The Stick for Faithful Catholics, Carrots for Dissidents

Ex-Priest and Chief Director of the site Religion Digital Josè Manuel Vidal gives Pope Francis three bars of Turrón

(Rome) While the Vatican harasses the Spanish news portal InfoVaticana, Pope Francis has found words of praise for another, Spanish news site, for Religion Digital.

The difference?
 

Religion Digital

Religion Digital is an anti-church site founded by ex-priest José Manuel Vidal, whose "line is incompatible with the faith of the Catholic Church and the minimum of ties that a Catholic should unite with his shepherds," says Fr Josè Antonio Fortea described the website on September 2016. Vidal has been engaged in constant attacks against the Church and her doctrine for more than 20 years. The range of anti-church propaganda ranges from a platform for Church opponents to the publication of blasphemous cartoons.
 
InfoVaticana was founded in 2013 by Gabriel Ariza and Fernando Beltrán as a Church-loyal counterweight, so as not to leave Religion Digital the field of information.

The difference?
 
Religion Digital has been reporting since 2013 with enthusiasm about Pope Francis while maintaining the anti-church line.
 
InfoVaticana reports, increasingly critical of certain statements and gestures of Pope Francis, as it continues the course of the defense of Church and doctrine.

 The difference?
 

InfoVaticana

The positions of the two news sites are diametrically opposed. This is evident not only in Spain, but - albeit attenuated - outside the Iberian peninsula. For example, in Rome: The papal house Vaticanista Andrea Tornielli cooperates with Religion Digital, the secret Doyen of the Vatican, Sandro Magister, with InfoVaticana .
 
While Tornielli goes to and fro under Francis in Santa Marta, advises the Pope on media issues, is part of the papal communication strategy, and receives first-hand information from Francis, Magister was stripped of accreditation by the Vatican Press Office due to his critical coverage in 2015 - after more than 30 years years of service. After a few months, he was accredited again. However, the shot in front of the bow was clear.
 
The same applies to InfoVaticana and Religion Digital. Under the governing Pope, it is clearly signaled who is well-liked and who is not.
 

The stick for InfoVaticana, carrots for Religion Digital

The Vatican Secretariat of State has appointed one of the top 10 lavender law firms in the world to initiate litigation against InfoVaticana. The Holy See accuses the news site of wanting to mislead, using the name of the Vatican in order to obtain donations. An absurd name dispute. It would be as if the city of Frankfurt would start a lawsuit against the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, or as if the cities of Zurich and New York were taking action against the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the New York Times. InfoVaticana utilizes the Vatican in its name because most of the coverage is focused on the Holy See and the Universal Church. There are various media with a comparable name references, which the Vatican Secretariat of State has not up to now.
 
In this detour, the Vatican tells the news site its disapproval, which goes so far as to put pressure on InfoVaticana and harm it. Although the Vatican has denied such an intention, the lawyers have not called back.

Digital Religion in Santa Marta

On Thursday, April 19, José Manuel Vidal, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Religion Digital, accompanied the theologian and former Jesuit Josè Maria Castillo to the Vatican. Castillo turned his back on the Jesuit order in 2007 for reasons of "mental hygiene," having for decades provoked conflicts with the ecclesiastical hierarchy with his heterodox views and his propagation of Marxist liberation theology. Castillo is a permanent columnist at Religion Digital and runs his blog on the news site with the provocative name "theology without censorship."

Josè Manuel Vidal with Pope Francis

Castillo had been invited by Francis to the Pope's morning Mass in Santa Marta. Following this there was an encounter between the ex-Jesuit and the Jesuit on the Pope's throne (see Pope Francis "rehabilitates" Liberation Theologians ). In this context, there was also the encounter between Francis and Vidal, in which the head of the church found remarkably benevolent words for the news portal, as Vidal himself reported on his side:

"I told him what it was about and showed him a color print of Religion Digital and another printout of the front page of Pro Francisco that we've been hosting on our site for three years. Francis put both hands on mine and told me, 'Continue to renew a Church that goes out'.
Then I gave him three bars of Spanish turrón ¹⁾ . "

The encounter between Castillo and Vidal with Pope Francis proves what Cardinal Gerhard Muller, the Prefect of the Roman Congregation of the Doctrine of the Congregation, dismissed by Francis, that there is an "inner connection between the papists of today and the rebels of yesterday," between the great adversaries John Paul II and Benedict XVI," who yesterday "undermined the foundations of theology" and those who today present themselves as great Bergoglio followers.
 
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Religion Digital (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

Pope Francis Does the Holy Liturgy

Pope Francis is to ordain 16 deacons to the priesthood on April 22

The Words of Consecration and the Pope

(Rome) The Holy See yesterday published the texts and chants for the Pope's Mass on the 4th Sunday after Easter, which Pope Francis will celebrate on April 22 in St. Peter's Basilica. On this occasion, the head of the Church will consecrate several candidates to the priesthood.

 

The priestly ordinations

Pope Francis will ordain sixteen deacons preparing for the priesthood as priests, sincethe 55th World Day of Prayer is celebrated  at the same time for priestly vocations.
 
Five of them come from the diocesan seminary of the Diocese of Rome. The number reflects the situation of priestly vocations in the Pope's own diocese.
 
The other eleven candidates come from other countries and continents. Six come from the Roman missionary college Redemptoris Mater of the Neocatechumenal Way; four from the Famiglia dei Discepoli (Family of the Disciples) and one from the Opera Don Orione. They come from Croatia, Madagascar, Vietnam, Myanmar, Colombia, San Salvador, Romania, India and Peru. Eleven of them, the five candidates of the diocese and the candidates of the seminary Redemptoris Mater,  are consecrated and incardinated for the diocese of Rome.

 

The words of consecration

According to the announcement, the III. Canon has been chosen. His predecessor Benedict XVI. preferred the Roman canon. [What else is there?] In contrast, Francis varies and also benefits from the new prayers, which were created ex novo only by the liturgical reform of the 60s. Since then, the Anaphora can be said in the vernacular, as will be the case on April 22nd. Benedict XVI. preferred Latin, the language of the Church, and not only at celebrations in the Patriarchal basilicas and in Rome, but also abroad. Conversely, Francis, who also uses the vernacular in St. Peter's Basilica in a solemn Papal Mass and not the Roman Canon.


On April 22, Pope Francis will use the words "for all" to reflect the Latin "pro multis". This contradicts the order of Benedict XVI, who had already prescribed in 2006 binding for the whole world Church as the more appropriate, because closer to the original translation "for many".
The majority of Italian bishops had in prounced for the retention of "for all" in 2010. Benedict XVI. patiently conducted persuasion seemed to bear fruit in early 2013. One of the most persistent opponents, Archbishop Bruno Forte, had assailed Benedict's camp with waving flags defending the "pro multis / for many."

 

The rebels

Shortly thereafter, Benedict XVI. made his  surprising resignation known. Since then, there has been a standstill in the rebellious states. Although at that time the Vatican Recognition of the new version of the Italian translation of the Missale was almost complete, it has not been published until today.

Pro multis

The opponents of Benedict XVI.s mandated translation immediately raised their voices after the election of Pope Francis,  especially in the linguistic areas, including the German one, which had already delayed, denied, and boycotted the order under the German Pope, and therefore the new translations had not yet been printed.
 
Cardinal Karl Lehrmann (Mainz) and Archbishop Alois Kothgasser (Salzburg) complained of Vatican "interference". In April 2013, one month after the election of Pope Francis, the Austrian bishops published a "clarification" that the only admissible translation was "for all" because the only approved German translation of the Missal was that of 1975. The admonition was addressed to the liturgically most sensitive part of the clergy, who began to complain that seven years after Benedict's change, nothing had yet happened.
 
Pope Francis sent out contradictory signals. From them one could read a supposed support of every position and also the opposite. Most appropriately, his attitude is likely to be reflected in a both-and-also, as he showed it in 2015 within a few days at the Mass celebrations in Cuba and in the US. In both countries he celebrated in Spanish. In Cuba, because it is the national language, in the US once for the large number of Spanish-speaking immigrants. In Cuba he used the words of change "for all" (por todos), in the US the words of change "for many" (por muchos).

The same pope, the same Spanish language, and yet such a difference?

The reason is that the English translation of the Missal was already published at that time, and for pro multis that of Benedict XVI. wanted "for many", while the new Spanish translation was not available at that time and in the old formula the pro-multis was still presented as " for all".

 

Everyone after his Façon ...?

In other words, every country and its episcopal conference should decide for themselves. A similar instruction was issued by Francis in September 2017. Shortly before he declared the Liturgy reform of 1969 as "irreversible."
 
His words can be seen at the memorial mass for the deceased cardinals on 3 November 2017 as a confirmation of the position of Benedict XVI. In his sermon , Francis said:

"The 'many who awaken to eternal life are to be understood as the 'many' for whom the blood of Christ was shed. It is the great number of those who, thanks to God's merciful goodness, may experience the reality of eternal life, the perfect victory over death achieved through the resurrection."

But even the Pope does not abide by the law, because in his celebration of April 22, Francis is opposed to the order of Benedict XVI. will say not "many", but "all." An anachronism. The Pope, by virtue of his authority, declares that the words of change are to be pronounced "for many" - that was 2006 -, and 2018, twelve years later, even the Pope does not abide by it, because the responsible Episcopal Conference has not yet re-translated and published the Missal? Absurd.
 
Francis, however, behaves this way and signals that the question is rather unimportant to him. There would be another way. Those whom Benedict XVI, by deferring to Church Latin, which is unique and includes both "for many" and "for all". But for that, Francis, according to Roman insiders, obviously lacks the necessary liturgical sensitivity. In addition, severe prejudices prevent him from consistently considering such a step.

 

Genuflecting

Regardless of this, the Office of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Pope is adamant that the pamphlets for the consecration should state that the pope "shows the consecrated host to the people and kneels adoringly" and "shows and adores the chalice to the people performing a genuflection."
 
It is well known that the adoring genuflections have not occurred since the election of Pope Francis. As is well known, it should be known that this is due to knee problems. The fact is that neither Pope Francis nor the Vatican Press Office has made a statement in more than five years of this pontificate. And that despite the importance of the question. The assumptions, allegations or even well-intentioned explanations of individual Vaticanists can not replace an official opinion. However, such is not forthcoming, which is why the Pope standing before the Blessed Sacrament will remain an ambivalent picture of this pontificate.
 
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican.va
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

Pope Francis is Under Pressure

Pope Francis has rceived Cardinal Sean in audience while a clear demand has come from Chile.

(Santiago de Chile) Twice yesterday, the case of Barros stood front and center: in Rome and in Santiago de Chile. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati SDB, the Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, opened an extraordinary gathering of the Chilean clergy yesterday. In Rome, the most important critic of Pope Francis was received in audience.
 
The reason is Pope Francis' letter to the Chilean Episcopal Conference. With the letter, the Catholic Church leader responded to the report of his special envoy, Msgr. Charles Scicluna, on the sexual abuse scandal in Chile and around the ex-priest Fernando Karadima. The focus is Bishop Juan Barros Madrid. In spite of serious warnings, Pope Francis made him bishop of the diocese of Osorno in early 2015. Karadima victims and a group of faithful from the diocese of Osorno have since protested against this appointment. They accuse Msgr. Barros  of covering Karadima's crimes.
 
For three years, Pope Francis dismissed any criticism as "defamation" and "instrumentalization" by circles hostile to the Church. Therefore, he refused to speak with Barros critics and listen to them.
  
After Francis maintained this attitude during his visit to Chile last January, the criticism became so strong that he finally had to react. The pope's visit in Chile took place mostly in more remote areas. The Chileans showed demonstrative disinterest. The Karadima case, as the Bishops' Conference noted, severely shook faith in the Church. Nevertheless, Pope Francis saw no reason to change his attitude towards the victims and Bishop Barros. Rather, he explicitly invited him to concelebrate with him publicly. The head of the Church evidently thought of silencing the critics with this gesture of demonstrative confidence in Barros. Instead, Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley OFM Cap of Boston joined the criticism. The cardinal is familiar with the case as President of the Pontifical Child Protection Commission.
 
At the same time, evidence was presented that Pope Francis since the spring of 2015 was informed about the allegations against Msgr. Barros. The pope had claimed otherwise on the return flight to Rome.

 

Course change - or not

 

Ten days after his return from Latin America, therefore, Francis made a course correction to curb the international expansion of criticism of his position. He appointed the Archbishop of Malta, Mgr. Charles Scicluna, Pontifical Special Envoy. Scicluna was commissioned to hear the Barros critics. He should do what Francis had refused to do for three years. In the second half of March, Scicluna presented more than 2,300 pages of reports after hearing more than 60 people in the US and Chile.

Cardinal Ezzati yesterday at the press conference in Santiago de Chile

On April 11, the Vatican Press Office published a letter from Pope Francis to the Chilean bishops. He responded to the Scicluna report and spoke of the "pain and shame" he felt when reading the report.
In parallel, the Chilean Episcopal Conference issued a statement announcing the Pope's contrite attitude to the Chileans in order to restore their shattered confidence. Behind the scenes, the question was not settled.
 
Francis did not mention Bishop Barros in his letter. Rather, he issued an invitation to the bishops to come to Rome to discuss the matter. The bishops were silent in public. However, they knew that Francis was signaling that he would continue to cling to Barros, the stumbling block in public perception.
 
Barros himself had in the past submitted to the pope two resignations, which Francis rejected.  A third request was to have Archbishop Scicluna together with his report at the papal desk. Barros himself denies this.

Clear signals from Cardinal Ezzati to Francis

The fact is that the head of the Chilean Episcopal Conference wants to conclude the Barros case and therefore wants consequences. And not just since today, but already for three years. Francis was then also warned from the ranks of the Episcopal Conference against appointing Barros as Bishop of Osorno. The Pope, however, clings to him steadfastly. More and more often the question arises as to why.
 
Outwardly, the Chilean Episcopal Conference looks to be in good spirits. Yet behind the scenes there is considerable discord that Francis does not want Barros to give up his office.
 
The meeting called by Cardinal Ezzati yesterday in Santiago de Chile appealed to the whole clergy of the country to analyze the letter of Pope Francis. On the one hand, it is about the difficult task of regaining the lost trust among Chileans and, on the other, eliminating the causes. What Cardinal Ezzati imagines, he said very clearly and publicly afterwards. He expects Msgr. Barros to resign:

"I'm not a judge to decide if he's covered up something or not. For the good of the Church, however, he should take a step aside."

At the same time the cardinal tried a difficult balancing act, with which he wanted to protect the reputation of the pope and at the same time wanted to build a bridge to accept the resignation Barros.  
Cardinal Ezzati made it clear at yesterday's press conference that the Pope had to decide on his resignation. So far, Francis has rejected Barros' resignations. Ezzati, President of the Chilean Episcopal Conference from 2010-2016, assured the press that Pope Francis had been "deceived" as far as the information on the Karadima and Barros case was concerned.
 
Will Francis yield to this pressure from the Chilean Episcopal Conference?
 

Audience for Cardinal O'Malley in Rome

Yesterday, an event took place in Rome, even before the clergy meeting had begun in Santiago de Chile, which was likely to be directly linked to Chile.
 

Daily Bulletin: Audience for Cardinal O'Malley

Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley was received in audience by Pope Francis. It was noted in the Vatican's daily bulletin that the cardinal is chairman of the Pontifical Child Protection Commission . Nothing was known about the content of the meeting. However, it is believed that Cardinal O'Malley served as chairman of the Child Protection Commission at Francis and was speaking about the Barros case.
 
The meeting of Chilean bishops with Pope Francis in Rome is expected to take place in the third week of May. Until then, no decisions are likely to be made, as Francis has so far indicated no signs of wanting to change his position on Barros.
 
Has what Cardinal O'Malley said to him yesterday and what Cardinal Ezzati demanded yesterday,  changed his mind?
 
The video with central excerpts from the press conference of Cardinal Ezzati yesterday in Santiago de Chile:
 

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

Pope's Two New Teachings: All Are Children of God and Atheists Go to Heaven

(Rome) Pope Francis visited the Roman parish of San Paolo alla Croce a Corviale last Sunday and announced two new teachings there.

The tears of little Emanuele

The neighborhood was built between 1975 and 1984 on the outskirts of Rome. This includes the "Serpentone," a gigantic silo shaped building with 1,200 apartments, built by the Office for Social Housing of the City of Rome. The parish was established in 1977, the church in modern style was consecrated in 1983. In 1985, Pope John Paul II elevated it to the titular church of a cardinal priest, whose owner since 2007 has been Oswald Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay.
 
A program point of the visit was an encounter with children of the parish. The pope was asked some questions. Emanuele was also allowed to meet the pope. Only a few months ago, the boy had lost his father. When he stood in front of the microphone, he burst into tears and could not speak.
 
Emanuele wept over his father's death, but more because a deeper pain moved him. Pope Francis waved the child to him and said that Emanuele should just whisper in his ear what moved him. The Pope and the child spoke in this way for a few minutes with the exclusion of the microphones. Only them speaking to each other. Then Emanuele returned to his seat and Francis again took the floor for everyone to hear.

Is the father, though he's an atheist, in heaven?

The pope said that the boy is very worried. Although his father had all his children baptized, he was an atheist. Worried about this, if his atheistic father could not go to heaven, Francis answered.

Pope Francis: Would we only cry like Emanuele if we bear suffering in our hearts like him. He cried for his father and had the courage to do it before us all, because in his heart is the love of the Father. I asked Emanuele for permission to repeat his question publicly, and he gave me his consent. That's why I'm repeating it. "My dad died recently. He was an atheist, but had all four children baptized. He was a good man. Is Dad in heaven? "
How nice that a child says of his father, "He was good." It's a beautiful testimony that this man has given to his children, because his children can say, "He was a good man". It is a beautiful testimony of the Son, who inherited the strength of the Father and also had the courage, had the courage to weep in front of us all. If this man was capable of producing such children, then he was really a good man. He was a good man. This man did not have the gift of faith, he was not a believer, but he had his children baptized. He had a good heart. And he has the doubt that his father, because he was not a believer, is not in heaven. Who says who comes to heaven, that's God. But what is the heart of God to such a father? How is it? What do you all mean? ... God has a father's heart. And with a non-believing father, he was able to baptize the children and give them that bravura to the children, do you think that God would be able to keep him away from him? Do you think so? ... loud, with courage ...

All: No!

Pope Francis: Does God forsake His children?

All: No!

Pope Francis: Does God fail his children when they are good?

All: No!

Pope Francis: Emanuele, that's the answer.  God was certainly proud of your father, because it is much easier to have children baptized, if you are a believer than you are not. And certainly God has liked it a lot. Talk to your father, pray for your father. Thank you, Emanuele, for your courage.

The "beautiful words of the Pope"

The Italian media devoted a lot of space to the event and were delighted. The most important newspaper in Italy, Corriere della Sera headlined:

"Pope Francis in Corviale comforts a child:" Your father, though not believing, is in heaven ".

Even the newspaper Il Foglio wrote of "beautiful words of the Pope".

Pope Francis at the meeting with the children.

Did they all misunderstand the Pope? Francis did not say that the father of the child is in heaven, even though he was an atheist.
 
Or did he?
 
Did Francis in the Roman suburban parish apply his special magic formula of communication, with which everyone understands what he wants to say, without having to say it explicitly?
 
Le Cronache di Papa Francesco did not hear in answer to the boy what most media heard, but a "recognition of atheism".
 
Can the serious question of Emanuele really be answered only from the perspective of a child to be comforted? Even in personal conversation and considering the age of the child, the answer would have been shortened and misleading. However, the Pope publicly responded to which the usual media reports followed, "The Pope said ..."  The answer to a specific child in a specific situation becomes a detached statement from the Pope, which can move people around the world and influence them in their thinking and decisions.
 
Le Cronache wrote on the pope's answer:

"Bergoglio is a Jesuit, which is why he puts it in such a way that it is difficult to pin him down. While accusing the devout Catholics of being 'strict' and having 'an answer to everything', it was on Sunday, and not for the first time, that gave the impression of a quick and pleasing answer to everything at hand. With him, it would probably be impossible to have a serious and clear argument about the doctrine. "

Not a word about purgatory, sin and salvation

Emanuele, the child, asked the head of the Church a legitimate question that has its origin in the love of the Father. It is a thoroughly Catholic question, because the concern is concern for the eternal salvation of the Father. The child showed a very clear consciousness. He knows about the atheism of the Father and knows that it contradicts the love of God. That's why he's worried.
 
Pope Francis began his answer as any good catechist would begin. He consoled the child, starting from what the child knew and could tell about the father. What the Father really thought and did is beyond the knowledge of the Pope. For that reason, he did not answer Emanuele with a "Yes, your father is, though incredulous, in heaven," as the media claims.
 
However, from the brief, straightforward question typical of children, Francis asked a whole series of questions that he addressed indirectly to the audience, turning it in one direction and leading to the answer he wanted to put in his mouth. The first answer was certainly the most important one. It is God who "says" who goes to heaven. But then, with broad questions, he turned the ball back and forth several times, so that in the end there seemed to be no other answer than that, though the Pope had not said that Emanuel's father, though an atheist, must be in heaven.
 
Pope Francis has never spoken of purgatory in his pontificate. That day would have been the opportunity. Just as the Pope can not know whether Emanuele's father is in hell - and to say so, would be inappropriate to a mourning child anyway - he can not know directly, nor imply that Emanuele's father, of whom the little child knew that he denied the existence of God, was in heaven, and that directly.

Consolation at the price of misleading?

The comfort of the bereaved is not only an honorable task, but is one of the works of mercy. But also at the price of weighing it in false hopes or even certainties?
 
The Pope could have asked the child if Holy Mass had been said for the Father. In addition, he could have talked about the Purgatory for the poor souls, where those who are saved but still need to be cleansed to gain access to Heaven. This time can shorten the living by their prayer and the sacrifice of Mass intentions and thereby perform great sacrifices of love for the deceased.
 
The Pope could have spoken about the eternal salvation and the necessary conditions for it. One does not go to heaven because one was a "good person" but because one did not die in the state of mortal sin and of course did not reject, reject or even mock God.
 
The Pope could have talked about the meaning of life. About the first of all questions: why did God create me? To know Him, to worship Him, to obey His commandments, and thereby go to heaven. Francis could and should have said a word about atheism. And so the impression had to arise that under the "good pope" Francis that an atheist also goes to heaven.
 
But whom should such misleading benefit?

"People who are not baptized are not children of God?"

Perhaps another, obviously prepared child question on the same day and at the same meeting helps to gain greater clarity. Carlotta, a young girl, also asked Francis a question.

Carlotta: Ciao Pope Francis! When we receive baptism, we become children of God. And the people who are not baptized are not children of God?
Pope Francis: Carlotta, tell me, I'll ask you the other way around: what do you think? The people who are not baptized are they children of God or are they not children of God? What does your heart tell you?
Carlotta: Yes.
Pope Francis: Yes. Now I'll explain. She answered well, she has a Christian nose! We are all children of God. All all. Even the non-baptized? Yes. Even those who believe in other, distant religions that have idols? Yes, they are children of God. The Mafiosi are children of God? ... you are not sure ... yes, even the mobsters are children of God. They prefer to behave like children of the devil, but they are children of God. All, all are children of God, all. But what is the difference? God created all, loved all, and gave all the conscience in the heart to distinguish good from evil. All humans have that. They know, taking was what is good and healthy; even the people who do not know Jesus, who do not know Christianity, all have it in their soul, because God has put it there. But when you were baptized, the conscience of the Holy Spirit entered and strengthened your allegiance to God, and in that sense you became more daughter of God, because you are the daughter of God like all, but also with the power of the Holy Spirit entering. Do you understand, Carlotta? I ask - everyone should answer - Are all people children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: The good people are children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: The bad people are children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: Yes. The people who do not know Jesus and have others, distant religions, worshipping idols are children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: The Mafiosi are children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: And we must pray that they will return and truly know God. Now no one should answer, but the heart will answer: Who of you prays for the mobsters to convert? Everyone answers in his heart.
Then when we are baptized: Who comes into our hearts? ...
Volume up!
Children: The Holy Spirit!
Pope Francis: Bravo. The Holy Spirit is coming, and this Holy Spirit is letting us have more children of God. He gives us more power to behave like children of God. That's why Saint Paul has a sentence, and I want you to say that sentence to me. "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is in you." Why does he say this sentence? Because a Christian, a baptized person who behaves badly, grieves the Holy Spirit who is in us. The sentence is: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is in you". "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is in you." Are we going to say it?
Pope Francis together with the children: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit that is in you".
Pope Francis: Again!
Pope Francis together with the children: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit that is in you".
Pope Francis: And we children of God, who through baptism have the Holy Spirit, grieve when we behave badly when we commit a sin, the Holy Spirit who is in us. Thanks Carlotta!

The difference abolished by Francis

Carlotta and her question to the pope

In fact, the apostle Paul, mentioned by Pope Francis, in the New Testament refers only to Christians as the children of God and distinguishes them by the baptism to non-Christians. The latter Paul refers as "servants" and "slaves of sin." All men are creatures of God, but only the baptized are children of God. A clear and easy to understand distinction.
 
The non-Christians are, therefore, not children of God, but Pope Francis twists the ball twice in his hands and behold, all people "all, all", "not only the baptized" are suddenly children of God.
 
What is the difference between the baptized and the baptized? All are children of God, but some, the baptized, are "more children of God." With his snazzy way of speaking, last Sunday the head of the Church actually ruined a central biblical, apostolic, and above all, crystal clear distinction in favor of a blurred, ultimately useless substitute.
 
Why?

The message of Francis is pleasing Eugenio Scalfari

If one did not wish to impute the unawareness and naivety of the Church leader, which does not even seem theoretically conceivable vis-à-vis a Jesuit, then one must accept an intention behind this answer.
 
Already in the first controversial " Video of the Pope " of January 2016, all people (in the video were shown Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists) were declared as "children of God" in a syncretistic infusion. It was therefore not a slip by the pope last Sunday. Therefore the message can not be that through baptism one becomes "even more children of God." The real message that Pope Francis wants to spread is the mistaken assertion that all men are children of God.
 
Taking the answer to Carlotta and the answer to little Emanuele, Pope Francis has said two things:

1. Not only the Christians, but all people, even the followers of any other religions or the Mafiosi, in short, really all are children of God, even if they are not baptized.
2. Even those who are atheists will go to heaven. The main thing is he was a "good person".

This statement corresponds exactly to the thesis that the atheist Eugenio Scalfari wanted Francis so much to hear, and he put it in his mouth recently and at the same time "eliminated" Hell. The Vatican responded with a denial that was not really one. Now we also know why: because Eugenio Scalfari did not reproduce the words of the pope verbatim, but exactly his thinking. Exactly as Scalfari had always said: He vouches for the authenticity of the statements.
 
It was therefore the Vatican, that sprinkled with a denial, a fog of non-denial and prevented the necessary clarifications, or at least made it difficult.
 
Or did they all get it wrong?

The video which shows the entire parish event, starting with the meeting with Carlotta:
 

The section with Emmanuel:

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

Cardinal Burke is Snubbed at Lourdes by Maltese Order

The presence of Cardinal Patron Burke at the International Lourdes Pilgrimage 2018 is apparently not desired.

(Rome) 160 years ago, in 1858, the Mother of God appeared in Lourdes. This event is being commemorated in the Catholic World in 2018. From the 4th to the 8th May the 60th International Lourdes Pilgrimage of the Order of Malta takes place. According to the current status, 6,500 knights and ladies and their companions as well as 1,300 sick and disabled pilgrims will participate. According to information, Cardinal Burke, although Cardinal of the Order, was not invited.
 
The information comes, according to the traditional French website Riposte Catholique out of the new religious leadership related sources.
 
Already in 2017, the cardinal had not been invited, after papal intervention had forced him to replace the head of the Order.

The first degradation

Cardinal Raymond Burke opposed the policy of Pope Francis to soften the sacrament of marriage during the first Synod of Bishops on the Family in October 2014. The cardinal denounced actions to manipulate the synod and criticized a break with Church doctrine and practice.
 
After the conclusion of the Synod, Pope Francis suspended him from the then prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signatura in the course of a purge and removed him from the Vatican. Francis sent the US Cardinal as cardinal patron to the Sovereign Order of Malta. Although this is a prestigious office, it lacks any influence on the leadership of the universal Church.
 
At the turn of the year 2016/2017 there was a conflict between the then Grandmaster Fra Matthew Festing and his Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager. The latter called for help from the Holy See, who jumped to his side. In a less elegant way, the Grand Master was demoted within a few weeks and forced by Pope Francis at the end of January 2017 to resign. Boeselager was again used by Francis as Grand Chancellor and is considered since then the real powerhouse in the Order.

The second degradation

At the same time Cardinal Burke was also disempowered. De jure he remained cardinal patron, thus the official representative of the Pope in the Knights and Hospital Order, but Francis appointed Curial Archbishop Angelo Becciu, as the substitute of the Cardinal Secretary of State, a special representative with the responsibilities of a papal commissioner.
 
Cardinal Burke was accused of having helped Grand Master Festing to take Catholic morality too seriously. Unlike Cardinal Gerhard Müller, whom Francis showed the door more elegantly (officially after the end of a regular term of office), Cardinal Burke has at least one office on paper.
 
Last Saturday, the cardinal in Rome participated in the conference "Catholic Church Quo Vadis?" In the main, Cardinal Burke had called not only upon the possibility, but the  duty to criticize the Pope, if he should deviate from the Catholic doctrine and practice.

persona non grata

As early as the 59th International Lourdes pilgrimage of 2017, the new leadership under Boeselager indicated that although Cardinal Burke must be tolerated as a cardinal partron, he was persona non grata in the Order.
 
After his appointment as cardinal patron in 2015 and 2016, Burke had led the annual pilgrimage and celebrated Holy Mass in Lourdes for pilgrims. Also in 2018, according to the information within the Church, he believes that he is not welcome to the International Lourdes Pilgrimage. The fact that it is the 160th Anniversary of the Marian apparitions, could change nothing. Those who contradict Francis have a difficult time and it is not just persona non grata at the Holy See where they are treated without mercy.
 
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Riposte Catholique
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

Bergoglio's Reform Was Written Before. By Martin Luther

Edit: the lucidity and calm of Sandro Magister is something to be grateful for, as are the contributions by these academic voices we scarcely hear from in the US.
*
Much has been written in sketching an appraisal of the first five years of the pontificate of Francis and of his real or imaginary “revolution.”
But rarely, if ever, with the acuteness and extensive scope of the analysis published below.
The author, Roberto Pertici, 66, is a professor of contemporary history at the university of Bergamo and has focused his studies on Italian culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular attention to relations between Church and state.
His essay is being issued for the very first time on Settimo Cielo.
*
THE END OF “ROMAN CATHOLICISM?”

by Roberto Pertici
1. At this point in the pontificate of Francis, I believe it can be reasonably maintained that this marks the twilight of that imposing historical reality which can be defined as “Roman Catholicism.”
This does not mean, properly understood, that the Catholic Church is coming to an end, but that what is fading is the way in which it has historically structured and represented itself in recent centuries.
It seems evident to me, in fact, that this is the plan being deliberately pursued by the “brain trust” that has clustered around Francis: a plan understood both as an extreme response to the crisis in relations between the Church and the modern world, and as a precondition for a renewed ecumenical course together with the other Christian confessions, especially the Protestant.
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“Pius XII Was a Saint” Says Cardinal

Pius XII was a Saint, but his canonization was blocked by Israel, said Cardinal Martins.”

Edit: so much for Nostra Aetate!

(Rome) Israel put pressure to block the beatification of Pope Pius XII. This was according to Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, former prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Roman daily Il Messaggero.

From 1998 to 2008, the Portuguese Cardinal was in charge of the Church's canonization and beatification process for ten years. During his tenure, 1320 saints and blessed were raised to the altars. Among them were 500 martyrs, bishops, priests, religious and lay people who were murdered in the Spanish Civil War by members of the Popular Front, who were beatified together in 2007.

Looking back, Cardinal Saraiva Martins regrets a failed beatification that was already considered certain. The pressure exerted by "Israel and the Jewish community" against Pope Pius XII. (1939-1958) did not raise him to the altars, said the cardinal. The pressure had initially slowed the ongoing beatification process until it was finally blocked. Israel and the Jewish community had rejected the idea of ​​beatifying the Pope, who ruled during the Second World War. They accused the head of the Church of not publicly condemning the Holocaust.

"I have tried to do what was possible, and I am content to have brought the position of Pope Pacelli to the stage of a venerable servant of God."

In his conversation with Franca Giansoldati of the Roman daily Il Messaggero, the cardinal made it clear that he was "finally" the beatification of Pius XII. hoped. "He makes no secret of the negative pressing," said the newspaper.

"When I was Prefect of the Congregation, one day the Israeli Ambassador came to the Holy See and wanted to see me and expressed his irritation. He asked me to drop the case. "

In 2016, the cardinal had said that Pope Francis Pius XII. "Could beatify even today," but would not do so because of Jewish resistance.

The Cardinal has no doubt as to the reputation of the Pope's holiness:

"I have thoroughly studied his life. He did his utmost to help the Jew and the persecuted. The Vatican was full and also Castel Gandolfo. He opened the monasteries. Hitler despised him. The question is to be seen in its historical context, and it is the files to study what I have done. Pius XII. was a saint."

The Cardinal, who had accompanied so many canonizations, had been invited by Pope Francis to present his new Apostolic Exhortation, Gaudete et Exultate on the call for sanctity last Monday. This presence was the occasion for the conversation with the journalist Giansoldati.

At the beginning of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. theChurch  proceedings were completed. After much pressure, the pope suspended the proceedings and ordered a new file review. At the same time an Israeli-Vatican Historical Commission was used, which led to considerable rapprochement after several years of work. At the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, due to the study of the files, the negative text under the picture of the Pope was corrected. But this did not lead to a resumption of the beatification process.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Cardinal Rai Calls for Order

(Beirut) The teaching of the Church must be taken into account when dealing with the traditional media or social media, with issues and situatikns that affect the teaching and content of the Catholic faith.

This is emphasized by the Maronite Bechara Boutros Cardinal Rai OMM, patriarch of Antioch and the whole Orient of the unified Rome-affiliated Syriac-Maronite Church, in a document entitled "The Truth, Liberated and Unified," which has been published on Monday, April 9. On the same day, Pope Francis published in Rome his most recent Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Esuktate. However, the orientation of the two documents is different.

The Patriarch's document is meant to provide some kind of manual, criteria and guidance that should inspire and guide interventions and debates on topics and issues of the Catholic Church's doctrine and magisterium, following disputes over teaching issues in recent months also happening in the social media that have created confusion among the faithful. Therefore, the Patriarch advises restraint, recalls ecclesiastical order and emphasizes the strict observance and promotion of ecclesiastical doctrine.

The Shepherd of the Maronites

The Patriarch's document is divided into six chapters and 57 paragraphs. It provides criteria to consider when participating in discussions within and outside the Church. As criteria the patriarch names Holy Scripture, its exegesis, the historicity of the Gospels, the dogmas of the Catholic faith, the Virgin Mary and her role in the history of salvation and prayer. But also the nature and the work of the devil, Hell and ecclesiastically recognized Marian apparitions must be considered. The cardinal also comments on private revelations.

With his pastoral hints, the Patriarch asks in particular not to use social media as a means to stir up polemics and to launch personal attacks. In particular, the document calls on all priests and religious not to use the media and the Internet for interventions or to participate in theological-doctrinal discussions without the consent of their bishops or their superiors.

The publication of such a theological-pastoral "Handbook" was already on the agenda of the annual Synod of the Maronite Church in June 2017. At that time, Patriarch Rai has lamented in his opening speech a "weakening of the theological, dogmatic and spiritual preparation" of the clergy and recalled the phenomenon of priests who seem to be pleased with the media's interest in their person and "without formal permission" from their superiors,

to practice a "medial hyperactivism".

Text: Fides / Giuseppe Nardi

Picture: AsiaNews

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Pope Rejects Dogma in Emotional Photo Op With Child

Update: here’s the “accurate” report from Rome Reports now that Herald has seemingly taken theirs down.”, which omits the paragraph included in the Herald report.

Edit: another telegraphed Photo Op to attack the words of Christ.  Or is he invoking his Petrine privilege to bind and loose?

'God has the heart of a father, your father was a good man, he is in heaven with Him,' the Pope said

Pope Francis comforted a grieving child by telling him that his atheist father is in heaven.

During a visit to Rome’s deprived Corviale district on Sunday, the Pope answered questions from a group of children. One of them, a boy called Emanuele, burst into tears when he met the Pope.

After giving the child a long hug, Pope Francis asked him what was troubling him. Emanuele whispered in the Pope’s ear that his father, who was an atheist, had recently died and he was worried he could be in hell.

Pope Francis asked Emanuele for permission to tell the crowd what he had said, and then announced (according to La Stampa): “If only we could cry like Emanuele when we have pain in our hearts.”

http://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/04/16/pope-tells-grieving-child-your-atheist-father-is-in-heaven/?platform=hootsuite

AMDG