The Pope is "Irritated", Kasper Angry About the Resistance Against "New Mercy"

(Rome) Cardinal Walter Kasper has responded - not for the first time - visibly upset at criticism levied against him. This time a book a book  has been published  addressing him, with contributions by five cardinals, the secretary of the Roman Congregation for the Eastern Churches and other authorities who oppose his thesis a  De-dogmatizing "new charity" in whose name Kasper wants to allow remarried divorcees to communion. Cardinal Kasper is upset about his five brothers in the  Cardinal College and Pope Francis is supposed to be "irritated" about this. So "irritated" that he urged Cardinal Müller withdraw his participation?

Snivelling Kasper has approached  journalists, because he had learned of the publication of the book in the media."In all my life nothing like this has never happened to me," [huh?] he complained to  Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli.

"Unprecedented Situation"

Not enough: "When Cardinals are the Pope's closest aides intervene in such an organized and public manner, we find ourselves at least in terms of recent history, in an unprecedented situation." Cardinal Kasper  is even more enervated about these last days. More clearly than in the past few months, he refers directly to Pope Francis, to strengthen his position. It was Cardinal Kasper, who began the hostilities with his speech last February before the College of Cardinals and initiated the attack against the Sacrament of marriage.

From today's perspective,  the cardinal consistory was presented with Cardinal Kasper as a rehearsal before the Synod of Bishops. "I have not proposed any definitive solution. I have, after I had agreed with the Pope, asked questions and offered ideas for possible answers."  Kasper's emphasis is on "agreeing with the Pope."

Kasper and the Obligation of Confidentiality

Kasper's attempt to gain a monopoly position in the debate

But  that is what the German cardinal asserted, hypersensitive that the actions of the five cardinals is ultimately outrageous and "unprecedented"? Kasper seems to have a short memory. The Cardinals   consistory, as generally usual in the Church, is bound by the duty of confidentiality. "All cardinals held to it. All but Kasper," said Sandro Magister, Vaticanist. Only a few weeks after the consistory, the speech was published in book form. The Herder Verlag applied for the opportunity immediately, so that appropriate arrangements must have been made ​​before the consistory or immediately thereafter. Kasper never had the intention, therefore, to abide by the confidentiality obligation. This should have been obligatory for all the other Cardinals, as he claimed for a monopoly for himself  to address the subject in public. An exclusive position, which had already been granted to him in the Consistory by Pope Francis, by this Kasper has only delegated that responsibility to speak on the subject. A one-sided partisanship because Kasper's heterodox positions were known.

The historian Roberto de Mattei has previously seen through the Cardinal's strategy and Giuliano Ferrara, the editor of the daily newspaper  Il Foglio  published his speech with a scathing comment by de Mattei (see What God brings together, Kasper can not separate - Attempt a Paradoxical Cultural Revolution in the Church ). That was how they took the element of surprise from Kasper  and thwarted his intention to steer the public debate according to his mind.  Thus the Cardinal was enraged already at that time.

Kasper tries to give the impression that the doctrine will be untouched and he wants to "just" change the practice of faith. De Mattei on the other hand, showed in a brilliant analysis that Kasper's speech represents a clear break with the Church's Magisterium. It also provides a specific break with John Paul II., And Benedict XVI. represents, with whom he had 20 years before discharged on the same subject a dispute, was inferior, viewed the matter and seemed to have backed the Church's teaching. Kasper, then the Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, had been defeated by the Prefect of the CDF Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, but not humiliated, as his subsequent promotion by John Paul II.  as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity showed. Obviously some in Rome believed the Bishop had changed and could be finally tamed by being employed in Rome, at least in the Vatican he would do less damage than in Germany.

Pope Francis "Irritated" by the Book of the Five Cardinals  

While Kaspers position astonished, everyone was surprised that the five Cardinals, Müller, Burke, De Paolis, Brandmüller and Caffarra  published the book, "Truth Remains in  Christ :  Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church." They defend publicly, as it is their duty, the two thousand year old teaching of the Church in a central question, concerned with the sacraments. They did this against  Cardinal Kasper's public  attack against Church teaching. Kasper's outrage is therefore pushed forward and explained only if one takes into account that the five cardinals threaten Kasper's plans. After all,  among them Gerhard Cardinal Müller, Prefect of the Congregation and thus the chief defender of the faith.  Pope Francis can not simply ignore him. La Croix , the semi-official daily newspaper of the French Bishops' Conference   reported on September 17 that Pope Francis was "irritated" about the book publication just because Cardinal Müller was among the authors. The Pope had, according to La Croix, urged Cardinal Müller to withdraw his participation in the Kasper book, which Müller refused to do. Should that be the case, then  Pope Francis would actually by the puppet master behind the scenes  of the attack on the sacrament of marriage in the name of "new charity".

More Cardinals Spoke in the Past Days

Cardinal Kasper is feeling a strong headwind these days. Perhaps more than he had expected. In addition to the five, he criticized three other leading Cardinals, Scola, Ouellet and Pell who have written essays in the English edition of the journal Communio, with positions against his theses. A similar publication in the German edition would have prevented, since Kasper himself belongs to the editorial board. Published in his latest issue 6/2013 (November-December) Kasper wrote programmatically: " The Liturgical Renewal - the First and Most Visible Fruit of the Council ".

Cardinal Kasper Insists: Shoulder to Shoulder with Pope Francis and John XXIII.

Cardinal Kasper's magic word is "Mercy", which is to call for a better understanding like "new charity". On 18 September he repeated in an interview with  Italian Catholic Radio Inblu that this new "mercy" is the key to his proposal for overcoming the Communion ban on the divorced and remarried. Kasper is thereby focused on a specific tradition, throwing keywords in the ring, in the hopes that the signals are heard and mobilize support for him: "The mercy, the heart of the Christian message, is a central theme in the Old and New Testament. Many saints have spoken of the mercy. Pope John XXIII. said at the beginning of the work of the Council that the Church must apply the means of severity, but also the medicine of mercy. "

Compassion is the subject of that book,  ever praised by Pope Francis in his first Angelus and thus one of his very first speeches as Pope and all recommended reading. "Compassion: Basic Concept of the Gospel - Key Christian life ", in 2012,  which was also published by Herder and published in the same year, also in Spanish translation, and thus made available by Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Kasper's Mercy: Praise from the Pope - Criticism of Father Lanzetta

The Mercy According to Kasper

One could already see in retrospect that the papal statement  was a chronological starting shot for Synod of Bishops on the Family. If the praise already have been pronounced in this context, it would then have to be assumed, in fact, that the approval of remarried divorcees represented a capitulation in the conclave and was one of the conditions that led to the election of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

The papal praise of Kasper's book, has presently subjected it to scrutiny and criticism. It's  a task that has been taken  over  recently by Father Serafino Lanzetta Maria who has  completed his habilitation. The Head of the journal Fides Catholica published a comprehensive book review  "Mercy According to Cardinal Kasper ".

No Mercy for the Franciscans of the Immaculate - "New Mercy" for the Jesuits at America

Father Lanzetta belongs to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, "that thriving Order which has been found bruised under this pontificate under provisional administration, a measure whose reasons are unclear, while on the other hand it is certain that it is carried out without any mercy," said Sandro Magister .

Cardinal Kasper has already spoken last May 1st in a lecture at Boston College, which was thereafter printed in the weekly newspaper of the New York Jesuit America. On May 12, there also followed a video interview of Kasper with Father Matt Malone, SJ, the editor of this journal. In a memorandum dated September 22, editorial of "America " the Jesuit editors let it be known that without ifs and buts they recognize Kasper's opinion Kaspers as their own. Of course, in the name of "charity".

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Il Foglio / Fanpage

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches....

AMDG

Cardinal Pell Says No Changes on Communion For Remarried Divorced

[Catholic Herald] In a book coming out just before October’s extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family, Cardinal George Pell rules out proposed changes to church practice that would allow divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.
“Doctrine and pastoral practice cannot be contradictory,” writes Cardinal Pell, a former archbishop of Sydney who now serves as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. “One cannot maintain the indissolubility of marriage by allowing the ‘remarried’ to receive Communion.”
The cardinal calls for a clear restatement of traditional teaching, to avoid the sort of widespread protests that greeted Pope Paul VI’s affirmation of Catholic teaching against contraception in 1968.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/09/18/cardinal-pell-rules-out-change-on-communion-for-divorced-remarried/

Edit: but there are still prelates who want to erode Catholic dogma with false compassion, like Tobin who thinks something needs to be done, anything but teach the faith, it seems.

http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20140918-bishop-tobin-divorced-and-remarried-catholics--weve-got-to-do-something-poll.ece

AMDG

Commissar Closes Another Friary of the Franciscans of the Immaculata

Church of San Pasquale in Benevento
Friary of the Franciscans of the
Immaculate Heart Closed

(Rome) The Apostolic Commissar Father Fidenzio Volpi is closing,  with the Secretary General, Father Alfonso Bruno, another friary of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FI). In the Italian town of Benevento, just 40 kilometers away from the mother house of the Order in Frigento (Diocese of Avellino). The monastery of San Pasquale is closed.

The decision is symbolic. In Benevento (1915-1996) a decree was signed on June 22, 1990 on the eve of the feast of the Sacred Heart, by Archbishop Carlo Minchiatti for the establishment of the Order by diocesan right. The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is thus the canonical founding of the Franciscans of the Immaculate . On that Sunday, in 1990  the first 30 monks professed their vows.

The Monastery of San Pasquale has existed for many years. The pastoral care of the faithful was initially in the new Rite, but with entry into force of the motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum a parallel was established in the traditional rite. In addition to daily Mass in the Immemorial Rite, daily Eucharistic Adoration was held.

The presence of the Franciscans of the Immaculate and their pastoral care were all the more precious because otherwise, no other priests or religious celebrate the Immemorial Rite in the Archdiocese of Benevento. 

With the provisional administration, the Beneventese believers were deprived of all the traditional Rites, as the priest of the Order were prohibited from  the celebration of the Immemorial Mass. Now they are also deprived of the Order, where it has its canonical origin.

A faithful of the Archdiocese of Benevento wrote  a letter to the website Messa in Latino : "It raises the question: Is the reform, which the commissioner has boasted, to restore the Order back to its 'original'  spirit, that is to say, where  the monasteries are closed and the faithful are deprived through the widespread doctrinal confusion in the Diocese where today people are more in need of pastoral care for  salvation?"

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDC

Americanist Heretic Up for Beatification in Knoxville

Edit: Hecker was engaged in vigorous polemics against orthodox Catholic figures like Father Müller. It's unfortunate that organs of disinformation like Mirus' neocon commerce website continue with institutional blessings.

[Catholic Culture] The Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee is reviewing reports of a miracle which, if verified, could advance the cause for beatification of Father Isaac Hecker.

Bishop Richard Stika has appointed a commission to investigate the reported miracle, the diocese announced. No further details about the reported miracle have been disclosed. "The inquiry is highly unusual and is the first time any kind of Catholic religious miracle has been investigated in the Diocese of Knoxville," the diocese said in a press release.

Father Isaac Hecker (1819-1888), the founder of the Paulist Fathers, devoted himself to evangelization through preaching, public speaking, and the media. Born in New York, he entered the Catholic Church in 1844 and was ordained a Redemptorist priest in 1849. Tireless in his work to convert Americans, he was expelled from the religious order, but won the support of Pope Pius IX, who authorized him to found the Paulists. Later he became a key figure in the Americanist controversy—although his supporters insisted that Father Hecker never held the views condemned by Pope Leo XIII in Testem Benevolentiae. [He was mentioned by name.]

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=22634

Pope Meets With World Jewish Congress in Pre-Rosh Hashana Meeting

ROME (JTA) – In a pre-Rosh Hashana meeting, Pope Francis and a World Jewish Congress delegation discussed the worrying international situation, including the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Francis received the delegation, headed by WJC President Ronald Lauder, at his residence in the Vatican Wednesday night.
The delegation also included WJC Secretary General Robert Singer; the pope’s old friend Claudio Epelman, who serves as WJC Latin America director; and other Jewish leaders, who had attended a WJC meeting in Berlin.

The meeting took place in a “very intimate atmosphere,” Andras Heisler, president of the Hungarian Jewish umbrella organization Mazsihisz, told Hungarian media. He said Francis offered his best wishes for the New Year but also reiterated his statement made Saturday at a World War I memorial that today’s raging crises around the globe could represent a third world war, “one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction.”


Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/09/18/news-opinion/world/pope-holds-pre-rosh-hashanah-with-jewish-delegation-at-vatican#ixzz3DfQjwzZO

Identity Crisis: Will Europe Awake?

(Rome) Europe is in deep crisis. People feel it and look to the future with confusion.  In many ways there have been attempts to suppress this feeling or to drown it. This includes the frenetic exuberance in the celebration of the moment. The subsidized conversion of the old Roman motto bread and circuses can not hide the crisis. Will Europe awake? Will the European culture survive or irretrievably perish together with its people?  wise and truly free minds, who are not in the pay for any purposeful optimism face this question. This includes the Catholic historian Roberto de Mattei. On 13 March 2008 he spoke at the European University of Rome at the conference "Identity Crisis: Will European Culture Survive? 'A speech, which we publish in English translation due to its unbroken topicality. The intertitles are from the editorial staff. [and translated by EF]

.

Identity Crisis: Will European Culture Survive?

by Roberto de Mattei 

I would like to begin with a clue we can safely assume. A part of Islam today considers the West as an enemy and seeks to clash with it. Here is not the place to determine whether this part of the Islamic world is a  majority or minority of opinion or whether this attitude is derived directly from the Qur'an or whether it represents a betrayal of its principles, nor whether there a greater threat emanates from fundamentalist Islam or from so-called moderate Islam. What is certain is that Islam or a part of it, presents a problem to Europe. It is not the first time that this has been the case in European history. It is the first time that Europe and the challenge of Islam does not witness its religious and cultural identity. This is the core of the problem.

Stockholm Syndrome: The Psychological and Moral Drama of Europe

Europe is experiencing a psychological and moral drama that has been defined as "Stockholm Syndrome",  the phenomenon of psychological submission to the aggressor, which creates a dependency which is a relationship of the victim to the perpetrator that is difficult to understand. Today, one would have to speak better of Copenhagen Syndrome, London's syndrome, Madrid syndrome or Rome's syndrome, to name the psychological attitude towards opponents, by whom one is intimidated, sometimes downright terrorized, but simultaneously attracted to as well, sometimes downright is fascinated. In contrast, the emergence and spread of myths, such as those of Louis Massignon (1883-1962), Edward Said (1935-2003) and Franco Cardini (1940) who want to erase  the millennium of conflict between Europe and Islam from memory in  the name of alleged experiences that are stylized to ideal models. These include the Oriens Felix , the Arab-Andalusian society before the Reconquista, or  Sicilian society at the time of Frederick II., to not even to speak of philosophical musings as the progressive utopia of universal peace or the esoteric myth of a transcendental unity of religions. Some of these myths were of Bat Ye'or in Eurabia. Represented in The Euro-Arab Axis (2005) and Alexandre del Valle in Le totalitarisme islamiste à l'assaut of démocraties  (2002).

In this perspective, not only does the idea of ​​the enemy of the West dissolve, but it also dissolves the ideas of the West, the West and Europe itself, which are seen only as a literary invention, like the theorist of "gender"  considers the natural  distinction between man and woman as a mere cultural construct.

Yesterday Communism, Today Islam - Fifth Column and Useful Idiots

The attitude of Europeans towards Islam recalls the position, which occupied the West in the 20th century against the communism. The Soviet Union threatened the world, but the anti-communism was considered a greater sin than communism. The historian can not be silent about the responsibility of fifth columns in the service of the enemy and the "useful idiots" among civil, political, and religious leaders who criticize, instead of criticizing communism, supported the defamation campaigns against anti-communists and all of this while using talismanic, magic words which did not differ from the present, such as peace, dialogue, peaceful coexistence. In short, the illusion of being able to come to terms with the enemy already by simply displacing it from their own consciousness. A phenomenon Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote about in Baldeação Ideológica Inadvertida e Diálogo (1965, English edition Unnoticed Ideological Transshipment and Dialogue , 1967) has written.

Ideological Root: Moral Relativism and Political Pragmatism

What is the ideological root of this attitude that repeats itself today against Islam? The idea that there is neither a logical dualism between truth and error, nor a moral dualism between good and evil, but that everything is relative in relation to the current needs and interests of the individual. Moral relativism and political pragmatism are two sides of this approach to  reality that does not draw on realism, but utopianism, since it postulates a fictitious and unreal world, which is the feeble will to power of the postmodern individual is unable to conquer.

If Europe wants to survive, it must change these psychological and cultural attitudes. But how can you contribute to this change? Start by reviving the idea that there is good and evil in an objective and absolute sense, and that the truth and the principles on which our culture is based, are not archived as ideas of the past or ideological prejudices.

The Basis of Human Rights is Not Subjectivity, but an Objective Law of Nature

The basis of the rights and duties of man is not subjectivity. In our consciousness there is an objective law of nature that is reflected in the divine law. This law has found its historic, but definitive expression in the Tablets of the Law written by Moses through divine inspiration. The Ten Commandments are the law of nature that every one of us, whether secularist or Christian, feels like a compass that helps us to distinguish between good and evil.

The Decalogue is addressed to all people at all times and all conditions with the same normative value. This value stems not only from the tables of the law, but also by human reason, because God before he let them be carved as positive law in stone, it was already set in the heart of man (Saint Thomas Aquinas: Contra Gentes , II , c 117,. teologica Summa , q 100, a.3). St. Augustine says. "It was written on the tablets (of the law), what people do not read in their hearts; not that they had not written it there, but they did not want to read "(" Non enim non scriptum habebant, sed casual nolebant " Enarratio in Psalmos , LVII, 1: PL 36, 673). Even today, people do not read what is written with indelible letters in their hearts to instead chase the utopia of a boundless world without conflict, without any outside enemies, reality and history.

Collaboration with Islam by Pessimistic World View

Nevertheless, there is a fundamental difference between the attitude that the West had in the 20th century against communism and the one it has today towards Islam. The collaboration of the last century was based on an optimistic view of history, rooted in the myth of an irreversible progress of humanity. The collaboration of the 21st century is, however, clear from a pessimistic view of the world which is nourished by a deep sense of fear and uncertainty. The man of the 20th century fooled himself about the future. The modern man is afraid of the future. He's afraid of himself and fought his own fears by trying to remove his enemies from his horizon of his thought, as if by not naming them was equivalent to their disappearance from reality. It's like refusing to talk about a clash of civilizations to suffice to avert this danger. The ideological source of this psychological process is then as now, Relativism and the dialectical evolutionism that distort each and every truth value.

Certain Values Mean Hope for the Future

If there is a security in values, there is also hope for the future. Values ​​certainty and hope for the future go hand in hand. Hope is a natural virtue that consists in the expectation of a future good. For a Christian, it is also a supernatural virtue, but this virtue is the awareness and respect for the natural and divine law required in the Mosaic law, which belongs not only to the Jews and the Christians, but is written in every human heart.  It's no accident that Benedict XVI. dedicated  his encyclical Spe Salvi  to hope.

The Christian hope in Jesus Christ, the God who raised and redeemed, is the hope and even more the confidence in the awakening revival in Europe. Europe is experiencing a deep sleep, lethargy, perhaps provoked by an anesthetic, but sleep is not death. Sleep has an end, it precedes to the awakening. We believe in an awakening in Europe.Therefore, I will reply to the question as to whether the European culture will survive with a confident yes.

Introduction / Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Corrispondenza Romana

Drugs Discovered in Vatican Diplomatic Vehicle

Two men had used the Ford for a drug jaunt to Spain

Vatican City (kath.net/KAP) The French police have seized four kilograms of heroin and cocaine in the car of a cardinal. As the radio station RTL reports two Italians have been arrested in a Ford with Vatican diplomatic plates at a customs roadblock in Chambery, near the Italian border. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed on Tuesday that it was the official car of the 91-year-old Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mejia, of course, who was not in the car.

There were reports that the secretary of the Cardinal some few days earlier, had brought his boss' car into Rome for repair and maintenance. Two men had then apparently used the car for a drug jaunt to Spain. The event had already occurred on Sunday. French customs officials noticed the Ford with diplomatic plates. The inspection revealed that the two occupants - men aged 40 and 31 years - had no diplomatic passes and had nothing to do with the Vatican. In the trunk, they then found a suitcase and the drugs. The two men were then arrested. It is for the police to investigate the incident, says Lombardi.

Copyright 2014 Catholic Press Agency, Vienna, Austria All rights reserved.

Link to kath.net...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Initiative Against Sex Education in Poland Defeated

The bill called for imprisonment up to two years for "public promotion or endorsement" of sexual behavior in the presence of children under 15 years.

Warsaw (kath.net/KNA) In Poland, a popular initiative against sex education in schools has failed. The Members of Parliament voted on a bill from citizen committees last Friday at 264 to 169, to "Stop pedophilia." The bill called for up to 2 years imprisonment for the "public promotion or endorsement" of sexual behavior in the presence of children under 15 years.

The initiative "Stop pedophilia" accuses the government to taking away student's sense of shame by sex education and make them vulnerable to sexual predators. The popular initiative had been signed by around 250,000 citizens. While the conservative opposition party "Law and Justice" called for the bill, the ruling right-wing liberals and the left opposition opposed it vehemently.

(C) 2014 CBA Catholic News Agency. All rights reserved.

Link to Kath.net... 
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com AMDC

It's Very Possible Cardinal Burke Will Be Sent Into Exile

Edit: grave news continues, sorry.  Things are starting to take a very medieval cast indeed, what with saintly figures exiled, suspended a divinis, silenced and even murdered for their witness.  

VATICAN CITY, September 17, 2014 – The “revolution” of Pope Francis in ecclesiastical governance is not losing its driving thrust. And so, as happens in every self-respecting revolution, the heads continue to roll for churchmen seen as deserving this metaphorical guillotine.

In his first months as bishop of Rome, pope Bergoglio immediately provided for the transfer to lower-ranking positions of three prominent curial figures: Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, and Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, considered for their theological and liturgical sensibilities among the most “Ratzingerian” of the Roman curia.

Another whose fate appears to be sealed is the Spanish archbishop of Opus Dei Celso Morga Iruzubieta, secretary of the congregation for the clergy, destined to leave Rome for an Iberian diocese not of the first rank.

Link to www.chiesa.com... 

A Word on Vladimir Putin

The EU-Moldova agreement and the soft tyranny of human rights

by Paul Wood

All over the blogosphere (dread word, as Wallace Arnold would have said) unpleasant people and perfectly nice ones are siding with Vladimir Putin as he invades a sovereign state and causes unnecessary deaths. Why? Because they see that he is opposing the EU.

Opposing the EU and political correctness, which right-wingers on the net often call 'cultural Marxism'. 

It's paradoxical that the people who blame Stalinists of the Frankfurt School for political correctness (please click on this very important link) hope that a fairly unreconstructed former KGB man will deliver them from it. But then history is full of paradoxes, ironies and black humour.

I disagree with those libertarians, who should know better, who think Mr. Putin 'is better than the scoundrels who rule us' (Dr. Sean Gabb). Mr. Putin is much, much worse - more authoritarian and less democratic than the Euro-establishment and immeasurably more corrupt. Read Ben Judah's and Masha Gassen's excellent books on him. 

From Moldova's point of view, so far the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a good thing. Moldova has now been offered a trade agreement by the EU which would have been impossible otherwise. I hope Moldova agrees to it but one of the things Moldova has to sign up to in order to do make a very preliminary step towards integrating with the EU, which does not hold out the promise of Moldova ever joining, is to make illegal many sorts of forms of discrimination, including discrimination against homosexuals. 

This is highly controversial in Moldova (as in Ukraine) and is used by the Russians as a good stick with which to beat the EU - 'a vote for agreement with the EU is a vote for homosexual marriage'.  

Making racial discrimination illegal in the 1960s in the UK, whether you approve or not, was undoubtedly a great restriction on freedom of contract and an extension of state power. It was very unpopular and the Conservatives fought to have it apply only to companies, not to individuals. Speaking in opposition to race relations law Enoch Powell made his famous 'Rivers of Blood' speech. Later sexual discrimination also became illegal.

Margaret Thatcher, who was never a social conservative, went along with the anti-discrimination laws and QUANGOs she inherited, but in my judgement conservatives should want individuals to be able to to discriminate or not to discriminate without fear of the police. This has nothing to do with whether discrimination is or is not objectionable but is about people to being free to make their own decisions.

I remember when after some years of study I returned to work in the late 1990s I found the workplace had been transformed by draconian political correctness and feminism - and this while a Conservative administration was in office. Now employment law and law in general is even more restrictive.

I clearly remember rejoicing back then, because I care very deeply about freedom, that only sexual and racial discrimination were illegal, not discrimination on religious grounds or discrimination against homosexuals. These things, too, have subsequently been made illegal - and throughout, it appears, the EU. What is truly shocking, I discover now, is  that there is no longer any point my campaigning to change these laws, because they are embedded in EU law and cannot be changed, not at least without a decision of the whole EU. And there is no EU-wide political community to persuade our masters to make such a change, which directly opposes the ideology they believe in. There is no demos and therefore no democracy.

I hope Moldova does sign up and I also hope - but certainly do not believe - that Eastern European countries like Poland and Romania fight within the EU to get rid of these restrictions on freedom. I am pretty certain that will never happen and so I do understand why many people in Moldova want nothing to do with the EU.

The wind is blowing in the opposite direction. Rights nowadays in EU law do not mean freedoms - they means entitlements. In Romania a constitutional amendment last year to entrench the legal definition of marriage as a "union between a man and a woman" - an innocent enough thing you might think - was defeated because the Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta said it would give Romania as bad a press in Western Europe as Hungary had received by enacting a similar provision. What the amendment simply meant, of course, was that homosexual marriage could not be introduced without a referendum, so the amendment was not an illiberal or authoritarian measure but a very democratic one. Yet the Romanian government knew they would be accused of being antidemocratic if they did not quash it. 

“When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

Why can't every country decide for herself on whether people can marry people of their own sex and a thousand other questions, from caning in schools to capital punishment (I am opposed to both, by the way) to smoking in restaurants (it should be up to the restaurant owner to decide) and so on and so on? 

This is not a minor sideshow but the essence of what living in a democracy means.

Still, Russia is much less free and much less democratic - this is not a point of view but a fact.

Link to A Political Refugee From the Global Village...

Republished here with permission.

Pope Francis: "No Way For Christians Without the Holy, Hierarchical, Mother Church"

Francis Pearl of the day: Mary and the Church: two women - two mothers. As there would have been no Jesus Christ without Mary, there is no way for Christians without the Church. Through suffering, obedience is learned: the way of Christ. By Armin Schwibach

Rome (kath.net/as) Without the Church, which is our mother, we can not go on. This was confirmed by Pope Francis in his sermon for the feast of the Dolors of Mary at Holy Mass in the chapel of the Vatican guest house "Domus Sanctae Marthae."

After the liturgy of the Exultation of the Cross, we are show us in the present day, a humble and gentle mother. In the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 5:7 to 9), the apostle Paul emphasizes three powerful words: "Jesus taught, he obeyed and he suffered" ("Though he was a Son, he learned obedience through suffering"; V. 6). The Pope explains this is the contrary of what happened with the progenitor, Adam. He did not want to learn the Commandments of the Lord, nor did he want to suffer or obey. Though he was God, Jesus offered Himself on the other hand, He humbled Himself by becoming the servant: "This is the glory of the cross of Jesus".

"Jesus came into the world," said Francis, "to learn to be human, to be human, to go with the people. He came into the world, to obey, and he obeyed. But he has learned this obedience through suffering. Adam has left from paradise with a promise, the promise that has been going on over the many centuries. Today, with this obedience, this self-destruction, with this self-humiliation of Jesus, that promise is to hope. And the people of God go ahead with this certain hope. The Mother, 'the New Eve,' as Paul called her, would share this way with her Son: she learned, suffered and obeyed. And she became a mother."

The Gospel (Jn 19:25 - 27) shows us Mary at the foot of the Cross. Jesus says to John: "Behold your mother" (verse 27). Thus Mary would be "anointed as the mother:"

"And this is our hope. We are not orphans, we have mothers: Mother Mary. But the Church is the mother, and the Church is anointed as mother and she strikes out on the same way as Mary and Jesus, the way of obedience, the way of suffering, and if it continues that attitude to keep learning the way of the Lord. These two women - Mary and the Church - bring forward in hope, which is Christ, they give us Christ, they bear witness to Christ in us. Without Mary, there would have been no Jesus Christ. . "Without the Church, we can not precede."

Two women and two mothers," Francis continued, "and next to them our soul, which - as the monk Isaac, Abbot of Stella († 1178), has said - is feminine and Mary resembles the Church":

"If we now look at this woman at the cross, who was the successor of her son in suffering, was quite firm to learn obedience, so we look to you, to the Church, and we look to our Mother. And we also look at our little soul that will never get lost, even if it continues to remain a 'woman', who has close ties to these two great women who accompany us in life: Mary and the Church. And as our first parents have gone out of paradise with a promise, so can we go ahead with a hope: the hope, our Mother Mary gives to us, who remains firmly at the cross, and our sacred hierarchical Mother Church. "
 Link to kath.net...
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Another Diocesan TLM Unceremoniously Being Shut Down in UK?

Edit: one of the problems with getting involved with a Summorum Pontificum parish is that after spending thousands of dollars for restoration, building traditional sodalities, maybe establishing a school and attracting people who come to depend on it for their spiritual lives, the thing can be suddenly yanked, for no other reason than someone at the chancery doesn't think there's enough interest, or that the Latin Mass doesn't fit the locale (as was the case at a parish in California that was moved because it "disturbed" the tourists.)

Perhaps it will, as one concerned Catholic opines, "have its altar tossed in a dust bin and be fit out with minarets."  This is what is happening presently on the other side of the pond.

Moving with the times might be a virtue for some, but it's not exactly a sign of affection either. Here's the news from LMS, who hopes this is incorrect, but we expect it's not:

That's what Fr John Zuhlsdorf says: it will end by the end of Septemeber. According to my sources, which are probably the same as his, this is true. It was announced from the pulpit yesterday by the new Parish Priest, Fr Steven Fisher. It was his second Sunday in the parish. 

If it isn't true, no one will be more pleased to put the record straight than I.
Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark did something very unusual in moving Fr Tim Finigan from the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary at Blackfen, to a parish in Margate. The usual thing is that, knowing that there was a long-established group attending the Traditional Mass in the parish, Archbishop Smith appointed a new Parish Priest who was able, and professed himself willing, to carry this on. 

It is a tragedy that this hasn't worked. Fr Fisher has decided, for reasons which I'll leave to him to explain, that, having said he would continue to say the EF, he won't after all.

Anticipating the Synod: The Bergolio Effect

Edit: it was published earlier with some commentary, but probably worth repeating as requested by someone who posted the link from gloria.tv. It's a serious problem.  Will this priest be dismissed?

Argentina Freak Show. Just in Time for Family Synod, Other Firsts:

- Homosexual Activists Celebrate Homosexual Catholic "Wedding-like Blessing" -- Plus Another "First" in Baptisms

Those are two men getting their civil "wedding" "blessed". 1. Saturday, Sep. 14 - After being barred from "marrying" them, priest "blesses" homosexual "marriage" in a wedding-like public ceremony in Santiago del Estero

"Luisa Lucía Paz" is a man from Santiago del Estero, Argentina. A transsexual, he is a high-ranking official in a homosexual-transsexual organization activist organization that was prominent both in the approval of the law on civil same-sex marriage and the law on the change of civil names for transsexuals. After this second law was approved, some years ago, he managed to have his name officially changed to "Luisa Lucía" -- he got his new "female" ID from President Cristina Kirchner herself in the first ceremony after the law was changed (source).

Link to Gloria.tv...

Images of FSSP Parish Holy Family in Vancouver

Edit: Vancouver has always been a little more conservative. These are pleasing images of youth, vibrancy and hope.

Jovial Cardinal Sacks Faithful Monsignor in NYC?

Edit: Matt Abbott has reported on this event.  The Monsignor was to be the Executive Director of the Fulton J. Sheen Center for Arts and Culture.  Looks like it's open season on faithful clergy.

Certain troubling developments have come out of the Archdiocese of New York in recent weeks, as covered in this column and a number of other Catholic (and secular) news outlets.
The latest development, an interesting side note to the controversy surrounding the suspension of the cause for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's canonization, is the intriguing "disappearance" of a once-esteemed New York priest, Monsignor Michael F. Hull. 

A source recently provided me with information that Monsignor Hull quietly left, or was removed from, the priesthood within the last several months. Because everything is so hush-hush on these matters, I decided to take a "wait and see" approach. (Also, it's difficult for me to truly investigate something since I'm not paid for my Catholic journalism 

I have neither the time nor the resources that many secular, and even some Catholic, journalists and commentators have. I mention this because there are still readers who assume that I make my living doing Catholic journalism. I don't.)

Link to Renew America...

The Number of Catholics in Northern Europe is Climbing Rapidly

It also includes significantly, the number of conversions. "The former Lutheran state churches are in crisis. The influence of elected governments on matters of faith irritates many evangelical Christians."

Hamburg (kath.net/KNA) The number of Catholics in Scandinavia is rising rapidly for years, according to the Nordic Bishops' Conference. In Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland there are around 330,000 community members registered, said the Secretary General of the Nordic Bishops' Conference, Sister Anna Mirijam Kaschner, on Wednesday evening in Hamburg. "In some of our diocese the numbers of Catholics have tripled or even quadrupled." Really should even be assumed that there are 600,000 Catholics, because many migrants are not covered by the municipalities, Kaschner said at the media reception of the Archdiocese of Hamburg.

The largest proportion of Catholics living in Northern Europe are migrant workers from Poland, Croatia, Lithuania, the Philippines and Vietnam. The number of conversions accordingly have increased significantly. "The former Lutheran state churches are in crisis. The influence of elected governments on matters of faith irritates many evangelical Christians, "says Sister Mirijam. "They are looking for a deeper spirituality, liturgy and a clearer orientation in statements of faith and thus find their way into the Catholic Church."

Despite the increases, Catholics in the region are a minority, said the nun. "Those who have experienced the Catholic Church in the Nordic countries, experienced the world church with its Babylonian linguistic diversity of people from more than 70 nations. Every Sunday here is Pentecost."

For Church life, modern means of comssmunication such as smartphones and tablets are a great help to be able to pray with the Mass texts in the mother tongue. Those who can not attend Mass weekly because of the great distances, could follow the service via live streaming. Also, First Communion and Confirmation classes often take place over the Internet. Only pastoral care does not work like this. Kaschner said: "The priest often travel in 150,000 km, to administer the sacraments. The great distance makes the care of the parishioners extremely difficult." However, the biggest challenge is funding. "We are a poor church in rich countries," according to the General Secretary. Many immigrants could not pay the voluntary church tax. Support from Germany for the Catholics in Northern Europe, therefore, has a decisive role in the practical Church life.

 (C) 2014 CBA Catholic News Agency. All rights reserved. Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDC

No Obligatory Memorial For John XXIII. and John Paul II.

Canonization of two popes

(Vatican) As reported , the Osservatore Romano published the decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship ,in its Friday edition with the liturgical observances for the two popes canonized in late April popes.  It is optional, not mandatory to observe.

The Church commemorates Pope John XXIII. on 11 October and Pope John Paul II. on 22 October. Both dates apply to the liturgical calendar of the new rite. The Saints were declared last April 27 by Pope Francis. The two popes belong with fifteen other popes along with the Prince of the Apostles, Peter, to the saints of the Catholic Church.

Observances of the Newly Sainted  Popes not Mandatory

While all of the canonized saints are recorded in the Roman Martyrology , not all are included in the  Calendarum Romanum  Generale. In the  Roman Calendar only those saints are included, whose remembrance apply because of their universal significance for the world Church. Thus the Church distinguishes between the "memoria obbligatoria", which is commanded, and the "memoria ad libitum", which is not commanded. For the saints of particular importance for the World Church the Roman calendar provides for mandatory festivals. The fest days for other saints may be included "at discretion" in a celebration, but should not be celebrated.

Pope Pius X Is the Only Pope of  the Second Millennium with With an Obligatory Feast

Since September 12, the Church has recognized seventeen popes, who are recognized in the General Roman Calendar, but only four of them possess an mandatory feast.  Three of the four are from the first Christian millennium: St. Gregory the Great (3 September), the Saint Cornelius (September 16, together with the Holy Cyprian), and the  Saint Leo the Great (November 10). Only one holy Pope, whose memory is binding on the universal Church, comes from the second Christian millennium, Saint Pius X (August 21).

The other canonized popes, including John XXIII. and John Paul II., have inclusion in the General Roman Calendar, but their memorials are   not binding. With the exception of the two thereto, and to two other popes, the saints of Gregory VII. (May 25), and Saint Pius V. (April 30), they all belong to the early Christian centuries.

They are Saint Fabian (20 January), the Saint Martin I. (13 April), St. John I. (May 18), Saint Sixtus II. (August 7), Saint Pontian (13th August, along with the antipope Hippolytus of Rome), the Saint Calixtus I. (Oct. 14), Saint Clement I. (November 23), the Saint Damasus I. (December 11), and the Saint Sylvester I ( December 31).

Text: Settimo Cielo / Giuseppe Nardi
image: Settimo Cielo / Traditio Catholica

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Post-Conciliar Disorientation and Clarity of Tradition

(Rome) The Second Vatican Council was to be the start of a new flower, to a new "spring" of the Church of charismata and strong religious faith of the people. The Council, at least in the conviction of not a few  prelates, clergy and laity of the 60s, was to  make "all things" new, especially the relationship between society and the Church. Through the Council,  Christianity would reach   all people, all ideologies, even embracing all other religions and in a new world that was Christian through and through.   

And yet some, still undaunted, agree to  praises of the Council. An attitude which imposes two explanations.  Some, because they welcome the negative effects  in the post-Conciliar period internally. The others, because they force themselves in a denial of reality and try to keep these effects to which they object inside, to desperately to ignore them, because criticism of the council was made successfully into a taboo.

So where does the beginning of the 21st century, lead to the weakness of the Church in the West? According to a caricature of the traditional American website The Remnant, it's from their post-conciliar disorientation. In other words, from the mistaken belief that the Church must in its interior, be a replica of the plurality of the world, instead of being a clear voice in a pluralistic world.

Necessity for Salvation in the Church

Today, many doubt the necessity for salvation in the Church. Can it be that there is no salvation outside the Church? The only question is more rhetorical, comparable to the question of Pontius Pilate: "What is truth?" The question is dressed in the form of a statement by relativists. Similarly relativistic is the cultural climate today. Each "truth" is allowed, except for the absolute truth, the Incarnate Truth. It may not exist. It is not permitted as the exclusive, because it would put all other "truths" in question. The prevailing climate is also subjective, because everyone can lay out the "truth" that he wants.

The Church teaches something entirely different. The necessity for salvation for every human being remains unchanged and independent of these current fashionable trends of thought. Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus is the pregnant statement   of  the fathers. No arrogance, but irrefutably part of the truth of faith, which was repeated by the Fathers and the Magisterium throughout the Church's history. Here is a brief compilation, based on an article published a few years ago, which is based on a  contribution in the weekly magazine Il Padre Pio di Settimanale. It is the magazine published by the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, who more recently - like their provisional managed brothers - have been placed under traditionally hostile Visitatorixes.

The Fathers

Origen (185-254): "(...) let no one deceive himself: outside this house, outside the church no one is saved" (Homil.3, in Iosue 5).

Cyprian of Carthage (200-258): "Outside the Ark is the deluge and death; outside the Church condemnation " (De Unitate Ecclesiae, VI).

Lactantius (250-320): "Only the Catholic Church has the true cult. In it is the source of truth, the seat of faith, the temple of God; whoever does not enter into it or goes out of it, has no hope of life or salvation." (Institutiones Divinae 4.30, II).

Jerome (347-420): "I know that the Church was built on this rock [the Chair of Peter]. Anyone who eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. If someone is not in the Ark of Noah, he will perish in the deluge " (Epistola ad Damasum, 2).

Augustine (354-430): "Man can not attain salvation except in the Catholic Church. Outside the Church he can have everything, but not salvation. He can have honor, have Sacraments, he can sing Hallelujah reply amen, he may have the Gospel, preach the faith and the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, but nowhere if not in the Catholic Church will he will be able to find salvation" (Sermo ad Ecclesiam Caesarienses plebem, 6).

And again Augustine: "Anyone who is separated from the Catholic Church, is destined for the divine wrath" (Epistola CXLI).

The Magisterium

Fourth Lateran Council (1215): "Outside the Church, absolutely, absolutely no one can ever be saved."

Pius IX. (1792-1878): "(...) outside of it [the Catholic Church] there is neither  true faith nor  eternal salvation, because one can not have God as his Father, if one has not the Church for mother, and wrongly does  someone possess the illusion, however, to belong to the Church, if he is separated from the See of Peter on which the Church is built "(Singulari quidam, 22).

Pius XII. (1876-1958): "Among the things that has always been preached in the Church and they will never cease to teach, is this infallible statement, which states that outside the Church there is no salvation" (letter to the Holy Office November 8, 1949).

John XXIII. (1881-1963): "(...) people can only attain salvation with certainty when they are connected to him [the Roman Pontiff], because the Roman Pontiff is the Vicar of Christ and the person representing on earth" (Homily on Coronation Day, November 4, 1958).

And even the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) can also be read as follows: "All people who know the Catholic Church and know what is willed by God through Christ necessary for salvation, but do not go to the Church or do not have the resistance to stay in it, can not be saved "(Lumen Gentium, 16).

Likewise: "For according to the will of Christ is the Catholic Church, the teacher of truth; their job is to preach the truth which is Christ, and to teach authentic, at the same time, authoritatively to explain the principles of the moral order, resulting from the nature of man himself and to confirm "(Dignitatis Humanae, 14)

. Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) by Dignitatis Humanae quoted: "For according to the will of Christ is the Catholic Church, the teacher of truth; their task is to proclaim the truth which is Christ, and authentically teaching, at the same time, authoritatively to explain the principles of the moral order, resulting from the nature of man himself and to confirm "(Veritatis Splendor, 64).

The New Testament

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature! He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned "(Mark 16.15 to 16).

"He who hears you, hears me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; but he who despises me, the "(Luke 10:16) despises him that sent me.

"And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

"If they do not receive you, and does not listen to your words, so going away from that house or city, shake off the dust from your Fü0en" (Matthew 10:14).

"He will not hear on these, tell the community; he listens to the community does not, then he be unto thee as the heathen and like the publican "(Matthew 18:17).

"But even if we or an angel from heaven preached unto you any other gospel than we have preached to you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1.8).

If the Church for the salvation would not be necessary, why would Jesus send the disciples with the mission to proclaim the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the Earth? The order would also be "superficial" and "pointless" as ultimately the cross that Christ has taken upon himself, if it's not connected to the salvation of the people. If one wants the sacrifice of Christ, in order not annul his suffering and death, the necessity for salvation of the Church must be recognized. Because outside of it there is no salvation.

Text: Il Padre Pio di Settimanale / Martha Weinzl
image: The Remnant

AMDG

Liturgical Memorial for John XXIII. and John Paul II. Established -- Canonization of the Council?

Liturgical Memorial Established For John XXIII.
and John Paul II

(Rome) The Holy See has established the liturgical observances for the popes canonized by Pope Francis in late April. The feast of John XXIII. will be celebrated in the New Rite on 11 October, that of John Paul II. on 22 October. The Osservatore Romano has published the Decree by the Congregation for Divine Worship in today's issue with the relevant provisions. As a Memorial Day usually applies the death of a saint, as the dies natalis, which s celebrated as the actual "birthday" in heaven liturgically. Justified exceptions are provided.

In both cases, the death was not established as a memorial. It would be neither 2 April, the anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II.,  nor 3 June, the anniversary of the death of Pope John XXIII. "occupied" by a higher ranking feast or the commemoration of a church in the world, of particularly revered saint.

Memorial  of John XXIII .: Anniversary of the Opening of the Council

As a commemoration of John Paul II. was determined as October 22,  the day of his election as Pope, as this also applies to other holy popes. John Paul II. Reigned from 1978 to 2005. As a memorial for John XXIII. was determined with the 11th of October, or the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which he had convened. Thus this reinforces the impression that the canonization of Pope Angelo Roncalli, which was completed by Pope Francis, contrary to the applicable regulations, arbitrarily without miracles, not only serves as the "neutralization" of the canonization of John Paul II.  but the "canonization" of Second Vatican Council. John XXIII. reigned from 1958 to 1963.

The unexpected double canonization by Pope Francis took p[lace last April 27 in Rome. The day went down as the "Day of the four popes" in the church history, as well as Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI., took part in the solemn canonization and concelebrated with  Pope Francis.

On the 19th of October, Pope Francis will beatify Pope Paul VI. (1963-1978) another  pope of recent Church history and thus raise him to the altars.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image:

Trans: vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDC

Cardinals Ouellet and Scola Attack Kasper in Communio

(Washington)  A few weeks before the start of the extraordinary Bishops' Synod on Family, a special edition of the International Catholic Review Communio will appear, which will address the theme of the Bishops' Synod, "Pastoral Initiatives in the Context of Evangelization."  It is the German International Katholischen Zeitschrift Communio (IKaZ) in its  English edition appearing in Washington.

Under the title Marriage:  Theological and Pastoral Considerations the special edition (Edition 41.2 -- Summer 2014) contains a series of essays, among them one by Archbishop Angelo Cardinal Scola of Milan, the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops Marc Cardinal Oeullet and other Catholic personalities, who are connected to the Pontifical Institute of John Paul II. for the Study of Marriage and Family.

Special Edition Against Kasper's Attempt to Confuse Truth and Mercy

The themes discussed preliminary to the Bishops' Synod like pastoral care for divorced persons, Communion for divorced and remarried, same-sex relationships run the danger, obscuring the beauty of married life and the connection of the sacrament of the Eucharist. The mercy toward remarried and divorced is not purely a psychological consideration, but must be lived with the help of the secret of the cross.   The opposition between the Christian and the current individualistic thinking has led to a distorted view of marriage, as if "homo-marriage" is no stranger than a marriage between a man and woman.   Because of these assertions and with a view to the upcoming Bishops' Synod is the reason for the conception of a special edition.

Essays by Cardinals Ouellet and Scola

Among other things, the extensive special issue contains a text by Pope John Paul II. written in 1982 on Marriage and the Eucharist and the direct relationship between two sacraments.  The essays of  two Cardinals Ouellet and Scola move along this line, by holding up and showing the Christian anthropology, such as the nature of the two sexes and the bond between man and woman, will become apparent from the gospel as well as the connection between the sacraments of Marriage and the Eucharist. Cardinal Ouellet addresses thereby, the direct  impossibility of allowing remarried divorcees to Communion. The emphasis is not placed on  "punishment", but in the affirmation and better visualization of the  bond to Jesus Christ.



The question of the admission of  remarried divorcees to Communion has dominated almost the entire discussion in advance of the Synod of Bishops, as it is the only, or the main theme of the meeting. In addition, there may be  homosexual pastoral care and the education of "their" children. The concern of the special issue by Communio is to counter and shift the weights of the time influenced discussion on  today's level to the timeless, always valid, level.


The Constructed Contrast of Formalism Versus Compassion


The public debate will often try to reduce the question to a false contrast of "mercy" against "laws". Remarried divorcees and homosexuals are shown in this view as  "victims" of Church "formalism", where the "mercy" of God will be "denied".
 The personal responsibility for failing to agree with the Church's teaching is a largely hidden behavior.

Thus, the Oxford graduate and cultural philosopher Nicholas J. Healy Jr. is concerned with the  provocation of Cardinal Walter Kasper, to permit remarried divorcees to Communion, and shows the limits of this proposal: the indissolubility of marriage, which  Kasper (exclusively)  bases  as  a personal decision of the individual, but not - especially - as the work of others; the (exclusive) idea in Kaspers thinking, is that mercy and forgiveness  are placed outside the indissoluble relationship.



The Basis of the Pastoral Must be A Unity of Truth and Mercy

Similarly, Father Fabrizio Meroni (Theological anthropology),  argues when he emphasizes that the basis of pastoral care for couples, divorced, remarried divorcees must always be a unit of "truth and mercy". Frequently, says the author,  mercy is  also often conveniently reduced to mere psychological benevolence excluding  the Passion of Christ. The first and most important gesture of mercy towards the divorced, is the relationship between sacramental marriage and the pain of their breakup, which is an intensive participation in the mystery of Christ's suffering. Since the sacrament of the Eucharist is a pure gift, it can never be the subject to "demands" and "claims" which also applies to the desire of remarried divorcees to admission to communion.

Emphasis on Unilateral Suffering 

 The author emphasizes the one-sidedness of the emphasis on the "suffering" of remarried divorcees, while the suffering of others, especially the children, but also the ecclesial community tend to be excluded.Some theologians today give the impression that the Fathers of the early Christian tradition were "generous" in dealing with the remarried divorced and had allowed a second marriage. It's a view which is also represented by Cardinal Kasper. In the Special Edition a text by Jesuit Henri Crouzel is reprinted from1977, which  refuted this claim.

Current Crisis in Marriage is the Result of an Anthropological Crisis 

 Other papers besides, deal in the theological, but also with philosophical and sociological aspects of the question. David C. Schindler (Philosophical Anthropology) indicates that the current crisis of the institution of marriage is the result of an anthropological crisis, in which the freedom of the human will is defined as a lack of commitment. For the Christian tradition, bonds are not only an essential part of being human and a gift, but form the pinnacle of freedom.



The moral theologian and family lawyer  David S. Crawford reveals that in the mentality of today, the marriage between husband and wife will be seen like "gay marriage", that is, that all of the individual is seen as a result of a functional private decision for the purpose of individual stakeholder in satisfaction. One that goes beyond the person's own welfare, the common good or fertility as an objective beyond the individual value would be eliminated from consideration.


And the German edition of Communio?

 Whether or not the special issue will also appear in German translation in the German edition of Communio, may be doubted. The "mixed" editorship and editorial staff, which also includes the Cardinals Walter Kasper and Karl Lehmann, raise the issue of a mutual "neutralization".  Cardinal Kasper is the spokesman of the position against which the special issue of the English Communiono - is directed.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

 image: Communio

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Islamists Control Libyan Capitol: Christians Hardly Dare to Leave Their Homes

(Tripoli) The Islamists have taken control over Libya's capital Tripoli. Christians hardly dare to leave their homes: "We celebrate Holy Mass as in the times of the great persecutions."

The government and parliament have fled to Tobruk. The Libyan Capitol has sunk into chaos: "Since the West has militarily intervened, armed bands have the say."

The end of August saw the Islamist Misrata Brigade, the Libyan Dawn, capture the international airport In Tripoli. Parliament and government then tool flight. The security situation in the Libyan capital since then has been a "nightmare". "Defenseless, above all are the Christians, says Pater Amado Baranquel for the Catholic News Service.

Celebrating Mass in Secret

The Franciscan priest was a pastor for Philippine guest workers in Libya before the war. Their number before the war was about 13,000. Today he cares for all of the Christians. "For two weeks Christians have hardly dared to leave their homes any more," says Pater Amado. They are afraid of being abused or even killed. "There is no rule of law any more in the city. We don't know who might protect us or come to help us. All Holy Masses have to be celebrated in private in secret and private homes, as in the old times during the great persecutions," is how the Franciscan described the difficult situation.

In Libya there are daily conflicts between Islamists and forces loyal to the government. There are check points on the streets. Before getting to the control point you don't exactly know which side set it up. "Who can we trust? Whom can we ask for help? The question will remain open until we know who will take over the government."

"The Church Stands by Her People"

The situation in Bengazi, the second largest city in Libya, which is controlled by Islamists, is no different. "The Church stands with Her people," exclaims Sylvester Margi, Apostolic Vicar of Bengazi for the Catholic Church, besides the Orthodox Copts and the Greek Orthodox who have excavated their priests from the city. "The Catholic Church has decided to take the religious sisters out of Bengazi into safety." The danger of rape is too great, says the Apostolic Vicar, who is remaining behind in the city.

"We don't know what the future will bring. At the moment there are two governments, two warring parties and countless associated militias and battle groups. nicht, was die Zukunft bringen wird. There are at present not intermediaries," says Pater Amado.

The 115 Parliament members live with their families on a Greek luxury liner about 1.500 Kilometers from the Capitol of Tripoli. They seem prepared to go further into exile. Neither US-Präsident Obama, NATO or the Inited Nations, who toppled the previous president Muammar al-Gaddafi, and simultaneously plummeted the land into it's current chaos, show the least interest to change the situation. The same goes for the EU, despite Libya being a point of departure for most of the immigrants who are attempting to get to the EU through Lampadusa.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Asia news
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Bishop Bars "Mass for Remarried and Homosexuals"

Graz-Seckauer diocesan priests have provoked with controversial Masses. Bishop Kapellari puts on the emergency brake. Priest: "We will not completely ignore the ban of the bishop, but also not entirely obey."

Graz (kath.net) The Graz diocesan Bishop, Egon Kapellari, has banned a controversial "Mass for remarried and homosexuals" in the parish of St. Margaret, as reported by the "Kleine Zeitung". The one responsible for the provocation was the pastor of the local parish community, Bernhard Preiss. A few months earlier, Preiss had carried out a similar event, then, there were protests by Catholics. Now Kapellari is pulling the emergency brake. Kapellari said to the newspaper: "It was simply an isolated event against the ecclesiastical order which will not take place." The Graz bishop stressed that a priest could not arbitrarily grant simply that divorced and remarried may go to Communion: "That neither the Pope, even I as a bishop, can not do this either. We even take care of remarried and homosexuals in personal conversations in counseling," said the Bishop of Graz.

But Preiss would like to further provoke and shared in his parish bulletin with that he  especially respects the will of the bishop. There will however be considered  "a continuation in another form."  To the "Kleine Zeitung" Preiss explains then: "I do not want to simply delete the Mass, we will not totally ignore the ban of the  bishop, but we will also not entirely follow it either. Now creativity is called for."

Link....

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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Pope Francis to Speak Before EU on 25 November

(Brussels / Vatican) Pope Francis is coming on November 25 to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg.Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi confirmed this today in a press statement on the Pope's visit. The invitation came from European Parliament President Martin Schulz (SPD).

The invitation had been issued on March 19, 2013 on the day of inauguration of Pope Francis in Rome.Schulz said at the time: "I hope to welcome the pope  as soon as possible to send a European and universal message about the core values ​​that are needed today more than ever."

The  President of the German Bishops' Conference and soon the European Bishops' Conferences (COMECE), Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Cardinal of Munich and Freising spoke of "very good news". The German cardinal sees a "strong signal by the Pope in support and encouragement of European integration". The Pope "recognizes the success of the European project and, not least, the peace dividend, for which the EU has received the Nobel Peace Prize." This second speech of a pope before the EU Parliament will underline the "continuing support of the Church for the high ideals of European integration" , says Marx.

Will Pope Francis  find critical words about the socio-political orientation of the EU, as  uncritical and statesmanlike occurred to the German Cardinal?

In 1988 Pope John Paul II had spoken to the European Parliament.. A speech by Pope Benedict XVI. did not materialize.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: InfoVaticana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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