Cardinal Erzzati, “I haven’t covered abuse, on the contrary, I’ve exposed it.”
[ July 25, 2018]
(Santiago de Chile) Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, Archbishop of Santiago and Primate of Chile, has been charged with suspicion of covering up sexual abuse.
The case of Karadima, which became known in recent years mainly as the case of Barros, is drawing greater attention. "Today, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati was summoned by the Rancagua Procuratorate to appear as a defendant in court on 21 August for the suspicion of covering up an offense," the Archdiocese said in a press release.
The cardinal himself affirmed that he was guilty of no such crime. In this sense, he will also defend himself in Rancagua.
"I am firmly convinced that I have covered up nothing and that I have not obstructed the judiciary in any way. Rather, as a citizen of the country, I have made a contribution to exposing the facts through contact with the victims. In this sense, I will continue to make my contribution.”
Prosecutor Emiliano Arias is investigating several priests and seized parts of the diocesan archives of the diocese of Rancagua. The local diocesan Bishop Alejandro Goic was retired by Pope Francis in the meantime. He had already reached the canonical maximum age. Nevertheless, there is a direct connection with the investigation.
After much hesitation, Francis began a mass dismissal, which does not appear to be exhausted. The name of Cardinal Ezzati was called immediately. The Primate is still in office, but in the context of the indictment that has now taken place, the moment of retirement may have come - or may be delayed for that very reason. The Cardinal had demanded the resignation of Bishop Juan Barros from Francis and thereby put the Pope under pressure. That did not go down well in Rome. When Francis finally retired Barros after three and a half years of hesitation, the retirement of Cardinal Ezzati seems to have been a "matter of punishment".
The arraignment by the prosecutor could, if the retirement does not occur in the next few days, may lead to its delay, since he inopportine intervention by the Pope could throw a false light.
The whole affair goes back to the case of Fernando Karadima, one of Chile's best known priests, who was convicted of sexual abuse in 2013. He was condemned by the Church and has since led a life of silence and penance.
A young offender travelled with companions to Santiago de Compostela for 85 days and had to do without addictive substances and mobile phones.
Rome (kath.net/KAP)
In return for a pilgrimage to Santiago, a juvenile court in Italy has waived the lawsuit against a young offender. The now 22-year-old North African descent should be responsible for various offenses related to his drug use. Instead, the judge agreed in the 1,500-kilometer hike to the Spanish pilgrimage as a remedy. As Italian media reported, it was a first in Italian justice.
According to reports, the young man was on the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela for 85 days. He was accompanied by a 68-year-old supervisor of a youth welfare association from Mestre in northern Italy, who is based on similar projects in Belgium and France. The agreement included the renunciation of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, as well as cell phone fasting throughout the journey. The pilgrim was responsible for accommodation and food for just under 40 euros per day.
The young man had not found it quite that easy to get used to the new daily routine and the rules, according to the broadcaster "Tgcom 24" said his companion Fabrizio, who was like a grandfather during the trip. Nevertheless, his protégé also discovered new qualities of life in the "beauty of the landscape" and the geography. "My life has changed," the 22-year-old said after returning to Italy.
Pope Benedict with Stefano Spaziani a few days ago in the Vatican Gardens.
(Rome) At the beginning of Pope Francis’ term of office, numerous pictures of encounters with Benedict XVI. were released. "Thin sheets of paper" fit between the two, it said. That was long ago.
Even then it was clear that this was a form of staging. The pictures of Benedict XVI. served to secure the authority of the new pope. Only pictures were published, never content.
The official reading is still today that Pope Francis regularly visited his predecessor Benedict XVI. to talk to him and get advice. It was like visiting the "grandfather," Francis explained.
But that has not the case for a long time. Supposedly, visits from Francis took place in the monastery Mater Ecclesiae, where Benedict XVI. lives, on the high festivals of Christmas and Easter as well as the birthday of his predecessor. However, pictures of these encounters were not published, although there are other such occasions for everyone.
The only exception recently was on June 28, the visit of Francis with the newly created cardinals.
The need of Francis to seek advice from his predecessor is very limited and kept from the beginning within limits. Cardinal Kasper had revealed in the time of the Sedevacant that now an anti-Ratzinger pontificate was needed.
If one takes only the official Vatican pictures of Benedict XVI. in consideration, the impression arises that the former head of the Church should be made invisible. This is not surprising after the affair over the letter of his predecessor, which was manipulated in honor of Francis, which led to the overthrow of a close confidant of Francis in the spring.
Even before, Benedict XVI, although extremely rare and always discreet, had spoken out to formulate some opposing positions to the present pontificate. These include the defense of Cardinal Robert Sarah, the thorn in the flesh of the current pontificate at the Roman Curia, when Pope Francis' prefect was condemned personally by Pope Francis.
There are now mostly private visitors in the monastery Mater Ecclesiae, who publish photos of Benedict XVI. He does not seem to mind, which is why the image barrier of the Vatican hardly takes his desire in consideration.
On Wednesday, the Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict XVI. published pictures of the of the photographer Stefano Spaziani with Benedict XVI. Spaziani gave the former Pope an illustrated book containing the most beautiful recordings of his pontificate.
One of the frequently quoted historical reference points for chronologicalizing the events reported in the Gospel concerns the year of the death of King Herod the Great: the year 4 BC, at least according to many authors.
Herod the Great
This year we owe to the writings of Flavius Josephus, who, however, never expressly names them. It is derived from the reigns of Archelaus, Philippos and Antipas, the heirs of Herod. But Flavius Josephus himself provides at least a dozen clues that contradict and render the year useless as Herod's year of death. For example, it was not uncommon to reckon with the successor's reigning years as well as the time when the office was held, but the old king was still alive.
Amazingly, many writers today write that "Herod certainly died in the year 4 BC." They do so with such confidence in Flavius Josephus that they simply ignore many other of his statements, which are much more precise. Flavius Josephus wrote that Herod died at the age of seventy. Similarly, at the age of just 15, Herod was appointed by his father Antipater to be the administrator of Galilee, after he had come to power from Pompey, after the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 63 BC.
We also know that at the time of the Battle of Actium, in September 31 BC, Herod was in the seventh year of his kingship. According to Jewish Antiquities, his reign lasted 37 years, 30 to 31 years after the Battle of Actium. We know that Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, after the visit of Emperor Augustus to Syria, for which the Roman historians handed down to us the year 19 BC, resolved to rebuild the temple (the 15th year of his reign, according to the records) in the History of the Jewish War , in which Herod's reign is given as 34 years). In short, in the year 4 BC, Herod was still alive.
Astronomy gives justice to the Evangelist Luke
Astronomy is also in this case an effective tool for determining the timing of historical events. It provides both Flavius Josephus as a historian, and Luke as an evangelist justice, but to the detriment of many modern authors. Flavius Josephus wrote that Herod died about two weeks after a spectacular lunar eclipse and that his funeral took place before the subsequent Jewish Passover. The records of NASA allow us to calculate the exact date of the lunar eclipses of that time and eliminate those that were invisible in Palestine.
Those who insist that Herod died in the year 4 BC look at the darkness of March 13 (according to the Julian calendar) of that year. At that time the 14th Nisan fell on the 12th of April, so 29 days later. After all, however, what Flavius Josephus reports for that period, the time span is too short to be that date. An often overlooked detail: the 13th of March would have been the 14th Adar, a feast day (Purim) associated with the 13th Adar, the day of Nicanor, a feast day since the times of the Maccabees.
Flavius Josephus testifies that just a few days before, two rabbis had instigated an anti-Roman uprising, destroying the gilded eagle that Herod had placed on the outside of the Jerusalem temple. For security reasons, Herodes preferred to bring the two rabbis outside Jericho to Jerusalem, where he was in the spa to heal his physical ailments. He had them burned alive on the very day of darkness ( Jewish Antiquities , chapter XXVII).
Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War
Considering the great respect of the Jews for holy days, which Herod always kept disparaging, but no court could have been found, not even an unlawful one, to pass a verdict on a religious feast (Est 9,17--18), let alone against two well-known rabbis. The entire population would have been scandalized about it. However, Flavius Josephus reported that it was not just any court, but the Highest Court of the Jews, the right-wingers par excellence. He also recalled that Archelaos (co-regent of Antipas and Philippos since the year 4 BC), because of the persistent criticism of the judgment, expressly justified that it was done "in accordance with the law." Even with Jesus, the "law" endeavored to accelerate his execution so that no feast day would be profaned.
The 14th Adar may not have been the date of the lunar eclipse and therefore it is not the year 4 BC that interests us. Herod, an Idumaean, would not have had two rabbis burned on a day when Haman was burned according to the ancient tradition of the Purim festival.
If there are any doubts: Flavius Josephus lists for the period after this "impossible execution" and before the Passover, a series of events that occurred before Herod's death (which occurred about two weeks after the lunar eclipse). However, the dates are incompatible with the few missing days until the 14th Nisan.
So it must have been another lunar eclipse. According to NASA directory, two especially would be in question. The first occurred on the 10th of January of the year 1 before Christ, the second on the 29th of December of the same year. In both cases there would be sufficient time to accommodate all the events that Flavius Josephus mentions between the darkness and the subsequent Passover. A Jewish document, Megillat Taanith, which dates back to the destruction of the temple in the year 70 AD, has been handed down to us. The scrolls contain a list of Jewish festivals. In it are two dates without further information, on which it was forbidden not to celebrate: one is the 7th Kislev, the other of the 2 Shevat.
M. Moise Schwab, through a detailed and intricate study in the 2nd Shevat, pinpointed the death of Herod, exactly two weeks after the lunar eclipse of December 29, the 14th of January of the year 1 AD, according to today's calendar. The lunar eclipse came exactly at dusk, so that everyone could see it. Herod, born 70 BC, ruler since the year 37 BC, was 70 years old, and had ruled 37 years according to the specifications of the Jewish Antiquities. Jesus was born about a year before, at the end of the year 2 BC. Everything fits, at least for those who are willing to take a close look.
Text: Ruggero Sangalli / NBQ Translation: Giuseppe Nardi Pictures: Wikicommons
