I'm looking at October, in particular the 13th, for things to happen. What will happen, I don't know, of course, but it will be the 101th anniversary of the miracle of the sun at Fatima, and our Lady of Akita cried 101 times. Also interesting to note that Japan has been hit by many natural disasters this year, an uptick from the usual number, I believe.
Wonderful article, complete with damning facts and data. Two points. Firstly, fair play to the people behind the Pennsylvania Report; although I have read well-argued articles that this report, particularly in the context of motive, must be approached with caution, it displays great honesty in its identification of the problem, not as child abuse, but as one of male on male sexual predation. Secondly, it magnifies the extent by which, in his resort to accusations of satanism, Pope Francis has shown himself guilty of the clericalism he spuriously attempts to pin as the abstract cause of all these problems-"excessive deference and an assumption of...moral superiority".
Pope Francis is making the very obvious error that assumes that because something is common, it is of little importance. It is a tendency of elitists. And, since the subject has been broached, a view prevalent among narcissists. The flesh is something we all share. So is weakness. These facts are common, but not minor. It is logical that, even on statistical grounds, the sins due to these traits shall be the cause of more souls entering Hell than any other, particularly because of the manner, as Padraig pointed out above, they mesmerise so many into a haze of self-justification and presumption.
Hmmm, “we all know an authoritarian bishop” and we all know of 2 of 4 cardinals who are still waiting for an answer to a dubia, for starters. I also recall that Henry Sire knows of at least one “authoritarian bishop”. Pope Francis meets fellow Jesuits in Ireland during WMF Pope to Jesuits in Ireland: Do what you must to heal the wounds of abuse Details of Pope Francis’ meeting with fellow Jesuits in Dublin last month are now available on La Civiltà Cattolica website. According to the transcript, the Pope speaks directly to the drama of clerical sex abuse and gives indications on how to move forward. By Linda Bordoni 13 September 2018 https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/...uits-ireland-sex-abuse-civilta-cattolica.html Pope Francis’ private encounter with the Jesuit Community of Ireland came on the heels of his meeting earlier that evening (Saturday August 25th) with eight survivors of sex abuse. He told his brother Jesuits that what he had heard “touched” him deeply. Then he asked those present to help him, and the Church in Ireland, “to put an end to this”. “And what do I mean by put an end to it? I don’t mean simply turn the page, but seek out a cure, reparation, all that is necessary to heal the wounds and give life back to so many people. The letter I wrote recently to the people of God speaks of shame for the abuses. I wish to repeat it here and share it with you today” he said. Affirming that he understands with clarity the drama of clerical sexual abuse, he said it is linked to a Church that is marked by élitism and clericalism and consequently to its inability to be close to the people of God: “There is something I have understood with great clarity: this drama of abuse, especially when it is widespread and gives great scandal – think of Chile, here in Ireland or in the United States – has behind it a Church that is elitist and clericalist, an inability to be near to the people of God. Elitism, clericalism fosters every form of abuse. And sexual abuse is not the first. The first abuse is of power and conscience. I ask you to help with this. Courage! Be courageous! I really was unable to believe the stories that I have seen well documented. I heard them now in the other room and was deeply upset. This is a special mission for you: clean this up, change consciences, do not be afraid to call things by their name” he said. Pope Francis also answered questions put to him directly by those present. To the question “what can be done concretely against the abuses?” he affirmed that all priests are called to denounce the cases they know about. He also said he believes that sexual abuse is the consequence of the abuse of power and of conscience and he decried an authoritarian attitude that exists within the Church, also amongst bishops and religious superiors. Commenting on how “we all know an authoritarian bishop”, he expressed the need to defeat authoritarianism and clericalism and “rediscover the obedience of the sending in mission”. During his meeting the Pope also spoke of freedom, discernment and fruitfulness, as well as the topic of vocations and of how he “keeps his heart happy with all that is happening to him”. A full transcript of the Pope’s words was published on Thursday by the Rome-based “La Civiltà Cattolica” directed by Antonio Spadaro SJ who was present during that meeting. *** I suppose we have to wait and see what "the most effective next steps" are going to be... Pope Francis (AFP or licensors) Pope receives US Church leaders to discuss clerical sex abuse crisis Pope Francis on Thursday received a delegation of the leadership of the U.S. Bishops Conference at the Vatican to discuss the Church’s response to the clerical sex abuse crisis. 13 September 2018 https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/...-us-bishops-conference-sex-abuse-vatican.html Following a private audience with Pope Francis on Thursday morning in Vatican City, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued the following statement regarding the recent moral crisis in the American Catholic Church. "We are grateful to the Holy Father for receiving us in audience. We shared with Pope Francis our situation in the United States - how the Body of Christ is lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse. He listened very deeply from the heart. It was a lengthy, fruitful, and good exchange. As we departed the audience, we prayed the Angelus together for God's mercy and strength as we work to heal the wounds. We look forward to actively continuing our discernment together identifying the most effective next steps."
This crisis just keeps getting worse and worse. Grzegorz Galazka\Archivio Grzegorz Galazka\Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images Pope Francis attacked and stonewalled sex abuse victims while archbishop of Buenos Aires Matthew Cullinan Hoffman https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/p...of-coverups-and-obstruction-of-sex-abuse-case catholic, julio césar grassi, pope francis, sex abuse crisis, vatican September 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The world is currently focused on Pope Francis’ involvement in the affair of clerical sex abuser Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. However, the recent claims made by former apostolic nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò against Pope Francis in the matter are only the beginning of a long record of sex abuse cover-ups by Pope Francis and Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio that stretches back decades. Although Francis famously claimed in his 2010 book On Heaven and Earth that sex abuse by clergy “has never occurred in my diocese” and “in the diocese it never happened to me,” the evidence to date indicates that Pope Francis is involved in multiple cover-ups of clerical sexual predators in South America, including his own archdiocese. His involvement in at least two of these cases has continued during his papacy. In a 2017 documentary by the French news program Cash Investigation, six different individuals claiming to be sex abuse victims in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires told reporters that they had been sexually abused by clergy there, and that they had written to Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to inform him, but that he had never answered their complaints (see video below). To this day Pope Francis has only expressed regret for one of these cover-ups, the Barros affair, following a massive public outcry in Chile over his strong-arm tactics against victims. The other cases continue to be hushed-up, ignored, and stonewalled. The pope recently told sex abuse survivors in Ireland that those who cover up sexual abuse are “caca” (feces) and recently said that such priests should be removed and their accusers should be accompanied in the civil courts. However, Francis has done exactly the opposite, and continues to refuse to meet with victims he not only refused to accompany, but whom he sought for years to discredit with judges. LifeSite is including links to its sources in the Spanish-speaking and French media regarding these cases so that the public can verify their veracity and to facilitate the reporting by other journalists on this topic. The case of Julio César Grassi, convicted child sex abuser defended by Bergoglio Perhaps the most egregious case of obstruction, stonewalling, and negligence regarding a clerical child sex abuser on the part of Jorge Bergoglio was that of Julio César Grassi, a priest famous throughout Argentina for his work with poor and orphan children, and who became the subject of numerous accusations by teen residents of his facilities, which led to his conviction for sex abuse of a minor in 2013 as well as other charges and a sentence of more than 15 years in prison. While refusing to speak to Grassi’s victims, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio engineered a campaign to discredit the victims and to influence the judges in the case, which may have resulted in some of the charges being dismissed. Despite these efforts, Grassi was convicted in the case of one victim who was able to identify hidden marks and other characteristics of Grassi’s body, and his conviction has been upheld by multiple appeals courts, including a final ruling by the Supreme Court of Argentina in March of 2016. Nonetheless, Pope Francis continues to allow Grassi to function as a priest. Despite ongoing requests, Francis has not yet met with victims nor apologized to them. Fr. Julio Cesar Grassi is a priest of the Diocese of Morón, which was under Bergoglio’s metropolitan authority as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. There Grassi personally oversaw a residential facility housing approximately 400 children. The priest’s efforts to raise money for his “Happy Children Foundation” (Fundación Felices los Niños), which managed seventeen facilities throughout the country for over six thousand children, made him a national celebrity and generated the equivalent of millions of dollars in donations annually. Grassi’s image as a crusader for a humanitarian cause made him a subject of national pride and gave him immense public credibility, as he forged close relationships with some of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in Argentinean society. By the late 1990s he had become a priest celebrity who seemed untouchable. However, Grassi’s charitable empire began to collapse in 2002 when a series of investigative reports in the Argentinean media revealed a total of five accusations against him of sexual abuse from former residents of his care facilities, some of which had been on file with the police for two years. The alleged victims said that Grassi had made attempts to sexually seduce them and had performed perverse sexual acts on them. The television program Telenoche Investiga, which first reported the case, reported that Grassi also had been accused of sexual predation against seminarians as vice rector of a seminary in 1997. The country was riveted by the claims and Argentineans were divided over the likelihood of their veracity. As a result of the media investigations, Grassi was soon prosecuted for over a dozen charges of sexual abuse of three of the purported victims. What followed was a 15-year saga in the courts of Argentina, in which Grassi and his team of over twenty high-power attorneys repeatedly attempted to intimidate and discredit Grassi’s accusers. “Gabriel,” the victim whose testimony resulted in Grassi’s conviction, says that the harassment against him and attempts to steal evidence from him became so strong that he had to be enrolled in a witness protection program. His story is corroborated by his psychiatrist and advocate, Enrique Stola, who has stated repeatedly to the press that he himself was threatened and that his house had been entered multiple times by people who had beaten him over his involvement in the case. One of Grassi’s attorneys, Miguel Angel Pierri, was jailed twice after having falsely portrayed himself as a lawyer for one of the purported victims for the purpose of taking the victim to a court and pressuring him to retract his testimony. The “retraction” was later thrown out by the court when the deception was discovered. To this show of force by the powerful Grassi was added the clout of the four-member Executive Committee of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, including Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the conference’s Second Vice President, which sought to portray Grassi’s prosecution as an anti-Catholic conspiracy, a line similar to the one taken by Grassi’s legal team. In a thinly-veiled reference to the Grassi case, the episcopal conference’s executive committee claimed it was “astounded by the persistence of attacks which, in our day, seek to smear the image of the Church.” While admitting that priests are capable of sinning and expressing a desire to reach the truth, the committee added, “It may be that the hidden side of this campaign is the desire for the Church to lose its trust that society places in it, or for it to cease to expound upon the moral and social consequences of its principles.” It was this conspiracy-theory approach to the case that Cardinal Bergoglio would maintain after being elected President of the Argentinean Episcopal Conference in 2005, despite the mounting evidence and repeated convictions of Grassi as the years wore on. continued...
continued from above... Bergoglio’s stealth campaign against Grassi’s victims Bergoglio was not satisfied, however, with vague accusations of ulterior motives behind the prosecution. While it appears that neither Bergoglio nor the Bishop of Morón undertook a canonical investigation of Grassi, and Bergoglio ignored requests by the victims to discuss their accusations with him, the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires began a stealth campaign to discredit the victims with the judges in the case and secure a verdict of innocence. Bergoglio’s effort to prevent the conviction of Grassi went so far as to include the commission of a series of four books devoted to casting doubt on the purported victims’ testimonies and attacking the victims themselves. The books were produced for Bergoglio and the Argentinean Episcopal Conference by the eminent jurist Marcelo Sancinetti. The series was entitled, “Studies on the ‘Grassi case,’” and filled more than 2,600 pages. The books seek to discredit Grassi’s purported victims, openly calling them “false accusers” and even implying that they are projecting their own homosexual desires onto Grassi. Echoing Grassi’s arguments and those of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, they theorize that the prosecution of Grassi has arisen out of a conspiracy against his “Happy Children Foundation” by several media outlets who were seeking to destroy the organization. In an epilogue Sancinetti goes so far as to compare Grassi to the prophet Daniel placed in a den of lions. The books were published in secret and never revealed to the public, and they contained no editorial imprint. However, the final of the four volumes, published in 2013, had the following text on the first page dated July, 2013: “With this [volume], these ‘Studies on the Grassi case’ are concluded, and the labor assigned by the Argentinean Episcopal Conference, in particular by Cardinal Bergoglio, then its president and today His Holiness Francis.” Defenders of the project have claimed that the books were meant only for the bishops of the Argentinean Episcopal Conference, but the evidence indicates that they were meant to influence the judges in the case. The Argentinean news service Infobae reported in 2016 that its sources within the nation’s Supreme Court had confirmed that the books were given to the members of the court. The lawyer of two of Grassi’s accusers, “Luis” and “Ezequiel,” Juan Pablo Gallego, also confirmed the claim in an interview with Infobae. “The books arrived to the judges of the [Supreme] Court, presumably delivered by supposed emissaries of Francis,” Gallego told Infobae. “What is certain is that we determined that they were received by every judge that had to decide on the Grassi case. They weren’t only delivered to the Supreme Court, where they are held, for example, by Ricardo Lorenzetti; they were also delivered to the judges of the provincial appeals court.” “I am certain that the judges of the Supreme Court have these books and that they came to them in the name of the Church,” concluded Gallego. Infobae says that representatives of the Supreme Court denied the claim when asked for comment. The claim that judges were given copies of the book has been confirmed publicly by at least one judge, Carlos Mahiques, who told the French television news magazine Cash Investigation in 2017 that he personally received the books (see program transcript in English here). “You received this counter-inquiry?” asked the Cash Investigation reporter. “Yes, I did,” responded Mahiques. “Did it influence your judgment?” the reporter asked. “Absolutely not,” responded Mahiques. “The study is a bit like a detective novel. I think it’s partial in some areas, and extremely partial in others. It’s clearly in favor of Father Grassi. They were trying to exert a subtle form of pressure on the judges.” Today, Sancinetti refuses to discuss his authorship of the books with the Argentinean press. He repeatedly failed to respond to interview requests from Infobae in 2016, but a colleague told the media outlet, “Doctor [Sancinetti] doesn’t want to give any interview over the topic of Grassi.” Asked for his opinion about the series of books, Grassi’s “main victim” (presumably “Gabriel,” whose testimony led to Grassi’s conviction) told Cash Investigation (see transcript), “I’ll never forget what Father Grassi kept repeating at his trial: ‘Bergoglio never let go off my hand.’ Now, Bergoglio is Pope Francis, but he has never gone against Grassi’s words. So I’m certain that he never did let go of Grassi’s hand!” Infobae reports that Grassi used the same phrase when speaking to that news agency in 2009. “[Bergoglio] never let go of my hand. He is at my side as always,” Grassi reportedly said. continued...
continued from above... Grassi’s victims stonewalled by Bergoglio for over a decade Juan Pablo Gallego also told Infobae that he attempted repeatedly to talk to Bergoglio in 2003, when witnesses were repeatedly threatened and intimidated by attorneys and partisans of Grassi, to ask him to dissuade Grassi and his team from such tactics. However, he never received a response. Ultimately Gallego was received by the then bishop of Morón, Justo Laguna, and Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner, “who received the request favorably.” The psychiatrist Enrique Stola, who treated two of those accusing Grassi of sexual abuse, told a government news agency that the purported victims “Luis” and “Ezequiel” had tried to contact Bergoglio as well, and confirmed that neither of them received a response. His statement is confirmed by the head of Argentina’s Committee for Monitoring the Rights of the Child, Nora Schulman, who told the Argentinean publication Clarin that Francis “never received the victims of Fr. Julio César Grassi.” She added that, following the Supreme Court’s ratification of the sentence against Grassi, she expected the victims to approach the Vatican to request Pope Francis’ intervention and to ask that Grassi be removed from the priesthood. Miriam Lewin, the journalist who originally broke the story on Grassi in 2002, recently told El Pais that she had approached the pope personally to ask him to meet with Grassi’s victims. “In November of 2015, I went to the Vatican and I spoke for some minutes with the Pope to ask him to make a gesture to victims,” Lewin said. “He listened to me and I thought that he would do it, but he never called them. His rhetoric against pedophilia is very tough, but it should be reflected in concrete acts in this case. The victims need reparation, an apology. It is not understood how Grassi can continue to be a priest.” Francis’ Vatican continues to protect Grassi in prison, and continues to ignore victims After a nine-month trial that included over 130 witnesses, Grassi was convicted in 2009 of molesting one of the three children, given the name “Gabriel” in the media. Three different appeals courts upheld Grassi’s conviction, including Argentina’s Supreme Court. He began to serve his fifteen-year sentence in 2013. He has also been convicted for misuse of public funds in the operation of his foundation, adding two more years to his prison time. Investigative journalists revealed in 2015 that Grassi has the enjoyment of his own room in the prison with his own office, private bathroom, cable TV, a 21-inch color television, a computer with internet access, a heater, and a minibar. He is accused of paying for these amenities by diverting whole truckloads of food donations from his “Happy Children Foundation” to prison officials. He is now being prosecuted a third time for such abuses. Despite his repeatedly upheld convictions in Argentina’s secular courts, it appears that Grassi has never been tried in any ecclesiastical court. Moreover, he has never been stripped of his priesthood, although he is prohibited from the public celebration of the sacraments. He continues to wear his collar in prison. As late as August of 2017 he was listed among diocesan clergy, which means that the Diocese of Morón was continuing to extend priestly faculties to him, allowing him to hear confessions and perform other sacraments that would be otherwise invalidated. The current list of diocesan clergy does not include his name. Regarding Grassi’s continuing status as a Catholic priest, the Diocese of Morón has stated publicly that the case is in the hands of the Vatican, that is, in the hands of Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. In March of 2017, following the Supreme Court’s unanimous ratification of the conviction of Grassi, the Diocese of Morón issued a press release revealing that “The Holy See has opportunely ordered a preliminary investigation regarding the accusations about the conduct of this priest,” and that this had resulted in “a report that was sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” and added that the diocese “will act in accordance with the prevailing canonical processes determined by the Holy See.” However, the Holy See has yet to act, leaving Grassi with his priestly faculties intact. According to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, a source close to Pope Francis admits that Francis has given confessions to Grassi but claims Grassi is exaggerating their relationship. The source also claimed that responsibility in the case lies not with Pope Francis but with the Diocese of Morón, contradicting the diocese’s claim that the pope has responsibility. Nonetheless, the same source tried to defend Grassi as the victim of an elaborate conspiracy and raised doubts about Grassi’s guilt. “[Bergoglio] didn’t support Grassi,” a source close to Bergoglio told El Pais. “He didn’t go to visit him in jail, but he didn’t speak [about it] because he wasn’t his bishop, and because there was much doubt about his guilt.” “Behind this scandal [of the Grassi prosecution] there was an economic operation by the rivals of Grassi in important businesses. It wasn’t clear if it was an intelligence operation,” El Pais was told. According to the Vatican’s press secretariat, also speaking to El Pais, Pope Francis isn’t intervening because the case was handled by a secular court. The secretariat also claimed that Francis is in favor of “absolute support” for sex abuse victims. “The response of the Pope is always clear: maximum respect for civil justice, zero tolerance of the guilty and absolute support for the victims,” Francis’ press agency stated. “The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is just now in these days giving the required indications and finishing an examination of the situation for the purpose of adopting a definitive resolution.” The statement was made to El País no later than April of 2017, when the article was published. No decision by Pope Francis or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been announced since that time. In March of the same year, after months of futile attempts to question Pope Francis about the Grassi case, the French journalist Élise Lucet of the television news magazine Cash Investigation confronted Pope Francis in person over his involvement in the Grassi case (see video here; see full documentary in English here). When asked by Lucet if he had attempted to influence the judiciary in the Grassi case, Francis turned to her with a scowl on his face and waved his arms. “Not at all!” he said. After beginning to walk away, he turned back and repeated the statement insistently, “Not at all!” His scowl then became a smile, he waved, and walked away. The Holy See Press Office did not respond to our request for comment by press time. However, LifeSite did receive an accidental response to our email that was meant for some other recipient, and we therefore can confirm that they received our request. *** Argentine Author on Pope Francis: Viganò Is Speaking the Truth [He acts] in accordance with the times and the tastes ... not with the magisterial attitude of a master of truth by ministry. He values doubt and hesitation. Still on Pope Francis' "obsession" with hi... Church Militant · 12h Our Lady of Akita, Japan, and Today’s Crisis On Oct. 13, 1973, the anniversary of Our Lady’s last apparition at Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun, she reportedly appeared to Sister Agnes Sasagawa in a convent in Akita, Japan. Who in 1973 would s... National Catholic Register · 6h
Interesting tidbit...while I was part of the system I saw many things. But what was interesting was priest that had heterosexual relationships usually left the church on their own accord. Seems like the homosexual clergy stayed and were protected. Just a thought
As that saying goes....gag me with a spoon. With all of the examples given in order to once again excoriate the logical thinkers, in the end, if actually practiced, would do nothing to stop the now systematized settings for abuse, even taking place in Vatican housing....and esp. in those "pink palaces" of formation now for decades! One of those "other" examples conveniently left out here is that one about those who harm one of these little ones. And then what about admonishing the sinner as a spiritual work of "mercy"? POPE FRANCIS DOUBLES DOWN ON SATAN ACCUSING THE CHURCH CLAIM, TELLS CHRISTIANS TO ACCUSE THEMSELVES 5:07 PM 09/13/2018 Joshua Gill | Religion Reporter Pope Francis yet again stated that accusatory attitudes were of the Devil, arguing that Christians can respond to wrongdoing only with mercy and forgiveness. The pontiff urged Christian faithful not only to forgive those implicated in scandal, but to accuse themselves. The comments come amid rising furor over sexual abuse and systemic cover-up revelations within the church, as well as accusations against the Pope. Pope Francis doubled down Thursday on his claim that Satan is attacking the church by bringing sexual assault allegations to light and told Christians to accuse themselves. Francis made the remarks in his Thursday homily at Domus Sanctae Marthae, saying that only those with a merciful attitude toward church officials practiced the love of God, while those who sought to accuse clerics of abuse or cover-ups entered “into the logic of the Great Accuser.” The pontiff admonished Christian faithful not to badmouth their enemies, but to love and pray for them instead and thereby follow what he called “the folly of the cross.” (RELATED: Pope Francis Orders Investigation Of West Virginia Bishop Accused Of Sexual Abuse After Accepting His Resignation) “Only the merciful resemble God the father. ‘Be merciful, just as your father is merciful.’ This is the path, the path that goes against the spirit of the world,” Francis said, according to Crux Now. He reflected on the passage from the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus commands his disciples to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Doing so, said Francis, “is the way to live like a Christian,” while those who gossip and operate in “the logic of insults” live “like a pagan with a spirit of worldliness.” “Among us is the great accuser, the one who will always accuse us in front of God to destroy us: Satan. He is the great accuser. And when I enter into this logic of accusing, cursing and looking to do evil to others, I enter into the logic of the ‘Great Accuser’ who is a ‘Destroyer,’ who doesn’t know the word ‘mercy,'” Francis said. The pontiff’s comments about the “Great Accuser” echo a similar message that he delivered Tuesday in which he lambasted those who brought accusations of abuse and cover-ups against church officials as doing the work of Satan. Francis’ comments come amid rising furor over revelations from Pennsylvania’s grand jury report on sexual abuse, allegations of abuse against Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano’s accusations of cover-up against Francis and 32 high-ranking church officials, and a recent discovery of abuse cover-ups in Buffalo, New York. Taken with Francis’ answer of “silence and prayer” toward those concerned about the scandals, his most recent comments seem to imply that he believes the Christian faithful should not be angry over decades of systemic sexual abuse and cover-ups of which the Vatican had knowledge, but should instead forgive them and be silent. Francis also said that forgiveness and mercy are the only responses that a Christian may have toward others, perhaps forgetting instances of righteous anger that both Jesus and Paul the Apostle displayed toward certain religious leaders. While the concept of mercy and forgiveness are in line with church doctrine, so too is the concept of holding religious teachers to higher standards as found in the book of James which reads: “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” Scripture from the Gospel of Matthew also applies, concerning teachers who harm the young or cause new believers “to stumble.” “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea,” reads Matthew 18:6. Similar verses are found in the Gospels of Mark and Luke as well. Also pertinent are verses pertaining to the satisfaction of worldly justice alongside the mercy of God, as is also referenced in the Gospel of Matthew. “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent,” reads Matthews 5:23-26. Nevertheless, Francis admonished the Christian faithful to accuse themselves instead of accusing church leaders implicated in abuse scandals. “Yes, accuse yourself. It will do you good. The only licit accusation that we Christians have is to accuse ourselves. For others, there is only mercy because we are children of the father who is merciful,” Francis said. http://dailycaller.com/2018/09/13/pope-francis-satan-sexual-assault-accuse-yourselves/
I hate to say, the real evil men are... those that protect demonic demons. Those people that prey on innocent children are possessed by demons. Its not only a sin but demonic. They need to be removed from the church and sent to jail. Pope Francis needs to start the cleansing. All he is doing is making it worse. Sad to think he seems to be the accuser that is accusing. Nobody is happy or wants to criticize the church...but if it is infected by evil and demons...then Our Holy Father needs to address the issue and make corrective changes. Nothing he can say at this moment will be taken seriously...until the evil is removed from the church.
Wow, the hits just keep on coming! I personally wonder how these manipulative types of people can keep up with all this hypocrisy and duplicity! I mentioned awhile back that I thought Pope Francis was a narcissist, and I saw someone had recently posted an article discussing psychology and narcissism in this recent scandal as well. I have three family members with narcissistic personalities. They are sooo difficult to be around. Everything must always be focused on them. They never ever, ever, EVER accept blame for anything, even when something is blatantly their fault; they constantly shift blame to others. They are highly critical of those around them. They adeptly control and manipulate others through emotions. Everything I see PF doing is classic narcissism. If the pope does "get cornered" on an issue, I would expect a dramatic scene of great humility, nothing genuine though. It's all about maintaining the image of the persona that a narcissist imagines himself to be; as well as wanting to be the person that society thinks he is. Image is of the utmost importance. I could go on and on, but probably shouldn't. I could be totally wrong in my analysis, but don't think I am. There is no changing the personality of a narcissist. Any change has to come from within, but usually does not because that implies that something is wrong....and narcissists are NEVER WRONG.
My MIL was one God rest her soul. It was exactly as you say and reminds me as well of the current situation. She was a real test of ones virtue. I always had the impression she thought everyone around her was an imbecile. The same impression I have of Pope Francis and men such as Cardinal Cupich.
earthtoangels, I like what Father George W. Rutler stated on the World Over last night about these comments from Pope Francis. This good priest stated that he is astonished by these comments from the pope and that the devil is the prince of lies and if the truth is being exposed it is not the devil's work it is the work of the Holy Spirit. Imo Pope Francis' comments are entirely upsetting especially considering that Mr. Paul Redmond who met with the Pope in Ireland stated: “The pope said the cover-up of abuse in the Vatican was ‘caca’. The translator interpreted it as ‘filth you would see in the toilet’.” So now that accusations of cover up are being made against Pope Francis directly, the pope has changed his thoughts and has stated that those who are guilty of covering up these crimes should only be shown mercy and not the door(?). Personally, I believe that predators should be removed from the Church along with any clergyman who participated in covering up sexual abuse in the Church. The following segment of the World Over is also related to the current crisis in the Church,
A person with no faith might attribute the beliefs of others to being mere superstitions. This might lead him to feel superior to these people whom he might tend to regard as simple and gullible. A person who thought that most of the people under his authority were less intelligent than himself and his cronies might come to think that he could control these lesser intellects by invoking some of the most fearful superstitions that they cling to (as Obama said, along with their guns), such as their fear of the devil. What could frighten them off more than attributing their difficult questions as doing the work of the devil? You know, it's a fear that troubles this simple Catholic. It is cunning strategy.
Argentine Sex Abuse Victim: Pope ‘Opens His Door’ to Celebs Like DiCaprio but Won’t Even Write Us a Note An Argentine woman who says she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a cleric in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires — where Pope Francis once served as the cardinal archbishop — said the pope ignored victims of sexual abuse while welcoming celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio with open arms. “He receives all the celebrities, like Leonardo DiCaprio, and opens his door to them. And for us, not even a quick letter to say he was sorry,” one of the victims told an interviewer with the French news program Cash Investigation in 2017. The woman was one of six individuals who said they suffered sexual abuse at the hands of clergy members in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and had written letters to Pope Francis — who was then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio — when he was head of the archdiocese to inform him of the abuses. However, many of the victims said Bergoglio never responded to their complaints. “I don’t expect anything from him; I don’t believe in him,” another female victim said. “I suffered a lot and I’m very disappointed … Because the Pope did nothing when he was archbishop here. Everyone told me: ‘Write to him, he’s bound to reply.’ But nothing. I suffered, and now I’m very disappointed,” a third female victim said. Even with these reports of sexual abuse in Francis’s diocese, the pope claimed in his 2010 book On Heaven and Earth that instances of sexual abuse by clergy members “never occurred in my diocese” and “in the diocese, it never happened to me.” Around the same time the then-archbishop published his book, he commissioned a study calling victims of sexual abuse “false accusers,” claiming their accusations were just ways of projecting their own sexual desires onto accused priests. As pope, Francis has not changed his views on victims of sexual abuse. The pope doubleddown against those who accuse clergymen of sexual abuse during a homily Thursday morning, saying that those who accuse bishops of sexual abuse are like Satan, “the Great Accuser.” https://www.breitbart.com/big-holly...-pope-opens-door-dicaprio-wont-write-us-note/
The various reports never seem to end: Pope Francis Commissioned Report to Attack Sex Abuse Victims While Archbishop of Buenos Aires https://www.breitbart.com/national-...use-victims-while-archbishop-of-buenos-aires/ ...... The volumes described the victims as “false accusers” and claimed their accusations were just ways of projecting their own sexual desires on Grassi, who was convicted of sexually abusing a boy at his Happy Children Foundation — an organization dedicated to rescuing homeless children — and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Grassi was a national celebrity who established relationships with wealthy and powerful figures in Argentine society, while his victims were poor, teenage residents of his homeless shelters under the Happy Children Foundation (Fundación Felices los Niños) — which generated millions of dollars in donations each year. Juan Pablo Gallego, who represented Grassi’s teen victims, told the local Spanish-language media outlet Infobae that as archbishop and head of the Argentinian Episcopal Conference, Francis commissioned the series titled “Studies on the Grassi Case” to reportedly influence judges on Argentina’s Supreme Court to maintain Grassi’s innocence. MORE.....
http://lasalettejourney.blogspot.com/2018/09/vatican-reeling-from-300-page-dossier.html "The Vatican is reeling from news that the 300-page dossier containing names of members of the gay lobby — a dossier some believe led to Pope Benedict's resignation in 2013 — has been leaked to the media. Il Fatto Quotidiano, an Italian journal read by Vatican officials, is confirming it has seen the 300-page dossier. 'The report contains a detailed and disturbing picture of the moral and material corruption of the clergy, with names, surnames and circumstances..'" Presumably this is the dossier passed to Francis by Benedict and about which nothing has since been heard. If true, this should be a further, and hopefully fatal, indictment of this papacy arising from Francis' unwillingness to hurt his deviant supporters. He was, almost certainly, the papal choice of those named in the report. The fox put in charge of the henhouse and of the other foxes attacking it. It is amusing to hear that Cardinal Wuerl, who is having to be dragged kicking and screaming from his post, is saying that others like him who 'made mistakes' ought to consider resignation. While I agree with him, I would guess that his intention is to not 'go down alone'. I think (hope) that this may be an implied threat to those he is leaving behind in their cushy posts and luxury condo's.
