Showing posts with label Episcopal Synod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Episcopal Synod. Show all posts

Thursday, February 5, 2015

"The Church Has Betrayed John Paul II"

Archbishop Henryk Hoser:  "The Church Has Betrayed
Pope John Paul II."
(Warsaw) This is what Archbishop Henryk Hoser Archbishop, Bishop of Warsaw-Praga,  said about the Magisterium of the Polish Pope on the family. The reason for the sharp criticism is the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family in October 2015.
"I'll say it brutally.. The church has betrayed John Paul II." With these words, Archbishop Hoser recently caused a stir. "Not the Church as the Bride of Christ, not the Church of our creed, for John Paul II. was its expression, the authentic voice of the Church, but the pastoral practice is what has betrayed John Paul II.,"  said the Polish archbishop in an interview with the Polish news agency KAI.
The focus of the interview was the family and the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Family in autumn. They will be there, said the Archbishop, to talk about the breakdown of the family, about the patchwork family, about the indissolubility of marriage, but it will also be those who demand the admission of the divorced and remarried to Communion.
Archbishop Hoser said the fact that the position representative of Cardinal Kasper started from   a "false premise", because it would be "calls  for God's mercy without justice".  In real life, it would be necessary "that marriage and family life guaranteed justice." The Bishop of Warsaw recalled the words of John the Baptist to Herod: "You had no right to take your brother's wife to wife" (Mk 6:18). What was important is "a need for justice," said Archbishop Hoser referring to Pope John Paul II., who had said that love seeks out "justice with God".
The Bishop of Warsaw called on Catholics to read the Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II. Familiaris Consortio about the family.
Hoser was   the diocesan Bishop of Warsaw-Praga before his appointment as a Curial Archbishop in Rome. The rank and dignity of archbishop he kept ad personam keep after his appointment.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Corrispondenza Romana
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG







Monday, October 20, 2014

Disappointed Synodalists Complain "Conservative Attacks Against Pope"

Cardinal Schönborn back in Vienna
(Rome) Those church representatives are disappointed by  the Synod of Bishops "disappointed"  and taking stock. The homophilic party are especially disappointed. Among them is the Primate of England, Cardinal Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster. The President of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales had expected that,  the language of the Relatio Synodii would bring "respect", "welcome" and "appreciation" for aberrosexuals. But nothing of the sort.
Cardinal Nichols had tolerated his own "Gay Masses" in London. Only the new Prefect of the Faith, Gerhard Müller brought  ​​the spectacle to an  end in 2012.  (Archbishop of Westminster Ends "Homo Masses" - intervention of the CDF ).

Cardinal Schönborn Under Pressure at Home For Failure to Break

Also disappointed with the thwarted break in the Catholic Church, was today the Vienna Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn at a press conference in Vienna.  The president of the Austrian Bishops' Conference together with his West German colleagues Reinhard Cardinal Marx, he had nurtured high expectations towards second marriage and acceptance of homosexuality in advance of the Synod of Bishops, they are now at home under  pressure to make a statement (see  "Love is Love" - Cardinal Schönborn's tribute to homosexuals and a perverse logic ).
Cardinal Schönborn credited the Kasper-line, which he supported, with a "massive wave of attacks" against Pope Francis. The simple-minded explanations of the Austrian Cardinal weaves on a myth: evil "conservative" church officials who had been "afraid" of change, prevented  the right thing by "massive attacks" on the good Pope. 

Schönborn's Apology: "Massive Attacks" Against Pope

As evidence Cardinal Schönborn named reporting in the daily newspaper Il Foglio and the book by Antonio Socci, who doubts the validity of papal elections. And again the   Archbishop of Vienna linked  the current situation with the upheaval of the Second Vatican Council. Fifty years ago it had been exactly the same. The roles of good and evil are so clear for the Cardinal. Otherwise, the Cardinal insisted in the press conference in Vienna on his position of "opening", which he repeated from his hidden formulation.

Vienna Archbishop Insists on Wrapping the Marriage Sacrament and the Catholic Moral Teaching

The Cardinal boasted about his proposal presented at the Synod of Bishops, which subsists in from the Second Vatican Council on the Catholic Church can be transferred to the sacraments (see "Subsistit in" transferred to the sacraments - Schönborns loose "conditions" for remarried divorcees ).
"Is your gaze first into the living room and not in the bedroom," Schönborn repeated  this as the watchword of the auditor charged as Family Officer of the Archdiocese of Berlin invited to Rome, Ute Eberl . A formula that is supposed to lead past the sacrament of marriage and the obligations stemming from the Church's moral teaching, obligations for believers and pastors. According to Archbishop Cardinal Schönborn, the bishops, however, should "take to heart" this motto.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Archdiocese of Vienna (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Bergoglio's Disenchantment in a "mensis horribilis"? -- Pope Tirade Against Critics

Pope Salutes Like an American President
(Rome) for Pope Francis the month of October 2014 was a mensis horribilis (Messa in Latino). Although the Synod of Bishops on the family went according to plan in terms of support from the mass media, it did not in terms of the Cardinals and Bishops who exercise their pastoral office and take responsibility in the Church. Their resistance was underestimated by the  enthusiastic innovators of novelties. The papal note in the sermon for the beatification of Paul VI., God  "has no fear of new things" was looking back at the Synod of the pale smack one of those cartoon balloons with big words, but theologically modest or out of place content. What "fear" should have God and before these "innovations"? Such  inappropriate language that could be understood as a threat even within the church. It's the attempt at a provisional balance sheet of the Synod of Bishops.

Major Archbishop calls on Pope to read the Catechism

The Pope had to Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Grand Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church opened the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the General Congregation. A harrowing situation, at least for more recent Church history,  of unprecedented embarrassment. A Metropolitan and Synod father, who isn't instructing the believers in the Catechism, but the Pope himself. Literally speaking, Shevchuk spoke of the need "to send the faithful and the Pope a clear message" that "the family is  a solid and sacramental bond between a man and a woman," as Il Foglio reported.
Pope Francis, who is celebrated by the international media world, sees himself facing increasing  and unusual criticism. The journalist Antonio Socci has been so distraught by the Argentine counterpoint to Benedict XVI.  that he has fallen into a previously unknown form of the conservative anti-popery. The publication of his latest book earlier this month "Non è Francesco" (He is not Francis) does not hesitate to describe the reigning Pope "in yet the first part, where he tries to prove the invalidity of the election of Francis, in which Socci,equipped with common sense can convince readers," said Messa in Latino.

Antonio Socci's J'accuse

However, the second part of the book has  interesting documentation of  numerous fractures, which Francis has caused when compared to the previous pontificate. Socci has issued a weighty J'accuse, to which those before can not close their eyes, trying to escape its responsibility in the Church and before God.  Antonio Socci was never a representative of  tradition, but whose "conservative" direction was with John Paul II., wanted to form a counterweight to the devastation of the post-conciliar period. The book of the Rector of the Italian School of Journalism in Perugia is already out in Italy in the bestseller lists, although some Catholic bookstores, such as the chain of Paoline, refuse the sale. The sales success of Socci's book shows, in any case, that not all Catholics and non-Catholics are willing to form their opinion about the current pontificate only by the benevolent basis of papal hugs in front of cameras in great humanity.
The Synod has become practically a debacle for Pope Francis. However, the Church has taken significant damage, since the publication of the now shredded interim report, sent the wrong signals out to the people,  supported by the mass media. Signals that contribute to further confusion, since the message  desired by the Pope to the people was more clerly emphasized at the Synod than ever before: Everyone is free to do what he wants and with the blessing of the Church.

Vote of no Confidence  in Synod Against Francis

Cardinal Napier even spoke of  "irreparable damage" to the Synod in his indignant, but lucid first speech. The oxen were released and no matter how good the document of the Synod could be, they will not return. Ultimately, the Pope reached, though not in  desired form, the stated goal which is now obvious,   to hurl two thousand years of doctrine into the dustbin and not to do so with extensive encyclicals, but by some impromptu interviews in a few sentences.
However, this strategy has cost Bergoglio a high price. The Pope has been deprived of trust 17 months after his decision to have a  "parliament" as a collegial decision making  body in the Church of the Synod with which he attempted to make change. In the world of politics, this means, depending on the political system, an immediate end to a government or the beginning of her impending end. In fact, there has never been, under any pope, such an open and sometimes even vehement public opposition to the head of the Catholic Church.

Where Francis Writes About Collegiality Is There Manipulation Within?

It also seems that the last church members  have realized that Francis, despite his demonstrable  show about expressions of collegiality and freedom of speech, does not shrink from manipulation and the oppression of opinion  to enforce its objectives. The unspeakable interim report was written by the Archbishops Forte and Fernandez and approved by the Pope as far as it is now clear. The Synod were so outraged that they themselves rejected the long-held custom in the Church and not only out of respect and courtesy, attacked the material executors, when they meant the Pope, but those directly underlying the Pope.
In their rebellion in the Synod Hall made the Cardinals around Francis, accused the principal executors and not his henchmen. And the accusations  in themselves: The synod accused the Pope of having done "great damage" to the Church "great damage" inflicted, as Cardinal Raymond Burke formulated. Major Archbishop Shevchuk fordete the Pope frankly, to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Leading Cardinals like Prefect Gerhard Müller, Camillo Ruini or Raymond Burke  even denied the Pope a greeting.

Synod to Pope: "We don't seek cheap populism"

And how different then is  a pointed criticism of the Pope  in the patience of the Synod Working Group is to be read in Italicus B. "We're not looking for the cheap populism lulling everything and packed in cotton wool."
The American Cardinal Raymond Burke was  the public opponent of the Pope throughout the Synod.  A man of particular integrity, great piety and love for the traditional rite as well as distinctive intellectual ability. We will see whether the Pope will dare after this synod to dismiss the cardinal as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura. Even if this should be the case, and Burke's room for maneuver and information access would be restricted, the Pope has found his challenger and who has the courage is no small thing,  in the face of religious practice and education to oppose the Pope publicly.

Cardinals Asked Benedict XVI., To Slow Francis

"Pope Francis has been undermined by  a serious mistake," said Messa in Latino in attacking the family, the central theme of the pontificate of John Paul II., who has significantly influenced the Catholics living today, and the pontificate of Benedict XVI. with the "non-negotiable values". "The lukewarm may be satisfied by moral laxity," but not the really faithful who consciously or unconsciously understand that this hand should be applied to substance.  There would probably  have been less resistance if the Pope had launched his attack in the area ecumenism, which is more personally distant to most. 
According to La Repubblica several cardinals contacted Pope Benedict XVI in the course of the Synod of Bishops . and asked him to slow down Pope Francis. Benedict XVI. is supposed to  have answered them: "I'm not the Pope, do not turn to me." Nevertheless, he sent a friendly embassy to Pope Francis, in which he again offered his theological  help. An aid that has not been used to date.

German Church Leaned Too Far Out the Windo Together with the Pope  

Who with Pope Francis leaned too far out of the window? An aging 68s clergy and the "German Church", as they say from Rome considers with a view to the north and the entire German-speaking world. That rich, but inwardly rotten church, having special regard for the church tax, although it is a huge machine that mainly manages itself and the faith more clearly undermines than it supports. A Church that also does not shrink, thanks to their money, in negatively affecting poorer churches and  destroying their clergy through scholarships to their schools and universities. The "German Church" stands for  "aberrosexual-understanding" and the "gradation of relations"  which is more naked than ever before in Cardinals Reinhard Marx and Christoph Schönborn.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, the idea man and spokesman of  the upheaval with papal blessing, has been undermined by his  derailment by African confreres and having revealed himself as a bold faced liar himself.  [He's been claiming to be Catholic for more than half-a-century, no?] Anyone who could take his place in the second part of the Synod of Bishops in 2015, currently still seems unclear. Cardinal Marx is indeed loud and strong minded,  but is considered a theological lightweight compared to Kasper, Cardinal Schönborn again is seen as too hesitating. Absolutely no cardinal is likely to seize  this role  after the debacle.
The Rhenish alliance is solely fused into a nationwide German-Austrian-Swiss. Not even the French wanted to participate any more. The Latin Americans, made sickly by the aid of the "German Church" and undermined by decades of liberation theology menace, were in Rome for Bergoglio, but the North Americans who are used to the struggle over the family in  policy, and the Africans along with the majority of Asians, have a healthy attitude on the subject, and vigorously opposed  the Pope.
A special role in Europe is still played by the Polish Church, which primarily has  substantive reasons. But  the Poles were also filed with outrage, who viewed Bergoglio's anti-Wojtyla position, whose relationship to Marxism is quite unclear. These days, the 30th anniversary of the death of a priest kidnapped and murdered by the Communists,  Jerzy Popieluszko.  Catholics in Poland are sensitive as they resist   the former communists positions represented by  Pope Francis in their gender agenda, abortion, "gay marriage" and the legalization of incest.

Discomfort for Months Already Smoldering Under the Surface

The explosion of the resistance during the Synod of Bishops were signals that already subliminally must have prevailed in the months before in high church circles, a strong discomfort about this pontificate. One reason is the almost unbearable tension  exhibited before the cameras between collegiality and humility, while his actual church government bore tyrannical trains. That applies not only to the Roman Curia. The humiliation, as the President of the Italian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, by Francis, without any consultation appointed a new deputy and a new Secretary-General, or the U.S. episcopate by the recent appointment of a progressive outsider to one of the most important episcopal sees in the United States in Chicago, was carefully noted abroad. In addition there are arbitrary dismissals without due process that did not give the humiliated a chance to justify himself. The most recent example is the deposed bishop of Ciudad del Este Livieres Rogelio, who was sent by the Pope without any justification, in the desert. Although summoned to Rome and asking for an audience with the Pope, was refused any conversation.

Bergoglio "a cunning Jesuit who does not simply concede the field" - Pope Tirade after Synod Debacle

"Pope Bergoglio is a fighting and cunning Jesuit, in contrast to Benedict XVI. who will not simply leave the field," said Messa in Latino . This is already shown in his final speech to the Synod in which he spoke of "moments of desolation,   tension and  temptations". When ever has such language been used in the past centuries, in its recent history in the context of a Church Congregation?
The Pope lamented in his closing speech to the Synod of Bishops last October 18 of a "negative hardening" and that they "should not be surprised by God" proposing, "the God of the surprises". Then he swore at the Synod Fathers, the Bergoglianesque  "surprises" were refused by "zealots, scrupulous, fussy and so-called traditionalists and intellectualists".

"Bishop of Rome" Suddenly Discovered He is Pope and Reminded Who's in Charge

In the same speech, Francis suddenly discovered he is not only the Bishop of Rome, as he otherwise demonstratively refers to himself, but the Pope. He was suddenly attentive to his prerogatives as "supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful", which is equipped with the "highest power in the universal Church". A clear message to remember who's in charge.
In his homily for the not uncontroversial beatification of Pope Paul VI. he then unmistakeably said: "On this day of the beatification of Pope Paul VI . his words come to my mind, with which he established the Synod of Bishops, carefully inquiring  the signs of the times, [we seek] to adjust the ways and methods [...] the growing needs of our day, as well as the altered circumstances of society ' (Acts . Letter Motu Proprio Apostolica sollicitudo ). "

"Early Autumn" of a Pontificate that Could not Advance Its "October Revolution"

Nevertheless, even in his well-meaning comments like the Huffington Post mentions "premature Fall of  a Leadership, which is unable to advance its October Revolution". Has the swan song of this pontificate already begun?
This much is certain: Pope Francis has lost his aura of rays. His trees do not grow in the proverbial sky. The unchurched press will test him further for support and complain about conservatives who plot against the Pope. There will still be millions of people who fall into ecstasy, because they crudely see the Pope as "meal". The church, however, is more and more believers and decision-makers seem to be aware that the Church  can not make a state with this Pope.

Impeachment or "lame duck"?

"Pope Francis now his Williamson case,  which Benedict XVI  had the consequence of open rebellion in further parts of the Church, "said Messa in Latino . For Francis, it's not about one person, but an assembly, which is a stumbling block and brings this pontificate to the ground of reality, as always, Pope Bergoglio will now react to it, possibly even with a still frenetic activism.
Perhaps a description of the situation can be  borrowed from big politics: If Pope Francis were  President of the US would he in the worse case, face the threat of an impeachment, impeachment trial in the better case, he would be for the rest of his remaining term of office a Lame Duck , a "lame duck ".
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: InfoVaticana
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Could Kasper's Remarks Finally Derail the Synod's Intended Course?

Edit:  When he's not insulting Catholic sensibilities, he's offending political correctness, and it's looking very curious indeed that Pope Francis has so enthusiastically endorsed Cardinal Kasper.   Surely he must have known Kasper's penchant for making remarks that are offensive to the consensus.  Since the media hasn't complained about the honored and very controversial presence of Cardinal Daneels at the Synod, it's very doubtful they will notice Kasper's impolitic remarks insulting the religiosity of conservative African Bishops, who frankly, have more important problems than coddling a very small minority of people in the West.

It's not the first time Cardinal Kasper has gotten in trouble.  Some may recall the time when he told the press that Heathrow Airport was like a Third World Country, when he was in England as part of the Pope's visit.  He was promptly sent home.

Now he's been quoted by a journalist, Edward Pentin, as saying that Africans really can't be relied on to effectively discuss "homosexuality."  Despite denying that he ever said this, Pentin says he did and has a video recording of Kasper in interview.  More recently, he's resigned himself to calling his remarks part of an informal and internal discussion he's having with himself in the presence of electronic devices, and considers the concern about his remarks as an attack on the Pope himself, since the Pope has, says Kasper, fully endorsed him.

 Rorate reported that Zenit took the interview down, well, it's back up again, at least at Kath.net...

There's a poll, also, asking if Cardinal Kasper should be refused Holy Communion for his dissent on Catholic teaching.  Right now, 83% of the respondents say he should.

Photo from That the Bones you Have Crushed...

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Hope Despite the Danger of Schism --- Bishop Rogelio Livieres About the Bishops' Synod

Bishop Livieres Plano 
(Rome) Katholisches.info published the full post of Bishop Rogelio Livieres (Bishop of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay 2004-2014)) to the Synod of Bishops and the associated dangers for the Church and the people of God. Two days after its publication   the personal prelature of Opus Dei to which Bishop Livieres belongs, distanced itself from him with its own press release it (see The Anticipatory Obedience of Opus Dei - Criticism of Kasper's Is Criticism of the Pope? Will translate soon). The bishop called a spade a spade, as hardly a  church representative dares, and speaks of the danger of a "Great Schism", but he opposes this with the hope of Christ. A "substantial" change in the pastoral practice is not possible without the damage of doctrine. There were efforts in the church  on "high-level" to align the teaching of the Church according to the wishes of the world. But this is an "abuse of authority" said Bishop Livieres.

Hope Against the Danger of Schism

by Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano
In the Holy Mass for the opening of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, Pope Francis called on the bishops to participate in the plan of God and so to form a holy people. I offer these reflections in the desire to serve the Pope so in the best way I can.
The Church which was founded on the rock of Peter expects the Synod promoting the Christian Church. But what the Bible calls "the world", however, has very different expectations: The media calls  every day that the Church should "renew itself." A euphemism which seeks the blessing of the aberrations but not condemnation, which spread more and more, partly because they are systematically promoted by the press and the entertainment industry.
The Church, however, was not founded to endorse what is desired by the world, but to teach what God wants from us and to lead on the way to holiness. For it is the will of God, who knows everything and can not be misled and can not be led astray, that we find true peace and true joy. Neither the doctrine nor the following of this teaching, pastoral practice, are the result of consensus of the priest, even if they were cardinals or bishops.
Since the origins of Christianity, the Apostles and their successors had to endure the pressure of the powerful religious and political elites who pushed it to distort the truth, and the evangelical mission they had received from Christ. However, instead of bowing to other gods, they gave us a testimony of unconditional loyalty to the truth by shedding their own blood. After all, "we must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). These days it is a comfort to think of the example of Saint Athanasius. He was not once, but five times expelled from his diocese due to machinations of his confreres, Arian bishops, with whom he was not "in communion", was because he wanted to promote the "Catholic and apostolic faith", as it is called in the Roman Canon of the first Eucharistic prayer.
To bless and accept "what all ask" is neither mercy nor pastoral charity. Rather, it is inertia and convenience because we do without it, to evangelize and educate. And it is a genuflection to the people, because we are more important, as  they  say, rather than the prophetic rebuke in obedience to God.  St. Benedict already grasped in a different era which was also marked by great confusion, the principle of eternal life in obedience: "To thee, therefore, I now teach my word, whoever you are, by renouncing your self-will, you will fight under the Lord,  the true King,  and take firm hold of the strong and most excellent arms of obedience "(...)" So, you return by the labor of obedience to the one you have left by the sloth of disobedience "(Rule of Benedict, Prologue ).
Inside the Church - and more recently on some of the highest levels - "a new wind is blowing", although not from  the Holy Spirit. Even the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, among others, has criticized the trial as utopian to think they can make substantial changes in the pastoral practice, without thereby attacking the Catholic teaching on the family.  Without condemning their intentions and for want of which I will assume the best and I regret having to name them, Cardinal Kasper and the Jesuit magazine Civiltà Cattolica are active promoters of this confusion, and it was sad to have to call them by name, but they are anyway . What has been banned as serious disobedience to the law of God,  is now blessed in the name of His mercy.  They justify what is unjustifiable, with the help of subtle interpretations of texts and historical events. But those who really know the issue, have quashed these quibbles. Let us not forget what the Lord has promised us: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35).
We take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity that the Synod gives us to affirm in a positive way what the Church has always and everywhere believed on the family and implemented by Her order in practice. This requires at the same time that we  defend the truth that divide the people of God and confuse against those who attack it. The situation is very serious  and I'm not the first to draw attention to the fact that we are tragically facing  the risk of a major schism. It is exactly what the Lord and His Blessed Mother have predicted in the apparitions recognized by the authority of the Church. 
Against those who thirst after, "remaking anew" the sanctions and to manipulate the statistics, as though the people of God are  in the mind to want to impose on reality with the power to abuse authority, we recall that the Church is neither defined by the opinions of people, nor lives lived in changing times, yet is defined by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. As the story ends when the schism of the Church of England was imposed on a whole Catholic people, is a lesson that is worthwhile today, as is shown and deepened precisely together in the testimonies of the martyrdom of St. John Fischer and Saint Thomas More.
Let us pray for the Pope, the cardinals and bishops, so we are all prepared, if necessary, to shed our blood for the defense and promotion of the family against the storms of deception and against the idolatry of an alleged sexual freedom of man before God. Let us not deceive ourselves nor be deterred from the faith and practice of morality that Jesus Christ has taught us. We know that the world has hated our Lord. The servant can not be greater than his master. The world will persecute us and do so fraudulently even in the name of God. And the Church leaders who talk like the world, enjoy listening to it, who are applauded, they will be loved, "because they are of itr" and not from God.
Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
image: rogeliolivieres.blogspot.com
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Friday, October 10, 2014

Anniversary of the Battle of Tours: Another of the West's Victories Over the Islamic Threat Which Continues Today

Edit: On 732 the Battle of Tours took place at nearby Poitiers, France. The King of the Franks, Charles Martel and his men, defeated a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from taking over Western Europe. This would be an opportune time in the Synod to discuss the importance of raising properly catechized children in the face of threats from within and without both new and old.

Here's an excerpt from Front Page Magazine:


But at dawn, Charles and his men discovered that the Muslim army had vanished, leaving the booty stolen from ransacked churches behind, as well as 10,000 of their dead – including Abd-ar-Rahman himself. It was not the last Muslim incursion into Europe, but it was the beginning of the end.

Some contemporary historians downplay the magnitude of the Muslim threat, claiming that Abd-ar-Rahman’s force was only a raiding party. They minimize the significance of the battle’s outcome, too; at least one historian even claims that Europe would have been better off if Islam had conquered it. But Hanson notes that “most of the renowned historians of the 18th and 19th centuries… saw Poitiers as a landmark battle that signaled the high-water mark of Islamic advance into Europe.” Edward Creasey included it among his The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. Many believe that if Charles – whom the Pope afterward dubbed Martel, or “the Hammer” – had not stopped Abd-ar-Rahman at Tours, there would have been nothing to prevent Europe from ultimately becoming Islamic. Edward Gibbon called Charles “the savior of Christendom” and wrote in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776 that if not for Charles’ victory, “perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford.”

If only Gibbon could see Oxford now. Not only is the interpretation of the Koran taught there, but Islam thrives in Oxford, thanks partly to the patronage of dhimmi Prince Charles. In his essay “Islam in Oxford,” faux moderate Muslim scholar Muqtadar Khan writes smugly that “Gibbon would have been surprised to learn the lesson that military defeats do not stop the advance of civilizations and the globalization of Islam is unimpeded by the material and military weaknesses of the Muslim world.”

Apart from his dubious suggestion that Islam has anything to do with the advance of civilization, Khan is right. Today the Islamic invasion of Europe and the rest of the West is of the demographic, not military, sort. The continent faces an immigration crisis from at least one generation of young Muslims, many of whom not only are willfully unassimilated, but who are waging cultural and physical aggression against their hosts, establishing parallel communities ruled by sharia and “no-go” zones of violence toward infidels. “Nothing can stop the spread of Islam,” insists Islamic apologist Reza Aslan. “There are those who would try, but it simply will not happen. Absolutely nothing can stop the spread of Islam.”

Link to Front Page Mag... Photo from Medieval Monday...

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Episcopal Synod Has the Tendency "to Make a Friend of the World"

Pope Francis on the way to the Synod Hall.
(Rome) Cardinal Peter Erdo introduced  the beginning of the Synod of Bishops. In his opening speech, Relatio ante disceptationem , he signaled an opening in changing the direction of pastoral practice in matters of Church teaching on marriage and family. At the same time he set some milestones over which it is better not to go: Humanae vitae, the serious depression of the Orthodox practice or a separation of justice and mercy. To declare that "the divorced are part of the Church," as did Erdo, however, was not new. No one has ever doubted this. It was only recalled recently also by Velasio Cardinal De Paolis, one of the opponents of Kasper's thesis of a "new openness".
With the beginning of the discussion, it was really lively.The front of the proponents of "aggiornamento" immediately made the lions work. It's about the topic leadership. Of the 70 speeches on Monday and Tuesday, a large majority took in one form or another the thesis of Cardinal Walter Kasper as his own, which he brought up  at the Consistory last February.

Ratio of the  Preponderance of "Liberals" Against Intellectual and Rhetorical Brilliance of the "Conservatives"

But somewhat surprisingly they have thus at least numerically surpassed the other side in the first round. On this other side there stands out, buth intellectually and rhetorically,  the Cardinals Raymond Burke and Sebastian Aguilar. From the multilingual briefing  in the Vatican press hall  it was quickly understood that what was  discussed in the auditorium on the Doctrine of the Faith, that in several reports about the discussions in the Aula that the doctrine should be better explained to disoriented believers. All just a matter of style? The Synod Fathers reaffirmed therein at least all were in agreement that the family should be considered as a basic unit of society.
Among the first who spoke, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, representative of Central America in the C9-Cardinals' Advisory. He proposed a kind of catechumenate  for couples who also  should be subjected to a catechetical instruction spouses course. Cardinal Marx before the Synod introduced a sophisticated document of the German Bishops' Conference, which bears the signature of all German bishops, thus supporting Kasper's proposal.

Train Moves Towards Change: "Epochal Signs Because there Were Forces That Wanted to Lead Back to Before the Council"

After these first battles the words emerged in sum, that the train travels towards change in practice, as well shown by the words of the "black pope". The Superior General of the Jesuits, Father Adolfo Nicolas told Vatican Insider: "The free and open discussion is towards change, towards pastoral adaptation to the changing reality of our time." But not only that Nicolas put this development in a context that is implicitly directed against Benedict XVI, and John Paul II: "This is an epoch-making sign, because there were forces in these years that have attempted to return the Church to before the great season of the Council."
Nicolas words are confirmed by what the journalists' briefing was told. Many Synod Fathers have demanded that the Church should adapt their language "and make the world into a friend."  Because "if the church does not listen to the world, the world will not listen to the Church," is how the logic behind it was explained.

Australian Auditors Make Homosexuality  the Subject - Bishop Criticized Catechism

Although they had not begun with the "hot" iron topics like Communion for remarried divorcees, it was already clear from the first two Synod days   that the  application is at issue in Rome, which is much more extensive and fundamental.  Not by chance was the situation of aberrosexual couples was discussed on both days at length. This was initiated by the Australian Auditor-couple Romano and Mavis Pirola from Australian Catholic Marriage and Family Council .  A Synod participant then followed who criticized  the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC): The designation of homosexuality in Canon 2357 as "an objectively disordered inclination", only to leads people away  from Christ, said the Bishop.
The African bishops spoke mainly about the problem of polygamy, which is perceived more strongly there, but largely ignored in the West, despite the phenomenon occuring in the course of Islamic immigration, if for family reunification two, three or four women are allowed into the country, or of three or four widows receive a widow's pension. These are facts with which the majority of European countries are already confronted, but which are concealed because of the "culture of welcome".

Stricter Marriage Preparation

The predominant line of the first Synod days is summarized: the way the accompaniment of couples for marriage is to undergo a radical review. It must become  "longer and more individual". It should necessitate greater "rigor" and  make the couple realize that their marriage promise is something serious and real, that it is not only a fiction, which is done  only because of the beautiful spectacle of a wedding in church with many guests, flowers and photographers. There should not be a fear  to reduce the number of marriages in the church,  said English Cardinal Vincent Nichols at the official press conference.
Regardless, the opinions among the Synod Fathers about the Gospel of the family,  are very divided with a highly significant tendency to want to make "the world a friend".
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Vatican Insider (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG



















Monday, October 8, 2012

Maronite Cardinal Warns Against Abolishing Priestly Celibacy

Philippe Cardinal Barbarin


Of all things the Greek-Catholic Bishops, whose clergy is married,  have warned against abolishing celibacy.

(kreuz.net) On the 27th of Septemer Philippe Cardinal Barbarin of Lyon at the French magazine 'Paris Match' commented on the slow burning media issue of "celibacy".

"Don't squander this treasure"

The Cardinal recalled that Pope Benedict XVI had addressed this already in the first Bishops' Synod.

It was then that the former Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Cardinal Sfeir (92) spoke especially caustically about the abolishing of celibacy.

"Even with us, the Maronites, priests may marry"  -- explained the Cardinal:  "During the war in Lebanon, all of the married priests left with their wives and children."

No one blamed them for that: "Actually, the only ones remaining behind, were those who were married to their communities."

He continued: "Don't squander this gift".

"What do you want me to tell you?"

'Paris Match'  grasped in the air that supposedly twenty percent of the clergy live with a woman.

"A High statistic" -- cried Cardinal Barbarin:  "That is, as we would say, that thirty percent of husbands   betray their wives."

"What do you want me to tell you?" -- was the Cardinal's pugnacious reaction.

It would be natural to desire that people who are married are faithful:  "Even the Republic wants that."

Cardinal Barbarin recalled then that even civil servants officiating civil marriages in the mayor's office use the words "respect" and "faithfulness".