there, two men with hooded faces came out. One had a video camera in one hand and a knife in the other. The other held a Koran in his hand. They came to us, and one of them asked me, 'Father, where are you from?' I said, from Jordan. Then he repeated the question to the driver. Finally, he turned to the young man who traveled with us, grabbed him from behind and killed him with a knife. We were frozen. They tied my hands behind me and said to me, 'Father, we are recording everything for Al Jazeera . Do you want to say something? But no more than a minute.' I said, "No, I just want to pray." They let me pray for a minute.
Then a man pushed me down to my knees and said, 'You are a priest. It is forbidden for your blood to fall to the ground, that would be a sacrilege.' He fetched a bucket and came to cut my throat. I no longer know what prayers I prayed at this moment. I was very afraid. Then I said to Maria Alfonsina: 'If it is so, that the Lord takes me away, I am ready. But if that is not so, I ask you that no one else will die."
The man grabbed my head and guided his knife with the other hand. Then nothing happened. After a moment of silence, he said, 'Who are you?' I replied, 'A religious brother.' Then he said, 'Why can I not manage to set the knife? Who are you?'
Without answering, he left me and said, 'Father, you and all the others, return to the car.'
We did that and were able to continue the journey.
Since that moment, I have ceased to be afraid of death. I know I will die one day, but now I am really aware that this will be when God wants it. Since then, I am no longer afraid of anything and nobody. What happens to me will be done according to God's will. He will give me the strength to take His cross. What counts is faith. God accepts those who believe in Him."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican.va/Franziskanerkustodie (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Jesuit General Sosa Signed a Hymn of Praise to Fidel Castro in 1989

In 1989, Sosa signed a manifesto, that Fidel Castro be celebrated as a hero

(Havana) The life of Arturo Sosa Abascal, the 31st Father General of the Jesuit Order reigning since October 2016, reads like a Marxist. In the late seventies, in the high bloom of liberation theology, he dealt with the question of how Christian faith could be mediated Marxistically. Many years later, he joined the circle of convinced Castro followers. This is the result of a declaration of solidarity, which was signed by the now "Black Pope".

"Unprecedented victory over tyranny, corruption and vassalism"

In 1989, 911 Venezuelan intellectuals and artists published a Manifiesto de Bienvenida a Fidel Castro , in which they welcomed the visit of Fidel Castro, the communist dictator of Cuba, and celebrated it as the "leader of the Cuban Revolution".

"We want to pay public respect for what you have achieved for the dignity of your people and for the whole of Latin America"

Says the statement.

"In this dramatic hour for the continent, only ideological blindness can deny the place you occupy in the history of the liberation of our peoples. 30 years ago, you came to Venezuela immediately after the exemplary victory over tyranny, corruption and vassalage. At that time, you were received by our people, as only a hero who embodies and symbolizes the collective ideal could."

Fidel Castro already visited Venezuela in the late 1950s

The signatories assured Fidel Castro, "for the same reasons today," to express their affection associated with "the hope" of building a "just, independent and solidarity Latin America". The persecution of the Church by the Cuban regime obviously did not touch the Jesuit Sosa.With this attitude, he was not alone among progressive Catholics. Christians who are not left are not true Christians, but reactionaries who deserve to be persecuted. Thus, the Swiss Capuchin Walbert Bühlmann formulated it in 1986 and thereby meant the Christian persecution of the Cuban supported Marxist regimes of Angola and Mozambique.

Father Arturo Sosa appears as the 811th signatory to the Declaration, which he signed as Director of the Centro Gumilla ( de Investigacion y Accion Social ). He also published his essay "La mediacion marxista de la Fe cristiana" (The Marxist mediation of the Christian faith) in the SIC of the Centro, which he directed from 1979-1996. Seven years after the praise of Fidel Castro, Sosa became Provincial Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Venezuela in 1996.

"The story is history, you can not deny," wrote the Spanish columnist Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña. For people can change over the years. What matters is where they are. The praise to Fidel Castro could however at best be considered a very late "sin of youth," since Sosa was already 41 years old at that time.

The past has passed: what if the now is even more serious?

Sosa after his election to the Jesuit General

Fidel Castro is dead, his brother Raul still dominates Cuba with a Marxist fist, while Sosa's homeland Venezuela is in a serious crisis. The "bolivarian" Maduro regime, with whom communist Cuba is closely aligned, shoots protesters.

More serious than the Marxist and real socialist aberrations of the Jesuit generation in the past are some doubtful statements today. At the very least, his assertion that Japan can only be evangelized in cooperation with Buddhism and Shintoism (see also the discernment between spirits ) is misleading . A comment in an interview with the Swiss journalist Giuseppe Rusconi brought a charge of heresy  against Sosa. The Father General of the Jesuits questioned nothing but the validity of Jesus' words. In order to justify the admission of remarried divorced to the sacraments and the softening of the sacraments of the Church as they read out parts of the Church from the post-synodal letter Amoris laetitia, calling on Pope Francis, Sosa questioned the infallibility of Jesus. At that time nobody had a tape recorder to record the words.

The case is pending with the Congregation of the Faith, which is now faced with the unusual task of judging a Superior General of the Jesuit Order. However, the situation in the history of the Church and the Order is not entirely new.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Venezuelavetada / MiL / Jesuit.org (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

"A Real Bomb" -- Pope Benedict Admonishes Francis: The Liturgy is in "Good Hands" With Cardinal Sarah

Cardinal Robert Sarah on a visit to the Benedictine Abbey of Solesme. Benedict XVI Pope Francis admonishes that the liturgy of the Church is in "good hands" with Cardinal Sarah.

(Rome) At first sight, what seems to be an expression of appreciation is "really a real bomb," according to Riccardo Cascioli, editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine Il Timone and the online daily Nuova Bussola Quotidiana,

"With Cardinal Sarah the liturgy is in good hands." Signed: Benedict XVI.

The Pope, who had resigned more than four years ago, has signed a direct defense of Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship and the Order of the Sacraments. The Cardinal was appointed by Pope Francis, who thus replaced the Ratzingerian Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, but is considered an "operational accident" in the papal circle.

Cardinal Sarah, Defender of the Holy Liturgy

The Cardinal from Guinea represents an even more traditional Church and liturgical understanding than his predecessor, and he is above all more consistent and active. When he became aware of this in the Vatican, Pope Francis began to counteract further appointments and isolate Sarah in his own congregation. After the Cardinal had invited all  priests to face liturgical east again at a London conference, giving up the heart of the "Protestant" liturgical form of 1965/1969, the excitement in Rome was so great that Francis himself contradicted Sarah. It says a great deal about the stamina of the black African that he nevertheless held fast to his request and repeated it afterwards.

"Cardinal Sarah has something to say to each of us"

The "eye-catching gesture" of Benedict XVI. Is found in a commentary on the latest book by Cardinal Sarah "La force du silence" (The Power of Silence), which has not yet appeared in German editions. This letter, which will be included in future editions as an afterword, was published yesterday evening by the American side First Things.

Benedict XVI praises Cardinal Sarah's book on a grand scale. He describes the Cardinal as a "spiritual master who speaks to the Lord from the depths of silence: the expression of his inner connection with Him, which is why he has something to say to each of us."

At the end of his letter the Pope, thanking Pope Francis, expressed his thanks for the appointment of "such a spiritual master as head of the Congregation for the Celebration of the Liturgy in the Church".

Defense against creeping disempowerment

This comment is more than just gratitude, according to Cascioli. He wants to protect and defend Cardinal Sarah.

"It is no secret that Cardinal Sarah was effectively deprived of a step by step over the past year, first by the appointment of Congregation members, with the aim of surrounding Sarah with open-minded progressive figures, who rejected the "Reform of the Reform" as described by Benedict XVI, which the Cardinal tried to implement from Guinea; Then the open contradiction of Pope Francis against Sarah's proposal on the direction of celebration; Finally, the reinterpretation of the liturgical texts into the vernacular languages, which hd been entrusted to a commission erected without the knowledge of the Cardinal; And last but not least, steps for an ecumenical Mass which will be undertaken by circumventing the relevant Congregation. "

The "promotion" of Cardinal Cañizares to be Archbishop to Valencia, is a single attack on the pontificate of Benedict XVI. whose efforts were aimed at recovering an understanding of sacredness. Nowhere in the Church is the contrast between a different understanding of the Church clearer than in the liturgy. This is due to the centrality of the sacred liturgy for the life of the Church. This centrality was supported by Benedict XVI. and brought him vigorous criticism from those circles who assert the power of authority over the liturgy.

Benedict's admonition and warning

In the now published epistle to the book by Cardinal Sarah, Benedict XVI offers a reminder:

"As for the interpretation of Scripture, it is also true that the liturgy requires a specific knowledge. In the liturgy, however, it is also true that specialization can fail to be essential if it is not rooted in a profound inner connection with the praying Church, which is constantly learning anew from the Lord, this is adoration."

Therefore the conclusion for Cascioli sounds "like a warning":

"The liturgy is in good hands with Cardinal Sarah, the master of stillness and inner prayer."

Benedict XVI, jumps to Cardinal Sarah's side and make him again the effective head of the worship congregation. There had so far been no such clear intervention in the administration of Pope Francis by the former Pope. Benedict XVI is going on as he has ruled: quiet, reserved, almost shy. Anyone who knows this style of government, and that applies to the entire Vatican, which knows the importance and clarity of this advance. The future epilogue of the book expresses the German Pope's  anxiety about "what is happening in the heart of the Church."

It is no coincidence that Benedict XVI. intervenes precisely in the area which, like no other, has determined his pontificate and is convinced that it will decide the decline or recovery of the Church. It was only recently that, on a question of confusion and divisions in the Church, Georg Gänswein had apparently casually replied that Benedict XVI. follows everything closely in the Church. To this Cascioli said:

"Now we see that he begins to discreetly take a few steps."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: MiL / Riposte catholique (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Has Pope Francis Established a "Secret Commission" for the Revision of "Humanae Vitae"

Does Pope Francis intend to erect a secret commission to dismantle Paul VI's Encyclical?

(Rome) According to leaks from the Vatican, Pope Francis intends (or has already implemented) to appoint a secret commission with the mission to examine possible changes in the position of the Church on artificial contraceptives. This was reported by the Vaticanist Marco Tosatti last week.

The demand was linked to the current pontificate by progressive Church representatives. Pope Francis so far made ambivalent signals on Humanae vitae .

Revision of Humanae vitae ?

Concretely, the issue was to examine the Encyclical Humanae vitae by Pope Paul VI. with a possible revision.The former Archbishop of Milan had reacted with the encyclical on the anti-baby pill, the sexual revolution and the killing of unborn children by abortion. He did it in the middle of the 68-Revolt, which had just broken loose. On July 25, 1968, he published the encyclical Humanae vitae, with a "prophetic message," as Pope John Paul II says in 1981 in the post-synodal letter Familiaris consortio. Pope Francis also spoke of "prophetic geniality" in an interview of March 5, 2014 with the Corriere della Sera. Contradictory signals from the current Pope, however, do not allow an exact classification of his attitude to ( Karnickel , Zika virus and what Paul VI never said). Although he praised the "geniality" of the encyclical on the one hand, he found praise for the German moral theologian Bernhard Häring, one of the sharp critics of Humanae vitae .

Bishop of Aleppo Performed Marian Consecration on Saturday

Marian consecration in North Syria coincides with the papal trip on the 12th and 13th of May in Fatima - Bishop: In the Marian Month of May, "all the churches are full of the faithful who pray the Rosary, kneel before the exposed Eucharist and recite litanies"

Rome (kath.net/KAP) The Christian community in Aleppo is preparing to celebrate the Fatima Jubilee and dedicate Syria's second-largest city to the Mother of God of the Fatima Apparition of Portugal. This was reported by the Chaldean bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo, on Wednesday, according to the Roman mission news agency "AsiaNews". According to this, the consecration should bear testimony of a faith which "remained strong" in the time of the affliction on Saturday, May 13th. In the past few years the feeling of a "deep fellowship" reaching beyond confessional boundaries has developed, the bishop said.

The Marian Consecration in North Syria coincides with the Apostolic Journey of Pope Francis on the 12th and 13th of May. In Fatima, 100 years ago Mary appeared to the shepherd children, Francisco Marto, Jacinta Marto, and Lucia dos Santos; Francisco, the sibling of Marto, already beatified in 2000, will be sanctified in Fatima on Saturday.

"It must be said that the whole month of May is important to the Christian communities of Aleppo," said Bishop Audo, "all the churches are full of the faithful who pray the Rosary, kneel before the suspended Eucharist and recite litanies Very important time, it is a tradition that is deeply rooted and has lasted all the time. "

The three days of the festivities dedicated to the Mother of God of Fatima in Aleppo, organized on the initiative of the Latin parish of St. Francis, began on Thursday, 11 May, with a prayer at 5 pm. The highlight of the celebrations was Saturday, May 13th, with the Pope's Mass in Fatima, a solemn Eucharistic celebration in the St. Francis Cathedral, in which all the bishops and priests who are present in Aleppo and the surrounding area are participating. The faithful of all confessions in the largest north-Syrian city are invited to the Mass.

"The long-standing epicenter of the Syrian conflict is dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima - after a procession with the statue by the streets," said Audo. This highly symbolic gesture is linked with the hope "that it can help to restore peace not only in Syria but throughout the Middle East after decades of conflict."

"The consecration of Aleppo to Mary and the issue of peace are a source of hope and a sign of our presence as a Church," said the Chaldean bishop: "We also want to use the event to address the themes of dialogue, unity and invitation to the Church. And not only among the various Christian denominations, but also with the inclusion of the Muslims by taking advantage of the huge echo produced by the Pope's visit to Egypt."

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG