2014: Bishop Sorondo With Andrew Forrest (2.v.I.) at the Founding of the Global Freedom Network in Vatican |
(Rome) The Vatican has ended its cooperation in the Global Freedom Network. One of the new influential men in the Vatican, the Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo no longer sits on the board of the network against human trafficking and forced labor. The backgrounds for the withdrawal are unclear. The clear step has astonished because the distancing publicly and urgently demanded by Catholics had not occurred till now.
"We will not be exploited," said Vatican Insider citing Msgr.Sorondo, Secretary of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences. The statement surprised: Global Freedom Network was founded on March 17, 2014 as a joint venture between the Foundation Walk Free of Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest and the Holy See. At that time Pope Francis signed at the Vatican to found this interfaith network against human trafficking and forced labor, in which there were also prominent personalities of other world religions involved. The Pope's confidant, Sorondo has sat on the board of Global Freedom Network sine, which aims to sensitize the religious communities of the world against the "new forms of slavery" such as "prostitution, forced labor, organ trafficking, and trafficking in human beings". Other objectives include "promoting fair and ethical trade ', assistance to victims and survivors, pressure on governments and parliaments to raise public awareness and fund-raising for the implementation of objectives.
Last December, representatives of different religions gathered with Pope Francis at the Vatican, including Justin Welby, the Anglican Bishop of Canterbury, as well as the representatives of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Global Freedom Network bad invited them to sign a joint declaration to end "modern slavery" in a media intensive event. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent a message of greeting for support.
Distancing Because of "Simplistic" perspective?
Andrew Forrest operates iron ore mines in Australia, with which he made his billion-dollar fortune. His group is one in the northwest of the country with 88,000 square kilometers, an area the size of Austria.
On July 26, charges against him were raised in Australia: "We have someone who has a lot of money, has access to global power, who can really something happen, but if his understanding of the problem is so superficial, so undemanding, then this power, these funds will not used as they should," Anne Gallagher said in the Australian ABC television.
The Australian lawyer, Gallagher was called in 2012 the "world's leading legal expert on human trafficking" by the US State Department. In 1987 she completed her studies in Law, made her court internship and acquired in 1991 a Master in International Law. From 1992-2003 she worked as a UN official and as such was 1998-2002 consultant of Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights (UNHCHR).Since 2003, self-employed, Gallagher has been working under the State aid program AusAID Australian Development and External Adviser of the United Nations. A woman who, although hardly any citizens know her, carries weight at the international level of decisions.
Forrest is Australia's largest private donor to charitable causes. The accusation of Gallagher against him remains very vague, yet her criticism is unusual. The alleged simplistic view of a party is usually not a reason for a disjointed public criticism or even the termination of cooperation.
Crisis Forrest's Companies Fuels Criticism
Forrest's company has experienced heavy losses in recent years. The declining revenues are also coupled with its foundations because charitable donations plummeted. There is criticism that Gallagher has allowed the troubled company to plunge deeper into crisis. The market reacted sensitively.
According Curial Archbishop Sorondo, the Holy See had already withdrawn "some time ago" from the network."Forrest has every right to make money, but not to use the Pope for it," said the Argentine Curia Bishop, without making any further details on this distancing. Both Gallagher and Sorondo are not clear what is alleged the Australian entrepreneur Forrest has done to fuel the crisis of his company (Gallagher) and terminate the cooperation (Sorondo).
Sorondo no longer appears on the board of Global Freedom Network. He put expressly noted that this was in any case never convened during his membership.
Msgr. Sorondo is regarded as an "organizer" of rapprochement between the UN and the Catholic Church when it comes to the fight against manmade global warming. Sorondo had organized, prior to the publication of the Eco-Encyclical Laudato Si a meeting at the Vatican, which was opened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. A few days ago he received 70 leftist mayors and other politicians in the Vatican to discuss the fight against man-made global warming and new forms of slavery.
Despite Promotion of Gender Ideology in the Name of Pope Francis There's no Distancing
The distancing of Global Freedom Network , shows that the narrow circle around Pope Francis knows how to be sensitive, and knows how to draw a clear line and make it known publicly. Although the reasons for this distancing are unclear, it is done. No distancing from a children's book series which will appear in the name of Pope Francis for gender ideology. The Foundation Scholas Occurrentes, a worldwide network of schools was established on the initiative of Pope Francis in August 2013 at the Vatican. The Argentine newspaper Clarín have been publishing since spring 2015 in cooperation with the Pope Foundation in Spanish, the children's book series, "With Francis at my side." The children's stories, which are now widely circulated in Spain, advertise homosexuality, transexuality and "new family forms" on behalf of the Pope. The children's book series is promoted with the image of Pope Francis, it was photographed at the Vatican.
The driving force behind the establishment of the foundation Scholas Occurrentes was also the Argentine Archbishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo. The establishment took place in a ballroom run by Sorondo's Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Both Scholas Occurrentes and the Vatican wash their hands in innocence. Nobody wants to have known something or anything to do with the contents of the children's book series. A distancing has not taken place until today, although the book series coincides with Pope Francis' image, stabbing Catholic initiatives in the back with the portrait, trying to clarify the aims of gender ideology and roll back their influence.
The newspaper publisher Clarín continues, meanwhile, negotiations with other newspaper publishers to translate the children's books into other languages and spread them to other countries.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Global Freedom Network / ABC / OR (screenshots)
Image: Global Freedom Network / ABC / OR (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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