"Pedro Arrupe Was a Prophet"

Pope Francis meets with the Jesuits of Thailand on November 22, 2019 in Sampran.

(Rome) In its current issue ( issue 4067 ), the Roman Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica published a copy of the encounter between Pope Francis and the Jesuits of Thailand, penned by his confidant P. Antonio Spadaro SJ. Comparable to the flying press conferences, these internal meetings give better insight into the thinking of Pope Francis than his official speeches. The summary publication after each meeting is made with papal approval. The head of the Church knows that his answers will be made publicly available.

A question from the Thai confreres referred to the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). It has had an office in Berlin since 1996, in Switzerland since 2010 and in Austria "it was able to work intensively again in 2015". Francis reaffirmed his call for boundless migration and declared refugees a "theological place".

Pope Francis: Working with refugees has become a real “theological place” for the Jesuits. I consider it a theological place. That was the will of P. Pedro Arrupe [1], who emphasized the importance of this mission in his last speech here in Thailand. Father Arrupe was a prophet to me: his "swan song" was the foundation of the Jesuit refugee service right here in Bangkok. Then he suffered a stroke on the return flight from Thailand to Rome. [2]
The refugee phenomenon has always existed, but today it is better known for its social differences, hunger, political tensions and, above all, war. For these reasons, migration movements are increasing. What is the answer the world gives? The policy of segregation. Refugees are waste. The Mediterranean was turned into a cemetery. The impressive cruelty of some detention centers in Libya touches my heart.

Here in Asia we all know the Rohingya problem [3], I have to admit that some of the stories I hear across borders in Europe shock me. Populism is gaining strength. In other areas, there are walls that even separate children from their parents. Herod comes to mind. However, there are no walls to stop drugs.

As I told you before, the migration phenomenon is compounded by war, hunger and a "defense philosophy" that makes us believe that it is possible to defend ourselves only through fear and strengthening the borders. On the other hand, there is exploitation. We know exactly how the church works - how many sisters are involved in this area! - works hard to save girls from prostitution and various forms of slavery. The Christian tradition has a rich evangelical experience in dealing with the refugee problem. 

We also remember the importance of welcoming the stranger that the Old Testament teaches us. But also many small folk welcome customs, such as providing an empty chair on a festive day in the event for when an unexpected guest arrives. If the Church is a field hospital, one serving the most injured, then we have to go to these hospitals the most.

I return to the “theological place”:  the will of Father Arrupe gave work with the refugees a great boost, and above all he asked for one thing: prayer, more prayer. The speech he made to the Jesuits who worked with the refugees here in Bangkok was not to neglect prayer. We have to remember it well: prayer. In other words, do not forget the other, the spiritual, in this physical periphery. Only in prayer will we find the strength and inspiration to go well and fruitfully into the “disorder” of social injustice.

Hardly any superior general is more controversial than Pedro Arrupe, whom a part of the Jesuit order venerates like a saint. On February 5, 2019, his beatification process was opened, which Pope Francis sympathizes with.

Another question that Pope Francis was asked by the Jesuits present was about pastoral action towards the remarried and divorced. Francis does not seem to like the question. In contrast to the refugee question, for which he took a lot of time and answered in detail, he stayed briefly on this point and redirected to the next question. The willingness to respond and the length of it indicates a priority setting.

What is remarkable about his short answer is a confusing juxtaposition, which the Pope formulated as a contradiction: on the one hand there is a "Church" answer, which is "not Christian", and his answer, which he identifies as "teaching".

Pope Francis: I could answer you in two ways: in a casuistic way, but which is not Christian, although it can also be ecclesiastical; or according to the Magisterium of the Church, as it is written in the eighth chapter of Amoris laetitia, that is, to make a way of accompaniment and differentiation in order to find solutions. And that has nothing to do with the situation ethics, but with the great moral tradition of the Church.
But I see that the time is up. But let's take another quick question…

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: La Civiltà Cattolica (screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

---

[1] P. Pedro Arrupe (1907 to 1991) was from 1965 to 1981 28th Superior General of the Jesuits. He promoted an alliance of Christianity and socialism and also the young Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

[2] Pope John Paul II used Arrupe to disempower and to initiate the election of a new superior general.

[3] The Rohingya are a Muslim group that lives mainly in Bangladesh, but also in the border area of Myanmar, the former Burma. It is controversial whether it is an autochthonous group, or whether it has only recently infiltrated from the more populated Bangladesh. Since they organized themselves as an independent group and appeared politically, there has been a conflict with the Burmese government.

AMDG

AMDG

Osservatore Romano Reacts to the Death of Robert Spaemann

Osservatore Romano Robert Spaemann obituary 13122018

(Rome) The Pope's daily has published an obituary for the great Catholic philosopher Robert Spaemann, who died on Monday. It also acknowledges that he was a critic of the controversial, post-synodal writing, Amoris laetitia.

Prof. Spaemann is one of the most outstanding and formative figures of Catholic thought of the past 60 years (see the obituary of Katholisches.info death of Prof. Robert Spaemann). He was an admonisher against the break with tradition and was called without contradiction, a counter-revolutionary. In this sense, the requiem and the funeral have also taken place in the Immemorial form of the Roman Rite. At his request, on his last earthly journey, he will be accompanied by priests of the Petrine Brotherhood (FSSP), with whom he has been associated since their foundation.

Particularly noteworthy in the obituary of the Vatican newspaper is the indication that Prof. Spaemann was a critic of Amoris laetitia. 

It says in the obituary:

The appreciation of his person is international. The appreciation of his spiritual work must first be done in full. The pope's daily newspaper, the Osservatore Romano, also devotes an obituary to the great German thinker in its current issue. It highlights his "strong resistance" to abortion and euthanasia, as well as mentioning his membership in the Pontifical Academy for Life. Pope John Paul II. called him a personal friend along with Pope Benedict XVI. No mention was made by the Osservatore Romano that Spaemann  was shown the door with other  academicians by Pope Francis im an especially inelegant and arbitrary manner on 31 December 2016.

"In recent years he has expressed very critical thoughts on the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia."

It is noteworthy because it is the first real recognition of the criticism of the controversial, Post-Synodal Exhortation of Pope Francis by the Osservatore Romano. So far, the critics in the daily paper of the Pope, as in the whole Vatican media, is not only offered no room, but conceals the existence of any criticism at all. At best, critics were sharply attacked without commenting on their criticisms.

Prof. Spaemann was among the very first critics of the controversial conclusions that Pope Francis drew from the dual synod to the family. Just a few days after the release of Amoris laetitia he reported on April 28, 2016 in an interview with the German edition of the Catholic News Agency (CNA) to speak and spoke of a "break with the tradition of teaching".

The interview for reading:

"A break with the tradition of teaching" - Robert Spaemann on Amoris laetitia.

It may be assumed and hoped that this is only the communication of his death, and that in the Osservatore Romano will follow with a more detailed appreciation of his greatness, as in the same issue the Jesuit and Schelling expert P. Xavier Tilliette and the Marxist, Paleographer and medievalist, Armando Pettrucci became part of.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: Osservatore Romano (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Benedictine Professor: Why Are Almost All of the Cardinals and Bishops Silent?

July 9, 2018 1

Current issue of "Catholica". Why are almost all cardinals and bishops silent about the end of Catholicism that Pope Francis brings about? The "other understanding of the Church" behind Amoris laetitia.

(Paris) The international magazine for culture, politics and religion, Catholica, which has been published in France for 30 years, counts "well-known authors such as Émile Poulat, Robert Spaemann, Ernst Wolfgang Böckenförde, Vladimir Bukowski, Stanislaw Grygiel, Thierry Wolton and Jacques Ellul and Pietro De Marco," says Vatican writer Sandro Magister. The editor-in-chief is Bernard Dumont.

Bernard Dumont

In its latest issue, Dumont, whose editorial is also freely available on the Internet, deals with the "unbelievable" silence of almost all cardinals and bishops - with the exception of the four signatories of Dubia - "the dissolution of the traditional form of catholicity by the pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been set in motion." Bernard Dumont discusses the apparently desired end of "Roman Catholicism" without, however, raising an outcry, as the historian Roberto Pertici once complained. The end is proclaimed by Rome or those who invoke Rome, and all are silent and seem to submit to the inevitable fate. See the analysis of Prof. Pertici: The reform of Pope Francis was already written by Martin Luther .

Why is this?

 

The belief reduced to ethics

 

Dumont also published in the new edition the text of a Benedictine monk and theologian who analyzes and criticizes "perhaps the most radical upheaval in Catholicism of our time." No longer does the sacrament have primacy in the Church, of which the Second Vatican Council said it was the "culmen et fons" of the life of the Church, but ethics.
 
This subversion is also reflected in the question of remarried divorced as well as the inter-communion with the Protestants.
 
The Benedictine theologian is Fr. Giulio Meiattini, who this year already published the monograph  "Amoris laetitia? The Sacraments Reduced to Morality" (publisher La Fontana di Siloe, Turin 2018). He is a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Madonna della Scala in Noci and Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Theological Faculty of Apulia and at the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome.
 
Meiattini accuses Pope Francis and his whisperer, Cardinal Walter Kasper, of promoting "cunning" rather than the much-cited "distinction." There is cunning in Amoris laetitia and the mind behind it.

"The state of confusion is obvious".

With these words the theologian and monk begins his essay. It is claimed that the confusion is only supposed, and only the result of a new style of government. Such a picture of the current situation is not something Fr. Meiattini takes pleasure in.

"Can the confusion and disagreement between bishops on tricky points of faith be fruits of the Holy Spirit? Not in my opinion."

Several small steps mean a large one in sum

P. Giulio Meiattini OSB

Then Meiattini indicates that in the matter of remarried divorced people a ready-made plan was pursued from the beginning. With the opportunity of being able to deliver the only speech in February 2014 to the Cardinals' Consistory procured by Pope Francis, Cardinal Kasper "laid the groundwork". Nevertheless, two bishops' synods failed to produce a common line to the problem being discussed. Anyone reading the reports of the "circuli minores" of the 2015 Synod can easily see that there was no common position.
 
The pope would have had to examine and understand, which would have been the first task of "distinction", "which processes" would be initiated and pursued, and which not. However, such a distinction did not take place. The path taken was not changed.
 
The fact is that a large majority of the Synod Fathers wanted "no change in the traditional order". The editorial committee of Relatio finalis therefore took care not to include any innovations in the text.
  For this reason, a "small step," according to Meiattini, was undertaken instead of a big one: The editorial committee formulated some undefined positions, which meant a "change of atmosphere".
 
The non-rejection of these ponderous formulations, which received the necessary two-thirds majority only with extreme difficulty, sufficed that the next "small step," with some ambiguous footnotes in Amoris laetitia, were sufficient to indicate a new direction.
 
These small steps, which, strictly speaking, did not reinforce the traditional position, were enough to split the episcopate. The next step was papal confirmation of the guidelines of the ecclesiastical Province of Buenos Aires on the Eighth Chapter of Amoris laetitia.
 
In reality, these guidelines are not mere interpretations, because they contain statements and instructions that were neither found in Amoris laetitia nor adopted by the synods, and never found a majority there.
 
Through a series of "small steps", a "big step" was finally taken within three years, with a profound intervention. But this has nothing to do with "synodality," according to Meiattini.
Faith would be reduced to ethics in Amoris laetitia , that is the total thrust.

"Ethics has neither the first nor the last word."

"I do not understand how the Bishop of Rome can write such a thing"

And Meiattini continues:

"To be honest, I can not understand how a bishop, especially that of Rome, can write such sentences: 'One should not burden two limited people with the tremendous burden of perfectly recreating the union that exists between Christ and his Church '(AS, 122)."

This formulation is an expression of a very different way of thinking: A gospel ethic, freed from the sacrament, becomes a "mighty burden" rather than a "sweet yoke" and a "light burden."
 
Such a statement can only be reached if one understands Christianity - perhaps unconsciously - only as ethics. In this way we arrive at results that correspond to the Lutheran concept of simul iustus et peccator, condemned by the Council of Trent.


Intercommunion with the Protestants follows the same logic. What is only decisive is the presumed, inner feeling. For the objective criteria, all conceivable attenuating circumstances are taken into account, and the subjective decision of conscience is decisive. Why, then, according to this pattern, should not even a Buddhist or a Hindu be able to receive the Catholic Eucharist, according to P. Meiattani?

"Damaging the relationship between morality and sacraments can ultimately lead to a non-Catholic understanding of the Church."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Catholica / Vida inteligente / Cooperatores veritatis (Screenshots)
 Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

The Connection Between Amoris Laetitia and Intercommunion

Blondel's "Philosophy of Action" as a common thread between Amoris laetitia and inter-communion for Protestants.

(Rome) The fundamental theologian Alfredo Morselli, pastor of the Archdiocese of Bologna, who since his ordination in 1986, celebrates only in the immemorial Roman rite, wondered whether the admission of remarried divorcees who are in the state of serious sin because of their concubinage is in effect, a"Trojan Horse" to introduce inter-communion with the Protestants. The theologian is convinced of an inner connection between the controversial post-synodal writing Amoris laetitia and the now discussed inter-communion with the Protestants.

At the center of the current discussion is a decision by the German Bishops' Conference last February to grant communion to Lutheran spouses of Catholics as they share the Church's understanding of the Eucharist. This decision was reflected in the DBK guideline "Going with Christ - Tracking Unity. Confessional Marriages and Joint Participation in the Eucharist."

A minority of thirteen bishops voted against. Seven of them turned to Rome for clarification as to whether such a move was compatible with ecclesiastical doctrines and sacramental ordinances.

Since 2015 it became "obvious in which direction the Pope is pushing"

Last Thursday, May 3, Pope Francis invited representatives of the majority and minority to Rome to discuss the outstanding issues with the responsible Roman dicastery chiefs. According to Don Morselli, the decisive factor in this is the Pope's answer that the German bishops should reassemble themselves and speak about the question until they find a "possibly unanimous" position. Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, archbishop of Utrecht, has already found fault with this papal response as "completely incomprehensible." Although the Catholic doctrine is "very clear" in the matter, Pope Francis did not fulfill his duty to clearly affirm the doctrine.

The Pope's recommendation, according to Don Morselli, should be read in the light of his response to a Lutheran woman in Rome on 15 November 2015, asking Francis if and when she could receive communion with her Catholic husband.

The most important part of the long papal answer was:

"But a pastor's friend told me, 'We believe that the Lord is here. He is present. You believe that the Lord is present. What is the difference?' - 'Well, it's the explanations, the interpretations ... 'Life is bigger than explanations and interpretations. Always refer to baptism: 'One faith, one baptism, one Lord,' Paul tells us, and so draws the conclusions. I will never dare to give permission to do so, because it is not my competence. One baptism, one Lord, one faith. Talk to the Lord and go ahead. I dare not say more."

It was "obvious in which direction the Pope is pushing," says Don Morselli. The decision should be left to the conscience of the individual. Francis gave the impression that the difference between Catholics and Lutherans was only a question of formulation ("We believe that the Lord is present here, you believe that the Lord is present"). The rest is only a question of "explanations and interpretations" : "Life is greater than explanations and interpretations."

Blondel's philosophy of action

The theologian Morselli sees behind this and other formulations of Francis, the thinking of the Frenchman Maurice Blondel and his philosophy of action. The truth no longer corresponds to the objective nature of existence, but to the lifeworld that man "makes" himself.

Morselli recalls that St. Thomas Aquinas teaches the exact opposite, and the Congregation condemned such theses of a pragmatic relativism that claims that "truth is a progressive adaptation of intellect and life according to the experiences and needs of action", in 1924.

Don Alfredo Morselli

Against this background, it is clear that there is a red thread connecting inter-communion with Amoris laetitia. On the one hand, in dogmatic questions, a primacy of life over doctrine is asserted and, at the same time, in moral questions a primacy of life over the object of action. In fact, the true life of faith needs clear instruction and moral life clear guidance as to whether an action is good or bad in itself. Otherwise, "a false primacy of a false life will result," says Don Morselli.

It follows automatically that life can never be a lie. The lack of agreement of one's own life with the truth, which can be seen from the objective nature of things, leads to "life lies." It is true that life is greater and more than the principles of the councils. But it is equally true that without these "explanations and interpretations" no real Christian life is possible.

Therefore, there is no possible "communion" (society) with Jesus and the Church possible if communion is lacking in faith because of the lack of the necessary approval for doctrine. Don Morselli in reference to the words of Pope Francis:

"A gesture that expresses something false is not a, 'life that is greater than explanations and interpretations,' but a lie."

Papal clerical for German bishops

"The Pope's response to the German Protestant was, in order to pick up an illustration from football, a rough draft for the German bishops, so they shoot the ball of inter-communion into an unprotected goal. The Pope even provided a double aid, as there is also a paragraph in the Joint Declaration on the Common Catholic-Lutheran Reformation Commemoration, which was signed on 31 October 2016 in Lund, Sweden," Don Morselli said. It says:

"Many members of our communities yearn to receive the Eucharist in a meal as a concrete expression of full unity. We experience the pain of all those who share their whole lives but can not share God's saving presence in the Eucharistic meal. We recognize our shared pastoral responsibility to meet the spiritual hunger and thirst of our people to be one in Christ. We long for this wound to be healed in the body of Christ. This is the goal of our ecumenical efforts. We wish them to progress even as we renew our commitment to theological dialogue. "

It attracts attention to the unusual pathos, said the fundamental theologian. Pope Francis employs a pathos when he wants to initiate innovations ("Listen to the people's cry"). But then something unexpected happened. The team, in whose goal the ball should have passed, kicked the ball, although the goalkeeper had been set off the field, to the defenders in between.

"The Neomodernists did not manage the goal."

And further:

"The papal invitation to the German bishops to find a unanimous agreement could be understood as an invitation not only to find some common solution, but a solution sought by the pope. But it could also be interpreted in the sense that the Domradio in Cologne did: 'Roma non locuta - causa non finita!'

The Bergoglian Roma, "did not manage to score the decisive goal. The game is still open. With prayer and sacrifice we support the little remnant, the few German bishops, whose numbers are small, but whose hearts are all the greater for this ... and we always remain in the trusting expectation of the promised triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: Vatican.News/Church Militant (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Priest Says Amoris Laetitia Was Conceived to Normalize Aberrosexuality

Editor's note: This analysis has been written by a priest who asked that it be published anonymously over concern of being disciplined for raising concerns about a papal document. 

May 14, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – I said it right from the beginning, when Amoris Laetitia was first published, with its infamous Chapter 8 that allows individual conscience to trump objective moral law and thus effectively eliminate the notion of intrinsic moral evil: The real issue is not Holy Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried. After all, Pope Francis had already streamlined the annulment process, to allow declarations of nullity which were generally easy to attain, to be even easier. The real issue is all about sodomy, and normalizing — even blessing — this behavior called by the Catechism “intrinsically disordered.” In what follows, I’ll try to “connect the dots” in order to clarify the bigger picture.

Recall that no. 50 of the first draft of the document for the first synod on the family in October, 2014 stated that, “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community,” and then asked if our communities are “capable of . . . accepting and valuing their sexual orientation” – implying those who practice homosexual behaviors have special “gifts and qualities” over and above everyone else, and that their same-sex attraction — called by the Catechism “objectively disordered” — should be “accepted and valued.” (1)

Although this language never appeared in Amoris Laetitia (AL), the fact that it was inserted into a preliminary working document with Pope Francis’s approval and was then read to the assembled bishops in his presence, is most telling. This language provides a key to understand how Chapter 8 of AL has been interpreted, so as to allow not only those in second civil marriages (and committing adultery) to be admitted to Holy Communion, but also those in same same-sex unions (and engaging in sodomy) – as long as they are “accompanied” by a priest, engage in “discernment,” and follow their “conscience.” (2)

Read further at Lifesite:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/priest-explains-how-amoris-laetitia-was-really-written-to-normalize-homosex

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

Holy Priest Persecuted by Vatican for Criticizing Amoris Laetitia -- Threatened With "Double Excommunication"

H/t Rorate...

AMDG

Bishop Fellay Has Signed the Filial Correction -- Just Released!

Edit: it's here.

[FSSPX] On July 16, 2017, several clerics and lay scholars addressed a correctio filialis, a filial correction, to Pope Francis. They reveal the seven heresies contained in the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

A website has been created for the occasion: www.correctiofilialis.org; it offers information on the diffusion of the correctio filialis.

This thoroughly documented critique is a sort of sequel to the Dubia on Amoris Laetitia (September 19, 2016) of Cardinals Walter Brandmüller, Raymond L. Burke, Joachim Meisner, and Carlo Caffarra. (The latter two passed away this year, respectively on July 5 and September 6.) They respectfully requested Pope Francis to “clarify” five unorthodox points in Amoris Laetitia.

The Dubia remained unanswered and were later followed by a request for an audiencefrom the four authors (April 25, 2017). Their request was not granted.

On June 29, 2016, 45 theologians submitted to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, another critical studyof 19 points in Amoris Laetitia. This critique also went unanswered.

In the list of the 62 signatories of the correctio filialis are the names of several persons who already signed the critique of the 45 theologians in 2016, but among the new names is that of Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, the only bishop who has signed the document so far, although – as the presentation of the correctio filialis explains – the list remains open.

http://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/clerical-and-lay-scholars-send-pope-correctio-filialis-about-amoris-laetitia-32163

AMDG

Pope Bergoglio Finally Fires Cardinal Mueller

(Rome) Cardinal Gerhard Müller was dismissed by Pope Francis as a Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith.

Müller, previously Bishop of Regensburg, was appointed in June 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. to the Roman Curia to take over the central task as the guardian of the Orthodoxy. On 2 July 2012, he took office. Between Pope Francis and the German Cardinal the relationship was always clearly chilly. In the conflict over the bishops' synod about the family and the post-synodal letter Amoris Laetitia it sank to the zero point. The Cardinal was vehemently opposed to a change in Catholic marriage and morality, without directly criticizing the Pope. In the past there had been an increasing speculation about an imminent dismissal.

Because of his defense of the traditional teachings he was criticized as an "antagonist of the pope" 

The more clearly Pope Francis and his immediate circle, to which Cardinal Miiller never belonged, succeeded toward the admission of remarried divorced persons to Communion, the more vehemently the German Cardinal asserted that no one could alter Jesus' teachings, not even the Pope. The fact that he read Amoris Laetitia in the light of the traditional teachings, sufficed to place him under the title of "pope's antagonist."

At the beginning of the Second Episcopal Synod over the family, Cardinal Müller belonged to the 13 Cardinals, who sent a spectacular protest letter to Pope Francis. They protested against the Synods, which wanted to assign them the role of mere extras, while the results seemed to be fixed in advance.
Since then the door of Francis was closed to the Prefect of the Faith. Not because the Cardinal had been wrong, but because the letter had stifled the strategy of the papal entourage. 

An increasingly severe conflict 

With the dismissal, Francis waited exactly for the expiration of the term of office, which was limited to five years. The dismissal could have already taken place in March 2013, because with the election of a new pope all Curial Offices expire. Francis, however, initially shied away from radical interventions and confirmed the bulk of his work, as is the custom of the Vatican. Gradually, he exchanged leading Curial representatives. The first heads that rolled were "Ratzingerians", such as Cardinal Piacenza, Prefect of the Congregation of Clergy, Cardinal Secretary of State Bertone, Cardinal Canizares, Prefect of the Congregation of the Worship and Cardinal Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature. 

The tiny formalism that left Cardinal Müller in office for a full term of office and now, so to speak, to use the legitimate possibility of a new appointment, can not blind us to the radicality of the intervention in an ever harder struggle for the orientation of the Church.
With the dismissal of the Prefect of Faith, the equilibria in the Vatican, in which Pope Francis has repeatedly intervened, are massively slipping, with initially unpredictable consequences.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican.va
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

"Belgium's Bishops Are With Francis" and Allow the Divorced to Communion (Whoever Want it)

Belgium's Bishops Follow Francis "Seamlessly"

(Brussels) In Belgium the remarried divorced persons may, if the bishops allow it, receive Communion. The media are almost triumphant: "Belgium's bishops are with Francis."

On 24 May, the Belgian bishops published a pastoral letter in Dutch and French, calling upon ambiguous passages in the post-synodal letter Amoris laetitia by Pope Francis. According to Cathobel , "the bishops of Belgium follow the teachings of the pope with their pastoral letter by allowing remarried divorced people to receive Communion when they decide according to their conscience."

No one can say by decree, everyone can go to the communion (therefore, all who want it)

"Monitoring, differentiation and integration. Nothing more. The prelates follow Pope Francis seamlessly because they are aware that every situation has its own particularity," said Cathobel . One can not say by decree that "all remarried divorced people can go to communion." No one could do that. A "path" is necessary and a "distinction" and a "pastoral discernment of conscience."

"The divorced are part of the Church for Francis. Even for the Belgian bishops." Without any reinterpretation, the prelates will have started to heal wounds. "This decision deserves respect," says Cathobel .

"Between laxity and rigorism, Francis chose the ways of personal choice,

According to the letter of the shepherd. A "decision of conscience" was called for, according to the bishops.

From objective criteria to subjective opinion

"Without any reinterpretation" obviously means two things. On the one hand, the Belgian bishops, with their step, follow exactly what Pope Francis reaches for with Amoris Laetitia, namely, that remarried divorced people if they find it right before their conscience, can receive the sacraments. The decision no longer follows objective criteria but the subjective opinion of the individual. On the other hand, it is the "rigorous" bishops who do not adhere to the doctrine of the pope and "reinterpret" Amoris laetitia in order to maintain a "continuity" with the traditional doctrine of the Church. This swipe would then be first applied to Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith, and the Diocesan Bishops, who maintain the sacramental inviolability of marriage -- and make a mockery of the "Bergoglian" bishops.

With the dismissal of André-Joseph Léonard and the appointment of Jozef De Kesel as archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, the Church in Belgium has once again taken a full steam tour of its lack of orientation. It was Pope Francis who, on the insinuation and incitement of  Cardinal Godfried Danneels (Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, 1979-2010), denied him a cardinal dignity, as he did to the metropolitans of Philadelphia and Venice, among others

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Cathobel (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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Canon Lawyer Advises Acceptance of Adulterous & Sacrilegious Communions

 A canon lawyer, employed by a U.S. diocese, taught her audience including priests, that because no directives from the bishop have been issued about Amoris Laetitia,  the priests should follow Buenos Aires and Malta.  In those territories, priests are free to give permission to adulterous partners to receive Holy Communion, even though the couple continues to have sex, and one (or both) of the parties is already married to someone else.  This permission occurs after accompaniment and discernment by the priest.

Mary’s Advocates is sharing the audio recording, though the person that made the recording said the diocese must be kept anonymous. All identifying information has been removed from the recording publicized here, though the full recording has been shared with personnel in the diocese for whom the canonists works.

The mission of Mary’s Advocates is to reduce unilateral no-fault divorce and support those who are unjustly abandoned. The silence from the Catholic diocese tribunals about the injustice of no-fault divorce gives scandal. Granting so many annulments, with no involvement at the time of separation, has made matters worse.

Read further:

http://marysadvocates.org/us-canon-lawyer-tells-diocese-to-follow-malta-buenos-aires/

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Authoress of the Pope's Stations of the Cross Meditations Was a Participant of the "Illuminiati" - Meeting of 2015

Via Crucis at Colosseum. The meditations for 2017 come from
Anne-Marie Pelletier

(Rome) This year's Good Friday meditations at the Pope's Stations of the Cross, which traditionally take place at the Coliseum in Rome, are by the French theologian Anne-Marie Pelletier. The well-known alumna of the Institut Européen des Sciences des Religions (IESR) in Paris is not an unknown person.

Ratzinger Prize Winner 2014

A larger circle was announced in 2014, when the Joseph Ratzinger Prize was awarded. The prize has been awarded since 2011 by the Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict XVI. "For special scientific-theological services in the context of contemporary discourse." The foundation was established in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. In the first two years, Benedict XVI personally awarded the prize. He also renounced his participation. According to the foundation, the prize is awarded by a board of trustees, but "in consultation" with Benedict.

Anne-Marie Pelletier was the first woman to receive the Ratzinger Prize. She was particularly honored for her studies on "Woman in Christianity". Cardinal Müller, who presented the award in 2014, spoke of an "outstanding figure of today's French Catholicism." In addition to the IESR, Pelletier also teaches at other academic institutions, including the Jewish Institute Universitaire Elie Wiesel. She is a member of the French Association for Bible Studies (ACFEB) and a member of the Institut Lustiger.

In May 2015 she appeared in the list of some 50 participants in a secret meeting, which took place on the day of Pentecost at the Pontifical University of the Gregorian in Rome (see The Church's "Illuminati" - List of Catholic Secret Members). The list reads as Who is Who the Kasperians. The secret meeting was to prepare strategies to bring about a coup in the October (upcoming) bishop's synod on the family. The objectives were: to admit married couples and homosexuals to the sacraments. In summary, the "Pastoral Innovation", as the Vaticanist Edward Pentin wrote from the National Catholic Register, was the goal.

Cardinal Marx, Archbishop Pontier, Bishop Büchel, were invited

Three presidents of European bishops' conferences were invited to the meeting. The most important among them was Cardinal Reinhard Marx, President of the German Bishops' Conference and Archbishop of Munich-Freising, on the side of which the DBK General Secretary, Jesuit Hans Langendörfer, was present. The other guests were Archbishop Georges Pontier, President of the French Episcopal Conference and Archbishop of Marseille, and Markus Büchel, President of the Swiss Episcopal Conference and Bishop of Sankt Gallen.

Anne-Marie Pelletier

The latter was not without piquancy, since St. Gallen in 1996 was the meeting point of the subversive, inner-Church secret circle, which named itself after the city. The secular group founded by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini (then archbishop of Milan) had its predecessor, Bishop Ivo Fürer, but the success of this tradition was continued by Markus Büchel. The invitation was of course only informal, because officially it was only a private meeting behind closed doors.

The invitation by the two presidents of the Bishops' Conferences of Germany and France reveal the "Rhenish Alliance," which was of considerable importance for the Second Vatican Council.

The list of participants reveals planning with military precision: not only Church representatives and theologians met. Among the invited guests were selected representatives of leading media such as ZDF, ARD, FAZ, NZZ and, of course, La Repubblica, the daily newspaper of Eugenio Scalfari - according to Pope Franziskus, the "only" newspaper he regularly reads. Pentin then pointed to Pelletier's view that the Church needed "a dynamic of mutual listening" by guiding Magisterium's conscience "and echoing of what the baptized say."

As Pentin reported, Pelletier also argued that the bishop's synod was "condemned to failure" when "simply reaffirming what the Church has always taught." A definite conception of the party. It is now a particularly rare honor for Pope Francis.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: CNS / Youtube / benedictines-ste-bathilde.fr / FVJR-Benedetto XVI (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Pope Francis and Cardinal Caffara Embrace -- Are the Dubia off the Table? -- Things Are Not So Simple

(Rome) Pope Francis visited on Sunday the city of Carpi in Emilia. The diocese in the Po Valley was affected by a major earthquake in 2012. Media, and some Catholic circles were able to read a lot in the coffee grounds. Carlo Cardinal Caffara also took part in the pope's visit as emeritus Metropolitan of the adjoining Church Province of Bologna. Caffarra is one of the four notable Cardinals, who gave the Pope Dubia (doubts) on the controversial Apostolic Letter Amoris laetitia.

The five questions were not answered by the Pope until today and lie as a dark shadow over the pontificate.

Since December 2015 Matteo Maria Zuppi has been archbishop of Bologna. He belongs to the community of Sant'Egidio. As the Pope visited the episcopal church yesterday, just a few kilometers from Bologna, it was obvious that both Archbishop Zuppi and Cardinal Caffarra attended the meeting. "Both represent very different positions within the Church," said the Corriere della Sera  on April 1.

The fact that Cardinal Caffarra was present and greeted by the Pope caused some speculation. At lunch in the Carpi priestly eminary, the Cardinal, on account of his rank, sat even on the Pope's right, while on the left a 95-year-old priest, the oldest member of the adjoining clergy, was allowed to sit.

But whoever thinks, as many have done, that a salutation is enough, and all is well, are mistaken. The world is not as simple as it appears to some. Some examples:

Medjugorje and the Rosary "from the Pope"

The Vatican is prepared not to recognize the supernatural nature of the Medjugorje phenomenon. This has for a long time been fixed, but one has been looking for the right way for years to make it as easy as possible for the faithful.

In September 2015 Marija Pavlovic, a "seeress" of Medjugorje, by the way a very lovable person, was referred to media reports that Rome would not recognize the "apparitions" and "messages" of Medjugorje, for she had only received a rosary from Pope Francis in the previous week. A priest had brought it to her, who had participated in a meeting with the pope and received the Rosary from the Pope. He had asked the pope whether he could bring to Marija Pavlovic. The Pope had agreed.

Things can be so simple or at least appear so. The so very important question of the supernatural nature of the apparitions is "clarified" because the pope agrees that a rosary should be brought to a seeress.

The greeting for Bergoglio critic Archbishop Aguer

Greetings from Pope Francis to Archbishop Hector Aguer

A recent example took place only a month ago. Pope Francis,l sent Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata a congratulatory note on the 25th anniversary of his ordination. Such attentions are self-evident practices in the Church. They are independent of the person's public appearance. Archbishop Aguer was the opponent of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the Argentine episcopate. Both were, at the same time, archbishops of Buenos Aires, but represented different positions, comparable to the relationship between Archbishop Zuppi and Cardinal Caffarra in Bologna. Both were metropolitans: Aguer of La Plata, Bergoglio of Buenos Aires and thus Primates of Argentina. Between the two archbishops, the sparks flew again and again in the Episcopal Conference. With the papal election of Francis, it was finally decided which of them would prevail. Francis then made a tabula rasa among his former Argentine opponents. Archbishop Aguer is still in office, but has become rather lonely in the Episcopal Conference.

A congratulation from the pope and all is good? An office of the Vatican prepares such congratulations, which are then signed by the Pope. It's a courtesy which ultimately tells nothing about the relationship between the Pope and the Archbishop.

The same applies to the embrace of Pope Francis and Cardinal Caffarra. This greeting is customary among cardinals and bishops. A polite greeting does not mean that "everything is good" and the Dubia are also off the table.

The world is not that simple.

However, the example shows how annoying the Dubia is and how great the burden is because Pope Francis does not want to answer the questions asked.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: SMM / MiL / NMM (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Munich Priest Speaks of the "Natural Disobedience" of the Priest

Controversial Munich priest Schießler praises the DBK statement "free decision of conscience" for the remarried divorced and now calls for the "blessing of homosexual people", Catholic-Evangelical liturgy and abolition of priestly celibacy

Munich (kath.net) The German bishops have written "a word for renewed marriage and family pastoral in the light of Amoris Laetitia,"  the "individual, personal and free conscience of the person concerned" ... "finally!" Praised the Munich priest Rainer Maria Schießler in a guest commentary in the "Zeit" - entitled  "Christ & Welt". Then he went on to explain that the Church was "far from the end of this path." It is important to see, to formulate and to put into practice "many things: the blessing of homosexual people who simply have to realize that they are not capable of a heterosexual partnership; The communion with our evangelical sisters and brothers, because it is not about equality, but about the unity that we already possess in Christ; Or the free choice of life for all those who also aspire to the higher, that is, the priestly ministry, in the Church, because the priestly proclamation of the gospel can also be entrusted with good faith, even in people who live in a loving relationship."

In addition, Schießler warned "of a verbal disarmament in the tone". This was addressed to those whom he described as "the ultra-conservatives in our Church." Supposedly, they would speak of the "Communion of adultery." But those who were "concerned with statements of a Communion of adultery or other conceptions" would not "just injure men," but "inflict a considerable harm on the Eucharist". For "the Eucharist community of Jesus of Nazareth is not a body of perfects, as we would like to see. They are the unsaved, the broken, who have just been given a new (higher) life perspective through the communion with Christ."

At last, Schießler wrote in "Christus & Welt", "this ruthless rejection of the seeker is no longer valid," "finally the individual believer decides, in his own personal freedom, what he is called to." According to Schießler  "the former reward and punishment mentality on this subject" had nothing to do with the Church of a Jesus of Nazareth, who deliberately sought the failed and the stranded."

Schießler is incardinated in the Archdiocese of Munich as a pastor, TV personality and author of the bestseller "Himmel - Herrgott - Sakrament: auftreten statt austreten. [Heaven - Lord God - Sacrament: encounter instead of leaving.] He openly acknowledgesy "Gunda", who has been at his side for 20 years. According to his self-understanding, he does not violate his promise of celibacy, because "the sexual act is definitely excluded", but "tenderness" is "important", kath.net has reported. In other respects, too, he tends to be a media-active celebrity. For example, he had aroused anger when, in the summer of 2011, he built a beer table in front of the altar steps of his church and demonstratively enjoyed a liter of beer during an interview with "Munich.TV" (photo above), kath.net has reported. He once even expressed the wish to make a restaurant with a beer garden from a side chapel of St. Maximilian.

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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Awesome Spoof Takes Vatican Curia by Storm

Edit: here's the story from some leftist whiners at Crux who are not amused.  Thanks to Oakes Spalding. It seems that someone is ramping up the psychological warfare. Isn't this so much more gratifying than finding fault with each other like a cult of Pentecostals?

Sometimes, the news does read like satire. Sometimes the satire is the news! And this is the best weapon at our disposal.

ROME- Barely a week after Rome woke up full of anti- Pope Francis posters, anonymous critics were back at it, sending a fake version of the Vatican’s official newspaper to cardinals and officials via email, claiming that the pontiff had answered five dubia, or questions, posed to him by four conservative cardinals about his document Amoris Laetita.

“He has answered!” reads the cover of the satirical edition of L’Osservatore Romano (LOR), the Vatican’s newspaper, which carries the date of Jan. 17.

“May your speech be yes yes no no,” reads the excerpt of the cover story, in reference to Matthew’s Gospel that says “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.” (In Roman circles, Si Si No No is also familiar as the title of a small publication put out by the“St. Pius X Catholic Center for Anti-Modernist Studies,” expressing traditionalist criticism of post-Vatican II reforms.)

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/02/10/fake-vatican-newspaper-delivers-new-shot-pope-francis/

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