Pope Francis Retires the Most Traditional Friendly Diocesan Bishop of Italy at 70

Pope Francis and Dom Zappella, Caritas Director for the Diocese
of Albenga-Imperia

(Rome) Bishops who are too traditionally inclined, or promote it in their dioceses, or who allow the celebration of the traditional form of the Roman Rite to an extent that it goes beyond a niche, don't have it easy under Pope Francis.

This is already being felt by Bishop Mario Oliveri of Albenga-Imperia on the Italian Riviera. Despite the above-average earnings in his diocese, he was overthrown by Pope Francis in January 2015.  The Pope appointed the Bishop of Pitigliano-Sovana-Orbetello, Msgr. Guglielmo Borghetti, as the Coadjutor Bishop of Albenga-Imperia, although Bishop Oliveri is in good health and was only 70 years old.

The coadjutor received with immediate effect, all  authority as diocesan bishop. Bishop Oliveri has since been only "decorative" actually.

Last April, Pope Francis summoned bishop and coadjutor separately and on the expressway to Rome. It was reported by Savona News that the Pope demanded Bishop Oliveri's resignation. He is to retire in August.

This dismissal was not made ​​in the context of the new Motu Proprio As a Loving Mother, which will come into force on 5 September.

Bishop Oliveri celebrated in the cathedral of Imperia the Christ the King in the Old Rite and accepted the perpetual vows of seven Franciscan sisters of the Immaculate. That was 2008. Since then, things have  changed a lot for the bishop, his diocese and the Order of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.

The media knows of the alleged reasons for the reshuffle of the top diocesan official. Yet these reasons are to be regarded with caution. Named are problems with two priests of the diocese.  Don Francesco Zappella was implicated in cases of sexual abuse, and Don Angelo Chizzolini was "xenophobic". So it is maintained by some media, and both priests were included in media campaigns last year.

The allegations have yet to be clarified, and thus are not suited for the preventive impeachment of a bishop, but initially, only for an inadmissible prejudice. Also therefore, they are not be suitable because even the coadjutor would then have to resign, who has been responsible for the two priests for over a year, and the specific cases already concern his tenure.

At the moment only it is only clear that with the help of the media, there is   a thick fog of suspicion and  accusations have been spread, and the church has been indicted by the public. Whoever hurls dirt from a safe cover, reckons that something has gotten stuck.

Bishop Oliveri seems to be the pawn sacrificed to allow the coadjutor to a "fresh start". It is more likely that Bishop Oliveri is disturbing as a traditional shepherd and has to be removed gingerly in a climate disposed to tradition.

The "raping" priest

The sudden urgency was brought about because in Uruguay a case against Don Zappella was initiated for sexual abuse. The priest worked until 2004 in Uruguay in the missions. Among other things, he built an orphanage and a home for maladjusted children and adolescents. The incident for which he has been accused allegedly occurred at the Mission in 2005.

There is currently a wave of scandal in Uruguay rolling across the Church. Several priests have been accused of the sexual abuse of minors. How much of it is true, must first be cleared up. The damage to the Church has already been accomplished by the media's prejudice. Here also the name Zappellas is mentioned, which brings the situation to the level of an international event, about which Pope Francis has had to intervene personally.

Don Zappella himself went public and had addressed the allegations himself. He is said to have then "raped" a 29-year old Brazilian. Don Zappella says it's the tit for tat response, because he had referred the man to a home in Albenga and was sent back to Brazil after he had molested a daughter of the hostess. He himself has no longer been engaged in the mission since 2004, but has visited his mission station since then only once a year.

An Italian victims' association had paid for the Brazilian  come at  society cost to Italy in order to be heard by the public prosecutor in an appeal for an indictment against Don Zappella in 2015. Previously, the victims' association had dragged the priest in this matter before the media. The investigation has been archived at the end of 2015 because of the statute of limitations. Then the association presented a new case in the spring, but this time a mentally unstable young man Don Zappella is supposed to have molested at a time which was within the statute of limitations.

The victims' association is working together with a priest of the diocese in the matter. Therein, Don Zappella sees the reason for the "campaign" against him: This priest is "envious" of him that  Coadjutor Bishop Borghetti has appointed him as the new director of Caritas in the Diocese.

The "xenophobic" priest

Don Chizzolini (right) assisted the vicar general of the diocese as a subdeacon at the celebration of Holy Mass in the traditional rite

Don Angelo Chizzolini for his part, has come into the headlines as an alleged "anti-immigrant priest."  In a broadcast of an Italian private television channel, he was presented as a "xenophobe". He had refused the reception of asylum seekers in his rectory and also refused to bless a dead Muslim. The latter was the initial spark for the negative media attention for the priest.

A gas cylinder exploded in a disaster in the spring of 2015 in a residential building. Several people were killed, including a Muslim. A Requiem and funeral took place in the parish. Relying on the canon law,  the parish priest, Don Chizzolini made ​​a distinction between the baptized Catholics and the Muslim. For some, who showed utterly no understanding, were outraged and appeared in the local press. From there the case reached the national press where the blessing that was not granted was hyped into an "unprecedented scandal" as part of the Refugee-Welcome-Hype.

Given this history, it was not difficult to brand the same priest in autumn 2015 as a "xenophobe" because he had refused to accommodate refugees in his rectory.  It's an accusation that the person concerned rejected: "There is simply no room in the rectory." [Does Pope Francis have to accommodate refugees on his floor in the Santa Marta?]

The brother of the Muslim who died had even threatened the priest and accused him of being "part of the hate." The priest filed a police complaint against anonymous leaflets with insulting insulting slogans on them. The investigations are still underway.

Don Chizzolini is one of those priests of the diocese who celebrate in both forms of the Roman Rite.

Shortly after the Coadjutor Bishop returned from his visit to Pope Francis, Don Chizzolini had to give up the three parishes that he supervised.  About a new task, "he would have to decide in quiet reflection," said the coadjutor. Don Chizzolini is imposed to silence on the matter. This should put the matter to rest, is what is said at the Diocese.

Even Bishop Oliveri now appears to have resign in the wake of a "calming action" personally chosen by the Pope, although he is not personally responsible in either of the cases. "What a coincidence that this is precisely the most traditional friendly diocesan bishop of Italy," so Messa in Latino .

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: IVG (Screenshot)

Melkite Bishops Rebel Against Patriarch

Edit: if what his colleagues say about him is true, he should resign. We hope this example catches on in other parts of the Church.

[AsiaNews.IT] The Greek-Catholic synod due to have taken place two days ago lacked a quorum, with the absence of 10 bishops. They accuse the Patriarch of having bankrupted the Church patrimony. The faithful are scandalized. The Congregation for Eastern Churches pushes for dialogue.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - The Greek-Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham announced last night that he will not resign from his patriarchal seat on the back of pressure from some rebel bishops who boycotted the synod which was to have opened two days ago on 20 June in Aïn Trez (Mount Lebanon), the summer seat of the patriarchate. He also confirmed that the annual Church synod will be held around October.

Out of 22 bishops in office, only 10 attended the meeting which requires the participation of at least 12 for validity. The absent bishops who have joined forces against the patriarch and boycotted the synod, are considered "in open rebellion."

Of the prelates boycotting the synod, the best known is the Archbishop of Beirut, Msgr. Cyrille Bustros (77 years). He and others call for the resignation of Patriarch Gregory III (83 years),claiming he has squandered the wealth of the Greek-catholic Church. The patriarch defended himself defining the allegations as "misleading".

Months ago, the coalition of bishops sent a letter to the Congregation of Eastern Churches laying the same claims, but the Congregation, led by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri gave no credence to their complaint, responding it could not act as a referee in this dispute, demanding the bishops participate in the Synod and recalling that no one can force a patriarch to resign. Gregory III, for his part, urged the bishops who are hostile to him to voice their criticism “transparently and with charity during the synod”. Unfortunately, their absence at the opening of the meeting shows their preference for a showdown.

"Open rebellion"

Last night, returning to the events of the last two days, and concerned about the feelings of his community shocked by the allegations, the patriarch issued a second statement in which he states that he will not resign under pressure. Harshly condemning the dissenting bishops, Gregory III emphasizes that their absence from the synod is a "case of open rebellion" that contradicts the provisions of Canon Law of the Eastern Churches (104).

The Patriarch also states that the Congregation of Eastern Churches has been clear on the issue of his function, noting that "the patriarchal seat is considered vacant only if the patriarch's death or renunciation of his office" (n. 126) and in no another case.

In the statement, Gregory III says: "I consider the boycott of the work of the synod on the part of some bishops as an act of open ecclesiastical rebellion against patriarchal authority and that of the Congregation of the Eastern Churches (Rome), as well as against a clear provision of canon law ... Demanding the unconditional resignation of the patriarch is irresponsible conduct, not ecclesial and illegal, and has caused a wave of anger, protests, doubts and perplexity among the faithful. This very serious situation has prompted us to publish this explanatory statement, out of the concern for protecting the conscience and feelings of our children, clergy and laity, as well as the dignity of our Church, at all levels ... I shall not resign, and not I give in to illegal and deceptive pressures. I will remain at the service of my Church. "

The patriarch has also stated that the suspended synod could be held in October and encouraged some mediation to make the meeting possible.

"Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."

Dear brothers and sisters,

in the reading from the Gospel of Luke, which we have just heard, is a leper who turns to Jesus  "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean" (5:12). He asks not simply to be healthy, but complete hearling in purity. Leprosy was considered a contamination of the whole person; a leper had to stay away from the people and from the temple. When he heard of Jesus, he is still in the city.

He believed wholeheartedly that Jesus could heal him. The leper shows us that during the encounter with the Lord, not many words are needed. It is important to trust in his omnipotence, his goodness and mercy. Jesus has compassion for the leper, stretches out his hand, touches him, and says: "I want it - be clean" ( Mk 1,41). The healed man is not to be made ​​public, Christ does not support sensationalism in miracles.  But the leper should show  a priest and make the purification offering, to be reintegrated fully into the community of believers and social life. He is to witness the Messianic authority of Christ before the priest. The power of compassion with which Jesus heals the leper, strengthens the faith of this man and makes him a missionary.

A cordial greeting to all German-speaking pilgrims. The month of June is dedicated to the worship of the Sacred Heart. The awareness of compassion of Jesus with us, enkindles in us a new, joyful and missionary faith. God bless you all.

Link to Katholisches...\

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Immemorial Mass: Cardinal Archbishop Answers Faithful According to Summorum Pontificum

Celebration in the Immemorial Mass of All Ages: A Cardinal
Interprets Summorum Pontificum Correctly

(Rome) The legal norms of Benedict XVI. are clear. They were established by him for the whole universal Church in the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum committed. Any priest has the discretion and without any additional permission to celebrate Holy Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.  In order for believers to be able to attend the celebration, is to form a stable group. The phrase "coetus fidelium" lists no minimum number, it sets the hurdle but so low that a handful is enough.

Not all bishops, priests and Ordinaries can make friends with the motu proprio. Again and again there are reports that the faithful who wish the celebration of Mass in the traditional rite, being put off, being slowed or even shown hostility. The standards adopted by Pope Benedict XVI.  leave no plausible discretion in proper compliance. As a rule, therefore, ideological reasons hide behind resistance against the traditional Mass.

 The Archbishop of Ancona-Osimo, Msgr. Edoardo Menichelli, who was made a cardinal by pope Francis in February 2015 is an exemplary case.

An overzealous priest in whose parish a coetus fidelium had formed and requested the celebration of Mass in the traditional rite, turned to the Archbishop, to obtain a "permission." Such is, however, according to Summorum Pontificum, not necessary. In this sense Cardinal's response anticipated this, who correspondingly wrote the Coetus fidelium:

"As already stated, the rule of a stable group applies, the bishop does not need to grant any permission.
I know that you've already spoken with the pastor, and the group also provides the liturgical book [the 1962 Missal].
I do not now know who will celebrate the Holy Eucharistic liturgy: if there is a priest of the diocese, I have no objection;  should it be another priest, he has - as required - to submit to the pastor the celebret.
On this occasion, I bless you all and your families. "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

"Cardinal Schönborn Like You've Never Seen Him Before" -- Visits Sikh Temple

"Cardinal Schönborn like you've never seen him before"--
The Cardinal sitting cross legged with orange head scarf in a
Sikh Temple in Vienna 

(Vienna) "Cardinal Christoph Schönborn live you've never seen him before: cross-legged with an orange stole as a headscarf. Occasion: Schönborn attended the Sikh temple in Meidling (12th district) on Sunday, in which he paid tribute to the freedom of religion. It was the first official visit to this religious community" reported the Austrian complimentary newspaper Heute.

The Sikh religion was founded just over 500 years ago by their first Guru (master) Nanak in the Punjab. Nanak was born into a Hindu family and belonged to the caste of traders. The Punjab had been subjected in the early 13th century by Muslim sultans.  Nanak attempted to overcome this opposition and the Hindu caste system  through a combination of Hinduism and Islam in a new syncretic religion. So he gathered the Sikhs around himself, which means "student."  Nanak's birthplace is now in Pakistani Punjab, the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the center of Sikhism, in contrast to the Indian Punjab.

Worldwide, the number of Sikhs is estimated at around 25 million. 80 percent of them live in India, and three quarters of them in the state of Punjab. The Punjab is the historic and current center of Sikhism. Only two percent of Indians are Sikhs, but almost 60 percent of the inhabitants of the Punjab. In the partition of British India,  which evenly divided the Punjab between India and Pakistan, there was an exchange of populations by expulsion, deportation and resettlement. Since then, there are hardly any Sikhs living in the Pakistani Punjab.

Around 10,000 Sikhs in Austria

Cardinal Schönborn in Vienna's Sikh temple

The number of Sikh people living in Austria is estimated at 10,000, just over half of whom live in Vienna. The number of almost 3,000 in the last state religious survey of 2001 is long outdated. In the past 15 years, their share has more than tripled.

Because what was written in 2001 about the religion is no longer applicable, there is no certain information about the rapid growth of these and other foreign religions. The lack of surveys, which is based on the fact that religion is a "private matter,"  makes the quick shifts caused by mass immigration invisible. 

Murder of a guru in Vienna

On 24 May 2009 the Austrian Sikh community was put in the spotlight as a guru of  the Ravidas sect was murdered in their temple in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus (15 district of Vienna).  Sant Rama Nand was revered by his followers as a "saint." Six Sikhs attacked the worshipers present in the temple with daggers and firearms. The guru was murdered while 15 worshipers and an attacker were injured, some seriously.

The conflict had to do with the caste system. The victims were members of the lower caste Dalits, the untouchables. The attackers, also Sikhs, belonged to a higher class. For them, the Ravidasis are a despicable sect because they adore living gurus as "saints" and not just the ten classical gurus who lived from 1500 to 1800. The Ravidasis are branched mainly from the caste of Dalits, which makes the religious conflicts a caste conflict, although the Sikhs officially reject the Hindu caste system,  the Indian legal system also really doesn't recognize it either, daily life in Indian society, which includes the Sikhs, however, continue to be determined by the caste system.

The violence sparked a discussion that   cultural, historical and political conflicts are also imported by mass immigration.

No recognized religious community

 Sikhs have arrived especially since the 80's, as the newspaper publisher Mediaprint procured exemptions from the Residence Act so it could procure cheap labor for its newspaper distribution. Most remained, brought their families and received Austrian citizenship.

In Vienna there are two Sikh Temples, which  Cardinal Schönborn visited, one in Meidling (12th district) and another in Donaustadt (22nd district). Plus, there's the aforementioned Ravidas Temple in the 15th district. The Ravidasis split off after the assassination of the Sikhs and see themselves since then as an independent religious community.

Neither the Sikhs nor Ravidasis enjoy neither the status of a recognized, nor even of a registered religious community in Austria. Both are organized as "religious associations."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Picture: Today (screenshots)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholishes...
AMDG

Daneels Protégé Kicks New Priestly Society Out of Brussels -- Too ManyVocations

(Brussels) The new archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Mgr. Jozef De Kesel, who applauded the recent proposal "totally," has set up an Islamic prayer room at each Catholic school, is at the same time expelling the Fraternity of the Holy Apostles, which was founded by his predecessor.

De Kesel's decision not only ensures a scandal among the faithful, but "opens a new problematic chapter in the governance of the diocese," says the weekly magazine Tempi.

Society refuted vocation crisis

De Kesel's predecessor was Msgr. André-Joseph Léonard, who, upon his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI was Archbishop from 2010-2015 of Mechelen-Brussels. The Fraternité des Saints Apôtres / Broederschap van de Saint Apostelen was established by him on 7 April 2013 and canonically erected. The idea came from Michel-Marie Zanotti-Sorkine, a popular charismatic priest of the Archdiocese of Marseille.

Archbishop Léonard allowed the Society to run priestly formation and gave them the two parishes of Sainte-Catherine / Sint-Katelijnekerk in Brussels and Saint-Joseph in the earlier Flemish, today almost entirely French-speaking community of Uccle (Ukkel) south of Brussels.

Archbishop Léonard ordained in 2015 last members of the Society 

Actually Léonard established it, not only because of the secular forces in Belgium, but those powerful hostile internal forces in the church, which necessitated a parallel priestly formation from outside the diocesan seminary. Similar routes have already gone well in the past for other bishops. In the German-speaking countries  the Regensburg Bishop, Rudolf Graber (1962-1981) founded a second seminary, Heiligenkreuz in Vienna.

The intuition of Archbishop Léonard was a success. The Brotherhood was able to achieve what the progressive diocesan institutions were no longer able, leading young men "to the beauty of that call and the service as diocesan priests."  The Society  is a community of secular priests, but lead a strong community life. It therefore offers the answer to the crisis of world priesthood in Western Europe. The entrusted parishes are alive, unlike neighboring parishes and are visited by many young people.

Although the Community is only three years old, it already nbers six priests and 21 seminarians.

"In solidarity with France's bishops" the Society must leave Belgium

This should have for the best. But this is not so, since Pope Francis made  Archbishop Léonard emeritus and made the new Primate of Belgium to be De Kesel, the preferred candidate of the progressive pre-predecessor. Danneels belongs to Team Bergoglio and the progressive clandestine circle of Sankt Gallen, who tried to prevent the 2005 election of Benedict XVI and were elemental in the 2013 election of Francis.

Michel-Marie Zanotti-Sorkine, founder of the Society 

The new archbishop decided that since the Society was so remarkably successful in the archdiocese, they may form no more priests for the Archdiocese, and thus have to leave Belgium. The reasoning? Because the majority of seminarians come from France. "In many regions of France, there are no priests [...], we do not want to be lacking in solidarity with our neighboring French bishops," De Kesel said in an official statement.

The members of the Society  who were already ordained priests, are to be incardinated into the diocesan clergy and retain charge of their parishes. The seminarians have the opportunity to enter into the diocesan seminary. But the Society  has to pack their bags, and those who want to stay in the Society as well.

The decision disappointed many faithful, who are worried anyway about De Kessels' plans for the "reorganization" of the diocese. His plan provides for the closure of a third of all churches. It was already prepared for at the time under Danneels (to 2010), but was postponed by Archbishop Léonard, who tried to revive the parishes instead. By appointing De Kesels, Danneels' Plan is back into effect.

"Ideological reasons"

A group of faithful of the parish of St. Catherine, led by Bernard de la Croix, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels wrote a letter: "We are amazed that the Society is a victim of its success. The seminarians who come to Belgium, are close to a determined charism, and it is thus not true that thereby the dioceses of France are emptied. The opposite is true: Some would perhaps never have entered a Seminary without a communal life like that of the Society of the Holy Apostles."

The neo-Gothic St. Catherine's Church in Brussels: one of the two parishes of the Society

The faithful then go in depth: "The principle of solidarity, of which one appeals, sounds rather strange. Of the 80 seminarians who are trained for example, in the diocesan seminary of Namur, only 25 are Belgians. Are all the others sent back to their countries of origin? Do all African and Polish priests who help us to proclaim the Word of God in Belgium, have to be sent back home? Is the Catholic Church no longer universal? This argument does not stand examination, and we hope that there aren't in reality, hiding purely ideological reasons."

The allusion is not outrageous for those who are familiar with Brussels' background. Archbishop De Kesel spoke recently for the abolition of priestly celibacy, which should no longer be a prerequisite for admission to the priesthood according to his lights. This must, says the Archbishop, be the necessary response to the "lack of priests". At the same time he throws out that community which brings most of the priestly vocations to the archdiocese. Vocations, who do not represent the progressive agenda and demand no abolition of celibacy.

The letter also points out that the deaconal ordinations planned for June of some members of the Society, have been postponed by Archbishop De Kesel, without giving a reason. It would have been the first ordination of a Society  member by De Kesel. It's a fact that the new chief shepherd of Mechlen-Brussels obviously wants to avoid.

Make a Tabula Rasa

The faithful of St. Catherine requested a debate with De Kesel. So far, they have received neither a response to their letter nor a date for a debate.

Others speak out clearly. Archbishop De Kesel wants to "make a clean sweep and wipe out the beneficial work of Archbishop Léonard." In the diocese Cardinal Danneels and parts of the progressive clergy had an aversion "from the beginning" to the so successful priestly vocations awakened by the Society  that represent a faithful line that is "miles" removed from Daneels' attitude.

Those parts of the Catholic Church, calling for intervention in the sacrament of marriage and refer to the shortage of priests for their solutions (abolition of celibacy, women's deaconate, women priests) find it hard to accept the suggestion that the vocation crisis can not least be traced back to homemade causes that can be overcome. Priestly vocations are a gift of God. It is thus also a signal, where and to whom they are given.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: fraternitedessaintsapotres.com/broederschapvandeheiligeapostelen.com (Screenhots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Pope Francis to Meet With Radical Leftist Podemos-Chief Pablo Iglesias -- First Denied, Now Confirmed

Podemos Chief Pablo Iglesias

(Madrid) While verbal and physical attacks against churches and religious leaders accumulate in the heated election climate in Spain, Pope Francis will meet  Pablo Iglesias, the current irrepressible leader of the radical left Spain in September. With this meeting Pope Francis continues his unilateral contacts with representatives of the radical left.

Acts of vandalism against churches and religious institutions, but also verbal attacks against high church officials, have characterized the time before the early Spanish general elections which are to take place on 26 June.

One of the most prominent victims of the attacks is Antonio Cardinal Cañizares, Archbishop of Valencia and former Cardinal Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship. In mid-May he had defended the natural family of a man and a woman with children against gender ideology. The cardinal had called "the family founded on marriage," a "precious asset" which need to be defended against attacks.  At the same time he criticized the gender ideology as "the most insidious that there has been in the whole of human history."

Since then representatives of the Left parties  have romped against the leading church representative.The attacks and the anti-Church propaganda are of such hardness that observers see it as a test run, for those who want to muzzle the Church and silence it. At the same time the same parties are pandering to the followers of Islam.

Among the attackers, there are representatives of the socialist PSOE, which last ruled from 2004-2011 Spain and during this time one of the most liberal abortion laws, which introduced "gay marriage" and muzzling laws that allow freedom of expression was restricted.

The sharpest attacks came from the ranks of the new radical left party Podemos by Pablo Iglesias. The architect of the Party founded in 2014, Juan Carlos Monedero, insulted Cardinal Cañizares as a "Monster" and mocked him by belittling his attitude as "repressed homosexuality". Monedero is a professor at the Pontifical University of Comillas and thus employee of the Church, which make the attacks particularly explosive.

Vatican spokesman has denied meeting with Podemos boss

In the parliamentary elections in December 2015 Podemos  with 20.7 percent was straightaway the third strongest. Since formation of a government failed, early elections will be held on 26 June. Podemos has formed part of  a list combined with the traditional radical left around the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). Under the name Unidos Podemos,  Podemos  is forming part of the United Left and Green as a radical leftist united front with the aim, if not then at least to be the strongest force in the country, to be strongest left force before the PSOE, which looks realistic according to opinion polls.

When rumors were circulated that Podemos boss Pablo Iglesias would be received by Pope Francis, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi SJ denied it. It was a denial with a quick expiration date. Directly from the Pope's circle,   InfoVaticana has received confirmation that Iglesias, "as planned", will be received next September by Pope Francis.

The incident with the wrong denial further undermines the already fragile authority of Vatican Spokesman, Father Lombardi in this pontificate.

Podemos represents - like the entire radical left -  positions to the field of "non-negotiable values" that are in open contradiction to the teaching of the Church. They represent on the subject abortion, artificial insemination, contraception, euthanasia, homosexuality particularly open and radically, a "culture of death".

Point 17 in the party program of Podemos is:

"Abortion. Podemos promises that the abortion in the public health system will be guaranteed. Likewise, all women will have access to all contraceptive methods. Artificial insemination is available to all women without restriction. "

This deadly opposition to the teaching of the Church and the nature of man does not seem to be disturbing to the Church's head. The precondition for the alliance forged with the radical left was the extensive disposal of "non-negotiable values" in the storeroom of the papal programmatic. It was declared by Pope Francis in September 2013, and so it has since been maintained the Church leader.

Contact by Pope confidant Gustavo Vera

Pope Francis with Gustavo Vera

According InfoVaticana contacts between Iglesias and the Vatican were prepared by Argentine deputies Gustavo Vera, a close friend of Pope Francis. The social activist Vera belonged to 2014 the now broken left-liberal Frente Amplio UNEN . Two years ago he founded the party Bien Común (Common Good). The choice of name go, according to his own account, back to a quote attributed to Pope Francis:

"The power is common good. If it is self-interest, it is corruption."

Vera represents his party in the city council of Buenos Aires.

He met recently with Íñigo Errejón, the Group Chairman of Podemos in the Spanish Congress of Deputies, to discuss the last details for the meeting with Pope Francis.

Errejón's father, José Antonio Errejón, was active in the Maoist Workers Party of Spain  (PTE), belonging to the founders of the Greens in the mid-80s and in the mid-90s among the founders of the Anti-Capitalist Left . This leftist group belonged, until 2007 to the Communist led United Left (IU). In 2014 he joined the new radical left party Podemos where his son made ​​a brilliant career.

Sanchez Sorondo: Architect of the Pope's radical left axis

The fine work of the meeting between Podemos boss Iglesias and the pope was accomplished by the Argentine Curial Bishop, Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, who met a few weeks ago with the Mayor of Madrid since June 2015, Manuela Carmena. Carmena belonged to the party which was only legal  until after the end of Franco's rule, the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). As a lawyer her membership was dormant until she got a job as a judge in the 80s under the PSOE government of Felipe Gonzalez. In 2015 she was the victorious top candidate of the left electoral alliance Ahora Madrid between Podemos and the PSOE.

With the reception of Pablo Inglesias, Pope Francis continues his intensive international contacts with representatives of the radical left, while ignoring representatives of the political center and right. The architect of the contacts is the Pope's close confidant and Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo.

Sorondo applauded with obvious satisfaction, as the radical left, gay, Italian philosopher, Gianni Vattimo on 13 March 2015 Teatro Cervantes in Buenos Aires in front of all the prominent left radical figures,  to form a new Communist International, which he dubbed the  "Papal International" because was supposed to be led by Pope Francis.Vattimo said at the time:

"Pope Francis is the only one who is capable of a political, cultural and religious revolution to lead against the superior power of money in the Civil War, which is already raging in the world, and is disguised as 'the fight against terrorism' , but in reality is the class struggle of the 21st century against the large number of the critics of capitalism."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: InfoVaticana / La Alameda (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.clom
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

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Benedict Expresses Himself in Writing Again

According to Italian media reports, he has written a dedication in a book with contributions in honor of Cardinal Giacomo Biffi.

Rome (kath.net/KNA) Emeritus Benedict XVI. (2005-2013) is reported to be writing again: According to Italian media reports, on Wednesday, he has written a dedication in a book with contributions in honor of Cardinal Giacomo Biffi (1928-2015) the former Archbishop of Bologna.

Since his resignation in late February 2013, Benedict XVI has expressed himself only rarely in public. Recently, there was an interview published in March with him, in which he first expressed himself to Pope Francis.

According to an anecdote that circulated in the Italian media, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had allegedly given Biffi his vote during the papal conclave in 2005.

Biffi was an "exemplary pastor of the Church of God in stormy times" and a "man of extraordinary courage without fear, of being popular or unpopular" which the media is quoting from the text of the Pope Emeritus. He expressed his wish that the Church would never be lacking in "people of his human greatness." The book with the Latin title "Ubi fides ibi libertas" ( "Where faith is, there is freedom") was presented on Tuesday in Bologna.

Biffi was from 1985-2003 Archbishop of Bologna. In the College of Cardinals and in the Italian Episcopal Conference, he was one of the spokesmen of the conservative wing.

According to an anecdote Biffi had expressed his astonishment to a Cardinal seated beside him In the papal conclave in 2005 at the fact that he received a single vote in each ballot. He is quoted as saying: 'If I find out who has the nerve to choose me, I promise, he gets a beating."  The addressed Cardinal had the. answered him that it obviously was Ratzinger who chose him and he therefore would have to deliver the Pope a beating.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. is greeted by Pope Francis and passes through a second the Holy Door.

http://kath.net/news/55577

Vatican Speaker: "Pope Speaks for Himself" and Needs no "Speakers" and "Interpreters"

The Pope Speaks for Himself When it Comes to Argentina

(Rome) Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi SJ clarified that in connection with  relations of the Pope to Argentina that Francis "speaks for himself" and needs "no speakers and interpreters." The reason is that there are different voices and interpretations surrounding the political relationship of the Pope to his homeland who  have led to controversy in recent months. Several people tried to act and interpret themselves as the "authentic" disposition on behalf of the Pope.

The clarification of the Vatican spokesman was carried out in an interview with the Argentine radio station FM Milenium. The daily La Nacion reported about it on June 11. The clarification can be read to the effect that Pope Francis quite is disposed in other areas through interpreters and the press secretary says, but this is only true for relations with Argentina. Father Lombardi himself interpreted papal statements in the same interview papal on other topics.

Pope Francis said on the flight back from Lesbos, himself, to a journalist on the question whether the Post-Synodal Letter Amoris Laetitia will change the content of Church practice and doctrine: "I could say now: Yes, and period."  Instead,  the head of the Church directed, as regards the authentic interpretation of Amoris laetitia, that he had commissioned the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn with the official presentation of the letter in Rome.

Apart from the official Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi SJ, who himself  makes known, however, that he has only limited access to the Pope and to have information, there is mainly Father Antonio Spadaro SJ, Editor of the Roman Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, indirectly, the journalist Andrea Tornielli and especially the atheist doyen of leftist journalism and Masonic tradition, Eugenio Scalfari, as semi-official Pope spokesman. Previously, there have been no comparable denials that Pope Francis "speaks for himself" and needs no "speaker" and "interpreter." 

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: La Nacion (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Bishop Crepaldi of Trieste: "The Duty to Fight"

"The defense of the non-negotiable values ​​also requires a form of struggle. It means opposing erroneous  laws, on the streets, in parliament and in the media. One has to fight so that such a law is not adopted. Likewise, a just law must be defended against attacks from the bench. [...] The defense and promotion of the non-negotiable principles calls for fighting spirit. But this understanding  now no longer exists in the minds of many Christians. 

One thinks, for example, that it correct, appropriate and also Christian to show the beauty of faith, instead of directly opposing things that are wrong. It is thought that the faith is perceived on the latter way as an opposition, negation, more of a say no to this, than as a proclamation. Many think that Christian parents should witness the beauty of this, instead of going into the street to prevent others not doing these things.

In my view, this reference to the positive is true and important in the proclamation. First comes the proclamation, then the accusation. The positive always has priority. It is impossible, however, to proclaim the good without fighting the evil. Without this component the mere testimony of the positives is an alibi for lack of commitment.

Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, Bishop of Trieste, in his book: A compromesso alcuno. Fede e politica dei principi non negoziabili (Uncompromisingly. Faith and politics of the non-negotiable values), Siena, Cantagalli, 2014, p 37-38.

From 1994, Undersecretary and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, from 2001, secretary, was appointed in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI as Bishop of Trieste and appointed simultaneously to Archbishop ad personam. He is founder and Presideny of the International Observatory Cardinal Van Thuân for the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Image: Diocese Trieste (Screenshot)

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

The Pope is Not Infallible?

The Pope Is Not Infallible. Here Are Eight Proofs

Mistakes, gaffes, memory lapses, urban legends. A list of errors in the discourses of Francis. The most disastrous in Paraguay 

by Sandro Magister

ROME, 13 June, 2016 – “As Benedict XVI said, the tolerance must be zero”: thus Pope Francis in his interview with “La Croix” of last May 16, concerning the sexual abuse of minors.

But if one searches through all the writings and discourses of pope Joseph Ratzinger, the formula “zero tolerance” is simply not to be found. Nor is any equivalent formula.

And yet it returns in the annals of the Vatican like a mantra, most recently a few days ago, on June 4, on the occasion of the issuing of the motu proprio for the removal of bishops guilty of “negligence” in dealing with cases of abuse.

But while Francis has repeatedly made it his own, for example in the press conference on the flight back from the Holy Land, to attribute it also - as he has done - to Benedict XVI does not correspond to the truth.

And it is the latest of not a few inaccuracies that are scattered throughout the public speaking of the current pope.

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The next-to-last inaccuracy is from April 24, during Pope Francis’s improvised visit to Villa Borghese. in the center of Rome, with members of Focolare holding an environmental demonstration.

The pope said, in his improvised remarks:

"Someone once told me – I don’t know if it’s true, if someone wants they can check, I haven’t checked – that the word ‘conflict’ in Chinese is made of two symbols: a symbol that means ‘risk’ and another that means ‘opportunity’. Conflict, it’s true, is a risk but it is also an opportunity."

In reality, this showy and imaginary translation of the Chinese word “weiji” is an oratorical device invented in the West. It was launched for the first time by John Kennedy in a speech in Indianapolis in 1959, and since then has been reused many times by him and other American political leaders, from Nixon to Al Gore to Condoleezza Rice, becoming recurrent even in the popular press in English and other languages.

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A third inaccuracy is in the press conference of this past April 16, on the return flight from the island of Lesbos.

In responding to the barrage of questions on “Amoris Laetitia,” Francis pointed to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn as the right interpreter of the document. And in singing his praises - “he is a great theologian” and “he knows Church doctrine well” - he added: “He was secretary of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.” Which is not true, because on this congregation Schönborn was and is only a member.

Moreover, in that same press conference, Francis replied with an improbable “I do not remember that footnote” to a question on the crucial footnote 351 of “Amoris Laetitia,” the one that envisions “the help of the sacraments” for the divorced and remarried.

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Francis responded with another unlikely “I do not remember that document well” to the question of whether “there is still value” in the 2003 doctrinal note of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith that forbade Catholic politicians from legalizing unions between persons of the same sex.

This during the press conference on the flight back from Mexico, on February 17, 2016, just when a law of this kind was on the verge of being approved in Italy.

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During the same press conference on the flight from Mexico to Rome, another misstep, this time with Paul VI paying the price.

Pope Francis said:

"Paul VI - the great! - in a difficult situation, in Africa, allowed the nuns to use contraception for cases of violence."

And he added that "avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil, and in certain cases, as in those that I mentioned of the blessed Paul VI, [that] was clear."

Two days later, Fr. Federico Lombardi also pulled out the same story, in an interview with Vatican Radio conducted with the intention of straightening out what had gotten tangled in the statements of the pope presented in the media, which at the go-ahead for contraceptives had already chanted victory:

“The contraceptive or the condom, in cases of particular emergency and gravity, can also be a serious object of discernment of conscience. This is what the pope is saying. [. . .] The example that [Francis] gave of Paul VI and the authorization to use the pill for religious women who were at the gravest continual risk of violence on the part of rebels in the Congo, at the time of the tragedies of the war in the Congo, makes it clear that it was no normal situation in which this was taken into consideration.”

Now, that Paul VI explicitly gave this permission is not evident at all. No one has ever been able to cite a single word of his in this regard.

Yet this urban legend has been kept alive for decades, and sure enough even Francis and his spokesman have fallen for it.


How this incident truly came about has been reconstructed chapter and verse in this article from www.chiesa:

> Paul VI and the Nuns Raped in the Congo. What the Pope Never Said

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A
The sixth and most disastrous error: the one into which Francis fell in Asunción on July 11, 2015, in the discourse to representatives of civil society in Paraguay, with President Horacio Cartes and other authorities of the country in the front row.. Someone told me: 'Look, Mr so-and-so was kidnapped by the Army, please do something to help!'. I do not know if this is true, or if it is not true, if it is right, or if it is not right, but one of the methods used by dictatorial ideologies of the last century, which I referred to earlier, was to separate the people, either by exile or imprisonment, or in the case of concentration camps, Nazis and Stalinists excluded them by death. For there to be a true culture of the people, a political culture, a culture of the common good, there must be quick and clear judicial proceedings. No other kind of strategy is required. Clear, concise judgments. That would help all of us. I do not know whether or not this exists here, and I say it with the greatest respect. I was told this as I came here, I was given this information here. I was asked to make a request about someone I do not know. I did not manage to grasp the surname of the person involved".

The name that Francis had “not managed to grasp” was that of Edelio Murinigo, an official kidnapped more than a year before not by the regular army of Paraguay - as the pope had understood - but by a self-styled “Ejército del pueblo paraguayo,” a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group active in the country since 2008.

And yet, in spite of his stating and emphasizing his ignorance of the case, Francis had no qualms about using the few and confused facts he had grasped poorly a short time before to accuse that blameless president of Paraguay of nothing less than a crime compared with the worse misdeeds of the Nazis and Stalinists.

President Cartes deserves to be honored for the gentility with which he allowed the stunning public affront to fall into obscurity.

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Another error, the imaginary citation that Francis put into the mouth of the composer Gustav Mahler in the speech - packed with admonitions - given to Communion and Liberation on March 7, 2015:

"The reference to the legacy that Don Giussani left you cannot be reduced to a museum of records, of decisions taken, of the rules of conduct. It certainly entails faithfulness to tradition, but faithfulness to tradition, Mahler said, 'is not to worship the ashes but to pass on the flame'. Don Giussani would never forgive you if you lost the liberty and transformed yourselves into museum guides or worshippers of ashes."

Every time the pope makes a citation, the team that gives official form to his discourses supplements it with a reference to the text from which it is taken. But in this case that did not happen. Because it could not happen.

In none of Mahler’s writings, in fact, can the phrase cited by Francis be found.

But it must be noted that a few days before, in concluding the spiritual exercises for the beginning of Lent in which the pope himself had participated, the preacher selected, Carmelite Fr. Bruno Secondin, had constructed his last meditation precisely on that citation attributed to Mahler by others before him and now entered into common usage in spite of having no basis in reality.

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And finally, another phrase very dear to Jorge Mario Bergoglio but by an imaginary author: “Ipse harmonia est.”

The first time he cited it was no March 15, 2013, two days after he was elected pope, in the address to the cardinals returning from the conclave: “I recall that Father of the Church who defined the Holy Spirit like this. . .”

That time as well the Vatican office that handles the documentation of the pope’s discourses and the addition of bibliographical references to them racked its brains to find who might have spoken that phrase, and where. But it couldn’t do it. The maxim went into the record without father, without mother, without genealogy.

But Francis didn’t give up, and twenty months later he came back to citing the motto, attributing a paternity to it himself: “‘Ipse harmonia est’, Saint Basil says.” And this time as well it ended up in the record without a footnote, because no one was able to discover where Saint Basil might have said those words.

It was December 22, 2014, and the discourse was 




9.6.2016
> It’s Everyone Or No One. The Synodality That Is Sinking the Council
A few days before it opens, the pan-Orthodox Council is in danger of failing. The patriarchates of Bulgaria, Georgia, and Antioch have announced their withdrawal, and Moscow is supporting them. The discord has been sown by the embrace between Kirill and Pope Francis

7.6.2016
> Alice in “Amoris Laetitia” Land
The dazzling critique by an Australian scholar on the post-synodal exhortation. “We have lost all foothold, and fallen like Alice into a parallel universe, where nothing is quite what it seems to be”

3.6.2016
> “Scholas Occurrentes”: Francis’s Pedagogical Revolution
Goodbye, Catholic teaching. The worldwide network of schools that the pope is fostering and promoting with great fervor has a completely secularized educational paradigm. Instead of saints, the stars of sports and entertainment

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For more news and commentary, see the blog that Sandro Magister maintains, available only in Italian:

> SETTIMO CIELO

The last three posts:

Tango argentino. Bergoglio e amici sbattono la porta in faccia a Macri

"Eretico". Il verdetto del cardinale Müller sul primo consigliere del papa

Un motu proprio per rimuovere i vescovi "negligenti". Tranne qualcuno

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13.6.2016