Mario Palmaro is Dead -- The Suffering Critic of Pope Francis is Silenced

(Monza) The well-known Catholic legal philosopher and journalist Mario Palmaro has  died on Sunday night ,  Catholic who was one of the sharpest and most perceptive critics of the pontificate of Pope Francis, of the consequences of a long illness. 

"This evening it has pleased God to dismiss him from his earthly life. The pain we feel about it can be found only in the consolation of the Catholic faith, the intrepid defender and witness he always was. Our affection goes out to his wife and his children, to whom we are close with our heart. We ask all friends to pray  with that confidence of Providence, which He has taught us, by accepting the suffering in Christian humility and is also to become an edifying example to us. “ With these words  the editors of Riscossa Cristiana, with whom Mario Palmaro had worked since its inception, greeted his death.

A Life for the Right to Life and  Catholic Tradition

Mario Palmaro was born on 5 June in 1968 in Cesano Maderno, a small town in northern Lombardy. He studied law at the University of Milan , he graduated with a thesis on abortion. After, he specialized in studies at the Institute San Raffaele in Milan on bioethics, he was a research associate at the Center for Bioethics at the Catholic University of Milan. Finally, he taught bioethics at the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum in Rome and Theoretical Philosophy, Ethics, Bioethics and Philosophy of Law at the European University of Rome. A rich intellectual exchange with another defender of the Catholic cause, the historian Roberto de Mattei, there was at the European University.Palmaro was one of the ardent defenders of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of Pope Benedict XVI. and was one of the strongest critics of a "miserable, partly shabby small mind" that impede with some bishops the Motu proprio.

Palmaro was chairman of the Right to Life Association Committee truth and life and belonged to the Association of Lawyers for Life and the Catholic Lawyers Association of Italy.

Together with the Catholic journalists Alessandro Gnocchi, Palmaro published several books and a variety of essays and articles. Palmaro and Gnocchi were the congenial duo of  sharp thinking and linguistic dexterity.

A Life in the Defense of the Catholic Church

Palmaro’s rich journalistic output included, among others, his essays in the newspapers Il Foglio and Il Giornale , the monthly journal Studi Cattolici and his work as editor of the Catholic monthly magazine Il Timone . For ten years, he designed his own show at Radio Maria Italy  "encounters with bioethics".  In the fall of 2013 Radio Maria discontinued its association with them because of Palmaro’s "criticism of the Pope." The immediate cause was his collaboration with Alessandro Gnocchi on 9 October in the daily newspaper  Il Foglio published essay, " Christ is Not an Option Among Many, and Certainly Not  His Deputy on Earth - Why we do not like this Pope ."  A convincing criticism of the papacy of Pope Francis, to whose validity has not changed.

Pope's Criticism, Dismissal by Radio Maria and Papal call

On 1 November, the feast of All Saints   Mario Palmaro was already seriously ill, on three weeks after his dismissal by Radio Maria he received a call from Pope Francis. Palmaro later said that this phone call "surprised, astonished and moved" him.

"For me as a Catholic, was what I experienced was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I have assured the Pope my unconditional loyalty as a son of the Church. But I looked also  recalled my duty, and  expressed to the Pope,    together with Alessandro Gnocchi’s, my very accurate criticism of his actions. The Pope   almost made me not finish the sentence and said he had understood that this criticism was made ​​out of love and how important it is for him, to get those,” said Palmaro to the newspaper Libero in an interview about  the call. 

Immediately prior to the Pope's call,  Palmaro and Gnocchi had released another essay critical of the pope:  The Church as a Field Hospital of  Twitter Followers - Encouragement inversely proportional to the clarity of the message?   Therein they wrote the almost touching Catholic, descriptive and certainlyl prophetic statement:

In some little, out of the way church there will be always be a priest who celebrates the Mass in a holy way; in a little apartment a solitary old woman with unshakeable faith will say the Rosary; in a hidden corner of a House of Divine Providence a Sister will look after a baby considered by all as having no worth. Even when all seems lost, the Church, the City of God, continues to radiate its light on the City of Man.

A Kingdom of Journalistic Work

Among the numerous books, often published Mario Palmaro in collaboration with Alessandro Gnocchi, only those of recent years may be mentioned to give an idea of ​​the tireless work of this Catholic intellectual.

• L 'ultima messa di padre Pio. L'anima del santo segreta delle stigmate (The last Mass of Padre Pio. The hidden soul of stigmatized saints), Milano, Piemme, 2010
• Cronache since Babel. Viaggio nella crisi della modernità (Babylonian Chronicle. Journey through the crisis of modernity), Verona, Fede e Cultura, 2010
• La Bella Addormentata. Perché dopo il Vaticano II è la Chiesa entrata in crisi, perché si risveglierà, Firenze (Dornröschen. Why the Church came after the Second Vatican Council in a crisis. Why they will recover), Vallecchi, 2011
• Ci salveranno le vecchie zie. Una certa idea della Tradizione (The old aunts will save us. A certain idea of ​​the tradition), Verona, Fede e Cultura, 2012
• Truth Be Told: diritto o delitto? Il Conflitto tra i principi Autonomia di e di indisponibilità della vita (Euthanasia: Right or offense, the conflict between free will and the unavailability of life), Torino, Giappichelli, 2012

"This Pope Likes Too Much" - Palmaros’ last book being printed

The last book by Mario Palmaro is currently under pressure. Written by Alessandro Gnocchi and Giuliano Ferrara, the editor of the daily newspaper Il Foglio , it bears the title " This Pope Likes Too Much. The passionate and critical reading of a pontificate," Piemme, 2014. The book will be presented on 25 March  in Rome. Mario Palmaro will no longer be among the three announced authors.

Whether the two critics will change something because of the phone call of the Pope, he was asked in November of last year? No, replied Mario Palmaro, "we will continue down the path we have always gone by, we follow our conscience, always connected to the Pope and the Church in faithfulness, but we will continue on our way, just because of this loyalty and love.”  The book is also  committed to this principle. 

From the Catholic Faith of the Disease and his Family

In an interview with a magazine of Dehonianerordens he said after the Pope's call about his disease and his family:

"Man looks at the cross and understands that this is the heart of faith: without sacrifice,  Catholicity does not exist. Then you thank God that he has made ​​you a Catholic, a very small Catholic, a sinner, but in the Church has a caring mother.

"The disease is therefore a time of grace, despite the vice of meanness that  has accompanied us for a lifetime, or even worse. It is as if the agony would have been used and you fight the destiny of the soul, for its own salvation no one can be sure.

On the other hand, the disease allowed me to get to know an impressive number of people who want good for me and who pray for me, families who pray the rosary at night with the kids   for my recovery, and I lack the words to describe the beauty of this experience. It is a preview of God's love in eternity. The biggest pain I feel, is the idea of ​​having to leave this world. I like it so much, that is so tragic but at the same time so beautiful, to let go of so many friends, my relatives, but most of all to leave behind my wife and  my children, who are still children. Sometimes I imagine my house, my empty study and life will go on there even if I will not. It is a painful, but very realistic idea. It makes me understand that I was an unprofitable servant, and I am, and that all the books I have written, all the lectures I held and the articles that I have written, are ultimately only straw.

But I hope for a merciful Lord and that other parts of my work, my aspirations and my struggles to pick up and carry on, will continue with the eternal duel. "

Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat egg.
Requiescat in pace.
Amen.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Corrispondenza Romana / Pierre

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to katholisches….

AMGD

Patriarch Bartholomaios I. Speaks Against the Use of Hagia Sophia as a Mosque

Rome / Istanbul (Catholic news / CBA). The Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I is opposed to a conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The late antique building was "built to bear witness to the Christian Faith," the honorary head of world Orthodoxy said, according to the Vatican Press Office Asianews (Thursday). "If it returns to serve a religion, it can be no other than the Christian one." Bartholomew   commented on the opening of a summit meeting with other Orthodox church leaders at his official residence in Istanbul, the Phanar. Several politicians had brought it into the conversation with a view to the local elections in late March in Istanbul, among others by the ruling AKP of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to re-use of the Hagia Sophia as an Islamic place of worship. The Ecumenical Patriarch called the Hagia Sophia a testimony to the "historical and continuing presence of Christian thought in this country." To the claims for reopening the building as a mosque, he said: "We stand against this, however, and with us, all Christians, whether Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant." Hagia Sophia was built in the 6th Century on the site of an earlier building under Constantine by the Emperor Justinian I (527-565), and it later served as the coronation church of Byzantine rulers. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, it was converted into a mosque. The founding president of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1934 ordered its conversion into a museum.

 Source: © CBA. All rights reserved
 Photo: Bartholomew I - Image source: Wikipedia / Massimo Finizio

  Link to Kathnews...

 Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMGD

"Pastoral Care Must be Based in Reality" -- Benedict's Answer to the Speech of Cardinal Kasper

(Vatican) Cardinal Walter Kasper received the exclusive right to address the Consistory on February 20-21  to explain his "new ways" in the pastoral care of the divorced and remarried. The publication of Kaasper's "secret speech"   seems to have been intended from the outset, as already demonstrated by  the notice given by Herder Publishing House. Thus, it is determined as the only "official" opinion in the discussion.

But already in 1998 Benedict XVI.,  had then still given as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Prefect of the Congregation, a response to Kasper's speech.

On 29-30. November 2011  the "Osservatore Romano" published n various translations a little-known text by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger , then Prefect of the Congregation of Faith "to some objections to the Church's teaching on the reception of Communion by divorced and remarried believers."  The text written by the future Pope Benedict XVI. was an introduction to the book "Pastoral Sulla dei divorziati Risposati" (On the Pastoral Care of Divorced and Remarried), which is published as Volume 17 of the series "Documenti e Studi" by the Congregation in the Vatican publishing house.

The translation into different languages ​​(German, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian versions of the first edition), their footprint in "L'Osservatore Romano" and the publication on the website of the daily newspaper of the Vatican was was made by request of Benedict XVI. to face attempts within Church  to overturn Catholic doctrine and practice in this area, to explain and reaffirm the Catholic position.

Due to the resignation of Benedict XVI. these inner-Church forces have burst forth stronger than ever, which is why the text is now of even greater relevance.

The publication of 2011 had resulted in   the addition of three footnotes. 

Concerning some objections to the Church's teaching on the reception of Holy Communion by divorced and remarried members of the faithful In 1998 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, introduced the volume: "On the Pastoral Care of the Divorced and Remarried", published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana in the dicastery's series "Documenti e Studi", 17. Because of its interest in our day and its breadth of perspective, we reproduce the third part along with three additional notes. This text is also available on the newspaper's website (www.osservatoreromano.va) in English, Italian, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

Is Francis Turning Offenders into Victims and Priests Into Social Workers?

(Vatican) Does the Pope say "wounds" and mean sins? He confuses   sinners with the "wounded"? Or he says priest and confessor, however, he believes they are social workers and Caritas employees? In 6 March, Pope Francis gave a long speech to  the priests of his diocese of Rome a long speech at the beginning of Lent in the Paul VI Hall, whom he  had called together. The theme of the address was the question of how a priest had to be to be a "good shepherd". Here are some tentative considerations and more questions from a simple Catholic woman.

.

The Sinner as Wounded?

Essay on an unfinished Commentary 

by Martha Weinzl

The speech was as is typical of Pope Francis, divided into three points. "In the whole Church it is the time of mercy." "What is mercy for the priest," And: "Mercy is neither arms too widely opened or  rigidity"

27 Times Mercy, Never Guilt

First, the test of an empirical text analysis. The text uses Pope Francis uses the word mercy 27 times,  twelve times the word heart, ten times the word wounds, six times the word flesh, two of five times he speaks of the sacrament of reconciliation and the confessor, three times he used the words compassion, confess, and penance, only once the words sin, sinners, reconciled and absolve. The words guilt, confession and confessional do not occur, nor salvation, savior, savior, savior, salvation, salvation or absolution.

What tells us this list? Pope Francis  was to talk about  confession and the role of the priest as confessor.  The subject for the talk, one would assume, is the  sin and the sinner who has committed the sin. We are all sinners, but we should beware of sin. The Church presents us with the precious aids available for the lifelong struggle against sin. First, the instruction that contributes significantly to the formation of conscience. Then, however, especially the sacramental means of grace, especially the Sacrament of Penance instituted by Jesus Christ. After all, it is about  eternal salvation, whether we can stand before God's justice and mercy.

Sin and sinners appear as terms in the papal address but each only appears once. Sin is indirectly mentioned in connection with criticism of lax priests who "minimize"  sin, thus  downplaying it. An important statement. 

The Sinner, to be exact, "sinners" are in only one instance mentioned, without further explanation, together with the "sick", "about which nobody cares." Sinners and the sick are referred to by the Pope in the same sentence as "excluded".  For them"Especially,"  the priest needs "tenderness".

Dimension of the Sin and the Sinner's Status Remain Unnoticed

The papal considerations can be far more reasonably followed when missing parts simply included. Nevertheless, it is remarkable how underexposed the dimension of sin and the status of the sinner remains, although they really should be the focus in the face of the subject.

The sinner becomes sick, but not in the sense of a spiritual disease. This can give rise to suspicion, the Pope coul view the priest - just to exaggerate - not as confessor, but as a nurse or Caritas staff member.

No perpetrators (sinner), only victims?

In fact, the Pope speaks not of sins and sinners, but of wounds and the sick. But wounds are not sins, but a change of perspective. The Pope says without a doubt wounded, people who are injured. Sin is a wound. The sinner is but the cause of the wound through sin and not merely the victim of a wound. That the sinner can be an injurer and the wounded a sinner, is another question, to which the Pope, however, did not respond.

Pope Francis sets the priests in the role of the minister in his speech, only to those wounded in the heart. The confessor has only to take care of the sinner. He has to condemn the sin, an issue the Pope doesn't even touch, and to move the sinner to repentance. The penitent who repents, he has - in Pope Francis is in his definition only agree - to go on his way to be reconciled as he is accompanied by God, but so that he no longer falls,this also includes the accompanying penance.  These aspects are not mentioned.

According to Pope Francis, the sinner is not the offender, but obviously a synonym for the wounded. This is in need of explanation, if not to be assumed that the understanding is turned upside down.  Offender and the victim as interchangeable sizes? The sinner is a doer, he wounded a victim. The priest who, according to Pope Francis is to take care of the wounded, so to victims, but in reality - one follows the papal versions - they are perpetrators, because why else would require a confessor.  The sinner is thus in a new dialectic from the perpetrator to the wounded victims. For victims of their own sin? For victims of evil? For victims of the devil, the eternal tempter and seducer? But that is not explained by the Pope.

Sin? "Material problems, scandals, illusions of the world"

He speaks of the Church as a "field hospital" and gives the impression as if there were in a very special way in this day and age a "need to heal the wounds, many wounds! Many wounds!" But that would mean that priests would have had to take care especially to those who have been wounded by sin.  It's just not clear from the further description, however. But why should our time need more to heal "wounds" than previous times, so that the Church is given a new role as "field hospital"?

In fact, the Pope is expected to be right. There were never as many people as today, which is why the number of sins should ipso facto be greater in number than ever before. Since the Pope does not name sin and never really speaks of sinners, his statement is vague and raises a number of questions that remain unanswered. Because the causes of the wounds that need confessors, so to sin, Pope Francis merely says: "Many people are wounded by material problems, scandals, even in the Church ... people who are wounded by the illusions of the world ..." .

You can rub your eyes in disbelief: "physical problems", "scandals", "in the Church", "illusions of the world"? What's this? Is this the dimension of sin, from which we have to guard ourselves? Wounds by social injustice?  Perhaps the Marxists might be right that the only reason offenders sit in our prisons because they are victims of structural social injustices in the end, right? Sociological and psychological considerations? This requires the confessor, confession, the sacrament of reconciliation? This is something completely different: The reinterpretation of the confessor to life consultant? To psychotherapist? To a friend? The confusion of sin with worries and problems of the people? The question would then be justified, whether other professions due to their professional training are not yet suitable to solve such problems, as the "appointed" priests. If God actually is a kind of generic guidance counselor for social work?

The priest as Caritas staff?

Can the Pope's message to the priests of his diocese, and thus to all the priests, be summarized as follows: Go out, and do not fear for you to get dirty to help the people in their lives, everyday worries and troubles. One calling among several for every Christian. Also a perfect job description for a Caritas staff. But is this a definition for the priesthood? Especially in connection with the Sacrament of Penance? Questions, questions.

Picture: Avvenire

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

"Annagate" Rocks France -- Young Russian Girl Extorted to Spy on Manif Pour Tous

(Paris) In France, people are talking  of Anna Gate: the case of a young woman who spied on the civil rights movement Manif pour tous for the government. "You know, we love  KGB methods." 

François-Xavier Bellamy, Vice Mayor of Versailles explains how he has helped the young woman and is pursuing legal action against the state: "In Hollande's France,  it is not enough just to agree with the President in order to be treated like a criminal ".

"I'll never forget Anna's face," said the letter from the only 28 year old, non-partisan, Catholic, Vice Mayor of Versailles, François-Xavier Bellamy, as he begins in an interview with the French daily newspaper Le Figaro .

Anna, the given name of Annagate, is a 19 year old Russian woman. The French police are  doing this, what is called an indecent offer: one can be expelled unless they spy on the civil rights movement Manif pour tous from, but might obtain French citizenship in return.

"We Love the Methods of the KGB"

"When Anna  knocked at my door, she was deeply frightened, because of the threat of deportation and the threat by the police," said Bellamy. "You know, we love the methods of the KGB," said the civil servant. "One can easily imagine how such words must make an impression  on a young girl," said the deputy mayor. "Despite the threat against talking to anyone about the police pact, she had the courage to speak," said Bellamy.

"I am Ashamed of France"

The Versailles Deputy Mayor, said Le Figaro , as he listened to the girl. "In the end I apologized to her for my country. I was ashamed for France, because of such methods, one of which I had never thought of having to encounter in a free society," said Bellamy. He took Anna in and offered her help: "Today she is out of danger. But where  would  she be today if we had not found the courage to trust each other? ".

A "Serious Case"

The publicized case of Bellamy shocked even more the confidence of the French in their current .governing Interior Minister, Manuel Valls .  Meanwhile there is an investigation underway which is to examine the allegations.

Vice Mayor Bellamy described "three reasons why this matter is of particular severity."

"Primarily it is because it proves that the current government has misused the police to identify and spy on citizens just because they are  engaged in lawful and democratic rallies to manifest a different opinion than that of the government." And again further: "The Interior Minister is not  using the police to not guarantee the safety of the French, but to spy on innocent citizens whose only crime is to be opposed to a proposed law  [the "gay marriage"]. I do not mean the individual police officers who carry out excellent work. The culprits are the high officials who force their subordinates to employ methods to  use terrorism against the democratic domestic opposition. "

"The methods are the second reason for the scandal. Is it normal to terrorize a student in such a way? To isolate them to hold without a lawyer and without due process, to separate them from their parents in order to put pressure on them with the brutality of an arbitrary state? Is Mr. Valls ready to get the names of some young people who dare to have a different opinion other than him, ready to destroy the lives of Anna?" said Bellamy.

And third: "The Home Secretary will have some explaining to do. It is not enough to add still another injustice  injustice by letting fall the blame on any police officials, officials who have following a command that could only come from the political side. The story of Anna poses a fundamental problem for our democracy: In Hollande's France  it is enough to have disagreed with the President in order to be treated like a criminal," said the Vice Mayor of Versailles.

"Thank You Anna"

Bellamy   promised Anna not to make the matter public, unless she herself  would be willing to talk about it. "I am grateful to Anna that she has found the courage to speak about it a few months later. I thank her on behalf of France. I thank her on behalf of our community, which must not be robbed of the legacy of their parents, stealing the sacrifice of their blood: the guarantee of a democratic debate, the right to fair trials and freedom of conscience," said François-Xavier Bellamy, young non-party, vice mayor of Versailles.  The 28-year-old Bellamy has a leading function in the traditional Catholic Boy Scouts of France, with the German-speaking world, the  is connected with the Katholische Pfadfinderschaft Europas (KPE). 

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Tempi

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

AMGD

"With Love" From Freiburg -- Zollitsch Attacks Müller!

 In the Case of Tebartz van Elst Zollitsch  Cardinal Zollitsch addressed what was sad said by  Curial Cardinal Müller: "It amazes me that the old saying of Wittgenstein, 'Whereof one can not speak, thereof one should remain silent' is ignored"

Mannheim (kath.net / CBA / red) The outgoing chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, regrets overlooking the Limburg Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz van Elst, "that this particular case has become a central theme and overshadowed the really important questions. " In an interview with the "Mannheimer Morgen" (Thursday) Zollitsch said,  the test report issued by the Episcopal Conference was, "a good foundation, so that the Congregation for Bishops may decide fairly in agreement with the Pope." That   Zollitsch could as he says  "discuss in Rome in detail with the Congregation."

 Zollitsch criticized the German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller. Accoding to the Assessment, The Report Showed no Wrongdoing by Tebartz van Elst. Zollitsch expressed this: "It amazes me that the old saying of Wittgenstein, 'Whereof one can not speak, thereof one should remain silent' is ignored."  On the question of the influence he had on the decision on Tebartz, Zollitsch said: "The Holy Father knows my opinion. I have full confidence in him that he will make the right decision. "Zollitsch had handed over the report on Carnival Monday on the controversial construction projects in the diocese of Limburg to the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops in the Vatican, Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

 The Emeritus Archbishop of Freiburg also commented to another question, in which he has fallen out with   Prefect Müller.  Asked about the "contradiction" and others of the Curial Cardinal on the  admission of married divorcees to the Sacraments, Zollitsch said:" The manual of our pastoral ministry is trying to rewrite the practice in most German dioceses in Austria and Alsace. It's also about how we look into each individual case according to how we can serve the whole community. Cardinal Kasper thinks  similarly in this direction and represents the theological perspectives. For that I am grateful to him." Zollitsch concluded with the comment: "I was told Francis had praised Cardinal Kasper's presentation highly. " 

(C) 2013 Catholic News Agency KNA GmbH. All rights reserved.

Link to kath.net....

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMGD

Pope to Take a Humble Bus Ride 30 Kilometers to Lenten Retreat in Ariccia

It is the first time that a Pope has paid a Lenten visit to a place outside of Rome for fasting retreat.

Vatican City (kath.net / KAP)  Pope Francis wants to use the bus for his ride to a Lenten retreat. It is believed that Francis will travel the distance 30km from  Rome to  Ariccia together with the other participants in the bus, Vatican Radio reported on Thursday.

The Pope has made several  trips into  the community in his limo. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he constantly took advantage of public transportation. Even after his election as pontiff he went together with cardinals on the bus to Santa Marta Guest House. 

On next Sunday, 9th March till  Friday 14 March, the Pope will retire together with the  heads of the Roman Curia for meditation in a formation house. It is the first time that a Pope has visited a   Lenten fast retreat to a place outside of Rome.

 Francis and his colleagues will hear lectures in the religious formation house "Casa Divin Maestro" in Ariccia, which is managed by the order of the "Societa San Paolo", by  the popular Roman priest Don Angelo De Donati. De Donati leads the Roman   Parish of San Marco al Campidoglio. 

Directing the retreat is considered a great honor. In 1996, during the pontificate of John Paul II, that honor was given to the Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schönborn.

Link to kath.net...

AMGD

Orthodox Churches Seek Closeness -- Synaxis Meets in Constantinople

(Constantinople) The Orthodox seek unity with one another. The assembly of Primates of the Orthodox Church has begun In George's Church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.  The Patriarchate of Moscow thereby is also searching for the solidarity and support of Orthodoxy  in the Ukraine crisis and will probably get it.

In Constantinople, now Istanbul, today, the Synaxis of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches has opened. This is something  the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, has invited    - not without some rumblings of the Russian Orthodox - to discuss a meeting of the Holy and Grand Council, the whole Orthodox  Church that could begin, after 50 years of announcements and preparations, perhaps in 2015.

Will the Holy and Grand Council of the Orthodox Take Place?

The crisis in Ukraine, which is also an East-West conflict, are of particular importance to today's meeting to understand the direction in which the inner- Orthodox  relations between the autocephalous Churches could develop in the coming years, but also the ecumenisml between the Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church.

A number of recent signals suggest that in the three-day meeting at the Phanar, at the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Orthodox Churches  will move closer together after years of bickering and divisiveness  and consolidate again its close internal unity.. It features a new dynamic of recovered unity with a Divine Liturgy celebrated on the 9th of March, Sunday, the day of the " Triumph of Orthodoxy ". This still refers to the first millennium triumph of the veneration of icons against the iconoclasts, but in a broader sense, the triumph of Orthodoxy over the heretics. It is the triumph of the "small, persecuted flock," a "triumph of the martyrs and confessors," as it committed to Orthodoxy.

Ukraine Crisis is Leading to  Inner-Orthodox Closeness

For a long time the participation of the most influential Orthodox Church leader, Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow was not certain. Yet the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia has finally traveled to Istanbul. For him, it comes to receiving the support of all the Orthodox Primates for the second part of his title. According to Moscow's understanding of the tripartite Russia (Great Russia, Little Russia, Belarus), his primacy extends not only to the state of Russia and ethnic Russians but also through Ukraine and Belarus. The question of the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which during the crisis has come down on the side of the anti-Russian independence movement is, therefore, not to affect the assembly.

Patriarch Filaret was on the side of U.S. Secretary of State Kerry over Martyrs' Square in Kiev

As it stands, all canonically recognized Orthodox Churches will continue to repudiate a canonical recognition of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate independent of Moscow headed by Patriarch Filaret of Kiev. Filaret, has been Russian Orthodox Metropolitan since 1966, he became after 1990, after the death of Pimen I his successor as Metropolitan of Kiev and throughout Ukraine. When Ukraine gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Filaret called  for the autocephaly of the Orthodox church in the country, which  Moscow rejected. In 1995, he called arbitrarily for Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Patriarch of Kyiv and all Ukraine .

This division of Orthodoxy in Ukraine has continued still, so that today  three feuding Orthodox Churches face each other. Only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is officially recognized, to which appends still the majority of Orthodox believers. Filaret was excommunicated in 1997 by Moscow and returned to the lay state.  Despite various attempts by anti-Russian Ukrainian politicians speaking of  the recognition,  the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, has  not previously affirmed it. Although  Ukrainian he has had 20 years of independence, the Kiev Patriarchate  has not expanded its position, since the majority of Ukrainian parishes and monasteries belong almost entirely to the Moscow Patriarchate.

Filaret is Considered in Canonical Orthodoxy as Excommunicated Schismatics

Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv remains in the eyes of the recognized Primates as one excommunicated, who is also accused of giving titles and jurisdictions to schismatic groups and strange creations  imparting to secularized priests to self-appointed priests and vagrants, dealing moving in various countries outside the Church control. There is talk of a "schismatic International," calling into question the apostolic succession of the Orthodox Churches undermines in some parts of the world and place. An expression that reflects the mood within  canonical Orthodoxy on the subject.

When U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry these days made his walk across the Martyrs' Square in Kiev, he was accompanied by various Ukrainian religious leaders. Right next to Kerry, more visible than any other, was Patriarch Filaret. On the Russian side, Patriarch Kirill I tried to restrain the conflict in Ukraine. All the more so, since Archimandrite Chaplain of Russian Military had designated the  intervention in the Crimea as a "peace mission".  Additionally, Kirill said: "Our nation is composed of people with different perspectives and political convictions, including those which are being  faced on  the barricades. The Church is located at the side of any party in the political struggle."  These words are a message to Metropolitan Onufry  they contain the current locum tenens of the Moscow Patriarchate in Kiev.

Moscow is Seeking Assistance and is Willing to Grant Such

Not only Moscow but also the Ecumenical Patriarch urges a closing of the Orthodox ranks. This not only has to do with the Ukraine crisis. At the same time, the unity will also strengthen the role of Bartholomew as primus inter pares, and thus guarantor and coordinator of Orthodox unity. Therefore, the "foreign minister" of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion found many words of praise and grateful appreciation for Bartholomew and also Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamon, the major theologians of the Ecumenical Patriarchate .

Hilarion: "We must identify the problems of the world today, not those of the 70s"

Hilarion expressed in the preparatory meetings currently in session  at the Synaxis the full readiness  to participate for the  first time in the preparation of the Holy and Grand Council, which has been considered by Moscow with little attention in the past: "New realities, new problems have emerged and we must, for our flock  and the world, identify the problems  that approach  us today and not those which concerned the Orthodox Churches in the 70s and 80s of the last Century. "

Impact on the Primacy Issue between Orthodoxy and Catholicism?

Whether the new unity of Orthodoxy will have an impact on the willingness of Moscow to talk with the Catholic Church on primacy remains to be seen. Recently,  Moscow has been deaf on this topic therefore, and for thus it did not recognize the leading role of the Ecumenical Patriarch in this question.  However, there seems to e a relaxation in progress between Moscow and Constantinople. 

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Vatican Insider

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMGD

Papal Honor for Cardinal Siri: But not for His Pupils

(Rome) on 27 February  Pope Francis led the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation of Bishops. An "unprecedented presence", as the Prefect of the Congregation, Cardinal Marc Ouellet of French Canadians remarked.  In fact, no one can remember that a pope had ever before done the like. On this occasion, Pope Francis held a long speech for the assembled 33 members of the Congregation  on the criteria that they would have to consider when choosing a good bishop, and then he mentioned Cardinal Giuseppe Siri.

Among other things, the Pope said:

"The Church does not need apologists for their own account, nor  Crusaders in their own battles, but humble sowers  who trust in the truth, who know that they will always be renewed  and  trust in its strength. Bishops, even if it is going to be night and they are tired from the effort of the day, are aware that the seed germinates in the field. Patient men because they know that the weeds will never be enough to fill the whole field. The human heart is made for wheat. The enemy was the one who planted the bad seeds in secret. Thus the time of the weed has been  already unalterably set." 

Then he added:

"I would particularly like to emphasize: patient men! It is said that Cardinal Siri used to say, Five are the virtues of a bishop. Firstly, the patience, the patience, secondly, thirdly, the patience, the patience, fourthly and lastly, the patience with those who remind us to have patience."

The "Cleansing" of Rome of the Sirians

Cardinal Giuseppe Siri (1906-1989) was the masterfully eloquent  Archbishop of Genoa whom Pope Pius XII. would have wanted as his successor, but the cardinals in the conclave preferred, however, in 1958,  Pope John XXIII. and by the direction taken by this way, led to the Second Vatican Council in 1963 with Paul VI.  In retrospect, this was clearly a directional decision. Cardinal Siri was the only Church representative whom Pope Francis mentioned  in his address to the Congregation for Bishops. A naming which clove to a paradoxical connotation.

"Politics" by Gestures: Paradoxical Naming of Siri for the "Cleansing" of Rome of the Sirians

The naming ad honorem came after Pope Francis had removed from the Congregation of Bishops, precisely those two cardinals who were ordained priests by Cardinal Siri.  They were Cardinals Angelo Bagnasco and Mauro Piacenza. And after another man of the Church Cardinal Siri had laid his hands on for ordination to the priesthood, the Patriarch of Venice, Francesco Moraglia, was deleted from the list of new cardinals, although the patriarchal chair behind the archbishopric of Milan is connected to the cardinalate and traditionally ever heard of as the most important of episcopal sees in the world. From Venice there came three popes alone in the last century.  Among these included in the "purge" was  the removal of the American Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke. Although he does not come right out of the Siri School, he feels gladly associated with them and he counts his understanding of the Church with that of  the losing candidate of the 1958 and 1963 Conclave.

The highest remaining "Sirian" in the Vatican is thus Monsignor Guido Marini, the master of ceremonies of the Pope.  Guido Marini was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. in 2007 to the office to initiate the reform of the liturgical reform.  As a seminarian, he  was the last of the Caudatarius Episcopi of Cardinal Siri. He was, however, already consecrated by Siris successor, Cardinal Giovanni Canestri. Pope Francis seems to have little in common with Cardinal Siri and his understanding of the Church. The mention of Siri with a content innocuous sentence, therefore, seems to be more a  part of that "policy" by gestures. This view is in any case that of those progressives who cheer most loudly for the Argentine Pope, who compare him since his election  with John XXIII. Also wanting   to attempt to create a new situation  as in summoning the convocation of the  Second Vatican Council.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMGD

Pope Francis Praises Encyclical Humanae Vitae: Asks Benedict for Advice

New interview of Pope Francis and praise for Pope Paul VI. and his most famous encyclical: "His genius was prophetic, he had the courage to go against the majority, to defend the moral discipline"

Rome (kath.net / RV)
"Yes".  Pope Francis affirmed with this clear statement when questioned whether he has been asking Benedict XVI. for advice.  This time he has given another interview for the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Serra" regarding his governance,  and how he was trying to put into practice what had emerged in the debate with the Cardinals in the various congregations before the conclave. "In my actions, I'm waiting for the Lord to give me the inspiration  ..." 

The essence of his spiritual message he understands as "tenderness and mercy." This comes from the Gospel.  Regarding the media Francis-hype the Pope said,  "I don't like the ideological interpretations of a certain Francis-mythology. If one says, for example, he was going at night from the Vatican to bring food to the homeless in the Via Ottaviano...  That's never crossed my mind. Sigmund Freud once said, if I'm not mistaken: In each idealization is also a hidden aggression. To draw the Pope as a kind of Superman, a kind of star, seems offensive to me.  The Pope is a man who laughs, cries, sleeps quietly and has friends, like everyone. A normal person. "

About accusations of Marxism, which some have made, Francis said, "I have never shared the Marxist ideology because it is not true, but I have known many brave people who were known for Marxism." When it came to sexual abuse of children, Francis explicitly praised Benedict XVI.   He was "very brave" and had opened a way."The church has done a lot in this way. Perhaps more than any other. The statistics on the phenomenon of violence against children are impressive, but they also clearly show that the vast majority of abuse happen in the family and neighborhood environment. The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility. No one else has done this. And yet the Church is the only one who is attacked." 

When asked about the theme of family and divorced and remarried the Holy Father said that "there is a long path that the Church must travel. The family is in a very "serious crisis" in that  "the young people don't get married any more. "We need to give an answer. But we need to think deeply about it ... One must avoid to stay on the surface ... "  As to the presentation by Cardinal Kasper at the Consistory on the subject, Francis said that he had held a "beautiful and profound" lecture.  In the fifth point, the issue of remarried had been addressed. "I would have been worried if there had not been intense debate in the Consistory, which would have brought nothing. The Cardinals knew that they could say what they wanted, and they have presented many different points of view   that enriched. The fraternal and open exchange can nourish the theological and pastoral thinking. Regarding that, I'm not afraid, on the contrary, I'm looking for it!"  

Even on marriage itself the Pope undertook to say: "The marriage is between a man and a woman. The secular states want to justify civil marriages, to address specific situations of coexistence. It drives the need to regulate economic aspects among people, such as health insurance. It's about pacts of coexistence of different kinds .. You have to see the individual cases and assess their diversity."  Francis then also made ​​it clear that Paul VI. had the courage to go against the majority with the encyclical Humanae Vitae. "His genius was prophetic, he had the courage to go against the majority to defend the moral discipline to draw a cultural brake ... The question is not whether to change the doctrine, but if you get into the depth  and makes sure that the pastoral, the individual circumstances and what the people are each capable of take into account.  That will also be  discussed in the course of the Synod."

Then he gave praise for Orthodox Theology. "The Orthodox theology is extremely rich, and I think they have great theologians at this moment. Your picture of church and Synodality is fantastic.

 " Pope Francis welcomed Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. to the Konstistorium 

The Bishop of Rome and the
Pope of the Universal Church

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMGD

New Pope-Football Club Started in Argentina

The Pope's Team has begun with a small budget and big aspirations.  The association wants to particularly care for street children

Buenos Aires (kath.net / CBA / pl) The "Sport Club Pope Francis," which was founded in honor of the head of the Argentine church football team, is in his first season. Having made its ascent to the finals, the "Pope's team" will play in the championship of the east Argentine city of Lujan  on 22 March in the Sixth Argentine League. The club, with a slim budget but high goals was founded in October last year. It bears the cross in iits coat of arms (photo). 

Club President Jorge Ramirez said, according to Argentine media reports, the occurrence and the goals of Francis had convinced him to name the club after the Pope and not, as initially planned after Real Madrid. Even the district of Lujan, in which the "Sports Club Pope Francis' is located, is called San Francisco.

 An essential task of the club is the social work, Ramirez said. The association wanted to particularly care for street children. Pope Francis probably will probably not be the last to appreciate the social work of the new football clubs. The Argentine Schoenstatt Father Federico Piedrabuena had described   his encounter with his former Archbishop Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio shortly before his departure for follow-prone Conclave 2013  for kath.net. "We talked about football, because he [Bergoglio] is a big fan of San Lorenzo, as I am n a Racing Club," the Schoenstatt Father reportedly said. "I told him that I help Racing Solidario" [a large-scale social initiative of the Racing Club]. Bergoglio told him that this was "very important", "Look, it is not only necessary that we hope that people come to church in the parish." Likewise, it was necessary but, the future Pope said, "that we go beyond that we go to those places where people go. A football stadium, for example, is a place where many people go. We have to be present there." 

Pope Francis is known to be  a football fan since childhood and previously visited football games with his parents. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he was a registered member of the Argentine first division "San Lorenzo de Almagro", a club from his home district of Buenos Aires, which owes its origin to a Catholic priest. Fanziskus shows repeatedly informed of the latest sporting events. During his nearly one-year pontificate he has already welcomed many footballers, while he will also always happily receive the respective jerseys. 

Pope Francis is a long standing member of the soccer club San Lorenzo, here's a photo of his membership card.

 This jersey circulated after the election of Pope Francis: jersey of football club San Lorenzo with Pope names and halo

 (C) 2013 Catholic News Agency KNA GmbH. All rights reserved.

Francis Reminds Spanish Bishops About Concern for the Education of Priests

Vatican (Catholic news / CBA). Pope Francis has reminded the Spanish bishops to be concerned about the training of candidates for the priesthood. This aspect should be given "absolute precedence" by each bishop, he said Monday during a visit by Spanish diocesan heads at the Vatican. He required them to insist on a precise selection of the candidates and to ensure a good education of students and faculty. The Spanish bishops are at present on so-called ad limina visits to Rome to report on the situation in their dioceses. The Spanish Church is presented some major challenges according to the Pope. "Right now you have the hard experience of the indifference of many baptized and you have to defend yourselves against a secular culture, which wants to displace God in private life and exclude Him from the public space," said Francis. In contrast, the bishops should boldly proclaim the Gospel and find new ways thereby.

 Source: © CBA.

All rights reserved

Source: Kath News
AMGD

This Time, It's the Bishop of South Bend Who Violates Sumorum Pontificum

Edit: this is in addition to the fiasco in Texas. Here's a link which explodes Marshall Taylor's flawed expose on the school at Harvesting the Fruit of Vatican II. Why have rules if you don't follow them?

Dear Father Jenkins:

Thank you for your visit today. I am writing you to state formally what I told you during our meeting. These norms take effect immediately.

1. You do not have permission to have the public celebration of the Ordinary Form of the Mass at the Chapel of Notre Dame University. This includes Sundays and weekdays. The weekly celebration of the Ordinary Form is available to the faithful every Sunday at St. Anthony de Padua Catholic Church in South Bend.

2. You may only have the celebration of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form by priests who explicitly have faculties for such celebration as granted by me as the Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

3. Failure to comply with the above-stated norms will result in my withdrawal of permission to celebrate the Eucharist in your chapel along with withdrawal of permission to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in the closet down the hall from the Chapel.

I make these norms out of my pastoral solicitude and care for the students of Notre Dame University as well as for your own soul. I urge you to comply with them. Please convey to your students my gratitude for their gift of the collected works of Hans Kung. Please assure them of their presence in my prayers. I remain,

Sincerely Yours In Christ,

Most Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend

100% True!

H/t: Angelqueen.
AMGD

Cardinal Kasper Encourages Increased Laicization of the Curia

Edit: laicism has ever and always been a vice condemned by the Church in previous days, identified with materialism and atheism. From Divini Redemptoris:

If we would explain the blind acceptance of Communism by so many thousands of workmen, we must remember that the way had been already prepared for it by the religious and moral destitution in which wage-earners had been left by liberal economics. Even on Sundays and holy days, labor-shifts were given no time to attend to their essential religious duties. No one thought of building churches within convenient distance of factories, nor of facilitating the work of the priest. On the contrary, laicism was actively and persistently promoted, with the result that we are now reaping the fruits of the errors so often denounced by Our Predecessors and by Ourselves. It can surprise no one that the Communistic fallacy should be spreading in a world already to a large extent de-Christianized.

(Rome) Cardinal Walter Kasper has moved through his  intended Pope Francis speech to the College of Cardinals to put remarried divorcees in the center of attention.  Now, the cardinal has said, in an interview with the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire, that he is in favor of transferring the management of the Pontifical Councils to women: "At the Curia there are too many bishops," said the cardinal, who thus clears the path for  a "reconstruction" of the Church with enthusiastic applause. Is Cardinal Walter Kasper one of the stooges for Pope Francis or one of the mouthpieces of Pope Francis for new ideas? Kasper, who verbally pleaded before the Cardinals for  the indissolubility of the marriage sacrament, but at the same time actually encourages its softening,  worries in an Avvenire interview  about the  "abuse of the sacraments”  because the bishops are  engaged with their administrative tasks to the Roman Curia. The Cardinal seems to permit nothing  else to be included in the keyword abuse of the sacraments.

The “Role of Women" and the “Synodal Dynamics" of the Church Under Pope Francis

"The role of women in the Church is to rethink and integrate them into the perspective of the dynamics and the synodical missionary orientation which was commissioned by the Pope," said the German cardinal. Women could occupy leading positions in the Pontifical Councils and the future Congregation for the Laity. At the Roman Curia there are too many bishops. In order to curb the phenomenon of careerism, could,  such is Kasper’s excitement, award temporary contracts and call priests  to bring their experience in pastoral care.

Will the Franciscans of the Immaculate Heart be Integrated into the Decadent Capuchin Order?

(Rome) Should the Franciscans of the Immaculate be dissolved as a separate order and incorporated into the Capuchin Order? This rumor is  making the rounds on the Internet.  Vigiliae Alexandrinae refers to a “reliable source in Germany.”  Accordingly, a plan in preparation should be to integrated should the Franciscans of the Immaculate be forced into the Capuchin Order and thus dissolve the Order Father Stefano Maria Manelli  founded.

The  Congregation of Religious had established, with the approval of Pope Francis,  the  Apostolic Commissar, Father Fidenzio Volpi,  in July of last year. In his first official statement, dated 31 August 2013 Commissioner Volpi wrote:

"One of the central problems is due to the danger of a certain self-centeredness, that is, the desire to underline the unique characteristic peculiarity at all costs. I think it is, however, a certain proof of maturity to overcome such an attitude by recognizing the structure of the Church as the true reference point for their own charismatic experience with a humble and the Franciscan spirit. "

The website Vigiliae Alexandrinae writes: "We entrust the salvation of the Congregation of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Conception, the use of which has brought great fruits for the restoration of orthodoxy in the Church and aroused worldwide hope among Catholics,   to the prayers of our readers and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Traditio Catholica

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.coms

Link to Katholisch…

AMGD

Newspaper: Limburger Bishop Not Criminally Guilty

"It's only affected by canon law,” the "Welt am Sonntag” Cites a Writer of Unpublished Church Audit Report. 

Berlin (kath.net / KAP)

The allegations against Bishop Franz-Peter van Elst Tebartz overlooking the construction of the new diocesan center Limburger are not criminally relevant according to a newspaper report. "It's only affected by canon law,"  the "Welt am Sonntag" cites a writer of the unpublished church audit report, who does not want to be named. In the report to the building cost increases, there were no established violations of state laws or regulations. Now, a canon will be tasked to check if the bishop did the right thing.

Tebartz van Elst was subject to criticism because of his office and because of the amount, ranging from at least 31 million euro construction costs. Since the end of October 2013 he has been indefinitely held   as a result of the Pope's decision to remain indefinitely outside his diocese. The German Bishops' Conference had used enlisted  five theologians, construction, financial and legal professionals commission led by the Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn Manfred Grothe to review   the funding of the construction project, the cost of development and decision-making.

The report has been in the possession of   the Chairman of the Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch,  since Friday. He will now study it intensively and consult with Rome, Zollitsch said. He denies  that  a decision will be reach decision  Rome even before the start of the Spring Plenary Assembly of the Bishops' Conference on 10 March in the matter of Limburg bishop.

According to "Welt am Sonntag", the report has no reviews according to several authors, but consists only of facts and the representation of processes. There had been no disagreement among the examiners. "The factual arguments speak for Tebartz van Elst, but not for the chapter that is partially responsible," the paper said quoting its sources.

In the "Welt am Sonntag" Hesse Ex-Minister of State Jochen Riebel (CDU), a member of the finance committee of the Episcopal See in Limburg, has leveled new allegations against the bishop. He claimed to have been lied to by Tebartz van Elst as to the question of how many antique and artistic figures had been purchased for the diocesan center. "Tebartz van Elst has promised me in a confidential meeting high and swore that all the figures that are placed there, came from the pool. That was a lie," the paper quoted Riebel. "Only two of the figures are from the collection, all others were purchased."

Copyright 2014 Catholic News Agency, Vienna, Austria (www.kathpress.at) All rights reserved. 

Link to kath.net...