FBI Helps Italian Authorities Thwart ISIS Terror Bombing Plot Targeting Vatican Italian police authorities today acknowledged the role of the FBI in helping stop an ISIS plot to attack the Vatican and other Christian places of worship after the arrest of a Somali national affiliated with ISIS last week. Last Thursday, 20-year-old Mohsin Ibrahim Omar, also known as Anas Khalil, was arrested in the Aegean Sea port city of Bari. The operation involved multiple Italian and international law enforcement agencies, including the FBI: According to the Italian daily Repubblica, in at least one of Omar's intercepted communications he referenced putting bombs in churches throughout Italy and specifically indicated St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican -- the largest church in Rome and the seat of the Roman Catholic papacy. "The 25th is Christmas...the churches are full. Let's put bombs in all the churches in Italy," he reportedly told an associate. Pictures of the Vatican were discovered on his phone. Omar, a member of the Islamic State affiliate in Somalia, was in direct contact with an operational cell and was under constant surveillance. Italian police moved to arrest Omar because he said he had been planning to leave the country immediately, and in his communications he indicated active plans to target upcoming Christmas festivities and churches, specifically places where Christians gathered. Omar praised last Tuesday's terror attack in Strasbourg, France, that killed five people at the city's historic Christmas market that dates back to 1570. "The one who kills Christians and the enemies of Allah is our brother..." Omar reportedly said in reference to the Strasbourg attack. He also praised martyrdom, saying, "When one is killed in the way of Allah, the glory is with him, and he is not dead." In recent years, Bari has become a transit hub for international terror groups. In July 2017, a 38-year-old Chechen man who was part of the "Emirate of the Caucuses" was arrested in Bari as he was supervising the transit of Chechen ISIS fighters transiting to Europe. The man was found to have connections to terror cells in Belgium. Three Afghan men were arrested in Bari in May 2017 who were part of an ISIS "advance" team plotting targets for terror attacks in Italy, France, Belgium, and the UK. Photos and videos of the Roman Coliseum, London hotels, and other sites in western Europe were found on their phones. Around the same time, Italian police busted a Somali human and money trafficking ring that was tied to Islamic terror groups. A dozen Somalis were arrested as part of the ring. They frequented Al-Shabaab websites, and helped move migrants into Europe by providing them with false documents and by operating illegal "hawala" money transfer networks. The ring was discovered after one of the members was found to be in contact with a previously arrested Somali man, who had trafficked two Islamic State foreign fighters into Italy through Malta. Also, one of the terrorists who attacked a Paris concert venue in November 2015, killing 90 people, had been found to have traveled on a ferry from Greece to Bari in the months before the terror attack -- one of the deadliest in modern European history. https://pjmedia.com/homeland-securi...t-isis-terror-bombing-plot-targeting-vatican/
Current trends in the US lead me to think that she might do a 'Venezuela'. In other words, become a dysfunctional (there is no other kind) socialist state.
THE GREAT BETRAYAL China's pre-Christmas church crackdown raises alarm http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-46588650
Given the multiple hostile comments about faithful Catholics since his election, this might well be the desired outcome of Pope Francis. He might anticipate a victory for the liberal tendency. As we know, it doesn't work that way.
Praetorian, Thank you for posting this video. May God bless Cardinal Raymond Burke and keep him safe. On December 12th for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I watched a video on EWTN called "Guadalupe: The Miracle and the Message". It was very good but unfortunately I could not find it online to post it on MOG. The reason why I bring it up here is because Cardinal Burke was included in the video since he founded a shrine for Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin. https://www.guadalupeshrine.org/about/founder Upon searching for the video I found the following article about the 1oth anniversary of the this shrine along with Cardinal Burke's recent homily given in English and Spanish there this past December 12th. I think that this homily may be helpful to many here, he suggests that we remain hopeful. Cardinal Burke celebrates 10-year anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine Aug 21, 2018 https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/c...ear-anniversary-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe-shri ... “When pilgrims leave this House of God,” he said, “they read the words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego, when he was suffering greatly in carrying out his mission: 'Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.'”... [emphasis added] The Homily of Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke 12/12/2018 Praised be Jesus Christ! Celebrating the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe in this church dedicated to Our Lord and His Virgin Mother, under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, during the tenth-anniversary year of its dedication, we continue to give thanks to almighty God. We thank Our Lord for the abundance of His grace poured forth into many souls who, under the maternal counsel of Our Lady, have entered this church to worship Him, to seek His forgiveness and to be united to Him through the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The beauty of the Shrine Church is a small reflection of the infinite beauty of the great mystery of our eternal salvation, the great mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation by which the Virgin Mary became the Mother of God. The Gospel account today, so familiar to us and yet always so new in the wonderful truth it recounts, reminds us that the Virgin Mary, “full of grace,”1 that is, privileged to share, in anticipation, in the grace of eternal life won for us by her Divine Son’s Coming into the World, and by His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension, is indeed the Mother of God. The Archangel Gabriel declared her vocation and mission with these words: Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.2 Truly, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the chosen instrument through whom God the Son became incarnate, in order to save us from our sins, to save us for eternal life. She is the “woman clothed with the sun,” who “was with child,” and who “gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.”3 As we witness, in our time, so much confusion and error regarding God and His plan for our eternal salvation, and also open rebellion against the Law of God written upon every human heart, Our Lady of Guadalupe bids us to come to her, so that she may lead us to her Divine Son, the only source of our salvation. The situation is grave, even as it was at the time of her apparitions in 1531, but we must never give up hope, we must never turn away from the maternal gaze of the Mother of God Who draws us to her Divine Son alive for us in the Church, above all, in the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist. The Virgin Mother of God expressed her Divine Maternity to Saint Juan Diego with concrete images to underline its reality in his life: Am I not here, I who have the honor to be your mother? Are you not in my shadow and under my protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?4 Her words, as also her apparitions, show us the way in which she, the Blessed Virgin Mary, gloriously assumed into Heaven, constantly intercedes for us, especially when we are doubtful or fearful. Fittingly, as we leave this church, we read these words inscribed at the base of the choir loft. During the course of the apparitions, Saint Juan Diego suffered severe doubts about whether he could do all that God was asking of him. On December 9th, when he spoke with the Mother of God after his first visit with the Bishop, he asked the Virgin to choose a different messenger, a more important and imposing person to carry out her wishes.5 Then, when his uncle, Juan Bernardino, was dying, his worry about his uncle led him to forego an important appointment with Our Lady on December 11th, the appointment during which she was to give him the sign for Bishop Juan de Zumárraga.6 It is not the same, at times, with us? We doubt that we have the strength to do God’s will, or the challenge of sorrow and suffering in our lives leads us to think that we cannot both deal with our sufferings and remain faithful to what God asks of us, especially our prayer and worship. At times, too, the evil in the world and sadly even in the Church seems so great, that we despair about the grace which overcomes all evil, if we only remain faithful. In moments of doubt and fear, Our Lady of Guadalupe leads us to the true dwelling of God in our midst, announced through the Prophet Zechariah: See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord. Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they shall be his people, and he will dwell among you, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you… Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the Lord! For he stirs forth from his holy dwelling.7 God has indeed come to dwell among us always in His holy Church, in which His only-begotten Son, Our Lord, works to draw all men to Himself, so that they may live in justice and peace, serving God and their neighbor, and may reach their eternal home in Heaven. Doubt and fear, if they are not corrected with the truth of the Gospel and dispelled through the grace to live that truth courageously, lead us to accept defeat, to accept what is truly sinful or, at least, to remain silent before great evil, when we should be combating it. As our hearts are filled with gratitude to celebrate the feast day of Our Lady in this church in which we venerate her with total love and, with her, offer worship to Our Lord, let us pray, through her intercession, that we may always recognize Christ alive within us through the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit and may likewise cooperate fully with His grace in doing all that we can for the love of God and our neighbor. Before the Final Blessing, we will have the investiture of Knights and Pages in Our Lady’s Knights of the Altar, the boys and young men who serve Our Lord during the Sacred Liturgy in this church. Let us pray, invoking the help of Our Lady and Saint Juan Diego, that those who today will become Pages, the last step before Knighthood, persevere in their preparation to become fully Our Lady’s Knights of the Altar, and that those who today will become Knights grow ever stronger in the excellence of their service at the altar and of their witness to Christ in their daily living. May the holiness of their service here be reflected in everything that they think and say and do. Let us now lift up our grateful, if also fearful and doubtful, hearts to the glorious Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, open to receive us. Giving our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we will be purified of our doubts and fears, and we will be fortified with the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit to give clear and courageous witness to Christ in the world. Heart of Jesus, of Whose fullness we have all received, have mercy on us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us. Saint Joseph, Protector of holy Church, pray for us. Saint Juan Diego, pray for us. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. https://www.guadalupeshrine.org/wp-...OLG-Patronal-Feast-ENGLISH-2018December12.pdf (Please click this link to view the footnotes.) https://www.guadalupeshrine.org/about/founder/homilies (Please click this link for the homily in Spanish.)
Christians 'Standing in the Way' of China's Xi Jinping's Totalitarian Rule It was 40 years ago this week that China opened its doors to the world and launched a series of ambitious reforms that would create one of the world's largest economic engines. "China is now the world's second largest economy, the biggest manufacturer, top trader of goods, and the second largest consumer of goods and recipient of foreign investment," Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a speech in Beijing celebrating the 40th anniversary of the landmark reforms. "December 18, 1978, was an important day to be remembered in the history of the Chinese nation," Xi added, saying that it marked the "start of a great journey of reform, opening-up and socialist modernization." But unlike Deng Xiaoping, who helped launch the country's reforms 40 years ago and wanted to reduce the power and influence of the Communist Party over civil society, China's current leader believes in the absolute power of the Party and wants his government to exert control over every aspect of Chinese life. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has severely cracked down on human rights, religious freedom and freedom of expression. Christians are experiencing some of the worst persecution in decades. "Under President Xi, the government has further tightened control over Christianity in its broad efforts to "Sinicize" religion or "adopt Chinese characteristics," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "In other words, to ensure that religious groups support the government and the Communist Party." Christians are not alone. Muslims, Buddhists and other faith groups are also coming under intense scrutiny. "The Chinese government has also ratcheted up restrictions over Buddhism in Tibetan areas and imposed unprecedented control over religious practices in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang," Human Rights Watch added. The recent arrest of a prominent church pastor underscores the level of persecution against Christians. On December 9, authorities in the city of Chengdu, in China's southwestern Sichuan province, arrested pastor Wang Yi, along with his wife and 100 members of Early Rain Covenant Church. Authorities shut down the church and charged pastor Wang with "inciting subversion of state power." Ian Johnson, who has written extensively on Christianity in China and knows pastor Wang personally, said, "One can only hope and pray that he will come out of jail or that the sentence will be light, but given the current climate I'm not so sure." Johnson, writing for the New York Times, said the charge against Mr. Wang and his wife, Jiang Rong, "was far more severe than what other leaders face" and that the term "subversion of state power" is "a catchall charge often used against dissidents and political activists who speak out against the government." Wang and his wife could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. This past Sunday morning, members of Early Rain Covenant Church were blocked from entering their worship building. With their leaders detained and facing jail, churchgoers decided to pray and worship outside. Early Rain, like scores of other congregations, is outside government control as part of China's burgeoning so-called underground or house church movement. Appearing on CBN News' WorldBeat, Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs, says this movement has touched every corner of China. "And that's the exciting thing, all across China, there are house churches, there are what they call 'family churches' and the reason the Communist government is so worried is because there are far more Christians in China than there are members of the Communist Party," Nettleton told CBN News. In recent months, Beijing has waged a brutal and widespread crackdown to stop the growth of these unregistered churches. "This crackdown I think is a direct response to the fear of the Communist Party leaders who see the church growing way faster than the party is," Nettleton said. Fenggang Wang, a leading expert on religion in China, says what started several years ago as a small government campaign against unregistered churches has turned into all-out war. "The campaign was first experimented in Zhejiang province from 2014 to 2016," Wang told CBN News. "Now, it has become a nationwide campaign." Now authorities routinely target houses of worship, destroy crosses, burn Bibles and arrest pastors. Mr. Fengang, who once predicted that China could become the world's largest Christian nation, says the government, headed by Xi Jinping, views Christianity as a threat to the party's long-term political aspirations. "Christians are the remaining NGO's (non-governmental organization) in the shrinking civil society in China," Wang warned. "Under Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, they are really trying to establish a totalitarian rule of Chinese society and the Christians are standing in the way of totalitarianism, so that's why they've become a target." Pictures shared on Early Rain's Facebook page claim to show that police physically abused some of those arrested after they were taken into custody. Foreseeing his possible arrest, pastor Wang wrote a letter titled "My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience" with instructions that it should be published if he went missing for more than 48 hours. In it, Wang vowed to use non-violent methods to stand against Chinese laws he believed were against the Bible and God. "My saviour Christ also requires me to joyfully bear all costs for disobeying wicked laws," Wang wrote. "I am filled with anger and disgust at the persecution of the church by this Communist regime, at the wickedness of their depriving people of the freedoms of religion and of conscience," he added. Wang is boldly pushing back against the government's harsh treatment of Christians. "As a pastor of a Christian church, I must denounce this wickedness openly and severely," Wang wrote. "The calling that I have received requires me to use non-violent methods to disobey those human laws that disobey the Bible and God." "Separate me from my wife and children, ruin my reputation, destroy my life and my family – the authorities are capable of doing all of these things," Wang warned. "However, no one in this world can force me to renounce my faith; no one can make me change my life, and no one can raise me from the dead." Wang is no stranger to authorities. He was once one of China most prominent civil rights lawyers and intellectuals. In 2005, he had an encounter with Jesus Christ and decided to convert to Christianity. In his book, The Souls of China, author Ian Johnson features pastor Wang prominently. "He was also one of the most gifted and intelligent pastors I had ever come across," Johnson wrote on his website. "Maybe because of his background as a human rights lawyer, or just because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, Wang Yi gave riveting sermons about a huge variety of topics, from problems in society to Biblical history. I felt I learned more from him than probably from any other pastor." Wang gave up his law career to pursue his calling as a pastor and started Early Rain Covenant Church in China's Sichuan province. His sermons, many of them widely circulated on social media, soon made him a rising star and an important player in the Christian revival that was sweeping China. All that has come to a screeching halt with his arrest and the closure of the church. "Wang Yi had long predicted his arrest," Johnson wrote upon hearing the news of Wang's detention. "But, it still came as a shock, making clear the government's intention to rein in independent churches." Still, members of his congregation vow to keep meeting, despite the risk of arrest. http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2...e-way-of-chinas-xi-jinpings-totalitarian-rule So why does the Vatican worry so much about this kind of persecution to the point that they easily compromise with the state to a secular phony faith rather than follow such bold examples of love of God beyond what the Commies could do? Perhaps all Christians there should support one another and use whatever power of a major denomination as seen by the world to help rather than see it surrender to the state with state appointed leaders which puts all Christians in greater danger?
I don't know if this was posted anywhere, but it is a very interesting article on the "Benedict is still Pope" idea. Apparently, this is the post with the most comments that 1P5 has ever received according to their tally. https://onepeterfive.com/benevacantists/
Fr Goring's comments on The, so called, 'Rainbow Rosary' (God, help us!). The Vatican favourite Father James Martin has surpassed himself.
According to Church Militant, the seminary of which Cardinal Vigneron was rector, was one of the most homosexual-friendly of them all and they say that he has consistently failed to acknowledge any link between the crisis and homosexuality in the priesthood. Good to see him criticizing the Papal interference but there isn't much point in him doing so if he cannot admit the truth himself. https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/vigneron
Dear God, I can't believe this is all really happening, pray, pray. I can;t even comment on this it is so terrible. Our poor, poor Church.
"Ah! my daughter, when I allow that churches remain deserted, ministers dispersed, Masses reduced, it means that the sacrifices are offenses to Me, the prayers insults, the adorations irreverences, the confessions amusements, and without fruits. Therefore, no longer finding my glory, but rather, offenses, nor any good for them, since they are of no use to Me any more, I remove them. However, this snatching ministers away from my Sanctuary means also that things have reached the ugliest point, and that the variety of scourges will multiply. How hard man is - how hard!” (Book of Heaven, Feb. 12, 1918)
As I have continued to repeat...... We are witnessing one prophecy after another unfolding in our midst as the book of Amos 3:7 said it would be. What we see right now is our beloved Church, as Pope Benedict said it would in his 1969 prophecy, loose its salt and loose all of its edifices. It is getting smaller already and those who hold to the true faith are having to reach out from their old church and find a remnant priest and a few remnant holy faithful. Prepare people, it is happening and as we say in our rosary, in this valley of tears we will rise, through the effect of grace the Flame of Love through the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Please take the time to read this letter written by a Parish Priest for his flock: http://sicutincaelo.org/downloads/TLT_Read.pdf
Here are some very good recent articles from the National Catholic Register. Vatican Conference Grapples With Issue of Decommissioning Churches 12/19/2018 The conference aimed to develop ‘best practices’ for addressing the touchy question of how to handle the growing number of closed churches and sacred places. http://www.ncregister.com/daily-new...apples-with-issue-of-decommissioning-churches Reasons for Church Closings Need to Be Fully Examined, Says Lawyer 12/19/2018 Brody Hale, an independent consulter on church preservation, tells the Register that a greater emphasis on valuing the sacred is vital if churches are to be saved from the ever-increasing threat of closure. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/church-closings-are-not-inevitable-says-lawyer Confusion Over Holy Communion for Protestant Spouses 12/18/2018 Pastoral guidelines allowing the practice in some cases is predictably causing chaos and “great harm” to the Church, says Cardinal Gerhard Müller. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edwa...ny-over-holy-communion-for-protestant-spouses Vatican Urges Bishop Participants to Meet Abuse Victims Before February Summit 12/18/2018 The organizing committee for meeting on clerical sex abuse says such personal encounters are a “concrete way” of ensuring that victim survivors are “first and foremost in the minds of all” at the summit. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edwa...o-meet-abuse-victims-ahead-of-february-summit Prophetic 1930 Register Article Warns of Homosexuality, Birth Control 12/17/2018 “If birth control be not immoral, there is no such thing as sex immorality.” http://www.ncregister.com/blog/arch...-article-warns-of-homosexuality-birth-control Mass in Extraordinary Form Draws Refugees From Church Turmoil 12/16/2018 Those seeking out the old rite of the Mass say it better reflects and reinforces the faith they believe. http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/mass-in-extraordinary-form-draws-refugees-from-church-turmoil *** This video asks the same question that I had recently in regard to Father James Martin and Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
I did see the prophetic 1930's article and loved it. I am glad you posted it. You beat me to it, Carol. Everything is adding up now, and we are living the prophecy now.
