aljazeera--2019-12-24--UK homeless charity Crisis reopens Christmas centres

The UK homelessness charity Crisis has once again opened its annual Christmas centres.  Last year, more than 4,500 homeless guests were given shelter across Britain.  And this year, the charity is highlighting the hidden homelessness of "sofa surfing".


bbc--2019-01-01--Why wealthy sports stars get passionate about charity

New year, new ideas, time to broaden your horizons? For sporting stars, this might involve participating in a high-profile charitable campaign. After all, nothing announces your arrival as a sporting legend quite like attaching your name to a good cause.  Former top footballers such as David Beckham and Didier Drogba have been involved in widely publicised ventures in Africa, while boxer Tyson Fury recently vowed to donate his substantial purse from the Deontay Wilder fight to the homeless.  "When I go home I'm going to build some homes for the homeless and set up some funds for drug addicts and alcoholics," he said in the US last month.  Others, such as athlete Dame Kelly Holmes, have established their own foundation or fund, to assist chosen causes such as social inclusion or literacy.  Indeed in the modern world it is hard to find a sporting celebrity - from Cristiano Ronaldo to Serena Williams - who has not dipped into their resources of money or time for charitable causes.  The former has helped earthquake victims and the latter has help establish educational centres in east Africa, among their varied philanthropic ventures.  But why would high-earning and high-profile sporting names who seem to have it all - jet-set lifestyles, adulation and huge material wealth - choose to get involved with altruistic initiatives?  Are they merely PR and brand-building exercises, a means of countering public perceptions that sportspeople are pampered and overpaid?  Prof Jen Shang is a philanthropic psychologist at Plymouth University, and says that the reasons for getting involved can be complex, and are not usually driven by cynical concerns such as monetary gains or fame.  "Looking at philanthropy in sport, and other professions, one may start out in one's career being motivated by external factors such as money or honours. But after a period of time it is unlikely that people are motivated so much by external rewards, and more by internal drives," she says.  "Top sportspeople might say to themselves, 'I am achieving so much in my regular role, I would like to branch out and see what is out there in the wider world.'  "And when they become involved in philanthropy, they then find the same sense of reward that they experienced when they started their careers."  Prof Shang adds: "The reason people choose to give money to a cause that is not materially benefitting them is because it is meeting some need.  "By 'need', in my research I use the definition of psychological wellbeing. One's philanthropy can make a major difference, not just to others but to one's self."  Prof Shang says that, if they so desire, sportspeople can eventually become "fluent in philanthropy" by using skills learned in their sporting careers - attributes such as risk management, business management and people skills.  She adds: "They are faced by challenges they would not get in their normal environment. Often they have to provide money, time and a lot of tenacity if they are to make their ventures sustainable.  "Problems can be more complex, which is why they often need time and space to develop their philanthropic identities."  James Milner officially launched his charitable foundation in the 2011-12 season, and since then has donated around half a million pounds to charitable causes including leukaemia organisation Bloodwise, the NSPCC and Help For Heroes.  Two recent high-profile events have included a Celtic v Liverpool legends Match for Cancer at Celtic Park in front of 20,000 fans, and the foundation's annual ball, attending by Liverpool teammates and manager Jurgen Klopp.  Some £170,000 was raised at each event.  "He is fairly quiet and not usually in the news, but it is good to see him now getting some recognition as a model professional and highly respected player," says PFA players' union official John Hudson, a trustee of the player's foundation.  "Off the pitch he has been a massive advocate for putting something back. James has been really passionate about wanting to go along this road."  Footballers can often set up charities as an after-thought to a benefit year, or as a way of attempting to manage the many charitable requests put to them by different causes.  "I get a lot of calls from agents saying, 'My player wants to set up a charity,'" says John Hudson, director of corporate social responsibility at footballers' union the PFA.  "I tell them to get the player to call me, and that it is about doing things for the right reason, because you are interested in a cause."  But as Mr Hudson, who for the past five years has been offering advice to players about charities and wider social responsibility issues, says, it is not something to be done lightly.  "Charitable foundations might not always be the right thing for a player. Often they don't realise it involves trustees, company guidelines, Charity Commission guidelines, financial and legal frameworks.  "It is really important that it is set up the right way. We help with funding for players who want to set up a charity, we pay the legal costs to establish the proper regulatory framework.  "If they do want to go ahead I tell them they will need the right people as trustees. There then needs to be sustained commitment. There is nothing worse than a charity that is dormant."  He points to charitable organisations that are run by footballers doing good work away from the glare of the spotlight, but which have highly committed backers.  These include the Russell Martin Foundation run by the Walsall player and former Scotland international, and the Jason Roberts Foundation, run by the ex-Grenada international and West Brom, Portsmouth and Blackburn star.  The PFA is now working with former Liverpool, Bradford and Bolton player Stephen Darby, whose career was brought to a halt at the age of 29 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.  "We are looking to set up a foundation with him, as he wants to raise awareness of the illness," says Mr Hudson.  "As well as getting the message out there he wants to do something practical, such as raising money for things like specialist physios."


bbc--2019-01-18--Nigeria charity Coding Girls gives young girls the chance to learn to code

Nigeria charity Coding Girls gives young girls the chance to learn to code.

Coding Girls is giving young girls in Lagos the chance to learn how to code.  The technology industry is normally male-dominated, but these classes aim to introduce a younger and more female group to the discipline.


bbc--2019-04-24--Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick Opera singer with transplanted lungs dies

Charity 'Sunshine' Tillemann-Dick: Opera singer with transplanted lungs dies

Charity "Sunshine" Tillemann-Dick, a venerated American opera singer who survived two double lung transplants, has died at age 35.  Tillemann-Dick was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension in 2004, forcing her to undergo two emergency lung transplants needed to save her life.  Despite her illness Tillemann-Dick pursued a renowned career, performing her soprano across the world.  Her family announced her death on her Facebook page on Wednesday.  "This morning, life's curtain closed on one of its consummate heroines", the post said.  "Our beloved Charity passed peacefully with her husband, mother, and siblings at her side and sunshine on her face."  A cause of death was not immediately clear.  Tillemann-Dick lived in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband Yonatan Doron.  She performed across the US, Europe and Asia. Her opera roles included Titania in A Midsummer's Night Dream, Gilda in Rigoletto and Violetta in La Traviata.  The singer took the stage at storied theatres worldwide, including the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center in New York, the John F Kennedy Center in Washington DC and the Palace of the Arts in Budapest.  Tillmann-Dick was raised in Denver, Colorado, growing up in a Mormon-Jewish family alongside her 10 siblings.  Though she loved to sing from an early age, cherishing family trips to the symphony and opera, Tillemann-Dick initially thought she might pursue a career in politics.  She would be following in the footsteps of her grandfather, Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who served as a Democrat in the House of Representatives for almost 30 years, and an older brother, Tomicah Tillemann, who worked as a speech writer for Hillary Clinton.  "That's kind of our family trade I suppose," Tillemann-Dick said of politics in an interview with BBC World Service in 2013.  But after graduating from college and spending time on a few political campaigns, she made the choice to return to music.  "I decided I could never forgive myself if I didn't try my hand at music", she told the BBC.  Tillemann-Dick began an intensive training programme at the renowned Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.  At age 20 she was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension, a rare disease marked by extreme pressure on the heart with no apparent cause.  The condition had caused Tillemann-Dick's heart to swell three and a half sizes beyond its normal size.  The diagnosis provided an explanation for her recent fainting spells and shortness of breath, and carried a life expectancy of two to five years.  Tillemann-Dick had said that one of her doctors told her she should stop singing for her condition.  Hoping to avoid a lung transplant, Tillemann-Dick was prescribed Flolan, a liquid medication delivered directly to the heart through a tube in her chest.  The pump, along with the necessary ice packs and auxiliary equipment, weighed about 4lbs (2kg), Tillemann-Dick told the BBC.  Not wanting to draw attention to her condition as she continued to audition and perform, Tillemann-Dick said she would strap her medication to her thigh.  "Sopranos are unpredictable enough, without critical illness," she said,  In 2009, five years after the initial diagnosis, Tillemann-Dick received her first double lung transplant at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.  Though the transplant was life-saving, Tilleman-Dick said she was very concerned about the surgery, particularly its impact on her voice.  "I had spent a lifetime training my body and my lungs and my voice to work in sync and I knew I would lose all of that," she told the BBC.  The brutal surgery put Tillemann-Dick in a coma for over a month, unable to breathe on her own for almost two months.  Eating, walking and talking came next before Tillemann-Dick finally tried to sing again.  The first song she tried, she said, was Smile - made famous by Nat King Cole.  The average lung transplant lasts for about five years, but Tillemann-Dick's body began to reject the transplanted organs just months after surgery.  As she awaited another donor match, doctors told her family that Tillemann-Dick was unlikely to survive, according to the Washington Post.  But as she waited, Tillemann-Dick continued to sing.  In 2011, still without functioning lungs, she debuted at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater. As she sang, Tilleman-Dick had an oxygen tank and wheelchair waiting in the wings.  "I could barely breathe but I could still sing", she told the BBC. "It was a miracle."  In January 2012, she underwent her second double-lung transplant, from a middle-aged Honduran American woman.  Tillemann-Dick became close friends with her donor's daughter, Esperanza Tufani.  Apparently undeterred by her illness, Tillemann-Dick continued to pursue her career, singing with a new pair of lungs.  Her debut album, American Grace, reached no 1 on Billboard's traditional classical charts upon its release in 2014.  Tillemann-Dick's dedication to music was perhaps matched by her advocacy work.  She was a national spokeswoman for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, working to raise awareness, increase federal research funding and promote preventative medicine.  Tillemann-Dick also shared her inspiring story with audiences across the US, including at numerous TED Talks.  "It was so many miracles that paved this most unexpected of paths", she said to the BBC.  In 2015, Tillemann-Dick was confronted with another health problem.  She was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive skin cancer, thought to be a result of the anti-rejection drugs she had taken for her lungs.  Treatment required chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, including a particular procedure that required cutting a nerve on her face, affecting muscle movement on the right side of her mouth, the Washington Post reported.  "Life is full of death. Music, full of sorrow", Tillemann-Dick wrote in her 2017 book, The Encore: A Memoir in Three Acts.  "Great artists have always amplified both."


activistpost--2019-09-21--Our duty is to obey the United Nations Says Pope Francis What Kind Of New World Order Thinking

“Our duty is to obey the United Nations,” Says Pope Francis — What Kind Of New World Order Thinking Is That?

This article is NOT intended to offend readers of Activist Post.com, nor any platform readers to which it may be reposted.  The main purpose for my delving into absurdities the current Roman Catholic Pope Francis expounds is to point out, if Catholics and others have not realized yet, the RC Church probably has been overtaken, if not compromised, with the very antitheses, or contrary opposites, to what apparently logic and ethics cannot defend morally for the church’s more than 1.2 BILLION Catholics in the world, per Vatican figures in March 2013.  Pope Francis has an almost unprecedented distinction of being one of very few popes to step in and replace a formerly reigning pope, e.g., Benedict XVI, who, apparently, has become a burr in Francis’ side.  One seriously has to question why Benedict XVI voluntarily resigned rather abruptly, since he seems to still be actively defining doctrine and dogma for the RC Church.  For those who researched into a rather questionable ‘past’ of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, born December 17, 1936 in Argentina, some unpleasant issues emerge [1], which ought to be factored into why a JESUIT probably was elected to the papacy seemingly at a time when the New World Order (NWO), the Illuminati, and other “key eugenics actors” are involved in an ever-expanding, plus accelerated, implementation of the Hegelian Dialectic [problem, reaction, solution].  Pope Francis probably is, and may be, dowdy or, more likely, is in lock-step with NWO dictates since he’s endorsed a “Leftist” agenda:  One would think, based upon the above ‘endorsements’, that Pope Francis seems to be in lock-step with Leftist philosophy, something anathema to the church’s long-held conservative teachings.  Is there an intent of creating a new prurient and revolutionary ‘religious culture’, which probably will empty RC Churches’ pews faster than the unfortunate priest pedophile crimes hidden for decades!  However, with the introduction of “Transhumanism” I think we could be looking at a future where human higher consciousness is tethered to a “science-made soul, one that displaces Creator’s gifts of Light and Love to us.”  The video below explains from a Catholic viewpoint why everyone who values Creator God’s creation, Nature and Natural Law—not fraudulent or consensus science as a ‘god’—ought to be extremely concerned, plus not remain ‘asleep’ at the technology agenda buttons we constantly push.  Remnant TV Reporter Michael J Matt   Pope Francis: “Our duty is to obey the United Nations!”   27:27 minutes


bigleaguepolitics--2019-12-15--Report: Pope Francis Uses Charity Fund to Paper Over Scandal-Plagued Vatican on Verge of Bankruptcy

Donations collected by Roman Catholics for the poor are being funneled to a cash-strapped Vatican that has spent itself into near insolvency, according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal.  Pope Francis’ charitable fund for the poor, which is called Peter’s Pence, is being pilfered to paper over the Vatican’s budget woes. As little as 10 percent of the money is being spent on actually helping the needy while about two-thirds are being used to keep the Vatican afloat, the report claims.  The WSJ said that the Vatican’s use of the funds “is raising concern among some Catholic Church leaders that the faithful are being misled about the use of their donations, which could further hurt the credibility of the Vatican’s financial management under Pope Francis.”  Trending: Meet the Female Georgia Republican Who Plans to Dismantle Planned Parenthood  The website for Peter’s Pence claims that the fund will be used on humanitarian causes, and does not mention administrative fees for the Vatican.  take our poll - story continues below  “These collections and donations by the individual faithful or entire local churches raise the awareness that all the baptized are called to materially sustain the work of evangelization and at the same time to help the poor in whatever way is possible,” the site says.  ″It is an ancient practice which began with the first community of the apostles. It continues to be repeated because charity distinguishes the disciples of Jesus,” the site adds.  They use words uttered by Jesus Christ transcribed in the Gospel of John to promote their cause: “From this, they will all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Pope Francis also offers excuses for the way the money is being spent.  “When the money from Peter’s Pence arrives, what do I do? I put it in a drawer? No. This is bad administration,” Francis said. “I try to make an investment, and when I need to give, when there is a need, throughout the year, the money is taken and that capital does not devalue, it stays the same or it increases a bit. This is good administration.  “And yes,” Francis added. “One can also purchase a property, rent it and then sell it—but on a sure thing, with all the safety measures for the good of the people and of Peter’s Pence.”  The Vatican has been running in the red for quite sometime and even risks defaulting on their debt due to their reckless fiscal policies. They have also been plagued by financial scandal in recent months:  The Vatican hasn’t published a budget since 2015 and has been without an in-house auditor or economy minister for more than two years, fueling conspiracies about its financial health. Those conspiracies have only grown following a new financial scandal that erupted this month, after Vatican police raided the secretariat of state and the financial intelligence unit in search of documentation about a problematic 150 million-euro London real estate investment. The search warrant, excerpts of which were published this weekend by L’Espresso magazine, alleges fraud, money laundering and abuse of office connected to the London venture and efforts by the Vatican to renegotiate the terms and identify money managers who were fleecing the Holy See in the deal… The scandal is the latest to draw attention to the opaque finances of the central government of the 1.2-billion strong Catholic Church, which is funded not by taxes but from donations and revenues from the Vatican Museums, real estate and other money-making ventures in the city state. Galantino, head of the APSA administrative office, confirmed the Vatican owned 2,400 apartments and 600 commercial spaces in Rome and nearby, 60% of which are rented to Holy See employees at a reduced rent as part of their benefits.  The Catholic Church is going awry under the leadership of Pope Francis, who has pushed globalism while rehabilitating predator priests.


bigleaguepolitics--2019-12-22--Pope Francis Criticizes Conservative Catholics for ‘Rigid’ Beliefs Preventing the ‘Common Good’

Pope Francis delivered a Christmas message at Paul VI Hall in Vatican City on Saturday in which he blamed conservative Catholics for the church becoming less relevant in the West.  “Today we are no longer the only ones that produce culture, no longer the first nor the most listened to,” said Francis, who has resided over financial and moral scandals that have shaken the church to its core.  “The faith in Europe and in much of the West is no longer an obvious presumption but is often denied, derided, marginalized and ridiculed,” he added.  Trending: MUST WATCH: Woman Loses Her Mind, Violently Attacks Reporter Over Impeachment  Francis said that conservative Catholics need to get with the times, and those who believed in tradition are getting in the way of the “common good.” Francis has used his position of authority within the church to argue for gun control, a world government to combat climate change, and porous migration policies.  take our poll - story continues below  “Rigidity that is born from fear of change and ends up disseminating stakes and obstacles in the ground of the common good, turning it into a minefield of misunderstanding and hatred,” Francis said.  Francis claimed that conservative Catholics who believe in upholding tradition suffer from “imbalances,” even though he gave no evidence to support his dubious claim.  “Rigidity and imbalance fuel one another in a vicious circle,” he said. “And these days, the temptation to rigidity has become so apparent.”  Under the influence of Pope Francis, the child sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church has worsened drastically. Big League Politics issued a shocking report earlier this year describing how Pope Francis rehabilitated the career of a church official who the Vatican had known was a serial abuser.  Pope Francis allowed defrocked former cardinal Theodore McCarrick to become his “trusted counselor” after knowing that McCarrick preyed upon young children:  However, Pope Francis’ record indicates that this summit will be another disingenuous damage control measure. The Catholic Church’s ability to cover-up these scandals has waned in recent years as victims have used the internet to coordinate reform efforts and share their tragic stories with the world. Francis’ own behavior has worsened the problem immeasurably throughout his papacy. Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was defrocked last week after Catholic officials determined that abuse allegations made toward him were credible. The Church determined McCarrick was guilty of “sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power.” These allegations had been known by the Church since 2000, before McCarrick was given the title of Cardinal. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano exposed the shocking fact last year that Francis rehabilitated McCarrick after Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict XVI had sanctioned him for sexual abuse. Although it was widely known that he was a serial abuser of children, Francis made McCarrick his “trusted counselor” sending him throughout the world as a Church ambassador shortly after coming into power in 2013. “Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with all of them,” Vigano said. In another sick and twisted display of apostasy, Francis consoled prominent Chilean survivor Juan Carlos Cruz – who became homosexual after his frequent victimization at the hands of a Catholic priest – by telling him that God created him to be gay.  Perhaps if Pope Francis were more “rigid” in his opposition to pedophile predator priests, the Catholic Church would not be in such a dire crisis right now. History will inevitably judge Francis as among the most wicked apostates ever to assume the role of pontiff.


bigleaguepolitics--2019-12-26--Pope Francis Unveils Globalist New World Religion at Summit with United Nations Leader

Pope Francis’ war on traditional Catholicism has been ramping up recently, and he castigated Catholics who believe in tradition and refuse to warp Biblical scripture to appease a godless world for creating a “minefield of misunderstanding and hatred.”  “Rigidity and imbalance fuel one another in a vicious circle,” he said. “And these days, the temptation to rigidity has become so apparent.”  Latest: WTH: South Dakota is the Next Red State to Take in Refugees  Francis revealed the dogma that he intends to replace belief in Christ as savior with last week. He is advocating for Catholics to unite behind a one world government, and surrender their freedom and sovereignty to international interests.  take our poll - story continues below  “Trust and dialogue between people and between nations, in multilateralism, in the role of international organizations, and in diplomacy as an instrument for appreciation and understanding, is indispensable for building a peaceful world,” Francis claimed.  “Your clear moral voice shines through – whether you are speaking out on the plight of the most vulnerable, including refugees and migrants … confronting poverty and inequalities … appealing for disarmament… building bridges between communities … and, of course, highlighting the climate emergency through your historic encyclical, ‘Laudato Si’, and so many other vital efforts,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said during his meeting with the pontiff.  The “Laudato Si” was a blasphemous encyclical letter issued by Francis in 2015 calling for world government to solve the supposed global warming crisis.  “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day,” Francis wrote in his second encyclical.  Francis added: “Enforceable international agreements are urgently needed, since local authorities are not always capable of effective intervention… International and regional conventions do exist, but fragmentation and the lack of strict mechanisms of regulation, control and penalization end up undermining these efforts… What is needed, in effect, is an agreement on systems of governance for the whole range of so-called ‘global commons.’”  Francis made fighting global warming a focal point of his speech while standing next to Guterres in the Vatican last week.  “It is necessary to recognize oneself as members of a single humanity and to take care of our land which, generation after generation, has been entrusted to us by God in custody so that we may cultivate it and leave it in inheritance to our children. Commitment to reducing polluting emissions and comprehensive ecology is urgent and necessary: let’s do something before it’s too late,” Francis said.  “We cannot – we must not – look the other way at the injustices, the inequalities, the scandal of hunger in the world, of poverty, of children who die because they have no water, food, the necessary care. We can’t look the other way at any kind of abuse against the little ones. We must fight this plague together,” he said.  Francis – the protector of pedophile predator priests – is an agent of the new world order, working to subvert authentic Christianity at a time when it is under unprecedented attack.


breitbart--2019-08-11--Pope Francis Proposes Europe First Against Populist Nationalism

Pope Francis Proposes ‘Europe First’ Against Populist Nationalism

“The thinking must be ‘Europe first, then each one of us,’” the pope said in a wide-ranging interview with the Italian daily La Stampa. “‘Each one of us’ is not secondary, it is important, but Europe counts more.”  “Never forget that ‘the whole is greater than the parts.’ Globalization, unity, should not be conceived as a sphere, but as a polyhedron: each people retains its identity in unity with others,” he said.  “In the European Union, we must talk to each other, confront each other and get to know each other. Yet sometimes we see only compromise monologues. No: we also need to listen,” he said.  The pontiff made no attempt to conceal his contempt for the policies of Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, whose motto has been “Italians first.” Francis even went so far as to compare Salvini’s speeches to those of Adolph Hitler.  “Sovereignism” — the movement spearheaded in Italy by Mr. Salvini — reveals “an attitude toward isolation,” the pope said. “I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934. ‘Us first, We…We…’ These are frightening thoughts.”  “Sovereignism means being closed,” the pope continued. “A country should be sovereign but not closed. Sovereignty must be defended, but relations with other countries and with the European community must also be protected and promoted.”  “Sovereignism is an exaggeration that always ends badly: it leads to war,” he said.  When asked about populism, the pope said that it is basically the same thing as sovereignism.  “It is one thing is for people to express themselves, and another is to impose a populist attitude on the people,” he said. “The people are sovereign (they have their way of thinking, feeling, evaluating, and expressing themselves), while populist movements lead to forms of sovereignism. That suffix, ‘ism’, is never good.”  In his interview, the pope also seemed to embrace popular notions that Europe and the European Union (EU) are virtually the same thing, so that to weaken the EU is to weaken Europe.  “Europe cannot and must not break apart. It is a historical, cultural as well as a geographical unity,” Francis said. “The dream of the Founding Fathers had substance because it was an implementation of this unity. Now, we must not lose this heritage.”  “This unity has weakened over the years, partly because of administration problems and internal disagreements. But it must be saved. After the elections, I hope that a process to relaunch it begins and continues without interruption,” he said.  The pope also expressed his admiration for the new President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, saying he was pleased with the appointment of the former German defense minister to the post.  “A woman can be the right person to revive the strength of the Founding Fathers,” the pope said of the Angela Merkel protégée. “Women know how to bring people together, unite.”  Von der Leyen sprang into public view in 2016 with her push for European military integration, perceived by many to have been one of the key issues that pushed the British people toward Brexit.  Von der Leyen warned the United Kingdom against opposing further military federalization, the establishment of a single EU army, navy, and air force.  Earlier this year, she declared that the EU army was “already taking shape.”


breitbart--2019-10-07--Pope Francis: Church Must Not Try to ‘Tame’ Indigenous Peoples

ROME — Pope Francis kicked off the long-awaited Vatican synod for the Amazon this weekend, urging in his opening address on Monday greater acceptance of the wisdom and culture of indigenous peoples and cultures.  “We approach the Amazonian peoples on tiptoe, respecting their history, their cultures, their style of good living,” the pope said in his morning speech in the synod hall, “because all peoples have their own identity, all peoples have their own wisdom, self-awareness, peoples have a way of feeling, a way of seeing reality, a history, a hermeneutic and tend to be protagonists of their own history with these things, with these qualities.”  While not condemning the European colonization and evangelization of the New World outright, Francis distanced himself from colonizing “ideologies” as well as “proselytism.”  We approach the Amazonian peoples “far from ideological colonizations that destroy or reduce the idiosyncrasies of peoples,” he said. “Today this ideological colonization is so common.”  “We also approach them without the entrepreneurial desire to impose pre-prepared programs on them, to ‘discipline’ the Amazonian peoples, discipline their history, their culture,” the pope said.  We must reject the “desire to tame the native peoples,” he added.  Historically, Spanish and Portuguese missionaries and colonizers who came to the new world rejected and outlawed many native customs incompatible with Christianity, such as human and child sacrifice, polygamy, idol worship and other rituals practiced by the Aztec, Mayan, Inca, and Moche tribes. The missionaries often saw their work as an effort to “civilize” indigenous peoples.  Some reformer missionaries, such as Fra Bartolomé de las Casas, who became the first bishop of Chiapas, advocated for the rights of the native peoples against abuses by European colonizers, arguing for their equal human dignity.  In his address Monday, Pope Francis said that in the past, the Church sometimes forgot that its role was not to tame native peoples, and because of this, “it was not inculturized,” but even reached “the point of scorning certain peoples.”  “Ideologies are a dangerous weapon,” Francis said. “We always tend to seize an ideology in order to interpret a people. Ideologies are reductive and lead us to exaggerate in our attempt to understand intellectually, but without accepting, understand without admiring, understand without assuming, and then reality is received in categories, the most common of which are the categories of ‘isms.’”  Over the past months, a number of prominent Catholic prelates have criticized the working document of the Amazon synod of bishops, in part because of its emphasis on indigenism.  In mid-July, for instance, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who has extensive personal experience working in South America, issued a lengthy critique of the document, lamenting its “upside-down hermeneutics” and appeals to a “cosmovision with its myths and the ritual magic of Mother ‘Nature.’”  The synod document, in fact, cites the words of the indigenous people in this regard: “We, the indigenous people of Guaviare (Colombia), are part of nature because we are water, air, earth and life of the environment created by God.”  “Therefore, we ask that the mistreatment and extermination of ‘Mother Earth’ cease. The earth has blood and is bleeding, the multinationals have cut the veins of our ‘Mother Earth’. We want our indigenous cry to be heard by the whole world,” it reads.


breitbart--2019-11-18--Pope Francis Wants to Add ‘Ecological Sin’ to Catechism

ROME — Pope Francis told a group of lawyers that he could like to introduce the category of “ecological sin” into official Catholic teaching.  “We must introduce – we are thinking about it – in the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin against ecology, the ecological sin against the common home, because it is a duty,” the pope said Friday in addressing participants in an international conference on penal law.  More specifically, Francis said, are all those actions that can be considered as “ecocide,” for instance, “the massive contamination of air, land and water resources, the large-scale destruction of flora and fauna, and any action capable of producing an ecological disaster or destroying an ecosystem.”  Ecocide “is to be understood as the loss, damage or destruction of the ecosystems of a given territory, so that its utilization by inhabitants has been or can be seen as severely compromised,” he said, adding that such a sin is “a fifth category of crimes against peace, which should be recognised as such by the international community.”  The pontiff said that such actions are “usually” caused by corporations, and “an elementary sense of justice would require” that they be punished for them.  An ecological sin is “an action or omission against God, against one’s neighbour, the community and the environment,” Francis said, quoting the Fathers of the recently concluded Pan-Amazon Regional Synod. “It is a sin against future generations and is manifested in acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the harmony of the environment, in transgressions against the principles of interdependence and in the breaking of networks of solidarity between creatures.”  Above and beyond its sinfulness, failure to care for the environment is an injustice and a crime, Francis suggested and should be legally enforced. “I would like to appeal to all the leaders and actors in this area to contribute their efforts to ensuring adequate legal protection for our common home,” he said.  The pope’s words coincided with the release of a new survey by the Pew Research Center, which found that church-going Americans accept their clergy’s on spiritual matters, but generally distrust their advice on issues such as climate change.  Pew found that 68 percent of U.S. adults who attend religious services at least a few times a year say they have “a lot” of confidence in the advice of their clergy on growing closer to God, yet just a small fraction of this number (13 percent) say they have this confidence when the topic is “climate change.”  Pope Francis has thrown his moral weight behind the battle against anthropogenic climate change, but has also acknowledged that the Church has no authority on scientific questions.  In his 2015 encyclical letter on the environment, Francis urging nations and individuals to exercise more responsible stewardship of the created world, but insisted that he wanted to encourage debate rather than pronounce on environmental issues.  “On many concrete questions,” he wrote, “the Church has no reason to offer a definitive opinion; she knows that honest debate must be encouraged among experts, while respecting divergent views.”  “Here I would state once more that the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics,” Francis said. “But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.”


breitbart--2019-12-17--Pope Francis Abolishes ‘Pontifical Secret’ for Sex Abuse Cases

ROME — Pope Francis has eliminated the rule of pontifical secrecy for dealings of the Roman Curia in cases involving the sexual abuse of minors.  Whereas according to Church law members of the Vatican Curia are obliged to a code of confidentiality concerning information that they come to know through their official work, this code will no longer apply in specific instances concerning abuse, according to changes established by the Vatican Tuesday.  According to the archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, the update represents “an epochal decision,” because “the question of transparency now is being implemented at the highest level.”  Documents in a penal trial will not become public, Scicluna noted, but they will be available for authorities or interested parties to promote the sharing of information and documentation.  The sort of actions no longer covered by the pontifical secret include “cases of violence and sexual acts committed under threat or abuse of authority; cases of the sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable persons; cases of child pornography; cases regarding the lack of reporting and the cover-up of the abusers on the part of bishops and superiors general of religious institutes,” Vatican News reported.  Although the Church had already mandated reporting charges of sex abuse to civil authorities where required by law, the new regulations further prohibit imposing an obligation of silence on those who report sex abuse or claim to have been a victim.  The definition of child pornography has also been changed from images of children under the age of 14 to those under the age of 18, moving away from a matter of the sexual maturity of the victims to their legal status as minors.  The lifting of the pontifical secret does not affect the obligation of keeping the seal of confession for information obtained by priests through the sacrament of penance.  The two documents issued Tuesday are known as rescriptums, meaning that the pope has used his authority to tweak or “rewrite” articles of Canon Law or other magisterial texts.


clashdaily--2019-11-15--Pope Francis Invokes Hitler, Criticizes Politicians Who Denounce Homosexuality

Is he directing this at the West, or at politicians in nations where homosexuals can still be killed?  Why does it seem that whenever Pope Francis dips his toes in the waters of politics, it’s to point an angry finger at the West?  The Pope used the occasion of a conference on Criminal Law to weigh in on who he would point to as being ‘nazis’.  He made the following statement:  Trending: Schiff Plays Dirty: Watch Him Ignore House Rules While Showboating Against Trump (Video) “It is not coincidental that at times there is a resurgence of symbols typical of Nazism,” Francis said in an address to participants of an international conference on criminal law. “And I must confess to you that when I hear a speech (by) someone responsible for order or for a government, I think of speeches by Hitler in 1934, 1936,” he said, departing from his prepared address. “With the persecution of Jews, gypsies, and people with homosexual tendencies, today these actions are typical (and) represent ‘par excellence’ a culture of waste and hate. That is what was done in those days and today it is happening again.” During the 1933-45 Nazi regime in Germany, six million Jews were killed and homosexuals and gypsies were among those sent to extermination camps.   Source: Canoe  This is an interesting point for a Pope to make for a couple of reasons.  First, is the Pope’s equating of the denouncing a particular sexual act that is denounced in scripture with hating people on the basis of race, contrary to the explicit command of scripture.  He does not explain why he has broken with a 2000-year-old Catholic tradition of affirming that homosexual sex is in conflict with the morality set out by the Triune God of scripture.  If opposing an activity as immoral is the same as hating the person who does it, then Jesus himself, who went everywhere calling people to ‘Repent for the kingdom of God has come’, and the apostles who did the same, including Peter and Paul are exactly the kind of hateful people the Pope has opposed.  His remarks appear to be directed toward the actions of a politician in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro who reportedly made very inflammatory remarks about his objections to homosexuality. Whether he meant those words literally, or merely for rhetorical effect, they were a statement in the hypothetical about having a gay son.  Nobody was imprisoned. Nobody was stoned. Nobody was thrown from a high building or forced to renounce their deeply-held beliefs about religion or anything else.  It makes one wonder why when Trump’s administration has been pushing to change worldwide attitudes toward homosexuality — to at minimum decriminalize it — the Pope would pick this particular issue to turn his attention to in his denunciation of bigots.  Here is a map of countries in which homosexuality can get you imprisoned or killed. Brazil, our readers will note, is conspicuously NOT on that list.  And it seems strange that he passed up an opportunity to shine a light on the insistence of China’s government to overstep its bounds and exert control over what the Church has been doing in China.  China can not only exercise a veto in the Bishops Rome appoints in China, but they have bulldozed churches and forced both the removal of Christian art and artifacts and the insistence of posting pictures of China’s President Xi in houses of worship.  And in a far more direct resemblance to Hitler, China has imprisoned hundreds of thousands or perhaps more than a million Chinese citizens belonging to a specific ethnic and religious minority.  Hey CNN: China Smashes Hundreds of Churches, Seizes Bibles — Is That News?  Serious Question: Does China Have ‘Leverage’ Against A Disgraced Ex-Cardinal?  WTF: Why Is The World Bank Shoveling Cash Into China’s Uyghur Concentration Camps?


clashdaily--2019-11-18--Pope Francis May Codify A New Kind Of ‘Environmental Sin’

While we still wait for him to sort out the various scandals that have shaken the public trust even in the highest ranks of the clergy, he’s considering the recognition of a new class of environmental sins.  It seems like a bad idea to us, but maybe our Catholic readers will see it differently.  This came up in the same speech that raised eyebrows for what the Pope said about politicians denouncing homosexuality being like Hitler.  Pope Francis, who has made the environment a signature cause of his pontificate, said he was strongly considering adding the category of “ecological sin” to the Catholic Church’s official compendium of teachings.  Trending: Hilarious: Anderson Cooper Gets Blasted By Seb Gorka … On His Own Show! (Video)  “We must introduce—we are thinking—into the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin against ecology, the ecological sin against the common home, because it’s a duty,” the pope said at the Vatican Friday.  He noted that ecological sin would be defined as an “action or omission against God, against others, the community and the environment. It is a sin against future generations and is manifested in the acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the harmony of the environment.”  In the same speech he said that developments in politics and business remind him of dark episodes from humanity’s past, including Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.  “It is not coincidental that at times there is a resurgence of symbols typical of Nazism,” Francis said as he decried the “culture of waste and hate” represented by contemporary politicians who spew derogatory and racists attacks against homosexuals, gypsies, Jewish people, and others. “I must confess to you,” he continued, “that when I hear a speech (by) someone responsible for order or for a government, I think of speeches by Hitler in 1934, 1936.”  Francis also blamed global capitalism for ‘plundering the earth’ at the expense of the poor and future generations.  “Global financial capital is at the origin of serious crimes not only against property but also against people and the environment,” Francis said, comparing capitalism to “organized crime” committing “ecocide.” Francis added that such crimes committed by corporations should be punished.   Source: SummitNews  He’s downplaying, for example, the sexual morality explicitly laid out in scripture, while elevating a new basis of morality that ‘just happens’ to express the very moral values currently on the ascendant in the irreligious left.  Watch: Literal Pagan Idols Were Removed From Catholic Church And Chucked Into The Tiber  Say WHAT? Pope Opens Amazon Synod With A REALLY Weird Ritual  Pope Francis To Gay Man, ‘God Made You Like That’ – The Apostle Paul Disagrees  Pope Francis Gives A Friendly Welcome To Bono AFTER His Campaign For Abortion In Ireland


cnsnews--2019-04-02--Pope Francis to Moroccan Catholics Dont Convert Anyone to Catholicism

Pope Francis to Moroccan Catholics: Don't Convert Anyone to Catholicism!

While speaking to Catholics at St. Peter's Cathedral in Rabat, Morocco on Sunday, Pope Francis warned the crowd of about 400 people against seeking to convert anyone to Catholicism, stating, "Please, no proselytism!"  Trying to convert people to Catholicism "always leads to an impasse," said the head of the 1.3-billion member church, as reported by Agence France-Presse.  There are about 30,000 Catholics and 10,000 Protestants in Morocco and they make up less than 1% of the population there.  "The Church grows not through proselytism but by attraction,” Francis said, as Reuters reported.  “This means, dear friends, that our mission as baptized persons, priests and consecrated men and women, is not really determined by the number or size of spaces that we occupy, but rather by our capacity to generate change and to awaken wonder and compassion."  As reported, Pope Francis "has used his two-day trip to stress inter-faith dialogue. He has also backed Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s efforts to spread a form of Islam that promotes inter-religious dialogue and rejects violence in God’s name."  "[T]he Pope also stressed the need for inter-religious dialogue, saying people should resist 'classifying ourselves according to different moral, social, ethnic or religious criteria,'" reported Reuters.  The U.S. State Department reports, "According to [Morocco's] constitution, the country is a Muslim state, with full sovereignty, and Islam is the religion of the state. ... The law penalizes anyone who 'employs enticements to undermine the faith' or convert a Muslim to another faith, and provides punishments of six months to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams ($21 to $53). It also provides the right to a court trial for anyone accused of such an offense."  "Voluntary conversion is not a crime under the law," according to the State Department.  "Sunni Muslims and Jews are the only religious groups recognized in the constitution as native to the country; other faiths are viewed as foreign" in Morrocco, reported the State Department. "Many foreign-resident Christian churches are registered as associations. Registered foreign-resident churches include the Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican Churches, which maintain different forms of official status."


cnsnews--2019-04-30--Catholic Scholars Pope Francis is Guilty of the Crime of Heresy

Catholic Scholars: 'Pope Francis is Guilty of the Crime of Heresy'

(CNSNews.com) -- In a detailed, 20-page, "Open Letter" to all the bishops of the Catholic Church, a group of Catholic scholars, theologians, and clergy have declared that Pope Francis is "guilty of the crime of heresy," and have called on the bishops to investigate the case presented in their letter so they might "free the Church from her present distress."  The scholars note that this process began in 2016 when a group of Catholics wrote a private letter to the cardinals about Pope Francis' alleged heresies in his document Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love).  As scandal continued, a "filial correction" was sent to the Pope, which he did not answer. A second letter and petition was made public in 2017, and now there is the Open Letter.  "The present Open letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church goes a stage further in claiming that Pope Francis is guilty of the crime of heresy," state the scholars and clergymen.  "This crime is committed when a Catholic knowingly and persistently denies something which he knows that the Church teaches to be revealed by God."  "Taken together, the words and actions of Pope Francis amount to a comprehensive rejection of Catholic teaching on marriage and sexual activity, on the moral law, and on grace and the forgiveness of sins," the letter reads, as first reported by LifeSiteNews.com.  They further state, "The Open letter also indicates the link between this rejection of Catholic teaching and the favour shown by Pope Francis to bishops and other clergy who have either been guilty of sexual sins and crimes, such as former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, or who have protected clergy guilty of sexual sins and crimes, such as the late Cardinal Godfried Danneels."  "This protection and promotion of clerics who reject Catholic teaching on marriage, sexual activity, and on the moral law in general, even when these clerics personally violate the moral and civil law in horrendous ways, is consistent enough to be considered a policy on the part of Pope Francis," reads the letter. "At the least it is evidence of disbelief in the truth of Catholic teaching on these subjects."  "It also indicates a strategy to impose rejection of these teachings on the Church, by naming to influential posts individuals whose personal lives are based on violation of these truths," state the theologians.  A heretical papcy "must be corrected," they write.  "The authors respectfully request the bishops of the Church to investigate the accusations contained in the letter, so that if they judge them to be well founded, they may free the Church from her present distress, in accordance with the hallowed adage, Salus animarum prima lex (‘the salvation of souls is the highest law’)," they state in a summary of the letter. "They can do this by admonishing Pope Francis to reject these heresies, and if he should persistently refuse, by declaring that he has freely deprived himself of the papacy."  Citing Canon Law, the law that governs the Church, the scholars write, "While this Open letter is an unusual, even historic, document, the Church’s own laws say that 'Christ's faithful have the right, and, indeed, sometimes the duty, according to their knowledge, competence, and dignity, to manifest to the sacred pastors their judgement about those things which pertain to the good of the Church' (Code of Canon Law, canon 212.3)."  Two of the letter signers are Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP and Professor John Rist. Fr. Nichols is one of the most respected theologians in the English-speaking world and the author of many books on theology. Prof. Rist is known for his work in classical philosophy and the history of theology; he has taught at the Augustinianum in Rome, the Catholic University of America, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  The Open Letter can be read here.  The summary of the Open Letter can be read here.


cnsnews--2019-09-27--Pope Francis The Church Values Sport in Itself

Pope Francis: ‘The Church Values Sport in Itself’

(CNSNews.com) - Pope Francis said today that the Catholic Church “values sport in itself” in an address he delivered to participants in the Semi-Annual Congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation.  “Sport is a very special channel for the promotion of peace and unity,” said the pope. “Sporting activities are meeting places where people of many different backgrounds come together.”  “It is also important to keep in mind that sport has a role to play in our growth and integral development,” he said. “That is why the Church values sport in itself, as an arena of human activity where the virtues of temperance, humility, courage and patience can be fostered, and encounters with beauty, goodness, truth and joy can be witnessed.”  Here is the full text of the pope’s remarks:  “I am happy to greet and welcome the participants of the International Ice Hockey Federation Semi-Annual Congress. I would like to thank the President of the Federation, Mr. René Fasel, for his kind words of greeting. “Sport is a very special channel for the promotion of peace and unity. Sporting activities are meeting places where people of many different backgrounds come together. Hockey is a good example of how sport can express a sense of community. It is a team game in which each team member has an important role to play. Whenever you take part in the World Championships, you can see how people from many different countries enjoy coming together to experience the beauty of sport. “It is also important to keep in mind that sport has a role to play in our growth and integral development. That is why the Church values sport in itself, as an arena of human activity where the virtues of temperance, humility, courage and patience can be fostered, and encounters with beauty, goodness, truth and joy can be witnessed (cf. Giving the best of yourself, 1 June 2018, 1.3). “As you are the leaders of international ice hockey, it is consoling to know that your goal is not only to control the guidelines and rules of the sport, but also to make it inclusive and available to individuals on a global level. Ice hockey requires unique skills and strength. Players have to master the techniques involved in skating and maintaining their balance on ice, and they also have to keep up with the movement of the puck and be able to get up after a fall. Sports like these require hours of training. As you support the development of this sport worldwide, you are encouraging young and old, men and women, to bring out the best of themselves and to promote friendly relationships on and off the ice rink. “Additionally, I would also like to acknowledge the fact that your organization received approval for its updated statutes and bylaws in May this year, and that a new Ethics Board has been included. Today’s culture may sometimes steer sporting activities down the wrong path, but we must keep in mind that rules are there to serve a specific purpose and to avoid a descent into chaos. Athletes honor fair play when they not only obey the formal rules but also observe justice with respect to their opponents so that all competitors can freely engage in the game (cf. ibid., 3.2). “With all of this in mind, I encourage you and your Federation to go forth and continue your special mission to make this sport inclusive and to ensure a safe community for all who take part. “May the Lord bless you and always give you the joy of sport being played together. Thank you.”


dailybeast--2019-11-10--Pope Francis Is Promoting a Debunked 19th Century Tourist Trap Theory

Last Monday, Pope Francis celebrated the feast of All Soul’s with a Mass held in the ancient catacombs of Priscilla in Rome. It was Francis’ first visit to the underground catacombs and in some unscripted remarks during the mass he said that he was led to think “of the life of those people who had to hide, who had this culture of burying their dead and celebrating the Eucharist inside here.” It’s a lovely sentiment but there’s a small problem: Christians never hid in the catacombs. The idea that they did is an 18th and 19th century myth for tourists.  Pope Francis isn’t alone in thinking that persecuted Christians hid from the Romans in the network of 40 or so narrow subterranean tunnels and small chambers that make up the Christian catacombs in the eternal city. The idea that mad emperors and the bloodthirsty Roman people forced the Christians into communicating via the cryptic fish symbol as a way to avoid capture and execution is a fairly common story. To be honest, I heard the same legend in Sunday school and even today if you were to hire a poorly educated tour guide you might well hear this legend too.  In the case of the catacombs part of the mythology is related to the tourist practices of the 18th and 19th centuries. Though the catacombs were rediscovered in the 16th century, their excavation has taken hundreds of years, primarily because they weren’t initially structurally sound. When utensils and plates were unearthed in the catacombs, some assumed that Christians had been forced into living and hiding there during the so-called “age of persecution.”  This interpretation was influenced by some late antiquity legends. Jessica Dello Russo, director of the International Catacomb Society, told The Daily Beast that a third century story in which Pope Sixtus II was captured in burial grounds and “references to the work and activity of popes in the cemeteries in sources like the Liber Pontificalis (Book of the Popes)” contributed to the idea of Christians living and hiding underground.  This interpretation easily became a fact. For example, Rome-based nineteenth century missionary Dr. Wolfred Cote’s wrote in his 1876 Archaeology of Baptism, “During the dark days of imperial persecutions the primitive Christians of Rome found a ready refuge in the Catacombs.” Alarmingly Cote’s statement is still cited in some modern Christian books today.  But the mythology was especially appearing in the 18th century because it appealed to the Romantic sensibilities of the era. As a result, tours of the catacombs were incorporated into the Grand Tour of Europe and wealthy young men who wanted to complete their education with travel were sure to visit it during their journeys.  The origins of these misconceptions is at least partially due to an exaggerated sense of how extensive the persecution was. When we think of early Christians we tend to imagine that they were under continual and constant attack. Yet for much of the first four centuries of the Common Era, Christians lived and celebrated openly and without fear of arrest or imprisonment. When the fiercest period of persecution—the Great Persecution of Diocletian (303-306)—began, the first act of aggression against the Christians was the destruction of a church in Nicomedia that was built caddy corner across from the imperial palace. Hiding and worshipping in secret? Hardly. In fact, as Dello Russo told me, many ancient catacombs had halls above the crypts for ritual celebrations. If you had wanted to find early Christians, you would not have had to look very far.  For Francis, the idea of worshipping in secret does valuable work. He stated that even in the modern day there are some who still practice their Christianity behind closed doors. “It was an ugly moment in history,” he said, “but it has not been overcome.” There are “many c atacombs in other countries where people even have to pretend they are having a party or a birthday in order to celebrate the Eucharist because it is banned.”  Given that the pope is trying to help Christians who are being persecuted in the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia, surely he can be given a pass here? Well, yes and no; there are three reasons why misinformation should be corrected. The first, though pedantic, is that accuracy matters. In a modern context in which groups want to make claims about truth, it doesn’t look good to continue to peddle long-debunked legends as statements of fact. What other things, a skeptical observer might ask, aren’t quite true?  The second reason is that Francis doesn’t have a monopoly on connecting ancient persecution to modern politics. At a talk at Liberty University in January 2016, future president Donald Trump said that “Christianity is under siege” in the United States. Sociologist Andrew Whitehead published a paper in 2018 that showed that “voting for Trump was, at least for many Americans, a symbolic defense of the United States’ perceived Christian heritage” and a better predictor of voting that any other element of identity. An article in The Christian Post in July 2019 offers predictions that “persecution is coming” to America and explicitly connects that promise of persecution to the early church. It’s not a one-off piece, either. Mike Pence told Liberty University graduates in May that “freedom of religion is under assault” and they should expect to be harassed for their religious beliefs. That some conservative Christians would perceive themselves as under attack during the Obama years makes a certain kind of strange sense. That those same groups would continue to make these claims during the Trump-Pence administration suggests that these conservative American evangelicals have a persecution complex. This complex can be traced back to the 1960s and is rooted in a rather inaccurate understanding of Christian history.  The third reason is that, even without the ties to martyrdom, the catacombs have a lot to offer. As a kind of “underground city” they give us access to a part of Christian history that is otherwise hidden from view. How we bury our dead communicates a great deal about our values and our hopes for the future. Some of our earliest Christian art is found in the Roman catacombs. The depiction of biblical scenes of the three young men in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lion’s den, and Jonah being regurgitated by a large sea creature (I’m sorry the Bible does not say whale) all gesture to the development of early Christian beliefs about the afterlife. For modern Christians, visiting the catacombs can be an enormously emotional experience. Dello Russo told me, “I remember my first trip (to [the catacombs of San] Callisto), and first impressions can be overwhelmed by Christian narrative, because, for many of us (Francis and I are both Americans), we’ve never seen anything quite that old materializing our faith.” Visitors still have to navigate the narrow passages and uneven steps that the ancient Romans used. The physical reality of ancient life surrounds you in ways that it does not in the breezy openness of the Colosseum or the Roman Forum. You don’t need a persecution myth to bring the catacombs to life.


eveningstandard--2019-01-24--Pope Francis says a fear of migrants is aposmaking us crazyapos

Pope Francis says a fear of migrants is 'making us crazy'

Pope Francis has said that a fear of migration is “making us crazy.”  The pontiff made the comments as he began a trip to Central America amid President Trump’s standoff over a wall at the border with Mexico.  Francis previously denounced anyone who wants to build a wall to keep out migrants as “not Christian.”  As he made his way to Panama, the Pope was asked by reporters about the proposed border wall, responding: “it’s the fear that makes us crazy.”  Francis, the Roman Catholic Church's first Latin American pope and the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, has made the plight of migrants and refugees a cornerstone of his papacy.  He is also expected to offer words of encouragement to young people gathered in Panama for World Youth Day, the church's once-every-three-year rally that aims to invigorate the next generation of Catholics in their faith.  Panama Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa said Francis's message is likely to resonate with young Central Americans who see their only future free of violence and poverty in migrating to the US - "young people who often fall into the hands of drug traffickers and so many other realities that our young people face".  Francis's trip, the first in a year packed with foreign travel, comes at a critical moment in the papacy as the Catholic hierarchy globally is facing a crisis in credibility for covering up decades of cases of priests molesting young people.  The pope is expected to soon rule on the fate of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the high-powered US archbishop accused of molesting minors and adults.  And he is hosting church leaders at the Vatican next month to try to chart a way forward for the global church.  Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said there were no plans for Francis to meet with abuse survivors in Panama.  Central America has not yet seen the explosion of sex abuse cases that have shattered trust in the Catholic hierarchy in Chile, the US and other parts of the world.  This is the first papal visit to Panama since St John Paul II was there during a 1983 regional tour.  Pope Francis confirmed to reporters aboard the papal plane that he plans to go to Japan in November.  The pope also said he wants to visit Iraq, but that local church leaders have told him that the security situation is not yet right.  This year, the pontiff has already scheduled trips to the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bulgaria and Macedonia, and a trip to Madagascar is rumoured.


france24--2019-02-04--Pope Francis visits UAE in historic trip to the Arabian Penninsula

Reuters | Pope Francis visits the UAE on February 4, 2019, on his historic visit to the Arabian Penninsula.  Pope Francis received a pomp-filled welcome on Monday as he began his historic visit to the Arabian Peninsula by meeting with Emirati rulers in a Muslim region known for its restrictions on religious freedom.  Francis arrived at the Abu Dhabi presidential palace in a tiny Kia hatchback, but was greeted with an artillery salute and military flyover by a country now at war.  Even for a nation known for its excesses, the Emiratis' red-carpet welcome was remarkable for a pope who prides himself on simplicity. It featured horse-mounted guards escorting the pontiff's motorcade through the palace gardens while the flyover trailed the yellow and white smoke of the Holy See flag.  As cannons boomed and a military band played, Francis stood somberly between Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the Emirati vice president and prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, during the presentation of delegations in the courtyard of the domed palace.  In a message to the prince, written in the palace book of honor, Francis thanked him for his hospitality and assured the people of the UAE of his prayers and "the divine blessings of peace and fraternal solidarity." Francis gave the crown prince a medal depicting his peace-loving namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, meeting the Egyptian sultan Malek el-Kamel 800 years ago.  Sheikh Mohammed, for his part, gave Francis a framed notarized decree from June 22, 1963, in which the then-ruler of Abu Dhabi donated the land for the construction of the first Catholic church in the Emirates.  "We discussed enhancing cooperation, consolidating dialogue, tolerance, human coexistence & important initiatives to achieve peace, stability and development for peoples and societies," Sheikh Mohammed tweeted.  Francis' speech to the gathering of faith leaders on Monday evening is to be the highlight of his brief, 40-hour visit to Abu Dhabi, the first to the Arabian Peninsula by a pope. His trip culminates on Tuesday with a huge papal Mass at the city's sports stadium expected to draw some 135,000 faithful in a never-before-seen display of public Christian worship here.  As Francis began his trip, human rights groups who are banned from the UAE urged him to use his visit to press for accountability by the Emirati leadership for atrocities in the war in Yemen and its repression of dissent at home.  "Despite its assertions about tolerance, the UAE government has demonstrated no real interest in improving its human rights record," Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Francis.  It was a reference to the UAE's often-stated claims of religious tolerance - it has a minister for tolerance, is hosting the interfaith meeting Francis is attending and has declared 2019 its "Year of Tolerance." That respect for non-Muslim forms of worship, however, runs up against the political reality of media censorship, repression of political dissent and limits placed on religious freedom.  Francis had actually made an urgent appeal for an end to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen just before he left the Vatican, calling Sunday for observation of a limited cease-fire so that food and medicine can get to its people, who are suffering the world's worst humanitarian crisis.  The UAE has been Saudi Arabia's main ally in the war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting the country's Houthi rebels. Francis' pre-trip appeal was a way for him to avoid embarrassing his hosts with a public denunciation of the humanitarian costs of the war while in the region.  In another sign that regional politics was playing a not-insignificant role in Francis' visit, the papal plane flew north of Qatar and around the peninsular, energy-rich nation on his flight Sunday.  Four Arab nations - Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - have been boycotting Qatar since June 2017 as part of a regional political dispute. Tensions are still high between the nations, especially after Qatar's win at the Emirates-hosted Asian Cup soccer tournament this past week.  By avoiding Qatari airspace, Francis omitted sending a telegram of greetings to the country's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as he would do when flying through the airspace of countries. He sent one when passing by the island nation of Bahrain.  Sheikh Tamim traveled Monday to Kuwait, which has been mediating the crisis.


france24--2019-09-06--Pope Francis hails right to peace as he ends Mozambique visit

Pope Francis hails ‘right to peace’ as he ends Mozambique visit

Yara Nardi, Reuters | Pope Francis kisses a baby at Zimpeto hospital on the outskirts of Maputo, Mozambique Sept. 6, 2019.  Pope Francis on Friday told tens of thousands of faithful at a packed stadium not to resort to "vengeance" as he wound up a visit to Mozambique, ravaged by a 16-year civil war and now the target of jihadist attacks.  His maiden visit to the poor former Portuguese colony came a month after the government and the former rebel group Renamo, now the main opposition party, signed a historic peace treaty.  Brutal jihadist attacks in northern Mozambique have claimed more than 300 lives over two years and forced thousands from their homes.  "We cannot think of the future and build a nation" with violence, Pope Francis said in a homily to a crowd of about 60,000 at the Zimpeto stadium in the Mozambican capital Maputo.  Speaking in Portuguese, he asked them not to follow the old law of retaliation "an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth.  "No family, no group of neighbours or ethnic group and even less no country has a future if the motor that unites them... is composed of vengeance and hatred," he said.  Denouncing reprisals cloaked under the guise of legality, the pope warned that violence was "an endless spiral without end with a very high cost.  "You have the right to peace!" he said.  Mozambique is a mainly Christian country and 28 percent of the population is Catholic.  Earlier Friday, the pope visited an AIDS care centre on the outskirts of Maputo, hailing the carers for responding to their "silent cry" for help in a country ravaged by the disease.  According to UNAIDS, 2.2 million Mozambicans -- 60 percent of them women -- were HIV positive in 2018 in the southern African nation of 27 million people.  There were 150,000 new infections last year and 54,000 AIDS-related deaths.  Francis hailed the "compassion" of the health workers for responding to "this silent cry, almost inaudible, of innumerable women and all the people living in shame, marginalised and judged by everybody.  Francis thanked workers at the AIDS centre for "restoring the dignity" of women and children suffering from HIV and AIDS and for "hearing their cries and intervening personally."  He did not however touch on the delicate subject of prevention -- an issue riddled with minefields given the Catholic Church's stand on contraception -- especially in a largely conservative and traditional continent.  Francis is the first pope to visit Mozambique since John Paul II in 1988 and is on a three-nation tour that includes Madagascar and Mauritius.  On Thursday, the pontiff visited a brand new hospital in Zimpeto, a poor outlying district of the capital, where 23 percent of adult residents have been hit by HIV.  The complex, inaugurated last year, comprises a state-of-the-art laboratory and hosts a programme for HIV-positive and AIDS patients, especially pregnant women.  This programme, named "Dream", was launched in 2002 by the Italian lay Catholic association Sant'Egidio which is very close to the Vatican and is dedicated to social service.  It runs 13 health centres in the country. The "Dream" project is spread across 11 African countries.  Mozambique and Madagascar are among the world's poorest countries and Francis' decision to visit is seen by commentators as an act of solidarity from a cleric who was a frequent presence in the shantytowns of Argentina and is now called the "pope of the poor".


fusion--2019-05-29--Pope Francis willing to face President Trump to talk about the border wall

Pope Francis says he’s willing to tell President Trump to his face that it’s wrong to build a border wall. The pontiff sat down for a wide ranging interview with Televisa, during which he also talked about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and the struggles facing Mexico.


lifesitenews--2019-10-05--Pope Francis doesn’t understand Islam

Pope Francis doesn’t understand Islam

October 4, 2019 (Turning Point Project) — "Is the pope Catholic?" used to be a punch line. Now, sometimes, you almost have to wonder. Of course, I'm not suggesting that Pope Francis is a secret apostate or a Masonic agent. It's just that he seems dissatisfied with certain Church teachings.  What apparently rankles him most are Catholic claims to exclusivity. For example, the belief that all men are saved through Christ can be looked upon as an impediment to interreligious harmony. Francis, for whom interreligious harmony is a top priority, seems to see it that way. Many of his statements seem to suggest he has abandoned the idea that Catholics should seek to convert others to the Faith. On one occasion, for example, he referred to proselytism as "solemn nonsense."  Francis appears to believe that each religion provides its own path to heaven. If that's so, then people are best served by going deeper into whatever faith they already belong to. Thus, Francis once advised a group of Muslim migrants to read the Koran in order to find direction in their lives.  As he wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, Francis believes that all religions have "shared beliefs." Where those beliefs don't overlap so neatly, he seems perfectly happy to blur the lines. A good example is the Abu Dhabi Declaration on "Human Fraternity" signed by Pope Francis and Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, in February.  Of particular concern is the statement that "the pluralism and the diversity of religions ... are willed by God." That's quite a concession for Francis to make, as it contradicts Christ's claim that "I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me" (Jn. 14:6). As Swiss bishop Marian Eleganti puts it, "the unique and universal mediation of Jesus Christ is eclipsed in the Abu Dhabi Declaration."  Just so. But there are many other problems with the document besides God's supposed endorsement of a variety of contradictory religions. In their commitment to inclusion, the drafters of the document — mostly Catholics, one assumes — end up saying things that are true neither of Catholicism nor Islam.  Contrary to the evidence, the Declaration assumes that the one common religion already exists in nascent form, and that the teachings and values of all religions are essentially the same. Thus, "the values of tolerance and fraternity ... are promoted and encouraged by religions." And, therefore: "These tragic realities [hate, extremism, and violence] are the consequence of a deviation from religious teachings." Terrorism for example, "is not due to religion ... it is due rather to an accumulation of incorrect interpretations of religious texts."  If that's so, how is it that so many Muslims in so many different parts of the world interpret Koranic texts in exactly the same way — namely, as a justification for jihad? How would you interpret: "Then, when the sacred months are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them" (Koran 9:5)? There are over a hundred similar texts in the Koran. By contrast, there are very few texts of the love-thy-neighbor-as-thyself variety.  In fact, Catholic apologists for Islam are reduced to citing the same three Koranic verses over and over because there just aren't that many to pick from. As it happens, the Document on Human Fraternity begins with a paraphrase of the most frequently cited verse: "Whoever saved a human life shall be regarded as having saved all mankind" (5:32). Unsurprisingly, there's no mention of the very next verse:  Pope Francis and other Catholic apologists for Islam claim that terrorist leaders simply misunderstand Islam. If that's the case, then the very first person to misunderstand Islam was Muhammad himself, who commanded that the hand of a thief be cut off. The Life of Muhammad — which, after the Koran and the Hadith, is considered the most important source of Islamic truths — is essentially a record of Muhammad's jihadist exploits. Approximately two-thirds of its 800 pages detail Muhammad's jihad raids, his beheading of captured prisoners, his slave trading, his endorsement of rape and sex slavery, and his use of torture.  Did Muhammad misunderstand Islam? For that matter, does Grand Imam el-Tayeb misunderstand Islam? Yes, he did sign the Document on Human Fraternity — but Muhammad signed the Treaty of Hudaibiya with the Meccans, too. That was a great PR stunt, but it wasn't worth the paper it was written on.  El-Tayeb doesn't misunderstand Islam, though Francis appears to. He must be acquainted with the darker aspects of Islam, and yet he seems sure that they have nothing to do with "true" Islam.  Such an approach helps to burnish Islam's image. But what does it do for Catholics? Primarily, it misinforms them. Readers of the Document on Human Fraternity will be left with a false impression of the Muslim faith. They will come away with the conviction that Islam is a member in good standing of the fraternity of great humanitarian religions. In short, they will conclude that there's nothing to worry about.  This impression won't be left to chance. A multi-faith committee has been set up to ensure that the principles of the document will be spread throughout the world. What this means in practice is that Arab leaders will set up a few Potemkin Village–like centers to ostensibly study human fraternity, while the Catholic Church will rush appropriately adapted versions of the one-world religious humanism into every Catholic seminary, university, high school, and kindergarten on the planet.  Catholics are already badly misinformed about Islam. The Abu Dhabi statement, once it is widely disseminated, will only serve to reinforce their naïveté. That, in turn, will leave them unprepared for the next step in what has become a predictable progression.  The next step is Islamization. That's not a word one hears very often, especially in polite Catholic circles. But some Catholics can't afford to be polite. Fr. Valentine Obinna told Crux that, in Nigeria, Fulani Muslims killed almost 9,000 Christians and other non-Muslims in a recent three-year period, as part of a program for the "Islamization of Nigeria." President Buhari and those in power turn a blind eye to the activities of the Fulani and Boko Haram, he said, because they "want to make sure the whole country becomes a Muslim country."  Apparently, President Buhari — a member of the Fulani ethnic group — didn't get the message from Abu Dhabi. Otherwise, he would understand that Islam is a religion of peace, love, and human fraternity. On the other hand, perhaps the elderly president has a firmer grip on Islamic principles than does Pope Francis and his advisors. If so, he would understand that the Islamization of Nigeria is not a deviation from the teachings of Islam; it is very nearly the first principle. As Muhammad said, "I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no God but Allah" (Sahih Muslim 1:33). Indeed, the whole purpose of Islam on earth is to bring the House of War (i.e., non-Muslim territory) under the rule of the House of Islam.  Islamic teaching mandates not only that Nigeria be Islamized, but also Europe, Canada, the U.S., and the entire globe. Only at that point, from an Islamic point of view, can peace and human fraternity be achieved. Buhari understands that. El-Tayeb understands it. Catholics can't allow themselves to be misinformed on this point.  The astonishing ignorance of these basic teachings on the part of Pope Francis and his advisors doesn't make for a more harmonious world: it makes for a more dangerous one. Those who buy into their fantasy view of Islam are in for a rude surprise when they encounter the real thing.  This article originally appeared in the September 25, 2019 edition of Crisis. It is published here with permission from the Turning Point Project.


lifesitenews--2019-10-07--Pope Francis creates 13 new cardinals

Pope Francis creates 13 new cardinals

VATICAN CITY, October 7, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― Loud cheers greeted one of the 13 bishops elevated to the College of Cardinals on Saturday afternoon.  Fans of Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, 59, the Archbishop of Kinshasa, enlivened an otherwise solemn Consistory in which bishops from around the world received their red hats from Pope Francis.  Many Congolese women present at the ceremony wore colorful dresses emblazoned with Besungu’s image, and crowds cheered when the cardinal elect appeared in St. Peter’s Basilica.  When Besungu received his red hat, the Congolese among the congregation cheered again and waved flags vigorously ― even from a press box hovering over the assembled bishops.  The other twelve cardinals elect at the ceremony were Michael Czerny, SJ, 73, of Canada; Michael Fitzgerald, 82, of England; Álvero Ramazzini Imeri, 72, the Bishop of Huehuetenango, Guatemala; Cristóbal López Romero, S.D.B., 64, the Spanish-born Archbishop of Rabat, Morocco; Eugenio dal Corso, 80, the Italian Bishop Emeritus of Benguela; Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, 69, the Archbishop of Jakarta; Jean-Claude Hollerich, 61, the Archbishop of Luxembourg; José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça, 53, of Portugal; Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, 71, the Archbishop of Havana; Matteo Zuppi, 63, the Archbishop of Bologna; Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, 67, of Spain; and Sigitas Tamkevicius, 81, the Archbishop Emeritus of Kaunas, Lithuania.  Having attained the age of 80, Cardinals Fitzgerald, Dal Corso, and Tamkevicius are too old to vote in any future conclave.  The celebration, which was conducted partly in Latin, ended with the choir and congregation singing “Salve Regina.”  After the celebration in St. Peter’s, Pope Francis and the new cardinals took a bus to the Mater Ecclesia Monastery for a meeting with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that Benedict reminded the cardinals of the “value of fidelity to the Pope,” and then “together with Pope Francis,” gave them a blessing.  Pope Francis then went home to the Casa Santa Marta, and the new cardinals were taken to the Paul VI Hall and the Apostolic Palace for the “Courtesy Visits.” During these audiences, the press had the opportunity to greet and photograph the new cardinals before their guests arrived.  According to Vatican News, the choice of cardinals, eight of whom belong to religious orders, reflects the “missionary vocation of the Church.” However, it also seems to reflect Pope Francis’ interest in migration, Latin America, and interreligious dialogue with Islam.  Three of the new cardinals have critics wondering about their orthodoxy.  Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna, is a well-known “street priest” well-liked for his support for the cause of migrants, the elderly, gypsies, and drug addicts, and the peacemaking Community of Sant’Egidio. News that Zuppi would be getting a red hat caused the Italian Left to cry, “We have a Cardinal!” Meanwhile, Zuppi contributed an essay to the Italian edition of Fr. James Martin’s Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, a collaboration Fr. Martin has publicized.  However, according to Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register, Archbishop Zuppi’s supporters have said “that his position is more nuanced than Father Martin has made it out to be … and that while the archbishop calls for a more sensitive pastoral approach in his foreword, he reasserts the Church’s teaching on the issue and calls faithfully Catholic outreach groups such as Courage ‘instructive.’”  Cardinal José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça is an award-winning Portugese poet and essayist. He was appointed Vatican Archivist and Librarian to the Holy See by Pope Francis in 2018. But he too is a controversial figure, having written the introduction to a book on feminist theology by Benedictine Sister Maria Teresa Forcades. Labelled as “Europe’s most radical nun” by the BBC, Sister Forcades is known for promoting “queer theology” and supporting abortion and the morning-after pill.  Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot belongs to the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus. He is a renowed expert on Islam and was appointed President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue by Pope Francis this May.  Before his appointment as head of the pontifical council, Archbishop Guixot served as president of the Pontifical Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies in Rome. In this role, he was in charge of overseeing the dialogue between the Vatican and the prestigious Al-Azhar mosque and university in Egypt, considered the Vatican of the Sunni Islamic world. Archbishop Ayuso played a key role in drawing up the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” co-signed in early February by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar, in Abu Dhabi.  The document has drawn considerable controversy for stating that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God.” Despite Bishop Athanasius Schneider's appeal to Pope Francis to officially correct the text, last week, the Vatican announced that a “Higher Committee” had been established in the United Arab Emirates to implement the uncorrected document. Members of the seven-member (Catholic and Muslim) commission include Pope Francis’s personal secretary, Fr. Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, and Archbishop Ayuso Giuxot.  The other 10 cardinals have not rung the alarm bells of orthodoxy as loudly.  Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, came to Canada as a toddler from Communist-era Czechoslovakia. He is under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He was elevated to the episcopate by Pope Francis on October 4, one day before being created a cardinal.  Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald is an expert in Christian-Muslim relations, a former apostolic nuncio to Egypt, and also a former President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.  Cardinal Álvero Ramazzini Imeri, Bishop of Huehuetenango, has been described as “dedicated to the poorest people” of Guatemala “for decades” and “to migrants and indigenous people in particular.” The Diocese of Huehuetenango covers almost 3,000 square miles is situated in Guatemala’s remote north-west.  Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, S.D.B., Archbishop of Rabat, is a Salesian who worked and ministered in Paraguay for decades before moving to Morocco in 2003. During Pope Francis’ 2017 visit, he described his Morroccan archdiocese as multicultural, noting that it serves many migrants from farther south in Africa.  Cardinal Eugenio dal Corso belongs to the congregation of the Poor Servants of the Divine and ministered in both Argentina and Angola. In Angolo, Dal Corso served as the Provincial Superior of his order, then as Bishop of Saurimo and finally as Bishop of Benguela. He retired from the latter post at the age of 78.  Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, the Archbishop of Jakarta, has spoken up for the rights of Indonesia’s Christian minority and is a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.  Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, Archbishop of Luxembourg, is fervently pro-European Union and was elected president of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) in 2018.  Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez has been the Archbishop of Havana since 2016. He is on the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.  Cardinal Sigitas Tamkevicius is the Archbishop Emeritus of Kaunas, Lithuania. He was appointed by St. John Paul II in 1996. Persecuted by the Communist authorities in Cold War-era Lithuania, he was arrested in 1983 and sent to prison camps. In 1988 he was exiled to Siberia. He was allowed to return to Lithuania after the political softening that marked the perestroika period under Mikhail Gorbechev.  Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu has been the Bishop of Kinshasa since November 2018. He has spoken out boldly against political and police violence against Catholics and other pro-democracy protesters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


lifesitenews--2019-10-08--Pope Francis is leading the Church toward a new type of schism: US theologian

October 8, 2019 (The Catholic Thing) — The Church, in her long history, has never been confronted with the situation like the one in which she now finds herself. Pope Francis recently spoke of a possible schism within the Church, a schism that does not frighten him. We have had many schisms in the past, he says, and there will be schisms in the future. So, there is nothing to fear in the present. However, it is the nature of the present possible schism that is new, and this unprecedented new schism is frightening.  One cannot help but think that Francis is referring to members of the Church in the United States. Francis receives, from America, his most theologically challenging and pastorally concerned criticism, which centers on a questionable remaking of the faith and of the Church. Such censure, it is believed by Francis's cohort, originates from within a conservative intellectual elite who are politically motivated, and many of whom are wealthy.  Francis thinks that they are unwilling to change, and so refuse to accept the new work of the Spirit in our day. Ultimately, one discerns that he believes his critics are psychologically and emotionally impaired, and so must be dealt with gently (though that gentleness is yet to be experienced by those who fall under his vindictive abuse). He himself has called those who oppose him many insulting names.  What Francis does not realize (and his close associates fail to grasp) is that the overwhelming majority of his American critics would never initiate a schism. They recognize that he is the pope and thus the successor of Peter, and that to remain within the Catholic Church is to remain faithful to the pope, even if it entails being critical of the pope in one's faithfulness to him.  Some may wish that an actual schism will take place in America in order to get rid of the obdurate conservative element and so demonstrate that they were not really Catholic all along. But that is not going to happen, because those critical bishops, priests, theologians, commentators, and laity (more laity than Francis will admit) know that what they believe and uphold is in accord with Scripture, the Church councils, the ever-living magisterium, and the saints.  As has been often noted, Pope Francis and his cohort never engage in theological dialogue, despite their constant claim that such dialogue is necessary. The reason is that they know they cannot win on that front. Thus, they are forced to resort to name-calling, psychological intimidation, and sheer will-to-power.  Now, as many commentators have already pointed out, the German church is more likely to go into schism. The German bishops are proposing a two-year "binding" synod that, if what is proposed is enacted, would introduce beliefs and practices contrary to the universal tradition of the Church.  I believe, however, that such a German schism will not formally happen either, for two reasons. First, many within the German hierarchy know that by becoming schismatic they would lose their Catholic voice and identity. This they cannot afford. They need to be in fellowship with Pope Francis, for he is the very one who has fostered a notion of synodality that they are now attempting to implement. He, therefore, is their ultimate protector.  Second, while Pope Francis may stop them from doing something egregiously contrary to the Church's teaching, he will allow them to do things that are ambiguously contrary, for such ambiguous teaching and pastoral practice would be in accord with Francis' own. It is in this that the Church finds herself in a situation that she never expected.  It's important to bear in mind that the German situation must be viewed within a broader context: the theological ambiguity within Amoris Laetitia; the not so subtle advancing of the homosexual agenda; the "re-foundation" of the (Roman) John Paul II Institute on Marriage and Family, i.e., the undermining of the Church's consistent teaching on moral and sacramental absolutes, especially with regard to the indissolubility of marriage, homosexuality, contraception, and abortion.  Similarly, there is the Abu Dhabi statement, which directly contradicts the will of the Father and so undermines the primacy of Jesus Christ his Son as the definitive Lord and universal Savior.  Moreover, the present Amazon Synod is teeming with participants sympathetic to and supportive of all of the above. One must likewise take into account the many theologically dubious cardinals, bishops, priests, and theologians whom Francis supports and promotes to high ecclesial positions.  With all of this in mind, we perceive a situation, ever-growing in intensity, in which on the one hand, a majority of the world's faithful — clergy and laity alike — are loyal and faithful to the pope, for he is their pontiff, while critical of his pontificate, and, on the other hand, a large contingent of the world's faithful — clergy and laity alike — enthusiastically support Francis precisely because he allows and fosters their ambiguous teaching and ecclesial practice.  What the Church will end up with, then, is a pope who is the pope of the Catholic Church and, simultaneously, the de facto leader, for all practical purposes, of a schismatic church. Because he is the head of both, the appearance of one church remains, while in fact there are two.  The only phrase that I can find to describe this situation is "internal papal schism," for the pope, even as pope, will effectively be the leader of a segment of the Church that through its doctrine, moral teaching, and ecclesial structure, is for all practical purposes schismatic. This is the real schism that is in our midst and must be faced, but I do not believe Pope Francis is in any way afraid of this schism. As long as he is in control, he will, I fear, welcome it, for he sees the schismatic element as the new "paradigm" for the future Church.  Thus, in fear and trembling, we need to pray that Jesus, as the head of His body, the Church, will deliver us from this trial. Then again, he may want us to endure it, for it may be that only by enduring it can the Church be freed from all the sin and corruption that now lies within her, and be made holy and pure.  On a more hopeful note, I believe it will be the laity who bring about the needed purification. Pope Francis has himself stated that this is the age of the laity. Lay people see themselves as helpless, having no ecclesial power. Yet if the laity raise their voices, they will be heard.  More specifically, I believe it will depend mostly on faithful and courageous Catholic women. They are the living icons of the Church, the bride of Christ, and they, in union with Mary, the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church, will birth anew, in the Holy Spirit, a holy Body of Christ.  Published with permission from The Catholic Thing.