(Rome) Pope Francis threatens to suspend all priests of a whole diocese in Nigeria a divinis. The ultimatum expires on July 8th.
The conflict is already going back to 2012. At that time Pope Benedict XVI., shortly before retiring his office, assinged a new bishop for the diocese of Ahiara.
The priests and faithful of the diocese have since hindered the new Bishop Peter Ebere from taking possession of his diocese because he does not belong to the Mbaise people as did his predecessor.
Monsignor Okpaleke is Ibo. Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, has been an Apostolic Administrator of Ahiara ever since.
The Ahiara diocese was established by Pope John Paul II in 1987 and is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Owerri. Bishop Okpaleke is only the second bishop of the diocese. The number of Catholics in the diocese is more than half a million or about 80 percent of the population. The number of diocesan priests has increased from less than 50 to more than 130 since its establishment.
Last Thursday the Vatican press office announced that Pope Francis had received a delegation from the Ahiara diocese in private audience, accompanied by Cardinal Onaiyekan and Bishop Opaleke. The delegation undertook an ad limina pilgrimage to the tombs of the apostles in Rome.
Discussions about "the tormented situation of the church in Ahiara" also took place with the Cardinal Secretary.
In the audience with Pope Francis, he explained to the delegation that the situation in Ahiara was "unacceptable". After "careful consideration", he maintained there would be "appropriate measures".
What the Press Office did not communicate so directly, but the intelligence service Fides wrote: Pope Francis gave an ultimatum, primarily to the priests of the diocese. Either they accept within 30 days without reservation the appointed bishop, or they will be suspended a divinis. The ultimatum has been public since Thursday.
HAMBURG. [Junge Freiheit] The rape of a 13-year-old girl in Hamburg may not be punished as a child abuse. On Thursday the presiding judge, the prosecutor's office as well as the defense, came to an agreement. Negotiations are now being made on account of the allegation of rape, but not on account of the original allegation of serious sexual abuse of a child.
The accused is a 30-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq. He is said to have brutally raped the now 14-year-old in November 2016 at the S-Bahnhof Jungfernstieg. The student had previously celebrated with friends on the Rathausmarkt and was drunk. They also met a group of men to whom the Iraqi belonged.
The defendant wants to confess
When the girl was going home at around 3 in the morning, the Iraqi grabbed her at the S-Bahnhof Jungfernstieg from behind, dragged her into a room and he fled. After the deportation, the asylum seeker escaped to Hungary, but was arrested and handed over to Germany at the beginning of March.
According to the judge, the defendant could not have known without doubt that the girl was only 13 years old, reports the Hamburger Abendblatt. Therefore, the parties agreed to abandon the allegation of child abuse. In this way, the girl, who still suffers from the act, can be spared a statement.
The defense has announced that the Iraqi wants to make a confession in the course of the proceedings, which will be continued in the middle of June. The judge signaled that he would have to face a term of imprisonment between three and three and a half years. (Krk)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
(Fatima) The month of June is claimed by the homo-movement as "la "month of Gay pride". Montserrat Sanmartí Fernández reported on the Spanish blog Como Cara de Almendro last Tuesday: "New profanation in Fatima. Homo flag on the pillars of the sanctuary. "
To this end the blog published a photo of the old pilgrimage church with the surrounding pillars. It can be seen that, on each side of the church, six-color cloths were placed on each of the pillars on the porch, which are strikingly similar in the general view to the Aberrosexual flag.
In the Catholic Church, the rainbow flag is common and a much older symbol than the homo-flag, which has only been recognized since 1989.. The rainbow is the symbol of the Old Covenant between God and man and is used in the Christian context as a symbol of peace.
The Christian symbol and the homo-flag are almost identical and can not be distinguished by the untrained eye. In the meantime, the "rainbow flag", as the pride flag as it is also called in English speaking lands, was largely adopted by Gay Pride Movement. That it is also a Christian peace symbol will no longer be known to many.
The difference between both flags is the number of colors. The Christian flag has seven colors, the homo flag only six. In Fatima, only six colors are shown, but the colors and the color arrangement do not match the homo-flag.
The accusation that the homo flag is being shown in the place of pilgrimage is therefore not true, but shows how sensitive believers have become through the penetrant propaganda of homo-organizations - and, unfortunately, also what trust believers today have for Church leaders.
The colorful flags, as the directorate of the place of pilgrimage communicated, were installed because of the imminent pilgrimage to Fatima, which will take place on the 10th of June.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
The Society was authorized to carry out priest ordinations without the consent of the local bishop. The consecration is therefore not only valid, but also allowed, says Bernhard Fellay, the superior of the FSSPX.
Vatican (kath.net/CWN/jg) The Bishops of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (FSSPX) may consecrate priests with the consent of the Vatican. This was announced in an interview by Bernard Fellay, the FSSPX Superior General.
He had received a letter from Rome last year. He had been told that his Society priests could be consecrated without the consent of the local bishop. The priestly ordinations of the Society were therefore not only valid, but also allowed, Fellay added.
This is another step in the approach between the Society and the Vatican, said the Superior General. Under Pope Benedict XVI And Pope Francis, relations have improved. Benedict XVI Lifted the excommunication of the Society in 2009. The confessions and nuptials of the FSSPX have been recognized under Pope Francis. In October 2016 Bernard Fellay was received at the Vatican.
Edit: the article is more fair than we would expect, although no mention is made of the elderly people who make up the 100 or so people who somehow like the music of Marty Haugen and are only nominally Catholic. One wonders how this priest couldn't have just waited them out or at least invited them to attend a Unitarian Church where they belong? Sadly, the fight of an Archbishop Lefebvre or a Father Leonard Feeney is not in plentiful supply?
Also, what happened to the South?
[South Carolina] The pastor of a Catholic church in the N.C. mountains whose conservative leadership style split the congregation and drew national media attention has resigned.
In a Facebook post, the Rev. Christopher Riehl of St. John the Evangelist parish in Waynesville wrote that he was “worn out or burned out” and for his own well-being needed to take a sabbatical.
He did not mention the rancor at the parish, where he’s been pastor for nearly three years, or the petition by more than 100 members to have him removed. It was sent to Bishop Peter Jugis, who leads the 46-county Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.
The National Catholic Reporter published a January article on the clash between Riehl and many parishioners in the church of about 250 families. Some of those members have left St. John’s. The article cast the divide as one of a new pastor who preferred traditionalist approaches to the liturgy and church governance versus parishioners who cherished what had been St. John’s post-Vatican II style of a greater role for the laity and more modern worship and music.Vatican II refers to the Second Vatican Council of the early- to mid-1960s, when the Roman Catholic Church, for example, permitted the use of local languages for a Mass that had traditionally been celebrated all over the world in Latin.
According to the National Catholic Reporter article, Riehl threw out popular hymns and replaced them with the ancient Gregorian chant. When the music director was relieved of her duties, the article said, most of the choir resigned.
A group calling itself Appalachian Catholics in the Smoky Mountain Region said in a statement earlier this year that Riehl and some other conservative priests assigned by Jugis to small parishes in the mountains “seem to be more intent on taking the church back to pre-Vatican ll days rather than minister to the people. They seem to be steeped in doctrine and theology, but are unwilling to participate in ecumenical activities, and are lacking in compassion, love and mercy. They are doing the job of the theologian, but not the job of the pastor. This is directly opposed to what Pope Francis and Vatican II are teaching us.”
But Riehl and like-minded priests had support from conservative Catholics. "This is sad and quite disturbing,” Thomas Raffo wrote on St. John’s Facebook page, below the news about Riehl’s resignation. “It is my belief that Father Riehl was run off by some snooty Liberals who didn't care for his traditional approach to the Mass.”
In his June 4 Facebook post to members of his “parish family,” Riehl wrote that his leaving was not prompted by anything other than his own need to take some time away from parish ministry.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that I have decided, of my own free will and my own instigation, to resign my position here at St. John’s,” he wrote. “I have found that I am worn out or burned out and for my own well being need to take a sabbatical. There was no incident or event, just a feeling that I need some time away from full parish ministry. I have absolutely no questions or doubts about my vocation to the Priesthood of Christ.”
It seems likely that Riehl will leave the Diocese of Charlotte, too. Asked if Riehl, who had previously been assigned to a diocese in Tennessee, will get another assignment from Jugis after his sabbatical, Hains said, “I don’t think so.”
Hains was also asked whether Jugis had directed Riehl to resign. “What (Riehl) has in the statement is self-explanatory,” Hains said.Besides the petition sent to Jugis, critics of Riehl also wrote to Pope Francis and to Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the pope’s representative in the United States as Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See.
Ann Simmons, who left St. John’s because of Riehl and has been attending a Catholic church in Maggie Valley, said in a statement Tuesday that “As a prayerful people, we pray (Riehl) is restored to good health and the reconciliation of current and past parishioners of St. John’s will begin to take place.”
But parishioner Christine McQueen Ryan, who stayed at St. John's, thanked Riehl in a Facebook comment: “Sending Love, Prayers, and thankfulness for all of your efforts to draw us closer to our Lord and our God. May your journey be filled with the peace of our Lord. Pax Christi.”
As the Vatican II generation continues to die off, it is so often a relief to see young people with real ardor for our holy religion replacing them. One of these, apparently, is Matthew Walther. His latest piece at The Week is well worth reading.
It is regrettable, however, that Mr. Walther holds Pope John Paul II in such high regard. That the Holy Father had no gift for governance and thereby failed at his duty as pope is beyond dispute. Mr. Walther is to be commended, nonetheless, for in effect calling Mr. Pence to repentance. We at the EF second that call.
(Lisbon) The Portuguese daily Sol published an interview with Cardinal Peter Turkson on 3 June. The cardinal from Ghana also entertained the possibility of Pope Francis' resignation.
The Cardinal was President of the Pontifical Council Iustitia et Pax and since 2016 has been the first prefect of the new Pontifical Council for the Holistic Development of People, in which he had formerly acted as an advisor.
Excerpt from the interview
The daily newspaper Sol, in the words of Cardinal Turkson, mentions in a meaningful way: "The exit door of Benedict is always there for Francis."
Sol: Is it possible that Francis should follow the example of Benedict XVI. and resigns?
Cardinal Turkson: I do not know if he will. This is a matter between him and God. But it is also true that what Benedict has done has become a part of the institution. This means that the freedom to do so is always given.
Sol: You mean, even if he does not open the door, the door is always there?
Cardinal Turkson: Definitely. This can happen.
Controversial figure of an "emeritus pope"
This continuing "development" of the institution of the papacy by the office of Benedict XVI. and the unusual way he continued to dress himself as a pope, to keep his pope's name and to be an "emeritus pope" is very controversial. Cardinal Walter Brandmüller described the figure of an emeritus pope as a "great danger " for the unity of the Church.
Against the attempted institutionalization of an "emeritus pope," Church lawyers even vehemently raised their voices. For the renowned Church lawyer Giuseppe Sciacca, curial bishop and secretary of the apostolic signatura, the figure of a emeritus pope is " theologically and legally untenable." On the other hand, in May 2016, Archbishop Georg Gänswein spoke in a lecture, which triggered violent reactions ( see also ).
Resignation signals from Pope Francis?
In the past half-year the discussion about a possible resignation of Pope Francis, which he himself has suggested as such, has intensified. The historian Roberto de Mattei, on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Francis, and in connection with the unaddressed Dubia (doubts) of prominent cardinals, wrote on the controversial post-synodal letter Amoris laetitia that in the course of 2017 it can not be ruled out that Francis may take the bull by the horns and resign
The Argentine weekly magazine Perfil interpreted the words of Francis from 30th May as resignation signals . The Pope had said in the morning sermon in Santa Marta:
"We shepherds must all say farewell. There comes a moment when the Lord tells us, "Go somewhere else, go there, go there, come to me.""
Perfil wrote:
"Francis today nurtured the idea, like his predecessor, to resign his office before his death."
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: Sol (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
Military Chaplain has employment as religion teacher reinstated. Archdiocese of Vienna condemned.
Ed: we are reminded of Zita's intervention when Cardinal Rampolla was elected. Didn't Schönborn pay the judge?
(Vienna) "What is going on with the military diocese?" In Austria, this was the title of an article on January 25, 2016. The reason was the drastic interventions by the new militaryBishop Werner Freistetter. Because of his dismissal as a religious instructor, Military Chaplain Siegfried Lochner even had to intervene with the Labor Court. Now the Archdiocese of Vienna has been condemned.
Bishop Freistetter took office on June 11, 2015, and was in a hurry to destroy working structures. This included in the first place the dissolution of the time-honored military parish at the traditionally rich Theresian military academy in Wiener Neustadt.
The military bishop announced an "intensification of pastoral care" after his appointment. In the meantime, the opposite has taken place.
The dissolution of the military parish had primarily to do with the then pastor of the Militärakademie, military Chaplain Siegfried Lochner. The military dean, the rank of a colonel, is a fervent priest. Lochner takes seriously the claim of Ecclesia militans. He cultivates and promotes not only the traditional form of the Roman Rite but also maintains an open and clear word. Lochner in his native Bavaria
In these times smooth acclimitazation exercises are characterstically not particularly in demand. In the "colorful" Church almost everything is welcome, but just almost. Lochner is accused of having been a supporter of Heinz-Christian Strache, the President of the Austrian Freedom Party, for the Leftist smart set it is an unpardonable "case of sin.". Strache is one of the three prospective successors to the President's office during the parliamentary elections next October, alongside the Social Democratic and the Christian Democratic Federal Presidents.
On October 1, 2015, however, it was over. Military Deacon Lochner was moved from Wiener Neustadt. Since then, the military parish hardly exists.
One of the peculiarities of the new military bishop is that the former Vicar General, who is a priest holding the rank of general in military service law, has been given to the Protestant military chaplaincy service (!).
At the beginning of 2016, Chaplain Lochner was also denounced as a teacher of religion by the Archdiocese of Vienna, his second employer, and no salary was paid. Whoever has made himself unwelcome will feel the hardness.
Lochner was disabled for some time because of illness. The archdiocese took advantage of this circumstance and declared the employment relationship to be terminated on the grounds of illness-related disability without pronouncing a dismissal. On the other hand, Lochner complained to the Labor Court and has now set all right.
On 22 March, the regional court of Wiener Neustadt made a clear judgment, which was filed on 22 May.
It is "undisputed," the verdict says, that the service relationship between the Archdiocese of Vienna and Mag. Siegfried Lochner continues. For this reason, the Archdiocese of Vienna was also "liable" to pay Lochner's litigation costs.
This was justified by the Court of First Instance "with regard to the complete prevailing of the plaintiff."
The question of how ecclesiastical hierarchy is dealing with an unloved priest, who apparently does not want to fit into the image of the "colorful" Church, remains unresolved.
Text: Martha Burger-Weinzl
Image: Private
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
Other times: Benedict XVI. had allowed that for the first time in 2009 that the Founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculate could say Mass in the Lateran Basilica, "the Mother of All Churches". Now there is Francis
(Rome) There is no end of the Calvary of Father Stefano Maria Manelli, the founder and until his dismissal, head of the Order of the Franciscans of Immaculata. Since July 2013, the young and, until then, flourishing, Order has been under the administration of a Commissar appointed by the Roman Congregation of Religious. Although four years have passed since, and the second Pontifical Commissioner has already overseen the prescription, there is still no official reason for the grave intervention in the Order. An alleged "Lefebvrianian deviation" was attributed to the Order. "What makes this all so comical today is that the Pope is ready to welcome the heirs of Marcel Lefebvre with a Personal Prelature into the Church," as the Vaticanist Marco Tosatti noted two days ago.
The Commissioner and a slander campaign
Tosatti sees "from the outside," a "variety" of reasons leading to the provisional administration of the Order: first the attack against the founder by a group of "young Turks" who wanted to take over the Order, "one of the most flourishing with vocations." Today the vocations must be imported, contrary to the Vatican directives, which provides training on location, from Nigeria), but then also for property, "na roba", the "reason".
P. Fidenzio Volpi, Pontifical Commissioner, 2013-2015
What Tosatti does not mention, however, is to be guessed at: that the Order which had changed with Pope Francis, and with the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, had changed from the new to the traditional form of the Roman Rite, and yet (or precisely for this reason) attracted numerous vocations while the "modern", "cosmopolitan" orders dried up. Benedict XVI held his protective hand over this extraordinary case among Catholic religious orders. With the new pope, the defeat of the Order began, as it was evidently a thorn in the eye.
The assumption of background touched upon by Tosatti in any case helps to understand the "angry slander campaign" which was unleashed against sisters of the Order because of alleged abuses. The starting point of the campaign in November 2015 was with Corriere della Sera, the flagship of the Italian "quality press". The alleged "scandal" led to investigations by the prosecutor's office, which concluded a year later and was unceremoniously archived. The media claims proved to be what one would call Fake News today.
"However, they will probably have a sequel to some newspapers and websites with severe financial consequences, because they are civilly faced with high claims for damages by the victims," Tosatti said.
"Na' roba"
There are now fresh actions of the Roman Congregation of Religious. It is not so much about the Cardinal Prefect, the Brazilian João Braz de Aviz, but "about the secretary of the Congregation, the Franciscan José Rodriguez Carballo, who has a direct connection with the Pope," says Tosatti.
Carballo is one of the first personnel decisions of this pontificate. Pope Francis proclaimed him on April 6, not four weeks after his election, as Secretary of the Congregation of Religious. Until then, the Spaniard was Minister General of the Franciscan Order. As such, he is directly involved in the financial scandal that exploded in December 2014 and brought the general leadership of the Order to the brink of bankruptcy. The Swiss public prosecutor's office had seized accounts of the Franciscan Order in October 2014 because of the suspicion of money laundering. The money, several tens of millions of euros, had been invested in ill-fated companies, which are being investigated for illegal arms and drug trafficking. Nothing is known of consequences of any kind against Carballo in the Vatican.
This brings us to ",na roba", which is not insignificant in the Order of the Franciscans of Immaculata (canonically recognized in 1990, not to be confused with the Franciscans, founded 1210/1517). It has about 59 buildings, 17 properties, five photovoltaic plants and a series of banking accounts. The entire property, however, is not in the hands of the Order, since it has the vow of strict poverty, but in the hands of lay associations. The proceeds from the estate were given to the Order for its duties in pastoral care and mission.
When the Order was placed under the Commission, the first Commissioner, Father Fidenzio Volpi, a Capuchin, who died in office in 2015, had the property confiscated. The court then decided completely differently. The entire assets were released again and reunited with the lay associations.
As the Congregation of Religious could not get at the Order through the secular courts, it is now exerting pressure on the now 84-year-old founder of the Order, Father Manelli. Since the provisional administration, he has been under house arrest by the Vatican, "which in 2017 is in extremely bad taste," says Tosatti.
Recent actions of the religious congregation: the "Trap" and the demand
Diaconal consecration 2010
Recently, Father Manelli officially and in the name of the Pope was asked to renew his allegiance of loyalty and obedience to the Pope. The demand appears to be doubtful, since officially no reproaches have been made by the founder of the Order. This, however, has deprived him of the possibility of defending himself for whatever reason. Father Manelli did not contend, but renewed the required oath.
Two weeks ago, he received another letter from the Congregation of Religious. This time he was asked to make the entire property available to the Church, as mentioned above.
"Naively, the founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculata responded," says Tosatti, that he can not provide anything because he has nothing. The above-mentioned assets are not subject to his authority, but to that of the lay associations.
Father Manelli evidently did not see through the "trap" which had been made for him with the renewal of his loyalty first and then the money demand. Maybe he's just too honest, too old or too tired to dodge the trappers with prudentia.
Tosatti wrote:
"Perhaps he would have done better to meet with the laity and to present the Vatican demand to them.The laity, who are not under obedience, would have made a decision. But he did not apply this ruse."
The "weapon of obedience" and an "act of disobedience"
His response is now interpreted by the Vatican as an act of disobedience to the Pope. With the letter one wants to turn him with a rope. In other words, in the Congregation of Religious, it is now believed that they have the occasion to impose sanctions against the founder in the Church. And all without being told by the Vatican why the Order is under commissionerial administration, and why Father Manelli was deposed as General-General.
In the Vatican, someone is obviously rubbing his hands. So far, the Congregation of Religious and Pope Francis have been wrong. In which state can sanctions be imposed without charges, without the possibility of defense and without a regular canonical procedure? Now, however, one must not talk about it any more, because one has the statement by Manelli, who answered truthfully, but not satisfactorily. Is this for an ecclesiastical condemnation? In the face of the bad experiences the Order has had to overcome for the last four years, no one in the Order would doubt it.
The real concern, however, is "'na roba", the property. Manelli is particularly stifled, because he can not "relinquish" the possession of valuable property. Legally, he is unquestionably in the right, which is why the Vatican operates the moral lever. The exact disposition of the lay associations are not known, but they can be seen. For a long time the hope existed (and perhaps still exists) that the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate could be reestablished in the bosom of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, then it would have the means to continue its work blessedly. Such a new foundation has been prevented by the Vatican for four years. Yet another reason is not insignificant: it can be argued that the benefactors who have given the estate to the Order have left it to the Order founded by Father Manelli. Not to any order or in general "of the Church," but in a very particular order with a very definite charism. However, after four years of commissionership, it is no longer the same order.
"As a sidenote" it is also addressed, again to quote Marco Tosatti, "that it is more and more frequent that obedience is used as a weapon. Let us recall how Fra Matthew Festing, the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, was forced by the Pope to resign and sign a letter of doubtful content, by obedience. A bad habit, which is at the risk of becoming chronic ... "
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: MiL
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link...
AMDG
A vessel with the brain of the founder of the Salesian order from Basilica of his birthplace Castelnuovo disappeared
Rome (kath.net/KAP) Unknowns have stolen a relic with the brain of Saint Don Bosco (1815-1888) from his church in Castelnuovo. As reported by the Italian media on Saturday, the container has disappeared from its place of storage behind the main altar of the lower church since Friday evening. Investigations are in progress.
The priest Giovanni Bosco dedicated himself especially to the care of disadvantaged youth in the emerging industrial city of Turin. The order of the Salesians of Don Bosco goes back to him. The basilica consecrated in 1984 above its birthplace in Castelnuovo is the center of attraction for many pilgrims.
(Rome) The origin of the Denarius Sancti Petri, better known as Peter's Pence, dates back to the 8th century. This donation, collected around the high festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul, is reflected in the collection from the world, expressing the faithfulness of the faithful to Christ's representative on earth. The Peter's Pence can also be donated via the website of the Vatican. There was a surprise yesterday.
On the website is the Peter's Pence:
"Peters Pence is an economic contribution, which believers use as a sign of their affinity with the manifold tasks of the Successor of Peter to support his concern for the needs of the universal Church and for the love service to the needy. "
The responsible Vatican office takes advantage of the Internet and is also active on Facebook and Twitter. The motto of Peter's Pence has become "Give with joy".
Yesterday, the Twitter account appeared with a photo of the Polish ex-priest Krysztof Charamsa and his gay life companion was advertised.
On 3 October 2015, shortly before the beginning of the Second Bishops' Synod on the family, Charamsa "outed" himself and demanded a recognition of homosexuality by the Church. He accused the Catholic Church at a media press conference of "discriminating" against homosexuals. Charamsa was then released from all tasks at the Vatican, where he worked for the Congregation for the Doctrine and the Faith. His Polish home bishop suspended him from the priesthood.
The ex-priest wrote a book that has already been translated into eight languages and published by the largest publishing houses. Whoever represents the "right" opinion is encouraged.
The photo, which was published yesterday on the Peter's Pence account, comes from the press conference of 2015. The picture remained a few hours on the net and was then removed. The Vatican press office apologized for the incident, stating that the administration of the Twitter account had been outsourced. Which PR agency or association it manages was not said.
But it was hardly a mistake. At the same time, Google has been advertising in innumerable ways directly or subliminally for homosexuality. Yesterday, for example Google included the omnipresent homosexual flag and the reference to the 66th (!) Birthday of any homo activist.
The message, published on Twitter along with the Charamsa-Photo, read:
"The Church is joyfully on the way to hear unrest."
The passage comes from the morning sermon of Pope Francis from the past May 4th. On the following day, Osservatore Romano published a summary:
"That is the other key concept, the second step: the Church, which understands to hear, the Church, which knows that there is a disturbance in every heart: all men, all women have a restlessness in the heart whether good, bad or ugly, but this unrest is there. Listen to this unrest. One must listen to what people feel, what the heart of these people feel, what they think. Even if they think wrong things, because it is necessary to understand well where the unrest is. In fact, we have all the unrest in us, and the Church must find the unrest of the people. "
The Russian noble Gregor Augustin Maria Shuvalov converted to the Catholic Faith and began his prayer work for the conversion of Russia
by Roberto de Mattei
"Russia will become Catholic." This inscription was affixed to the tomb of Father Gregory Augustin Maria Shuvalov in the cemetery of Montparnasse in Paris. The Russian Barnabite has sacrificed himself for this purpose. 1)
Princess Sophia Saltikow (left), painting by Orest Kiprenski
Count Gregor Petrovich Shuvalov was born on 25 October 1804 in Saint Petersburg as the son of an old noble family. An uncle, who, like his father, was the Tsar's general, was commissioned to bring defeated Napoleon to the island of Elba. Another ancestor is the founder of the Lomonossov University in Moscow. Gregor studied from 1808-1817 at the Jesuit College in Saint Petersburg. When the Jesuits were expelled from Russia, he continued his studies in Switzerland and then at the University of Pisa, where he also learned the Italian language to perfection. He was, however, influenced by materialism and nihilism, which then prevailed in the liberal circles in which he lived. Czar Alexander I appointed him an officer of the Hussarsky, and returned to Russia. At the age of 20 he married Princess Sophia Saltikov, the daughter of Prince Alexander Saltikov, who was a member of the Crown Council and the Foreign Affairs Council. Sophia was a deeply religious woman, Orthodox, but "Catholic in soul and heart". She was only 34 years old when she died of tuberculosis in Venice in 1841. Shuvalov had her buried in Russia on a family estate near Saint Petersburg. She had given him four children, two sons and two daughters, of whom Alexander and Natalia had already died in infancy. His son Peter became a member of the Council of Internal Affairs and married the Princess Maria Gagarin. Helena married Alexander Skariatin, a collector of old music and son of the Russian Major General Gregor Skariatin.
Cardinal Husar at the Ukrainian Cathedral in London
[Orientale Lumen] May 31, 2017, at 18:30 after a serious illness His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar), Archbishop Emeritus of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Church died at the age of 85.
January 26, 2001 - February 10, 2011 he served as a Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Born in Lviv, Ukraine, on February 26, 1933, Lubomyr Husar fled from Ukraine with his parents in 1944, ahead of the advancing Soviet army. He spent the early post-World War II years among Ukrainian refugees in a displaced persons camp near Salzburg, Austria. In 1949, he emigrated with his family to the United States of America.
Edit: there's no telling how the title will be translated if it makes it into English.
What if the next Pope were Russian? Would the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary be made possible by the Mother of God in Fatima 100 years ago as an essential step on the road to world peace?
A utopian novel
In his novel The Fate of the Russian Pope published last year , the author, Mauro Mazza, assumes the optimistic acceptance of a conclave in 2018. In this concave, the author, the archbishop of Saint Petersburg is elected to the pope completely unexpectedly, and is assigned the name Methodius.
To avoid a misunderstanding, this is not the bishop of the diocese of Saint Petersburg in the USA, which is clearly geographically assignable in its Latin name Sancti Petri in Florida. This is actually the city founded by Tsar Peter the Great in Swedish Ingria in the Bay of Kronstadt, where the Neva River flows into the Gulf of Finland. This Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia from 1710-1918 and today is the second largest city in the country, with five million inhabitants.
The novel is, of course, fiction, for an archbishopric of St. Petersburg of the Catholic Church does not exist and has never existed. Since 2013 there is a Russian Orthodox Archdiocese of this name. The city itself has been the see of a Russian Orthodox Bishop since 1742.
The author
The author's name is no pseudonym. Mauro Mazza, born in 1955, is one of Italy's best-known journalists. After the passing university entrance examination in the "hot" seventies, he made his first journalistic forays with the daily newspaper Secolo d'Italia, the party newspaper of the then Neo-Fascist party MSI. He remained connected to the party, which in the early nineties, after the collapse of the Communist Eastern bloc, went through a transformation to the bourgeois-conservative party.
Mauro Mazza
The way to the professional journalist opened him the early change to the news agency AdnKronos. In 1990 he became a news editor for the RAI Public Service, 1998 Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the RAI 1 newsreader, 2002 editor-in-chief of the RAI 2 editorial. In 2008, Mazza finally became director of RAI 1. With the return of a Leftist government, he was pushed off to be the director of RAI Sport. In the same year he published his first novel. Since 2015 he has been a member of RAI Vatican's editorship, which is the subject of his latest novel.
The conclave
118 Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel after the death of the Pope to elect a successor. But days pass by, days pass, and black smoke is rising. After three weeks of stagnation, the quarreling Cardinals agreed on a quite unusual decision. They do not elect a cardinal to the pope, but Nikolai Sofanov, the Archbishop of Saint Petersburg.
The decision is most striking: a Pope from Orthodox Russia and a friend of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
The acting characters in the novel are, in part, the real (Patriarch Cyril, Putin, Gorbachev, Hans Küng), partly inventions of the author.
The Pope, who isn't liked
Church flag (Middle Ages)
In contrast to his predecessor, the new pope does not like the powerful and freemasonry. He is displeasing to them even more because he speaks specifically of the defense of faith rather than of ecology and, above all, of that sentimentality which, "through hugs and skits, between Buona Domenica ( Beautiful Sunday) and "Buon Pranzo" (To your health) is the difference between the pope and the faithful. "Pope Wojtyla" always managed to preserve his charism, which demanded all respect and admiration: cardinals, bishops, priests and laity." (p. 40).
With his daily sermons, Pope Methodius combats modernism, the laicistic and Protestant aberrations and the dictatorship of relativism:
"The pope daily demolishes many of the so-called inviolable assumptions of prevailing thought. He makes it easy. He finds greater and greater approval among the people, but he also attracts an ever-widening dislike" (145).
The freemasons unchain the media against him. A federal daily newspaper, which is close to certain progressive circles in the Vatican, accuses him of concentrating power in his hands and talking too much of faith:
"He is trying to revive the sacredness of past times. In his sermons he contradicts secular (laicistic) values and the rights obtained. And as if that were not enough, he stressed traditional reservations about democracy. Very soon his course of action will turn out to be destabilizing."(147).
The fight against globalization, the gender dictatorship, the surrender against Islamism and the compulsion to ecologism "as a new religion, in which man is no longer the head of the pyramid of creation, but a living person of the planet with the same rights of other 'animals' (108).
World Government and World Religions
Determined to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and restore the unity of the East and Western Churches, Methodius meets with Putin, who complains to the Pope:
"The British are doing what the Americans order. The Germans and the Italians are irresolute and fickle "(134).
The Americans, however, more or less slavishly follow the decisions of the "fraternity," a Masonic organization whose sole purpose is clearly defined:
"The world government, the united world currency (called Bancor), and the world unity religion that unites and overcomes all religions" (120).
Among the Cardinals, who were led by the "Brotherhood," including the Predecessor of Methodius, there are three who are members of the "Brotherhood". This is why a new cosmic ethics, "a mixture of gnosis and New Age", which could actually be ridiculed by a minimum of deepening, spread in the Church. For in their view, man is "equated with all other animals", but with an aggravating element "to practice abortion and euthanasia." Methodius complains that
"Even some bishops, whether from superficiality or conviction, can imagine that catholicity will in the future mix and equate with other religions or their absurd parodies" (108).
Optimistic start, gloomy continuation
The novel begins with an optimistic perspective, then quickly and ever deeper into the sober reality. Thus he unfolds concrete scenarios, which draw a gloomy picture. The secret "fraternity" engages in numerous actions to discredit the new pope.
"It is not just a fascinating story, but a no less exciting 'game', that will enable readers to figure out who is behind the fictionalized names the author has chosen for his novel. This is also the only fun the novel offers, because the rest is the tragic image of a world in which the obscure 'brotherhood' dictates the rules," says Corrispondenza Romana .
It would be desirable if a publisher brought out a translation for the readership of the English-speaking people. As an expression of our time, Mazza's work is not only a timely document, but also provides some illuminating insights, dressed in the genre of the utopian novel.
Mauro Mazza, Il destino del Papa Russo (Fate of the Russian Pope), Fazi, Rome 2016, 256 pages.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana / Wikicommons
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link...
AMDG
Lochner in his native Bavaria
(Rome) The origin of the Denarius Sancti Petri, better known as Peter's Pence, dates back to the 8th century. This donation, collected around the high festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul, is reflected in the collection from the world, expressing the faithfulness of the faithful to Christ's representative on earth. The Peter's Pence can also be donated via the website of the Vatican. There was a surprise yesterday.
