Judge Forces the Resumption of Public Masses in France

Reims Cathedral: The French government gave the French government eight days to lift the ban on public services.

(Paris) In France, the judges restore public celebrations. The Supreme Administrative Court opposed the government, which announced numerous easings on May 11, but still wanted to ban services. 

The situation in France is similar to that in Italy. On May 4, the government also announced “Phase 2” of the Corona measures on the Apennine Peninsula. While the curfew was lifted and many things were allowed again, the re-admission of public Mass remains excluded. There was discontent and hectic behind-the-scenes negotiations. Pope Francis himself had to intervene with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Finally, public Masses were re-opened on Monday, May 18th.

Comparable easing came into force in France on May 11, but the public Masses were excluded. For weeks, the government of President Emmanuel Macron, led by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, was deaf to the wishes of the Catholic Church. The appeals by the bishops and 67 members of parliament faltered. Now the State Council repeated the request and did it not as a petitioner, but with the authority of a supreme court. The Conseil d'État ordered the government to lift the general and absolute ban on church services.

Édouard Philippe and the Laicité

That the Christian faith plays no special role for the French elites, but rather is marginalized, is part of the state doctrine. So it is not without irony that the scolding comes from the State Council, the institution where Édouard Philippe began his steep career.

Edouard Philippe

He sees himself as an intellectual frontier worker, others see him as a careerist. 1995-1997 he graduated from the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA) where in France, its innermost circle of public servants is formed. The red carpet to power was rolled out to him. His political affiliation is dazzling. However, this only applies if one measures politics according to party labels and less according to content. In the 90s he was a member of the Socialist Party (PS) and sympathizer of the left wing around the ENA graduate Michel Rocard. In 2002, the Gaullist and ENA graduate Alain Juppé raised him to the top as a full-time party official for the civil start-up UMP, whose liberal wing included Philippe. With the political ticket of the bourgeois president and ENA graduate Jacques Chirac (UMP), he received a director position in the state-owned group Areva (today Orano) in 2007. They had noticed him.

In 2011 he participated in the program to support young scientists of the French-American Foundation, the French equivalent of the German Atlantic Bridge, which included the association of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In 2012 he was elected to the French parliament for the UMP. Since the Socialist Hollande became president, Philippe squeezed into the opposition benches. Formally, he was only one of 577 MPs, and also an opposition figure who was not noticed in the parliamentary committees or in the plenary. Nevertheless, he was destined for higher tasks. Backbencher Philippe was invited to the Bilderberger conference in 2016. The Socialist and ENA graduate Emmanuel Macron, who was then Minister of Economics in the Hollande government, had already been invited to this exclusive meeting in 2014. It was an unmistakable sign. Indeed, for in 2017 Macron became President and made Philippe Prime Minister. Macron, who'd conveniently disposed his Socialist party credentials, put himself at the top of the opposition, En Marche. For Philippe, who at the time already changed his party alignment for a fourth time, at last joined the Republican (Les républicains), in a barely credible way, so he was no party. This digression was necessary to briefly introduce the real political system in France.

Federal Court Boxes Government's Ears

The Supreme Administrative Court, which examined the objections of Catholic movements and organizations, came to the conclusion that an even longer suspension of public Masses "in a serious and apparently illegal manner" violates religious freedom and should be replaced immediately by a less restrictive measure. The Federal Court gave the government eight days to do this.

The Palais Royal, the seat of the French State Council (Conseil d'Etat)

The government's current provision was "disproportionate to the goal of maintaining public health." Rather, it questions a fundamental freedom that "also includes the right to participate in ceremonies collectively".

The verdict is a resounding slap in the face for Prime Minister Philippe, who also wanted to maintain the ban on worship in the so-called "phase 2" of the Corona measures and announced that it could be eased by June 2 at the earliest.

The French Bishops' Conference welcomed the verdict. In their comments, they pointed out that it was entirely in line with what they had written to Philippe in a letter on May 15 without being heard. The bishops now expect the restrictions to be lifted within the next few days. Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, the President of the Bishops' Conference, had already hoped for the resumption of the Masses with the end of the "phase 1" of the Corona measures and informed President Macron via video conference that church life "will be back on May 11th,  and fully restored to a community character.” With government decree of the 11th, the Federal Court has now led the government back to common sense in its own way. At the same time, it put additional reins on the Macron government by banning the use of drones by the police to monitor citizens' compliance with corona measures. Corona measures of this kind have also sparked a discussion among the French public about the danger of an authoritarian regime.

This had also contributed to worrying attacks, some of which involved the church when some armed police invaded the Paris church of Saint-André-de-l'Europe in Paris and required its immediate termination, although in only a handful of people were present. Monsignor Michel Aupetit, the Archbishop of Paris, reacted with unusual clarity:

"There were no terrorists in the church! It's time to put an end to such scenes. Otherwise we will speak and speak. "

Such attacks on the church would have to be avoided, "otherwise we will be very loud," said the archbishop.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi 
Image: Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Freemasons of France: "Notre Dame Should be Deconsecrated (Profaned) and Made Into a Cultural Temple"

France's Freemasons want to take advantage of the devastating fire of Notre-Dame de Paris to profane the cathedral and to win it over to the state.

(Paris) It's 2019. In Cameroon, politics and business are secretly controlled by Freemasonry. In France, Freemasons are increasing the pressure to take the ruined Notre-Dame cathedral from the Church and rebuild it into a "laicized" (Secular) cultural temple.

The state's bishops' conference complained about this condition in a public appeal. The first signatory is the President of  the Bishops' Conference, Monsignor Abraham Boualo Kome, Bishop of Bafang and Apostolic Administrator of Bafia.

The bishops' appeal expressly contains an invitation to stop the beaproned lodge brothers, rosicrucians and witches.

“Right now, in some parishes in our diocese, in parish councils and even in some diocesan bodies, there are more and more people with increasing responsibility who are Freemasons and Rosicrucians or who are devoted to witchcraft. Such a situation requires clarification."

The bishops emphasize not only "wanting to recall the basic lines of the Magisterium" through such more or less secret and occult groups, but "wanting to give precise, pastoral directives" ... "to proclaim and defend the faith in Jesus Christ who has died, buried and rose again.”

Freemasonry controls politics and business in Cameroon

Only last July 5 the United Grand Lodge of Cameroon wrote to the Prime Minister of the country with the requirement to appoint Lodge Brother Desiré Mama Ndjikam in charge of the important Lake Monound Project.

The Masonic Ndjikam has already held numerous, influential positions, the circulation of amounts of money, including Conaroute, the National Council for Road Construction .

The bishops are concerned about the increasing influence of Freemasons in the African country and the ever new and ever unabashed demands.

The Grand Lodge of Kamerung was formed in 2001 out of four lodges, which at that time were consolidated in the District Grand Lodge of Cameroon under the Grand Lodge of France.

With their appeal, the bishops recall that “the Christian religion is not our invention, but the religion revealed to God by Moses himself, which was fulfilled in and through Jesus Christ and brought to a consummation. Our faith is based on the truths revealed by the Lord. The truths are called dogmas. No Catholic can contradict them without denying their faith. It is about the dogmas of the Most Holy Trinity, Incarnation, Resurrection, Ascension, Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary.”

The bishops also affirm that Catholics are strictly forbidden from belonging to the Rosicrucians and similar groups because their teachings contradict the truth of the Gospels. The Rosicrucians, according to the bishops for explanation, see no person in God, but only as a kind of spiritual energy, the source of all material vibrations. The path to declared pantheism is no longer far away.

The bishops call for a solid instruction of the faithful in the truths of the faith, which should be free from ambiguities. The reason, according to the bishops, is that ignorance is the most common reason that people fall victim to sects and Gnostic associations.

The bishops call on the faithful to "ceaselessly" confess their own faith in Jesus Christ who died and rose.

The call of the bishops knows no false compromises. Such an attitude is unfortunately very rare to find among Europe's bishops, which is why they hardly oppose the Freemasons anymore.

Fire as an excuse to turn Norte-Dame into a cultural temple

On June 17, the French daily L'Opinion published an interview with Jean-Philippe Hubsch, Grand Master of the Greater Orient of France, the country's most influential Freemasonry.

In the interview, Hubsch suggests nothing less than to deconsecrate (profane) the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris, which fell victim to a fire on April 14, from an as yet unexplained cause, and to transform it into a public cultural temple.

The beaproned lodge brothers in France immediately plunged into activism to raise funds for the reconstruction of the cathedral, which is the country's best-known national landmark. The Freemasons speak of a “gesture of republican solidarity,” but they do not mean this with unselfishness.

The Archdiocesan Press Office of the Archdiocese of Paris and even Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris have personally spoken repeatedly since the fire to emphasize the inescapable importance of the church as a place of cultus (worship).

In June, Archbishop Aupetit said in a sermon:

“Separating culture and cultus is the result of ignorance or ideology. A culture without a cultus becomes an unculture. This shows the abysmal religious ignorance of our contemporaries: by excluding the term "divine" and the name of God from the public sphere, by referring to a laity that excludes any visible, spiritual dimension."

But the beaproned brothers in the Masonic lodges do not give up. Notre-Dame Cathedral is to be taken from the Church and converted into a "secular" temple of culture. Not cultus, but culture, the motto can be summarized with the small difference of just one letter, which is, however, decisive.

Do you hear about it in the big media?

Were there any public voices heard in the major media that support the Church in France and Cameroon?

There is nothing more to say.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi 
Image: Corrispondenza Romana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Cardinal Ouellette Criticizes German Bishops’ Push for Laicisation

Plans to include laypersons in a reform process have sparked anger in the Vatican. The Catholic Church in Germany is now on a head-on collision course with Rome.

The German Bishops' Conference received a stern warning from the Vatican over planned reform consultations, it was revealed on Friday.

The letter from Rome criticised the German Church's "synodal path," which is due to begin in December. The initiative is meant to deal with topics such as celibacy, sexual morality, abuse of power and the role of women in the church, as well as coming to terms with abuse cases. 

The Vatican's assessment, written by Cardinal Marc Oullet, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, was also especially critical of the fact that the Conference had included the Central Committee for German Catholics (ZdK) in the process. [We Are Church people in Germany. The usual over educated liberals and academic elites who are gradually graying into incoherence.] 

This means that laypersons will have a voice alongside the clergy. [No, it just means that professional Catholics will impose a progressive narrative that most Catholics in the pew don’t care about.]

https://www.dw.com/en/vatican-rebuffs-german-bishops-over-reform-proposals/a-50423772

AMDH

Bistro or Mosque? A Discussion With Uncertain Outcome -- Imam Proposes Occupying Christian Churches in France

Franciscan allows Muslims to pray facing Mecca, so
that Christians children, "learn how a man prays in Islam."

(Paris) The imam of the Great Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur said it frankly: "The currently existing mosques are not enough. Their number must reflect the faithful of our religion." And as the construction of new mosques costs and it is not always easy to obtain building permits, why not take advantage of the many vacant Catholic churches standing around in the country of Franceg you?

"This is a sensitive issue, but why not?" Boubakeur wrote in his book "An Open Letter to the French".  Previously, the father of Algerian Boubakeur was imam of the Great Mosque of Paris. The family derives its descent from Abu Bakr, the first caliph after Muhammad's death.

Ultimately, says the Imam, who was the President of the Islamic umbrella organization, Conseil Francais du Musulman, from  2003 - 2008 and 2013 - 2015 (Muslim Cultural Advisory of France), founded by the French Ministry of Culture,  there is a model already, which could be applied large-scale nationwide. In Clermont-Ferrand, the chapel of the Good Shepherd was left to the Muslim community for free for more than 30 years. Ultimately, "it's the same God", as the local superiors stressed.

After criticism the Imam Pulled Back

Given the immediate and above all unexpected protests, Boubakeur backtracked, claiming that he was  misrepresented, he had never asked for like.

The editor of the French magazine La Vie, Jean-Pierre Denis commented a few days ago, ironically: "I was surprised by just how I must confess that the media have taken this lie, although  these ideas appear in black and white on pages 270 / wrote down 271 of his book."

While the media willingly accepted  Boubakeur's lie, there is a reaction from the people: More than 40,000 French people already signed the petition, launched a few days ago: "Stay away from my church."

Among the first signatories there are 25 politicians of the Gaullist right and some intellectuals. Even ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy supports the call.

A survey reported by the Washington Post, emphasized that 80 percent of supporters of Sarkozy's UMP party reject the proposal of the would-be  Mosque transfer.

Among the supporters of the National Front (FN) it is as high as 83 percent.

But even among the voters of the ruling Socialist Party (PS), the enemies of the Boubakeur proposal with 58 percent are clearly in the majority.

Catholic Church itself split on  this issue

Dalil Boubakeur: Convert vacant churches into mosques

Unforeseeable was the split on this issue within the Catholic Church.

Various bishops responded immediately with sharp tones on the proposal and kept them up. 

The traditional friendly bishop of Frejus and Toulon, Msgr. Dominique Rey, whose diocese is one of the best placed of France, took the first position.  Without further adieu,  he called Boubakeurs foray as an "insult to our collective memory",  describing the proposal as an attack on "our culture and our roots." Bishop Rey made ​​it clear that "the Churches are neither interchangeable nor omnicultic."

Along the same lines followed Bishop Stanislas Lalanne of Pontoise: "I am absolutely against the idea, that churches could be sold to Muslims and converted into mosques. I understand the need to have places for prayer, but the proposal of Boubakeur is the wrong answer. "

However, some dissenting voices were heard. 

Msgr. Michel Dubost, the head of the Department of Religious Affairs of the French Bishops' Conference made ​​it known that it would preferable for him to have  the unused churches as mosques instead of bars and restaurants.

Dubost criticized the petition by stating, "to preserve the church from this fate" the best way is to "participate regularly in the Mass.".

"Churches are sacred places, they can not be used for other purposes"

Opposition came from Bishop Lalanne, who is also member of the Standing Council of the Bishops' Conference: "The churches are holy places. Even if they are not open every day to the faithful, they can not be used for other purposes that are not an expression of the Christian faith. We must not play with the symbols. These places are the memory of generations and generations of believers who have visited to pray," said the bishop.

It is noteworthy that Dalil Boubakeur is by no means an Islamist but is a representative of a "Euro Islam" or "liberal Islam". The imams of the Boubakeur family come from a Sufi tradition. In his interfaith efforts,  his proposals  and his dialogue with the state, Christians, Jews, and also with the Dalai Lama, he seamlessly blends into the secular state doctrine of France. From the Muslim side he is accused of being, as was his father, a Freemason. Evidence can be only so much that he was already a guest of honor in Masonic lodges, in 2002 in Loge Aequitas of the Grand Orient of France, whose roots are in France and Algeria.

Messa in Latino makes Boubakeur a  suggestion: "Our proposal is: Every church that is to meant to be made ​​to the mosque, should be given to a community of tradition. The fruit will not fail. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Mil / Riposte catholique

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

(Camouflaged) Franciscans at Spiritual Exercises

Franciscans at Spiritual Exercises 

(Madrid) In the shadow of the great Franciscan religious innovator, mystic and preacher of repentance, Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562) spiritual exercises for members of the Franciscan order took place in Arenas de San Pedro.The well-known Catholic journalist Francisco Fernandez de la Cigoña on InfoVaticana published a photo.

"The group of Franciscans is not numerous, but few are better than none. After all, the brothers who wear the habit, compared with those who have passed on their habit, is a slight majority. The two youngest among the brothers wear it anyway. About  a brother's shorts I am silent. With a minimum of respect for his status, he would have at least made it to   the back row. The older brothers, the more they seem to seek camouflage. The Franciscans once differed between shod and unshod brothers. Today they differ between Franciscans who are recognizable as such, and camouflaged Franciscans," said de la Cigoña.

Vocation crisis: Six Provinces Joined to One Province 

The Franciscans are from the Province of the Immaculate Concepcion, which has arisen due to the vocation shortage a few years ago from the merger of six provinces and one custody.

The Franciscan in the chasuble shows that the retreatants, as they appear, have just a Mass.

Peter de Alcantara reformed the Spanish branch of the Franciscan order and founded a new branch of the Strict Observance. He himself lived in the strictest asceticism. As confessor he was at the side of Emperor Charles V  when he abdicated and retired to a Hieronymite in Extremadura. Although the most powerful man in the world, he laid down the imperial crown, as he had recognized with the Peace of Augsburg, that he had failed in his role as Emperor to  preserve the unity of the Faith of the Holy Roman Empire. Peter de Alcantara was at an advanced age, also the spiritual advisor of St. Teresa of Avila. In 1622 he was beatified by Pope Gregory XV.  and canonized in 1669 by  Pope Clement IX. canonized.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: InfoVaticana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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Bible top Selling Book in Laicized Norway

(Oslo), Norway is one of the de-Christianized countries in Europe. Amazingly, the Bible has become the best selling book in the land of the fjords, and has been since Autumn of 2011. This is from a tweet from the Vorhofs der Völker [Court of the People], an initiative approved by Pope Benedict XVI. under the Pontifical Council of Culture under the direction of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. The facility specifically seeks dialogue with agnostics and atheists. After a course correction by Benedict XVI. there are actions taking place in many cities.

Even the Washington Times was aware of the Norwegian phenomenon. The Bible was the bestseller in Norway for the entire year of 2012. As a new edition appeared, queues formed in the fall of 2011 at the shops until late into the night, to be able to purchase a copy. Since the phenomenon is holding, 2013 is unaffected. "The Bible in Norway is selling like hot cakes," said the Washington Times . For 54 of the 56 previous weeks, the Scriptures are always among the top 15 best-selling books. Associated Press reported that the Bible is by far the best-selling book in 2012 and both the autobiography of pop stars Justin Bieber and outsells the last year's new publication of the much advertised soft porn trilogy by EL James. An estimated 3.9 billion Bibles have been sold worldwide for the past 50 years.

http://www.katholisches.info/2013/08/08/die-bibel-das-meistverkaufte-buch-im-laizistischen-norwegen/