Showing posts with label Sandro Magister. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandro Magister. Show all posts

Friday, July 11, 2014

Vatican Bank: Ernst von Freyberg’s Parting Statements on Resignation

(Vatican) In the long and detailed farewell statement by the former President of the Vatican Bank IOR, Ernst von Freyberg, which was released on July 8 in advance of the expected change in leadership at the bank top, "not a few curiosities” were found, said the Vatican expert Sandro Magister.
The most striking thing is the "meager net profit" in the annual balance sheet of 2013.  Only  2.9 million euro instead of the 86.6 million last year.  As a reason for the slump, there are among others the decline of the gold reserves of the IOR (minus 11.5 million euros) and  the poor performance of investment funds (minus 28.5 million). Ernst von Freyberg had also hinted what appear to be “favors” that the Vatican Bank has yet to answer for.

8.3 million for Consulting Firm Promontory

But then there are the costs for the staff of Promontory, the international financial consulting firm, which was established to review the banking institution, which could increase the expenditure side by 33 percent. In other words, the Promontory consultancy cost the Vatican Bank 8.3 million euros. The new Director General Roberto Marranci also comes from Promontory (November 2013). The eldest son of the new IOR-President, Jean-Baptiste Douville de Franssu works for Promontory. One could almost say Promontory advised and has “taken over” the Vatican bank.

Loan for Bishop of the Community of Sant'Egidio

In the statement by Ernst von Freyberg one also reads that 3.2 million euros were paid in  “financial assistance to the Diocese of Terni". The payment is related to the financial collapse of the Umbrian diocese where Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia was as bishop there. Paglia, a leading representative of the Community of Sant'Egidio, is now President of the Pontifical Council for the Family. The diocese had to be managed by a commissar and the Vatican Bank had to take over half of the more than 20 million euro debt.

Given Away 15 Million Shares to Film Production Company

"When would this not be enough," said Magister, appearing under the loss of the Vatican Bank and the free "transfer" of shares worth 15.1 million euros to a "Foundation of the Holy See". It is a stake of 17 percent of the film production company Lux Vide by Ettore Bernabei and Sons who were  acquired by the IOR at a high price, but was then given away to a unspecified "foundation" of the Holy See.  According to media reports, that are not denied, this is the foundation Scienza e Fede (science and faith), which is connected to the Papal Cultural Council, which is headed by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi.
In winter 2011/2012, the then President of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, rejected the application for financial assistance from the Lux Vide. After his opaque resignation in autumn 2012, however, the application was approved.

The Minus of the Holy See

While the Vatican Bank is almost in the black, the Holy See ran in 2013 into the red. Although the Vatican Bank contributed 150 million euros to the Holy See, the first year of the pontificate of Pope Francis ended with a loss of 24.5 million euros.
This included the Peter's Pence for the 2013 of $ 78 million in donations for the Holy See, while  last year with Pope Benedict XVI. it was only 65.9 million. The best result has been achieved in 2009 with 82.5 million. This was according to a statement by Archbishop Angelo Becciu, substitute of the Cardinal Secretary of State on 28 June in an interview for the newspaper Avvenire.
Text: Settimo Cielo / Giuseppe Nardi
image: Settimo Cielo
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Last Pope-King -- Pope Bergolio’s “New Course” is Not Yet Deciphered

(Rome) "With Francis the papacy came into the shade. The light is all alone for him, the Pope. Not for the institution, but Sfor the person.” With these words, the Vatican expert Sandro Magister begins his recent article in the weekly magazine L'Espresso , the Italian Mirror for Double Saints last Sunday.
"From the Church canons he feels free. He feels himself free from the canonical norms. In just one year he has already suspended six times the ironclad rule that demands a new miracle before a blessed may be proclaimed a saint. John XXIII is the last of the six. Francis wanted at all costs that John Paul II should be canonized not on his own but balanced by another pope with a different profile, less combative, more merciful. "

Francis Wanted to Avoid the  Exclusive Canonization of John Paul II at all Costs

Last Sunday the double canonization was intended by Francis  because he ascended the Chair of Peter too late to slow down the canonization of John Paul II.  "The Congregation for the Causes of Saints, bent its knees his will and pretended it had asked Francis for an exception that was benevolnetly  granted immediately."
A simulated perversion of facts, which was accepted, thus, because the Pope demanded. "In addition Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, who still figures as president of the Italian episcopal conference, has asked Francis that it be he, the pope, who delivers the inaugural discourse to the plenary assembly of the bishops to be held in May, something no pontiff has ever done."

Francis Sets Will Through

At the Cardinal's request is what was said in the official press release, it  then came to the prompt readiness of the Holy Father, who announced to have harbored the same intention’. Really. For over a month we knew that Francis had already decided to make the speech.
Since he is pope, which is Italian Episcopal Conference solidifies and falls silent. Francis asked the Italian bishops that they notify him whether they want to continue to have the Pope as nominal president of the Bishops Conference or would like to choose these freely from their ranks, as in the other countries. In reality,  the Pope’s engagement  of the Italian Bishops' Conference is the living contradiction of the decentralization and “democratization” of the Church allegedly pursued by Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

Francis Holds the Italian Episcopal Conference More Firmly Than Previous Popes

Pope Francis has the Italian Bishops Conference more  firmly in his grasp  than all the popes before him. The real authority in the bishops' conference is now its general secretary Bishop Nunzio Galatino Cassano all'Jonio. But the real authority behind this is Pope Francis, who raised Galatino into office and monitors each of his decisions.
The Galatino's first official act after his audience with Pope Francis was the dismissal of the former media officer of the Italian Bishops' Conference , Dino Boffo, who  had been hired by Cardinal Camillo Ruini. Boffo was chief editor of the daily newspaper of the Episcopal Conference "Avvenire" and for three years editor of TV2000, the television station of the bishops with a significantly increasing number of spectators. [Sorry, you’re too successful.?]

Media Work of the Bishops' Conference for Months without Leadership

That was on the 14th of February, so for more than two months. Since then, the entire communication channel of the Episcopal Conference was not controlled without giving word for  a reason for the dismissal of Boffo.
If on instead focuses attention within the Vatican walls, one finds there are still figures with full honors in the saddle that would have been sealed in every  other company long ago.

Advisor to the Pope and the Vatican Bank

These include the members of the Supervisory Board of the Vatican Bank IOR, in other words, the Gang of Four, which brutally sacked the then President of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi  on 24 May 2012.
Not only that Pope Francis followed the advice of the four and ensured the continued existence of the Vatican Bank, although he had repeatedly indicated its dissolution in the previous months. The Pope leaves the Vatican Bank to work as the four want.
The new course of Pope Bergoglio is still not deciphered yet.
Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Settimo Cielo
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches…
AMGD

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Romano Guadini, the Teacher, Bergolio (Sadly) Never Had

(Rome) in the official biography of Pope Francis, which the Vatican published after his election to the website of the Holy See, there is an inaccuracy which we have already pointed out months ago. Now, the Vatican expert Sandro Magister came back to it because the statement has not been corrected. It is: "In March 1986, he goes [Jorge Mario Bergoglio] to Germany to complete his dissertation."

The statement was interesting because the new Pope's stay in Germany is of particular interest. Many media outlets in the German speaking, therefore, broadcast the message widely in the first weeks after the election. The completion of a thesis at a German University had a familiarity with German culture, to suggest knowledge of local conditions and an especially a good knowledge of German. At least for 1986, this could be accepted. The self-amputation of German as a language of science is now so far advanced that this may not necessarily be assumed for the year 2013. It is now well known that Pope Francis speaks "only" Spanish and Italian.

The reason why Magister has returned to the inaccuracy, is a publication of the Osservatore Romano of the 19th of October, in which the information was still adjusted incorrectly. In reference to the publication of a book of the writings of Romano Guardini on Saint Bonaventure, a portion of the book presentation by Professor Silvano Zucal, Chair of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Trent was printed, which previously had appeared in the Catholic newspaper Avvenire.

"That really unprecedented fate of Romano Guardini is to have been a kind of 'master' to three popes. Paul VI. personally sponsored the first translations starting with the little book The Good, The Conscience of the Whole, which he recommended to his pupils of the Catholic University Youth Society. Benedict XVI. understood himself even as a kind of spiritual and intellectual disciple of the great thinker. And Pope Francis, finally, spent almost two years in Germany to read Guardini and study ... ".

In reality, as the Philosophical-Theological College St. George of the Jesuit Order in Frankfurt explained after the election of Pope Francis, Bergoglio came in 1986 for a short time actually to St. Georgen, "in order to discuss with some professors the project for a dissertation," which did not come to pass.

"It was not, nearly two years, 'but a few months'. And especially not a doctorate, not even close to the end, because the thesis was in the planning stages," said Magister.

He continued: "That Guardini could be regarded as a 'master' of Pope Bergoglio is a thesis that sounds very novel."

In the Civiltà Cattolica interview of Pope Francis, in which he devotes extensive space to his favorite authors, the name Guardini does not occur. Neither did he mention him in his other writings and speeches.

"Above all, there is a large distance between the point of view of Bergoglios and that of the great German-Italian theologian, both in the liturgy (On the other hand, where there is very strong influence on Joseph Ratzinger), and in the critique of modern society and the conception of personal conscience (which is the book Giovanni Battista Montini had translated, has nothing to do with the superficial definition of conscience in the letter of the Pope on St. Francis and then talking with Eugenio Scalfari). The work, which the Pope read and admired by Guardini, was The Lord . In that he thought to deepen his thinking, at which he then did not succeed," said Magister.

Text: Settimo Cielo / Giuseppe Nardi
 Image: Settimo Cielo
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMGD

Monday, October 14, 2013

Scandal: Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Pozzo Leave Hall During Sandro Magister Lecture



(Rome) to a scandal occurred in Rome during the presentation of the conference proceedings on the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum on the 10th of October at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) during proceedings of the presentation of collected papers of the Third Conference on Summorum Pontificum, which had taken place in 2011. Raymond Cardinal Burke, Professor Giovanni Turco and the Vaticanist Sandro Magister three speakers were present.

Cardinal Burke recalled in his address to the "real reasons" why Pope Benedict XVI. in 2007, issued the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum: "to guarantee the right of all believers for this Rite, and for mutual enrichment between the new and the old." We could understand the comments as a criticism of Pope Francis, in his Civilta Cattolica interview of the motives of Benedict XVI. downplaying the granting of Summorum Pontificum and trying to reinterpret it.

The Cardinal also recalled Benedict's suffering, which he expressed in his letter to all the bishops, with the declared purpose and meaning of the Motu Proprio. A condition that was related to the liturgy and with the changes. An affliction that I witnessed and felt even in small and large seminar on the cardinal.

Cardinal Burke Recalled the "Real Reasons" for Summorum Pontificum

Giovanni Turco, Professor of Political Philosophy talked about the importance of Summorum Pontificum as the right of every believer "to have the non-suppression of the traditional rite." He also spoke about the over hasty and sloppy abolition of Latin and its translation into the national languages, pointing to translation errors corresponding in real doctrinal error.

Magister Effected Polite but Harsh Criticism of Decisions in the Liturgy by Pope Francis

Finally, Sandro Magister gave his contribution as a lecture on which Katholisches.info already reported (see separate report Pope Francis and the Liturgy - "Pure Functional Access" Reservations to Tradition, weakness in the knees before the Lord ). Master analyzed in a critical manner, the previous decisions of Pope Francis in the Liturgy: The ban for celebration in the old rite by the Franciscans of the Immaculate, the dismissal of all five consultants for the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations, who were close to the liturgical understanding of Benedict XVI., the refusal to genuflect in the Holy Mass at the words of consecration, although from papal Mass to papal Mass always newly master of ceremonies Guido Marini always included the two relevant points and finally the halting by CDF, that they no longer check the bizarre special forms in the Mass of the Neocatechumenal Way, as Benedict XVI. had ordered. Magister has also expressed the opinion that the Pope is "friendly" to everyone, "except with the traditionalists."

"Scandal Currently The Dominant Characteristic of Climate in Rome"

The lecture finally came to a scandal. Magister so openly expressed his criticism of Pope Francis, that Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Pozzo had to leave the room. "The response of Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Pozzo is indicative of the currently prevailing climate in Rome," the website Chiesa e Postconcilio (Church and Post-Conciliar). "Was it because of the time for both of them or was it simply a precaution, because of the polite but harsh criticism by Magister of Pope Francis? The withdrawal of a Cardinal during a major event is something glaring. All interpretations are allowed, "said the Spanish Catholic blogger Francisco de la Cigoña.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 Image: Giovani e Tradizione
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Katholisches....
AMGD

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Confessions of Francesca Chaoqui



(Rome) Francesca Chaouqui who was recently assigned by Pope Francis to the new Papal Commission for the Reorganization of the Vatican Administration, with far-reaching emergency powers is the appointed PR expert, explains everything that is desired to be made in a public statement. Through her ​​new role as Pontifical Commissioner, she is subject to strict confidentiality. After all, she has access to the secret documents of the Vatican, at least everything that is of value according to worldly standards.

Then it so happens, says the Vatican expert Sandro Magister, that Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui has offered two comprehensive confessions: The first was in the weekly magazine L'Espresso , which is the Italian Spiegel [Time?], it was published on the 17th of September. The second was in the weekly magazine Panorama, which is the Italian Focus [Newsweek?], appeared on the 19th of September.

"The irrepressible loquacity of Chaouqui has by her concerns, fended off criticisms, which were directed against her and against those who appointed her, has experienced an additional incentive" said Master.

The preppy PR lobbyist defends herself by pointing out her Facebook - and Twitter page had been stolen and compromised by hackers. "If, however, the art of communicating is her specialty and she was therefore supposedly selected by the Vatican, then it speaks to the obvious inability to keep order on their own websites, not just for them," said Magister further.

To the question of who came to the Vatican on the idea of ​ recruiting her and to be presented to an unsuspecting Pope Francis on the appointment, was confirmed now Chaouqui herself, just what Sandro Magister had already written.

"One day, Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See and member of Opus Dei called. I knew him, he is the best economist that the Church has ever had in all the earth, 'You could be a candidate for the Committee on the Economic Directory of the Holy See. Send me your resume.' So it happens. And I am appointed. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, learns of the Commission and its members only in a Chirograph (A Church document circulated for the benefit of the Curia alone), the act, with which Pope Francis appointed us, will be officially announced."

Chaouqui also affirmed, that she does not belong to Opus Dei, but "is spiritually very near" the Work. She places great emphasis on being friends with the Cardinals Tauran, Farina and Bertello. The latter she refers to as "to have reformed the Curia in one glorious act."

"Among her famous titles, Chaouqui avoids, it also worth noting the distinction that she was awarded in August by the American Association Go Topless: "“Go-Topless congratulates Francesca Chaouqui, the only female aide appointed by the Vatican for freely showing her nude torso. Time to put an end to millennia of repressive ‘moral’ values imposed by the Catholic church. Constitutional equal topless rights means true separation of church and state! Go-Topless Day, August 25th, 2013″." The organization Go Topless has established since 2007 a Go Topless Day for "women's equality" and describe it as a "human right" that women may publicly topless as men. On the Go Topless Day then, their followers show what they have underneath. The award ceremony is obviously a provocation. They ​​possibly made the photo shoot, which Chaouqui allowed them to do in a photo studio.

Text: Settimo Cielo / Giuseppe Nardi Image: Settimo Cielo

Thursday, August 1, 2013

The Pope's Statement on Msgr. Ricca: Magister Vindicated

Edit: the following is from the English version of Sandro Magister's page. His analysis explores the Pope's interesting comments about lobbies within the Vatican, and their destructive ability and how the Pope has essentially vindicated him. We should not assume that because the Holy Father is willing to be magnanimous toward Msgr. Ricca, that he continues to have trust in him, nor that he is no still concerned and about to do something regarding the "homosexual lobbies" in the Church.

ON THE RICCA CASE AND THE "GAY LOBBIES"

Another set of answers concerned the “gay bobbies” at the Vatican and the case of Monsignor Battista Ricca, appointed by the pope prelate of the IOR before his scandalous past came to light.

No prejudice against homosexuals, but the lobbies no, they're not okay. This is the gist of what Francis said to the journalists.

In general, about the gays and the lobbies pope expressed himself as follows:

"So much is written about the gay lobby. So far I have not found anyone at the Vatican who has written 'gay' on his identity card. A distinction must be made between being gay, having this tendency, and being in a lobby. The lobbies, all lobbies, are not good. If a person is gay and is seeking the Lord with good will, who am I to judge him? The catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that gay persons must not be discriminated against, but must be welcomed. The problem is not having this tendency, the problem is being in a lobby, and this applies here just as it does to business lobbies, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies.”

While on the specific case of Ricca he said:

"In the case of monsignor Ricca I have done what canon law says to do: an initial investigation. There has been found nothing of that of which he has been accused. We have not found anything. Many times in the Church the sins of youth are sought out and then publicized. We are not talking about offenses, about crimes, like the abuse of minors which is a completely different thing, but about sins. But if a layperson or a priest or a sister has committed a sin and has converted and confessed, the Lord forgives, he forgets. And we do not have the right not to forget, because otherwise we risk that the Lord may not forget our sins. So many times I think of Saint Peter who committed the gravest sin, he denied Christ. And yet they made him pope. But I repeat, about Monsignor Ricca we have not found anything.”

Francis did not add anything else. He did not say that the facts alleged against Monsignor Ricca are false. He simply said that about these facts “nothing has been found” in the documentation submitted to him at the Vatican.

But since - as the pope now well knows - everything about these events is found in the documentation of the pontifical nunciature in Montevideo and at the time the documentation was sent to Rome as well, the deduction is obvious: at the Vatican a lobby worked to cover the tracks.

The pope also did not confirm his trust in Monsignor Ricca and declare the matter closed. Anything but. The “sins of youth” can be forgiven, he said. But only to those who sincerely confess and repent of them, as did Saint Peter. Not to those who have done and are doing all they can to conceal them, disguise them, get rid of them, with the help of a powerful lobby that is still not admitting defeat. One of those lobbies, the adjective does not matter, which Pope Francis has once again said he wants to uproot from the Vatican curia.

In the latest issue of L'Espresso, the magazine that broke the case, nothing other than this was written:

“Against homosexuals who live in chastity, including priests, bishops, cardinals, there is no preconceived hostility whatsoever in the Church, so much so that, in tranquility, a number of them have occupied and still occupy important positions. What the Church does not accept is that consecrated persons, who have made a public commitment of celibacy and chastity 'for the Kingdom of Heaven,' should betray their promise. When the betrayal is public, it becomes scandal. And to heal it the Church requires a penitential journey that begins with repentance, not with falsification, concealment, deception, worse still if carried out with the complicity of others, in a 'lobby' of intersecting interests, licit and illicit”.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Ricca case, case Sucunza and "Bergoglio's style of government" - "Let us hope that Francis Meets No More Riccas"


The beach of Montevideo:
"Hopefully we will not encounter any Riccas" 

(Rome / Buenos Aires) In Argentina, the traditional page Pagina Catolica commented on the homo-revelations of Msgr. Salvatore Mario Battista Ricca, who is the personal representative to the Vatican bank IOR appointed by Pope Francis, and Director of the guest house Santa Marta. The Vatican expert Sandro Magister has miscalculated Pope Francis. Had Magister followed the case of Bergoglio, say from the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, he would have known that the current Pope would not yield even under pressure. Vicar General Joaquín Sucunza was involved in a trial for adultery in 2010 that ended in divorce, as had been requested by the Court of the betrayed husband.

Since the court records protect privacy rights and are under lock and key, details are not known, but there is little doubt in Buenos Aires that the auxiliary bishop and vicar general was the reason for the divorce. Nevertheless, Cardinal Bergoglio held fast to his subordinate. Monsignor Sucunza was conducted after Cardinal Bergolios' election to the papacy to the Administrator of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires,\ until the appointment of the new Archbishop Poli and is still holding his previous offices.

Magister wrote on the 5th of July when he brought attention to the case of Ricca ​​on his blog, two weeks in advance without detailed mention that Pope Francis was informed by the Nuncio Bolonek  about Riccas's scandalous behavior in Uruguay. Pope Francis had been confirmed by various sources of the information. The Pope was deeply disappointed, but also determined to rectify the situation that has arisen, said Magister. However, nothing was then done. On the 19th of July Magister finally published in Espresso with the unveiling of numerous unsavory details.

Also presented in this article,  Magister represents Pope Francis as deceived, who had been linked, because the dark past had been withheld from Ricca's personnel file at the Vatican and had been cleared of all allegations of his immoral infidelities.

The fact is that Pope Francis, despite knowing the facts, let two weeks pass by, which Magister left him to preemptively resolve the matter. Leo Matzuzzi, the new Vaticanist of Il Foglio tweeted the Ricca case: "Father Lombardi: Pope Francis had the opportunity to consider whether the allegations against Msgr Ricca were true or not." And again: "Father Lombardi: Pope Francis is presented with accusations raised about Monsignor Ricca raised, but decided to leave him in place. "

"Bergoglio's Own Style of Government" Jeopardizes Credibility

What that means, but quite independently of "Bergoglios own style of government" as Pagina Catolica wrote, referring to Buenos Aires: Since the allegations are true, the Pope could credibly convince them that Battista Ricca has radically changed his lifestyle? Or is Pope Francis indifferent to concerns that a person of his confidence, which he entrusted with special powers in such a highly charged area as the Vatican bank IOR, throwing covetous glances at the numerous pages, starting with the U.S.? And what can be interpreted of the reaction to the case of Sucunza Ricca? Is the zero tolerance for pedophiles to "marriage" for the gay lobby in the Church, as one might ask, in continuation of such unspoken thought process of the historian Roberto de Mattei? Will they in the Church for decades anyway, serious damaging disobedient laissez faire-clergy and laity do what they want even more so?

If it is indifference, then it does a blow to much of a playful Pope Francis' credibility. What would remain of the credibility of wanting to clean up where it needs cleaning? What cleaning would the Pope perform in the Church, when he makes a sodomite his confidant and after becoming aware of the scandal, clings to him? He can do it, then Father Lombardi, however, should make a statement.

De la Cigoña: The only thing missing is that Ricca march "half naked along at a Gay Pride"

Other considerations on the subject are given by the Spanish Catholic Church Historian and Blogger Francisco de la Cigoña. He comes to the conclusion that Pope Francis deals so astonishingly closely with financial issues and the Vatican Bank, two new Commission and its associates for which he has used Ricca because of the financial and economic sector is ultimately the least important area for the Church. Here the Pope could therefore, as de la Cigoña says, especially in a media-friendly way, demonstrate his resolve to reform and drill on the patient without anesthesia. Whatever the Pope decides in this area, will not ultimately be of particular importance for the Church, but find extensive media coverage. The same applies for the appointment of the eight member Cardinal Council. Much media coverage, much applause, but hurry, it seems the Pope does has the body that will only meet half a year after his appointment for the first time.

So far, Pope Francis has taken only two specific, internal personnel decisions to the Roman Curia and both times scheinem the decisions have been taken directly from the Pope, possibly alone. "Pope Francis seems so fascinated by the now famous guest house Santa Marta that he continued to live not only there, but also of the way in which it is held, that he decided Msgr Ricca was his man in the Vatican Bank. Done thinking. Either the Pope has no one consulted or when he consulted someone that knew nothing or would not by a cold shower to cool the enthusiasm of the Pope. And so it was that he appointed a homo-assets, the only thing missing in his biography that he was half-naked in a Gay Pride marched along, "said de la Cigoña.

The veracity of Magister revelations he does not doubt: "Sandro Magister is finally no ignoramus in ecclesiastical affairs." But what will do now Pope Francis, the Spanish church historian asks.

For de la Cigoña, the "real reforms" will start with the appointment of a new Cardinal Secretary of State. "Let us ask God to enlighten him there and that we must not encounter any more Riccas. Or rather, that Francis not meet them, says de la Cigoña. Since the second personnel decision of the Pope, the appointment of the Spanish Opus Dei priest Don Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda, the current secretary of the Apostolic Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See's Secretary of the newly appointed Commission for the Financial and Economic Affairs, which is "very good", is resulting in the current stalemate on the personnel decisions of the Pope with the Roman Curia: "Except for the pope canceled his own goal" with the appointment of Ricca.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 Image: Wikicommons
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Italian Historian Says Homosexuality Destroyed Rome

Editor: They've done quite a job on the Catholic Church already.

Does anyone remember when Richard Nixon discussed one of the redeeming features of the Soviet Union as being its antipathy of homosexuals when he was talking in his office about Archie Bunker, said exactly the same thing? [Warning, fowl language, blasphemy]  At first he starts demurring, saying he has no moral objections to homosexuality, then goes on to say that the immorality actually destroys societies.  It's also interesting that Nixon's off-color comments are made much of when figures like Gandhi and Voltaire get away with it.  Of course, apologists for Richard Nixon won't defend what Nixon was saying, they'll just argue that times, and morals, have changed, and if you know anything about principles, it's an indefensible position to take, but anyway.

Of  course, never mind Richard Nixon, despite the fact that he's correct.  Let another voice speak by way of a message from Bminormass on 'www.fisheaters.com", who said in his book, "Life is Worth Living" on P. 260, where he quotes the sociologist, Dr. Sorokin, who said:

''Those families among us who frequently change husbands and wives, who fail in their duties to their children and adopt the moral code of the gutter, are pushing us along the road to chaos. Greece, in the 3rd and the 2nd centuries before Christ, brought sex into the open. We know because there were men in those days too, who prided themselves on their objectivity as they calmly recorded the destressing picture of whole families getting together to indulge in promiscuous behaviour.  Adultery and prostitution were so common that those who indulged were regarded merely as interesting fellows.
But, such a society was not able to summon the backbone to resist in the face of war , or to endure the austerity programme that might have salvaged that overblown economy.  Soon, the glory that was Greece was over and the mighty  Acropolis was only a hillside strewn with ruined marble.'' 


 Roberto de Mathei  is a Traditionalist Catholic and was in the news earlier this week when he was critical of the current Pope and Vatican II as reported by Sandro Magister.  He has also blamed the disasters besetting Japan on the wrath of God.

More recently, the Vice President of Italy's National Research Council, has angered many Italians for comments they consider to be insensitive, namely, blaming Rome's fall on the collapse of its morals and infestation by homosexuality.  According to the article by the Telegraph, more than 7,000 people have signed a petition asking for his resignation. 

Various Catholophobic voices spread their hate filled opinions for all who would listen.
"His homophobic and extreme views are offensive to the organisation he leads," said Massimo Donadi, a senior member of an opposition party, Italy of Values, adding that he would refer the affair to parliament.

Anna Paola Concia, an MP from the main opposition Democratic Party, said: "A fanatic such as him cannot remain vice-president of the council in a country that has at its heart culture, human rights and respect for diversity. He is nothing other than a homophobic fundamentalist on a par with Iran's president, Ahmadinejad." Prof De Mattei, who was awarded an order of knighthood by the Vatican in recognition for his service to the Catholic Church, has previously caused controversy by speaking out about gay rights, the contraceptive pill and the alleged persecution of Christians by Muslims in Kosovo and Lebanon.

Link to telegraph... 

Modified, 4/10/2011 to include quote from Bishop Sheen

Monday, January 17, 2011

Purgatory Still Exists, Says Pope: Chiesa

ROME, January 17, 2011 – In illustrating the life of Saint Catherine of Genoa, at the general audience last Wednesday, Benedict XVI took the thought of this saint as a point of departure to explain what purgatory is.

During the second half of the 15th century, the time of Catherine, the contemporary image of purgatory was like the one depicted above. It was the mountain of purification sung of by Dante in the "Divine Comedy."

That purgatory is a physical place is a very ancient conviction, which endured until recent times.

Read further at Chiesa...

Friday, January 22, 2010

How to Paint a Homily by the Rules of Art

The terrible quality of many Sunday homilies damages the Church's message all over the world. An alternative way is that of explaining the Gospel with the masterpieces of Christian art. In three magnificent volumes, Timothy Verdon shows how

Chiesa

by Sandro Magister

ROME, January 21, 2010 – A stir was made recently by Bishop Mariano Crociata's criticism of the shoddy quality of many Sunday homilies.

Crociata is the secretary general of the Italian bishops' conference. Speaking at a conference on the liturgy at the end of the year, he called many of the homilies given from the pulpit every Sunday insipid "mush," almost an "inedible dish," and in any case "hardly nourishing."

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