tass--2019-01-07--Patriarch Kirill wishes Russians on Christmas to stay on the light side

Patriarch Kirill wishes Russians on Christmas to ‘stay on the light side’

### Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia  © Mikhail Djaparidze/TASS  MOSCOW, January 7. /TASS/. Christmas is an important holiday for religious Russians, which gives people an opportunity to get together at the table and exchange gifts. However, the most important thing is that the Russians remain "on the side of the light" despite temptations, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said in a Christmas interview with Rossiya 1 TV channel.  The patriarch said he hopes that "our people stay on the side of the light, despite all these temptations, all soul-destroying information flow that people are facing today. So that people can see the light and stay on the side of the light" he said.  The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church also urged Russians not to abandon the feast and gifts, since this is also an important dimension of human life.  "We know how good it is when the family gathers around the table, when close people visit, when there is an opportunity to communicate, support each other, rejoice together. Therefore, all this should remain," he added.  According to the patriarch, educated political elites and a united society are able to respond to current challenges and tasks that Russia faces. "A very big responsibility lies with those who have power. It is not only about the president or the prime minister, it is about all those people who responsibly exercise power today, and not only about them. ... The future of the country is our common business. And if we are united in the implementation of it, if we have clear goals, that we want good for our people, we want Russia to be independent, strong, self-sufficient, we should act and think united," he said.  According to the patriarch, cultural and spiritual foundation plays an important role in forming elites and consolidating society. He recalled that the united society should be built on spiritual and moral education, and not on consumer ideology.  In other media


tass--2019-01-31--Patriarch Kirill vows Russian Church will never serve any political partys interests

Patriarch Kirill vows Russian Church will never serve any political party's interests

### Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia  © Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS  MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) will never support any political forces, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said in an interview with reporters timed to the 10th anniversary of his enthronement.  "Of course, one should not expect us to support some political programs or certain political forces, either pro-government or opposition ones," he said, stressing that the Church would "by no means turn into a political force serving the interests of part of our people and part of our society."  The patriarch stressed that he opposed the society’s division into parties, describing the party system as "transforming the society into different parts with different political orientations."  "Many believe that is good and right arguing that this is in line with the diversity of human choice. I will refrain from commenting on the issue, but I am not a proponent of dividing people into parties," he said.  According to Patriarch Kirill, the Church, for its part, tries to reach a consensus on the most important issues for society openly speaking about its stance, in particular, on abortion.  In other media


tass--2019-04-21--Patriarch Kirill congratulates heterodox Christians upon Easter

MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow and All Russia, has sent a message of congratulations to the heads of churches which celebrate Easter on April 21. His message was published on the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate on Sunday.  "I cordially congratulate you upon the great and glorious feast of Easter and address you with the joyful greeting: Christ is Arisen! On this Bright Easter Day I wish you all joy and happiness, strength and God’s help in your ministry and your flock, peace and well-being," the website of the Russian Orthodox Church quotes Patriarch Kirill as saying.  In 2019, the Christian churches that use the Gregorian Calendar celebrate Easter on April 21. Patriarch Kirill’s message was addressed to the heads of the Roman Catholic Church, Coptic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, and Armenian, Assyrian, Maronite, Malankara, Ethiopian and other churches.  In other media


tass--2019-04-23--Patriarch Kirill congratulates Zelensky on winning Ukraines presidential election

Patriarch Kirill congratulates Zelensky on winning Ukraine’s presidential election

### Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia  © Mikhail Tereshenko/TASS  MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has expressed the hope that Vladimir Zelensky’s presidency would make it possible to overcome religious strife in Ukraine.  "Please accept my congratulations on your election to your high and important position of Ukraine’s president. I express my sincere hope that the dark period of harassment and discrimination against Ukraine’s citizens, who are members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, will be over," the patriarch said in his message of congratulations made public on Tuesday.  The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church stressed that Ukraine’s new president had a chance to go down in history as the one who unified the country. "The people of Ukraine who supported your candidacy are pinning high hopes on you related to a change for the better in their lives. You have a historic chance to cement the nation and make your personal contribution to solving economic and social problems in the country, to overcoming the existing disagreements and divisions," he wrote.  The patriarch wished Zelensky God’s help in good deeds, wisdom and strength for the benefit of Ukraine’s people.  Zelensky garnered 73.23% of the vote in the runoff election held on April 21, with 99.95% of the ballots processed, while incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko secured 24.45%.  ## Church crisis in Ukraine  Since the February 2014 coup, Kiev has sought to create an independent church in Ukraine that would sever ties with the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In April 2018, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko wrote a personal letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople asking for autocephaly for the Ukrainian church.  On December 15, 2018, Kiev hosted the so-called ‘unification’ council held under the supervision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and brokered by the Ukrainian authorities. The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church refused to take part in the event, stressing that both the ‘unification council’ and Poroshenko’s newly founded ecclesiastical establishment were illegitimate. Nevertheless, after the council, the Ukrainian president announced the establishment of a new church in the country, the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Tomos of Autocephaly (a clerical decree on establishing an independent church) was handed over to its head, Metropolitan Epiphany, on January 6.  In other media


tass--2019-05-26--Patriarch Kirill consecrates All Saints Church in Strasbourg

STRASBOURG, May 26. /TASS/. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, consecrated the All Saints Church in France’s Strasbourg on Sunday, a TASS correspondent reported.  "Today a historic event is happening for the Orthodox people living in Strasbourg, the first Orthodox church has been consecrated," the patriarch said, voicing confidence that the new church will become another venue for cooperation between Orthodoxy and Catholicism in France.  "We have great respect for the works of Pope Francis and the Catholic episcopate, and we are carefully watching the spiritual order of West Europe. I believe that we should jointly multiply our efforts towards evidence about the Christ. I hope very much that the church will be a house of prayers for Orthodox believers and a place of meeting with the Catholic community, a place of dialogue, which is much needed for Christians living in the conditions of a secularized civilization," the patriarch emphasized.  The ceremony to consecrate the church was also attended by Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries. "This is a significant event, which is part of the city’s policy to respect all confessions. There were no disputes and debates - the citizens of the neighborhood and I welcomed the construction of this beautiful church," he told reporters. After the service, Patriarch Kirill awarded him with the Order of Seraphim of Sarov of the third degree.  The foundation stone for the Church of All Saints in Strasbourg was laid in 2014. In June 2017, the first liturgy was officiated at the cultural and religious center, which accommodated the parish of the All Saints Church until the construction is over. On December 23, 2018, the Lesser Blessing of the church was celebrated by Bishop Nestor of Kherson.  The head of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived in France for a visit on Saturday. He is also scheduled to meet with representatives of the Catholic church and the leadership of the Council of Europe.  In other media


tass--2019-05-27--Patriarch Kirill hopes Russia Europe will turn misunderstanding page

Patriarch Kirill hopes Russia, Europe will turn "misunderstanding page"

STRASBOURG, May 27. /TASS/. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has expressed the hope that Russia and Europe will turn "the page of misunderstanding."  "The conversation [with Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland] today was positive and substantial. I don’t want to go into detail, because this is a political issue. I try to avoid such comments, but I do hope that Russia will take its place in the Council of Europe and will continue to cooperate with everyone," he told reporters on Monday summing up the results of his visit to Strasbourg.  The patriarch added that the Council of Europe’s decisions were important for ordinary people living in Europe as well. "I hope that everything will resume its natural course, and this page of misunderstanding will be turned," he added.  The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived in France on a visit on May 25. On Sunday, May 26, he performed the rite of great consecration of the Church of All Saints in Strasbourg.    Russia and PACE    In April 2014, the Russian delegation to PACE was stripped of its key rights, including the right to vote and take part in the assembly’s governing bodies, over the developments in Ukraine and Crimea. The issue of restoring the Russian delegation’s rights was raised at PACE twice in 2015, but instead the sanctions were only tightened.  In 2016-2018, Russia skipped the parliamentary assembly’s meetings due to the ongoing sanctions and did not renew its credentials in the wake of anti- Russian sentiment in Strasbourg.  On 10 October 2018, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland told the PACE autumn session that the organization's Committee of Ministers will have to expel Russia from the Council’s decision-making bodies - the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly - if the country does not make any monetary contributions. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out that Russia would quit the Council of Europe in case opponents at the council insist on its expulsion.  The PACE summer session, during which the Council of Europe's Secretary General is to be elected, will be held in Strasbourg on June 24-28.  In other media


tass--2019-12-28--Patriarch Kirill may visit Vienna in 2020 — Russian ambassador

VIENNA, December 28. /TASS/. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia may visit Austria in 2020, Russian Ambassador to Vienna Dmitry Lyublinsky said on Friday at the New Year reception at the Russian Embassy in Austria.  "At the end of May [2020], we will be happy to welcome Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Preparations for such visit [to Austria] are underway," Lyublinsky said.  In February 2018, chairman of the Department of External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion visited the Russian Embassy in Austria. He discussed with Lyublinsky the agenda of the conference in Austria on the second anniversary of the meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill in Havana. The conference focused mainly on the position of Christians in the Middle East. Metropolitan Hilarion then noted the high level of cooperation with the Catholic Church in Rome.


windowoneurasiablog--2019-01-28--Patriarch Kirill Now Hostage to Political Circumstances Nezavsimaya Gazeta Says

Patriarch Kirill Now ‘Hostage to Political Circumstances,’ ‘Nezavsimaya Gazeta’ Says

Staunton, January 27 – Ten years ago, when Kirill was elected patriarch, he entered that office as a reformer who would increase the role of the Moscow Patriarchate in Russian society both “quantitatively and qualitatively,” Nezavismaya gazeta says in a lead article. Today, it is clear he has failed and has been reduced to being “a hostage of political circumstances.”  His church has become the victim of a transformation of religious life in Ukraine, the editors says. “As a result, there is now in the Orthodox world a global split, which would have seemed impossible even in the times of the iron curtain between West and East.” And that has a particular irony for Kirill himself.  In one of the rare cases where he positioned the ROC MP at odds with the Kremlin, he has lost totally. In 2014, he refused to shift the Crimean bishopric from Ukraine’s canonical territory; but now, “if the UOC MP is forced to rename itself the ROC in Ukraine, the only principled action of Patriarch Kirill will turn out to be meaningless.”  “It is possible,” of course, that Kirill is now simply going to be willing to follow “the logical of political events” and allow his patriarchate to become “a national church of Russia.” Indeed, he is acting more and more like that, attending government and military functions ever more often and supporting the Kremlin ever more servilely.  Moreover, Kirill and his church are losing ground abroad. He has long been persona non grata in Ukraine. Last year he wasn’t allowed into Moldova, and there is more talk of autocephaly in Belarus. “Ten years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine” such an outcome with a church leader committed to maintaining his canonical territory in Soviet borders.  And Kirill, criticized by many in Russia for his ecumenical contacts with Rome, suffered in that regard as well. His meeting with the pope in Havana was reduced from being a rapprochement of the leaders of two branches of Christianity to a political move by the Kremlin to overcome its international isolation, hardly what Kirill would have wanted.  “Many consider,” the Moscow paper says, “that the Moscow Patriarch more clearly shows himself as a political actor rather than a spiritual leader.” But in fact, in the political realm, he has played only a supporting role rather than a leading one, making such conclusions more an expression of hope than reality.  What Kirill has achieved by his increasingly close ties with the Kremlin is a strengthening of the church’s administrative possibilities and financial well-being. The patriarch and his representatives can be ensured of a hearing on many issues; and the church is wealthier than ever before. But that is hardly what Kirill appeared to want a decade ago.  More to the point, Nezavisimaya gazeta says, “the actions of the Moscow patriarch are ever more limited by the possibilities of the state and the political will of the leadership of the country” -- hardly the division of powers that the founder of Kirill’s religion anticipated when He talked about rendering to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s.


adobochronicles--2019-12-16--Filipinos Offended By Pope Francis’ Comment Calling Them Smugglers

MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Filipinos worldwide couldn’t be more proud when Pope Francis personally attended the “Simbang Gabi” orgnized by Filipinos in The Vatican.  ”Simbang Gabi” is a Philippine tradition involving a nine-day novena where Catholics attend early dawn masses in preparation for Christmas.  Francis, in his message during the Vatican Simbang Gabi, told Pinoys to be ‘smugglers of faith.’  That didn’t sit well with Filipinos in the Philippines and the entire diaspora. “There are smugglers amongst us, but not every Pinoy is a smuggler,” a Filipino now living in Rome told The Adobo Chronicles.  Looks like the Pope hit a nerve. Or shall we say pinched a nerve.


breitbart--2019-12-27--Analyst: Pope Francis Will Not Let Hong Kong Spoil His ‘Dream’ for China

ROME — Pope Francis dreams of being the pontiff who will establish diplomatic relations with Beijing, and to achieve this goal he is willing to make “concessions,” asserts Vatican analyst Alban Mikozy.  “Pope Francis is a prudent man,” Mikozy told French television. “He pursues a dream: to be the sovereign pontiff who will restore relations between China and the Vatican.”  “In order to do this, he is ready to make a few concessions: say nothing about Hong Kong, do not get too excited when the Chinese leader talks about rewriting the Bible,” he added, in reference to announcements that the Chinese Communist Party intends to retranslate the Bible and other sacred texts to make them conform to socialist ideology.  Observers were quick to notice the pope’s omission of Hong Kong in his long list of troubled situations around the world in his traditional Christmas “Urbi et Orbi” message Wednesday.  Among the many held up for their suffering, the pope mentioned “the Middle East,” the “beloved Syrian people,” “the Lebanese people,” “Iraq,” “Yemen,” “the whole American continent,” “the beloved Venezuelan people,” “beloved Ukraine,” “the people of Africa,” “the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” “Burkina Faso,” “Mali,” “Niger,” “Nigeria,” along with three separate shout-outs to migrants.  Yet Hong Kong, embroiled over the last six months in an ever more violent conflict between pro-democracy protesters and the Communist China-backed government forces, received no papal acknowledgment whatsoever.  According to Mr. Mikozy, the pope’s silence reflects his overriding desire to go to China and his willingness to make compromises in order to avoid offending Xi Jinping.  “A few months ago, the Chinese authorities sent the message that a meeting was possible,” Mikozy said. “The pope said he was ready for this possibility. For the moment, it is the hardliners of the Chinese regime who have held Xi Jinping back.”  This interpretation seems to jibe with other recent actions by the pontiff.  During an in-flight press conference returning from Asia in late November, for example, the pope reiterated his desire to visit China while dodging questions regarding the Hong Kong protests.  “I would like to go to Beijing,” Francis said. “I love China.”  Asked his opinion on the growing unrest in Hong Kong, the pope insisted that the situation was not unique and needed to be “relativized.”  “It’s not just Hong Kong,” he said. “Think of Chile, think of France — the democratic France with a year of yellow vests — think of Nicaragua, think of the other Latin American countries, Brazil, which is struggling, and also any European country. It’s a generalized thing.”  “There are several issues that have problems and I am not able to evaluate them right now,” he said.


cnsnews--2019-09-17--Arbp Vigano Pope Francis is Provoking Schism Himself

Arbp. Vigano: Pope Francis is 'Provoking' Schism 'Himself'

In response to Pope Francis's recent remarks that he is "not afraid of schism" in the church but prays for it not to happen, Archbishop Carlo Vigano, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States and a strong critic of the Pope's liberalism, said the Pope is "provoking" a schism "himself" because of his support for the October Amazon Synod in Rome.  The working document for the syod has been denounced by several cardinals as heretical.  “Pope Francis is saying that because he knows the Amazon Synod may provoke a schism," Archbishop Vigano told Inside The Vatican reporter Dr. Robert Moynihan on Sept. 11.  "He is ready to say others are making the schism, but [by his actions in continuing to support the Amazon Synod] he is provoking it himself," said the archbishop. "Is this the attitude of a pastor who cares for the faithful? It is his own duty to prevent a schism.”  On Sept. 10, while returning to Italy from Africa by airplane, Pope Francis was asked about his comment that "it's an honor when Americans attack me."  This arose because of a new book, How America Wants to Change the Pope, which alleges there is a cabal of conservative American Catholics trying to undermine Pope Francis's liberal agenda.  In relation to that opposition, Pope Francis said, “There always is the schismatic option in the Church. It’s a choice that the Lord leaves to human freedom. I am not afraid of schism.... I pray for them not to happen, as the spiritual health of many people is at stake.”  “Today we have pockets of rigidity, which aren’t a schism, but they’re semi-schismatic ways of life that will end badly,” said Pope Francis. He added that clerics and lay people who are “rigid” in their beliefs lack the “health” of the Gospel, reported Cruxnow.com.  Although Pope Francis suggests it is "rigid" Catholics who are leading the church into schism, Archbishop Vigano stressed that the Pope's liberalism and heterodox views are fueling schism and sparking orthodox opposition.  In reference to the working document for the Amazon Synod, which takes place at the Vatican Oct. 6-17, Cardinal Walter Brandmuller has said it "contradicts the binding teaching of the Church in decisive points and thus has to be qualified as heretical."  "Inasmuch as even the fact of divine Revelation is here being questioned [in the document], or misunderstood, one also now has to speak, additionally, of apostasy," said the cardinal in a June 27 statement.  Cardinal Raymond Burke, the former chief justice of the highest court at the Vatican, said of the Amazon Synod document, "It cannot be. This document is an apostasy."  "This cannot become the teaching of the Church," he added, "and God willing, the whole business will be stopped."  Cardinal Gerhard Mueller has also criticized the synod document. For his part, Archbishop Vigano has said of the document, "The figure of Christ is absent. The synod working document testifies to the emergence of a post-Christian Catholic theology, now, in this moment. And this is very troubling. It is against everything I have worked for and believed for all my life.”


france24--2019-09-08--An estimated one million faithful turn out for Pope Francis mass in Madagascar

Tiziana Fabin AFP | Pope Francis led a Holy Mass at the Androhibe Soamandrakizay diocesan grounds in Antananarivo, Madagascar, on September 8, 2019.  An estimated one million people gathered at Madagascar's Soamandrakizay stadium in the capital on Sunday to hear Pope Francis say mass on the second leg of his three-nation African tour.  The massive crowd had waited patiently, stretching into the distance from the early hours, to see the pope, the first pontiff to visit in 30 years.  "Organisers estimate there are around one million people," a Vatican spokesman said.  Organisers had said earlier they expected around one million attendees. Some described it as the biggest public gathering in Madagascar's history.  Many people wore pope-emblazoned white and yellow caps -- the colours of the Vatican, and they cheered as the pope-mobile made its way through wind-swept clouds of red dust picked up from the stadium floor.  During the homily, the Argentine pontiff urged them "to build history in fraternity and solidarity" and "in complete respect for the earth and its gifts, as opposed to any form of exploitation".  He spoke out against "practices that lead to the culture of privilege and exclusion" and criticised those who consider family "the decisive criterion for what we consider right and good".  "How hard it is to follow him (Jesus) if we seek to identify the kingdom of heaven with our personal agenda or... abuse the name of God or of religion to justify acts of violence, segregation and even murder".  After mass the pontiff will visit Akamasoa, a city founded by Argentian priest Father Pedro, who has lifted thousands of Malagasy waste-pickers out of poverty.  Early Sunday morning, in Antananarivo's Andravoahangy church, pastor Jean-Yves Ravoajanahary had briefed 5,000 people on the two-hour trek they would have to make to get to Soamandrakizay stadium.  "We are going to divide worshippers into groups of 1,000 because the road is very dangerous. At this time pickpockets and bandits are out to mug people," he told AFP.  One by one the groups started the journey, huddled together in the cold and singing praise to the Virgin Mary. Traffic was gridlocked.  Hery Saholimanana left his house in the early hours with three family members.  "I'm afraid of arriving after the 6:00 o'clock entry limit," said the 23-year old IT student, walking briskly.  Rado Niaina, 29, told AFP he left even earlier, at 2:00 am, for fear "of not finding space".  Many had already set up tents on the outskirts of the city on Friday, festooned with posters of the pontiff.  Prospere Ralitason, a 70-year-old farm worker, arrived with some 5,000 fellow pilgrims from the central eastern town of Ambatondrazaka, 200 kilometres (125 miles) away.  "We are tired, but it's worth making all these sacrifices to see the pope with our own eyes and receive his blessing," he said.  Thousands of young people -- mainly scouts -- gathered for a vigil at Soamandrakizay on Saturday, waiting hours in the heat for Francis to arrive.  "I am here to ask for the pope's blessing to face the harsh realities of life, insecurity, poverty and corruption," said 17-year old student Njara Raherimana.  "All this gives me hope for change in my country," echoed fellow student, Antony Christian Tovonalintsoa, who lives on the outskirts of the capital.  During the vigil, Pope Francis lauded the "joy and enthusiasm" of the singing crowd.  He encouraged the youth not to fall into "bitterness" or to lose hope, even when they lacked the "necessary minimum" to get by and when "educational opportunities were insufficient".  Earlier on Saturday, Francis made an impassioned plea to Madagascans to protect the Indian Ocean's unique environment from "excessive deforestation".  Weeks after a spike in fires in the Amazon, the Argentine pontiff told his hosts they should "create jobs and money-making activities which respect the environment and help people escape poverty".  Madagascar -- famed for its immense diversity of flora and fauna -- is home to 25 million people, the vast majority of whom live in poverty on an income of less than two dollars a day.  More than half of its young people are out of work, even if many have good qualifications.  The last pope to visit Madagascar was John Paul II 30 years ago.  Francis also visited Mozambique earlier in the week, and is due to travel to the island of Mauritius on Monday.


france24--2019-11-24--In Hiroshima, Pope Francis denounces atomic bombs as 'immoral'

Pope Francis traveled to Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Sunday to demand that world powers renounce their nuclear arsenals, declaring the use and possession of atomic bombs an “immoral” crime and a dangerous waste.  Standing before survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings, Francis denounced the steady erosion of arms control agreements and rejected the Cold War-era doctrine of deterrence that had been sanctioned by the Catholic Church for nearly three decades.  In the rain of Nagasaki and the silent darkness of Hiroshima, he urged political leaders to accept that true peace and international security cannot be built in a climate of distrust, but rather solidarity.  “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral,” the pope declared during a nighttime prayer at Hiroshima’s peace memorial. He added off-the-cuff, “As is the possession of atomic weapons.”  “We will be judged for this,” he warned.  Francis visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the first full day of a three-day trip to Japan aimed at emphasizing his call for a global ban on atomic weapons. Nagasaki was the perfect place to begin, the birthplace of Christianity in Japan where he could honor innocents killed in war as well as Christian missionaries and martyrs killed for their faith.  The mood there was somber, darkened by the downpour that drenched the terraced fields, the rice paddies and the hundreds of Japanese who came out in plastic raincoats to witness the second pope to pay his respects after St. John Paul II in 1981.  The scene was equally as restrained in Hiroshima, where a brief round of applause when Francis arrived punctured an otherwise quiet night. After a gong signaled a moment of silence and Francis lit a candle of peace, two survivors offered their testimony about the “demonic” atom bomb.  “No one in this world can imagine such a scene of hell,” said Yoshiko Kajimoto, who was 14 at the time and was working in a factory 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) north of ground zero when the blue light of the bomb tore through the windows, collapsing the building on top of her.  Standing solemnly before Francis, she described what she saw along the evacuation route:  “There were more and more people coming by. Their bodies were so burned and totally red. Their faces swollen to double size, their lips hanging loose, with both hands held out with burnt skin hanging from them. They no longer looked human.”  Kajimoto had two-thirds of her stomach removed in 1999 because of cancer, and now suffers from leukemia. “I work hard to bear witness that we must not use such demonic atomic bombs again, nor let anyone in the world endure such suffering,” she said.  “Do we still need nuclear even after you see all of this?” she asked. “Each one of us can only do so much.”  Her testimony clearly had an impact on Francis, whose own emotional reaction to images of the Nagasaki aftermath prompted him last year to print up thousands of pocket-sized copies of a photograph of a young Nagasaki boy carrying his dead brother on his back that was taken by American military photographer Joe O’Donnel.  Francis had the words “The fruit of war” printed on the image, and a poster-sized copy was on display in Nagasaki, where Francis met with the photographer’s son, Tyge, an invited guest.  The Holy See was among the first countries to sign and ratify the new U.N. nuclear prohibition treaty, and Francis himself went further than any pope before him in saying in 2017 that not only the use, but the mere possession of atomic weapons is “to be condemned.”  Up until Francis’ 2017 condemnation, the Catholic Church had held that nuclear deterrence could be morally acceptable in the interim as long as it was used toward mutual, verifiable nuclear disarmament. The Holy See, however, has seen that the deterrence doctrine has essentially resulted in a nuclear status quo, with arms control treaties collapsing.  “Many liberals applauded and conservatives criticized the 2017 statement because they saw it as abandoning the prior teaching that deterrence can be morally acceptable if used as a step toward disarmament,” said Gerard Powers, director of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute.  He said he viewed Francis’ 2017 statement as a “prudential moral judgment based on his reading of the nuclear signs of the time.”  Francis essentially repeated his 2017 position in Hiroshima, saying the possession of nuclear weapons too was “immoral.”  Tomohide Hirayama, a former Nagasaki resident who traveled from another prefecture to see the pope, said his religious faith was different but he fully supported Francis’ call for a nuclear-free world.  "There were atomic attacks twice in history, and there should never be a third time,” he said. “I feel that strongly, and isn't that what the pope is saying?”  The first U.S. atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people. The second one dropped three days later on Nagasaki and killed another 74,000 by the end of the same year. Many of the survivors have suffered the lasting impact of radiation and developed various forms of cancer.  “In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of ever more destructive weapons are an affront crying out to heaven,” Francis said.  He lamented the “climate of distrust” that is eating away at nonproliferation efforts and the arms control framework, a reference to a series of violated treaties and the demise this year of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, a landmark Cold War-era arms control agreement. The U.S. formally withdrew from the treaty in August, after accusing Moscow of developing a Russian missile system prohibited under it.  Japanese who came out to see Francis were grateful for his message and his pilgrimage.  “I think he is a person who can deliver the message of peace without inhibition,” said Fumiyo Negoro, a 62-year-old Christian from Osaka.  Negoro waited for hours in the rain for Francis’ Mass earlier Sunday, celebrated in Nagasaki’s baseball stadium before a crowd of some 35,000 — and the remains of a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary rescued from a cathedral destroyed in the bombing.  The statue, which was remarkably well preserved despite the blast, was featured on the altar.  Francis’ visit to Nagasaki also gave him the chance to honor Christian missionaries and martyrs centuries after St. Francis Xavier first brought Christianity to the Japanese archipelago in 1549.  He laid a second wreath of flowers at the memorial of 26 Nagasaki Martyrs, who were crucified in 1597 at the start of the two-century wave of anti-Christian persecution by Japanese rulers.  The example of the missionaries and martyrs, and the Hidden Christians who kept their faith alive underground for generations, helped inspire a young priest named Jorge Mario Bergolio to be a missionary in Japan.  “May we never forget their heroic sacrifice!” Francis said in remarks at the memorial.


lifesitenews--2019-11-12--Nearly 100 priests, lay scholars call Pope Francis to repent for Pachamama idolatry at Amazon Synod

November 12, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – An international group of 100 priests and lay scholars published a statement today to protest the pagan worship of Pachamama that took place last month during the Amazon Synod in Rome with Pope Francis' active participation and apparent support. They called upon the Pope to “repent publicly and unambiguously of these objectively grave sins” and asked bishops’ around the world to “offer fraternal correction to Pope Francis for these scandals.”  Titled “Protest against Pope Francis's Sacrilegious Acts,” the statement (read full below) highlights Pope Francis' personal responsibility for the worship of a pagan idol in Rome.  Among the signatories are Professor John Rist, Professor Roberto de Mattei, Professor Claudio Pierantoni, Professor Josef Seifert, as well as Professor Anna Silvas. There are also to be found twenty priests and deacons, among them Father Brian Harrison and the outspoken critic of Pope Francis, Father Cor Mennen. The prominent German Catholic laywoman, Gloria Princess of Thurn und Taxis, also signed, in addition to authors such as Henry Sire, José Antonio Ureta, and Dr. Gerard J.M. van den Aardweg.  The priests and scholars “protest against and condemn the sacrilegious and superstitious acts committed by Pope Francis, the Successor of Peter, in connection with the recent Amazon Synod held in Rome,” and they give detailed evidence of the different incidences of pagan worship during the Amazon Synod.  Most prominently, Pope Francis hosted a pagan ceremony with Pachamama statues in the Vatican Gardens on Oct. 4 and even blessed one of the statues. Additionally, he prayed in front of the Pachamama statue at St. Peter's Cathedral on October 7 and then accompanied it in procession into the synod hall.  As the statement points out, “Pope Francis himself confirmed that these wooden images were pagan idols. In his apology for the removal of these idols from a Catholic church, he specifically called them Pachamama, a name for a false goddess of mother earth according to pagan religious belief in South America.”  The signers make it clear that pagan worship by Catholics is unacceptable.  They state that “the rendering of worship to anyone or anything other than the one true God, the Blessed Trinity, is a violation of the First Commandment,” and that therefore “absolutely all participation in any form of the veneration of idols is condemned by this Commandment and is an objectively grave sin, independently of the subjective culpability that only God can judge.”  The authors also quote Professor Josef Seifert with regard to Pope Francis' claim that these statues had been used “without idolatrous intentions.” Stated Seifert: “Even if there is no subjective idolatrous intention behind this, as Pope Francis affirms, the objective fact of putting idols in a Church, let alone in St Peter's, is an offence against God and an objectively sacrilegious act.”  For the signers, the Pachamama worship that took place under Pope Francis' leadership “was anticipated by the statement titled 'Document on Human Fraternity', signed by Pope Francis and Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, on February 4, 2019.” That document states that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God.” “Pope Francis’ involvement in idolatrous ceremonies,” the signers continue, “is an indication that he meant this statement in a heterodox sense, which allows pagan worship of idols to be considered a good positively willed by God.”  Additionally, the statement refers to the many cardinals and bishops who have already condemned the Pachamama veneration in Rome (among them Cardinals Burke, Müller, Brandmüller, Urosa; and Archbishop Viganò, as well as Bishops Eleganti, Voderholzer, and Azcona). And the statement also quotes a passage from Holy Scripture which makes clear that “the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God” and that “you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons” (St. Paul).  “We respectfully ask all the bishops of the Catholic Church,” the signers conclude, “to offer fraternal correction to Pope Francis for these scandals, and to warn their flocks that, according to the divinely revealed teaching of the Catholic faith, they will risk eternal damnation if they follow the present examples in offending against the First Commandment.”  Clergy and scholars are invited to add their signatures by going here.  We the undersigned Catholic clergy and lay scholars protest against and condemn the sacrilegious and superstitious acts committed by Pope Francis, the Successor of Peter, in connection with the recent Amazon Synod held in Rome.  These sacrilegious acts are the following: • On October 4, Pope Francis attended an act of idolatrous worship of the pagan goddess Pachamama. (1) • He allowed this worship to take place in the Vatican Gardens, thus desecrating the vicinity of the graves of the martyrs and of the church of the Apostle Peter. • He participated in this act of idolatrous worship by blessing a wooden image of Pachamama. (2) • On October 7, the idol of Pachamama was placed in front of the main altar at St. Peter’s and then carried in procession to the Synod Hall. Pope Francis said prayers in a ceremony involving this image and then joined in this procession. (3) • When wooden images of this pagan deity were removed from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, where they had been sacrilegiously placed, and thrown into the Tiber by Catholics outraged by this profanation of the church, Pope Francis, on October 25, apologized for their removal and another wooden image of Pachamama was returned to the church. (4) Thus, a new profanation was initiated. • On October 27, in the closing Mass for the synod, he accepted a bowl used in the idolatrous worship of Pachamama and placed it on the altar. (5)  Pope Francis himself confirmed that these wooden images were pagan idols. In his apology for the removal of these idols from a Catholic church, he specifically called them Pachamama (6), a name for a false goddess of mother earth according to pagan religious belief in South America.  Different features of these proceedings have been condemned as idolatrous or sacrilegious by Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop José Luis Azcona Hermoso, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer, and Bishop Marian Eleganti (7). Lastly, Card. Raymond Burke has given the same assessment of this cult in an interview. (8)  This participation in idolatry was anticipated by the statement entitled “Document on Human Fraternity”, signed by Pope Francis and Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, on February 4, 2019 (9). This statement asserted that:  “The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives.”  Pope Francis’s involvement in idolatrous ceremonies is an indication that he meant this statement in a heterodox sense, which allows pagan worship of idols to be considered a good positively willed by God.  Moreover, despite privately advising Bishop Athanasius Schneider that “You [the Bishop] can say that the phrase in question on the diversity of religions means the permissive will of God…” (10), Francis has never corrected the Abu Dhabi statement accordingly. In his subsequent audience address of April 3, 2019 Francis, answering the question “Why does God permit that there are so many religions?”, referred in passing to the “permissive will of God” as explained by Scholastic theology, but gave the concept a positive meaning, declaring that “God wanted to permit this” because while “there are so many religions” they “always look to heaven, they look to God (emphasis added).” (11) There is not the slightest suggestion that God permits the existence of false religions in the same way He permits the existence of evil generally. Rather, the clear implication is that God permits the existence of “so many religions” because they are good in that they “always look to heaven, they look to God.”  Worse, Pope Francis has since confirmed the uncorrected Abu Dhabi statement by establishing an “interfaith committee”, (12) which later received the official name of “Higher Committee,” (13) located in the United Arab Emirates, to promote the “goals” of the document; and promoting a directive issued by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue addressed to the heads of all the Roman Catholic institutes of higher studies, and indirectly to Catholic university professors, asking that they give the “widest possible dissemination to the document,” including its uncorrected assertion that God wills the “diversity of religions” just as He wills the diversity of color, sex, race and language. (14)  The rendering of worship to anyone or anything other than the one true God, the Blessed Trinity, is a violation of the First Commandment. Absolutely all participation in any form of the veneration of idols is condemned by this Commandment and is an objectively grave sin, independently of the subjective culpability that only God can judge. (15)  St. Paul taught the early Church that the sacrifice offered to pagan idols was not offered to God but rather to the demons when he said in his First Letter to the Corinthians:  “What then? Do I say, that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is any thing? Or, that the idol is any thing? But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with demons. You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of demons: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.” (1 Cor. 10:19-21)  By these actions Pope Francis has incurred the reproach uttered by the Second Council of Nicaea:  “Many pastors have destroyed my vine, they have defiled my portion. For they followed unholy men and trusting to their own frenzies they calumniated the holy Church, which Christ our God has espoused to himself, and they failed to distinguish the holy from the profane, asserting that the icons of our Lord and of his saints were no different from the wooden images of satanic idols.” (16)  With immense sorrow and deep love for the Chair of Peter, we beg Almighty God to spare the guilty members of His Church on earth the punishment that they deserve for these terrible sins.  We respectfully ask Pope Francis to repent publicly and unambiguously of these objectively grave sins and of all the public offences that he has committed against God and the true religion, and to make reparation for these offences.  We respectfully ask all the bishops of the Catholic Church to offer fraternal correction to Pope Francis for these scandals, and to warn their flocks that according to the divinely revealed teaching of the Catholic faith, they will risk eternal damnation if they follow the present examples in offending against the First Commandment.  1. See the complete video of the pagan ritual on Vatican News: https://www.religionenlibertad.com/video/118451/Ritual-de-la-Madre-Tierra-en-el-Vaticano.html  3. See here a photo of the event: https://catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2019/10/12/amazon-synod-where-we-are-after-week-one/  6. See the words of the Holy Father with an English Translation here: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2019/10/francis-defiant-in-defense-of-pagan.html.  15. As explained by Professor Josef Seifert: “Even if there is no subjective idolatrous intention behind this, as Pope Francis affirms, the objective fact of putting idols in a Church, let alone in St Peter's, is an offence against God and an objectively sacrilegious act.” See: https://gloria.tv/post/nK8YgEUATNuj4WXBi9WrfBzPg   See all the relevant biblical references in Bishop Schneider’s open letter: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishop-athanasius-schneider-issues-open-letter-condemning-pachamama-statue-as-new-golden-calf  16. Concilium Nicaenum II (787), in: Corpus Christianorum. Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Generaliumque Decreta, ed. G. Alberigo, I: The Oecumenical Councils. From Nicaea I to Nicaea II, Turnhout 2006, 295-345.


newspunch--2019-04-19--Vatican Cardinal Warns Islam Will Invade the World If Pope Francis Has His Way

Vatican Cardinal Warns ‘Islam Will Invade the World’ If Pope Francis Has His Way

Pope Francis is pushing a “false” interpretation of the Bible, according to a top Vatican cardinal who has warned “Islam will invade the world” if Francis’ leftist ideology isn’t challenged and stopped before it leads to the downfall of Europe.  Robert Sarah, a Vatican cardinal who serves as the head of the Vatican’s liturgy office, is often named in traditionalist circles as a leading candidate to succeed Pope Francis as pontiff.  According to Cardinal Sarah, those who seek to use the Holy Bible to promote mass migration are pushing a “false” interpretation of the scriptures.  He also branded mass migration a “new form of slavery” during the new interview with French publication Valeurs Actuelles.  The cardinal has frequently made waves with his more conservative stances on liturgical practices, Islam, migration and other issues.  Those positions were on full display during the interview, in which Cardinal Sarah, from Africa, blasted Pope Francis and other leftist priests and bishops who “say fuzzy things, vague, imprecise, to escape criticism, and they marry the stupid evolution of the world”.  On Europe, Sarah said that the Church must not accept Pope Francis’ pro-migration position, as the leftist open borders ideology will lead to the fall of Europe, just as the Roman Empire was destroyed by invading barbarians.  “All migrants who arrive in Europe are penniless, without work, without dignity… This is what the Church wants?” he asked.  “The Church can not cooperate with this new form of slavery that has become mass migration. If the West continues in this fatal way, there is a great risk that, due to a lack of birth, it will disappear, invaded by foreigners, just as Rome has been invaded by barbarians.”  “My country is predominantly Muslim. I think I know what reality I’m talking about”, he added.  VoE reports: Sarah’s comments are in stark contrast to those from Pope Francis on the subject. Francis has repeatedly stressed the value of migration and has encouraged European countries, in particular, to open their border to flows of migrants coming from the third world.  Last week, he spoke in Morocco, the main destination for sub-Saharan African migrants seeking to reach Europe via Spain, and frequently mentioned migration.  “The issue of migration will never be resolved by raising barriers, fomenting fear of others or denying assistance to those who legitimately aspire to a better life for themselves and their families”, Francis said.  Sarah is much more skeptical of whether the Church should be open to immigration.  He cited the example of Poland, a Catholic country that has strict immigration policies, and said he had urged it not to sacrifice its Polish and Catholic identities “on the altar of a technocratic and stateless Europe”.  “She is free to tell Europe that everyone was created by God to be placed in a specific place, with its culture, traditions, and history”, he told the paper.  “This current desire to globalize the world by suppressing nations, specificities, is pure madness.”  In the interview, he urged Europe to avoid embracing materialism and forgetting its Christian heritage, warning that it could lead to the extinction of Europe itself.  “If Europe disappears, and with it the invaluable values of the old continent, Islam will invade the world”, Sarah said. “And we will totally change culture, anthropology, and moral vision.”


remnantnewspaper--2019-09-11--LOST SHEPHERD: How Pope Francis is Misleading His Flock

The other author is not as blunt, at least at the start. He begins thus: "Every day I pray for Pope Francis. And every day (I am exaggerating, but only slightly), the pope issues another reminder that he does not approve of Catholics like me." Philip Lawler, Lost Shepherd.  (Regnery Gateway, 2018 196 pp.) – The authors of two recently published books critical of the current pontificate take very different initial approaches to their task. George Neumayr, author of The Political Pope (See my review: The Remnant, May 31, 2019) begins his critique of the pope with these words: "From the first moment I saw him, I knew that he was going to be a Modernist wrecking ball."  Although their mindsets may be different, at least on the surface, in addressing the shortcomings of this pontificate, both authors are convinced that Pope Francis is doing serious damage to the Church. According to Lawler, "...I believed despite his sometimes-alarming remarks, Francis was not a radical, was not leading the Church away from the ancient sources of the Faith. But gradually, reluctantly, painfully, I came to the conclusion that he was." Hence, Neumayr's description of the pope as a “revolutionary," and Lawler's as a "radical" pontiff, really amount to a distinction without a difference.  It should be stressed that Lawler openly admits that, at the beginning of the new pontificate, he "was one of millions," who had succumbed to the "Francis effect," which "captured the public imagination." As a positive sign of this trend, Lawler informs us that his friends and neighbors wanted to discuss the Faith and the meaning of the Gospel, not politics at the Vatican, or priestly scandals. But slowly, and at first, imperceptibly, Lawler began a reversal of his early faith in the pontiff: "The Roman pontiff should be a focus of unity in the Church. Francis, regrettably, has become a source of division."  Lawler notes, and Neumayr would agree, that another disturbing aspect of the current pontiff's radicalism is his style of governance. Lawler: "..an autocratic style, which contrasts sharply with the promises of collegial and synodal governance, and the radical nature of the program that he is relentlessly advancing." Here both Neumayr and Lawler are reading from the same page.  But these two Catholic laymen are not alone in noticing what is happening during Francis's pontificate: Sohrab Ahmari, an Iranian, who, in 2016, converted to Catholicism, wrote in The Wall Street Journal: "As with other recent disputes - communion for the divorced-and remarried; the status of the Latin Mass; Vatican engagement with China's Communist regime - conservatives are on one side and Pope Francis is on the other."  Lawler makes a crucial point about this pope, who should not "be on one side" of disagreements within the Church. Then: "Whereas we expect President Trump to reverse policies of President Obama - just as Obama reversed the policies of President Bush - we expect the pope to preserve the decisions of his predecessors." (Emphasis mine) Clearly, this pope does not see his duty to do so; he does not see himself "conserving" the past; if anything, he has introduced "new teachings" that conflict, and are incompatible, with prior teachings of the Church. Lawler points to Amoris Laetitia as one such "new teaching," and in so doing, "violated the sacred trust that is given to Peter's successors." Again: is this outlook "revolutionary," or "radical?" Or both?  The turning point of Lawler's growing skepticism about the pope's agenda came on February 24, 2017, "when something snapped inside me." The proximate cause of this event centered on another of the "new teachings;" in this case, Pope Francis, "turned the Gospel reading upside down." What was involved here was the pope's reinterpretation of the Church's teaching, based on Divine Revelation, on the sanctity of the marital bond in favor of his own view on divorce and remarriage. Lawler now was convinced that the pope, "...was engaged in a deliberate effort to change what the Church teaches." The remainder of this book seeks to demonstrate the truth of that statement. Before continuing, however, one could ask: Who is Philip Lawler?  Lawler attended Harvard College, graduating in 1972 with honors in Government, and later did graduate work in political philosophy at the University of Chicago. As a journalist, he was the acting editor of Crisis magazine; later, he was the first layman to edit The Pilot, the Boston archdiocesan newspaper. In 1996, he founded Catholic World News: the first online Catholic news service. An author of five books, Lawler's, The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Catholic Culture, is a book I highly recommend for its description of the baleful impact of Vatican II on formerly faithful Catholics.  Lawler begins his description of the Francis pontificate with a little known fact about the abdication of Pope Benedict, perhaps an omen of what was to follow: on February 11, 2013, the date Pope Benedict did something no pope had done in half a millennia - resign - lightning struck St. Peter's Basilica not once, but twice. Further, the pope's formal resignation was in Latin, so few among his audience had any idea what he was saying. At 85, and afflicted with serious arthritic problems, his closest friends and aides had noticed signs of the pope's inability to work after his morning duties. As to the serious crises that faced his pontificate, Lawler claims: "...Benedict had reached the conclusion that he, now an elderly man and by nature and training a scholar rather than an administrator, had neither the strength nor the talent that would be needed to resolve these internal crises." A younger prelate "with a firm administrative hand" was needed.  The "Vaticanists," the corps of journalists who cover the Vatican, began pondering in print that, if Pope John Paul II had been the first non-Italian pope in centuries, perhaps a "non-European pope" among the "papabile" would reach his level of success. An Italian, Cardinal Scola of Milan, appeared to be the early and probable heir apparent, but an address by a cardinal from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jorge Bergoglio, was soon the talk of the conclave. The Argentine prelate, a Jesuit, called for the Church to "come out of herself and go to the peripheries," and that the failure to do so would lead to a Church that "...becomes self reverential and then gets sick." Whatever that meant, for no particulars were given.  It should be remembered that Cardinal Bergoglio was the "runner-up" to Cardinal Ratzinger at the conclave in 2005 but did not exhibit any outward signs of being "a pope in waiting." But waiting or not, Cardinal Bergoglio was ready to respond to the question about the name he would give to his pontificate: "Francis." came the prompt reply. And so, it was.  This article appeared in The Remnant Newspaper's September 15th edition. So did this Remnant Cartoon:      See what it's all about--Click the pic to Subscribe to the E-Edition today!    Lawler stresses that during the early days of his pontificate, Pope Francis I "captured the world's attention with his unconventional style." For example, he greeted enormous crowds speaking simply and without formality; he chose to live outside the papal apartments and moved permanently into St. Martha's House, the Vatican's guesthouse, and even placed his own phone calls! However, Lawler does mention one Vaticanist who claimed that journalists, "were leaving some potentially damaging stories unreported because they thought no one wanted to hear bad news about the pontiff." Among the more widely cited "non-reported" stories was the pope's relationship with the military junta during what is known as "the Dirty War" in Argentina. Neumayr reported that his fellow Jesuits had distanced themselves from Provincial Bergoglio because of his willingness to work with the military junta.  "There is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip," and, as in the case of the new pontificate, the promises of "reform," both explicit and implied, in the early stages of the Francis pontificate did not materialize, despite the claim they would. In fact, Lawler actually describes situations where reforms, such as the first attempts under Pope Benedict to bring the Vatican's financial house in order, were begun and then stalled and/or discarded by Francis. The priestly scandals have been the major source of both public and Vatican attention - until the new pontificate - but Vatican finances also were in dire need of reform.  Cardinal George Pell of Australia was appointed by Pope Benedict to oversee ways of reining in what was seen as the Vatican's "chaotic financial system," one in which Vatican "dicasteries" or Departments, "followed no standard accounting procedures." In 2015, internal resistance to Cardinal Pell's efforts became abundantly clear when, at a meeting of a worldwide consistory of cardinals, "heated arguments" erupted as Pell outlined his proposal to reform Vatican finances. The changes were accepted with very modest amendments and were approved by Pope Francis. But that breakthrough was short lived: the following year, the pope announced the audit of Vatican finances by Price Waterhouse Coopers, the first in history, had been suspended. No reasons were given, but "a compromise" soon followed allowing each dicastery to determine, "... how far the external auditors should delve into their records." Need I add that no "reforms" were instituted?  In 2017, Pope Francis allowed what can only be described as a return to the old ways: those who believed that Cardinal Pell "...was asserting too much control in his bid to ensure financial accountability," had won the day. If financial reform now disappeared into the Vatican mists, the other major "reform" that the Francis pontificate promised to address would not go gently into the night, for it goes to the heart of the Church's current crisis, and revolved around, "...the handling of sexual abuse complaints" against priests worldwide.  Many familiar with this on-going crisis may recall that Cardinal Ratzinger, when Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had requested and been given responsibility by Pope John Paul II to deal with what Ratzinger called, "the filth" of clerical misconduct. What may not be known is that in the years 2011-12, as Pope Benedict XVI. he "laicized" nearly four hundred (no typo) priests.  The question of the neglect, or worse, by the hierarchy in dealing with sexual abuse cases is beyond cavil, but one cannot exclude papal fault in this area. Pope Francis promoted a prelate, Bishop Juan Barros, over the objections of Chilean Catholics who claimed that Barros had ignored their repeated complaints of the sexual predation of priests in his diocese. The pontiff called the Chilean protesters "stupid" for their actions, not a good way for a pontiff to make friends, a major objective of this pontificate. A committee under the aegis of Cardinal O'Malley of Boston, issued a report recognizing the seriousness of the situation, and offering suggestions to address the issue. That report was scrapped by Pope Francis, who later admitted he "was learning on the job," learning to accept a "zero tolerance" policy that had been in place for fifteen years.  Other examples abound: the McCarrick/Wuerl fiasco does not offer much hope the Vatican's "hands off" policy in dealing with clerical abuse will change. In a recent development, New York State has granted a one-year grace period to those who claim that they were sexually abused by priests in the past and allowed them to begin legal action against the involved diocese. As of this writing, more than 500 charges have been leveled against priests accused of sexually abusing both boys and young men in New York State, and this is just the beginning of the yearlong window.  It would be repetitive to continue to list the areas outlined in Lawler's book which describe the current pope's mindset, for much of it has been written about and discussed elsewhere. Yet, there are unfamiliar events as well that demonstrate papal manipulation that accompany that mindset which should be examined. One such event was the October 2014, Synod on the Family, including the "Mystery of the Purloined Volumes."  The then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, had made a contribution to Remaining in the Truth of Christ, a compilation of essays restating Catholic teaching, in which he condemned Cardinal Kasper's proposal of offering communion for the remarried, which he had raised at the consistory. The publisher, Ignatius Press, sent copies of the book to the participating consistory cardinals through the Vatican's normally efficient postal system, but, mysteriously, they disappeared during their deliberations.  Another example of the apparent manipulation of the Synod took place when four separate paragraphs on pastoral care for homosexuals appeared in the Synod's "interim report." That raised other questions, for of the 250 addresses given by the clerics during the consistory, only one focused on homosexuality. Although none of this discussion was included in the minutes of the conference, this "creative editing" appeared to be the work of Archbishop Bruno Forte, a close ally of the pope, and the secretary of the Synod's drafting committee. Cardinal Sarah, who has been a stalwart in his defense of the traditional Church, denounced the manipulation as, "... an attempt to push the Church (to change) her doctrine." Another example of an attempt to codify "the new teaching," and apparently with the support of the new pontiff.  A concluding note about the Synod mentioned by Lawler should be very troublesome to Catholics: the bishops' final statement claimed the Synod fathers came together to "discern how the Church and society can renew their commitment to the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman." Lawler: "The Italicized words were omitted from the Vatican's official English translation." Neither Lawler nor I - and I imagine Neumayr - believe that was accidental.  Lawler's skewering of the current Society of Jesus should not surprise anyone. What may, is when Lawler quotes a Jesuit priest who claims: "The Church as we know it is dying. I hope and pray that the Society (of Jesus) will help to facilitate this death and resurrection." I am reminded of the apparent inability of the late Fr. Peter Milward, S.J. who, in our conversation at the Jesuit House in Tokyo, sadly commented: "I don't understand many of my younger Jesuit colleagues today." For many, that inability would extend to the Throne of Peter.  Philip Lawler has written a cogent and informative book about the decline of the Church under the current pope, including this pope's apparent indifference to the Church's past. "If a Catholic today is free to ignore the teachings of John Paul II, as Francis implies, then a Catholic tomorrow will be free to ignore the teaching of Francis....By that standard, the papacy of Francis has been a disaster for the Church."  This book is a gold mine of information and should be read by "Trads" who wish to know just how detrimental Francis has been in leading the Faithful. As I've written before, this book is highly recommended, except for those with high blood pressure.

cvchiarello@msn.com (Vincent Chiarello | Remnant Columnist)


slate--2019-03-28--How an Uproar Over Pope Francis Refusing to Have His Ring Kissed Explains the Catholic Culture Wars

The ritual was customary: Pope Francis visited an Italian shrine on Monday, and afterward greeted worshippers who waited in line to meet him. This time, however, the reception went viral. A 30-second clip captured the pope cheerfully flicking his right hand away as some supplicants attempted to kneel and kiss the ring there.  To the untrained eye, this behavior was at worst gently strange, and at best illustrated Francis’ unfussy approach to his office. This is a man who seems much more comfortable kissing other people’s feet (including inmates and refugees) than receiving their supplication. The Daily Show set the clip to a bleep-bloopy soundtrack, turning it into a video game call “Kiss the Ring”:  Everyone was having fun! Everyone, that is, except some traditionalist Catholics. Francis’ critics saw the gesture as a symbol of disrespect toward the office he holds. Matthew Schmitz, a columnist at the Catholic Herald, lamented that Francis was “embarrass[ing] the faithful in the name of humility.” Others took it as a “rejection” or “rudeness.” The conservative LifeSite called the clip “disturbing,” noting that the pope seems perfectly comfortable with expressions of personal devotion like “selfies and hugs.”  When a two-hour-long video capturing the pope’s full visit to the shrine emerged—and showed the pope had allowed some visitors to kiss the ring—it was analyzed like a Vatican version of the Zapruder film. “At the 50:50 mark, Pope Francis can be seen greeting priests and men and women religious, whom he allows to kiss his papal ring,” LifeSite wrote in an addendum to its initial post. “The Holy Father then begins to greet Catholic laity and begins pulling his hand away at 1:00:57.”  The pope received his visitors warmly even if he seemed to reject this particular small gesture. Why did this tiny change in protocol read so offensively to people already skeptical of his orthodoxy? For one, because they took it as another example in what they view as a long line of attempts to discard tradition. Kissing a bishop’s ring was a commonplace sign of reverence until the mid-20th century, according to this explainer from America magazine. A bishop’s ring symbolizes his “marriage” to the diocese he oversees; as bishop of Rome, the pope wears a ring representing both his leadership and service of the church as a whole.  The video has been analyzed like a Vatican version of the Zapruder film.  But the gesture has origins in medieval European monarchies and over time has come to seem uncomfortably … royal. Pope Benedict XVI—revered by the same crowd that detests Francis—tried to end the practice of kissing the pope’s hand, “though no one followed the new protocol,” he lamented to journalist Peter Seewald in his 2010 book Light of the World.  Francis, meanwhile, has blamed the Catholic Church’s ongoing sex-abuse crisis in part on an inappropriate deference to hierarchical authority. “To say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’ to all forms of clericalism,” as he put it last summer. He has also promoted a “culture of encounter” whose emphasis on dialogue and equality is at odds with the kind of one-way reverence suggested by the ritual ring-kiss. This is the same pope, after all, who chose to live in a guesthouse rather than in the formal “Apostolic Palace.”  As is so often the case, those hoping for clarity from Francis were left waiting. But the clip portended neither the destruction of Catholic tradition nor the announcement of a radically egalitarian future. The Vatican first told journalists that the pope sometimes accedes to the custom, and sometimes does not. On Wednesday, he was photographed allowing nuns and priests to kiss his ring at a smaller reception in St. Peter’s Square. And on Thursday, a spokesman offered an even simpler explanation: “The Holy Father told me that the motivation was very simple: hygiene,” Alessandro Gisotti said. “He wants to avoid the risk of contagion for the people, not for him.” It may have worked to stop the spread of actual germs. But the moment itself was too viral to contain.


sottnet--2019-09-05--Its an honor when Americans attack me Pope Francis jokes

'It's an honor when Americans attack me,' Pope Francis jokes

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.


sputnik--2019-05-05--WATCH Pope Francis Holding Mass During Visit to Bulgaria

The Orthodox Church, however, has rejected the idea of holding joint prayers with the pontiff.  The head of the Catholic Church arrived in the Balkan region on Sunday in order to conduct a three-day visit to Bulgaria and North Macedonia. He also intends to honour the memory of Mother Teresa — the famous Catholic nun born in Skopje.


tass--2019-07-04--Putin Pope Francis discuss protecting Christians in the Middle East

Putin, Pope Francis discuss protecting Christians in the Middle East

ROME, July 5. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed with Pope Francis the issue of protecting the Christian population of the Middle East and humanitarian assistance for Syria, the Russian leader told a news conference after talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.  "We discussed the issues of protecting the Christian population of the Middle East and humanitarian assistance in Syria. It is important that the positions of Russia and the Vatican coincide in the issues concerning traditional values, promoting inter-religious and inter-civilizational dialogue," the Russian leader said.  Putin recalled that at the meeting with the pontiff the issues of developing relations between Russia and the Vatican were also discussed. The sides agreed on paying special attention to cooperation in the fields of culture, education and healthcare, he noted.  The Russian president gave a positive assessment to the talks in the Vatican. "This was a very kind discussion. [We spoke about] some international issues and also about developing bilateral relations between Russia and the Vatican, including the spiritual aspect of this cooperation and humanitarian ties."  Putin arrived on his sixth visit to Vatican City on Thursday to hold his third meeting with Pope Francis. During his visit to the Holy See in 2000 and 2003, Putin met with Pope John Paul II. In 2007, he met with Pope Benedict XVI. His previous meetings with Pope Francis took place in 2013 and 2015.


thehill--2019-05-01--Conservative Catholics accuse Pope Francis of heresy

A coalition of conservative Catholic clergy and academics have accused Pope Francis of heresy, citing what they call overly liberal positions on topics like religious diversity, homosexuality and communion for divorced Catholics.  “We take this measure as a last resort to respond to the accumulating harm caused by Pope Francis’s words and actions over several years, which have given rise to one of the worst crises in the history of the Catholic Church,” the coalition wrote in a 20-page letter to the College of Bishops, published Tuesday by the conservative Catholic site LifeSiteNews.  The letter singles out the 2016 papal document “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love) for special criticism. In the document, Francis called for making the Catholic Church more welcome toward “imperfect” members, such as divorced Catholics who have remarried in civil ceremonies.  Church law does not allow remarried divorced people who have not received an annulment to receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their current spouse. Francis called for flexibility on this doctrine, allowing priests and bishops to make case-by-case decisions.  The letter also lambastes Francis for saying Martin Luther’s intentions in sparking the Protestant Reformation “were not mistaken,” and for signing a joint 2016 statement with Lutheran leaders expressing gratitude for the Reformation’s “theological gifts.”  The group goes on to cite a statement this year between Francis and Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar Mosque, saying religious pluralism is “willed by God.”  The letter was signed by 19 priests and scholars, the most prominent of which is Father Aidan Nichols, an English Dominican priest and theologian.  The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


therightscoop--2019-12-23--NO, Pope Francis is NOT saying Christians shouldn’t try and convert non-believers…

Unfortunately Pope Francis has become the victim of ‘fake news’ regarding comments he made recently to a group of high school students in Rome. I’m not going to name names, but I do want to point out that articles saying things like Pope Francis told Christians not to try and convert nonbelievers are simply wrong.  Instead of unpacking all the misinterpretations of what is being said about the Pope’s remarks, let’s just start with what the Pope actually said, via Bing translation:  Good morning, Your Holiness, I wanted to ask you a question. If an atheist came to you and asked her for a fundamental reason to start believing what would she say to him? The first is everything. In front of a non-believer, the last thing I have to do is try to convince him. Never. The last thing I need to do is talk. I have to live consistent with my faith. And it will be my testimony that awakens the curiosity of the other who says, “But why do you do this?” And there I can speak. But listen, never, ever bring the gospel proselytizing. If someone says that he is a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, he is not a disciple of Jesus. Proselytism is not done, the Church does not grow out of proselytism. Pope Benedict said it grows by attraction, by witness. Proselytism is done by football teams, this can be done, political parties, you can do it there but with faith no proselytizing. And if someone says to me, “But why?” Read, read, read the gospel, this is my faith. But no pressure.  The first thing Pope Francis says here is that we should LIVE the love of Christ Jesus in our lives through action and deed, that we shouldn’t depend on convincing non-believers with words. He argues that it’s our actions and deeds that will arouse the curiosity of non-believers. Then, when someone asks why we do what we do, we have a strong basis on which to begin a dialogue.  Now I admittedly don’t know exactly what he means by ‘proselytising’, per se. But it sounds to me that in the context of his remarks, the Pope believes that ‘proselytising’ is trying to pressure someone into believing in Jesus with words. Or as we say around here, to argue someone into the Kingdom.  The Pope isn’t saying we shouldn’t dialogue with people about our faith. Rather, he’s simply saying that we should bring the Gospel of Christ to people through action and deed and not through argument and pressure. This is what the Bible calls us to do in passage after passage. We are called to let our light shine before men, to care for the widow and the poor. Not trying to beat people over the head with a Bible.  That’s all the Pope is saying here as you can plainly see in his words.  And remember, the Pope is talking to high school students who more than likely put a premium on their own words, as many of us did at that age. As the leader of the Church, he’s simply trying to show them that loving people through action and deed is far more effective than words.


usatoday--2019-04-17--Trump calls Pope Francis to offer condolences for Notre Dame fire offers aposour great expertsap

Trump calls Pope Francis to offer condolences for Notre Dame fire, offers 'our great experts'

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump called Pope Francis to offer his condolences Wednesday for the Notre Dame fire and said the U.S. would offer "our great experts on renovation and construction" to help France rebuild the iconic cathedral.  "Just had a wonderful conversation with @Pontifex Francis," Trump posted on Twitter, referring to Francis' Twitter account, "offering condolences from the People of the United States for the horrible and destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral."  Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron a day earlier to discuss the blaze that roared 850-year-old house of worship on Monday.  Donations to help rebuild Notre Dame neared the $1 billion mark Wednesday as recovery efforts ramped up. Engineers and historians are expected to put up a temporary roof to protect the cathedral from the elements, assess damage and salvage materials before beginning repairs that may take decades.  Trump has had a complicated relationship with Francis. During the 2016 election, the Pope criticized tough immigration policies embraced by both Trump and several European leaders. Trump responded with a fiery post on Facebook suggesting that "if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President."  More: As President Trump meets Pope Francis at the Vatican, a timeline of their history  The two appeared to put aside their differences during a meeting in 2017, Trump's first visit with the Pope as president.  "I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue peace in our world," Trump tweeted after their encounter.


fortruss--2019-06-30--WAR OF THE SCHISMATICS False Patriarch Filaret reveals SECRET about NATOs Fake OCU head Epiphanius

WAR OF THE SCHISMATICS: False Patriarch Filaret reveals SECRET about NATO’s Fake OCU head Epiphanius

KIEV – The false patriarch Filaret revealed the secret of the origin of the NATO backed head of the Ukrainian schismatic organization “OCU”, Epiphanius, who turns out to be the illegitimate son of one of the schismatic “bishops” close to Filaret.  Earlier, a number of Ukrainian media wrote that Epiphanius was allegedly the son of Filaret himself.  “Earlier there were rumors, but now we have evidence that this is the illegitimate son of Metropolitan Daniel,” Filaret said, answering the question of whether his family ties to Epiphanius.  He also explained how the choice fell on Epiphanius as the head of “OCU”.  “Nobody imposed it, I offered it to the president when preparations were made for the unifying Council on December 15, 2018. But there was a condition that Epiphanius would become the head of the church, and in fact I (Patriarch Filaret) would be leading the church in Ukraine. And Metropolitan Epiphanius would represent the Ukrainian church from the outside – in the Orthodox world. This was my agreement with the President and with Epiphanius. We did not sign any agreement, believed his word, but it turned out that his word cannot be trusted, ” Filaret said.  Note that the “Metropolitan” Daniel (Chokalyuk) died in 2005, at 47 years old. He was one of the closest collaborators of the schismatic Filaret.  Recall that on June 25,  Filaret accused the dissenters of the OCU of seizing of the temples of the Kyiv Patriarchate. Previously the  schismatics, the  OCU deprived Filaret of the right to govern the diocese. A day earlier,  Filaret asked Avakov for protection against the “OCU” from the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine .  On June 20, the OCU  declared the Kyiv Patriarchate banned. On the same day,  Filaret restored the “Kyiv Patriarchate” and declared the creation of the “OCU” invalid.  Both the so-called Kyiv Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine are held by the Russian Orthodox Church and the vast majority of Orthodox patriarchates around the world to be schismatic.


fortruss--2019-12-26--MAJOR: Patriarch of Jerusalem was Pressured to Recognize OCU but did not Give in, Says Archbishop of

MAJOR: Patriarch of Jerusalem was Pressured to Recognize OCU but did not Give in, Says Archbishop of Cyprus  NICOSIA – His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem was pressured to recognize the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” but did not give in, the primate of the Cypriot Orthodox Church said in a recent meeting with a hierarch of the canonical Ukrainian Church.  And the other primates are unlikely to recognize Epiphany Dumenko and the OCU, His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos II said in his meeting with His Eminence Metropolitan Sergius of Ternopil on Sunday, December 22, reports the Ukrainian Church’s Department for External Church Relations.  Thus, the reports of pressure on the Patriarch coming from within the Jerusalem Patriarchate have been confirmed by his fellow Greek primate. Last month, it was reported that Pat. Theophilos has experienced pressure from representatives of the U.S. Democratic Party, such as Joe Biden.  Pat. Theophilos successfully withstood the pressure to concelebrate with schismatics in January and he canceled a meeting with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, instead hosting a delegation from the canonical Ukrainian Church the next day.  While visiting Moscow last month, Pat. Theophilos stated that he invites the primates of all the Local Churches to convene in Jordan to discuss the preservation of Church unity in Eucharistic communion.  Abp. Chrysostomos also assured Met. Sergius and the Ukrainian pilgrims of his continuing support for the canonical Ukrainian Church, noting that he is well aware of the truth of the situation in Ukraine. The delegation consists of clergy and faithful from churches that have been seized by the nationalist schismatics.  He also expressed his hope that the Ukrainian Church issue will soon cease to be a subject of political influence, and that Patriarch Bartholomew will realize and admit his mistake. For his part, Abp. Chrysostomos sees his goal as telling the primates of the other Local Churches about the truth of the situation as much as possible.  “I took the initiative,” he said. “I had communication with all the primates. We are waiting and hoping that the Patriarch of Constantinople will understand his mistake. Other primates are unlikely to recognize Epiphany. Although there were attempts to pressure the Patriarch of Jerusalem, he did not give in.”  Abp. Chrysostomos earlier revealed that he dropped his mediatory talks with the other primates under pressure from Pat. Bartholomew. Met. Sergius concelebrated the Divine Liturgy and a memorial service for Archbishop Chrysostomos I with Abp. Chrysostomos II on Sunday before the meeting with the Cypriot primate.  Abp. Chrysostomos also earlier revealed that while he disagrees with Constantinople’s actions in Ukraine, he also disagrees with the Russian Church’s response of breaking communion with the Patriarchate, and believes that Patriarch Kirill desires the place of primacy in the Church, which the Cypriot primate told him would never happen.


russiainsider--2019-05-21--Novel Solution Patriarch of Moscow Calls for End to Abortions to Boost Population

Novel Solution: Patriarch of Moscow Calls for End to Abortions to Boost Population

The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church has proposed a national ban on abortion to boost the country's lagging population numbers.  Russia legalized abortion in 1955 and has the second-highest abortion rate in the world after China. While Russia’s anti-abortion movement has largely failed to change the law, it has gained momentum in recent years, spurred by the rise of the Orthodox Church as a powerful political force.  “We must first of all remove the topic of abortion to the extent that it exists,” Patriarch Kirill was quoted as saying at a pro-life event in Moscow on Sunday by Interfax.  With an estimated 1 million fewer abortions per year, he projected population numbers could reach 156 million in the next decade and 166 million in 20 years.  Russia has grappled with a demographic crisis in recent years, with its population declining for the first time in a decade last year to 146.8 million.


abcnews--2019-12-12--Official: Jersey City attack was 'fueled' by anti-Semitism

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- The two killers who stormed a kosher market in Jersey City were driven by hatred of Jews and law enforcement, New Jersey's attorney general said Thursday, adding that the case is being investigated as domestic terrorism.  Attorney General Gurbir Grewal also disclosed that the man and woman had five guns, including an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun that they were wielding when they burst into the store in an attack that left the scene littered with several hundred shell casings. They also had a pipebomb in their van.  "The outcome would have been far, far worse” if not for the Jersey City Police, Grewal said. Authorities noted that a Jewish school is next to the market, and a Catholic school is across the street.  The attackers killed three people in the store, in addition to a police officer at a cemetery about a mile away, before dying in an hourslong gunbattle with police Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.  “The evidence points toward acts of hate. I can confirm that we're investigating this matter as potential acts of domestic terrorism fueled both by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs,” the attorney general said. He said social media posts, witness interviews and other evidence reflected the couple's hatred of Jews and police.  Grewal noted that after killing three people in the store, the couple concentrated their fire on police and did not shoot at others who happened to be on the streets.  Grewal said the attackers, David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50, had expressed interest in a fringe religious group called the Black Hebrew Israelites, whose members often rail against Jews and whites. But he said there was no evidence so far that they were members, and added that the two were believed to have acted alone.  The pair brought their cache of weapons in a U-Haul van they drove from Bay View Cemtery, where they shot and killed Jersey City Detective Joseph Seals, according to the attorney general.  Anderson fired away with the AR-15-style rifle as he entered the store, while Graham brought a 12-gauge shotgun into the shop. They also had handguns with a homemade silencer and a device to catch shell casings. In all, they had five guns — four recovered in the store, one in the van — in what Grewal called a “tremendous amount of firepower.”  Serial numbers from two of the weapons showed that Graham purchased them in Ohio in 2018, the attorney general said.  The victims killed in the store were: Mindel Ferencz, 31, who with her husband owned the grocery; 24-year-old Moshe Deutsch, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn who was shopping there; and store employee Douglas Miguel Rodriguez, 49. A fourth person in the store was shot and wounded but managed to escape, authorities said.  Members of New York's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community gathered Wednesday night for funerals for Ferencz and Deutsch. Thousands of people, mostly men, followed Ferencz's casket through the streets of Brooklyn, hugging and crying.  The bloodshed in the city of 270,000 people across the Hudson River from New York City spread fear through the Jewish community and weighed heavily on the minds of more than 300 people who attended a vigil Wednesday night at a synagogue about a mile from where the shootings took place.  In the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, 11 people were killed in an October 2018 shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Last April, a gunman opened fire at a synagogue near San Diego, killing a woman and wounding a rabbi and two others.  Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press writers Jim Mustian in New York and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed.


abcnews--2019-12-13--6 killed in New Jersey gunbattle, including police officer

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Six people, including a police officer and three bystanders, were killed in a furious gunbattle Tuesday that filled the streets of Jersey City with the sound of heavy fire for hours, authorities said.  The dead included the two gunmen, Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly said.  The slain officer, Detective Joseph Seals, 40, was credited by his superiors with having led the department in the number of illegal guns removed from the streets in recent years, and might have been trying to stop an incident involving such weapons when he was cut down by gunfire that erupted near a cemetery, authorities said.  The shooting then continued at a kosher supermarket about a mile away, where five more bodies were found, Kelly said.  “It's a really tough day for the city of Jersey City,” Mayor Steven Fulop said. Seals “was one of the best officers for getting the most guns off the streets. He was a good cop.”  Two other officers were wounded but were later released from the hospital, authorities said.  The bullets started flying early in the afternoon in the city of about 270,000 people, situated across the Hudson River from New York City. Seals, who worked for a unit called Cease Fire, was shot around 12:30 p.m. The gunmen then traveled to another part of the city in a stolen rental van and engaged police in a protracted shootout.  "Our officers were under fire for hours," the chief said.  Inside the grocery store, police found the bodies of what they were believed were the two gunmen and three other people who apparently happened to be in the place when the assailants rushed in, authorities said. Police said they were confident that all those killed were shot by the gunmen and not by police.  The kosher grocery is a central fixture in a growing community of Orthodox Jews who have been moving to Jersey City in recent years. Authorities were unable to say why the gunmen went there.  City Public Safety Director James Shea said that authorities believe the bloodshed was not an act of terrorism but that it was still under investigation.  The shooting spread fear through the neighborhood, and the nearby Sacred Heart School was put on lockdown as a precaution.  SWAT teams, state police and federal agents converged on the scene, and police blocked off the area, which in addition to the school and supermarket included a hair salon and other shops. Dozens of bystanders pressed against the police barrier to capture the action on their cellphones, some whooping when bursts of fire could be heard.  Video shot by residents recorded loud volleys of gunfire reverberating along one of the city's main streets and showed a long line of law enforcement officers pointing guns as they advanced, yelling to bystanders, “Clear the street! Get out of the way!”  “ It's like firecrackers going off," said Andy Patel, who works at a liquor store about three blocks away. "They were shooting like crazy. ... The cops were clearing everyone off the streets.”  Seals had been on the Jersey City Police Department since 2006. In addition to his work with the illegal guns unit, he was cited for heroism in a Christmas Eve 2008 incident in which he and another officer burst through the window of a home and stopped a sexual assault that was being carried out against a 41-year-old woman.  Seventh grader Zamir Butler said his class was coming back inside from the playground at Sacred Heart, which sits across the street from the grocery store, when he heard the shots. At first he thought they were thunder, since it had rained earlier. “Everybody was running up the stairs to get to safety in the classroom,” he said. “A few of the kids were crying. They told us to stay behind the wall and stay down."


abcnews--2019-12-13--Funeral set for Texas sergeant amid anger over initial bond

HOUSTON -- Funeral arrangements have been set for a Houston-area police sergeant who was killed this week while trying to arrest a suspect during a traffic stop, officials announced Friday.  The details of Nassau Bay police Sgt. Kaila Sullivan’s funeral come as law enforcement agencies and police unions expressed anger the suspect charged in her death was initially given a bond following his arrest. That bond was later revoked as the charge was upgraded to capital murder.  Sullivan’s funeral service has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Grace Church Houston. It is the same church where the funeral service was held on Thursday for Houston police Sgt. Christopher Brewster, 32. He was killed Dec. 7 while responding to a domestic violence call.  Sullivan, 43, was trying to arrest Tavores Henderson during the Tuesday night traffic stop for an outstanding warrant for assault when he broke free.  Authorities allege Henderson fled in his vehicle and struck Sullivan, running over her and dragging her body. She later died at a hospital.  Henderson, 21, was arrested on Thursday following a nearly two-day search by authorities.  Court records didn’t list an attorney for him.  Henderson’s mother and her boyfriend have each been charged with hindering apprehension for allegedly helping Henderson flee authorities.  When he was arrested, Henderson was initially charged with felony murder and a magistrate judge had set his bond at $150,000.  Local law enforcement agencies, as well as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, expressed anger Henderson had been granted a bond.  In a statement, the Texas Municipal Police Association — the state’s largest law enforcement association — called the initial bond given Henderson “an insult to every member of law enforcement and the good citizens we are charged with protecting.”  The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said Friday there was never any chance Henderson would have been released from jail as his bond on another assault charge he is facing had been revoked, which meant he could not be released.  When prosecutors upgraded the charge to capital murder, they asked that he be held without bond and that request was granted, said Dane Schiller, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.  “He is not going anywhere but a cell or courtroom, where he faces the possibility of life in prison or a death sentence,” Schiller said.


abcnews--2019-12-13--State mounts largest crackdown on illegal pot shops in LA

LOS ANGELES -- California regulators mounted dozens of raids against illegal marijuana retailers in Los Angeles this week, the largest crackdown to date against the city's thriving black market, officials announced Friday.  The state has been under pressure from California's legal industry to do more to stop the underground pot economy, which in Los Angeles and other cities often operates in plain sight. According to some estimates, roughly 75% of sales in the state remain under the table, snatching profits from legal storefronts.  Investigators from the state Bureau of Cannabis Control and the Department of Consumer Affairs’ Cannabis Enforcement Unit served search warrants at 24 unlicensed shops from Tuesday through Thursday. They seized $8.8 million in cannabis products, confiscated nearly 10,000 illegal vape pens and $129,000 in cash, the bureau said.  The crackdown was praised by the United Cannabis Business Association, a Los Angeles-based industry group that has been urging the state to do more to shut down rogue operators.  “For a long time we have been playing a game of whack-a-mole, targeting and shutting down a small handful of illegal shops at a time, only to have them reopen days later in the same location or down the street," said Jerred Kiloh, who heads the group.  He called the raids “the type of systematic action required” to combat the vast illegal market. “Every day, illegal operators are distributing products that are not tested, taxed or tracked by the state, putting not only the ongoing vitality of the legal industry at risk, but also the health and well-being of Californians,” Kiloh said in a statement.  California kicked off broad legal sales on Jan. 1, 2018. But the illegal market has continued a bustling business, in part because consumers can avoid steep tax rates by buying in unlicensed dispensaries.  But there’s a trade off for saving a buck. Illegal products have not met strict state testing standards and could be tainted by mold, pesticides, heavy metals — even human waste.  The state's top cannabis regulator, Lori Ajax, signaled that more was to come. “We look forward to working with local jurisdictions and law enforcement as we continue to shut down unlicensed operators,” she said.