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.
(Rome) The Pope, who makes the difference. Does he make a difference? That question was raised to Francis not for the first time since August 5, but yet one time more.
Two days ago, Pope Francis addressed the divorced and remarried in his catechesis at the general audience. Actually, he repeated almost verbatim what Pope John Paul II said in his 1981 Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, which was released a year after the Synod of Bishops on the family in 1980. But only almost.
Pope Francis announced the double-Synod of Bishops on the family of 2014/2015, by pointing out the Synod from 1980 had not dealt with all the challenges that marriage and family are facing today.
Pope John Paul II on November 22, 1981:
"Together with the Synod, I would like to exhort the shepherds and the whole community of believers to cordially assist the divorced in solicitous love, so that they do not consider themselves separated from the Church, since they can participate as baptized persons in their lives, and are even obliged to. They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to pray regularly, to support the community in their works of charity and initiatives to promote justice, to educate their children in the Christian faith and to cultivate the spirit and the works of penance in order to call down God's grace from day to day. The Church is to pray for them, encourage them, to show them as a compassionate mother and so strengthen them in faith and in hope."
Pope Francis said on August 5, 2015:
"These people are not excommunicated: You are not excommunicated! And are absolutely not to be treated as such: You are always a part of the Church. [...] I earnestly call upon pastors and the whole community of the faithful to help the divorced, and with solicitous care to make sure that they do not consider themselves as separated from the Church, for as baptized persons they can, and indeed must, share in her life.”
Identical statements with some differences
The two statements are almost identical with a few differences. "Francis exchanged a word and remained silent to a certain point," said the Vatican expert Sandro Magister.
Instead of the words "not separated" from the Church, Francis said that the divorced and remarried are "not excommunicated."
Pope John Paul II continued in Familiaris Consortio with the words: "However, the Church reaffirms its argument based on the Scriptures in practice not to allow divorced and remarried to the Eucharistic banquet. They can not be authorized because their state of life and their living conditions are in contradiction to that objective covenant of love between Christ and the Church, which the Eucharist makes visible and present. In addition, there is a special reason of pastoral nature: admitting such people to the Eucharist would cause errors and confusion among the faithful concerning the Church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage."
While John Paul II. clearly affirmed that divorced and remarried are not admitted to Communion, Francis remained silent on this point.
The silence makes (calculated or not?) the difference
In any case the omission makes the big difference. The silence made for a "media bomb". Mass media claimed that the Pope had cancelled the excommunication of the divorced and remarried and approved allowing them to receive sacramental Communion.
Once again the question of the "hermeneutics" of the Pope's words will be raised: How are statements of the Pope to be interpreted? On the return flight from Paraguay to Rome Francis introduced the journalists themselves to the "hermeneutics" of his words (see "Beatification" Marxist Jesuits by Pope Francis ). A real clarification wasn't forthcoming. So the question remains affirmed whether the media reaction was a calculated effect or not.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link to Katholisches...
AMDG
Edit: Not to be outdone by others, Fox News wants to join in on the Pope Bashig. Some may recall Sean Hannity’s disgraceful interview with Father Eutener where he insisted that he could call himself a Catholic in good standing and yet practice birth control or at least provide a sinful amount of adulation for those that do. It’s been pretty clear since then that these semi or faux-conservative type publications are either openly or passively hostile to Catholicism.
In this case, they’re simply declaring their allegiance to revolutionary principles like feminism and heaping the kind of contempt on the Catholic Church usually found only in America Magazine or the National Catholic Reporter.
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican's spokesman came to his press briefing Friday bearing flowers for female journalists to mark International Women's Day. "On behalf of all of us men, congratulations and happy Women's Day!" said a beaming Rev. Federico Lombardi.
A heartfelt gesture, to be sure, but one that came a day after an awkward acknowledgement: The upcoming election of the pope will be an all-male affair — except for the women who cook for, clean up after and serve the 115 cardinals who will pick the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, half of them women.
Lombardi's admission came when a reporter noted that one of the video clips the Vatican had provided of preparations in the Sistine Chapel featured a woman at a sewing machine, making the skirting for the tables where cardinals will sit. Aside from the seamstress, the reporter inquired, how many women are involved in the conclave process?
Lombardi said the total number wouldn't be known until all Vatican personnel involved in the conclave take their oath of secrecy. But he noted that several women work at the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel, where the cardinals will eat and sleep during the conclave, which begins on Tuesday.
Edit: at present the media reactions have been very muted and it's easy to see that they're made uneasy by the appearance of more than one million people in France last weekend against aberrosexual marriage and adoption.
The BBC's reportage was handily taken apart by patheos' GetReligion with a look at the numbers and the analysis of the people marching. It is as if the mouthpieces are at a loss to explain their own irrelevance. Do we not have an absolute hold on the people?
The BBC then plays the Million Man March game. (For those unfamiliar with this sport, the Million Man March game is one way a news outlet telegraphs its opinions. If it favors the event it accepts the numbers given by the organizers. If opposed, it plays up the numbers offered by the police.)
Also of great interest is how the event has been reported in France. France 2 pulled down their coverage and put it back up. That's not the only interesting dimension of the coverage in France, as Gallia Watch reports, it's actually Marine Le Penn's response to criticism about her absence from the event as she drifts further and further to the left:
The information in my previous post about what seemed to be a news blackout at France 2 needs to be updated. The first clarification is that the news was in fact shown on television the night of January 13, but vanished from the France 2 website the next day. The same was true of France 3 that also produced a segment on the demonstration. There was such a protest that eventually the videos were restored. Above is the ten-minute video from France 2. We see the great enthusiasm of the marchers, the comments by parents loyal to the principle of traditional marriage. We see Jean-François Copé, chairman of the UMP party, and most importantly we see the members of the Front National. The announcer makes a point of emphasizing Marine Le Pen's absence. Her absence from the rally, and her general reluctance to take a stand on several issues have resulted in a major outpouring of criticism from various patriotic websites. She has been heavily (and unfortunately) influenced by the man she appointed as vice-president of the FN: leftist Florian Philippot. She has also been unwilling to ruffle the feathers of the numerous homosexual members of the Front National. This is very bad news because it places her in a weakened position, and exposes the gulf between herself and other Front National members, such as Bruno Gollnisch, the former vice-president who received very little support from Marine, deputy Gilbert Collard who refused to join the FN because he wanted to keep his independence (no wonder), and Marine's hard-working and telegenic niece, deputy Marion Maréchal Le Pen, who I heard was upbraided by her aunt for knowing nothing about politics! But it is Marine Le Pen, who suddenly knows little about politics, having lost still another unique opportunity to defend in person, at a momentous event, the basic principles she claims to espouse. She has greatly compromised her prestige among her own constituents, and only time will tell if she can repair the damage, or if she is moving to where her heart really is - to the left. For the record, her sister Yann and her father's wife Jany were there, as was her "companion" Louis Aliot.
To be clear, Marine Le Pen's actual presence at the rally was not the issue so much as the unsatisfactory reasons she has been concocting to explain away her absence. She has said she did not want to be an auxiliary ("supplétif") to Jean-François Copé, a ridiculous statement since a party leader and presidential candidate cannot be an auxiliary to anyone. How could she be an auxiliary to Copé, unless she marched in his delegation, which is not what she would have done anyway. She has also said that the whole topic of gay marriage is just a smokescreen by the government to cover up more important issues. Another ridiculous comment since it was patently clear last November that Christiane Taubira's bill on gay marriage and adoption had mushroomed to become a major concern of traditionalist Frenchmen, those very Frenchmen liable to vote for Marine Le Pen. Some say that she feels it is beneath her dignity to march in a demonstration. Nonsense, since she has marched in political rallies side by side with her father. If it is beneath her dignity to march, then she is haughtily looking down on all those who came out, braved the cold, exhibited exemplary behavior and expressed the soul of France's heartland.
Back to the video for a moment. France 2 explained that it had withdrawn the video because it showed a female journalist in an unacceptable light. What this meant was that a woman with glasses was seen laughing with Gilbert Collard - a mortal sin. This woman, it turned out, was a reporter for France 3, but France 2 felt it had to censure the segment! Totally crazy. Anyway, the woman with glasses is not even visible in the video above except as the opening image.
One reader at Le Salon Beige reports this incredible comment from a television executive:
"We had a complicated choice to make. Either we retained the segment and engaged in an intense internal power struggle. Or we were, for a few hours, interrogated by everybody and suspected of censoring. We chose what seemed to us the least complicated solution."
In substance, they prefer to look like fascists skilled at censoring than to fight against their left-wing editors. That tells us something about the atmosphere…
More to come. The quantity and quality of commentary from the French websites surpasses anything I've seen since the election.
It's also not hard to compare the fervor of these marchers with that of other demonstrations of Catholic youth earlier this year.
Bonn
(kath.net / CBA) success for the Vatican: The Hamburg Regional Court on
Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction against the current edition of
the satirical magazine "Titanic". As the court on Tuesday the Catholic News Agency (KNA) confirmed must "Titanic", the front and back not the current issue
The Vatican Secretariat of State had previously commissioned a law firm with the enforcement of a cease and desist order. "The cover and back of the current edition Titanic are illegal. They violate the Holy Father in his personal rights", says Matthias Kopp, spokesman for the Bishops' Conference.
The current edition of the Frankfurter magazine is apparently referring to the Vatileaks affair. It shows under the title "Hallelujah in the Vatican - The leak is found!" Saluting a photo of Pope Benedict XVI. with a means of image manipulation, there is a urine stain plastered on the cassock. "Titanic" oversteps any degree of reasonable criticism, says Kopp. [There was also a picture of the back of the Pope with a brown stain on the back cover of the magazine]
"This is already a legal review which is confirmed." For that reason,
"Titanic" was invited to deliver a cease and desist declaration.
In an apparently satirical intentioned initially by saying
"Titanic"-editor Leo Fischer, the title show a Pope celebrates after the revelation of the spy affair "Vatileaks" and in exuberance spills "a glass
of lemonade" over his cassock. They would not sign the cease and desist for the time being.
"Titanic" also a spread letters signed by Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the substitute of
the Vatican Secretariat of State, to the Bonn lawyer
Gernot Lehr, who specializes in media law. Thus the Pope asked him, "to proceed against the violation of his privacy rights."
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi also confirmed the injunction on
Tuesday to request, but referred for more detailed information to the
German Bishops' Conference.
A More Accurate Psychological Portrait of Father Echert
Updatsky: We were told by a tipster that the print edition features an advertisement for a Polka Mass right next to this story. Roll out the barrel... Perhaps the irony will be lost on most? We also neglected to stress that this is one of the few parishes where the Immemorial Rite of the Mass is celebrated with Diocesan approval.
Local Paper Makes Father Echert Look Distorted, Weird and Scary
Editor:Some may recall a story about the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima where the Masonic, anti-Clerical newspapers came to scoff at the "fools" who came to see a Miracle, well, history has a way of repeating itself, perhaps.
The outgoing Diocesan Communications Director, Dennis McGrath, contacted us and asked us to remove a photo of Father Echert on the story from a Parish in South Saint Paul, Minnesota, about the possibly miraculous Host which did not dissolve and became surrounded by what appears to be blood. Since then, there has been a story in the provincial Saint Paul Pioneer Press, describing the event with citations both from the Vicar General, Father Laird and the Communications Director, Dennis McGrath and some comments from Father Echert who was, we presume, photographed for the interview by a professional staff photographer. Aside from omitting clerical titles in a jarring and offensive way, and not capitalizing the word "Host", which is Christ present in the Eucharist, even when He's been put in a ciborium of water, they also didn't credit us for our observations on a possible scientific explanation for the phenomenon and even misquoted us. They write:
BACTERIA TO BLAME?
One blogger has raised the red bacterium, Serratia marcescens, as a possible explanation for the communion wafer turning red.According to Microbe Zoo, a website developed by the Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University, the bacterium grows on bread and communion wafers that have been stored in a damp place.
We never said probable, we said "possible". The quote we took to explain the phenomenon was from the unreliable on controversial and religious subjects, Wikipedia, which, of course, has little to no sympathy for the transcendent, but gave a basic idea of the phenomenon itself. Even the Wiki article didn't say Serratia marcescens was the probable cause of the miraculous Host of Bolsena... Pioneer Press writes:
The site goes so far as to cite Serratia marcescens as the probable cause of the bloodlike substance that a priest discovered on communion bread in 1263, referred to as "The Miracle of Bolsena."
Check out the reporter's anti-Catholic bias here as here, almost gleefully describing the poor Catholics who "flocked" to the apparition site only to have their expectations dashed later when the Diocese proclaimed that it wasn't miraculous.
More-recent incidents have pointed to bacterium contamination, including a highly publicized instance in 2006 when people flocked to a Dallas-area church after a host turned red in a glass.
It would be nice if anti-Catholic journalists, who routinely flock to the sites of banal celebrities and rock stars, would engage in a little visual as well as factual accuracy in their reporting.
Exibit B
Instead of the attractive photograph of Father Echert which appears on his parish website, we were treated to a bizarre fisheye shot from below which gives a strange effect implying menace and even mental aberration. It looks frankly nightmarish and spooky like some people imagine Catholics to be. We'd like to be gracious and assume that the Archdiocese didn't know what the Pioneer Press would do with Father's image, but it's hard to be that generous:
