Green Minister-President Kretschman Ridicules Söder Over Crucifix Legislation

Baden-Württemberg Green  Minister-President Kretschmann (ZdK member): "I had to think of vampire films - as if someone wanted to fend off almost  any danger with the threateningly raised crucifix."

Stuttgart (kath.net) The Minister-President of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, has ridiculed the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) in the debate over the crosses in Bavarian state offices. Talking to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung," Kretschmann said that he felt the photo of Söder with a cross in his hand "bizarre": "I had to think of vampire movies - as if someone wanted to fend off any danger with the almost threatening crucifix any danger." Kretschmann added that such arrangements were not “one Iota Christian.”

Kretschmann is a politician of the Greens and member of the [Evil] Central Committee of German Catholics. He governs in Baden-Württemberg with a coalition of the Greens with the CDU.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Pope Appears on Stage at Cult “Mass” with Convicted Pedophile

[Pacific Daily News] Nearly two months after the Vatican announced he had been convicted in a canonical trial, former Archbishop Anthony Apuron was seated near Pope Francis on a stage in Rome during Saturday's 50th anniversary of the founding of the Neocatechumenal Way.

 Apuron is part of the Neocatechumenal Way, which he welcomed to Guam in the mid-1990s, and whose practices are sometimes at odds with traditional Catholic teachings, beliefs and practices. 

 Apuron found guilty 

 Apuron was found guilty of unspecified accusations in a canonical trial that included allegations that he sexually abused children, based on a March 16 announcement from the Vatican.

https://amp.guampdn.com/amp/585237002?__twitter_impression=true

AMDG

Osservatore Romano Praises +Marx for Praising Marx

Cardinal Marx almost made Karl Marx a "Father of the Church" - and the Osservatore Romano supports this attitude.

(Rome) Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the President of the German Bishops' Conference, elevates the Communist leader Karl Marx as a doctor of the church - at least almost. And the Osservatore Romano, the pope's official newspaper, supports him.

If anyone is looking for proof of who really has influence in the Church, then read the Osservatore Romano. Anyone who is allowed to publish from the church representatives there and whose initiatives are taken up there and benevolently passed on, enjoys prestige and influence from Pope Francis or the closest in the papal circle.

In yesterday's Sunday edition of the Italian Osservatore Romano, an initiative of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, President of the German Bishops' Conference and member of the C9 Cardinal Council, was benevolently published: the "canonization" of Karl Marx.

Karl Marx no "Church Father" - but almost

Cardinal Marx makes Karl Marx church father

On the day before, Saturday, May 5, the 200th birthday of the founder of "scientific materialism" was celebrated in Trier. His unusual namesake Reinhard Marx, who is a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, also participated in the celebration. The praise of Marx for Marx was published yesterday by the Osservatore Romano with the article "Marx in controluce", "Marx in the back light". The title means something like "closer to Marx". The namesake of Marxism is "illuminated" by the cardinal with such sympathy and such spiritual encouragement that it must speak of a quasi-canonization.

 Osservatore Romano reported:

"We are all on the shoulders of Karl Marx. That does not mean that he is a church father. "

This outrageous formulation reserved for former popes and church leaders means that Karl Marx is not a church father, but almost one.

These astonishingly unrealistic words by the German cardinal were printed without comment and above all without contradiction by the pope's daily newspaper. The same applies to the acquittal of Karl Marx from any responsibility for the million-fold murder committed in his name by communists and socialists of all stripes in the last 170 years since the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848.

Marx, according to Marx, is not responsible for crime

The Osservatore Romano quoted Cardinal Marx:

"If one can not, historically, separate a thinker from what others have done later in his name," it is true, but also true, that he can not be blamed for everything that was committed by his theories in the gulag of Stalin."

That's how easy it is with the "responsibility" of Karl Marx, at least according to Cardinal Marx, who stares at Marxism and all its shades with stare.

The "Flag of Communism"

Cardinal Marx’s controversial statement, quoted by the Osservatore Romano in his edition yesterday, is reminiscent of a sentence by Pope Francis.

"In any case, concludes the cardinal," we should never have stolen an unbridled capitalism, the banner of justice against the workers and solidarity with those who are trampled. "

Pope Francis said in an interview with the Roman daily Il Messaggero on June 29, 2014:

"The Communists stole the flag from us. The banner of the poor is Christian ".

The German cardinal varied and extended the phrase in the sense of the "Papist International", which according to Gianni Vattimo was to replace the Communist International.

The American publicist George Neumayr, author of the book "The Political Pope" said euphemistically in September 2017 in an interview with Maike Hickson on the Pope's comment:

"The popes of the past, who recognized the power of communism to enslave the poor, would have been greatly irritated at such comments."

Under Pope Francis, Osservatore Romano does not irritate with either its near-canonization of Martin Luther or the quasi-elevation to Doctor of the Church of Karl Marx.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Osservatore Romano (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Tendentious Church Journalism

Edit: it's like there's an editorial template for this sort of thing that journalists in the Western world are expected to use when it comes to distort the public's understanding of these power struggles. Never mind that they're like the ritual combats of professional wrestling.


What has recently been read in aggressive commentaries and reports against conservative bishops brings to mind the papal expression "explosive hostility." This is how Pope Benedict XVI. had complained in 2009 complained of media reactions to his statements.

A guest contribution by Hubert Hecker.

At the Spring General Assembly, the majority of German bishops adopted a paper on pastoral care for sectarian marriages. Thereafter, a Protestant spouse should then approaching Holy Communion would be admitted if they affirmed the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist and at the same time disallowing Communion would plunge the spouses into a "serious spiritual emergency".

Campaign for Intercommunion [In this corner, weighting in at 130 kilos!]

The Sack of Rome in 1527 is a Meditation for the Church Today

Edit: the Sack of Rome in 1527 is a terrible event, which offers both meditations if loyalty and bravery from the most noble, like the Swiss Guards:

The oath to swear in the Swiss Guards takes place every year on May 6th, in remembrance of the "Sack of Rome" in 1527.  It was then that 147 Swiss soldiers fell defending Pope Clement VII.  Today they are counted as the "smallest army in the world."  It was their valor and that of their leader, Captain Röist, who fell, even as his wife looked on, which gave the Pope time to escape to down the Borgo, a secret passageway, to the Castel Sant'Angelo and to be safe for a time from the depredations of Charles V's Lutheran and Spanish soldiery. 

They also valiantly defended the Pope on September 20th, 1870, when the Masonic armies of Italian unification breached the walls of Rome.

It also offers a meditation on the current state of the Church, as we see these events from afar this from Ludwig Pastor as cited by Roberto de Mattei:

This unlimited license to steal and kill lasted eight days and the occupation of the city nine months. We read in a Veneto account of May 10, 1527, reported by Ludwig von Pastor “Hell is nothing in comparison with the appearance Rome currently presents” (The History of Popes, Desclée, Rome 1942m, vol. IV, 2, p.261). The religious were the main victims of the Landsknechts’ fury. Cardinals’ palaces were plundered, churches profaned, priests and monks killed or made slaves, nuns raped and sold at markets. Obscene parodies of religious ceremonies were seen, chalices for Mass were used to get drunk amidst blasphemies, Sacred Hosts were roasted in a pan and fed to animals, the tombs of saints were violated, heads of the Apostles, such as St. Andrew, were used for playing football on the streets. A donkey was dressed up in ecclesiastical robes and led to the altar of a church. The priest who refused to give it Communion was hacked to pieces. The City was outraged in its religious symbols and in its most sacred memories”. (see also André Chastel, The Sack of Rome, Einaudi, Turin, 1983; Umberto Roberto, Roma capta. The Sack of the City  from the Gauls to the Landsknechts, Laterza, Bari 2012).

AMDG

Altoona Franciscans Given Light Sentences for Negligence

Edit: some will remember the horrible Altoona diocese and the way it was managed by +Adamec.

[WGAL] Attorney General Josh Shapiro said his office accepted pleas from two former Franciscan friars accused of allowing a member of their religious order to sexually abuse more than 100 children over a period of many years at a Catholic high school in Johnstown.

Robert D'Aversa, 70, and Anthony Criscitelli, 63, entered no contest pleas to endangering the welfare of children, according to a release from the attorney general's office. A Blair County judge sentenced the men to five years of probation. Each will also be fined $1,000 and the cost of prosecution.

"These defendants knew the abuser was a serious threat to children, but they allowed him to engage with children and have access to them as part of his job within their order," Shapiro said. "They chose time and time again to prioritize their institution's reputation over the safety of victims."

The Office of Attorney General charged D'Aversa and Criscitelli in 2016 with failing to properly supervise Brother Stephen Baker, who was accused of molesting youth while working at Bishop McCort High School in the 1990s. Baker later took his own life.

AMDG

Chancellor of Knights of Malta Loses Case — Being Asked to Step Down

ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - As the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is welcoming its newly elected Grand Master, senior knights are calling for the Grand Chancellor to step down. Leaked documents obtained by Church Militant reveal widespread discontent towards Albrecht von Boeselager, after a German court judged him to be untruthful.

"We cannot have a Grand Chancellor whose truthfulness has been impugned by a court of law," said one senior knight. "He must resign. It is as simple as that."

An internal email dated April 30 sent to all members of the Order of Malta begins,

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/knights-of-malta-call-for-chancellor-to-resign#.Wu4wjmnpGpo.twitter

AMDG

12,000 Euro Fine for Child Porography in the Possession of Married Deacon

Edit: some will recall the media assault on Bishop Tebartz-van Elst that completely ignored truly decadent prelates like Cardinal Marx, the fast cars, the 10 million Euro villas in Rome, for example. He has been given a fairly light sentence.

The former bureau chief of the Bishop Bätzing of Limburg had child pornography images on his service computer in the bishop's palace
 

Limburg (kath.net) As bureau chief of the Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing, he had stored child pornography on his service computer. The District Court of Limburg has issued a penalty order against the married theologian and canon lawyer with a conviction to a total daily fine of 150 daily to 80 euros each. The employee, who has since been released from the diocese, has accepted the punitive order, he is thus considered to have a criminal record. According to the Attorney General, the photos showed no brutal scenes, but mostly children in sexual poses, reported the "Nassauische Neue Presse." The diocese is now continuing a canon law case against its employee, at least until then he remains exempted from his work. The Congregation of the Faith is already involved in the lawsuit.

The permanent deacon and father of his own children had already told the "Nassauische Neue Presse", that he deeply regretted his offense and  that he was undergoing therapy.

At the beginning of February 2017, the offices of the clerical employee in the bishop's palace and in the seminary had been searched, as well as his apartment.

The former office manager was the dean, he was a judge at the episcopal marriage court and training director of deacons. In addition, the 57-year-old was the president of the nationwide active consortium Permanent Diaconate, from which he resigned from office shortly after publicity of the first suspicions.

Tran: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Rocco Buttiglione Defends “Amoris Laetitia”

Former Italian politician Rocco Buttiglione defends "Amoris Laetitia", Francis says to the remarried divorced: "Go to confession, not to communion"

Bratislava (kath.net/KAP) Former Vice-President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Rocco Buttiglione has described Pope Francis' statements in the context of the Slovak Hanus Academy which has been criticized by conservative sources of the apostolic letter "Amoris Laetitia,” as correct. Buttiglione defended the Argentine Pope and said that he had "merely developed and not corrected the doctrine of John Paul II." The Austrian National Council and ÖVP human rights spokesperson Gudrun Kugler also attended Hanus Academy on the weekend in Bratislava.


Francis says to the remarried divorced: "Go to confession, not to Communion," says Buttiglione. The post-synodal letter "Amoris Laetitia" is erroneously taken as a "general amnesty for the divorced.” In fact, the divorcees are considered  to be "special sinners" in whose judgment, the confessor considers "not only their indebtedness but also the extent of responsibility." The confessor tries to "find a form of complete communion with the Church.”

Gudrun Kugler, former Czech presidential candidate Pavel Fischer, Hungarian State Secretary for Family and Youth Katalin Novak (Fidesz) and Slovak EU Member of Parliament Anna Zaborska (Christian Democratic Movement / European People's Party) took part in a podium discussion in the context of a "Conservative Summit.” The aim of the Pressburger and Kaschau Hanus Event and the year-round programs of the Hanus Society is to educate high school students and young academics as an elite, which does not shy away from the confrontation with atheists and liberals and courageously advocates for the Catholic values ​​in politics.

The namesake is the Slovak theologian and priest Ladislav Hanus (1907-1994). Trained at the University of Innsbruck, he was a confidant of the national Slovak priest-politician Andrej Hlinka (1864-1938) in the late 1930s. In the Slovak government of Monsignor Jozef Tiso (1887-1947) he was an exponent of the critical wing within the fascist system "whose stable order under the direction of a leader deserves the trust of all.” From 1952 to 1965, Hanus was allowed to exercise his priesthood again. In 1992, Comenius University in Bratislava awarded an honorary doctorate to the "Slovak Guardini".

Great media attention was given with the Academy's US Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Cardinal Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. After his arrival in Bratislava on Friday, the former Cardinal Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura met with representatives of pro-life organizations. In a discussion on the context of the fight for life and against corruption, Burke supported the "commitment to justice in its entirety" and pointed to the existence of a "hierarchy of moral goods". The right to life is a key value, "because a person deprived of this right can not benefit from any other good in society".

In a lecture, Burke - co-author of a  critical letter to Pope Francis - pointed to the danger of weakening the Catholic doctrine of the "lifetime commitment of marriage vows" and called those attending, "not to shy away from heroic efforts in fidelity to Christ and his teaching. " In the subsequent public discussion, the American honored the Jesuit of Slovak descent, John Hardon (1914-2000), who campaigned in the US for the "spread of orthodox Catholic catechesis" and for whom a process of beatification is running.

At the end of his stay in Slovakia, which he had last visited in 2012, Cardinal Burke celebrated the Inmemorial Mass on Saturday in the Pressburg Elisabethinenkirche. In an interview with the Catholic "Radio Lumen," Burke criticized how "bishops' conferences present conflicting views." When people consult a priest, “they are given different explanations from the right solution by another priest.” This condition in the current church must be "corrected".

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Cardinal Müller Calls Pope’s Statement, “Very Thin”

After German bishops’ visit at the Congregation of the Faith because of the inter-Communion dispute, Müller says: For the good of the Church, "a clear expression of the Catholic faith necessary" right now. The Pope should "reaffirm the faith.”

Vatican (kath.net/pl) The statement was "very thin" and contained "no answer to the central and essential question". For it is not possible that one is "in sacramental communion without ecclesial communion.” The former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Cardinal Müller, explained this  to  Vaticanist Edward Penton, as he reported on his blog in the "National Catholic Register". Müller, after several German bishops (among them the DBK President Reinhard Cardinal Marx and the Archbishop of Cologne Rainer Maria Cardinal Woelki) were invited to a discussion in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, after a dispute over the proposal had erupted in the German Bishops' Conference, in mixed confessional marriages and the Protestant spouse receiving Catholic Communion “in an individual cases.” .

For the welfare of the Church “a clear expression of the Catholic faith necessary," said Müller. The Pope should "reaffirm the faith", especially with regard to the "pillar of our faith, the Eucharist.” At the same time, the Pope and the Congregation of the Faith should give "clear orientation", not through "personal opinion but according to the revealed faith.”

Pentin also reported that one source interpreted the statement as the "official answer that there is no answer." The Holy Father did not fulfill his duty as pope in relation to a dogma question, but left it to his office. The Pope refused to draw a line and left it to the Congregation of the Faith to be a postman for this information. But dicasteries are "useless" if the decisions are left to the episcopal conferences. The unnamed source further stated that he expected Marx to further reduce the number of bishops who reject the DBK proposal. "Our task now is to strengthen these seven bishops." One could assume that a "long fight" was imminent.

However, Pentin commented, even the advocates of the DBK Inter-Communion Initiative would not have received the Pope's approval.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.con

AMDG

Merciful Pope Demands Unanimity at German Bishops' Meeting in Rome -- His Unanimity, No Doubt

Edit: at Katholische.de is the site of the German Catholic Bishops of Germany, most of whom want to officially sanction the sacrilegious communions which go on almost everywhere anyway. Remember when a priest tried to enforce that by refusing Communion to an unrepentant aberrosexual in Washington, and Wuerl gave him the sack? Catholic conservative fall guy, Edward Peters, even agreed with Wuerl and false mercy, applying his canonical folderol.  We expect a that Cardinal Woelki, a notable and frequent defender and promoter of Old Liberal positions himself, will take the fall in the fifth.  The Pope expects unanimity, we expect Woelki to give it to him after a half-hearted defense of the Church's position.

+++Marx is probably enjoying his multimillion euro villa during the affair and isn't too worried about the outcome of this meeting.

 [KNA] The German bishops have ended their conversation with representatives of the Curia in the Vatican on a dissent on the issue of communion reception on Thursday evening. The Vatican has remanded the conflict to the German bishops. Pope Francis asked them to find a unanimous agreement in the spirit of ecclesial communion, according to the German Bishops' Conference and the Vatican. The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, explained in his speech in German that the Pope acknowledges the ecumenical commitment of the German bishops.
Various points of view were discussed in the conversation, such as the relationship of the question to faith and pastoral care, its relevance to the world Church and its legal dimension. Ladaria will inform Francis about the content of the conversation. According to the Episcopal Conference and the Holy See, the meeting was "in a warm and fraternal atmosphere."
 
The parties to the conflict, led by Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, had discussed the reception of Communion for non-Catholic spouses for about three and a half hours on Thursday afternoon, under the direction of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, explained that Pope Francis appreciates the ecumenical commitment of the German bishops and asks them to find as unanimous a settlement as possible in the spirit of ecclesial communion.

KNA

There is dissent in this question within the Episcopal Conference. A majority of German bishops including their President, the Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, advocates that Protestant spouses in Catholic churches may receive Communion. Seven bishops around the [Neoconservative] Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, however, expressed disapproval and formal reservations against a corresponding pastoral care and turned to the Vatican. At the request of Francis, a meeting of some bishops with senior leaders of the Holy See was agreed.
 

The conflicting parties traveled separately to the conversation at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The group around Cardinal Marx arrived at 15:45 at the headquarters of the Vatican. Since then, people have been meeting behind closed doors. In addition to the cardinals Marx and Woelki, the bishops Karl-Heinz Wiesemann (Speyer), Felix Genn (Münster), Gerhard Feige (Magdeburg) and Rudolf Voderholzer (Regensburg), as well as the secretary of the German Bishops' Conference, Father Hans Langendörfer, took part in the deliberations. (Lu / bod / KNA)
 
04.05.2018, 8:50 am: updated with reference to source (Vatican) and first paragraph specified
 Photo: KNA
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

Saint Statues and Crosses Destroyed in Bamburg Churches

The Archdiocese of Bamberg speaks to kath.net about the "rash of violence" and says: "We can currently confirm 6 cases of vandalism in 5 churches"
 

Bamberg (kath.net/pl) Saints statues and crosses have been destroyed in five Bamberg churches. Catholic churches and a Protestant church were affected. The spokesman for the Archdiocese of Bamberg, Harry Luck, told kath.net on request: "We are shocked and saddened by the violence in Bamberger churches. We can currently confirm 6 cases of vandalism in 5 churches. Sculptures and saints statues were overturned, pictures were torn off the walls and a pane hit. In consultation with the police we call the communities, believers, sacristans etc. to special attention. The police are investigating and will continue to inform during the day. Consult the press office of the police inspector Bamberg."

According to Bavarian Radio, the property damage apparently amounts to several thousand euros, the Criminal Police determined and have promised to give more information about it today.

The Association of Sacristans of the Archdiocese of Bamberg wrote on Facebook: "Keep your eyes open! Here in Bamberg yesterday and today. It was yesterday and today in the monastery church. St. Otto today and the Evangelical Church of the Redeemer also got it."

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Cowardly Ryan Caves on Firing Evil Jesuit

Edit: of course he caved. The first decent thing he’s probabaly done in his entire life, and he fails.

[Raw Story] Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has reversed his position on firing a liberal Catholic Chaplain after the priest, Father Patrick Conroy, rescinded his forced resignation Thursday afternoon.

“I have accepted Father Conroy’s letter and decided that he will remain in his position as Chaplain of the House,” Ryan said in a statement Thursday evening.

 “My original decision was made in what I believed to be the best interest of this institution. To be clear, that decision was based on my duty to ensure that the House has the kind of pastoral services that it deserves. It is my job as speaker to do what is best for this body, and I know that this body is not well served by a protracted fight over such an important post. I intend to sit down with Father Conroy early next week so that we can move forward for the good of the whole House.”
Father Conroy is a liberal Jesuit Catholic priest who supports same-sex marriage.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/paul-ryan-reverses-firing-liberal-chaplain/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

AMDG

Knights of Malta Elect New Grand Master

Former governor Fra'Giacomo Dalla Torre has received office for life by election of the 54-member State Council - oath of office on Thursday before the Order’s papal delegate Becciu

Rome (kath.net/KAP) The Order of Malta has elected Fra 'Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto (73) as its new Grand Master. This was announced by the Order on Wednesday in Rome. Dalla Torre previously served as a governor. In this role, he led the community transition ally after a severe management crisis since 29 April 2017. The current election was carried out by the 54 members of the Grand Council of State. Dalla Torre receives the position of Grandmaster for life.

Prior to the announcement, Pope Francis was informed in writing of the election result. Subsequently, the Grand Priorate and other institutions of the Order became aware, as well as the governments of the 107 States, to which the Order maintains diplomatic relations with the rank subject to international law. On Thursday morning, Dalla Torre takes his oath of office in the Roman church of Santa Maria in Aventino in front of the papal special delegate to the Order, Archbishop Angelo Becciu.

The last Grandmaster, the Briton Matthew Festing (68), came back in early 2017 under pressure from Pope Francis. This had been preceded by turbulence at the head of the Order, which temporarily cost the German Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager (68) his position as Grand Chancellor.

The draft of a new constitution for the Sovereign Order of Malta should also be presented this week. It comes from a reform committee under the supervision of Archbishop Delegate Becciu; However, the document still had to be discussed, it was said at last. So far, the constitution has regulated that a grandmaster must always be "from an old noble family" and belong to the "First Estate" of the Order of Malta. These include men who, as professed knights, have taken the three vows of poverty, honorability and obedience and then become true religious in the sense of canon law. Women can not become grandmasters under the current constitution.

Order and Subject of International Law

The Order of Malta is in the tradition of the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the world's first Christian Nursing Order founded in the 11th century. After the Reformation, the community split into the Catholic Maltese and the Protestant Hospitallers.

As a Catholic Order, the Sovereign Order of Malta is subordinate to the Holy See. At the same time it is politically ita own subject under international law. This status gives it unique access at the political and diplomatic level and is intended to provide special independence in conflicts.

The Maltese have 13,500 male and female members and about 120,000 honorary and full-time employees. They are active worldwide in development and disaster relief as well as in the health sector. In Germany, the German branch of the Order of Malta and the German Caritas Association founded the Malteser Hilfsdienst (MHD) in 1953 as a medical and civil protection organization.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Archbishop Sample Praises Notes Youthful Fascination With Immemorial Mass on EWTN

[Catholic Herald] Young people are drawn to the Traditional Latin Mass by its “beauty”, “sense of mystery” and “transcendence”, Archbishop Alexander K Sample has said.

Speaking during a Pontifical High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, Archbishop Sample praised Pope Benedict XVI for the “great gift” of Summorum Pontificum – the document that allowed the traditional Mass to be more widely celebrated – and said the “reverence and sacredness” of the old Mass would enrich the Novus Ordo.

The Archbishop of Portland, Oregon also noted how many young people were in the congregation, saying: “You are a sign—a great sign—of encouragement and hope for the Church tossed about these days on the troubled waters of secularism and relativism. As they say: you ‘get it.’”

AMDG

School Board Suspends Catholicism at Ontario Catholic Schools

Edit: meanwhile, Salt and Light, CCCB, Crux will have nothing meaningful to say.

[The Globe and Mail] An Ontario Catholic school board has suspended a controversial policy that forbids students from raising money for charities that support abortion, euthanasia and other activities opposed by the church.

After months of outcry from many parents and students and criticism from the province’s Education Minister about a lack of consultation, trustees at the Halton Catholic District School Board voted on Tuesday night to pause the implementation of the board’s “Sanctity of Life” policy until after it had received and considered feedback from the wider school community.

Trustees first passed a motion in February stating it would no longer provide or facilitate financial donations to non-profits or charities that publicly support, “either directly or indirectly, abortion, contraception, sterilization, euthanasia, or embryonic stem cell research.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/article-ontario-catholic-school-board-suspends-controversial-charity-policy/?__twitter_impression=true

AMDG

Bishop of Innsbruck Wears Groovy Plastic Chasuble

Please, help me escape this avant garde pose. I’m about to dance now....

Edit: episcopal twiggy as reported by Damian Thompson on his Twitter. Is Damien still going to the New Mass?  

I thought I’d seen everything, but then I underestimated the sheer degeneracy of the Austrian Bishops.

[Choosing — Him] The museum of the Benedictine Monastery of Admont, Austria, has presently displayed exhibits belonging to the new bishop of Innsbruck, Hermann Glettler who was consecrated in December 2017.

Among the exhibits is a 2004 photo of Glettler wearing a transparent "chasuble" made from plastic. The photo is also on the cover of this years's catalogue of the museum.

Glettler believes in female priests. His appointment was enthusiastically praised by the commercial media.




en.news

AMDG

Deputy Head of CSU: Three Years Ago Marx Wanted Crosses in Public Buildings

Dorothee Bär, the deputy leader of CSU, has rejected the criticism of the President of the Catholic German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Marx, on the cross-decree of Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder.

Munich (kath.net) Dorothee Bär, the deputy leader of CSU, has rejected the criticism of the chairman of the Catholic German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Marx, on Prime Minister Markus Söder’s cross decree. "The statements of Cardinal Marx are very puzzling: Three years ago he pleaded publicly for the crosses in schools and courtrooms," said the State Minister for Digitization in the Federal Chancellery to the "Handelsblatt." Nobody could deny, according to Bear, "that our homeland is Christian-Jewish. "Marx had previously claimed that Söder's initiative created, "division and unrest."

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Crossgate: Austrian Nuncio Castigates Cardinal Marx

Austrian nuncio Peter Stephan Zurbriggen sharply criticizes Cardinal Marx and German bishops for criticizing the use of crosses in public buildings

Vienna (kath.net)

On Tuesday, the Austrian nuncio Peter Stephan Zurbriggen sharply criticized the fact that bishops in neighboring Germany are attacking Bavarian prime minister Markus Söder because he is hanging crosses. He said: "You know, as a nuncio and representative of the Holy Father, I am already discouraged and ashamed that when crosses are put up in a neighboring country, it is precisely the bishops and priests who come forth to criticize this, that is a shame!”

Pretty annoyed about the behavior of some confreres from Germany, Zurbriggen then said: "This religious correctness is getting on my nerves." And again critical of the address of Cardinal Marx: "If they make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and are ashamed to carry the cross, for whatever reason, then it shames me too."

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Cardinal Marx Attacks Bavarian Cross Proposal -- Calls Söder "Divisive"

The head of the German Bishops' Conference attacked the Bavarian Prime Minister. "If the cross is only seen as a cultural symbol, it has not been understood," says Reinhard Marx.

Hard criticism of Söder: Cardinal Reinhard Marx Photo: dpa / Sven Hoppe

[Tagesspiegel] The head of the Catholic German Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has criticized the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder for his cross-decree. It was encouraging "division, unrest, against each other," said Marx in an interview with the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
 
"If the cross is only seen as a cultural symbol, it has not been understood," said the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. "Then the cross would be expropriated in the name of the state."
 

It was not up to the state to explain what the cross meant, said Marx. It was "a sign of opposition to violence, injustice, sin and death, but no sign against other people." Marx considers the social debate about the cross to be important, but everyone should be involved: Christians, Muslims, Jews and those who are not really religious.
 
The state must ensure that religious beliefs can be articulated. But it can not determine what the content of this religious belief is. It could do something to make those values ​​live.  "And this is what the state does with us." The Gospel can not be translated one-to-one into practical politics, Marx said. "From a Christian point of view, however, it should be a guiding principle for politicians to respect the dignity of every human being, especially the weak. He who hangs a cross must be judged by these standards."

more on the subject

New Prime Minister Crusader Söder and self-confident Bavaria

Patrick Guyton

 

The Bavarian state cabinet had decided that from June a cross must hang in every office of  state. In the view of the state government, this should express the "historical and cultural character" of Bavaria and be "a visible commitment to the basic values ​​of the legal and social order". The decision was controversial throughout Germany. (AP)

Trans: Tancred verkon99@hotmail.com

AMDG

84 Year Old Priest Abducted and Murdered in Mexico

Exclusive interview with a Mexican priest tracking the persecution of the Church in Mexico: "The message is clear: If I can kill a priest, I can kill anyone." 

The Catholic Church in Mexico is experiencing another tragedy during this “black April” marked by the death of priests. On April 25, Fr. Moisés Fabila, the 84-year-old chaplain of the Choir of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe was found dead in Cuernavaca, the capital of the state of Morelos, south of Mexico City.

 The information available to date is that Fr. Moisés had been kidnapped last April 3; the ransom demanded by his captors had been paid, but due to the priest’s delicate health (he was in Cuernavaca to rest, due to illness) he was unable to survive his captivity.

He is the fourth priest to be found dead (three murdered and one the victim of a supposed accident) in less than a week. This chain of homicides makes Mexico the most dangerous place in the world to be a priest, with 24 (or 25) priests having been murdered in the five and a half years during which the current administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto has been in power.

https://aleteia.org/2018/04/28/an-84-year-old-catholic-priest-has-been-murdered-in-mexico/?utm_campaign=english_page&utm_medium=aleteia_en&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1524932684

AMDG

Celibacy and Its Opponents

Bishop Bode, pictured with new "liturgical" headgear, is preparing the German public for the introduction of married priests. A plan with far-reaching consequences ...

 

(Berlin) If there were any doubts that the Amazon synod would be programmed, they should be dispelled. The Amazon synod is will not just be somehow programmed, but in the background from the German-speaking countries. The German Church is said to be recovering from the German spirit, not just since the 1960s. Like with Hegel the tourist in his rucksack, they seem to have a fixed view of the Protestantism that emerged from German lands as a role model. The demand is already old, but now it should really lunge for the neck of celibacy.

On German nature ...

The Amazon Synod is being prepared on behalf of Pope Francis by  the emeritus Austrian missionary Bishop Erwin Kräutler and German-born Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes. Hummes (born 1934) is a personal friend of Pope Francis. Kräutler (born 1939) is the bishop who "does not agree" when it comes to praying priestly vocations.

Amazon Basin

Both have spoken repeatedly in favor of celibacy's demotion to a voluntary basis, which amounts to its de facto abolition, as practice in the Orthodox churches shows. In Protestantism, it never came up again. Both already spoke out for the ordination of women. The Amazon synod with the aim of a married clergy is therefore only a first stage in the attack on the sacrament of Holy Orders.
 
Kräutler is head of Repam Brazil and Hummes is head of the entire Repam network. Repam, in turn, was founded in late 2014 through episcopal conferences in all Amazonian states to prepare the Amazon synod on behalf of the Vatican. Thus, Kräutler and Hummes have a central influence on the direction of the synod.
 
The main concern of the Synod, which has since been barely hidden, is, unlike allegedly, not a "cry" of the indigenous Amazon people, because they have no priests. Hummes himself immediately smashed an unwanted proposal to remedy the alleged shortage of priests for the maximum of 300,000 Amazonian Indians. Why? Because the primary goal is not the pastoral care of the Indians, but the abolition of celibacy.

Pope's Ghost Writer, Fernandez is Out as University Rector

 (Buenos Aires) The Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina will receive a new rector tomorrow. This ends the term of Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernandez, one of Pope Francis' closest and most controversial confidants. In Rome, many people wonder: What will be his new task?
Victor Manuel Fernandez is widely regarded as the Ghostwriter of Pope Francis and as an alter ego of  his Argentine compatriot on the Pope's throne. The Vaticanist Sandro Magister counts him next to the Jesuit Antonio Spadaro and the Presbyterian Pastor Marcelo Figueroa as the dubious "three musketeers of the Pope"

Bergoglio's Protegé

Cardinal Bergoglio with Victor Manuel Fernandez

On Monday, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina (UCA) published a press statement announcing a "new rector of the UCA". According to the statement, there was is a "shared time in office agreed between Rector Msgr. Victor Manuel Fernandez and the Grand Chancellor, Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli." Cardinal Poli is the successor appointed as Archbishop of Buenos Aires by Pope Francis in April 2013. The respective Archbishop of Buenos Aires is automatically also the Grand Chancellor of the University.
 
Victor Manuel Fernandez became Rector of the UCA in 2009. His appointment was a power struggle between the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, and the Vatican. At the Roman Congregation for Catholic Education there were strong concerns about Fernandez, whose publications did not convince, but raised some doubts. Fernandez's first work from 1995 is entitled  "Heal me through your mouth. The art of kissing." Magister wrote in the summer of 2017:

"It comes as no surprise that Rome, following this book and other equally controversial book productions, vetoed the appointment of Fernandez as Rector of the Catholic University of Argentina."

In 2004 and 2005 he published essays defending situational ethics. The influence of the Papal "eyeball" on Bergoglio would deserve its own investigation.
 
However, Cardinal Bergoglio stubbornly persisted in appointing his confidant as the university rector, thereby defeating Rome, which bowed to the will of the Jesuit "on the periphery".
 
But that was not all: When Bergoglio was elected pope four years later, he took revenge on the Roman opponents in this power struggle. Demonstratively, he appointed Fernandez as one of his first personnel decisions, to Titular Archbishop. At the same time he showed his Roman opponents to the door. A few months after his election, he dismissed nine members of the Education Congregation .
And even more: the Fernandez's personal file from 2009 was the concern of  French Dominican, Curia Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès. Msgr. Brugués was secretary of the Congregation for Education at that time, expressing doubts and reservations about the appointment of Fernandez as Rector. Pope Benedict XVI, who valued the Dominican, made him Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church  in 2012. This office, the "memory" of the Church, is traditionally associated with the cardinalatial dignity. But Brugués has since been denied by a vindictive Franciscan.

The papal ghostwriter

Since Cardinal Bergoglio moved to Rome as Pope Francis, Fernandez also commutes between Buenos Aires and the Vatican. He is considered the real speechwriter of the pope. In fact, in recent years he has spent more time in Rome than in Buenos Aires.
 
As adviser to Pope Francis, Msgr. Fernandez has attracted attention mainly through questionable contributions.
 
Fernandez was part of the editorial team for Amoris laetitia. Complete paragraphs of the particularly controversial eighth chapter, "with which Pope Francis has shaken the Church the most", said Magister in the previous year, are from older writings by Fernandez. Similar text contributions can be found in other papal documents.

Victor Manuel Fernandez, alter ego of Francis

In summer 2017, an essay by the Pope's protégé was published in the journal, Medellín. There, Fernandez let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, spreading what was hitherto vehemently disputed by the papal court: Almost a year and a half after the publication of the post-Synodal letter Amoris laetitia, Fernandez admitted that Pope Francis wanted to and has changed the "discipline" of the Church. So far, from the papal inner-circle, it has been claimed against the critics with emphasis, it changes "nothing."
 

In December 2016, Fernandez dismissed concerns of Catholic theologians, intellectuals, bishops and priests about Amoris laetitia, as that of four cardinals, which he described  as " ultra-Catholic " interjections . After all, the Church is "not a cannon firing safe teachings."
 
On 12 August 2017, in an interview with the Argentine newspaper La Voz del Interior, he spoke of a "new type of organization in the parishes". He called celibacy the mere "norm" of the Church. Criticizing celibacy is linked to the exercise of the responsibilities of a pastor as "power". Therefore, new organizational structures for parishes should be created by transferring "power" to lay people, "men and women". Then it will be less "disturbing"  of the life of the parish that "the priest is celibate", which is then also is "less questioned".

The new rector - and new tasks of the old kind?

New Rector of the UCA, founded in 1958, will be Miguel Angel Schiavone, who has already been confirmed by the Holy See. Tomorrow, March, the doctor and first layman at the head of the university will take office as the sixth rector in the history of the UCA. The official inauguration with an academic celebration will take place on May 9th.
 
Fernandez has said goodbye to the University with the celebration of a Mass.
 
The question is: what new tasks will Fernandez take on?

The "felt" influence of "Tucho", as friends call him, is so great that, after the dismissal of Cardinal Gerhard Müller, he was even rumored to be in consideration as the new Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith.
 
Since he has spent more time in Rome than in Argentina in the past few years to advise Pope Francis and to write for him, more Fernandez must be expected in the Vatican.
 
Officially, it only means that the outgoing rector will support the new rector.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Rorate Coeli / Fratres in Unum / Cope (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

If Words Could Kill: Catholic Apologetics Mafia Attacks Faithful Catholics

De Agostini Picture Library via Getty Images

And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him. 

 

Edit: in the past few days there have been a lot of professed experts among the Apologetics Inc. people (it's more of a cult), the old EWTN crew and even a motorcycle hooligan of a Canon Lawyer (apparently an ex-Satanist), on Judaism and the Catholic Church.  They are now venting their collectivist fury upon anyone they perceive as deviating from the acceptable, progressive orthodoxy on the topic of  Judaism.  The blood lust is palpable.  Could this be the end of Catholic Apologetics?

While those addressing the question of Judaism critically, and fearlessly, are in short supply, there are no shortage of individuals who, not having studied the question very deeply, wish to assume the worst of people who merely believe and know what the Church has taught and lived for centuries.

The current mob within the Church, who are now attacking faithful Catholics, including faithful priests like Father Peter West, do not draw their inspiration from the scriptures, so much as novelties which have been put upon the Church in the last half-century, like the post-Conciliar interpretations of Vatican II. These interpreters, like Cardinal Kasper, Hans Kung, Cardinal Bernardin, were eager to show their zeal for the Jewish nation, even to the point of disparaging Scripture itself. These were the visible agents of a powerful force which imposed a Church-wide institutional disposition, declaring a unilateral peace with the Jewish people. Maybe Catholic hostility was in the past, but Jewish hostility towards Catholics? Certainly, the aforementioned Apologetics Inc. is more than eager to attack!

The Church had opened its door, and ever since it has ever been perilous to express any opinion which might coincide with actual Catholic teaching of the ages, especially not touching on Judaism, which might offend the imposed consensus, no matter how far that consensus and fanaticism on its behalf, falls from the sensus catholicus, love of neighbor, or indeed, the Catholic Faith itself. Nowhere is the auto-lesionistic disease afflicting the Church more evident. Thus it has come to pass that expressing an opinion on Judaism, even the most innocuous and apparently harmless, can lead to heights of rage that will land a man in a lot of hot water with those powers and principalities, like the aforementioned apologetics mafia who are the handmaids of this oppressive arrangement.  In many "civilized" Western countries, it can even mean prison.

In view of this situation, it seems worthwhile to revisit an instructive story.  One lone voice was raised years ago.  The man who raised it was nearly thrown out on the street.  Yet teaching Catholicism on a question touching on the Jews cost him his job as an instructor of Sacred Scripture. It must have been painful for him to make this stand, for teaching was something he loved doing, but we're grateful he did.  He still maintains this notion about the Jews and their Covenant which can
 only be fulfilled in Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Here is Father Echert's account as it appeared last year, which addressed the same problem which as raised its head again now that Cardinal Kasper and the Sankt Gallen Mafia rule at Santa Marta.  This was taken from AKA Catholic:

The Archdiocese won't allow us to use his official photo.

Less than two years into the new millennium, Moslem terrorists attacked the United States on 9/11, murdering thousands of Americans and sending hundreds of thousands of military troops to wars that would last for years. Among those deployed was a Catholic military chaplain from Minnesota, who was called to active duty from the classroom; this priest was also the Scripture Expert for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) website.