(TFP Student Action) With Oklahoma City's apparent stamp of approval, satanists were
granted permission to hold a public sacrilege in front of St. Joseph Old
Cathedral on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2015.
Adam Daniels -- the same satanist who sponsored a public, satanic Black Mass in 2014 -- told The Oklahoman that he plans to pour costume blood over a statue of the Virgin Mary, treated with "sulfur powder and ash."
“The purpose of the blood," Daniels said, "is to add another layer
of corruption to Mary, which is an emblem of the Catholic Church.”
This public attack against the Mother of God on Christmas Eve is
more than a morbid cry for media attention and should be called out for
what it really is: religious persecution with City Hall approval.
The planned sacrilege is a direct sin of hatred against the Mother
of God who is especially honored by Catholics in America under the title
of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United
States.
To dismiss this satanic desecration right in front of St. Joseph
Old Cathedral as a simple publicity stunt is to ignore the grave nature
of this public sin and its consequences for our nation as one nation
under God.
The uptick of Satanism and its repeated attacks against the Faith
are designed to desensitize average Americans towards evil and wear down
the moral fibers of our beloved nation. A "church" to Lucifer was
recently opened in Texas. Last year, satanists performed a public Black
Mass in Oklahoma City. And now there's this. What will be next?
History shows us how this type of religious persecution can incite
greater acts of persecution which may eventually turn into a full-blown
bloody persecution of Christians. Remember the Mexican Cristero martyrs
of 1927. Remember Spain's Red Terror of 1936-1939 which killed 13
bishops, 4,172 diocesan priests and seminarians, 2,364 monks and friars
and 283 nuns. And remember Dachau in the 1940s, the Nazi concentration
camp where 1,034 Catholic priests were tortured and killed for the Faith.. (continued)
(The Daily Caller) A flashy and expensive white Mercedes
rolled out from the four-car garage of Donald Wuerl around 10:05 PM on
December 11. I was there in the parking lot of Queen of the Americas
parish at 2200 California street in the luxurious neighborhood known
commonly as Embassy Row.
The Catholic cardinal of the nation’s
capital since 2006, Wuerl has long had a reputation for high living —
despite his exalted status as the most powerful American prelate in what
the media calls the “humble church” of Pope Francis. (In his previous
posting as a bishop in Pittsburgh, he lived in a 31-room mansion filled
with antiques, rugs, and art.) But few know the details of his furtive
pursuits on Embassy Row — a posh lifestyle which stands in shocking
contrast to the simplicity Pope Francis insists he wants his shepherds
to embrace.
I got a small glimpse of that
contrast as I watched the white Mercedes move towards me. I put up my
hand and the driver stopped and got out. “Do you work for Cardinal
Wuerl?” I asked the black man, who appeared to be late middle age, as he
exited the white Mercedes. “Yes,” he said. “I am his personal chef.”
Unaware that Cardinal Wuerl employed a
personal chef, I asked the gentleman his name. He refused to give it.
But he did describe himself as “an archdiocesan employee.”
Was the white Mercedes an
archdiocesan vehicle? “I don’t know what you are implying,” said the
man, who claimed the vehicle as his own, for which he paid with earnings
from his time in the “military.”
Nervous and upset, the man resented my stopping him. “I got to get back to Baltimore,” he complained.
Earlier in the day, I had called Fr.
Charles Cortinovis, the personal secretary to Cardinal Wuerl, multiple
times and received no response. I had learned that Cortinovis lives,
along with Wuerl, on the fourth floor of the archdiocesan building at
2200 California, a property priced at north of $43,000,000.
Cortinovis is the third personal
secretary to Cardinal Wuerl during a tenure less than a decade. The
other two had also lived on the same floor with the cardinal, which is
“12,000 square feet,” according to a rough estimate by a lawyer familiar
with the property records for the building... (continued)
"I had a minor heart attack. One of the doctors did use that expression,
though a young nurse who spoke to me later was versed in the new
terminology of "cardiac episode" which makes me want to think up a
script for Doctor Who. I'm not dead, but the experience of not being
able to breathe properly does help to sharpen up one's focus on those
meditations of St Alphonsus. Perhaps my many repetitions of the prayer
"that we may not be surprised by a sudden and unprovided death" got me
off this time..." (continued)
BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut, December 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Another U.S. city has officially introduced open homosexuality into its St. Patrick’s Day parade. And again, the Catholic diocese is continuing to stand by the parade.
The committee for the Stamford, Connecticut, parade announced its choice of state Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald as its 2016 grand marshal November 22.
McDonald is openly gay, his biography on the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Website closing with the statement, “Justice McDonald and his husband, Charles, live in Stamford.”
The local Catholic diocese has indicated it has no issue with the move to have the openly homosexual judge lead the parade, according to the local news outlet the Stamford Advocate.
McDonald was at odds with the Catholic Church in Connecticut in 2009 when as a state senator he proposed controversial legislation along with another lawmaker to regulate the Church’s finances.
SB 1098 was specific to the Catholic Church, and would have removed parish priests and the bishop from their oversight positions, giving power to a lay board. The bill was ultimately tabled, but not before significant backlash for its apparent violation of the Fourteenth Amendment ban on discriminatory legislation.
“We are deeply concerned about statements made by elected officials suggesting that Connecticut's existing religious corporation statutes, including those applicable to the Roman Catholic Church, are unconstitutional and should be amended,” the Diocese of Bridgeport, under Bishop William Lori, said in a report from Catholic News Agency at the time. “These statements are misinformed.”
The spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport said current Bishop Frank Caggiano was not asked about the St. Patrick’s Day parade committee’s choice of McDonald as grand marshal, saying as well it would not dispute the decision and calling the St. Patrick’s celebration a day of inclusiveness.
“The diocese respects the decision of the committee,“ Brian Wallace said. “It’s a day of inclusiveness. It’s a day people drop their differences. We hope people have a good day and enjoy the parade.”
The diocese did not respond to LifeSiteNews' request for comment by press time.
Stamford St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee Chair Michael Feighan told the Stamford Advocate that McDonald, who aside from being a judge, has served on municipal boards and already been involved with the parade, met all the criteria for grand marshal role.
He is thought to be the first openly gay grand marshal in the U.S. selected to lead a St. Patrick’s Day parade, the report said.
In 2013 McDonald was confirmed as the first openly gay justice to the Connecticut Supreme Court, according to the Connecticut Mirror.
St. Patrick’s Day is the feast day honoring Ireland’s leading patron saint, and the annual Catholic observance holds substantial cultural significance for the Irish community, with parades and countless other festivities across the U.S. each year.
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan upset Catholics earlier this year when he served as grand marshal for the 2015 New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, after the parade committee allowed an openly homosexual activist group march in the parade with its identifying banner, breaking the event’s previous two-hundred-plus-year stance of only allowing Irish themed groups to participate in the parade honoring the Catholic saint.
The New York City parade committee’s agreement to allow the homosexual activist group after decades of pressure from gay activist groups was supposed to also mean a pro-life group would take part in the Catholic event, but no pro-life group has been allowed, and earlier this past fall the parade committee voted to allow a second homosexual group.
A Massachusetts Catholic school pulled out of its local St. Patrick’s Day parade this year after it learned a homosexual activist group would be allowed to march while openly identifying its homosexuality, its principal at the time citing Catholic Church teaching.
“Catholics are forbidden to sponsor or even participate in an event which openly promotes unnatural and immoral behavior,” Immaculate Heart of Mary School’s Brother Thomas Dalton said. “The Church will never accept nor condone same sex marriage and the homosexual lifestyle.”
Anyway, LifeSiteNews has some excellent reportage
on the digital “artist” who was hired by Bergoglio to do the St.
Peter’s lightshow. Another thing that this culture has been tricked
into believing (by perverting the significance of Our Blessed Lord
dining with tax collectors and sinners) is that it does not matter who
you associate with. When Our Lord dined with sinners, or spoke with the
Woman at the Well, He called them, explicitly, to repentance. And they
did. People today think they can run with truly evil people and never
say a word to them admonishing their sin, telling them about hell, and
telling them of the massive importance of repenting and ceasing their
sinful ways, and that this is not only morally acceptable, but morally
superior – that in running with, doing business with, or associating
with genuinely bad people and NOT CONFRONTING THEIR EVIL is the mark of a
truly “Christian” soul.
Bearing this all in mind, read the following excerpt on the digital
“artist” that FrancisNewChurch freely chose to associate itself with and
promote.
“Android” Andrew Jones, the artist behind the image, said
at that time that he wanted to depict Mother Earth in her “fiercest
form” to draw attention to what might happen if people ignored the
implications of climate change.
The Vatican show included artwork and computer-generated designs by
Jones, but it is unknown at this time what artwork was featured.
Jones, one of the world’s foremost digital painters and projection
artists, specializes in portraying terrifying images of Greek, Roman and
Eastern pagan deities. He said in an interview last month
that he turns to these gods and goddesses by means of “psychedelic
substances” (mind altering drugs) so that he can portray them
accurately. He said the “deities” are “actively involved” in guiding his
hand as he makes the work.
“These [drugs] are tools that grant portals and access into different
realms that I still haven’t fully been able to grasp or say that I have
uncovered all of their meanings. … They have evolved my ability to …
discover new and interesting combinations of energy and matter. Some
have … shown me greater nightmares than I could ever depict or wish to
imagine ever again.”
“These spirits and the deities that [the images] represent [in India,
Greece, etc.] are actively involved, enrolled, and contributing to
humans reinventing the visual vernacular of these beings as time and
technology evolves,” he said.
Jones said that good art connects the viewer to something “mystical.”
He said in a 2010 video interview that a good reaction to his art
happens when people “throw up, or urinate themselves, or [release] any
sort of bodily excrement.”
Bergoglio used the Feast of the Immaculate Conception to turn the Petrine Basilica into a global stage for a satanist.
On 8 December 2005, I posted this photo. This blog project began.
This was a shot – from my apartment window – of the Basilica and
Apostolic Palace on the evening of the day that Pope Benedict was
elected... (continued)
(New York, NY) December 7th, 2015, -- Donald J. Trump is calling for a
total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until
our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.
According to Pew Research, among others, there is great hatred towards
Americans by large segments of the Muslim population. Most recently, a
poll from the Center for Security Policy released
data showing "25% of those polled agreed that violence against
Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global
jihad" and 51% of those polled, "agreed that Muslims in America should
have the choice of being governed according to Shariah." Shariah
authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won't
convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to
Americans, especially women.
Mr. Trump stated, "Without
looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred
is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will
have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this
problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the
victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and
have no sense of reason or respect for human life. If I win the election
for President, we are going to Make America Great Again." - Donald J. Trump
Bill Donohue addresses recent attacks on Cardinal Donald Wuerl:
The crazies on the Catholic right have set their sights on Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington. Why? Because he is close to Pope Francis, and they hate the pope. The attacks are coming from The Church Militant, a loose gang of angry right-wingers who specialize in character assassination, and American Spectator hater George Neumayr.
Three recent hit pieces by Church Militant author Christine Niles set the agenda. She says “today’s archbishop of Washington owns a penthouse in a complex valued at $43 million.” That is a lie. He owns not a centimeter of his third-floor “penthouse,” an apartment that sits atop Our Lady Queen of the Americas parish. Like bishops all over the world, he resides in a spot that was specifically designed for the local Ordinary. There is nothing scandalous about this Church patrimony.
Church Militant head Michael Voris says his unidentified sources claim that when Wuerl was the Bishop of Pittsburgh his gay-friendly approach earned him the nickname “Donna the Girl.” I taught at a Pittsburgh Catholic college during Wuerl’s years and never once did I hear anyone tag him as such. Voris also says that Wuerl stole a “Catechism work composed by Fr. John Hardon by simply putting his name to it.” That’s another lie. I guess Wuerl was channeling Hardon when he gave his TV series of lectures on the subject.
Neumayr is so far gone that he accuses Wuerl of being a Communist because someone spotted a copy of Mao’s Little Red Book in his office in the 1970s. That would make me Chairman of the Politburo: I have a copy of Das Kapital in my office right now.
These crazies are mad at Wuerl because he doesn’t believe in using the Eucharist as a weapon to smack liberal Catholic politicians. Wuerl has said that the refusal of Holy Communion “should be made only after clear efforts to persuade and convince the person that their actions are wrong and bear moral consequences.” Exactly. Wuerl is a great gift to the Catholic Church. These critics are as ignorant as they are malicious.
Say the truth about the evil in the Church and wait for the fireworks.
There's a saying that goes: "If you start getting flak for what you are saying, know that your bombs have hit their target."
Such is the case with a couple of stories that ChurchMilitant.com
released a few days back about establishment kingpin Washington, D.C.
Cardinal-Archbishop Donald Wuerl. His Eminence has moved to the front of
the quiet assault against orthodox Catholicism in the United States and
is joined by various allies both in the clergy and certain Catholic
media circles in that assault.
To show the behind-the-scenes influence Cdl. Wuerl exhibits, shortly
after our reports ran, Catholic-Establishment attack dog Bill Donohue of
the self-described Catholic League came out calling us here at
ChurchMilitant.com "right-wing nut jobs" (nice Catholic language, by the
way, Catholic League man).
He took umbrage at our reports, enough to actually issue a press
release where he accused us of "attacking" (by the way, it's called
reporting) Cdl. Wuerl because he is a friend of the Pope, and (he
claims) we "hate the Pope."
What a stupid charge revealing the stupidity and lack of research on the part of whoever wrote it. ChurchMilitant.com is the one faithful Catholic organization that has been pilloried by other Catholic organizations for not calling
the Pope a heretic, possessed, evil and every other name under the
sun. We have, in fact, done the exact opposite of what Donohue portrays.
We have been the voice of reason in the Catholic media saying that the
Holy Father must be given every benefit of a doubt, and if something needs to be addressed, it needs to be in the most charitable, respectful terms possible.
But Donohue, in his excitement to be seen as Supreme Guardian of the
Establishment and always being the attack dog so he can continue to
curry favor and rub elbows, totally disregards facts and just bullies
whomever he wants. Cardinal Wuerl has a disgraceful record as cardinal
archbishop, and it needs to be talked about, regardless of what Bill
Donohue deems worthy of reporting. Who set up Bill Donohue as overlord
of what is newsworthy and what is not?
Donohue, you will recall, was out front and center defending Cdl.
Timothy Dolan's pitiful example of cheering active homosexuals who work
for NBC to be permitted to march openly in the New York City St.
Patrick's Day parade. True to form, when Catholics outside the
well-cocooned establishment saw this as a bad move, Donohue went on the
attack, even calling us and others names and hurling insults around at
anyone who would even dare to think that a cardinal could err. He even
came out and personally supported the move, throwing the weight of his
one-man operation Catholic League behind the gay propaganda offensive.
He had to; Dolan had supported and cheered it, so the very
non-independent Donohue had to get in lock step and do the same. His
official excuse: He had been promised that since sodomites could openly
march in the parade, then so could pro-life groups. Riiiiight. Sure they could!
Then suddenly, in a move that anyone with a quarter-brian could see
coming, the pro-sodomite parade committee changed their minds and said no
to pro-life groups. That sent Donohue into a frenzied tizzy as he
voiced his opposition to such a double-dealing, back-stabbing action on
the part of the parade committee.
Well, Bill, what do you expect? You and your establishment
wine-and-cheese crowd have always misjudged the depth of the evil. You
sleep with dogs and you're gonna' get fleas. Or more precisely, play
with the devil and you're gonna get burned. That Donohue could have so
badly misjudged, so pathetically thought that this crowd could be
appealed to for fairness disqualifies him from any further consideration
by serious Catholics. What a colossal lapse in judgment.
And the proof is even further demonstrated at the immaturity and lack
of clear thinking on the part of Donohue and the other establishment
crowd when we now see that the St. Patrick's Parade committee — the very
ones that Donohue had initially applauded — now want to remove St.
Patrick himself from the parade and remove the existing requirement that Catholics be on the committee.
In a couple of years, the former St Patrick's Day parade up 5th
Avenue will be nothing more than a polyglot of sexual deviants and a
celebration of multicultural, pluralistic-society idiocy — and it would
have been accomplished because men like Cdl. Dolan and most especially
Bill Donohue co-operated with the first stage because their own pride
and hubris got in the way and they did not sufficiently stand up for Our
Blessed Lord.
And why? Because they were having too much fun and spending too much
time making sport of serious Catholics who saw the hand-writing on the
wall and who were put off by the scandal of a prince of the
Church leading a parade with active, proud sodomites all under the
banner of the very saint who helped bring about an end to homosexuality
in Ireland.
So you will excuse us and everyone else if we simply dismiss Bill
Donohue and wish him a good retirement. He has proven that his
allegiance is with the establishment, right or wrong. He has conflated
in his mind that an individual cardinal or bishop equals the Church. They do not. As St. John Chrysostom so aptly warned, the floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of such.
We need to pray for the bishops as we are constantly stating and
re-inforcing here at ChurchMilitant.com. We need to uplift and praise
the faithful ones who are bold in declaring the truths of the
Church. But the sorry, conniving, double-dealing ones with their own
agenda of changing the Church need to be exposed because they are
wicked.
Donald Wuerl has consistently said that canon law 915 needs to be
ignored because it does not apply to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.
It does, and he is wrong.
He was one of the major agitators in Rome at the Synod for sacrilegious reception of Holy Communion by adulterers.
He is the point man on tarring any Catholic who disagrees with him
and his "New Church" garbage as an enemy of the Pope, a line of thought
picked up and run with by Donahue with regard to us.
He plays his connections with the liberal media to smear other good cardinals who oppose him, such as he did in the case of The Tablet's
"story" that Cdl. Burke lives in palatial surroundings in Rome. So does
Cardinal Wuerl In Washington, D.C. What's good for the goose is good
for gander.
Sources through the North American College in Rome have told us that
Wuerl is constantly bad-mouthing Cardinal Burke and pillories him every
chance he gets.
When bishop of Pittsburgh, in addition to living in luxurious
accommodations, Wuerl had extremely friendly relations with the
homosexual crowd in the Church and various sources say those connections
also exist in Rome.
For Bill Donohue to go on the attack to defend this prelate reveals an awful lot. Why didn't he go on the attack against The Tablet for
their insinuation that Burke lives in luxury? Because he knows that the
establishment doesn't like Burke, so he felt no need to defend him. But
when the darling of the "New Church" crowd, the wine-tasters and
party-throwers and friends of the political crowd and the antique
collectors get rightfully pointed out as hypocrites, his misguided fury
knows no bounds.
In case you missed the memo, Mr. Donahue, things have changed. There
are simply too many Catholics in the rank and file, we peasant
Catholics, who will no longer keep quiet about your business-as-usual,
status-quo approach to the Church. Holy Mother Church is in crisis, and
you and your cronies — including various prelates — have helped to bring
it about. Bluster all you want, but none of us is going away.
You can stop the class warfare in the Church, Bill. We aren't the
ones living in multi-million dollar houses and jetting around the world
on the nickles of widows who throw their money in the plate each week.
"There is the tone with which he speaks and there are the words with which he speaks. We are left to untangle the knot.
That said, for this issue the Pope made a clear statement:
“I wouldn’t ever dare to allow this, because it’s not my competence.”
Before anyone gets out onto the ledge outside the window, read that
again and repeat it to yourself. The Pope is not saying that Lutherans
can go to Communion... "
As has been discussed here for years, the best secular,
non-liturgical music is that which can be heard as either God singing to
man, or man singing to God.
Just reiterating – this is music for OUTSIDE the liturgy – OUTSIDE the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office.
Here’s one! A really good one, too!
“To Make You Feel My Love”, originally penned by Bob Dylan, but
covered to great effect by my so-not-favorite country singer, in fact,
the man who ATE country music… Garth Brooks. Yeah. I know.
Anyway, if you read the lyrics as God singing to mankind, and
disregard the whole Garth Brooks qua Garth Brooks thing, it will make
you cry. I have added a couple of suggestive motifs below, in red
brackets.
When the rain’s blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case [worldly and demonic persecution]
I would offer you a warm embrace [Confession and Eucharist]
To make you feel My Love
When the evening shadows and the stars appear [demons]
And there is no one to dry your tears [because sweetie, there probably ain’t gonna be]
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel My Love
I know you haven’t made your mind up yet [Because you have free will]
But I would never do you wrong [The Law]
I’ve known it from the moment that we met [When I created you and sewed you together in your mother’s womb]
There’s no doubt in My Mind where you belong [With Me, in heaven, forever]
I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue [the Scourging at the Pillar] I’d go crawling down the avenue [The Way of the Cross to Calvary] There ain’t nothing that I wouldn’t do To make you feel My Love
The storms are raging a rollin’ sea
Down on the highway of regret [Sin]
The winds of change are blowing wild and free [Heretics]
But you ain’t seen nothing like Me yet [Come, Eternal and Unchanging Lord Jesus]
There ain’t nothing that I wouldn’t do [Humiliation, torture, execution, withstand sacrilege]
Go to the ends of the earth for you [Incarnation
leading to Calvary, and then the Eucharist, the Real Presence in the
Eucharist all over the earth in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass]
Make you happy, make your dreams come true [We can’t even begin to imagine…]
To make you feel My…….. Love [I’m in. You had me at “Hello.”]
What have we come to? I had a letter recently from a parishioner telling
me he had fallen in love with another man and therefore wasn't going to
be coming to Mass anymore!
The Gospel yesterday in the Old Rite was the wheat harvest sown with
zizzania (translated as cockle), the owner tells the servants that
rather than weeding out the weeds, to leave them until harvest time,
'lest the wheat also is lost'. The Second Vatican Council spoke about a
'universal call to holiness', what we seem to have difficulty with is
coping with the fact that not everyone wants 'holiness', or at least
wants to delay it until the last moment, or simply feels they are
incapable of it.. (continued)
(Catholic Herald) Elton John has said he would like to meet Pope Francis, who he has previously described as a “hero”.
On BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme
the musician said he considered Pope Francis an “ally” against
conservative bishops in Africa in his views on same-sex relationships.
“My sly bet is yes he is. He’s just had the [synod] in Rome and I
think he’s fighting an uphill battle against the African cardinals and
bishops.”
Elton John said his message to the Pope was: “Keep going, keep
pushing it. Change is very hard, especially in the Catholic Church, you
don’t get things done immediately, you’re not going to persuade people,
just keep going and keep going and eventually the wall will fall. I
think he’s on our side.”
The singer, who is in a same-sex marriage, added: “I would love to
meet him. I’m not a Catholic but from the first day he was elected he
tried to bring a new message and change the Church and bring it into the
21st century. To be a inclusive Church. He has brought hope and
change.”
Polish football (soccer) fans unveiled an enormous anti mass
migration banner at Sunday’s Silesian WrocÅ‚aw match against PoznaÅ„.
Images from the match last night show a giant crusader defending Europe
from invading jihadists in boats labelled USS Hussein, USS Bin Laden and USS ISIS.
(Breitbart) Just a week after Poland voted to kick out every left-wing member of
it’s national parliament, ordinary Poles have again shown the spirit
which led them to elect the nationalist conservative Law and Justice
party, with football fans unveiling an over-sized anti-migration banner
at Sunday’s match.
The hand-painted sheet, which is estimated to have been at least 50
feet tall and 75 feet wide depicts boatloads of migrants preparing to
land on the southern shore of Europe. Many of the boat’s crews make the one fingered ‘ISIS salute’.
Defending Europe while clutching a sword and a shield showing the
crest of the Silesian WrocÅ‚aw football club, a St. George’s
cross-wearing crusader stands ready to fight the migrants, below writing
which reads “While Europe Is Flooded With An Islamic Plague”.
Underneath, another 100 foot wide banner hangs from the stalls behind
the goal and reads, in a traditional Polish script: “Let Us Stand In
Defence Of Christianity”.
Wrocław football club has one of the largest supporter bases in
Poland, and the most politically active. Banners with strong
anti-Communist messages are commonly seen at their games – and the fans
like to get involved.
As well as football scarves which split space between the crests of
the team, Poland, and anti-Islam symbols, banners seen at past matches
have also condoned violence towards supporters of left-wing political
views.
Wrocław maintains a strong friendship with Legia Warsaw, another politically active football team.
Legia has been fined on a number of occasions by football governing body UEFA over supposed racism at matches, and has displayed banners mocking Islamic jihad.
(BBC) The Vatican says it has arrested two people, a high-ranking priest and a former employee, on suspicion of leaking confidential documents.
They were members of a commission set up by Pope Francis to help reform Church finances.
Officials believe they passed records of its discussions to journalists investigating Vatican corruption.
The documents form the basis of two new books on the controversial state of the Vatican's finances.
One of the journalists, Gianluigi Nuzzi, was involved in a previous leaks scandal at the Vatican, when Paolo Gabriele, butler to Pope Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI, was found guilty of stealing and copying documents from the Pope's desk.
Gabriele was given a jail sentence but pardoned by Pope Benedict.
The Vatican has called the latest incident a "serious betrayal of trust".
Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a 54-year-old priest, and Francesca Chaouqui, 33, were both arrested by the Vatican gendarmerie at the weekend.
New troubles for Vatican, by James Reynolds, BBC Rome correspondent
The Vatican has a recurring problem with secrets and leaks.
In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI's butler leaked documents which depicted infighting at the highest levels of the Church.
Some believe that this contributed to Benedict's decision to step down the following year.
Pope Francis promised a new kind of administration. Four months after his election, he created a commission designed to end mismanagement within the Curia, the bureaucracy of the Church in the Vatican.
By ordering a clean-up, the Pope inadvertently created material for a new round of leaks.
The Vatican now accuses two commission members of passing records of its discussions onto journalists.
Despite his best intentions, Pope Francis now faces the publication of details embarrassing to the church he leads.
His 88-year-old predecessor, retired to a converted Vatican convent, will sympathise.
Ms Chaouqui was released on Monday after she agreed to co-operate with investigators.
But Monsignor Vallejo Balda, a senior member of the Vatican's Prefecture for Economic Affairs, is still being held in a prison cell.
The two books, due to be published this week, are expected to reveal allegations of financial mismanagement as well as the extent of resistance to Pope Francis's attempts to reform the Vatican.
Renowned L'Espresso journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi has entitled his book Avarice: Documents Revealing Wealth, Scandals and Secrets of Francis's Church.
Meanwhile, Gianluigi Nuzzi's publisher, Chiarelettere, has said his book includes details of private meetings between high Vatican officials and the Pope.
According to the publisher, "you can hear Pope Francis, elected only three months before, as he strongly attacks the nomenklatura that for years managed the finances of the Holy See, denouncing: 'The costs are out of control, there are traps here'."
(Reuters) Pope Francis, ending
a contentious bishops' meeting on family issues, on Saturday excoriated
immovable Church leaders who "bury their heads in the sand" and hide
behind rigid doctrine while families suffer...
In his final address, the pope appeared to
criticize ultra-conservatives, saying Church leaders should confront
difficult issues "fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand."
He
said the synod had "laid bare the closed hearts which frequently hide
even behind the Church's teachings or good intentions, in order to sit
in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and
superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families"...
The synod document did offer some hope for the
full re-integration into the Church of some Catholics who divorce and
remarry in civil ceremonies.
Under
current Church doctrine they cannot receive communion unless they
abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is
still valid in the eyes of the Church and they are seen to be living in
an adulterous state of sin.
They
only way such Catholics can remarry is if they receive an annulment, a
ruling that their first marriage never existed in the first place
because of the lack of certain pre-requisites such as psychological
maturity or free will.
The
document spoke of a so-called "internal forum" in which a priest or a
bishop may work with a Catholic who has divorced and remarried to decide
jointly, privately and on a case-by-case basis if he or she can be
fully re-integrated.
"In order for this
happen, the necessary conditions of humility, discretion, love for the
Church and her teachings must be guaranteed in a sincere search for
God's will," the document said.
Tally
sheets showed that the three articles on the divorced and re-married
were the most fought-over, reaching the two-thirds majority needed to
remain in the document by only a few votes each. One passed by only one
vote... (continued)
“I saw within a city, a meeting of clergy, laymen and women, who were
sitting together, eating and making frivolous jokes, and above them a
dark cloud which descended in a plain submerged in darkness. Amid this
fog, I saw Satan sitting and around him, many companions as people were
in the meeting which was going on underneath. All these evil spirits
were continually moving and busy trying to push the people at this
meeting to do evil. They whispered to them to their ears and acted on
them in all possible ways. These people were in a very dangerous state
of sensual excitement and in provocative conversations. Churchmen
were those whose principle were: “You have to live and let live. In our
time we should not be apart or be a misanthrope (a person who hates or
distrusts humankind): we must rejoice with those who rejoice.”
"Fr. Shane Ian Tharp suffered a massive
heart attack and died Friday evening, Oct. 16, 2015, while on retreat
with other priests of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City." - The Coming Home Network
Since the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Francis – or could we
coin a new phrase? The “periphery of Pope Francis”? – I have been saying
that his aim is to weaken the Roman Curia. HERE and HERE and HERE are examples.
Today Francis addressed members of the Synod, et al., on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops.
I think this speech (HERE) may be a turning point of some kind. I don’t know what kind, yet.
Clearly, the Pope wants a more “Synodal Church”. He says that this has been his intention from the beginning of his pontificate… periphery. He said (my translations):
Fin dall’inizio del mio ministero come Vescovo di Roma ho
inteso valorizzare il Sinodo, che costituisce una delle eredità più
preziose dell’ultima assise conciliare.
…
From the beginning of my ministry as Bishop of Rome I intended to
enhance the Synod, which constitutes one of the most precious legacies
of the last conciliar assembly (i.e. Vatican II).
He goes on with comments about sensus fidei that I am going to have to parse with patience. Including:... (continued)
ROME, October 16, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago — who is participating in the Synod of the Family at Pope Francis’ personal invitation — said at a press scrum in the Vatican press office this afternoon that the conscience is "inviolable" and that he believes divorced and remarried couples could be permitted to receive the sacraments, if they have "come to a decision" to do so "in good conscience" - theological reasoning that he indicated in response to a follow-up question would also apply to gay couples.
During the lengthy press briefing, the archbishop also spoke approvingly of the so-called "Kasper Proposal," which would permit divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion in some cases. Cupich explained that he had distributed Cardinal Walter Kasper's book, The Gospel of the Family, in which the cardinal had laid out this proposal, to all of the priests in his diocese.
“In Chicago I visit regularly with people who feel marginalized: the elderly, the divorced and remarried, gay and lesbian individuals and also couples. I think that we really need to get to know what their life is like if we’re going to accompany them,” he said.
When asked to give a concrete example of how he would accompany the divorced and remarried in their desire to receive the sacraments, Cupich replied: “If people come to a decision in good conscience then our job is to help them move forward and to respect that. The conscience is inviolable and we have to respect that when they make decisions, and I’ve always done that.”
When asked by LifeSiteNews if the notion of accompanying people to "the Sacrament" who had a clear indication of conscience to do so also applied to gay couples in the Church, Cupich indicated an affirmative answer... (continued)
The Holy Father asked for forgiveness for the scandals in the Church,
without mentioning which scandals, it could be the latest episode of
Vatileaks or more likely the removal two Discalced Carmelites, one of
whom accused the other of homosexual acts after a male prostitute spent
several months in hospital after being beaten up, and of course the
opening scandal of the Synod with that CDF Monsignor 'coming out'.
Presumably what he is not asking for forgiveness for is the pro-Gay Fr
Rosica fronting the English language section of the media briefings who
seems to introduce at every opportunity or Abbot Jeremias Schröder who
took part in this mornings briefings wants and the issue of
homosexuality to be delegated to local bishops' conferences to decide,
who has himself long called for the Church to bless homosexual unions,
nor Archbishop Forte who added pro-gay clauses to the Relatio of the
extra-ordinary Synod last year and is on committee that will oversea the
final document - which may or may not be published.
Some have suggested this should be called the 'Gay Synod', rather than
the Synod on the Family, what is more than apparent is that what was
once a shadowy lobby is now front and centre out of the lobby and
sitting in the drawing room. The Synod presenters, if not the
discussions themselves, seem to be obsessed by the homosexual issue... (continued)
(The Spectator) The Catholic Church is this week in the biggest mess it’s been in
since the Second Vatican Council, and Pope Francis is to blame.
The Vatican cardinals in charge of doctrine, finance and worship are
believed to have written to Francis at the beginning of the Synod on the
Family – now in its second chaotic week – privately warning him that it
was likely to spin out of control. That’s because most of the world’s
bishops don’t support any major change to the church’s rules on allowing
divorced and remarried people to receive communion, or to the way it
treats gay couples. You may think they’re wrong, but that is the
situation. Also, the cardinals were exasperated by changes to the
synod’s procedures that seemed designed to give undue prominence to
liberal voices.
A version of the letter was leaked yesterday.
There’s confusion over its wording and the names of the 13 cardinals
who reportedly signed it, but we know roughly what it said and we can be
pretty confident that it had the support of Cardinal Müller, Prefect of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Pell, Prefect
of the Secretariat for the Economy; Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the
Congregation for Divine Worship; Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York;
and Cardinal Napier, Archbishop of Durban. So there we have three out
of the four most powerful cardinals in the Curia, plus the most
important American cardinal. Sarah (who is from Guinea) and Napier are
the two most influential African cardinals.
When the letter appeared, liberal Catholic journalists made desperate
attempts to play down the story – making them look like idiots when,
this morning, Cardinal Müller described it as ‘the new Vatileaks‘, referring to the revelations of Vatican skulduggery that probably triggered the resignation of Benedict XVI.
I don’t know how all this will play out. The conflicts and the
boundaries between liberals and conservatives are too difficult to map.
But it’s time to recognise that – however endearing you find him – Pope
Francis is responsible for this crisis. Not only has he made bad
decisions, but he has sometimes made the same bad decision twice. In
order, then:
First, he decided to kick off a debate about
admitting divorced and remarried Catholics to communion by handing the
microphone to Cardinal Walter Kasper, a retired German theologian who
takes the – by Catholic standards – extreme view that people should be
allowed to decide for themselves whether to receive the sacrament.
Kasper is an old adversary of Benedict XVI, with whom he clashed on the
fundamental subject of the authority of bishops vis-Ã -vis popes. This
offended Benedict loyalists and confused everyone, since it seemed to
imply that Francis, like Kasper, favours devolution of spiritual
authority to local churches.
Second, Francis called a preparatory synod on the
family a year ago during which the two officials running it, Cardinal
Baldisseri and Archbishop Forte, were allowed to stage a mid-synod
briefing suggesting that the synod fathers favoured lifting the
communion ban for people in second marriages and granting a limited
degree of recognition to same-sex couples. Since this wasn’t true, all
hell broke loose. Baldisseri and Forte should have been banished to
dioceses in Antarctica. Instead… Third, Francis reappointed these two prelates to run
the full-scale synod that’s falling apart as I write. Why, I have no
idea. It was hardly in his interests to tell the world that he couldn’t
learn from his mistakes.
Fourth, the Pope made the aforementioned changes to synod procedures that enabled conservatives to go around saying that the whole thing was rigged. I’m not saying it was, but yesterday Cardinal Napier, no less, said it was ‘hard to tell’
whether the result of the synod had been decided in advance (i.e.,
rigged). What I do know is that more than one of the alleged signatories
to the leaked letter have been very angry about the changes for some
time and felt the Pope wasn’t taking their objections seriously.
Fifth, Francis personally invited to a synod on the family
the ultra-liberal Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, who five years
ago tried to conceal the fact that a bishop had molested his nephew. The
invitation was a disgrace and it reflects badly on all the Synod
Fathers that none of them has interrupted the proceedings to demand
Danneels’s expulsion.
These serious errors have been seized on by conservatives, as you’d
expect. But if I were a liberal (and, for what it’s worth, I do favour
some of the changes espoused by the radicals) I’d be furious that the
stubbornness and questionable judgment of a good and holy man, Pope
Francis, has turned sensitive debates into ideological warfare.
Update, 3.20pm Monday: As I write this, various cardinals
have said they didn’t sign the letter, some of them waiting several
hours before distancing themselves from it. Now Erdö says he didn’t sign
it. It’s extremely hard to get at the truth. ‘Not signing’ can mean a
number of things, ranging from an outright false claim that a cardinal
supported the letter to panicky backtracking by cardinals who did assent
to it but are grasping at the technicality that they didn’t personally
append their signature. But the damage to the synod is done.
(The Spectator) A group of cardinals – including some of the most powerful figures in
the Catholic Church – have written to Pope Francis telling him that his
Synod on the Family, now meeting in Rome, has gone badly off the rails
and could cause the church to collapse.
Their leaked letter, written as the synod started, presumably explains why a few days ago the Pope suddenly warned against ‘conspiracy’ and reminded the cardinals that he, and only he, will decide the outcome of the synod.
This is the gravest crisis he has faced, worse than anything that happened to Benedict XVI, and he knows it.
And, talking of the Pope Emeritus, I suspect that, had he been free to sign the letter, he would have done so.
The cardinals warn the Pope, in diplomatic language, that (a) the
synod is being hijacked by liberals obsessed with the narrow issue of
giving Communion to divorced and remarried people; (b) going down the
route of ‘pastoral flexibility’ could lead to the Catholic Church
falling apart in the same way as liberal Protestant denominations; and
(c) the synod working papers prepared by the Pope’s allies Cardinal
Lorenzo Baldisseri and Archbishop Bruno Forte are a mess and going down
badly with the Synod Fathers.
The seniority of the signatories shows how close the church is to
civil war. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation of the
Faith – the Church’s doctrinal watchdog – is on the list. So is Cardinal
George Pell, head of the Vatican’s finances, and Cardinal Robert Sarah,
in charge of the Church’s worship.
Sarah is the most prominent African cardinal in the church, along
with Cardinal Wilfred Napier of Durban, who has also signed. Add to that
the name of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, and it
becomes clear that the loss of confidence in Pope Francis extends far
beyond the Vatican... (continued)
(Church Militant) There were a few fireworks at the very end of today's press briefing
that took place after the morning sessions. It's clear what's going on
here is that there are an awful lot of bishops sitting in the Synod who
are not really expressing theological thoughts about some of these
issues. Obviously some of them are, but some of them are getting their
theology mixed up.
And he gave an answer that stunned a number of us inside the press
room. He said, 'If you want dogma, go read Denzinger. The Synod will be
deciding and talking about whether this is a discipline or it's a
dogma."
That caused one priest who was sitting very, very close to us to sort
of go into a rage. He actually confronted the archbishop on the way out
of the door and said, "All you bishops, everything you're doing here,
is this conciliarism, which is destroying the Church! You are confusing
the faithful. You don't know the Faith."
There was a very, very strong reaction; you could see the division
between faithful Catholic journalists and the more liberal crowd
reporting — for America Magazine and National Catholic Distorter (I mean Reporter)
and all this. There is quite the division here. It's really funny
because every day they stand up and tell us there's no division. And
then they stand up and say something divisive, and the whole thing falls
apart again. This is very interesting, the way this is all playing out.
But hold on! This is only day two. Day two of 21! And I am shocked. I
cannot believe a bishop said, "Oh well, you want dogma, go to
Denzinger. We'll decide whether doing the discipline differently affects
dogma."
"Just a personal note as to what I am going through. I was eating a
little better yesterday, but back to the same today, (only able to eat
and drink a small amount). I am trying to offer it up with Jesus’
suffering, but it is hard. My bottom hurts to sit or lie down on
because I have lost so much weight. I have done everything that the
Doctors have said and my brother Dr. Carota. But not working..."
(Yahoo) Kitchens that are shared between office workers may soon be banned from storing pork products like sausage rolls over fears that they are “offensive”.
New guidelines proposed by interfaith group CoExist House say that employers should consider worker’s religions before allowing ham sandwiches placed in the fridge alongside other products.
The group also suggests that alcohol should not be served at corporate events in case it upsets members of certain faiths.
Andy Dinham, professor of faith and public policy at Goldsmiths, University of London, is writing up the guidelines that will be put forward to employers this week.
Defending the controversial report, he told The Sunday Times: “It would be good etiquette to avoid heating up foods that might be prohibited for people of other faiths.
"The microwaves example is a good one.
“We also say, ‘Don’t put kosher or halal and other… special foods next to another [food] or, God forbid, on the same plate.”
He also said that religious people should be entitled to wear religious clothing and symbols as required.
He added: "We have lost the ability to talk about religious belief because of a century of secular assumptions, and most religious belief is either highly visible and we don’t recognise it, or it’s invisible and we miss it entirely.”
(Breitbart) On Friday, in response to the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon in which Christians were targeted and murdered, Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey minced no words in his concise message to Christians and those who believe in the values of Western Civilization: buy guns.
Ramsey issued his statement on Facebook, linking it to a New York Post article headlined, “Oregon gunman singled out Christians during rampage.” Ramsey pointed out other recent mass shootings as he posited that the targets were the same: Christians and defenders of the West. His post read:
As I scroll through the news this morning I am saddened to read the details of the horrible tragedy in Oregon. My heart goes out to the citizens of Roseburg — especially the families and loved ones of those murdered.
The recent spike in mass shootings across the nation is truly troubling. Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the same: Christians and defenders of the West.
While this is not the time for widespread panic, it is a time to prepare. I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit. I have always believed that it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.
Our enemies are armed. We must do likewise...
Papal spokesman Father Thomas Rosica flatly denies Kim Davis met privately with Pope Francis when he visited Washington, D.C. which stands in flat contradiction to Davis’s claims.
(Breitbart) In Roscia’s telling Davis was part of a large number of people as part of “the farewell greeting as the Pope was leaving the Nunciature in Washington” prior to his departure for New York City.
Rosica said the Vatican ambassador to the United States, “…invited a number of guests, his own choice, to greet the Pope, very brief greetings, and in the Pope’s characteristic kindness and hospitality he shook people’s hands and gave them Rosaries. In terms of why this person was invited, you’d have to ask the Nuncio.”
This stands diametrically opposed to the claims of Kim Davis that she met privately with the Pope and that no one else, besides a handful of Vatican personnel, was present. As proof of her version of events, Davis’s lawyer Mathew Staver points to the fact that the Vatican sent a security detail to pick her up at her hotel and deliver her to the Vatican Embassy.
Anyone remotely familiar with what Rosica describes as no more than a Papal meet and greet knows the Vatican does not send a car and driver, let alone a security detail.
Staver was with Davis when Vatican security picked them up. He said the detail were not Americans, that “they spoke Italian and when they spoke English it was heavily accented.”
Staver also told Breitbart News that he did not see a large group of people at the Nunciature that day, though the building is large and the larger group could have been somewhere else.
With such a stark contrast between Father Rosica’s telling and Kim Davis’s, it is clear someone is lying about her meeting with the Pope.
(LifeNews.com) Planned Parenthood is in the news again this week … as the federal
investigation into harvesting and trafficking aborted baby body parts
heats up.
A recent poll showed that
50% of Americans do not know that Planned Parenthood does abortions.
That’s a frustrating statistic, since they are the largest abortion
business in the United States. They do more than 325,000 every year!
However, you can do something about that!
Here’s
how three 40 Days for Life teams that hold their peaceful vigils
outside Planned Parenthood facilities are drawing their communities into
the campaign.
“We are off to a great start!” said Monica in Bloomington, Indiana.
“We have no reports of babies saved … because we’re not even sure if
they did abortions last week!” The business was closed several days.
The Bloomington team did stage a major event outside Planned
Parenthood – a Doctors for Life rally. About 200 people attended, Monica
said, including “28 local physicians who put their names out there as
being pro-life and committed to the protection of the unborn child. What
an inspiration these doctors were to all of us!”
Some of the doctors were photographed near a mobile help center that offers free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.
“As fruit from our 40 Days for Life campaigns, we announced that we
are getting our own unit, paid for by a generous donor,” Monica said.
“We can’t wait to have it there regularly to help the women going in!”
LifeNews.com Note: Shawn Carney is the campaign director for the 40 Days for Life pro-life prayer campaign against abortion.
(Catholic News Agency) Pilgrims roaming the streets of downtown Philadelphia in the days
before Pope Francis’ arrival had the opportunity to venerate one of the
Church’s youngest canonized saints.
The relics of St. Maria Goretti – on tour throughout the U.S. – spent a few days at St. John the Evangelist Church.
Gathered from across the globe for the World Meeting of Families,
pilgrims stood patiently in lines that stretched back several city
blocks, waiting for a few moments to pray in front of the young saint’s
body.
The story of St. Maria Goretti is a beautiful witness of forgiveness.
At age 11, she was approached by neighboring farmhand Alessandro
Serenelli, who attempted to seduce her. She rejected his advances, and
he tried to rape her. When she continued to fight back, he stabbed her
14 times, killing her. As she died, she told him that she forgave him
and hoped that he would one day be in heaven with her.
Eventually, Serenelli underwent a powerful conversion and became a
lay brother. There have been calls of his canonization cause to be
opened.
Pride goeth before the fall. The modernists are apparently feeling
very powerful and secure, because they are starting to open their mouths
and crow about both their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI, dropping
hints they played a role in his abdication, as well as quite possibly
illicitly organizing to elect Pope Francis.
Further serious concerns are being raised about Cardinal
Godfried Danneels, one of the papal delegates chosen to attend the
upcoming Ordinary Synod on the Family, after the archbishop emeritus of
Brussels confessed this week to being part of a radical “mafia”
reformist group opposed to Benedict XVI.
It was also revealed this week that he once wrote a letter to the
Belgium government favoring same-sex “marriage” legislation because it
ended discrimination against LGBT groups.
The cardinal is already known for having once advised the king of Belgium to sign an abortion law in 1990, for telling a victim of clerical sex abuse to keep quiet, and for refusing to forbid pornographic, “educational” materials being used in Belgian Catholic schools.
He also once said same-sex “marriage” was a “positive development,” although he has sought to distinguish such a union from the Church’s understanding of marriage.
……..At the launch of the book in Brussels this week, the cardinal said he was part of a secret club of cardinals opposed to Pope Benedict XVI.
He called it a “mafia” club that bore the name of St. Gallen. The
group wanted a drastic reform of the Church, to make it “much more
modern”, and for Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to head it. The group, which
also comprised Cardinal Walter Kasper and the late Jesuit Cardinal Carlo
Maria Martini, has been documented in Austen Ivereigh’s biography of
Pope Francis,The Great Reformer.
The plain implication is that these men were probably driving forces
behind the Vatileaks and other difficulties that plagued PBXVI’s
pontificate, helping convince the beleaguered Pope Emeritus that
abdication was his best alternative. Of course, there have also been
dark hints of a turncoat “disciple” of Ratzinger that played a key role
in convincing him to abdicate, promising him that someone of a like mind
would be elected and bring the constant stream of scandals afflicting
the Vatican to an end. Who that turncoat is has not been revealed to
date.
Nevertheless, this second admission, coupled with admissions made in the book alluded to in Pentin’s post above (The Great Reformer),
seems to point to at least a reasonable possibility that there was
illegal collusion between various cardinals at the conclave of 2013... (continued)