"Not to be hitched to the cart"
Always loyal
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
Cardinal Joachim Meisner (1933-2017) was Bishop of Berlin from 1980-1989 and Archbishop of Cologne from 1989-2014.
(Cologne) As the Archdiocese of Cologne reported, Joachim Cardinal Meisner, peacefully passed away in the early morning hours.
"+++ In deep grief +++
Cardinal Meisner has died.
We mourn our old Archbishop Joachim Cardinal Meisner.
We pray for the deceased and always remember him well.
Let him rest in peace. "
This news was published by the Archdiocese of Cologne on his Facebook page.
Bishop at ecclesiastical and political flash points
Cardinal Meisner was born in the Silesian capital of Breslau on 25 December 1933, the Christmas Day, which he felt as a special grace. After the mass forced relocation of the German population to East Germany, he became a banker in Thuringia. In 1951 he entered Magdeburg in a late-semester seminary. In 1962, he was ordained in Erfurt for the Diocese of Fulda and promoted in 1969 to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
Cardinal Meisner at his First Communion
In 1975 he was appointed Pope Paul VI. to the auxiliary bishop of the Episcopal Office of Erfurt-Meiningen, by combining the diocesan parts of Fulda and Würzburg, which lay in the DDR, beyond the Iron Curtain. The life of the church in the Communist dictatorship shaped Meisner deeply. He developed a special relationship with Catholic Eichsfeld in Thuringia, in which he felt reminded of his Silesian homeland.
In 1980, Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of Berlin, who was divided and divided by a wall, was altogether under Allied occupation, but was a united church unit. The Polish pope held the Silesian Meisner, whom he personally knew, as the most suitable man for one of the most difficult diocese, which was also part of a Catholic diaspora. In 1983, John Paul II raised him to the rank of Cardinal to give the Bishop of Berlin special weight. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, he was also President of the Berlin Bishops' Conference, in which the DDR's ordinaries were gathered.
The "Roman" minority
Shortly before the collapse of the Communist dictatorship and German reunification, the Pope appointed Meisner to be Archbishop of Cologne, one of the most important and influential bishops' seats in the world, alongside Milan and Chicago. John Paul II thus honored the Cardinal and expressed his appreciation and confidence, and set a strong signal for the idea of German unity, which was already very much in process at that time. Above all, he signaled that he wanted a faithfulness, like that exemplified in the Cardinal, in the internally disturbed German church. The appeal to the Archdiocese of Cologne had become possible because the cathedral chapter could not agree on any candidate, and the Pope considered the right of the proclamation to be dilatory.
Episcopal ordination in Erfurt, 1975
In the following years, the Cardinal became a fixed, "Roman" reference point in the German episcopate, which pushed most of the time ever more in a progressive direction. Many Catholics, and in the entire German-speaking world, saw in him a "rock in the surf". The cleavages and majority relations in the German episcopate were made clear by the fact that Cardinal Meisner was never elected president of the German Bishops' Conference. He remained the leader of a "Roman" minority who, in the post-conciliar period, would no longer succeed in becoming a majority. With the death of Bishop Dyba, the persecution of Bishop Mixa, the ouster of Bishop Tebartz van Elst and the retirement of Cardinal Meisner, who Pope Francis retired in 2014, after the Cardinal had finished his 80th year, the axis shifted even more clearly Left (not in the sense of parliamentary buttressing, but in the sense of right from legitimacy and justice). When the Cardinal resigned, not a few German Catholics complained that they felt "orphaned". A meaningful description of the situation of the church in Germany
The shadow of the "pill after"
One year before his retirement, a shadow fell over his episcopate. It was about the case of a woman who was allegedly raped, who had requested the "morning after pill" from Catholic hospitals, but had been rejected. Because of the potentially abortifacient effect, the "morning after pill" was rejected by the Catholic Church. Meisner reversed his rejection at the end of January 2013, which made a corresponding decision of the bishop's conference possible. Since then, the "morning after pill" can be administered to Catholic hospitals.
Cardinal Meisner with Pope Benedict XVI
To this day, the rumor circulates that Cardinal Meisner had been misinformed by people he trusted who had misinformed him about the "morning after pill." On the basis of a study published by a leading abortionist, an abortion effect was denied and a decision was made instead of calling for further studies. Behind the scenes, the then Green Minister of Health had threatened to turn off the money tap for Catholic hospitals, if they did not administer the "morning after pill." A good third of the total health care in Cologne and surrounding area is operated by the Catholic Church.
Amoris laetitia, Dubia, and the eloquent silence of the pope
Recently, the Cardinal was internationally known in connection with criticism of the controversial document Amoris Laetitia of Pope Francis. As one of four cardinals, he had asked Pope Francis, in the Dubia (doubts), to clarify ambiguous passages of this document. More than nine months after the Cardinals presented their concerns to the Pope in the form of five questions, Cardinal Meiner has now died without receiving a reply.
Because the Pope refuses to speak, and does not react to Dubia at all, they asked him to receive them by the audience in April, in order to present their concerns. Even in this case they received no answer. Although Francis declared the "dialogue" to be the essential feature of his pontificate, his willingness to negotiate has boundaries, but "in the wrong direction," as is the case of the four cardinals.
Cardinal Meisner, as can be heard from Cologne, was very much concerned about this development in the Church and was personally disappointed.
In his last months of life, the former Archbishop of Cologne had to endure a flood of attacks by the "Chupamedias" of Pope Francis. The Chupamedias as it is called in Buenos Aires, as Francis explained in an interview, are Kriecher and Schleimer. Literally, the term means "spit lickers", as Pope Francis explained. Cardinal Meisner did not comment on the words of the "Chupamedias". How much pain they have given him is not known.
Requiescat in pace
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Archbishopric of Cologne / Facebook (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God,born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.
I also firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.
Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.
(Moscow) For the first time in the history of Russia, there are relics of St. Nicholas of Myra, one of the saints especially worshiped in the Orthodox Church, on Russian soil. After almost a thousand years, for the first time, a relic of the Saint has left Italy.
Arrival of the relic shrine at the Moscow airport
During their meeting in Cuba, Pope Francis and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill agreed in February 2016 that a relic of the Saint would visit Russia. This passed May 21, it was time. All the church bells in the Russian capital Moscow rang as a sign of the great joy over the arrival of the relic. In a spectacular procession, it was taken to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where Patriarch Kirill celebrated Divine Liturgy.
Since 22 May, the relics have been venerated by the faithful in the patriarchal church. Millions of believers have come. Since then, people have been patiently standing in mile long lines in front of the cathedral to find their way in. Often, it takes eight to nine hours before they can step in front of the relic and just wait a few seconds. That is enough to touch or kiss the shrine. Prayer is "in the heart" on the way there, as the Russians say. For this reason, the pilgrimage line moves rather quickly. All the more surprising is the never-ending line in front of the cathedral.
On a dedicated website, believers report on their pilgrimage to the relic, including a young woman, Alena Romanenko. She said, "After I crossed myself and kissed the relic, the priest allowed me to kiss him a second time, no one pushed or protested ... I think that everything depends on what you carry in your heart and the Saint brings it."
A few seconds at the reliquary shrine
On all Moscow metro lines (the Russian capital has the world's fourth largest subway network after Shanghai, London and New York), the visitor to the St. Nicholas Reliquary has been given directions since May on how to come to the pilgrimage.
So far, only the exhibition of the girdle of Mary in 2011 and the relics of Saint Andrew 2003 had moved such crowds. In order to find something similar in the past, one has to go back to 1989, when the body of Sakharov was exhibited in Moscow, and the people were kept in long lines at a most inhospitable temperature of up to minus 20 degrees centigrade. (-4 Fahrenheit) Communist rule in the truest sense of the word.
Vladimir Putin, the current President of Russia, visited the relic on the evening of May 21st.
Until July 12, the relic remains in Moscow, then it is transfered to St. Petersburg to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. In St. Petersburg, an equally impressive number of believers are expected. On the way to the shrine of the saint they will touch or kiss, they will pass the tombs of Dostoevsky and Musorgsky, who are buried there.
Remains of the Saint were translated to Bari from the Muslims
The faithful wait patiently in long lines
The mortal remains of the famous martyr bishop have been preserved since 1087 in the southern Italian city of Bari, where they had been brought for the protection from the Seljuk Muslims from the small Asiatic town of Myra (today Demre in Turkey). Since then they have not left the Apennine peninsula. After coming to terms with Patriarch Kiril on 19 June, part of a rib of the saint was recovered from the crypt below the altar of the basilica named after him in Bari. On the morning of May 21, 2017, Metropolitan Hilarion, the "Foreign Minister" of the Moscow Patriarchate, celebrated a Divine Litirgy at the St. Nicholas Basilica of Bari, attended by Monsignor Francesco Cacucci, Archbishop of the Apulian city. At the end of the liturgy, the metropolitain received the relic from the representatives of the Catholic Church. Hilarion brought the relic to Russia, in a specially designed shrine where the relic was received at the Moscow airport with military honors.
At the request of the Patriarch, all the church bells of Moscow were ringing for this event at 6 pm. The relic reached Russian soil exactly on the eve of the feast, with which the Orthodox Church commemorates the transfer of the relics from Myra to Bari. With a grandiose procession, Patriarch Kirill accompanied the relic into the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the main church of Russian Orthodoxy. The cathedral was blown up by the communist rulers in 1931, but after the end of the Soviet dictatorship it had once again been built up according to the original. On 19 August 2000 it was blessed by Patriarch Alexius II, the predecessor of Kyrill.
Great St. Nicholas procession of Veliteretskoye
Procession of Velitoretskoye
Also this year's Great Procession of Velikoretskoye, one of the great processions of Russia was marked by the presence of the relic of St. Nicholas. The procession, which ended on June 8, is actually a multi-day pilgrimage. It lasts from the 3rd to the 8th of June and finds its end in the inconspicuous place of Velikoretskoye on the river Velikaja in the remote Russia. In Velikoretskoye, about 50 kilometers northwest of Kirov, there is a monastery, where an ancient icon of St. Nicholas was preserved. The icon was found in 1383 by a farmer named Agalakov on the bank of the river. The revered icon is credited with numerous miracles. Soon the procession, still carried out today, was carried out, with the icon being carried 150 kilometers.
During the Soviet period it was first brought to the bishop's church of the city of Viatka, which was renamed by Stalin for the Communist leader Kirov, whom he had executed. When the Communists destroyed the Cathedral of Kirov in 1935, the icon was lost. The Great Procession was already forbidden at that time, but never broke off completely, as small groups of believers kept them secret. After the collapse of the Soviet regime, the pilgrimage was re-established and is now regarded as a sign of the orthodox rebirth of Russia. Since the early 1990s the pilgrimage takes place every year, even if only a replica of the old icon is available. In 2000, Patriarch Alexius II granted the event the status of an all-Russian procession. This year, 35,000 people came to a remote place, including Patriarch Kiril, who, through his personal presence, made the bridge to the relic of the saint, which was revered in Moscow.
https://youtu.be/DLjUmIDOFuo
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bidl: Asianews
Trans: Tanceed vekron99@hotmail
Volker Kauder (67, CDU): "A challenge to the Constitutionality law of marriage for all "will surely come!" Did Merkel (62, CDU), who voted against, already calculate this?
Berlin - On Friday the "marriage for all" was decided by the Bundestag and in many places a big party followed and there were even first marriage promises among same-sex partners. After the rushing celebrations, will there be wailing and lamentations?
The reason for this are statements by Union Chief Volker Kauder (67, CDU). This was from an interview with the news agency AFP on the question whether the new law will end up before the Federal Constitutional Court: "I am certain," the FAZ reports.
And this means in the plain text: The Federal Constitutional Court has the power and the legal possibilities to upend the new law! Then the "marriage for all" for the time being is again on the way out!
How can that be? In the interview, Volker Kauder expressed his concerns more specifically, saying that supporters of the new regulation should "have a wider debate, rather than quickly get a right-wing out-of-law bill out of the Legal Committee."
He also criticized: "In the near future the question of whether the opening of the marriage is really permissible under constitutional law will also put people who are now homosexual, who now want to marry in the sense of the law, in an unstable state of limbo."
Had Angela Merkel already known that the law would not last long, and therefore openly admitted she voted "No"?
These and other questions will have to be clarified in the coming weeks and months. In any case, these developments are a major obstacle for all fans of "homosexual marriage".
Photos: DPA
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
(Rome) Cardinal Gerhard Müller was dismissed by Pope Francis as a Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith.
Müller, previously Bishop of Regensburg, was appointed in June 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. to the Roman Curia to take over the central task as the guardian of the Orthodoxy. On 2 July 2012, he took office. Between Pope Francis and the German Cardinal the relationship was always clearly chilly. In the conflict over the bishops' synod about the family and the post-synodal letter Amoris Laetitia it sank to the zero point. The Cardinal was vehemently opposed to a change in Catholic marriage and morality, without directly criticizing the Pope. In the past there had been an increasing speculation about an imminent dismissal.
Because of his defense of the traditional teachings he was criticized as an "antagonist of the pope"
The more clearly Pope Francis and his immediate circle, to which Cardinal Miiller never belonged, succeeded toward the admission of remarried divorced persons to Communion, the more vehemently the German Cardinal asserted that no one could alter Jesus' teachings, not even the Pope. The fact that he read Amoris Laetitia in the light of the traditional teachings, sufficed to place him under the title of "pope's antagonist."
At the beginning of the Second Episcopal Synod over the family, Cardinal Müller belonged to the 13 Cardinals, who sent a spectacular protest letter to Pope Francis. They protested against the Synods, which wanted to assign them the role of mere extras, while the results seemed to be fixed in advance.
Since then the door of Francis was closed to the Prefect of the Faith. Not because the Cardinal had been wrong, but because the letter had stifled the strategy of the papal entourage.
An increasingly severe conflict
With the dismissal, Francis waited exactly for the expiration of the term of office, which was limited to five years. The dismissal could have already taken place in March 2013, because with the election of a new pope all Curial Offices expire. Francis, however, initially shied away from radical interventions and confirmed the bulk of his work, as is the custom of the Vatican. Gradually, he exchanged leading Curial representatives. The first heads that rolled were "Ratzingerians", such as Cardinal Piacenza, Prefect of the Congregation of Clergy, Cardinal Secretary of State Bertone, Cardinal Canizares, Prefect of the Congregation of the Worship and Cardinal Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature.
The tiny formalism that left Cardinal Müller in office for a full term of office and now, so to speak, to use the legitimate possibility of a new appointment, can not blind us to the radicality of the intervention in an ever harder struggle for the orientation of the Church.
With the dismissal of the Prefect of Faith, the equilibria in the Vatican, in which Pope Francis has repeatedly intervened, are massively slipping, with initially unpredictable consequences.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican.va
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
"If he had remained pope, he would not have lived long."
The Grand Master Dala Tore |
"Kneeling and hand kiss, moving look, civilian clothes. Farewell! decorations, red jackets and presumptuous photos."
"I am near to you, I pray for you, continue this way."
It took the preface of Pope Francis, so that something was finally done about Joel Allaz. The Swiss Capuchin Province announced last Friday, June 23rd that Joël Allaz was released from his solemn vows by decision of the Roman Congregation of the Congregation of Faith of May 20th, and was released from the clerical state. In other words, Joël Allaz, meanwhile 76 years old, was suspended and expelled from the Capuchin Order. The statement also states:
St Anthony’s Catholic primary school in Southwark Diocese UK announced yesterday that it will be introducing a “Gender Neutral” school uniform from September 2017.
In its weekly newsletter via the school’s website, Head teacher Mrs. Jane Day says:
“I am pleased to announce that the Governors have approved the introduction of a gender neutral uniform which will be introduced in September. Rather than having a separate uniform for girls and boys, one uniform list will be produced and girls and boys can choose whether they wear skirts, pinafores, shorts or trousers. There is no change to the uniform which will remain grey, green, yellow and white.”
Her announcement has left parents stunned and upset as it goes completely against the teachings of the Catholic Church, and they say they were not consulted or informed whatsoever of the changes to the uniform.The site has contact information for the school leaders and the Archdiocese of Southwark under Archbishop Peter Smith archbishop@rcsouthwark.co.uk.