Pope Francis Suspends Bishop Lovieres -- Intrigue Against Faithful Bishop Continues

Bishop Lovieres Suspended

Edit: basically, if the Pope himself were held to these standards, he would have to suspend himself.  

Of course, the media, and ambulance chasing, political activist attorneys love him too much to bring him down.

(Asuncion) Pope Francis has dismissed  Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay today. At the same time, he has appointed Bishop Ricardo Jorge Valenzuela Ríos of Villarrica del Espiritu Santo as Apostolic Administrator of the vacant episcopal chair.

The decision had already been signed off last summer, when the attention of Pope Francis  fell obtrusively upon  the Latin American Diocese and an Apostolic Visitor was sent.

After completion of the Visitation, soothing and friendly explanations of the transferees were indeed given, but whoever knows internal church practices, already feared the peace before the storm.

In a statement, the Vatican press office states:

After a careful examination of the findings of the Apostolic Visitations made ​​to the Bishop, dioceses and seminaries of Ciudad del Este, by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Clergy, the Holy Father has proceeded with the replacement of Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano. He has appointed Ricardo Jorge Valenzuela Ríos, Bishop of Villarrica del Espíritu Santo, as Apostolic Adminostrator of the now vacant diocese.

The grave decision taken by the Holy See, under the weight of serious pastoral concerns, is for the greater good and unity of the Church of Ciudad del Este and episcopal communion in Paraguay.

The Holy Father, in the exercise of his ministry as "the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity of both the bishops and of the faithful" (LG 23) calls for the clergy and the entire people of God of Ciudad del Este to accept the Holy See’s decision with the spirit of obedience, docility and an open heart, guided by faith.

Moreover, he invites the entire Church of Paraguay, led by its pastors, to a serious process of reconciliation and to overcome any factionalism and discord, so that the face of the one Church "purchased with the blood of his own Son" is not wounded and the "flock of Christ" is not deprived of the joy of the Gospel (cf. Acts 20: 28).

The serious decision of the Holy See, judiciously because of serious pastoral reflections is governed by the higher good of the unity of the Church of Ciudad del Este and the Episcopal Community of Paraguay.

The combined Vatican statement in understandable words

Bishop Livieres celebrates Old Rite

The Vatican statement must be translated into understandable words: faithful bishops disturb the "communion of bishops" and will continue in the name of an ominous "peace"  be sent into the desert.  Msgr. Ricardo Jorge Valenzuela Ríos, Bishop of Villarrica del Espiritu Santo, who is appointed by the Pope, is one of the most liberal bishops of Paraguay, as the Apostolic Administrator. An additional slap in the face.

The faithful Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano constituted an exception among Latin American diocesan bishops. Within a few years his Diocese of Ciudad del Este had flowered. In almost every parish of the Diocese  the Holy Mass is celebrated in the Old Rite. The seminary of the diocese has more than 200 seminarians, more than the seminaries of all other dioceses in Paraguay together.  Bishop Livieres was thus among the bishops what  the Franciscans of the Immaculate were among  the Orders. He showed that faithfulness in doctrine and liturgy brings great blessing. He became a bone of contention for the other bishops, who had very different "track records" to show.  Large archdioceses such as Buenos Aires and Montevideo have less than 30 seminarians (see report Latin Mass Boom in Paraguay - Causes Pope Francis to arrange visitation ). "That explains why the development in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este was interfered with by progressive parts of the Church," said Messa in Latino.

Bishop Livieres: Annoyed by Tradition and the Old Rite

Visitor Cardinal Abril and assistant in Ciudad del Este

Bishop Livieras also did something  else that did the Franciscans of the Immaculate did, they lifted up their voice, equally among the others. However, a voice that was heard outside of the choir.

Now he is the victim of an intrigue which was quickly threaded together. The scattering of some unsubstantiated rumors, and the denunciations in Rome, which conspired to send a visitation.  The diocese refuted the rumors disseminated point by point in a detailed dossier. Bishop Livieres saw through the game quickly, and named the Archbishop of Asuncion Msgr. Eustaquio Pastor Cuquejo Verga as one of the main schemers, which he did publicly in a speech at the March for Life, where he accused him ofb "homosexuality"  and complained that he had still not been removed from office . [Of course, this happens all the time, but bishops rarely say anything in public.]

Visitation Ordered by Pope

Bishop Livieres indictment that he openly raised  and not in the form of a denunciation, as his opponents  characterize it  had totally different kinds of consequences. Pope Francis sent a Visitor from 21-26th July, not to Asuncion, but to Ciudad del Este. The Episcopal Conference of Paraguay announced the impending visitation with obvious satisfaction at a specially convened press conference, of course, without  Bishop Livieres knowing about it.

If the impression  is awakened in the Vatican statement that the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Clergy had separately or even independently performed "visitations", this is not true. There was only one visitation and it was decided by Pope Francis personally. He also sent for the Visitor, Cardinal Santos Abril, Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Cardinal Abril, served from 2000-2003 as nuncio in Argentina and has been a close friend of Pope Francis (see report Pope suspended Ordinations in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este - A Deja-vu? ).

Believers demonstrate for Bishop Livieres

Catholic Tragedy

In Ciudad del Este is an oft repeated  Catholic tragedy,  one which has been experienced  the last 25 years  several times in the German language area. The attacks and intrigues were not always, but too often, successful. Not only bishops were deposed. In Austria a revolt of the progressive clergy and full-time employees of the Church,  rose up and put fraternal pressure and the interacted with the religion-hostile media already to prevent the consecration and inauguration of a bishop who'd just been  appointed.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Eco Ciudad del Este / Diocesis de Ciudad del Este
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

US Catholic Media Distorts German State-tax Situation

Catholic Media at Work

Edit:  While a lot of Americans now understand that the German Church-tax is a system which essentially compels German Catholics to pay their Church tithes from their income tax at 8% thanks to the Catholic media, that's where their understanding pretty much ends.

This coverage in the American Catholic media on the German news is generally unsatisfactory.  Whether James Akin is trying to cover for Cardinal Schonborn, or what not.  In the current furor over the German Church-tax, predictably, Catholic media has sided exclusively with the German Bishops, while ignoring the actual condition of the German Catholic World, which has sunk very low indeed. It's almost as if they don't want American Catholics to draw obvious parallels between the corrupt bureaucracies which dominate both churches.

It's therefore tragic that we have to go to the usually unreliable American secular press to get a clearer picture of what's going on.  This was the case with 'International Business Times', which described the Bishops' Decree as, "Pay up or Die Without Absolution", which is what it is if you bother to read the Decree, which Father Boyle admits he has not.  We were the first, and only American news commenter, to report on this issue and we did so by simply translating the story from the German District of the SSPX, which describing the deplorable situation in very clinical terms indeed.

We also noted that the German Bishops had made no mention of refusing the Sacraments to the numerous dissidents employed in Catholic Counseling Services recommending abortion services, for example, in parishes or on University Faculties simply teaming with non-conformist intellectuals who are capable of doing everything but teaching the Catholic Faith.

To read articles by James Akin or Father John Boyle, you would think that the German Bishops are simply tightening up the reigns and drawing Catholics to greater fidelity.  Actually, most Germans leaving the Church aren't concerned in the slightest about whether or not they are excommunicated, but there are many Catholics who are faithful to the Church's teachings, so faithful in fact, that they have no desire to be a material contributor to Diocesan programs and efforts which they can't in good conscience support.

While Father Boyle does acknowledge that opting out of the Catholic Church as a "body of legal right", can be dealt with as a case by case basis, not all German Bishops are concerned by the moral reservations of many faithful Catholics.

This was the case with a German canonist, Doctor Harmut Zapp who recently won a legal case against the Diocese of Freiburg headed by the head of the German Bishops' Conference Archbishop Zollitsch (One of German's most dissident and disobedient Old Liberal Bishops). The ruling was inaccurately reported by First Things as a victory for the Archdiocese.  This was not the case as the German Court ruled in favor of the good Catholic Doctor Zapp, whom First Things described as a "tax dodger" or a man of low integrity.

While these sorts of inaccuracies aren't necessarily the result of bad will, they are frequent and persistent enough where it becomes easier to accuse those harboring them persistently without recantation or apologies, of being a very bad set of characters indeed.

Let's not assume, as the Catholic media USA does, that the German Bishops aren't the problematic, often encouraging heresy and disobedience to Rome, while continuing projects harmful to their flocks and harboring enemies of the Church at the expense of the laity who support it with their blood, sweat and tears.  Germans work hard, but they also want to see their money spent well.

There was one ray of light, however, on Father Boyle's blog, where a commenter brought up the point we've been trying to make that faithful Catholics shouldn't be forced under threat of excommunication to support anti-Catholic policies and individuals.  As noted above this situation has obvious parallels in how the USCCB has been working with CCHD and CHS to promote programs and individuals not only working contrary to Catholic belief, but often hostile to it.  While our own situation in the USA has improved slightly,  let's hope that with the help of faithful Catholics everywhere, a stop can be put to this horrible misappropriation of spiritual and financial capital.

Photo credit, thanks.

When I think of Catholics, That's When I Get My Gun

More Anarchist than Son of the Church

Edit: picked this beautiful and very descriptive photo of Mark Shea, up from Est Quod Est, and while Father Peter West has called off the blogwar, we feel no need to do so, especially as we fully expect not to be disappointed that Mr. Shea will continue doing what he's done in the past, at some point, if not presently.

He just can't help himself.

We also fully expect a full-out attack from Patheos bloggers demanding the resignation of the conservative bishop Finn, coming to a theater near you.  [NOTE: I would not include Australia Incognita among them, but strongly disagree with their take on the abuse "crisis", which is a media generated blitz on the Catholic Church resembling other such campaigns.]

I think you can count on patheos bloggers to do three things when it comes to sex abuse:

1. They confirm that it is a "Catholic" problem.

2. They confirm the hysteria surrounding it by overreacting to certain priests and laity who've committed these crimes.

3. Typically ignore the magnitude of the problem when the abuse happens, as it most often does, outside of prescribed targets.  (While the Nazi government focused on the problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, it was unwilling to address its own problems with it.)

Top Tips for the Faithful!

Indeed, the uncritical comments regarding Bishop Finn in this blog who won't challenge the presentation of the "facts" is breathtaking. Considering that prelates far more deserving of this kind of treatment escape without even a critical appraisal from the various media organs indicates that there is a real problem with people, as if they can't think between compartments, individuals and situations, or maintain the same principles all the time as if they were mentally diseased.

One commenting in the above mentioned blog post suggests, quite accurately, that Opus Dei won't take this sitting down.  They have hoards of attorneys at their disposal.  I hope they rake anyone attempting to instrumentalize this event in the service of propagandists alien to the Catholic Church over the coals.

Red Chinese Kidnap Catholic Bishop

Edit: Can American Bishops be far behind?
By Leslie Hook, Published: July 10
BEIJING — Tensions between Beijing and the Vatican are mounting after Chinese authorities detained an outspoken Catholic bishop who has defied state control of the church, a move that highlights the Communist Party’s deep mistrust of religious organizations.

Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin was whisked away just hours after he announced his resignation from the leadership of the Patriotic Catholic Association, or PCA, the government body that controls China’s state-sanctioned version of the Catholic Church, according to two people close to the PCA.
Link to WP...

5th Column Catholics of the Blogisterium

Edit: You might not be aware that the problem with 5th Column Catholics is a problem in other parts of the world with similar symptoms and etiology, like a ringworm or as one Lefebvrist put it, a "spiritual Aids" infection which afflicts different parts of the body with weeping sores and black spots.  These days Catholic 5th Columnists tend to be in one way or another, advocates of the normalization of sodomy.

Last week, we were treated to Mark Shea, who not only wants to canonize apparently active homosexuals, but even wants to anathematize fellow Catholics!

Like ringworm, or Aids spots, homosexual enabling Bishops have infected different parts of their host, the Church.  They seem to be primarily a problem in the West.  Then there are those who aid them and often defend them at opportune moments in their careers, the left-leaning Bill Donahue, for example.

I was prompted to note this when I took into consideration Damian Thompson's adoption of the Mitre in his attempt to use his 4th Estate to enjoin the abuse hoax as a means of continuing an attack against the Irish Church when he demands the resignation of Cardinal Brady.  Someone should demand ferret face's resignation.

It may be interesting to discuss the Damian Thompson thing in light of the Soho Sodom Mass being advocated by the troubled Archbishop Nichols, which to be fair, Thompson has criticized in the past.

This frankly blasphemous "Mass" was formerly condemned by the Catholic Herald, but not any more.   +Vincent Nichols' Mass for sodomy which he reaffirmed last February according to the Herald's almost joyous commentary,  provides grist for conspiracy theory speculation about what kind of people are running the Herald now.   It's interesting to take note of a fifth column which continues to worm its way if not into the hearts, at least into the minds of a more traditional, less trendy,  Catholic readership.  Marching victoriously from  Tablet blogs like Holy Smoke.

Damian Thompson is currently, the editor and chief of the Catholic Herald, so then it's hardly surprising that its tone changed from William Oddie's story of shock and scandal that a Catholic prelate could be so indifferent to propriety and Catholic thinking to an article practically praising.

But it's more than just conspiracy theories.  When the Editor isn't complaining about the new Left, he's wringing his hands on behalf of marriage equality, striving at least for a little respect for "gays".  This morning on Twitter, he was even recommending the outing of a Tory MP he believes is living in a secret homosexual marriage "solemnized" abroad.  He twits:

Someody should find out whether any Tory MPs are in gay marriages contracted in other countries that recognise them.

Apparently, he's hoping to cleanse the hypocritical Tories and is fretting that Cameron will be changing his position on gay marriage.  Or is he letting his twitter-crowd fret over it, frankly it's not easy to tell.

But there are other tells besides this.  Like American counterparts, Thompson engages in sly or not so sly points of advocacy between the conservative and neo-conservative, Austrian School soundbytes complete with tips of the hat to the reigning political correctness.

Whether he's advising the Church that it will lose a battle against marriage equality, perhaps it is as he says, for the glee of watching the Liberal Bishops adopt a reactionary position, but even when Thompson appears to be defending Catholic positions, he insists on inserting this or that marginal cultural or political fetish, for example, commenting on the presumably chaste but tantalizingly youthful "homosexual" Catholic in-crowd and distinguishing them from those ageing, tacky Lefties in rainbow velour track suits like +Nicholoson's Sodom "Mass" .  His apologetical circus of attempting to keep within the bounds of modern political correctness and yet belong to the theologically korrekt, chic, lacy, Gothic, Anglo-Catholic world of dark and Romantic chapels is almost painful to watch, rather like watching an elderly homosexual try to fit into an old pair of patent leather motorcycle pants.  From the Catholic Action Blog, which had some of the same concerns I do, he is quoted thusly:

And as for young homosexual Catholics, [There's no such thing as homosexual and Catholic] well, some of them are Lefty activists but many are traddies who wouldn't be seen dead in Warwick Street unless Mass was celebrated in the Extraordinary Form. And this is just a guess, but I reckon most of them are pretty impressively celibate. I don't judge them, or gay couple friends of mine whose intimate life is none of my bloody business.[Sound familiar?]

Actually, he sounds a lot like German Scholastic Theologian and authority on St. Thomas Aquinas, David Berger, who now claims to be an authority on the sex lives of the high clergy. But then, as far as we know, Damian Thompson is at least cleverer than Berger, and is living a blamelessly chaste life, despite the scandalous ambiguity of his language.