Sounds like the Bob Marley doctrine to me! From the Haydock commentary on this verse; Ver. 13. Enter ye in at the narrow gate, &c. The doctrine of these two verses needs no commentary, but deserve serious attention. Wi.
So this guy uses his position of authority to find this woman and offer her a position and then takes virtually no responsibility for his own actions (he was too drunk to stop it but apparently not that drunk) makes no apology to the other party or acknowledgment of his abuse of his position except to say that he regrets he used the debit card to pay for the wine!?! How many others are there? She can't be the only one. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...-resigns-government-inquiry-sexual-encounter/ A child abuse victim who founded Britian’s leading charity for survivors has resigned from a government inquriy after it emerged that he had a sexual encounter with a victim in a restaurant toilet. Peter Saunders, 61, who founded the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), was arrested following the encounter which took place in February 2008. He was not charged with any offence but said that he was “deeply sorry” about the incident and that he would carry the shame for the rest of his life. As a result, he was forced to resign from his post on the Victims and Survivors Panel of the Independent Inquiry into Childhood Sexual Abuse (IICSA), the public investigation into systemic sexual abuse in schools, churches and other institutions. A spokesman for IICSA said he had failed to declare the incident in 2015 when he joined in 2015,: “The inquiry holds our consultative panel members to the same high standards we expect of our staff. Peter Saunders offered his resignation and we have accepted it with immediate effect.” The Mail on Sunday reported that Mr Saunders had a sexual encounter with the woman - who was abused when she was a child and who cannot be named for legal reasons - following an alcohol-fuelled lunch which was paid for on the charity’s credit card. He had contacted the woman after seeing her talking about her abuse during a BBC interview and arranged a meeting to discuss her working for NAPAC. The newspaper reported that he met the woman and her friend for coffee before heading for lunch at a branch of the Bella Italia restaurant in Manchester, during which they consumed at least three bottles of wine. Before eating, the devout Christian who was appointed by Pope Francis as a member of a Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014, encouraged the group to join hands in prayer and thank God for 'good fellowship'. Later, it was reported that he went upstairs to use the lavatory where, he admitted, the encounter took place in a cubicle. Mr Saunders insists that it was initiated by the woman and was entirely consensual, but she later made a complaint to the police that she had been raped - an allegation which he vehemently denies. The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with a case, citing insufficient evidence. Mr Saunders - who was also sexually abused as a child - told the weekend paper: “The incident was not as [the woman] alleged. It was a totally consensual, albeit drunken encounter, the shame of which I will live with for the rest of my life. It was instigated by her.” He added: “She pretty much took me into a cubicle and she performed what they call a sex act on me. I was too drunk to stop it.” Mr Saunders admitted he “had little doubt she [the complainant] was an abuse survivor” and agreed research shows abuse victims are vulnerable, prone to mental health issues and, in some cases, seek to deal with trauma by behaving in a sexually inappropriate manner. He expressed regret for paying the bill on NAPAC's credit card. “For the past ten years I have berated myself for my stupidity,” he said. “I was entrusted with a NAPAC debit card and on this occasion I abused it. I don't know how much wine was drunk but I'm pretty sure I put it on the NAPAC debit card. I was reprimanded as much as anyone could be for my drunken mistake.”
In fairness, Marley appears to have discovered the Narrow Gate towards his end, converting to Ethiopian Orthodoxy, the faith his wife had adopted some years before. The music industry, which makes a lot of money from Marley's musical legacy doesn't seem to want this to be generally known. And no less a man than Saint Padre Pio advised us not to worry (he did advise us to also pray and hope)!
I love this Scriptural quote, Proverbs 9:10 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. ..and balancing it; 1 John 4:18 17In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. 19We love because He first loved us.… I also love what St Faustina said in her diary, that the greatest sinner has the most claim to God's Mercy. One of the things that causes a certain Fear of the Lord in me is walking though the hospital wards at night and hearing people crying out in agony , some of them cursing and swearing. I am especially touched by the children who have cancer. These things to me teach me the reality of Purgatory both in this world and the next. I do very much believe in the reality of Hell, not only because Scripture Teaches it, the Church Teaches it and the Saints and Fathers of the Church and Popes taught it but because I think we cna so often see Evil and the shadows of hell all around us in this present world. I am lost how others have not seen this and do not see this. Have they never met someone who was pure evil and with the flames of hell in their eyes? They must lead very,very sheltered lives indeed.
Viganò’s “Testimony,” One Year Later Fr. Gerald E. Murray | Thursday, August 22, 2019 | https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/08/22/viganos-testimony-one-year-later/ Friends: Today’s column by Father Gerald Murray will be the subject of a special Papal Posse segment tonight at 8:00 E.D.T. on EWTN’s “The World Over.” Host Raymond Arroyo, Father Murray, and Robert Royal will discuss the Vatican’s continued silence on the predations of Theodore McCarrick, as outlined a year ago by Archbishop Viganò. EWTN shows are also available shortly after broadcast on the EWTN YouTube channel. The first anniversary of the Testimony of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is upon us today. That document, and the events that followed this bombshell, say a great deal about the crisis now facing the Church. It’s a crisis of truth, of grave immorality and cowardice, of unaccountability by Church hierarchs, of powerful clerics resisting revelation of facts known to them, but hidden from the faithful. It’s a crisis of the ongoing refusal to come clean about what was known about Theodore McCarrick and others, and why decisions were made that protected men who were known to have done great evil, and yet continued to enjoy favor and protection. On August 22, 2018 Viganò wrote: “Bishops and priests, abusing their authority, have committed horrendous crimes to the detriment of their faithful, minors, innocent victims, and young men eager to offer their lives to the Church, or by their silence have not prevented that such crimes continue to be perpetrated.” These words are not unlike what Pope Francis himself had written two days earlier in his Letter to the People of God (August 20th): “With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.” He went on to endorse the zero tolerance and accountability measures being implemented, too slowly, around the world: “We have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and future.” The remedy Viganò proposed in his Testimony is this: “We must tear down the conspiracy of silence with which bishops and priests have protected themselves at the expense of their faithful, a conspiracy of silence that in the eyes of the world risks making the Church look like a sect, a conspiracy of silence not so dissimilar from the one that prevails in the mafia.” Viganò also wrote that, at a June 23, 2013 private audience, Pope Francis asked him “What is McCarrick like?” He told the pope about the McCarrick’s history of homosexual predations against seminarians and priests. Viganò says Francis showed no shock or surprise at hearing this and changed the subject. * Pope Francis has spoken publicly twice about Viganò’s claims. On the airplane back from Ireland (the day of the publication of the Testimony), he said: I read it and sincerely I must tell you, and all those who are interested: read it yourselves carefully and make your own judgment. I will not say a single word on this. I believe the memo speaks for itself, and you are capable enough as journalists to draw your own conclusions. This is an act of trust: when some time has passed and you have drawn conclusions, perhaps I will speak. But I ask that you use your professional maturity in doing this: it will do you good, really. That is enough for now. To which Viganò replied on September 29, 2018: “But how can journalists discover and know the truth if those directly involved with a matter refuse to answer any questions or to release any documents? The pope’s unwillingness to respond to my charges and his deafness to the appeals by the faithful for accountability are hardly consistent with his calls for transparency and bridge building.” The only substantive papal response to Viganò’s claims came in a May 2019 interview with the Mexican journalist Valentina Alzaraki. Crux reported: “In his first direct comments about the case of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Pope Francis said that ‘about McCarrick I knew nothing, obviously, nothing, nothing. I said it many times, I knew nothing, no idea.’” He said in the same interview: “I don’t remember if he [Viganò] told me about this. If it’s true or not. No idea! But you know that about McCarrick, I knew nothing. If not, I wouldn’t have remained quiet, right?” This was, in fact, his first public denial of Viganò’s claims, and it contains the confusing statement that he cannot remember if Viganò told him something about McCarrick’s evil acts, while at the same time affirming vehemently he knew nothing about the acts. The Holy See Press Office issued a Communiqué (dated October 6) about the McCarrick matter: “Information gathered during the preliminary investigation will be combined with a further thorough study of the entire documentation present in the Archives of the Dicasteries and Offices of the Holy See regarding the former Cardinal McCarrick, in order to ascertain all the relevant facts, to place them in their historical context and to evaluate them objectively.” It promised: “The Holy See will, in due course, make known the conclusions of the matter regarding Archbishop McCarrick. From the examination of the facts and of the circumstances, it may emerge that choices were taken that would not be consonant with a contemporary approach to such issues. However, as Pope Francis has said: ‘We will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead’ (Philadelphia, 27 September 2015). Both abuse and its cover-up can no longer be tolerated and a different treatment for Bishops who have committed or covered up abuse, in fact, represents a form of clericalism that is no longer acceptable.” The Communique suggested that the investigation may reveal that “choices” in the past will not look so good today, indicating that embarrassing information is in the Holy See’s possession, just as Viganò has claimed repeatedly. It is almost eleven months since the communiqué was issued. This obvious delaying tactic is detrimental to the good of the Church. Grave offenses by men in authority have been ignored and covered up by those responsible for the good of the community. Truth alone will lead to justice and some resolution. The Viganò Testimony is one-year-old, but a transparent and thorough response has yet to come. Image: The Decretals of Pope Boniface VIII by an unknown artist, c. 1328 [British Library, London]. The illuminated book in which the image appears contained the pope’s decrees or litterae decretales. *** Aug. 24, 2019 The Twilight of the John Paul II Institute? An interview with Prof. Stanisław Grygiel https://www.eng.pch24.pl/the-twilig...iew-with-prof--stanislaw-grygiel,70372,i.html Aug. 21, 2019 Changes at JPII Institute Could Harm Schools Worldwide, Prof Warns http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edwa...icized-for-contravening-academic-rights-and-d
EXCLUSIVE: Bishop Schneider says Vatican is betraying ‘Jesus Christ as the only Savior of mankind’ Diane Montagna Mon Aug 26, 2019 - 4:00 pm EST Bishop Athanasius Schneider in Rome, April 7, 2018 Diane Montagna/LifeSiteNews ROME, August 26, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican’s decision to implement a document affirming that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God,” without correcting this statement, is tantamount to “promoting the neglect of the first Commandment” and a “betrayal of the Gospel,” Bishop Athanasius Schneider has said. In an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews on a Vatican-backed iniative to promote the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” the auxiliary of Astana, Kazakhstan, said that “however noble such aims as ‘human fraternity’ and ‘world peace’ may be, they cannot be promoted at the cost of relativizing the truth of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and His Church.” The spread of this document in its uncorrected form will “paralyze the Church’s mission ad gentes” and “suffocate her burning zeal to evangelize all men,” Bishop Schneider said. He added: “Attempts at peace are destined for failure if they are not proposed in the name of Jesus Christ.” A “Higher Committee” Last week, the Vatican announced that a multi-faith “Higher Committee” had been established in the United Arab Emirates to implement the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” which Pope Francis signed on Feb. 4, 2019, in Abu Dhabi, together with Ahmad el-Tayeb, Grand Imam al-Azhar, during a three-day apostolic visit to the Arabian Peninsula. Members of the seven member (Catholic and Muslim) commission include Pope Francis’s personal secretary, Fr. Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, and the president of the Ponfical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Archbishop Miguel Angel Ayuso Giuxot. In a statement on Monday, Aug. 26, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that Pope Francis “encourages the efforts of the Committee to spread knowledge of the Document; he thanks the United Arab Emirates for the concrete commitment shown on behalf of human fraternity and he expresses the hope that similar initiatives can spring up throughout the world.” Controversial document The Abu Dhabi document drew controversy for stating that a “pluralism and diversity” of religions is “willed by God.” The passage inciting controversy reads: Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept. On March 1, 2019, during an ad limina visit of the bishops of Central Asia to Rome, Bishop Schneider, whose diocese is located in a predominantly Muslim nation, expressed concern about this formulation to Pope Francis. The Pope said that the phrase in question on the “diversity of religions” meant “the permissive will of God,” and he gave explicit permission to Bishop Schneider and the other bishops present to quote his words. Bishop Schneider in turn asked the Pope to clarify the statement in an official manner. Pope Francis appeared to offer a clarification at his Wednesday general audience on April 3, 2019, but no official clarification or correction to the text has been given to date. In this exclusive interview, Bishop Schneider reveals new details regarding his direct exchange with the Holy Father at the March 1 meeting. He also discusses his views on the Pope’s informal clarification at the April 3 general audience, and the gravity of a “Higher Committee” being established to implement the Abu Dhabi document, in the absence of an official correction of the controversial passage. According to Bishop Schneider, in implementing the Abu Dhabi document without correcting its erroneous affirmation on the diversity of religions, “men in the Church not only betray Jesus Christ as the only Savior of mankind and the necessity of His Church for eternal salvation, but also commit a great injustice and sin against love of neighbor.” For the full interview, read at the link: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/b...ng-jesus-christ-as-the-only-savior-of-mankind
A consequence of religious relativism in the United States has been the attempt at normalising satanism. Unscrupulous lawyers, disconnected from the roots of law, have had some success in arguing for the treatment of satanism as a valid 'religion'. The Vatican is moving onto a very slippery slope with its heretical promotion of religious relativism. In truth, there is no salvation outside Christ's Church.
Benedict XVI responds to criticism of his essay on the Church and the sexual abuse crisis By Anian Christoph Wimmer | https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...-the-church-and-the-sexual-abuse-crisis-51446 Vatican City, Aug 27, 2019 / 08:49 am (CNA) ... "As far as I can tell, in most reactions to my contribution, God does not appear at all,” the former pope wrote. “Therefore, the central issue I wanted to raise is not being discussed.” Criticism of this kind only served to demonstrate "the seriousness of the situation," Benedict continued, "in which the word God often appears to be on the margins, even in theology.” [Please click on the link above for the whole article.] *** John Paul II Institute. The Hit, the Boss, the Button 27 August 2019 | http://magister.blogautore.espresso...itute-the-hit-the-boss-the-button/?refresh_ce A name change, rewritten statutes, professors replaced, a revised order of studies. With Pope Francis an authentic earthquake has struck the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family - this being the original designation - founded by pope Karol Wojtyla in the early years of his pontificate and initially entrusted to the leadership of Carlo Caffarra, a theologian of great expertise on the subject and a future cardinal. In the previous post, Settimo Cielo highlighted the justified revolt of numerous students and of many tenured professors against this revolution, a revolt that reached a point of no return after the public support given by pope emeritus Benedict XVI to the most authoritative of the purgees, former dean of the Institute Livio Melina: > John Paul II Institute. The Revolt of the Professors Has a Leader, Ratzinger It is unlikely, however, that Francis will backtrack. This can be deduced from the implacable determination with which he set the change in motion, with a maneuver planned for years and entirely brought down from above, implemented by his ever-faithful enforcer Vincenzo Paglia, the archbishop placed by the pope at the head of the Institute with the title of Grand Chancellor. In comparison with Paglia, the role of the current dean of the Institute, Pierangelo Sequeri - a Milanese theologian of recognized expertise inexplicably adapted to this task - appears tenuous, unsteady, and entirely subordinate, as can be intuited from the timeline of events of the past two years, carefully reconstructed by the American vaticanista Diane Montagna for LifeSite News and reproduced a little further below on this page. The timeline starts off with the appointment of Paglia as Grand Chancellor, in August of 2016, and with the motu prprio with which the following year Pope Francis changed the name - and prospectively the substance - of the Institute. But there is a “before” that it is indispensable to recall, if one wants to understand even better how the offensive against the Institute created by John Paul II was launched right from the beginning of the pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. It is a “before” that has two revelatory elements. * The first revelatory element is the list of participants in the first session of the synod on the family, in 2014. Where entirely missing is any representative at all from the Institute that theoretically should have been a leading actor in it. Take care. This absence is not only from the list of the rightful participants in the synod, delegates of episcopal conferences and curia heads, but also from that of those invited by Francis. A sign that already back then in the pope’s mind the fate of the Institute was sealed, hand in hand with the predetermined outcome that he wanted to stamp on the synod, destined to give the go-ahead on Eucharistic communion for the divorced and remarried. It is no coincidence that among the four cardinals who after the synod presented to Pope Francis their “dubia” on the doctrinal soundness of this outcome, was none other than Carlo Caffarra, the man who stands as a symbol of the history of the Institute. * As for the second revelatory element, this is identified with Archbishop Paglia and his growing proximity to Pope Francis. When Bergoglio was elected pope, in 2013, Paglia had been president of the pontifical council for the family for one year, promoted there by Benedict XVI with one of the most imprudent appointments of his pontificate. Paglia was a prominent representative of the Community of Sant’Egidio and had been since 2000 the bishop of Terni, where he certainly did not bring to light, in the administration of earthly goods, the wisdom of the “pater familias.” The confirmation came in the long and detailed farewell statement by the penultimate president of the IOR, the German Ernst von Freyberg, at the time of leaving his post in July of 2014. In explanation of the meager surplus of the IOR in 2013, of just 2.9 million euro against the surplus of 86.6 million the year before, von Freyberg pointed out that the IOR had also had to put on the balance sheet “the depreciation of 3.2 million euro of financial support granted to the diocese of Terni.” The reference was to the crash of the diocese that took place when its bishop was Paglia. The diocese was put into receivership and the IOR had to staunch a good half of the more than 20 million euro deficit. But also as one of the highest ranking members of the Community of Sant’Egidio, Paglia had never shone for his competence on the subject of the family. Throwing a dismal light on what was happening, in matters of family and marriage, behind the glowing facade of the Community of Sant’Egidio had been, in 2003, the request for the declaration of the nullity of his marriage sent to the diocesan tribunal of Rome by someone who had spent 25 years in the Community, and was married to a woman also of the Community. To the request for nullity he attached a memoir. In which he documented not only how he had gotten married “under duress,” but also how his case was part of a more general authoritarian system that governed the Community of Sant’Egidio and that directed the engagements and marriages of its members at various levels. The memoir came out in this article from www.chiesa: > Twenty-Five Years in the Community of Sant'Egidio: A Memoir The diocesan tribunal of Rome accepted the request, and in its definitive sentence decreed the marriage null “on account of force”. And yet, miraculously, none of that damaged Paglia’s career, which rose even higher under the pontificate of Francis. Who in mid-August of 2016 appointed none other than him Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, with the order to change it from the foundations. And this is the rest of the story. * TIMELINE OF EVENTS REGARDING THE JOHN PAUL II INSTITUTE IN ROME (by Diane Montagna for LifeSite News of August 20, 2019) [Please click on the following link to continue reading the article, http://magister.blogautore.espresso...itute-the-hit-the-boss-the-button/?refresh_ce ]
Benedict XVI responds to criticism of his essay on the Church and the sexual abuse crisis Vatican City, Aug 27, 2019 / 08:49 am (CNA).- Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has responded to criticism of his essay on the abuse crisis, saying many negative reactions have confirmed his central thesis that apostasy and alienation from the Faith are at the heart of the crisis – by not even mentioning God in their critique of his essay. In a brief statement in reaction to such criticism published in German magazine “Herder Korrespondenz,” the former pope pointed to a “general deficit” in the reactions to his essay, saying that many critical responses missed the very point he was making. Published in April by Catholic News Agency, the National Catholic Register, and in the original German by CNA Deutsch as well as other media, Benedict’s essay described the impact of the sexual revolution as well as – independent from it – a collapse of moral theology in the 1960’s, before suggesting how the Church should respond by recognizing that “only obedience and love for our Lord Jesus Christ can point the way.” Reactions to the essay have been particularly strong in Germany, where insiders say the former pope, a native Bavarian, has long been subject to sustained criticism from certain quarters. Benedict cited the example of a critical response to his essay from a German professor of history, pointing out that while the professor’s response was four pages long, “the word God does not appear [once],” even though apostasy was the central claim of the scholar’s argument. Such a critique of his essay thus "shows the seriousness of a situation, in which the word ‘God’ in theology even seems to be marginalized.” "As far as I can tell, in most reactions to my contribution, God does not appear at all,” the former pope wrote. “Therefore, the central issue I wanted to raise is not being discussed.” Criticism of this kind only served to demonstrate "the seriousness of the situation," Benedict continued, "in which the word God often appears to be on the margins, even in theology.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...-the-church-and-the-sexual-abuse-crisis-51446
Any surprises that the man in this story graduated from a Jesuit university, that the Jesuits were involved in the parish, or that it was a Jesuit priest who officiated at the blessing. The priest, of course, claims that he wasn't aware of the man's intentions. When the history of our time is written, it won't be kind to the Jesuits - if the Order hasn't self-destructed by then. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...w-blessing-of-assisted-suicide-advocate-42255 Some further information on this story which gives a much different slant on the part played by that Jesuit priest in the lead up to the man's suicide and the macabre "blessing" ceremony which included little First Communicants all dressed in white: https://www.catholicworldreport.com...ocese-claims-on-parishioners-planned-suicide/ The CWR article quotes social media posts by Mr. Fuller prior to the disgraceful episode in the church. From the article (emphasis mine): “I have absolutely no reservations about what I am doing,” he wrote. “And my pastor/sponsor has given me his blessings. And he’s a Jesuit!!!” Fuller did not name the priest referenced in the post, and the pastor of St. Therese parish, Fr. Maurice Mamba, is not a Jesuit. Several Jesuits assist with Sunday Masses at the parish. Examination of past parish bulletins show that only one, Fr. Quentin Dupont, SJ, regularly celebrated the Sunday Mass that Fuller normally attended. Dupont was the celebrant at the Mass on May 5, at which the priest, along with first communicants and other parishioners, extended their hands in blessing over Fuller. Other posts on Fuller’s Facebook page recount that he met with parish staff as he planned the final days of his life, including a party held in the hours before his suicide on May 10, and his own funeral." Every Bishop in every diocese with a Jesuit presence and who cares for the souls of his flock as well as caring for his own soul needs to do conduct a thorough examination of those Jesuits. If the Jesuit superiors won't cut out the evil in their midst, the Bishops need to tell the Jesuits to pack up and leave the diocese. Maybe the Bishops are afraid of the Jesuit Pope but they would do well to remember that ultimately they will answer to a higher authority than any Pope.
OH NO! To be expected I suppose....in these times. Comments are interesting. Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce Are Pope Benedict and Francis in ‘The Two Popes’ Teaser (Video) What do two men of God talk about behind closed doors? Would you have guessed The Beatles? In the first teaser trailer for “The Two Popes,” Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) asks the incoming Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce) if he’s ever heard of the Fab Four, only to find that Benedict has no clue who “Eleanor Rigby” is. “You know the hardest thing is to listen. To hear his voice. God’s voice,” Pope Benedict says in the trailer. “You know there’s a saying. God always corrects one Pope by presenting the world with another Pope. I’d like to see my correction.” “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles directs the film from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten (“Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Theory of Everything”) about the intimate story and rivalry between these two holy men. It picks up with Cardinal Bergoglio considering retiring from the church and Pope Benedict in his frustration with the direction of the church. Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict (Hopkins) summons his harshest critic and the future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church. Behind Vatican walls, a struggle commences between both tradition and progress, guilt and forgiveness, as these two very different men confront elements from their pasts in order to find common ground and forge a future for a billion followers around the world. The story is especially timely as in April, Pope Benedict released an essay about the sexual abuse crisis in the church and the impact of the sexual revolution in the world beginning in the 1960s, and earlier this week his Holiness even pushed back on some criticism of his essay. “The Two Popes” is making its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival later this week before heading to Toronto, and Netflix is releasing the film on their streaming service following a brief theatrical run. It will open in theaters Nov. 27 followed by on Netflix on Dec. 20. https://www.thewrap.com/anthony-hop...ct-and-francis-in-the-two-popes-teaser-video/
I am reminded of one of Saint Bosco's prophecies once again... LEFT: Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, grand chancellor of the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family. RIGHT: Msgr. Livio Melina, professor and former president of the John Paul II Institute who was removed from his tenured position July 23. (Photos by Edward Pentin) Aug. 30, 2019 | Edward Pentin | http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edwa...ign-open-letter-about-jpii-institute-changes1 Scholars Worldwide Sign Open Letter About JPII Institute Changes The academics, who include the prominent American scholars Robert George, Scott Hahn and Janet Smith, call on the Institute heads to reinstate two professors they removed from their tenured positions. Nearly 200 professors from around the world have signed an open letter to the heads of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute expressing their “great concern” about the recent removals of two long-serving professors at the graduate school, and imploring that they be reinstated. The signatories, comprising a number of well-known Catholic academics, wrote in the Aug. 20 letter they “do not see any convincing reason, whether of a scientific-academic nature or of a doctrinal or disciplinary nature, that would justify their removal from their positions.” The letter concerned the removals of Msgr. Livio Melina, a former president of the John Paul II Institute, and Father José Noriega, a moral theologian, who were notified in a July 23 letter that they were to be deprived of their tenured positions at the new institute following the promulgation of new statutes published on July 18. The missive was addressed to Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, grand chancellor of the institute, and Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri, the institute’s president, Msgr. Melina was removed after being told the institute was eliminating the Chair of Fundamental Moral Theology which he held, and which had been set up personally by Pope St. John Paul II. Father Noriega was told his position as general superior of his religious congregation was incompatible with the position of a tenured professor at the new Institute. Neither of the two professors received prior notification of their removals, nor were they given the opportunity to defend themselves or challenge the decision. Seven other professors were also later removed from their teaching positions. In their open letter, the signatories implored Archbishop Paglia and Msgr. Sequeri “to revoke this decision and to reinstate” Msgr. Melina and Father Noriega so that the graduate school “may maintain its high academic profile and its international prestige.” Among the signatories are Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, and Jane Adolphe, a law professor at Ave Maria University and former official at the Vatican Secretariat of State. Other signers include Michael Waldstein, theology professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and Robert Fastiggi, professor of systematic theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, who penned a defense of Pope Francis apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia in 2016. Since the statutes were published and the changes enacted, a number of groups and individuals have expressed their disapproval, including 241 of the institute’s students and alumni who wrote a letter to the school heads of their “immense concern” about the changes. The most recent open letter follows another dated Aug. 3 and signed by 49 academics to the institute’s administrators, also calling for the reinstatement of all the professors removed from their teaching positions. The authors of the most recent open letter are inviting other academics to put their name to it by signing it online here. Here below is the open letter with its list of signatories in alphabetical order: * * * * * * * Open letter to Msgr. Paglia and Msgr. Sequeri Open letter to His Excellency, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family, and to Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri, President of the Institute. 20 August 2019 Your Excellency, Msgr. Paglia, Rev. Msgr. Sequeri, We, the undersigned, professors and researchers from various academic institutions throughout the world, have learned with great concern that Professors Livio Melina and José Noriega have been deprived of their tenured positions. We do not see any convincing reason, whether of a scientific-academic nature or of a doctrinal or disciplinary nature, that would justify their removal from their positions. So that your Institute may maintain its high academic profile and its international prestige, we implore you to revoke this decision and to reinstate the aforementioned scholars into a tenured teaching position at your Institute. With kindest regards, List of Signatories (Alphabetical Order) [Please click on the link above to view the list of signatories] _________________________________________________________________________________________ ___ One Academic to Others: A Brief for Prudence on the Case of the John Paul II Institute COMMENTARY: There is a synergy among these institutes that may unfortunately change should any one of them take on a ‘different direction.’ Aug. 28, 2019 | Janet E. Smith | http://www.ncregister.com/daily-new...-for-prudence-on-the-fateful-case-of-the-john ___ John Paul II Institute Is Being Destroyed, Says Friend of Late Pope Professor Stanislaw Grygiel warns that the institute is forsaking moral theology and John Paul II’s anthropology for ‘opinion polls’ and ‘sociological and psychological meanderings.’ Aug. 30, 2019 | Edward Pentin | http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edwa...e-is-being-destroyed-says-friend-of-late-pope
https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/08/31/vaticans-ironic-employment-division-strikes-again/ Vatican’s “Ironic Employment Division” strikes again ROME - Under Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences has become one of the Vatican’s primary beachheads for advancing the pro-immigrant, anti-“savage capitalism” vision of the world articulated by Pope Francis. Because that vision is controversial, so’s the academy, which means it often needs some PR help. In response to that perceived lacuna, Francis made a move Saturday - and, to say the least, it’s a doozy. The pontiff named 57-year-old Italian Monsignor Dario Edoardo Viganò to the apparently brand-new position of “Vice Chancellor” for both the Academy for Science and the Academy for Social Sciences, which are jointly led by Sanchez Sorondo. Francis assigned Viganò special responsibility for communications. Many familiar with Viganò’s record might be tempted to quip that’s a bit like making Barry Bonds your special advisor on steroid use in baseball, or akin to putting Bernie Madoff in charge of your financial reform. For those who may have forgotten, or who weren’t paying attention at the time, Viganò is the official who presided over one of the most egregious PR debacles in recent Vatican memory back in 2018, when it turned out he had cooked up a digitally altered photo of a letter from Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in an effort to leave out portions considered embarrassing. Inevitably, the ruse fell apart and generated huge embarrassment - among other things because it fed the very narrative of tensions between the two popes that Francis, from the beginning, has strived to avoid. In effect, the Viganò appointment is thus another triumph for what I’ve termed the Vatican’s “Ironic Employment Division.” That ever-nimble outfit already has brought you such classics as the “Bling Bishop,” Franz-Peter Tebartz-van-Elst, who alienated a broad swath of German opinion with his spending on his residence, now working in the Vatican’s office for evangelization, and Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who resigned his post heading the Diocese of Oran in August 2017 amid charges of both sexual and financial misconduct, now serving as assessor to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), the Vatican’s financial powerhouse. Granted, Francis may regard the 2018 debacle as an aberration, perhaps hoping that Viganò can recapture some of his old magic, such as the remarkable Fellini-esque footage of Benedict’s helicopter ride to Castel Gandolfo on the day of his resignation. It was that imagery, actually, that helped catapult Viganò to the head of the Vatican’s new department for communications - just as it was his hubris in thinking he wouldn’t be caught doctoring Benedict’s letter that led to his exile. In all fairness, Francis is hardly the first pope to carve out a made-up Vatican job for a cleric perceived as a problem, either in his diocese or in some other role in Rome. It’s such a time-honored custom the Italians even have a word for it - a parcheggio, meaning a “parking spot.” Still, for a pontiff who came in vowing a sweeping reform of the Vatican, such maneuvers can’t help but seem a bit of a head-scratcher. Actually, this is the second time Francis has invented a position for Viganò, since after the 2018 scandal he was assigned to a new and ill-defined role as “assessor” of the communications department. Perhaps Viganò’s first PR project at the twin academies, actually, could be to explain what in the world he’s doing there in the first place. Follow John Allen on Twitter: @JohnLAllenJr
Anyone who watched the videos of the Social Sciences Academy's population control conference will appreciate that Fr. Vigano should feel right at home. I can't recall the official name of the conference which probably had a Catholic sounding title, but it was the one starring Paul Ehrlich. Bishop Sancez Sorondo's contribution (what's in it for Buenos Aires) was evidence that the Academy is, indeed, a parking spot. Meanwhile, Edward Pentin reports that another of the St. Gallen group has gone to his eternal reward. May the Lord have mercy on his soul. https://twitter.com/EdwardPentin/status/1167439878566666241 The late Cardinal Silvestrini is said to have been the factional character Silvio Cardinal Aureatini in Windswept House. I don't know whether that character was a good or bad guy because I still can't bring myself to read the book. Someone on Edward Pentin's twitter feed speculated that Archbishop Celli is the last of the St. Gallen group and may now be promoted to Cardinal. Edward Pentin merely said that Cardinal Silvestrini was a mentor to both Archbishop Celli and Cardinal Parolin. Some trivia on Archbishop Celli: a co-Consecrator at his episcopal consecration was a Cardinal from Buenos Aires named Jorge Maria Mejia. Cardinal Mejia had a heart attack the day Pope Francis was elected and died the following year. The other co-Consecrator for Archbishop Celli was Cardinal Battista Re who, according to Wikipedia, presided over the 2013 Papal Conclave and was a friend of Cardinal Martini. There's no doubt that Cardinal Martini was a member of the St. Gallen Group. May the Lord have mercy on him too. It's interesting to see the links between the movers and shakers in the Church. They seem to be rather a small group relative to the size of the Church.
Your last sentence struck a chord with me, because reading Don's post above about the 'other Vigano', I had come to suspect that the reason for the appointment of this fraudster might be as simple as there being a lack of options on the progressivist side. It is also interesting that a progressivist Catholic like Allen should take this tone. Allen's attempt to justify Pope Francis' appointment policy seems rather half-hearted. Perhaps the smell has become too over-powering even for Allen; or could it be that so many are becoming alienated from the current establishment in the Vatican that he is choosing to create some distance from it for himself, with an eye to posterity? Hopefully so.
If Chaput gets passed over again, and it appears so...well, there's no excuse except to think..... Pope Set To Create 13 New Cardinals https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...-13-new-cardinals-in-october-consistory-71435
