Edit: here's a piece by Allistair Scrutton about the mostly indifferent reception Pope Francis faces in Sweden, despite his own attempt at rebranding and making the Catholic Church more like Sweden. Even if he is making Europe more welcoming to Islamic invaders while making it more inhospitable to confirmed Catholics, his efforts are met largely with indifference on the part of the people to whom he's desperately trying to appeal.
[Sweden] Usually feted ecstatically by Catholics across the world, Pope Francis may face a far more muted reception when he arrives next week in Sweden, one the world’s most secular nations, with openly gay Lutheran bishops and special cemeteries for atheists.
Add to that the fact that Francis will be there to take part in a joint Catholic-Lutheran service in Lund to mark the start of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s anti-Catholic Reformation that led to a bloody schism in Europe.
In the first papal visit to the country in nearly 30 years, Francis, who is seen as breathing freshness into traditional Catholic doctrine and reaching out to other religious communities, will also hold a public Mass in Malmo, a gateway for thousands of immigrants who have fled from Middle East wars over the last few years.
While trips to the likes of the Philippines attract huge crowds, Francis’s attempt at dialogue with Lutherans may go either unnoticed or criticized by Scandinavians whose views on sexuality and abortion are among the world’s most liberal.
It is for this reason that I don't view earthquakes as signs of Divine punishment. The poor people who reside near Norcia reside on tectonic plates that shift. Also, they have in their midst one of the great traditional monastic community in the Catholic world. Monks interceding for this pagan world and a Church in total disarray to say the least. Now if an earthquake hit Sweden, then I would pause and tremble myself. Please pray for those who are suffering from these quakes in Italy as well as the poor Christians in Syria.
ReplyDeleteEarthquakes and fires have repeatedly destroyed many beautiful Catholic treasures over the centuries. A new generation is thereby given the honor of rebuilding them. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has suffered earthquake and fire and the Tomb of Jesus is still there. Check out nationalgeographic.com for the latest results on the just completed examination of Jesus' Tomb.
DeleteAnonymous, that is the part I don't understand either. On further thought and more understanding, dare I say this, with all due respect and fear of God, I question, why Norcia? Yet, I note that while some people are hurt, and I ask God to heal them, it is a miracle more people were not killed in this.
DeleteI cannot fathom this evil world, so I certainly cannot fathom the mind of God. Yet I do not believe these earthquakes and other signs as coincidental. Not at all.
Official Sweden will welcome Pope Francis heartily because of his fulsome support for the Moslem migrant invasion. The Lutheran womyn Bishops will be meeting a Pope who shares a similar political and theological viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteMost of those immigrants are economic migrants, but are following a Moslem duty of colonising the land of the Infidel. There is violence in some many Moslem countries, but that's because the Moslem way of life results in millions of violent men with no impulse control, as we discover last New Years with the epidemic of rape and sexual assault.
I believe Sweden just experienced a horribly violent rape of a poor ten year old boy at a public pool by a Muslim. The boy was dragged into a bathroom and so violently raped by this man he needed emergency medical help. He will suffer a lifetime, an entire lifetime, over the memories of this violence against his body and innocence, it will color his entire lifetime, affect his everyday functioning and of course his marital life and fatherhood. Yet the question was asked, in determining culpability for this heinous crime "Did the boy indicate he said NO to this act?", as if a CHILD could say YES to a sexual act with a MAN. European nations are well on the way to hell to ignore the innocence of children and allow such blatant sexual torture and abuse of their own!
DeleteAnd what was the demon's rationale for this rape and torture of a young, innocent boy? He "had not had sex for three months". What savagery has been opened with welcoming arms to the shores of Europe! And as we see on New Year's Eve, there are not even men manly enough to defend the honor nor safety of the women NOR the children! Feh, I renounce my European DNA from these feckless Europeans. To think that Americans are so often snottily looked down upon by Europeans. I believe with all my heart we draw the line at the safety and wellbeing of our children, ALL children! If we do not protect children, may God send a meteor quickly.
Lutherans don't have bishops, male or female. They're dressed up laymen and laywomen. See the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII Apostolicae Curae. Anglican (and by extension, ALL Protestant) "orders" are invalid, now and forever.
DeleteThis Jorge Bergoglio surely fits the "apostate pope" that the late Fr. Malachi Martin had alluded to.
ReplyDeleteFrancis faces indifference among those who believe in God. No doubt any longer that he is a Marxist who wishes to crush capitalism. His lack of belief in sin is astounding on his road to world socialism. "All evil is caused by economic disparity" leaves out sin and the need for redemption and a Redeemer who died on a cross. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen warned of a religious leader who would create a religion without a cross. He is here.
ReplyDelete