Imagine back in the iregn ,say of Pope Benedict or Pope John Paul someone like this had expressed such views, people would have been astonished. Now its par for the course. How times have changed.
That is how it all began after Pentecost. " if you build it they will come" Real holiness and joy are irresistible. Courage in the face of persecution has great power to touch the heart. The unfettered Holy Spirit will be something to behold. Small and holy is a good start.
Dolours, There is a retired bishop down in Texas (can't remember his name right now). He stated that the rules set up by Pope St. John Paul II for future conclaves had been violated by the St. Gallen Group and that those violations carry with them a penalty of excommunication which would invalidate the 2013 Conclave. I believe it might be this very thread that carried such a post! I'll try to find it. Safe in the Refuge of the Immaculate Heart!
Yes, it's Bishop Gracida. Retired and in his 90's, Bishop Gracida is the only one with the courage to speak out - perhaps because he knows that it would be bad press if the axe of mercy were used on him. I suppose they dismiss him as an eccentric old man. The trouble is that the St. Gallen group claim that they disbanded after the election of Pope Benedict. "Disbanded" meaning that they didn't hold their meetings in Switzerland, but that doesn't mean they didn't continue their efforts to undermine the valid Pope and install Francis in the papacy. It was clear from Cardinal McCarrick's speech at Villanova University that they had done their sums and knew exactly how many like minded Bishops they needed putting in place to make over the Church. If they incurred automatic excommunication, when and by whom was the excommunication lifted? Best to pray for them all. Pray for God's will to be done and for us to have the grace to recognise that it is the will of God.
I agree with Voris about Mahoney. I don't care what he said at the meeting that sounded nice, he's a complete wolf in sheeps clothing. He was my local cardinal (Los Angeles) and always a complete joke as a cardinal. I don't trust him or anything he says. He's a full fledged member of the gay agenda
DM, It's very sad. I also noticed that Taylor Marshall said that he considers Cardinal Mahony to be criminal in that video of his that is posted on this thread about the USCCB meeting. I really like the database that LifeSite news has started on US Bishops which lets us know how they stand on some very serious issues like homosexuality. I looked for Cardinal Mahony on this list but he was not included I think possibly because he is retired. I feel that if retired bishops can still speak at the USCCB meetings than LifeSite should consider adding them to their database too - https://faithfulshepherds.com/. In addition, if a list like this is the aim of the Red Hat Report movement I am all for it. Of course, it would be up to the other cardinals if they want to consider such a database to get to know each other better before there is a conclave but I don't believe that it would violate the conclave rules. *** Pope Francis meets with cardinals during the weekly general audience on Nov. 14, 2018, at St. Peter's square in the Vatican. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images) The Pope Owns This This is no time to be dismissive. This is a time to work together for reform and a new springtime of faith in the Church and in the world. Msgr. Charles Pope | Nov. 16, 2018 | http://www.ncregister.com/blog/msgr-pope/the-pope-owns-this The annual Fall Meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which took place in Baltimore earlier this week, was a disappointment on many levels. Yet there were also moments of light and strength coming from a good number of bishops. They spoke with clarity, acknowledging the seriousness of the crisis both in terms of the need to bring some semblance of justice to the victims and of the faltering credibility of the Church. Some even made the forbidden connection of the crisis to active homosexuals in the priesthood. Still others lamented the collective silence on sexual morality, wondering how many bishops and clergy do not believe what the Church teaches. (The interventions of these courageous bishops were reported in detail in the National Catholic Register here and here.) Lamentably, the vote to encourage the Holy See to release all documents related to former Cardinal McCarrick’s alleged misconduct did not pass. The debate seemed to center on canonical issues and even wordsmithing. Nonetheless, the fact that more than 80 bishops were willing to issue even a mild-mannered insistence to Rome shows that many are finding a voice that is willing to confront when and where necessary. The greatest disappointment was Pope Francis’ decision to suppress any vote or action on the abuse scandals by the U.S. bishops. Some bishops remarked that this decision indicates that Rome is serious about reform—a gratuitous claim. To many if not most of the faithful from whom I regularly hear, this seems yet another sad example of intransigence from Rome and the Pope. There is an almost complete tone-deafness in Rome; there seems to be bewilderment as to why these American “conservatives” are so worked up. Even worse, it appears that there is intentional resistance, obfuscation, and outright refusal to grant the legitimate requests of God’s faithful for a full and prompt investigation. These requests by the faithful are intended to ensure that tolerance of sin, violations of chastity, and clerical malfeasance will end. Victims deserve a prompt and thorough investigation and the faithful are right to insist that their clergy live up to the vows they take and observe the Sixth Commandment. To most Catholics, the Pope’s actions and seeming resistance place the ownership of the scandal squarely in his court; he has increasingly become the face of the scandal. This is due to the credible accusations that he knew of former Cardinal McCarrick’s predatory behavior but even more so to the fact that he has steadfastly refused even to respond to the charges. He could deny them, but he does not. Even if he were to say, “I made a serious error in judgment and I ask the mercy and forgiveness of God’s people,” many people would do so, even if with sadness. Instead, the Pope has declared that he will “not say one word on this.” Even worse, he subsequently referred to those who have asked for answers and investigations as “a pack of wild dogs,” “scandal-mongers,” and “those in league with the Great Accuser.” This is no way to treat God’s faithful; it makes him seem more of a besieged and angry potentate than a shepherd who “has the smell of the sheep.” There is a lot of talk about mercy and accompaniment, but the Pope’s actions, including the recent suppression of the USCCB’s planned vote and actions on the sexual abuse crisis, demonstrate that such terms will be very selectively applied. Indeed, the response of the Pope to the situation in the U.S. seems eerily familiar to his treatment of the people of Chile: Pope Francis deeply offended abuse survivors by defending Chilean Bishop Juan Barros from what he called the “calumny” and “gossip” of victims of clerical sexual abuse, stubbornly backing his appointment as bishop despite widespread advice to remove it. He even called the Chileans who protested Barros’ appointment “dumb.” So detrimental was this stubbornness, dismissiveness, and unkindness to basic credibility that even some of Pope Francis’ closest associates, including Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, distanced themselves from him. Only when his hand was forced by strong protests and by actions of the Chilean government did Pope Francis alter his stance and finally remove Barros, later issuing an apology. Americans, both clergy and lay, may well have to learn that it could take strong protest to move this pope to reconsider his seemingly dismissive stance regarding our concerns. While there were some early promises of an investigation and a canonical trial of Archbishop McCarrick, nothing seems to have materialized, and the Pope’s suppression of the planned votes and actions of the USCCB seems to indicate that it he does not consider it a high priority. It also does not help that many of Pope Francis’ closest advisors are themselves caught up in this worldwide scandal and have at best exhibited poor judgment. For example, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga (from Honduras) is seen as highly connected to homosexual and financial improprieties there; more than forty seminarians in his diocese published a letter asking him to root out the homosexual network in his seminary. Cardinal Rodríguez is Pope Francis’ chief advisor, the head of his “Council of Nine,” which works closely with him in bringing about reform in Rome. continued...
continued from above... Yet another associate of Francis’ in the “Council of Nine,” Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, has stepped down to face legal charges of covering up for abusive priests. My point here is not to recount every detail but rather to point out that Pope Francis, who was himself tasked by the last conclave with rooting out abuse and corruption, has tended to surround himself with men who are at the very heart of the scandals rocking the Church throughout the world. His credibility as a reformer who will root out scandal and insist upon accountability is nearly nonexistent; the scandal in the United States has landed firmly on his desk as a result of his own behavior. He has said to American Catholics and to our bishops, in effect, “Let me and the Holy See handle this.” I am not confident that we will see anything close to a full inquiry or a clear adjudication of this matter in Rome. Too many there are implicated and compromised to be able to carry out a clear and forceful investigation. The testimonies of Archbishop Viganò have substantially withstood scrutiny: former Cardinal McCarrick’s misdeeds were known and ignored despite previous sanctions. However, there just seems to be little importance attached to any of this in Rome. I cannot say strongly enough how uncomfortable it makes me to be detailing all this. Every faithful Catholic—and certainly every priest—has an instinct to support the Pope and our bishops, but this worldwide scandal has forced many of us to speak out. Just like the people of Chile, we are going to have to speak even more forcefully and persistently, focusing much of our attention now on Rome and the Pope. It will feel awkward, and we must be careful in what we say and how we say it, in what we insist upon and how we go about it. I pray that the bishops who spoke out so courageously at the USCCB meeting will continue to do so and will also direct clear and forceful appeals to Rome and to the Holy Father. Demands for a full and credible investigation and a canonical trial of former Cardinal McCarrick are not out of place or unreasonable. Bishops are not acolytes of the Pope and their dioceses are not mere franchises of the Diocese of Rome. I pray that they will raise their rightful voices as shepherds seeking to protect their flock. May they have the courage to insist, not just request, actions that they deem necessary for the protection of God’s faithful and for a restoration of credibility. Restoration will take time, but God’s faithful deserve to see their bishops fighting for them and will respond well when they do. My intent here is not to bait the bishops; each must prudently consider how best to respond to this crisis. It is clear, however, that they are going to have to show a strong resolve to move Roman officials and the Pope toward the kind of actions the faithful deserve. As for God’s faithful, pray for your bishop. If he has spoken well and strongly, encourage and support him. If he has been silent, challenge him with love. Find your own voice, too. It may feel awkward to speak forcefully and with concern toward the Holy Father, but it seems that this will be necessary. By his own actions, he has become the face of this crisis, indicating that he wants to be the one to handle it. Our focus, prayers, and insistence must now be directed toward him. Practically speaking, I would advise you to write to the Papal Nuncio in Washington D.C., Archbishop Christophe Pierre. Keep your letter brief, but be clear in stating your concerns and in insisting on the actions that the Holy See must take to begin restoring credibility; ask the good archbishop to forward your concerns to the Holy Father. Finally, there are some in Rome and even among our own bishops and priests in the U.S. who still see this crisis as a mere tempest in a teapot, largely stirred up by “right-wing” bloggers and Catholics who simply “don’t like” Pope Francis. I know of no one from any sector of the Church who is not heartbroken about this, while also angry and insistent upon reform. This is not a storm created in the “blogosphere.” Every day I am approached by parishioners and contacted by people from all over: young adults in our Bible study and pre-Cana programs, older Catholics in our Sodality and Knights of Columbus, catechists, staff members, long-time Catholics, recent converts, attendees at Sunday Mass, daily communicants, and those frequenting Eucharistic Adoration. They are all concerned; they are on the receiving end of questions themselves from family and friends: “What’s wrong with your Church?” They are dismayed; they are deeply concerned for the Church they still love. These are the people still in our pews, who did not leave during the cultural downslide and have supported the Church through thick and thin. These are the people who look to us. No clergyman should demonize them; they have been too good to us for us to write them off as some fringe element. They are good Catholics and are looking to us for clear teaching, for some return of the love and loyalty they have shown us through the most difficult decades of the cultural and sexual revolutions. They have been exceedingly patient with us. This is no time to be dismissive; this is a time to listen and work together with God’s good people for reform and a new springtime of faith in the Church and in the world. Somebody say, “Amen!”
You know on my more postive note that good thing about thie abuse crisis is this. People before were toally blind to the ambiguity of heresy Pope Francis was promoting. It was if they just could not see it. But the abuse thing has woken them up; of not they would still be dozing. Heresy is a million times more dangeorus that abuse. So for those who love God all tings do indeed work unto the good.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/11/18/to-understand-the-crisis/print To Understand the Crisis Sunday, November 18, 2018 @ 12:00 am - The Catholic Thing -https://www.thecatholicthing.org - Carlos Caso-Rosendi Sunday, November 18, 2018 Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers of the world take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” — Psalm 2:1-2. Psalm 2 seems written for our times. Since the beginning of Modernism, the world has been fiercely waging a war on both the natural and moral boundaries limiting the human condition. Absolute freedom is the ultimate aim of any form of Liberalism. The psalmist focuses on the vanity of that war by equating it to a war against God and his anointed. John 1:1-17 identifies that anointed as the Logos incarnated in Christ, the very light of existence, the unstoppable force that moves creation to its final destiny. Revelation 1:8 shows Christ as the ultimate limit, the beginning and the end: “I am the Alpha and the Omega. . . .the One who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Thus those ideas of “liberation” are exposed as the ultimate folly: the imperfect unity of mankind – Babel’s flimsy mud bricks joined by bitumen – trying to overflow the bounds imposed on them by the perfect, indestructible unity of the Holy Trinity. The rulers of the world plan to saw off the branch they’re sitting on. God finds their efforts laughable and decides to install a just king in their place, thus bringing an end to human pretention to self-rule. The Psalm describes an impulse that has been part of the human condition since the fall of mankind. The desire to make the devil’s lie come true – “to be like God, knowing good and evil” – coincides with the foolish ambition of the kings of this world to acquire absolute freedom, anomía, a desire that is by definition impossible to fulfill. St. John explains anomía (ἀνομία) as a characteristic of the Antichrist. From the Church’s beginnings, anomía was understood as the negation of the divine sonship of Christ and the paternity of God the Father. Jesus experienced that rejection, defining it as the non-acceptance of the love of the Father and the Son, a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. (Mk. 3:28-29) All the apostolic communities experience that rejection, because it is present and operates within them. St. John and St. Paul prophesied the influence of that spirit would peak at the end of times. * The crisis currently affecting the Church is nothing more than another symptom, if not the final manifestation, of that evil spirit that wants to subordinate natural and moral limits to the will of man. Because the Church militant is made of human beings living in the world, contamination is always possible. Jesus warned his disciples about “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” who haughtily demanded a special sign from Jesus that would confirm him as the Messiah. In Matthew 16, that passage comes just before the establishment of the papacy. Matthew 16:13-23 is a prophetic model of the history of the papacy. Jesus confirms that the Father has moved Peter to confess that the Messiah is the Son of God. In that moment, the Holy Trinity and Peter agree perfectly. The sign manifesting the unity of Heaven and Earth is the recognition of Jesus’ divine sonship. That is not the public sign that the enemies of Jesus were requesting but a secret sign reserved for the militant Church founded upon Peter, the Rock. From that moment on, the mission of Simon Peter will be to “tie and untie” not the nets he was repairing that day when Jesus met him, but the divine net that will bring men into the Church for salvation. There is a hidden allegory here. Fishing nets are basically meant to limit the movement of fish. The new calling of Peter is similar to his old profession; his tying and untying will concern the living law of the Church until Christ returns in glory. Up to that point, the parable develops quite predictably but that comes to an abrupt end when Jesus predicts his suffering and death. At that point, Peter rebukes the Lord. The fisherman can’t understand the Cross. He has allowed the leaven of human ideas to pollute his thoughts. He wants Jesus to be the Messiah that the Pharisees and Sadducees were expecting. He can’t see that way of understanding as opposed to the will of God. This can be read as a compact prophecy encapsulating the history of the papacy. It begins with a perfect alignment with the will of God. But Peter’s destiny is to struggle with the spirit of anomía until Christ returns. Perhaps at a certain point, the “thoughts of men” will dominate the mind of a Pontiff and Peter’s barque will have to face a cosmic storm when the Church tries to align itself with the powers of the kings of this world. St. John may help us understand why the agents of chaos have to be revealed in the Church: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” (1 John 2:19) This crisis is necessary for the purification of the Church. God is allowing that evil spirit to come to the surface. This is both the prelude of a storm that will bring the Church very close to the point of sinking, and also the sign that a great era of the Church will dawn after the storm has passed. Our orders are to stay on board and trust. Evil shall not prevail. *Image: Shipwreck of St. Paul in Malta by Nicolò Circignani (known also as Pomarancio), c. 1580 [Meridian Hall, Archivum Secretum Vaticanum]
In a very strange way I think we are blessed with all that is going on now. Not in the sin that abounds, but that God is so Merciful as to let the men perpetrating and enabling it to be so bold as to do it right out in the open. I think if there were men in power who were much more sly and covert in their actions they would be able to push ahead a large part of their agenda while the laity still remained unaware that what is going on is so evil.
One world sees that now's the time to go for the jugular! The Vatican owes Rome some 5 billion euros? The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ordered Italy to recover the ICI property tax that the Catholic Church never paid to the Italian government. The European judges have decided to rule out a 2012 decision of the European Commission and a 2016 judgment of the EU Court which allowed Rome to exempt the Vatican from paying taxes on its real estate. The previous verdicts stated “the impossibility of recovering the aid due to organizational difficulties,” but now the judges in Luxembourg have revised their position, asserting that it is a matter of mere “internal difficulties” in Italy and that there is no reasons for that money not to be paid. The Italian Executive must reclaim an amount of roughly 5 billion euros, which corresponds to the arrears that the Church should have paid in between 2006 and 2011. The ICI have been in place from 1992 to 2012, when the Mario Monti administration determined to replace it with IMU, a tax that combines the one on real estate and the IRPEF, an income tax. For many years, the ICI was not applied to the Church’s properties, as part of the practice to exonerate places of worship from taxation. However many religious buildings on the Italian soil are rather meant for other kind of activities, like accommodation services and leisure. In 2012, Monti’s government decided that duty exemptions were to be applied only to worship places, but every other estate belonging to the Church with commercial aims must be subject to taxation. https://spiritdaily.org/blog/news/the-five-billion-euros-the-vatican-owes-rome
Perfect leader to give the EU all it wants....timing! Pope denounces ‘din of rich few’ on World Day of Poor (and yet he seems to absolve Hollywood....not only the rich there but its immoral influence on whole cultures) Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis railed against social inequality Sunday, lamenting “the din of the rich few” drowning out the voice of the needy, as he marked the second “World Day of the Poor”. At a mass attended by about 6,000 poor people at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the pope noted that “injustice is the perverse root of poverty”. ...... “Let us ask for the grace to hear the cry of all those tossed by the waves of life,” the pope said. “It is the cry of all those forced (?) to flee their homes and native land for an uncertain future. It is the cry of entire peoples, deprived even of the great natural resources at their disposal… while the wealthy few feast on what, in justice, belongs to all.” The pope then had a lunch of lasagna, mashed potatoes and tiramisu with the poor in the immense Paul VI Hall, which adjoins the Vatican Basilica and usually hosts papal audiences and conferences. (btw, not good menu for the sick poor!) ..... The pope has often spoken about social inclusion, indirectly criticising governments that do not pay attention to those on the margins of society. (not quite as easy as he makes it seem......Jimmy Carter wished to help the mentally ill poor by getting them out of supervised institutional care.....didn't go too well as we have seen all these years....w/more living on the streets and w/o complying with necessary medication. And just try to force anyone into a law and order culture that would benefit the whole.....history shows such forced ideals or utopias end up with dictators such as in Venezuela and all other Communism.....each person to the state's benefit.....w/o free will decisions)
I don;t think either it is an accident that this battle is being played out in the USA. Nor was it an accident that Pope St John Paul choose the USA to speak of a huge Spiritual War on his visit there. At this time I belive if the USA falls to these fiends the whole world will fall. Eventually Prophecy indicates it will be Russia that will save us; when she converts along with France and the Great Monarch, but the Great Bear has not awoken yet. At the moment the USA is the only Light on the Horizon out there. Things might appear very, very grim to Americnas but it is a heck of a lot better than elsewhere. The devil appears to be holding all the cards at the moment. Sometmes I wish great American saints like FIlton Sheen , Mother Angelica and Fr Solanus Casey were still alive. But this is pure foolishness for God has given us even greater saints todays. Look at Cardinal Burke for one. I know Padre Pio had a huge love for America and my own spiritual eyes and prayers are very much fixed on her at the moment. God Bless America!
Yet, if Teresa Neumann's prophecy comes to fruition, which it seems to be in progress with massive fires now, America will collapse via natural disasters.
Well, Pope Francis will need to take care of his own house before he worries about others who have used their riches wrongly. https://spiritdaily.org/blog/news/the-five-billion-euros-the-vatican-owes-rome The Five Billion Euros The Vatican Owes Rome
Yes America seems to be kind of dissapeared in Prophecy. Something really HUGE is coming down the line to her. I don't beleive it is just netural disaters. She is about to be hit, so to speak by everything including the kitchen sink.
When asked by an American GI if the United States would ever be destroyed or invaded in a war, her answer was: "No, but at the end of this century America will be destroyed economically by a series of NATURAL DISASTERS."
