Pope Francis Does the Holy Liturgy

Pope Francis is to ordain 16 deacons to the priesthood on April 22

The Words of Consecration and the Pope

(Rome) The Holy See yesterday published the texts and chants for the Pope's Mass on the 4th Sunday after Easter, which Pope Francis will celebrate on April 22 in St. Peter's Basilica. On this occasion, the head of the Church will consecrate several candidates to the priesthood.

 

The priestly ordinations

Pope Francis will ordain sixteen deacons preparing for the priesthood as priests, sincethe 55th World Day of Prayer is celebrated  at the same time for priestly vocations.
 
Five of them come from the diocesan seminary of the Diocese of Rome. The number reflects the situation of priestly vocations in the Pope's own diocese.
 
The other eleven candidates come from other countries and continents. Six come from the Roman missionary college Redemptoris Mater of the Neocatechumenal Way; four from the Famiglia dei Discepoli (Family of the Disciples) and one from the Opera Don Orione. They come from Croatia, Madagascar, Vietnam, Myanmar, Colombia, San Salvador, Romania, India and Peru. Eleven of them, the five candidates of the diocese and the candidates of the seminary Redemptoris Mater,  are consecrated and incardinated for the diocese of Rome.

 

The words of consecration

According to the announcement, the III. Canon has been chosen. His predecessor Benedict XVI. preferred the Roman canon. [What else is there?] In contrast, Francis varies and also benefits from the new prayers, which were created ex novo only by the liturgical reform of the 60s. Since then, the Anaphora can be said in the vernacular, as will be the case on April 22nd. Benedict XVI. preferred Latin, the language of the Church, and not only at celebrations in the Patriarchal basilicas and in Rome, but also abroad. Conversely, Francis, who also uses the vernacular in St. Peter's Basilica in a solemn Papal Mass and not the Roman Canon.


On April 22, Pope Francis will use the words "for all" to reflect the Latin "pro multis". This contradicts the order of Benedict XVI, who had already prescribed in 2006 binding for the whole world Church as the more appropriate, because closer to the original translation "for many".
The majority of Italian bishops had in prounced for the retention of "for all" in 2010. Benedict XVI. patiently conducted persuasion seemed to bear fruit in early 2013. One of the most persistent opponents, Archbishop Bruno Forte, had assailed Benedict's camp with waving flags defending the "pro multis / for many."

 

The rebels

Shortly thereafter, Benedict XVI. made his  surprising resignation known. Since then, there has been a standstill in the rebellious states. Although at that time the Vatican Recognition of the new version of the Italian translation of the Missale was almost complete, it has not been published until today.

Pro multis

The opponents of Benedict XVI.s mandated translation immediately raised their voices after the election of Pope Francis,  especially in the linguistic areas, including the German one, which had already delayed, denied, and boycotted the order under the German Pope, and therefore the new translations had not yet been printed.
 
Cardinal Karl Lehrmann (Mainz) and Archbishop Alois Kothgasser (Salzburg) complained of Vatican "interference". In April 2013, one month after the election of Pope Francis, the Austrian bishops published a "clarification" that the only admissible translation was "for all" because the only approved German translation of the Missal was that of 1975. The admonition was addressed to the liturgically most sensitive part of the clergy, who began to complain that seven years after Benedict's change, nothing had yet happened.
 
Pope Francis sent out contradictory signals. From them one could read a supposed support of every position and also the opposite. Most appropriately, his attitude is likely to be reflected in a both-and-also, as he showed it in 2015 within a few days at the Mass celebrations in Cuba and in the US. In both countries he celebrated in Spanish. In Cuba, because it is the national language, in the US once for the large number of Spanish-speaking immigrants. In Cuba he used the words of change "for all" (por todos), in the US the words of change "for many" (por muchos).

The same pope, the same Spanish language, and yet such a difference?

The reason is that the English translation of the Missal was already published at that time, and for pro multis that of Benedict XVI. wanted "for many", while the new Spanish translation was not available at that time and in the old formula the pro-multis was still presented as " for all".

 

Everyone after his Façon ...?

In other words, every country and its episcopal conference should decide for themselves. A similar instruction was issued by Francis in September 2017. Shortly before he declared the Liturgy reform of 1969 as "irreversible."
 
His words can be seen at the memorial mass for the deceased cardinals on 3 November 2017 as a confirmation of the position of Benedict XVI. In his sermon , Francis said:

"The 'many who awaken to eternal life are to be understood as the 'many' for whom the blood of Christ was shed. It is the great number of those who, thanks to God's merciful goodness, may experience the reality of eternal life, the perfect victory over death achieved through the resurrection."

But even the Pope does not abide by the law, because in his celebration of April 22, Francis is opposed to the order of Benedict XVI. will say not "many", but "all." An anachronism. The Pope, by virtue of his authority, declares that the words of change are to be pronounced "for many" - that was 2006 -, and 2018, twelve years later, even the Pope does not abide by it, because the responsible Episcopal Conference has not yet re-translated and published the Missal? Absurd.
 
Francis, however, behaves this way and signals that the question is rather unimportant to him. There would be another way. Those whom Benedict XVI, by deferring to Church Latin, which is unique and includes both "for many" and "for all". But for that, Francis, according to Roman insiders, obviously lacks the necessary liturgical sensitivity. In addition, severe prejudices prevent him from consistently considering such a step.

 

Genuflecting

Regardless of this, the Office of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Pope is adamant that the pamphlets for the consecration should state that the pope "shows the consecrated host to the people and kneels adoringly" and "shows and adores the chalice to the people performing a genuflection."
 
It is well known that the adoring genuflections have not occurred since the election of Pope Francis. As is well known, it should be known that this is due to knee problems. The fact is that neither Pope Francis nor the Vatican Press Office has made a statement in more than five years of this pontificate. And that despite the importance of the question. The assumptions, allegations or even well-intentioned explanations of individual Vaticanists can not replace an official opinion. However, such is not forthcoming, which is why the Pope standing before the Blessed Sacrament will remain an ambivalent picture of this pontificate.
 
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Vatican.va
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

Pope's Two New Teachings: All Are Children of God and Atheists Go to Heaven

(Rome) Pope Francis visited the Roman parish of San Paolo alla Croce a Corviale last Sunday and announced two new teachings there.

The tears of little Emanuele

The neighborhood was built between 1975 and 1984 on the outskirts of Rome. This includes the "Serpentone," a gigantic silo shaped building with 1,200 apartments, built by the Office for Social Housing of the City of Rome. The parish was established in 1977, the church in modern style was consecrated in 1983. In 1985, Pope John Paul II elevated it to the titular church of a cardinal priest, whose owner since 2007 has been Oswald Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay.
 
A program point of the visit was an encounter with children of the parish. The pope was asked some questions. Emanuele was also allowed to meet the pope. Only a few months ago, the boy had lost his father. When he stood in front of the microphone, he burst into tears and could not speak.
 
Emanuele wept over his father's death, but more because a deeper pain moved him. Pope Francis waved the child to him and said that Emanuele should just whisper in his ear what moved him. The Pope and the child spoke in this way for a few minutes with the exclusion of the microphones. Only them speaking to each other. Then Emanuele returned to his seat and Francis again took the floor for everyone to hear.

Is the father, though he's an atheist, in heaven?

The pope said that the boy is very worried. Although his father had all his children baptized, he was an atheist. Worried about this, if his atheistic father could not go to heaven, Francis answered.

Pope Francis: Would we only cry like Emanuele if we bear suffering in our hearts like him. He cried for his father and had the courage to do it before us all, because in his heart is the love of the Father. I asked Emanuele for permission to repeat his question publicly, and he gave me his consent. That's why I'm repeating it. "My dad died recently. He was an atheist, but had all four children baptized. He was a good man. Is Dad in heaven? "
How nice that a child says of his father, "He was good." It's a beautiful testimony that this man has given to his children, because his children can say, "He was a good man". It is a beautiful testimony of the Son, who inherited the strength of the Father and also had the courage, had the courage to weep in front of us all. If this man was capable of producing such children, then he was really a good man. He was a good man. This man did not have the gift of faith, he was not a believer, but he had his children baptized. He had a good heart. And he has the doubt that his father, because he was not a believer, is not in heaven. Who says who comes to heaven, that's God. But what is the heart of God to such a father? How is it? What do you all mean? ... God has a father's heart. And with a non-believing father, he was able to baptize the children and give them that bravura to the children, do you think that God would be able to keep him away from him? Do you think so? ... loud, with courage ...

All: No!

Pope Francis: Does God forsake His children?

All: No!

Pope Francis: Does God fail his children when they are good?

All: No!

Pope Francis: Emanuele, that's the answer.  God was certainly proud of your father, because it is much easier to have children baptized, if you are a believer than you are not. And certainly God has liked it a lot. Talk to your father, pray for your father. Thank you, Emanuele, for your courage.

The "beautiful words of the Pope"

The Italian media devoted a lot of space to the event and were delighted. The most important newspaper in Italy, Corriere della Sera headlined:

"Pope Francis in Corviale comforts a child:" Your father, though not believing, is in heaven ".

Even the newspaper Il Foglio wrote of "beautiful words of the Pope".

Pope Francis at the meeting with the children.

Did they all misunderstand the Pope? Francis did not say that the father of the child is in heaven, even though he was an atheist.
 
Or did he?
 
Did Francis in the Roman suburban parish apply his special magic formula of communication, with which everyone understands what he wants to say, without having to say it explicitly?
 
Le Cronache di Papa Francesco did not hear in answer to the boy what most media heard, but a "recognition of atheism".
 
Can the serious question of Emanuele really be answered only from the perspective of a child to be comforted? Even in personal conversation and considering the age of the child, the answer would have been shortened and misleading. However, the Pope publicly responded to which the usual media reports followed, "The Pope said ..."  The answer to a specific child in a specific situation becomes a detached statement from the Pope, which can move people around the world and influence them in their thinking and decisions.
 
Le Cronache wrote on the pope's answer:

"Bergoglio is a Jesuit, which is why he puts it in such a way that it is difficult to pin him down. While accusing the devout Catholics of being 'strict' and having 'an answer to everything', it was on Sunday, and not for the first time, that gave the impression of a quick and pleasing answer to everything at hand. With him, it would probably be impossible to have a serious and clear argument about the doctrine. "

Not a word about purgatory, sin and salvation

Emanuele, the child, asked the head of the Church a legitimate question that has its origin in the love of the Father. It is a thoroughly Catholic question, because the concern is concern for the eternal salvation of the Father. The child showed a very clear consciousness. He knows about the atheism of the Father and knows that it contradicts the love of God. That's why he's worried.
 
Pope Francis began his answer as any good catechist would begin. He consoled the child, starting from what the child knew and could tell about the father. What the Father really thought and did is beyond the knowledge of the Pope. For that reason, he did not answer Emanuele with a "Yes, your father is, though incredulous, in heaven," as the media claims.
 
However, from the brief, straightforward question typical of children, Francis asked a whole series of questions that he addressed indirectly to the audience, turning it in one direction and leading to the answer he wanted to put in his mouth. The first answer was certainly the most important one. It is God who "says" who goes to heaven. But then, with broad questions, he turned the ball back and forth several times, so that in the end there seemed to be no other answer than that, though the Pope had not said that Emanuel's father, though an atheist, must be in heaven.
 
Pope Francis has never spoken of purgatory in his pontificate. That day would have been the opportunity. Just as the Pope can not know whether Emanuele's father is in hell - and to say so, would be inappropriate to a mourning child anyway - he can not know directly, nor imply that Emanuele's father, of whom the little child knew that he denied the existence of God, was in heaven, and that directly.

Consolation at the price of misleading?

The comfort of the bereaved is not only an honorable task, but is one of the works of mercy. But also at the price of weighing it in false hopes or even certainties?
 
The Pope could have asked the child if Holy Mass had been said for the Father. In addition, he could have talked about the Purgatory for the poor souls, where those who are saved but still need to be cleansed to gain access to Heaven. This time can shorten the living by their prayer and the sacrifice of Mass intentions and thereby perform great sacrifices of love for the deceased.
 
The Pope could have spoken about the eternal salvation and the necessary conditions for it. One does not go to heaven because one was a "good person" but because one did not die in the state of mortal sin and of course did not reject, reject or even mock God.
 
The Pope could have talked about the meaning of life. About the first of all questions: why did God create me? To know Him, to worship Him, to obey His commandments, and thereby go to heaven. Francis could and should have said a word about atheism. And so the impression had to arise that under the "good pope" Francis that an atheist also goes to heaven.
 
But whom should such misleading benefit?

"People who are not baptized are not children of God?"

Perhaps another, obviously prepared child question on the same day and at the same meeting helps to gain greater clarity. Carlotta, a young girl, also asked Francis a question.

Carlotta: Ciao Pope Francis! When we receive baptism, we become children of God. And the people who are not baptized are not children of God?
Pope Francis: Carlotta, tell me, I'll ask you the other way around: what do you think? The people who are not baptized are they children of God or are they not children of God? What does your heart tell you?
Carlotta: Yes.
Pope Francis: Yes. Now I'll explain. She answered well, she has a Christian nose! We are all children of God. All all. Even the non-baptized? Yes. Even those who believe in other, distant religions that have idols? Yes, they are children of God. The Mafiosi are children of God? ... you are not sure ... yes, even the mobsters are children of God. They prefer to behave like children of the devil, but they are children of God. All, all are children of God, all. But what is the difference? God created all, loved all, and gave all the conscience in the heart to distinguish good from evil. All humans have that. They know, taking was what is good and healthy; even the people who do not know Jesus, who do not know Christianity, all have it in their soul, because God has put it there. But when you were baptized, the conscience of the Holy Spirit entered and strengthened your allegiance to God, and in that sense you became more daughter of God, because you are the daughter of God like all, but also with the power of the Holy Spirit entering. Do you understand, Carlotta? I ask - everyone should answer - Are all people children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: The good people are children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: The bad people are children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: Yes. The people who do not know Jesus and have others, distant religions, worshipping idols are children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: The Mafiosi are children of God?
Children: Yes!
Pope Francis: And we must pray that they will return and truly know God. Now no one should answer, but the heart will answer: Who of you prays for the mobsters to convert? Everyone answers in his heart.
Then when we are baptized: Who comes into our hearts? ...
Volume up!
Children: The Holy Spirit!
Pope Francis: Bravo. The Holy Spirit is coming, and this Holy Spirit is letting us have more children of God. He gives us more power to behave like children of God. That's why Saint Paul has a sentence, and I want you to say that sentence to me. "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is in you." Why does he say this sentence? Because a Christian, a baptized person who behaves badly, grieves the Holy Spirit who is in us. The sentence is: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is in you". "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit who is in you." Are we going to say it?
Pope Francis together with the children: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit that is in you".
Pope Francis: Again!
Pope Francis together with the children: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit that is in you".
Pope Francis: And we children of God, who through baptism have the Holy Spirit, grieve when we behave badly when we commit a sin, the Holy Spirit who is in us. Thanks Carlotta!

The difference abolished by Francis

Carlotta and her question to the pope

In fact, the apostle Paul, mentioned by Pope Francis, in the New Testament refers only to Christians as the children of God and distinguishes them by the baptism to non-Christians. The latter Paul refers as "servants" and "slaves of sin." All men are creatures of God, but only the baptized are children of God. A clear and easy to understand distinction.
 
The non-Christians are, therefore, not children of God, but Pope Francis twists the ball twice in his hands and behold, all people "all, all", "not only the baptized" are suddenly children of God.
 
What is the difference between the baptized and the baptized? All are children of God, but some, the baptized, are "more children of God." With his snazzy way of speaking, last Sunday the head of the Church actually ruined a central biblical, apostolic, and above all, crystal clear distinction in favor of a blurred, ultimately useless substitute.
 
Why?

The message of Francis is pleasing Eugenio Scalfari

If one did not wish to impute the unawareness and naivety of the Church leader, which does not even seem theoretically conceivable vis-à-vis a Jesuit, then one must accept an intention behind this answer.
 
Already in the first controversial " Video of the Pope " of January 2016, all people (in the video were shown Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists) were declared as "children of God" in a syncretistic infusion. It was therefore not a slip by the pope last Sunday. Therefore the message can not be that through baptism one becomes "even more children of God." The real message that Pope Francis wants to spread is the mistaken assertion that all men are children of God.
 
Taking the answer to Carlotta and the answer to little Emanuele, Pope Francis has said two things:

1. Not only the Christians, but all people, even the followers of any other religions or the Mafiosi, in short, really all are children of God, even if they are not baptized.
2. Even those who are atheists will go to heaven. The main thing is he was a "good person".

This statement corresponds exactly to the thesis that the atheist Eugenio Scalfari wanted Francis so much to hear, and he put it in his mouth recently and at the same time "eliminated" Hell. The Vatican responded with a denial that was not really one. Now we also know why: because Eugenio Scalfari did not reproduce the words of the pope verbatim, but exactly his thinking. Exactly as Scalfari had always said: He vouches for the authenticity of the statements.
 
It was therefore the Vatican, that sprinkled with a denial, a fog of non-denial and prevented the necessary clarifications, or at least made it difficult.
 
Or did they all get it wrong?

The video which shows the entire parish event, starting with the meeting with Carlotta:
 

The section with Emmanuel:

  Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Vatican.va (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Cardinal Burke is Snubbed at Lourdes by Maltese Order

The presence of Cardinal Patron Burke at the International Lourdes Pilgrimage 2018 is apparently not desired.

(Rome) 160 years ago, in 1858, the Mother of God appeared in Lourdes. This event is being commemorated in the Catholic World in 2018. From the 4th to the 8th May the 60th International Lourdes Pilgrimage of the Order of Malta takes place. According to the current status, 6,500 knights and ladies and their companions as well as 1,300 sick and disabled pilgrims will participate. According to information, Cardinal Burke, although Cardinal of the Order, was not invited.
 
The information comes, according to the traditional French website Riposte Catholique out of the new religious leadership related sources.
 
Already in 2017, the cardinal had not been invited, after papal intervention had forced him to replace the head of the Order.

The first degradation

Cardinal Raymond Burke opposed the policy of Pope Francis to soften the sacrament of marriage during the first Synod of Bishops on the Family in October 2014. The cardinal denounced actions to manipulate the synod and criticized a break with Church doctrine and practice.
 
After the conclusion of the Synod, Pope Francis suspended him from the then prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signatura in the course of a purge and removed him from the Vatican. Francis sent the US Cardinal as cardinal patron to the Sovereign Order of Malta. Although this is a prestigious office, it lacks any influence on the leadership of the universal Church.
 
At the turn of the year 2016/2017 there was a conflict between the then Grandmaster Fra Matthew Festing and his Grand Chancellor Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager. The latter called for help from the Holy See, who jumped to his side. In a less elegant way, the Grand Master was demoted within a few weeks and forced by Pope Francis at the end of January 2017 to resign. Boeselager was again used by Francis as Grand Chancellor and is considered since then the real powerhouse in the Order.

The second degradation

At the same time Cardinal Burke was also disempowered. De jure he remained cardinal patron, thus the official representative of the Pope in the Knights and Hospital Order, but Francis appointed Curial Archbishop Angelo Becciu, as the substitute of the Cardinal Secretary of State, a special representative with the responsibilities of a papal commissioner.
 
Cardinal Burke was accused of having helped Grand Master Festing to take Catholic morality too seriously. Unlike Cardinal Gerhard Müller, whom Francis showed the door more elegantly (officially after the end of a regular term of office), Cardinal Burke has at least one office on paper.
 
Last Saturday, the cardinal in Rome participated in the conference "Catholic Church Quo Vadis?" In the main, Cardinal Burke had called not only upon the possibility, but the  duty to criticize the Pope, if he should deviate from the Catholic doctrine and practice.

persona non grata

As early as the 59th International Lourdes pilgrimage of 2017, the new leadership under Boeselager indicated that although Cardinal Burke must be tolerated as a cardinal partron, he was persona non grata in the Order.
 
After his appointment as cardinal patron in 2015 and 2016, Burke had led the annual pilgrimage and celebrated Holy Mass in Lourdes for pilgrims. Also in 2018, according to the information within the Church, he believes that he is not welcome to the International Lourdes Pilgrimage. The fact that it is the 160th Anniversary of the Marian apparitions, could change nothing. Those who contradict Francis have a difficult time and it is not just persona non grata at the Holy See where they are treated without mercy.
 
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Riposte Catholique
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

Vatican Closes Ancient Cloister of the Briggitines in Munich

(Munich) On Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising announced the dissolution of the monastery of the Briggitines of Altomünster.

"The Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signatura has finally confirmed the dissolution of the St. Birgitta Monastery in Altomünster, Dachau district. In a corresponding Decree from the Vatican, which is now in the archdiocese, the rejection of the complaint of the last religious who lived in the monastery, Sister Apollonia Buchinger OSsS, already confirmed in June 2017, will be upheld. The decree, written in Latin, expressly states that there were no candidates, postulates or novices at Altomünster Monastery at the time of dissolution, and that the women thus designated were neither validly admitted or were nuns from another monastery. The decree confirms once again that a presumptuous resident of the convent, who was still living in the convent, was never regarded as such and is obliged to move out.

The archdiocese can now focus more on a concept of use for the former monastery and associated areas and develop the future of Altomünsters as an ecclesiastical location." [A boutique hotel or disco?  A bookstore where they can sell softcore pornography?]

On Monday, Pope Francis published his new Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate . In it are words that seem to be directed against the two-thousand-year-old, contemplative charism of the order:

"It is not healthy to love the silence and avoid meeting others, to want peace and reject activity, seek prayer and despise ministry. Everything can be accepted and integrated as part of one's own existence in this world and be integrated into the path of sanctification. We are called to live contemplation in the midst of action, and we sanctify ourselves in the responsible and generous exercise of our mission "(GeE, 26).

The Birgitines

Saint Birgitta of Sweden

Saint Birgitta of Sweden (1303-1373), the most famous mystic of Scandinavia, came from her mother Ingeborg's royal family of the Folkunger. Her husband, the knight Ulf Gudmarsson, held a leading position as Lagman in the Swedish countryside Östergötland. Birgitta had four sons by him and four daughters. After a joint pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, both decided to enter the monastery. Ulf became a Cistercian. In 1346 Birgitta founded the monastery Vadstena after receiving divine visions. It became the mother monastery of the Order of the Blessed Savior (OSSalv) founded by her, a contemplative order with a strict rule.
 
The order spread mainly in the Nordic area, in the Scandinavian countries, in Estonia and Livonia as well as in the German-speaking world. Only to a small extent, however, in the Latin countries.
In Germany, the order perhaps flourished in the late Middle Ages and counted itself among the most  prosperous of monasteries. Birgitta founded a women's order, but provided for the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the Mass and the pastoral care of religious women that the monastery should also include priests (maximum 13), deacons and brothers. They lived outside the cloister and were strictly separated from the nuns. The leadership of the entire monastery was exercised by the abbess. The male branch was headed by a prior.
 
Altomünster - the youngest monastery survived the longest
 
The oldest monastery in Germany was Marienwohlde near Lübeck, which was built in 1413. Shortly thereafter, the foundations of Marienkron at Stralsund and Marienforst in the Archdiocese of Cologne followed. The monastery Maria Altomünster, established in 1496, was the twelfth and most recent founding of the Birgitten Order on German soil. It was one of two daughter foundations of the Bavarian Abbey Gnadenberg. In 760, St. Alto built a hermitage, which became a Benedictine monastery. In 1056 there was an exchange. The Benedictine nuns of Altdorf Abbey (Weingarten) near Lake Constance were able to move to Altomünster Abbey, while the Benedictines went to Altdorf and rebuilt the burned-down monastery. In 1496 the monastery was passed on a ducal wish to the Birgitine Order.

The visions of St. Briggita

Only four monasteries survived the Protestant Revolt, as the whole of the Briggitine Order was gravely affected by the Revolt's Nordic focus. In Scandinavia, under severe austerity, only the mother monastery Vadstena was able to hold for some time until 1595 when it was dissolved and expropriated by the Lutheran state. There has been a convent since 1963. In the Catholic countries, the Order experienced a second flowering in modern times, which led to the emergence of its own religious branch in Spain, where the Order only came after the Protestant Revolt.

The second flowering and the rapid decline

Still five independent monasteries of the original order existed in 2012. Today there are Vadstena and two abbeys in the Netherlands. Syon in England was abandoned in 2012 and now Altomünster has been dissolved.
 
The Altomünster Abbey survived the Protestant Revolt in Catholic Bavaria, thanks to the energetic Abbess Ottilia Öffler. On average, 30 nuns lived in the monastery and about 15 priests and brothers. In 1803 it fell victim to the storm of the monasteries in Napoleonic times and was abolished. The sisters were allowed to remain in the monastery until their death. Four sisters survived until the anti-Church climate subsided and King Ludwig I of Bavaria allowed them again in 1841 to accept novices. Since then  Altomünster has existed as a pure convent.

Monastery church of Altomünster

In 1947 the convent counted 62 nuns. Such a high number was reached only in the early 16th century. Today, only one Briggitine lives in Altomünster, the former prioress Apollonia Buchinger, which is why the Vatican had already ordered the abolition of the monastery in 2015. On the other hand, as it turned out, the only nun struggled unsuccessfully. Sr. Apollonia had to leave the monastery in February 2017. A candidate, who wanted to enter as a postulate, is now the subject of a lawsuit against the abolition of the monastery, which was decided with the verdict of the Apostolic Signatura. The archdiocese of Munich-Freising, which owns the properties, successfully attempted an eviction procedure before Bavarian courts.
 
A new Birgitine monastery in Bremen belongs to the third female branch, which was founded in 1911 by the Swedish convert Elisabeth Hesselblad in the tradition of the Order of the Redeemer, which today has 50 branches worldwide. The monastery in Bremen, which was built just a few years ago, does not yet include a German nun.
 
A few years ago, the youngest in the United States established a branch of the Order of the Briggitines, who have returned to the original tradition and cultivated the Immemorial Roman Rite.

Text: Johannes Thiel
Image: SMM / Wikicommons (Screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

Pope Campaigning for More Modernism: Married Clergy

[Yahoo] Pope Francis has requested that Roman Catholic priests be given the right to get married.

The request applies to priests in Brazil, and is on the agenda for an upcoming synod (church council) in the Amazon region.

The controversial move would address the critical shortage of men joining the priesthood – but is likely to drive divisions through the church by enraging conservative factions.

A small number of married Roman Catholic priests already exist, including previously married Anglican vicars who have joined the church.

A request to lift the ban on marriage was made by Brazilian bishop Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who reportedly asked the Pope to consider ‘viri probati’, meaning married of great faith, as priests.

Continued at:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pope-francis-requests-roman-catholic-priests-given-right-get-married-163603054.html?soc_src=community&soc_trk=fb

AMDG

Pope Refuses to Apologize: CBC Grills Rosica

Edit: naturally, intelligent “First Nations” agree with Rosica on item 58!  He’s having a hard time explaining why the Pope has apologized for “colonialism” and not for the Catholic Church’s alleged responsibility for doing wrong to Canada’s Indians. (First Nations sounds like something from an AIM leaflet.

[CBC] A Canadian priest is defending Pope Francis' decision not to apologize to Indigenous people in Canada for the role the Catholic Church played in the residential school system.

About 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their parents by law and forced to attend church-run residential schools. At least 6,000 children died at the schools from disease, mishaps and abuse, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

A papal apology was one of the 94 recommendations made by the TRC. During a visit to the Vatican last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally asked the Pope to consider such a gesture.

Listen here:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/no-government-tells-the-pope-what-to-say-priest-defends-lack-of-apology-for-residential-schools-1.4597046

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The Pope Knew But He Lies

Edit: so far there’s been no word from ++ Seán of Boston, who heads the Commission for the Protection of Minors, has not been available for comment about the letter he passed on to the Pope detailing abuse and a coverup by Barros, whom he vehemently defended on his South America trip and even accused the accusers of lying. It is he who lies like the Father of lies.

It looks like it’s OK to sexually abuse children if you’re part of Bergoglio’s agenda. He will even lie to defend you.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis received a victim’s letter in 2015 that graphically detailed how a priest sexually abused him and how other Chilean clergy ignored it, contradicting the pope’s recent insistence that no victims had come forward to denounce the cover-up, the letter’s author and members of Francis’ own sex- abuse commission have told The Associated Press.

The fact that Francis received the eight-page letter, obtained by the AP, challenges his insistence that he has “zero tolerance” for sex abuse and cover-ups. It also calls into question his stated empathy with abuse survivors, compounding the most serious crisis of his five-year papacy.

The scandal exploded last month when Francis’ trip to South America was marred by protests over his vigorous defense of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring the abuse by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. During the trip, Francis callously dismissed accusations against Barros as “slander,” seemingly unaware that victims had placed Barros at the scene of Karadima’s crimes.

https://apnews.com/07e48f9e01c54ec496397f68bea5d30a/AP-Exclusive:-Despite-denial,-Pope-got-abuse-victim's-letter?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP

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Adieu, Humanae Vitae

[Magister] Goodbye, “Humanae Vitae.” Half a century later, the encyclical against artificial methods of birth control that marked the most dramatic moment of the pontificate of Paul VI, rejected by entire episcopates, contested by countless theologians, disobeyed by myriads of faithful, is now giving way to a radical reinterpretation, to a “paradigm shift” undoubtedly desired and encouraged by Pope Francis himself.

Paradox would have it that Paul VI should be the pope whom Jorge Mario Bergoglio admires and praises the most. And precisely - his own words - for the “prophetic brilliance” with which he wrote that encyclical and for his “courage in standing up against the majority, in defending moral discipline, in applying a cultural brake, in opposing neo-Malthusianism present and future.”

But the reality is that “everything depends on how ‘Humanae Vitae’ is interpreted,” as Pope Francis never fails to comment. Because “the question is not that of changing doctrine, but of digging deep and making sure that pastoral practice takes into account the situations and what persons are able to do.”

Link to Espresso....

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Cardinal Müller Denies He is an Antagonist to the Pope

Cardinal Müller does not want to be stylized as a pope's adversary "I'm not an antipode to the Pope on principle, and certainly not from an ideological point of view, whether it's called conservative or progressive, right or left"

Hamburg (www.kath.net) 
The German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller does not want to become a pope's rival, according to the Pope Francis' recent criticism of the Curia. In present "time" Müller said, "In no case, would I like to be styled in the German press to a rival of the Pope!" After the Pope's Christmas address there was speculation that Francis meant especially Müller as confidant of the former Pope Benedict XVI. [Who recently praised him in the Herald.] To the unusually clear criticism of Francis to intrigues in the Vatican, Müller says: "In any case, intrigues and plots are incompatible with the professional honor of a clergyman."

Müller himself had to resign from the office of Prefect of Faith last summer. In addition he said that at the time, he was surprised, "because neither objective nor subjective reasons were mentioned." He admits that he criticized the Pope's style, but: "It was not about me, I had protected three of the best collaborators in my congregation, who had been dismissed without notice, without any reason, if that was improper or unwise I am a priest and not a courtier, Basta!" 

He does not see himself as Francis' conservative antagonist: "I'm not an antipode to the pope in principle, and certainly not from an ideological point of view, be it conservative or progressive, right or left." Pope Francis is neither liberal nor conservative and does not need an opponent, neither conservative nor progressive."

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG

Cardinal Maradiaga Financial Scandal: Pope Has Ordered Investigation

(Rome) Last Thursday was not very pleasant for all those present in the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace, and really not desirable for anyone.

For the curia workers, because they had to anticipate, the new "gift" of a renewed chastisement from the Pope for Christmas. But also for Pope Francis, because on the same morning the weekly magazine L'Espresso (comparable to the Spiegel/Time Magazine) with a dossier of one of the closest pope confidants and personal friends, the Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, this was anything but good.

Cathedral of Tegucigalpa

While Francis did in the Sala Clementina, that which the Curials had already feared - bludgeoning them for the fifth year in a row, talking about "traitors," "intrigues," "disloyalty," and "cancerous ulcers," was one of his own closest advisers in the spotlight of a "new scandal", as L'Espresso wrote.

The weekly magazine revealed that Cardinal Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras, was president of Caritas International and co-ordinator of the C9 Cardinal Council wanted by Francis in Rome, to make extra payments to his official remuneration.

600,000 extra and the "disappeared" millions

As archbishop, he is automatically also the Grand Chancellor of the local Catholic University. As such, Maradiaga had to pay nearly $ 600,000 annually from the university in recent years. More than 41,000 dollars or the equivalent of 35,000 euros flowed additionally monthly in return for nothing in Maradiagas pockets. In the month of December, he even paid himself out more than $ 60,000 as a Christmas bonus. Whoever can will. Maradiaga could because he is in the requisite power position.

The matter is generally extremely unpleasant for Pope Francis, who is particularly concerned about his own image. The thing is very dire because, since the beginning of the pontificate of Francis, Maradiaga has not only acted as a kind of vice-pope, especially in Latin America, but is also one of the most vociferous advocates of a "poor Church for the poor." At the same time he maintained a link to the restless globalist US multi-billionaire George Soros.

Maradiaga's pauperism has turned out to be a mere frippery with the L'Espresso piece. An action of the Pope was unavoidable with his Christmas scolding of the curia and the Maradiaga dossier.

Pope orders investigations - Cardinal Maradiaga not mentioned

As Vatican spokesman Greg Burke announced on the 24th of December, Pope Francis had "personally" arranged investigations into "alleged irregularities in the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa," said EFE [A Spanish international news agency created in 1939 by Spain's former minister of the press and propaganda Ramón Serrano Súñer and Manuel Aznar Zubigaray].

Auxiliary Bishop Pineda

Burke did not make a direct connection with Maradiaga. According to L'Espresso, the "irregularities" do not concern the extra payments made to the Cardinal, but rather "conspicuous" millions of euros in money transfer, for which the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese, Juan Jose Pineda, is responsible.

It was also unequivocally implied that Pineda could hardly effect the money transfers without the knowledge of Cardinal Maradiaga. This was probably even done on his behalf. They are related to London financial services providers, including Leman Wealth Management. The millions were deposited in German banks. Part of the money should now be "gone".

According to Vatican spokesman Greg Burke, the Pope has given the order to go in search of the money.

Cardinal Maradiaga positioned himself last spring as a potential successor to Pope Francis. This should be, as much as can be foreseen at least now, no longer the case.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi 
Image: Youtube / Wikicommons / Annus fidei
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG