Pope Francis Is Going to Be 80 -- The Possibility of a Resignation

By Roberto de Mattei *

Pope Francis is crossing the threshold of 80: Ingravescentem aetatem (advanced age), as the motu proprio of 21 November 1970 by Paul VI declared, which, by reaching this age, requires all cardinals to put their tasks to an end, and deprives them of the right to participate in the conclave. Paul VI. established this rule to create a new "Montinian" curia. Moreover, he introduced a fundamental contradiction in the Church's more than a thousand years of practice.

If the advanced age is an impediment to the direction of a diocese or a dicastery, and even prevents a cardinal from choosing a pope, how can we imagine that a cardinal who has become a pope, even after the age of eighty? Can he bear the burden of the world church?

It was not, however, such considerations that urged Pope Francis on 12 March 2015 to say:

"I have the feeling that my pontificate will be short, 4, 5 years. Perhaps it is not so, but I have the feeling that the Lord has set me up for a brief cause. But it is a feeling, so I leave all possibilities open. "

The real reason for a possible abdication does not seem to be a decline in capability, but Pope Bergoglio's awareness, not two years after his election, to be penetrated into what Antonio Socci in the newspaper on November 20, 2016 Libero describes as the relentless "decline of a pontificate."

The project of Pope Francis to "reform" the Church with the help of the bishop's synod and various collaborators, is well in place, and the record of the Holy Year is more than disappointing. On November 21, 2016 Marco Politi wrote in the daily Il Fatto quotidiano :

"Pope Francis closed the Holy Door, but his message is accompanied by the rumbling of a subterranean crisis. There is a civil war in the Church. "

The dispute was whether consciously or unconsciously, unleashed by Pope Francis himself, especially after the Apostolic Letter Amoris laetitia, the Church no longer moves forward, but is sinking into a terrain riddled with deep crevices.

The failure of the pontificate of Pope Francis has already been compared to that of Barack Hussein Obama. In three years in Rome, what has taken place in Washington in eight years: the transition from an initial euphoria to a final depression, because the set goals were completely missed. It would be wrong, however, to read the pontificate of Pope Francis only from a political point of view. Pope Francis could never have pronounced Obama's "yes, we can".

For a pope, as opposed to a politician, everything is not possible. The Pope has a supreme, full, immediate, and universal authority, but can not alter the Divine Law that Jesus Christ gave to the Church, nor change the natural law which God has imprinted in the heart of every man. He is the vicar of Christ, but not his successor. The Pope can not alter either the Holy Scriptures or the tradition which form the far-reaching rule of the Church's faith, but must submit to them.

This is the impasse in which Pope Bergoglio is today. The Dubia that four cardinals (Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra and Meisner) have laid before the CDF  have forced him upon a dead track. The Cardinals expect a clear response from the Pope on the Apostolic Letter Amoris laetitia with a yes or a no to the following questions:

Can divorced persons who have once again married once and who do not want to give up their objectively sinful situation in which they find themselves, rightfully receive the sacrament of the Eucharist? And more generally: Do the Divine Law and Natural Law still have absolute validity, or do they tolerate exceptions in some cases?

The answer concerns the foundations of morality and the Catholic faith. If what was valid yesterday is no longer valid today, then what is valid today, will not be valid tomorrow. If, however, morality can change according to time and circumstances, the Church is destined to perish in the relativism of today's fluid society. If this is not the case, Cardinal Vallini must be exempted from his office, who stated in his speech at the pastoral meeting of the diocese of Rome last September 19 that newly married divorced persons may be admitted to the communion in accordance with an "assessment which is appropriate case by case." His position set out on 2 December in the daily newspaper Avvenire, a media organ of the Italian Bishops' Conference as his own, that according to the Amoris laetitia contains "very clear words" upon which "the Pope has set his imprimatur".

But can the Pope confer on the shepherds' "judgment" the authority to transcend the law of God and the right of nature, the preserve of which is the Church? When a pope tries to change the faith of the Church, he explicitly or implicitly renounces his mandate as vicar of Christ, and sooner or later he will be compelled to renounce his pontificate. The possibility of such an explosive result can not be ruled out in 2017. The self-imposed abdication would allow Pope Francis to abandon the field as a misunderstood reformer, and to attribute to the responsibility for his failure upon the "severity" of the curia.  If this is to happen, it will be more likely to happen after the next consistory, which allows Pope Francis to once again plant a new group of cardinals near him to influence the Holy College, thereby influencing the choice of his successor. The other possibility is the fraternal reprimand by the Cardinals, which, as soon as it becomes publicly known, corresponds to a determination of errors and heresies.

Nothing is more erroneous than the sentence of Cardinal Hummes, in reference to the total number of cardinals: "They are only four, we are 200". Apart from not counting on numbers to demonstrate the fidelity to the Gospel, what are the 200 Cardinals, who are 227 to be exact, to whom Hummes has referred, who have distanced themselves from their four confreres. Have they actually distanced themselves by their silence from Pope Francis?  The first observations in support of the Dubia by Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum , and Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Economic Secretariat, are meaningful. Some are beginning to break their silence. There are not 200, but certainly more than four.

* Roberto de Mattei , historian, father of five children, Professor of Modern History and History of Christianity at the European University of Rome, president of Lepanto Foundation, author of numerous books, most recently appeared: Vicario di Cristo. Il primato di Pietro tra normalità ed eccezione (Vicar of Christ. The Primacy of Peter Between Normality and Exception), Verona 2013; In German translation at last: The Second Vatican Council - a hitherto unwritten story, Ruppichteroth 2011.

Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Charges Dropped Against True Head of Franciscans of Immaculate

[Rorate] The charges against Father Stefano Manelli, founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate have been dropped. After about a year of investigations, the Deputy State Prosecutor at the Court of Avellino, Doctor A. Del Bene, has asked for the closing of the proceedings against the religious, whose Order is still under commissioning without a valid reason having ever been given by the Congregation for Religious. 

Father Stefano Manelli had recently been the subject of a particularly virulent press campaign – which seems in reality to have been promoted and inspired by someone within his own religious order – with wild allegations, scandalmongering statements of ex-sisters, and even the suspicion of murder. The saga of the Franciscans of the Immaculate has left nothing untouched, and there have been those in the mass media who have followed the flood of biased allegations with perhaps too much enthusiasm and without much critical evaluation.

Now that the legal authorities – with the motion to dismiss the case – bring justice to this campaign, which could be considered defamatory, it emerges that the founder of the Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate was unjustly accused of having harmed the physical and moral integrity of the Sisters at the convent of Frigento, carrying out acts of sexual violence and abuse against them.

Link...
AMDG

Bishop James Conor Offers Clarity on Amoris Laetitia

LINCOLN - Clarity and renewal can be the fruit of disputes and disagreements, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln has said to his priests, trying to reassure them in the face of confusion regarding Amoris laetitia.

At the same time, Conley offered his own firm stand on the meaning of Pope Francis’s widely discussed document on marriage, stating clearly that in his diocese, giving Communion to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics who are living as man and wife is not on the table.

“Sexual relationships outside the bonds of marriage constitute circumstances of grave sin,”  Conley wrote.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2016/12/11/lincoln-bishop-says-no-communion-divorcedremarried/

AMDG

Ex-Agent: Russian Spy Was Colleague of Pope Francis

A former Polish intelligence staff officer reported to Italian online magazine on espionage activity in the Vatican in the 1970s and 1980s

Rome (kath.net/KAP) In the 1970s and 1980s, a number of spies, according to a former Polish secret service staff officer, were present in the Vatican, allegedly also a collaborator of today's pope. According to the Italian online magazine "Faro di Roma" (Thursday), ex-agent Tomasz Turowski said that in the Church's center there were informants from China, the USA, as well as other Eastern bloc states.

A professor known under the name of "Russian" had been involved in the secret negotiations of the Holy See with the Soviet Union as a translator, and as early as November 1981, Turowski had reported that the Vatican had been aware of an imminent imposition of martial law in Poland; This took place on the 13th of December. Turowski said in the interview that he could not give up the name of the clergyman because he had worked for Pope Francis until recently.

The 68-year-old Turowski himself, at the end of the 1970s, was tapped as a theologian and Novice into the Roman religious center of the Jesuits, allegedly with a letter of recommendation from the archbishop, Karol Wojtyla. In his own words, his task was to spy on the Jesuit military chaplains in NATO. In addition, after  Wojtyla's election as Pope John Paul II, he also had the commission to protect him from attacks.

"The Communist Party secretaries knew that if that were to happen to the Pope, they would be the first suspects," Turowski said. In order to draw the attention of the Vatican to security risks, he had used table discussions in the presence of radio director, Roberto Tucci, as a collaborator at Radio Vatican, where he dropped incidental information; Tucci was at the same time responsible for the organization of papers and therefore sensitive to security issues.

Turowski was removed as an agent from the Vatican in 1984 before his planned priestly ordination. After the end of the Communist regime, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993. Later he served as a Polish Ambassador in Russia and Cuba.

Copyright 2016 Catholic Press Agency KATHPRESS, Vienna, Austria

Link to kath.net...

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Pope Francis as the New Luther -- The Humor of the German Section of Radio Vatican

(Rome) This photoshop has been in circulation for some time, but we have refrained from publishing it because it could have been dismissed as cheap and disrespectful propaganda. Meanwhile, however, it has been released, entirely above suspicion, namely, on Vatican Radio where it is apparently considered funny and good.

Vatican Radio is one of the official media organs of the Pope. Listeners and readers in Italy were amazed just a month ago just what was happening on the German site of Vatican Radio, but is only now becoming widely available.

On November 6, at 17:49 on the Facebook page of the German section of Vatican Radio a photoshop of Pope Francis in the guise of Martin Luther was published. The text:

"Also a nice variant. We wish you a restful Sunday."

Who is the Pope laughing at? About the "Reformation" or the Catholic Church?

A bad joke? A malicious photoshop?

A joke? A bad joke? A malicious photoshop to discredit Pope Francis? Not at all.

Pope Luther or Protestant Bergoglio? What does Vatican Radio mean?

The weekly,Die Zeit had published the photoshop with the caption published on 4 November: "That Pope Francis considers Luther positively is well known. But is it right?" It was part of the coverage of the Reformation memorandum on 31 October in Lund, Sweden, where Pope Francis had participated.

We of Katholisches.info had seen the photoshop on other sites, but did not post it out of respect for the Pope, because it seemed to us as if it it would be perceived as a critique of Francis and could have been dismissed as cheap polemics. That's what we thought. The editors of the German section of Vatican Radio thinks as quite differently and thinks only too well of it. It is likely that the idea that Francis is the Luther of the 21st century was even considered humorous.

At any rate one knows how some of his German party see the reigning pope.

"Striking"

Some commentators on the Facebook site were enthusiastic: "A brilliant photoshop. Significant and courageous for further Lutheran-Catholic dialogue."

Others expressed their resentment, including those who considered the picture to be "striking," but for the precarious state in which the Church was in the German-speaking world. The German section of Vatican Radio seems to have so arrived in the pleasure society. The concept was already old in the 90s, but it is said that there is a certain "retardation" in Rome.

The original: Martin Luther, the most successful heretic of the German Middle Ages

In the German editorial office of Radio Vatikan, they are also pleased to see that in Austria the former party chairman of the Greens and former KPÖ voters, the atheist who had become a freemason in 1975, abortion, homosexual and immigration advocate, Alexander Van der Bellen, Was elected! Was that too polemical? Oh no. Given the "humor" of the German section of Vatican Radio certainly not.

Image: Vatican Radio / Facebook (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
  Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

No "Brotherly Visitation" for "Open" Diocese

Bishop Sergio Osvaldo Buenanueva of San Francisco in
Cordoba, in photo as Auxiliary Bishop of Mendoza,
in the background is the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires,
Jorge Mario Bergoglio

(Rome) The betrayal of the priestly promise of chastity is as old as the priesthood, but it has always been an offense, both to the faithful and to the unbelievers, the latter being fond of using it as a moral charge against the Church. In Luther's time this was no different from today. After his ordination, Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss "reformer", first fell into the mills of politics, then into the bed of a woman whom he impregnated, and finally pushed into the front row of the Reformation. In Argentina, the media, not unlike in Europe, are reporting with a mixture of scandal and schadenfreude on the third priest of the diocese of San Francisco and Cordoba, who had to give up his priesthood in the past year because he was not only in a "father" the spiritual sense but also in the physical. The most recent case concerns the priest Marcio Peironi.

The Diocese, established in 1961, has a total of thirty-two diocesan priests, which means that the loss of three its priests is a painful jolt for the diocese. For the time being, there is no indication that Rome intends to send the diocese a "fraternal visitation" as has already happened to the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in neighboring Paraguay in 2014.

The difference seems to lie in the fact that Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano of Ciudad del Este, a traditional Bishop from the ranks of Opus Dei was, by his extensive pastoral work, had "shamed" the liberation theology-inspired Paraguayan Episcopal Conference. The Diocese of San Francisco de Cordoba does, however, constitute an "openness to the surprises of the Holy Spirit", as the newspaper La Capital wrote in yesterday's edition.

Bishop Livieres abandoned the nationwide unified education of the seminarians and in 2007 founded his own diocesan priestly seminary. There the candidates were trained in both forms of the Roman rite and in the traditional sense. The Ciudad del Este priestly seminary had enrolled two and a half times as many seminarians in 2014 as all other dioceses in Paraguay. Although only about ten per cent of Paraguayan faithful belong to this diocese, Bishop Livieres had 70 per cent of all seminarians in the country. This had to do with the different understanding of the priesthood and church. But that was not desired, as such an imbalance would soon have had country-wide consequences.

The "fraternal" inclination to Ciudad del Este

Bishop Livieres was regarded by the other bishops as a "troublemaker". One of them, the liberation theorist, Fernando Lugo, Bishop of San Pedro, the political commitment was so important that he had to be released from his episcopal rights and duties in order to become President of the Union as part of a left coalition. It turned out later that the confinement had more to do with the repeated violation of his celibacy promise. He is the father of at least two children from different women. He has had sexual relations with other women as a priest and bishop. As President of the Republic, he was removed from office after less than four years. Today, he sits as a representative of the Left Party Frente Guasu, which is a member of the Socialist International (SI), in the Paraguayan Senate.

Pope Francis sent a "brotherly visitor" to Bishop Livieres in 2014, he was so fraternal that the bishop was dismissed shortly afterwards, without mentioning a reason and under shameful circumstances, without being able to justify himself against the charge. Pope Francis even denied him audience. Francis will have to justify himself before God, wrote Bishop Livieres in a statement to his deposition. One year later the bishop sadly succumbed to a serious illness.

The priestly seminary of Ciudad del Este still exists, but has been rejoined by the new bishop to the National Seminary of Asuncion. The number of seminarians has fallen to a quarter after a massive purge of "conservative" candidates. Various traditional communities were dissolved, priests and orders were removed from the diocese, numerous changes took place.

The reaction is quite different in the diocese of San Francisco and Cordoba in Argentina. There is no "brotherly" visitation, because the diocese is considered "open to the surprises of the Holy Spirit". To which belongs, apparently, for the newspaper La Capital, also the procreation of children by priests.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Ciudad de San Francisco (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches... 
AMDG

Upcoming Green Politician's Interjection Reveals the Strong Influence of Pedophiles on Her Party

[Welt N24] The sanitation of pedophile tendencies among the Greens seemed to be complete. But a new investigation brings Renate Künast into difficulties. It is about a debate in 1986 - and an interjection.

The paragraph that could still be dangerous for Renate Künast, only appears on page 74. It involves a report that made the headlines this weekend involving the horrific acts with which the "Commission for the Investigation of the Involvement of the Berlin Regional Association of Alliance 90/The Greens with pedophilia and sexual violence against children."

Especially in the 1980s, Pederasts had seized whole working groups of the eco-party and from there tried politically to enforce their impure desires for sex with children. The pedophiles in the alternative protest district of Kreuzberg were particularly bad. It remained a focal point for sexual predators till the arrest of a Green Party member at the beginning of the 90s. "We see this looking the other way as an institutional failure," admitted Green Party President Bettina Jarasch now, apologizing more than 20 years later. The party was "blind to the victims of sexual abuse".

But the chapter is not finished yet. Because in the confusion there are not just references to Green perpetrators. The report also provides an insight into a culture, which had penetrated not only into radical minorities, but into the mainstream of the Green Party, especially in the 1980s. Sex with children was regarded as acceptable in the Green ideological world for as long as it was "consensual and nonviolent."

Green work child abuse

The Berlin Greens are trying to deal with pedophilia in their ranks. A report concludes that abuse was part of its program as well.

Source: N24 At least, a protocol was heard during a meeting of the Berlin House of Representatives in 1986. In this state parliament Renate Künast was a deputy. She later rose to the chair of the faction, even to the Federal Minister of the Interior and from Bundesminister to candidate for mayor. On May 29, 1986, this had not yet come to pass, Künast already a Green spokesman, was known for her snotty interjections.

While a Green MEP was addressing domestic violence, a CDU [Christian Democratic Union] deputy asked the questioner about the decision of the Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia, to abolish the punishment for sexual acts against children. But instead of the speaker, who should have spoken according to the protocol, it was Renate Künast who interrupted: "Come on, if there is no violence in play!" Does not that sound like sex with children is ok as long as there is no violence?

It was a misunderstanding, says Künast. In the debate, it was not about sex, but about violence to children. She had only wanted to point out that the CDU accusation was way off base. However, she views that former discourse critically today - and her role in it: "We discussed the abolition of criminal laws involving sex with children in terms of a law theory. Too late did we start to realize that there are people who are absolutely in need of protection, about whom this debate is impossible."

Künast finds it difficult to look back

In fact, the proposals for an extremely broad decriminalization in the justice system, was well suited for the campaign by pedophiles to legalize sex with children. "I have never voted to legalize so-called consensual sexuality between children and adults," stresses Künast.

On her role in the Green milieu, she still looks contrite: "Today, I object to not having been part of the Kreuzberg women who were very active in the end of this debate. But I was not on the other side either. I did not know the "Falkensteiner Keller" in Kreuzberg. "In this torture chamber, disguised as a juvenile institution, two Green pedophile party members had sexually abused children for years."

MS. KÜNAST, WITH HER INTERJECTION, INDICATED THE TOTAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE GREEN PARTY IN THE MID-1980S WAS

STEPHAN KLECHA, Social Scientist

Stephan Klecha, a social scientist and formerly employed by the Göttingen Institute for Democratic Research, also considers Künast's role critically. Along with the political scientist, Franz Walter, he has researched for over a year on behalf of the Green Party, the paedophilic tendencies in the establishment phase of the Green party .

"Mrs. Künast, with her interjection, indicated the overall acceptance of the Green Party in the mid-1980s. The position of keeping consensual sexual relationships between adults and children possible for a long time was a kind of endorsement," says Klecha. What was astonishing was, above all, the timing of Küntast's remark in Parliament.

A strange time for her interjection

For in May 1986, according to Klecha's research, the Greens had no "prospects for majorities" for consensual on sexual relations between adults and children. After a catastrophic election in the provincial elections, the state association in North-Rhine-Westphalia had also withdrawn from the child-sex proposals. The actual protagonists of the debate, Klecha said, "were also hesitantly pushed out of the party at this time."

Bettina Jarasch, today's Berlin President, considers the interruption to be almost exact to the Green discourse going on then in which perpetrators understood themselves: "Renate Künast, like almost the entire Green Party at that time had made the fatal distinction between consensual sexuality with children and sexuality with children in which violence played a role. This distinction seemed like a sedative, and prevented us from questioning our positions." Trans: Tancred: vekron99@hotmail.com AMDG

Statement by Rota Dean "Corrected": "Francis Will Not Take Away Cardinal's Rank"

Interview of Dean of Roman Rota was "Revised"

(Madrid) Last Tuesday, 29 November,  a report by Religion Confidencial struck like a bomb - and led to a significant image problem for Pope Francis. Now a "corrected position" has appeared, with which the image problem was corrected.The criticism by the four cardinals, on the other hand, was not withdrawn.

Msgr. Pius Vito Pinto, Dean of the Roman Rota , one of the supreme courts of the Catholic Church, was took part the day before in a conference on the new marriage tribunal process in Madrid. On this occasion he gave an interview to the Spanish news site, Religion Confidencial.  He was quoted as saying that Pope Francis would strip the four cardinals Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra and Meisner of their dignity as cardinals,  because by posting their Dubia (doubts) to the controversial post-synodal Letter Amoris laetitia, they had given "serious offense".

The words of the Rota Dean, coupled with further criticism of the four Dubia presenters was understood as threat and intimidation.

The old and the new version

Meanwhile a "correction" was made in the publication Religion Confidencial, which is more of a clarification (RC). RC said that Msgr. Pinto had answered the questions in Italian and that the translation into Spanish was "incorrect". The new title of the RC interviews is now: "Under another pope, the four cardinals who wrote him could lose their cardinalatial dignity."

First, RC had published the following reply from Msgr. Pinto:

"What church are these Cardinals defending? The Pope is faithful to the teaching of Christ. What they have done is a very serious offence which could cause the Holy Father to deny them the Cardinal's hat, as has happened in other times in the Church. "

The revised body is now:

"What church defend these cardinals? The Pope is faithful to the teaching of Christ. What they have done is a very serious offence. He continued, that Pope Francis, however, is not a pope of the past, who would take away the Cardinal's hat, as Pius XI. did with the famous French Jesuit theologian Louis Billot. 'Francis will not do that,' he said." 

The tarnished image that was feared has been left behind - but criticism of the four cardinals remains

After Msgr. Pinto's statement, which was first distributed by RC, caused worldwide attention, there seems to have been a corresponding intervention to reduce the position. The original statement conveyed a very bad impression of not very "merciful" administration by Pope Francis. The image of a pontificate in which even the highest dignitaries are heavily punished just because they ask questions, could be an image shredder.

It is striking that the first version was consistently indicated as a statement by Monsignor Pinto, whereas in the revised version, the controversial passage is only indirectly reproduced. RC reported a translation error.  We are more closely acquainted with the fact that the results obtained by Mgsr. Pinto last Monday, reveals a threat posture in Rome some because active imagination went too far. Still the criticism of the four cardinals was not weakened by the "correct position".

According to Pinto, the attitude of the four cardinals is so serious that they would deserve to lose the cardinalatial dignity, but it is just their good luck that it is Pope Francis who is reacting and not "another pope."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Religion Confidencial (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Papal Appointee Says Sodomy Can be a "Gift From God"

Update: since this individual has been active for the last year without any consequences, who's really in charge of the Catholic Church?

Edit: more campaigning for moral depravity from the evil infestation within the Church. What will the reaction to this be in Rome? More approval, of course. Of course Radcliffe has been this bad for years.

ROME, May 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Pope Francis has appointed radically liberal, pro-homosexual Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe as a consultor for the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

The Holy Father made the appointment on Saturday, according to Vatican Radio.

Father Radcliffe, an Englishman, author and speaker, was Master of the Dominican order from 1992 to 2001, and is an outspokenproponent of homosexuality.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-appointee-says-gay-sex-can-express-christs-self-gift

Why Do Church Leaders Suck Up to Marxist Regimes?

Edit: yes, why do they? Here's an article by Damian Thompson:

[Spectator] When Fidel Castro died, Pope Francis ‘grieved’. That’s right: he grieved for the man who – in addition to murdering and torturing his opponents – spent half a century persecuting the Catholic Church in Cuba.

But perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised: when Francis visited the island last year, he was gushingly appreciative of the regime’s hospitality and pointedly ignored dissidents. Even the liberal Washington Post accused him of ‘appeasing the Castros in repressive Cuba’.

 It all reminds me of the way, in my youth, churchmen soft-pedalled their criticism of Communist regimes because, whatever their ‘flaws’, they were supposedly on the side of the oppressed. Is that fair? I asked my guest on this week’s Holy Smoke podcast, Edward Lucas of the Economist, a leading authority on east-west relations. You really have to hear what he said. Warning: if you are one of those hand-wringing clerical boobies who think Marxist tyranny is no worse than the excesses of free-market capitalism, then you won’t enjoy this podcast. Listen here:

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/church-leaders-suck-marxist-regimes/

Courageous Monk Preaching to Heretics in Scotland -- Black Hermits

Edit: this is a truly amazing and authentic Christian witness in one of the darkest places in the earth. Someone in Scotland must be doing some powerful prayer to be fortunate enough to have such apostles in their midst. At one point, they were being thrown out of their housing, because of their "anti-gay" views as of 2015.  They appear to be absolutely fearless.

AN anti-gay Catholic monk sparked an unholy row when he barged his way into a church service screaming: “This is a synagogue of sin.”

Fanatical Damon Kelly, who leads a bizarre sect known as the Black Hermits, claimed he was “doing God’s work” by disrupting the Sunday prayers at two churches in Argyllshire.

Damon Kelly stormed into two churches shocking worshippers as he ranted he was doing “God’s work”

And yesterday as he appeared at Dunoon Sheriff Court the 54-year-old dodged jail as he ARGUED with a sheriff in the dock.

The court heard how the 54-year-old who was staying at a hotel in the town charged into St John’s Presbyterian Church dressed in black robes shouting and ranting in front of shocked churchgoers, the town’s sheriff court.

Then hours later he caused another rammy as Church of Scotland parishioners at a kirk in nearby Kirn were worshipping.

Link to Sun...

AMDG

Amoris Laetitia: New Jesuit General Defends Pope on "Dubia" of the Four Cardinals

While Pope Francis continues his silence, the Jesuit General has commented on the Dubia (doubts), the controversial post-synodal Letter Amoris laetitia of four cardinals Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra and Meisner.

On 14 October, Arturo Sosa Abascal was selected 31 Superior General of the Jesuits. The Venezuelan Jesuit has now entered into the public for the first time and does so with a defense of Pope Francis, who also belongs to the Jesuit Order.

So far, the new "Black General", as the Father General of the Jesuits is also called, has  only been known for statements from the distant past. This includes primarily an essay on "the Marxist mediation of the Christian faith" from 1978. Whether he meant, or perhaps still thinks that the Communists "think as Christians think" is not known. At least it resembles Pope Francis, according to the recent interview with Eugenio Scalfari, on November 11 published by La Repubblica.

The Superior General of the Jesuits was interviewed by the Vaticanist Luigi Accattoli for the weekly supplement La Lettura the Corriere della Sera which appeared yesterday. "We can not resign ourselves to this world of injustice," the title says, referring to a quotation from the 31st Jesuit General. In the interview, the 68-year-old Venezuelan also explains "the roots of the new mission of the Church".

The Cardinals have either not understood the pope, or ...

Iinterview with P. Sosa Abascal (Corriere della Sera)

The new Superior General has entered the dispute about the confusion surrounding Amoris laetitia to help the beleaguered pope. The support is doubly anchored. The reigning pope himself is Jesuit. His Order is also bound by a fourth, special vow of loyalty and obedience to the Pope. The Jesuits form a kind of praetorian guard of the first Jesuit of the Church's history, who sits on the papal throne.

What the Jesuit General Sosa Abascal says of the Dubia of the four cardinals, should reflect on the matter, should reflect what the Pope thinks about it. Father Sosa admits only three possibilities of which there is no room for papal self-criticism: the Cardinals either did not understand the pope, or they were playing an evil game. If there is "ambiguity" in some passages of the Pontifical Letter Amoris laetitia,  which could be the reason for the confusion and conflicting interpretations of the past few months, Sosa Absacal can not detect it.

Luigi Accatoli: What do you think of the letter of the four cardinals, including the Italian Carlo Caffarra, who asked the Pope to clarify  five "doubts" on the letter Amoris laetitia? Francis has not yet replied, and they have published the letter. Are you concerned about these developments?

Arturo Sosa Abascal: I'm not worried. These four have taken the liberty of the word to which the Pope had invited them to do. I like this happening. In our language, as Jesuits, it is said that it is necessary to know the opinions of all in order to make a real distinction. Of course, the game must be loyal, if someone asks for clarification, because he has not understood, we move within the framework of loyalty. It would be different if someone used the criticism as a tool for an advantage, or asking questions cause trouble."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corriere della Sera / Wikicommons (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholishes...
AMDG

Lavender Bishop of San Diego Implements Bergoglio's Agenda

SAN DIEGO, California, November 28, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy is calling on his city's priests to embrace "LGBT families," and to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion in certain cases.

Following a much-hyped diocesan synod on the family last month, Bishop McElroy encouraged priests to publish a diocesan notice in their bulletins saying the Church will "assist those who are divorced and remarried and cannot receive an annulment to utilize the internal forum of conscience in order to discern if God is calling them to return to the Eucharist." 

"The Synod proposed a spirituality of family life which is deeply inclusive," and embraces "LBGT families," the statement went on to say. "During the coming months Bishop McElroy will be working with a committee of synod delegates who will focus on the implementation of these goals."

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/san-diego-diocesan-synod-embraces-internal-forum-proposes-new-office-for-lg

Pope Seeks to Restore the Old Fashioned Flaccidity of 70s Seminary formation

Edit: there was a real attempt to roll back the mentally sick seminary formations that complained about "rigidity" and wanted to do away with rules.  You always knew you were dealing with a communist of he complained about "rigidity". Now we have a pope who does this repeatedly.  Surely he must be a communist. It could also be noted that clergy who complain about rigidity are suspect when it comes to the concrete demands of living a celibate life.  Examples abound.

[Rorate] One of the increasingly prominent themes of the Franciscan pontificate is the need to combat "rigidity" among seminarians, the need to teach them "discernment" (especially by Jesuits) and the need to exercise "vigilance" over new vocations, so that "quality" is valued over "quantity". In early 2015, Francis spoke about the "problem" posed by "traditionalist" diocesan seminarians and their "imbalances" as reflected in the liturgy. Later that year (November), during an address to a major conference on priestly formation he again returned to this theme, using even stronger language that compared "confident, rigid, fundamentalist" seminarians to criminals and insinuated that they might be mentally ill:

Speaking off the cuff, Francis told a story about when he taught the novices of the Society of Jesus. A “good” boy didn’t pass the psychiatrist’s test and she said to Bergoglio: “These boys are fine until they have settled, until they feel completely secure. Then the problems start. Father, have you ever asked yourself why there are policemen who are torturers,” the doctor apparently asked Francis. The Pope told clergy that they must think twice when a young man “is too confident, rigid and fundamentalist”. Hence, his invitation to them to beware when admitting candidates to the seminary: “There are mentally ill boys who seek strong structures that can protect them”, such as “the police, the army and the clergy”.

 http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/11/for-record-in-latest-interview-pope.html?m=1

Update on John Vennari's Serious Medical Condition

Edit: here's an update on John Vennari.  Please help him if you can.

[CFN] Here is a recap and slight update regarding my medical condition. Thank you for showing such overwhelming concern for my situation. 

On Aug. 11 I received a grave prognosis. I have a cancerous tumor in my colon and the cancer has spread to the peritoneum.

The only thing the cancer institute offers is chemotherapy. And even this is not something that will cure, but only contain it for a time.

As I am not interested chemotherapy, I am now pursuing alternative/natural means under the guidance of competent medical personnel, including an MD. It is a comprehensive protocol that has been helpful to others, but also involves an abrupt change in dietary and daily routine. I tell people I'm like a right-handed guitarist who suddenly must learn to play left-handed. It's all a matter of developing new habits. So far so good.

Link to CFN site...

Pope Grieves Death of Mass Murdering Communist Dictator

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said the death of Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was "sad news" and that he was grieving and praying for his repose.

Francis expressed his condolences in a Spanish-language message to Fidel's brother, President Raul Castro on Saturday.

The pope, who met Fidel Castro when he visited Cuba last year, said he had received the "sad news" and added: "I express to you my sentiments of grief."

Fidel Castro, who was a professed atheist, was baptized as a Catholic and educated in schools run by the Jesuits, the religious order of which the pope is a member.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Don Nicola Bux Contradicts Pope Francis in the Liturgy Question: "The Traditional Mass is No Exception"

Don Nicola Bux

(Rome) Cardinal Raymond Burke, the eminent religious lawyer, does not hesitate tocontradict the assertion of Pope Francis, that the traditional Roman rite was "only an exception for nostalgics".  Also one of the most famous liturgists, Don Nicola Bux, raises his contradiction.

Since 10 November, the new Pope's book (Nei tuoi occhi è la mia parola) "My Word is in Your Eyes" in bookstores. In this interview book with the Pope's confidant, Father Antonio Spadaro SJ, Pope Francis addresses the Latin Mass:

"The Latin Mass? Only one exception. Pope Benedict has made a proper and generous gesture to accommodate a certain mentality of some groups and persons who are nostalgic and have distanced themselves. But it is an exception. "

This was contradicted yesterday by Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the most renowned canon lawyers, referring to the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontifikum of Benedict XVI.

The Pope is also contradicted by one of the most famous liturgists, Don Nicola Bux. The interview was conducted by the Internet newspaper La Fede Quotidiana :

FQ: Don Nicola, is the traditional Roman rite an exception?

Nicola Bux: That's  not what  the Motu Proprio by Pope Benedict XVI says. Rather, one reads explicitly that the two rites have the same dignity. This is what the Pope writes, not me. Therefore, we can not say with the document at hand, that it is an exception, unless one wants to come to a conclusion which is directed against the pope's document.

FQ: Whence this "exception"?

Nicola Bux: I do not know. We are probably in the area of ​​interpretations, which, however, are not confirmed in the document of Pope Benedict XVI.

FQ: of the traditional Roman Rite: Many young people approach it recently with interest. Why?

Nicola Bux: I can confirm that there is a renewed interest, especially among young people. I am of the opinion that this has to do with the fact that there is a need for mysticism, a quality which the traditional rite preserves and encourages. Of course it can be said that this rite has no monopoly on mysticism, and it is also possible to celebrate  the traditional rite sloppily.

FQ:  Preaching: Can we say that it is a "political" statement, as Francis has asserted it?

Nicola Bux: This definition seems ambiguous and requires clarification. When it comes to reading the day-to-day readings of current affairs from the concrete life, it is legitimate to speak of politics. I would like to say: When one is immersed in the life of our time. The sermon, however, must not enter a directly into political life in the sense of party politics. Not that.

FQ: As a theologian: Are there divine penalties  around the polemics surrounding Father Cavalcoli? 

Nicola Bux: In the Scriptures, the Old and the New Testament, we find different moments in which there is an open question regarding  God's punishment. In the Gospel, for example, there is the episode of the Tower of Siloah and the massacres directed by Pilate. It can be concluded, "If you are not converted, you will perish in the same way." A natural catastrophe or violence by humans is not necessarily to be seen as a punishment for sin, because they involve innocent people, but as a reminder to do penance. Jesus has said it: the Father rains upon the good and bad. The point is that many think that God -- if He exists -- has nothing to do with their lives, though they promptly complain when a catastrophe befalls them, and ask where God was.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
picture: FQ (Screenshot)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

AMDG

Cardinal Sarah Says Liberals and Islamists are "Beasts of the Apocalypse"

Vatican City (AFP) - A top African cardinal has described the threat posed by Islamic extremism and western liberal culture as the twin "Beasts of the Apocalypse" comparable to Nazism and communism.

In an intervention at an ongoing synod of bishops on the future of Catholic teaching on the family, Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah reportedly described Islamist militants and western thinking on abortion and homosexuality as sharing "the same demonic origin".

"Theological discernment allows to see in our times two unexpected threats -- almost like the Beasts of the Apocalypse -- from two opposite positions: on one side the idolatry of western freedom, on the other religious fanaticism," said the cardinal, who is one of the leaders of the Church's conservative wing.

Link to Yahoo article for further reading...

AMDG

Breaking: Who Else Would Attack a Monastic Retirement Home in South of France?

FRENCH media are reporting a woman has died after a gunman has taken hostages at a retirement home for monks in Montpellier, France. 

By JOEY MILLAR AND WILL KIRBY

Witnesses say the man entered the buiding at around 8.45pm. 

He was wearing a hoody and armed with a knife and sawn-off shotgun. 

A staff member was able to escape and raise the alarm.

Around 70 monks live in the retirement home in Montferrier-sur-Lez.

It is unclear whether the gunman is still at the home or if he has fled.

http://www.mogaznews.com/en/collection/260112.html?source=true
AMDG