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Vatican Calls for the Establishment of World Government and a New World Order

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
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September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
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September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
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« Reply #30 on: June 25, 2015, 02:41:41 pm »

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/06/24/pope-francis-call-for-global-governance/
6/24/15
Pope Francis’ Call for Global Governance

The Pope’s encyclical appears to focus on climate change and environmental degradation but the larger focus is his indictment of capitalism and the presumed greed that it spawns, leading Pope Francis to call for a global government solution. The language in the encyclical looks like it came from the UN’s Agenda 21 and the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth. Both were deeply flawed analyses of problems and solutions.

Pope Francis is a wonderful human being who reflects personal qualities–humility, spirituality, and a deep concern for the less well off—that we all could learn from. But, personal qualities do not mean that his political philosophy is well grounded or practical. Utopians and Socialists always make simplifying assumptions that simply do not workout in practice.  That is a clear lesson of history.

In the case of Pope Francis, paraphrasing Groucho Marx, he looked for trouble, found it everywhere, misdiagnosed it, and applies the wrong solutions.

Yes, there is too much poverty in the world and yes there is too much environmental degradation. The worst examples of devastating poverty and environmental exploitation are in the developing world where over 1 billion people have no access to commercial energy, no potable water, and have high disease and mortality rates. Their plight is a direct consequence of the lack of liberty, lack of property rights, and the greed and quest by ruling elites and dictators for absolute power that trumps all other considerations.

Pope Francis is especially harsh in his criticism of capitalism as if it is the cause of greed, selfishness, and a lack of concern for our fellow man.

That type of criticism is directly from the Socialism philosophy that holds that property be held in common and economic relationships be governed by political hierarchy.  History has demonstrated that Socialism, while intellectually appealing, fails in the real world. The tone and direction of the Pope’s condemnation suggests that he is enthralled by the writings of Thomas Malthus and the doomsayer Paul Ehrlich who has been consistently wrong in his predictions and prescriptions for saving the planet.

The Pope would have been better served by studying Adam Smith and Nobel Laureate Frederick Hayek, especially Hayek’s Fatal Conceit which explains the errors of socialism. In it, he makes the following observation, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. To the naive mind that can conceive of order only as the product of deliberate arrangement, it may seem absurd that in complex conditions order, and adaptation to the unknown, can be achieved more effectively by decentralizing decisions and that a division of authority will actually extend the possibility of overall order. Yet that decentralization actually leads to more information being taken into account.”

 Hayek’s explanation is consistent with the view of the late Pope John Paul II, who in his encyclical ,Centesimus Annus, addressed whether “capitalism should be the model for Third World countries seeking a path of economic and civil progress. … If by “capitalism” [it] is meant an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative.”

 This view is rejected by Pope Francis in his call for a” new global political authority tasked with “tackling … the reduction of pollution and the development of poor countries and regions.” And according to the Guardian, he seeks “changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem before the end of the century”. This is the language of Greenpeace and Earth First who are extreme by any definition.

The call for global governance is reminiscent of President Jacques Chirac’s 2000 statement that “For the first time, humanity is instituting a genuine instrument (the Kyoto Treaty) of global governance, one that should find a place within the World Environmental Organisation which France and European Union would like to see established.”

The notion that the world should be run by an organization modeled after the UN or the European Commission and European Union is chilling and ought to lead to the prompt dismissal of the Pope’s philosophy but not his personal values or focus on reducing poverty.
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« Reply #31 on: June 26, 2015, 04:04:54 pm »

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/197322#.VY3KX47F9Ga
Vatican Signs Historic First Accord with 'Palestine'

After recognizing PA as a 'state,' Pope Francis's supposedly apolitical Vatican signs treaty with 'Palestine' before it does so with Israel.

6/26/15

The Vatican on Friday signed an historic first accord with "Palestine," two years after officially recognizing the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a state.

The accord, a treaty covering the life and activity of the Church in Judea and Samaria, was the first since the Vatican made the controversial step of recognition in February 2013. It also recognizes the PA as having authority in eastern Jerusalem, the undivided capital of the Jewish state.

The treaty, which took 15 years of negotiations to complete, was agreed in principle last month and condemned by Israel as a setback for the peace process.

Signing international treaties unilaterally is a breach of the 1993 Oslo Accords which created the PA.

Israel's Foreign Ministry responded to the move, expressing its "regret regarding the Vatican decision to officially recognize the Palestinian Authority as a state, in the agreement signed today," spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a statement.

"This hasty step damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement, and harms the international effort to convince the PA to return to direct negotiations with Israel," he said. "We also regret the one sided texts in the agreement which ignore the historic rights of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel and to the places holy to Judaism in Jerusalem."

"Israel cannot accept the unilateral determinations in the agreement which do not take into account Israel's essential interests and the special historic status of the Jewish people in Jerusalem," he added. "Israel will study the agreement in detail, and its implications for future cooperation between Israel and the Vatican."

The Vatican's recognition of "Palestine" followed a November 12 vote in favor of recognition by the UN General Assembly, although the Vatican is supposed to be an apolitical religious body.

Vatican officials have described it as reflecting the Church's desire to see the conflict in the Holy Land resolved by a "two-state" solution.

The PA considers the Vatican one of 136 countries to have recognized "Palestine" as a state, although the number is disputed and several recognitions by what are now European Union member states date back to the Soviet era.

In contrast to its rush to sign accords with the PA, the Vatican has had diplomatic relations with Israel since 1993 but has yet to conclude an accord on the Church's rights in the Jewish state which has been under discussion since 1999.

Last month, the Vatican declared that it would canonize "Palestinian saints," and during the pope's visit to Israel last May he made an unexpected stop at the security barrier between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in Judea to pray at a section with "Pope we need to see someone to speak about justice. Bethlehem look (sic) like Warsaw ghetto. Free Palestine" spray-painted on it.

Persecution of Christians ignored

The agreement appears to ignore the fact that Christians have been systematically persecuted under the PA, which has caused the Christian population in Bethlehem to nearly disappear from 60% in 1990 to 15% last year.

According to Justus Reid Weiner of Hebrew University, in July 2012, a court in Jericho sentenced a Christian to a month of imprisonment for eating in public during Ramadan. "Five other people were also arrested for the same conduct. The chairman of the PA Supreme Court for Sharia Law stated: ‘We have to monitor the streets, and severely punish anyone who eats in public during Ramadan. This is the responsibility of the security forces…I call upon other non-Muslims to be considerate of Muslims’ feelings."

This is in sharp contrast to Western societies, where the majority is usually called upon to be considerate of the minority.

“The Palestinian Land Law prescribes the death penalty for selling land to Jews. Various Christians have testified that it is also enforced if land is sold to Christians. Several Christian owners have been extorted to give up their land to Muslims. In practice, the legal system in the Palestinian territories provides them no recourse," said Weiner.

The jurist added: “Steve Khoury, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem, said in May 2013, that Christians are facing continuous harassment. Due to this, many of them refrain from bearing crosses in public and carrying Bibles. He added that they are often told by Muslims to ‘Convert to Islam. It’s the true and right religion.’ Khoury’s church has been fire-bombed fourteen times."

“In December 2013," Weiner continued, "Samir Qumsieh, a Christian community leader from Beit Sahour near Bethlehem provided several examples of the intimidation the Christian community faces. He showed some examples of souvenirs sold by Christians around Bethlehem’s Manger Square, including t-shirts of the Church of Nativity which do not bear crosses as would be customary. On another occasion Qumsieh stated: ‘We are harassed but you would not know the truth. No one says anything publicly about the Muslims. This is why Christians are running away.’"
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« Reply #32 on: August 11, 2015, 12:54:44 pm »

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« Reply #33 on: August 12, 2015, 02:00:55 pm »

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« Reply #34 on: August 27, 2015, 01:45:26 pm »

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/pope-francis-the-patron-saint-of-tourism-127606481642.html
8/26/15
Pope Francis: The Patron Saint of Tourism?

Folks in Philadelphia still speak with pride about the time Pope John Paul II visited the city in 1979. Next month, a new pope, with an even higher profile (and certainly a much larger social media following), will once again bless the City of Brotherly Love with his presence, along with a formidable boost in tourism.

“We know Pope Francis attracts attention wherever he is, and this visit will touch the perception people have of Philadelphia,” said Meryl Levitz, the CEO of Visit Philadelphia. “In addition to being a religious figure, he is a world figure, so we expect tourism in the short term and long term to be affected by his visit.”

Call it a papal bump, if you will. Pope Francis has been a boon for tourism all over the world. In 2013, in the first nine months following his election, 6.6 million tourists visited the Vatican — almost three times as many as the 2.35 million who came the year before.

Hotels and services in the Philippines received a similar bump in January of this year when the Pope made his visit there.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Alfredo Yao called the papal visit “advertising for the Philippines.”

And when the Pope visited Albania in 2014, it was described as nothing short of a game changer.

“The visit of … figure like the Pope is positive PR, and the attention it will draw in the media will counterbalance the unfair image of Albania as Muslim and backward,” Kliton Gerxhani, an Albanian tourism consultant, said at the time.

Next month will be the first trip to the United States for the head of the 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church. While Francis will also be visiting New York and Washington, D.C., during his trip to the States, Philadelphia is the one stop where visitors are expected to be able to see and spend time with the pope in the flesh.

Pope Francis will be attending the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. He will arrive on Saturday, Sept. 26, and speak at Independence Hall before celebrating at the Festival of Families, a free party held on Benjamin Franklin Parkway. On the afternoon of Sept. 27, the pope will lead Mass for hundreds of thousands of people, also on the parkway.

Anticipating a demand for information, the World Meeting of Families created the Go Philadelphia! mobile app, which provides a guide to all things papal, including places to visit, emergency information, and public transportation information. The app will also provide real-time translation and captioning in eight languages during portions of the Papal Mass and maps of papal visit locations.

Related: No Big Deal — I Just Booked the Pope on a Plane

Hotels in the city are being snatched up quickly, and this coming Thursday, the home rental site Airbnb is holding an event in Philadelphia for those thinking about hosting, so they can meet the Airbnb team, other hosts in the area, and local city officials to get advice on how to best prepare their homes for those traveling to the city for the visit.

“We’ve seen a 270 percent increase in listings on Airbnb.com since April, which means more people are starting to list their private rooms or entire homes up on Airbnb.com for events like the Made in America Festival and the papal visit,” said Alex Ward, the general manager of new markets in the United States for Airbnb. “The papal visit has definitely had an effect on demand and as a result, more people are becoming hosts in the city to welcome them.”

The home rental site HomeAway also says it has seen a 795 percent increase in demand in Philadelphia short-term rentals, which is based on a combination of bookings and inquiries compared to the same time last year.

HomeAway has also seen an uptick of 45 percent in demand in D.C. and a 40 percent increase in the surrounding D.C. area across Virginia and Maryland suburbs during the pope’s visit.

The papal bump also seems to have a spillover effect. Lancaster, Pa., about two hours outside of both Philadelphia and Washington D.C., is also preparing for a boost.

Related: The Pope Francis Bus Tour in Buenos Aires

“We’re aware of up to two dozen bus groups that are actually staying here in Lancaster and then going on down into Philly,” Joel Cliff, of Discover Lancaster, told local news station Fox 43. “So they’re using hotel rooms here simply because it works better for their itinerary, their costs.”

Cliff is also hoping that groups take a day trip to see the local attractions in the region, which includes Amish Country.

Beyond a spike in September, Philadelphia is hoping to see more long-term effects from the visit.

“There will be a carryover. People will see things that intrigue them and they will come back,” Levitz said.

Other locations around the globe are hoping to see a similar interest from papal tourism. In November, Pope Francis will travel to Africa, where he is scheduled to visit Uganda, Kenya, and the Central African Republic. Francis’s visit to Uganda will be the third by a sitting pope, and the Uganda Tourism Board estimates that around 10 million tourists — both local and international — will turn out for the visit.

Related: Take a Gay and Lesbian Pilgrimage With a Catholic Nun

“Tour operators are expecting to gain from this visit. Many people from different continents will be persuaded to explore more about this East African country as a result of pope’s visit. Being the fact that he will visit some cultural and religious sites like Namugongo shrine, it will help in boosting the country’s tourism,” the tour company Maranatha posted on its website.

“Hopefully this upcoming event will help in boosting the country’s tourism, which has of lately been affected by various happenings in the world.”

Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Check out our original adventure travel series, “A Broad Abroad.”
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« Reply #35 on: August 30, 2015, 07:31:26 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=35131
POPE FRANCIS PRAISES AND BLESSES LESBIAN AUTHOR FRANCESCA PARDI FOR SPREADING ‘CHRISTIAN VALUES’
Geoffrey Grider | August 29, 2015 | 24 Comments

ITALIAN LESBIAN AUTHOR GETS PAPAL BLESSING

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” Revelation 13:11 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The one we have started calling the False Prophet of Revelation, Pope Francis, will also be the one that we feel will authorize and sanction same-sex marriage within the Catholic church corporation. Here we have a classic case of Francis “double speak” where he praises homosexuals for being homosexuals and then immediately issues a statement that his words were “misunderstood”. The LGBT community understands very well what Francis is doing, which is why he has so much of their support.

Vatican City – Pope Francis has sent his blessing to a lesbian author of children’s books dealing with same-sex families, wishing her and her wife well in their work, it emerged on Friday.

As Vatican officials scrambled to clarify that the message was simply a standard courtesy which did not signal any change in Church teaching on the subject, the author told AFP she had been pleasantly surprised to have received such a positive response.
Francesca Pardi, who writes and publishes books such as “Why You Have Two Mummies”, wrote to Francis in June after the publishing company she runs with her wife came under fire from Christian groups.

“My books present different types of families without setting any of them up as a model,” Pardi told AFP, praising the pope for having responded in a manner that showed “respect and dignity” towards her, her wife and their four children.

“It was not important for me that it was the pope who said it, I am not a Catholic. But it is important to see that we are not up against a wall. A dialogue is possible,” she added. “Books are to be opened, to be read and to be criticised. What you don’t do is ban them.”

N HIS MESSAGE, THE POPE WISHED THE TWO WOMEN “EVER MORE FRUITFUL WORK IN THE SERVICE OF YOUNG GENERATIONS AND IN SPREADING AUTHENTIC HUMAN AND CHRISTIAN VALUES.”

Pope Francis has signalled that he wants the Church to adopt a more pragmatic and understanding approach to the situation of believers living in gay relationships, an attitude reflected in his famous “who am I to judge” remark on the subject.

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis told reporters, speaking in Italian but using the English word “gay.” – Pope Francis

But proposals to integrate a shift to a more welcoming tone into the conclusions of an ongoing Church review of its teaching on the family have been opposed by conservatives. Bishops from around the world will return to the subject at a Vatican synod in October which will seek to find a compromise on that and other divisive issues.

Pardi and her partner got married in Spain. Italy is the only major western European country that has no provision for same sex couples to have their unions legally recognised. The centre-left government has pledged to enact legislation introducing the possibility of civil unions by the end of this year but there are no plans to legalise gay marriage. source
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« Reply #36 on: August 30, 2015, 08:04:47 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=35096
POPE FRANCIS AIMS FOR RAW POLITICAL POWER WITH SEPTEMBER 23RD ADDRESS TO CONGRESS
Geoffrey Grider | August 27, 2015 | 112 Comments

POPE FRANCIS BELIEVES HE HAS A DIVINE MANDATE TO CONTINUE OBAMA’S DEVILISH JOB OF “RADICALLY TRANSFORMING” AMERICA.

“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Revelation 17:4,5 (KJV)

He is not just the Pope of the world’s Catholics, no, not by a long shot. Francis has stepped out of the shadows and with each new undertaking continues to shore up his base of political power and influence. In just the past two years, Pope Francis has championed Climate Change with a papal encyclical, worked covertly with Obama behind the scenes to restore relations with Communist Cuba, and was a secret but key player in the current Iranian Nuclear Deal which will guarantee that a nuke will soon be pointed at Israel. Francis is the man with the New World Order plan, and he shows no signs of slowing down. And oh, yes, he has also signed a treaty with Palestine against Israel.

pope-francis-political-power-harlot-mystery-babylon-congress-september-23-obama-vatican-catholic-church

As he travels all over the world, at each stop he is building his political power base, using Vatican influence to grant favors, and seducing gullible American Christians back into the tent of the Harlot herself, Mother Rome. Even Chrislam founder Rick Warren calls Francis “our pope”. On September 23, Pope Francis will make his boldest move yet when he addresses Congress. A feat never been done by any pope in the entire history of the United States. Here is a preview of what you can expect he will talk about:

FORCED IMMIGRATION

Pope Francis is a Socialist, with Communist overtones, and as such he will chastise America for not allowing more illegal aliens through our borders. Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, a top adviser to Francis, told an audience at Georgetown University, that Francis would have liked to enter the U.S. by crossing the border with Mexico to make a point about welcoming immigrants, not building walls to keep them out. He said that while time did not allow for a border stopover, the pontiff was certain to raise the issue on Capitol Hill.

REVERSING CAPITALISM

“Capitalism is not a god. It is not a divinity. It is not a system that is perfect and does not need any modification,” he said during a luncheon meeting. “This system is fostering tremendous inequalities.” Socialism is not compatible with Capitalism because you cannot have successful people in the New World Order. Everyone needs to be dragged down to the same level of mediocrity, while the ruling elites live like kings.

WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION

“The free market economy is not complete. We need a social market economy. This is the big contribution of the Catholic faith to the system — to try to have this social component that will bring more justice to the system,” he said. “It is not fair that a system that is producing so much richness could walk side by side with so much poverty.”

FORCING THE CLIMATE CHANGE AGENDA

To deal with climate issues, he has also called for an “Earth Constitution that would transcend the UN Charter” along with the creation of a “Global Council…elected by all the people on Earth” and a “Planetary Court..a transnational legal body open to appeals from everybody, especially with respect to violations of the Earth Constitution.” The two main issues of “protecting the earth” are climate change and global depopulation. Expect Francis to bring out all the big guns on this favorite hobby horse of the Liberal Socialists who run America.

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, POPE FRANCIS BELIEVES HE HAS A DIVINE MANDATE TO CONTINUE OBAMA’S DEVILISH JOB OF “RADICALLY TRANSFORMING” AMERICA.

He demands action and is commander-in-chief of the world’s largest, most dedicated army: 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, including 78 million Americans in 17,645 parishes, inspired by a mission to change the world’s political economy and backed by an “officer corps” of 200 cardinals, over 5,000 bishops, 450,000 priests and deacons all dedicated to carry out his mission.

11-things-happening-september-prophetic-events-prophecy-blood-moons-shemitah-end-times-bible
12 Events That Will Occur In September That You Should Know About
But far more dangerous for American conservatives, this new pope’s message will be regularly delivered by those clerics to America’s power elite: Six of the nine members on the Supreme Court are Catholics, including the chief justice. Three Catholics are in the direct constitutional line of succession if the president dies. Twenty-four of our 100 Senators are Catholic. So are 163 of the 435 members of the House. Add in their Catholic spouses, children, parents and friends, and this new pope is himself a global superpower. His radical, revolutionary “exhortations” will be influencing billions of all faiths worldwide, demanding not pious rhetoric but action to solve world problems.
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« Reply #37 on: September 06, 2015, 09:35:45 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-calls-every-european-parish-host-one-migrant-103352358.html
Pope calls on every European parish to host one migrant family each
9/6/15

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis called on Sunday on every European parish and religious community to take in one migrant family each in a gesture of solidarity he said would start in the tiny Vatican state where he lives.

"I appeal to the parishes, the religious communities, the monasteries and sanctuaries of all Europe to ... take in one family of refugees," he said after his Sunday address in the Vatican.

The pope's call goes out to tens of thousands of Catholic parishes in Europe as the number of refugees arriving over land through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean to Italy and Greece hits record levels.

There are more than 25,000 parishes in Italy alone, and more than 12,000 in Germany, where many of the Syrians fleeing civil war and people trying to escape poverty and hardship in other countries say they want to end up.

The crowd in St. Peter's Square applauded as the pontiff, himself the grandson of Italian emigrants to Argentina, said: "Every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary of Europe, take in one family."

The Vatican's two parishes will take in a family of refugees each in the coming days, said Francis, whose first trip after his election was to the Italian island of Lampedusa, halfway between Sicily and Tunisia, where many migrants arrive by boat.

The Italian coast guard said on Saturday it had coordinated the rescue of 329 migrants who made distress calls from their rubber boats.

Francis said taking in migrant families was a "concrete gesture" to prepare for the extraordinary Holy Year on the theme of mercy which is due to begin on Dec. 8.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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« Reply #38 on: September 17, 2015, 04:14:17 pm »

http://qz.com/503227/the-pope-warns-churches-to-take-in-refugees-or-else/
The pope warns churches to take in refugees—or else
9/16/15

Pope Francis has issued a stark warning to Roman Catholic religious orders: help alleviate the escalating refugee crisis in Europe by hosting asylum seekers, or pay taxes, like everyone else.

In an interview with the Portuguese Radio Renascença, Francis repeated his call from early September to church parishes and other religious institutions to each take in a family of refugees:

When I say that a parish should welcome a family, I don’t mean that they should go and live in the priest’s house, in the rectory, but that each parish community should see if there is a place, a corner in the school which can be turned into a small apartment or, if necessary, that they may rent a small apartment for this family; but that they should be provided with a roof, welcomed and integrated into the community…There are convents which are almost empty…

The pope made a similar call two years ago. He spoke of the lackluster response to his plea by parishes that prefer to use their spare space for profit-generating businesses, referring to “the temptation of the god money.”

“Some religious orders say ‘No, now that the convent is empty we are going to make a hotel and we can have guests, and support ourselves that way, or make money,’” he said.

There are 12,000 parishes in Europe, and Francis said if they want to rake in profits, they should be treated like any other business: “Well, if that is what you want to do, then pay taxes! A religious school is tax-exempt because it is religious, but if it is functioning as a hotel, then it should pay taxes just like its neighbor. Otherwise it is not fair business.”

The Vatican will be taking in two refugee families, Francis said. Asked by Radio Renascenca how long they would stay, he replied: “As long as the Lord wants. We don’t know how this will end, do we?”
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« Reply #39 on: September 22, 2015, 03:44:23 pm »

Pope Francis arrives in the United States
9/22/15
https://popevisit2015.yahoo.com/post/129643780524/pope-francis-arrives-in-the-united-states

On Tuesday afternoon, Pope Francis arrives at Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington, D.C., to begin his historic first trip to the United States. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will personally greet the pontiff. At 3:45 p.m. ET today, Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric will host a special Yahoo News live stream to coincide with the moment Francis is expected to arrive. Couric will be joined by a diverse panel of civic and faith-based leaders to discuss the pope’s influence on the Catholic Church and the significance of his trip. The panel consists of Father Manuel Dorantes, assistant to the director of the Holy See press office; Melissa Rogers, executive director of the White House faith-based and neighborhood partnerships, Amy Sullivan, Yahoo News senior editor; James Carroll, author of “Christ Actually”; and Michael O’Loughlin, author of  “The Tweetable Pope” and national reporter for Crux.
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« Reply #40 on: September 22, 2015, 04:15:42 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-ends-cuban-trip-address-families-heads-us-040511515.html
Pope Francis heads for US and a deeply divided Washington
9/22/15

Pope Francis headed for Washington on Tuesday for the first visit of his life to the United States, bringing his "church of the poor" to the world's wealthiest superpower and a country polarized over issues closest to his heart: immigration, social injustice and economic inequality.

President Barack Obama planned to greet Francis on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base upon his arrival from Cuba, according a rare honor to the pontiff.

During his six-day, three-city visit to the U.S., the pope will meet with Obama, address Congress, speak at the United Nations in New York and take part in a Vatican conference on families in Philadelphia.

He is expected to urge America to take better care of the environment and the poor and return to its founding ideals of religious liberty and open arms toward immigrants.

Francis' enormous popularity, propensity for wading into crowds and insistence on using an open-sided Jeep rather than a bulletproof popemobile have complicated things for U.S. law enforcement, which has mounted one of the biggest security operations in American history to keep him safe.

The measures are unprecedented for a papal trip and could make it nearly impossible for many ordinary Americans to get anywhere close to Francis. For anyone hoping to get across town when the pope is around, good luck.

For all the attention likely to be paid to Francis' speeches, including the first address from a pope to Congress, his more personal gestures — visiting with immigrants, prisoners and the homeless — could yield some of the most memorable images of the trip.

"What the pope does in the United States will be more important than what he says," said Mat Schmalz, a religious studies professor at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. "There are a lot of things he will say about capitalism and about wealth inequality, but many Americans and politicians have already made up their minds on these issues. What I would look for is a particular gesture, an unscripted act, that will move people."

In Cuba, Francis basked in the adulation of Cubans grateful to him for brokering the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the communist island. The pope is expected to raise the "normalization" process while in Washington, where Congress alone can lift the embargo long opposed by the Vatican.

He arrives at a moment of bitter infighting across the country over gay rights, immigration, abortion and race relations — issues that are always simmering in the U.S. but have boiled over in the heat of a presidential campaign.

Capitol Hill is consumed by disputes over abortion and federal funding for Planned Parenthood after hidden-camera videos showed its officials talking about the organization's practice of sending tissue from aborted fetuses to medical researchers. While Francis has staunchly upheld church teaching against abortion, he has recently allowed ordinary priests, and not just bishops, to absolve women of the sin.

Francis' visit comes three months after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, putting U.S. bishops on the defensive and sharply dividing Americans over how much they should accommodate religious objectors. The pope has strongly upheld church teaching against same-sex marriage but adopted a welcoming tone toward gays themselves, saying, "Who am I to judge?" when asked about a supposedly gay priest.

Americans are also wrestling anew with issues of racism. A series of deaths in recent years of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement has intensified debate over the American criminal justice system. Francis will see that system up close when he meets with inmates at a Pennsylvania prison.

U.S. bishops, meanwhile, expect Francis will issue a strong call for immigration reform, a subject that has heated up with hardline rhetoric from some of the Republican presidential candidates, especially Donald Trump. He has painted Mexican immigrants as criminals and said he would build a wall along the U.S. southern border and force Mexico to pay for it.

Francis will be sending a powerful message on that front by delivering the vast majority of his speeches in his native Spanish.

"Our presidential candidates have been using immigrants as a wedge issue," Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said. "It's our hope that the visit of Pope Francis will change this narrative."

The issue is particularly dear to Francis: He took his first trip outside Rome to the island of Lampedusa, ground zero in Europe's immigration crisis, and recently urged every parish and religious order to take in a refugee family. The Vatican itself is sheltering a Syrian family.

Francis' most eagerly watched speech will be his address Thursday to Congress. Republicans and many conservative Catholics have bristled at his indictment of the excesses of capitalism that he says impoverish people and risk turning the Earth into an "immense pile of filth."

Some conservative Catholic commentators have urged Francis to spend more time fighting abortion and gay marriage instead of focusing on the environment. Catholic GOP presidential candidates have rejected his arguments as flawed, and one Republican climate doubter, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, announced plans to boycott Francis' speech.

Nevertheless, Francis enjoys popularity ratings in the U.S. that would be the envy of any world leader. A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last week found 63 percent of Catholics have a favorable view of Francis, and nearly 8 in 10 approve the direction he is taking the church.

Just how far Francis presses his agenda in Washington is the big question.

Paul Vallely, author of "Pope Francis, The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism," said to expect both "warmth" and "some finger-wagging" from the pope.

"He won't necessarily confront people head-on," Vallely said, "but he'll change the priorities."
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« Reply #41 on: September 23, 2015, 10:55:01 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-president-seek-common-ground-oval-office-visit-080029175--politics.html
The pope at White House: Climate change action can't wait
9/23/15

WASHINGTON (AP) — Plunging headlong into the issues of the day, Pope Francis opened his visit to the United States with a strong call Wednesday for action to combat climate change, calling it a problem that "can no longer be left to a future generation." President Barack Obama, in turn, hailed the pontiff as a moral force who is "shaking us out of our complacency" with reminders to care for the poor and the planet.

The White House mustered all the pageantry it had to offer as the pope arrived at the White House before an adoring crowd of thousands and a nation that seemingly cannot get enough of the humble pontiff who is rejuvenating American Catholicism while giving heartburn to some of its conservatives.

Speaking in a soft voice and halting English, Francis delivered a firm message against those who doubt the science of climate change, saying that the warming planet "demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition" of what awaits today's children.

It was a message sure to please the Obama White House, and liberals in general. But the pope had something for conservatives, too, with a pointed call to protect religious liberties — "one of America's most precious possessions."

"All are called to be vigilant,' he said, "to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it."

It was a welcome message to many U.S. bishops and conservatives who have objected to the Obama administration's health care mandate and the recent Supreme Court legalization of same-sex marriage.

With flags snapping, color guard at attention and a military band's brassy marches, Francis stepped from his modest Fiat onto the South Lawn on a crisp fall morning that felt as optimistic as his own persona. Pope and president stood on a red-carpeted platform bedecked with red, white and blue bunting, standing at attention for the national anthems of the Hole See and the United States.

After their opening remarks on the lawn, Obama and Francis pulled up two arm chairs by the fireplace in the Oval Office for a one-on-one meeting where each hoped to find common cause with the other on issues they hold dear — and respectful disagreement where they differ sharply, on subjects such as abortion and same sex marriage.

Just before the pope arrived, Obama had tweeted to the Holy Father: "Welcome to the White House, @Pontifex! Your messages of love, hope, and peace have inspired us all."

Obama, joking that his backyard is not typically so crowded, told the pope during the welcoming ceremony that the excitement surrounding his visit was a reflection of Francis' unique qualities, mentioning "your humility, your embrace of simplicity, the gentleness of your words and the generosity of your spirit."

The president singled out the pope's call for focusing on the poor and the marginalized, including refugees fleeing war and immigrants in search of a better life. The president also thanked the pope for his support for efforts to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

The pope later in the morning was to speak to America's bishops, an address that was highly anticipated given a certain disconnect between Francis' focus on social justice and a merciful church and the culture wars that America's bishops have waged in recent years over abortion and gay rights.

As bishops have found themselves increasingly on the losing side in the national struggle over marriage and abortion, they have made religious freedom a rallying cry, with a largely domestic focus.

Francis' remarks that religious freedom is "one of American's most precious possessions" could well give them encouragement to keep up the fight.

Obama, sensitive to conservative attacks against his administration, made a point in his remarks of saying "we cherish religious liberty."

From the instant the white-robed and grinning Francis landed in the U.S. on Tuesday, doffed his skullcap in the breeze and clambered into his charcoal-gray Fiat, his visit has electrified wonky Washington, which can be jaded about the comings and goings of world figures.

Washington was the first stop on the pope's six-day, three-city visit to the United States.

Kimberly Johnson, a 27-year-old medical student who lives in Washington, said she arrived outside the security gates at midnight in order to be the first one let into the sectioned-off viewing area that opened at 4 a.m.

"It's not just that he's the pope. He's a cool pope," Johnson said. "He's bringing the Catholic Church into the 21st century and making it a more accessible faith."

The pope took his time getting to the White House, stopping to greet schoolchildren who had gathered outside the Vatican's nunciature. The children took selfies with the pope, hugged him and waved Holy See flags.

Thousands more were gathering for a morning parade on streets near the White House.

For all of the oh-wow enthusiasm attending the visit, the pope and the president, with overlapping but far-from-identical agendas, had serious matters to attend to.

Even before he arrived for his first U.S. visit, Francis was fending off conservative criticism of his economic views. He told reporters on his flight from Cuba that some people may have an inaccurate impression that he is "a little bit more left-leaning."

"I am certain that I have never said anything beyond what is in the social doctrine of the church," he said.

From Francis' vantage point, his next stop after the White House was just as critical. The 78-year-old pontiff was meeting with America's 450-strong bishops' conference at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.

Many U.S. bishops have struggled to come to terms with Francis' new social justice-minded direction of the church. Nearly all were appointed by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. They prioritized drawing clearer boundaries for Catholic behavior and belief in the face of legalized abortion, advances in gay rights and the exodus of many Westerners from organized religion.

The American church spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year through its social service agencies, and for years has sought an overhaul of the immigration system to reunite families, shelter refugees and give the poor the chance at a better life. But the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has increasingly put its resources behind high-profile fights over abortion, contraception and gay marriage.

Hailing from Argentina, the first pope from the Americas also was acting Wednesday to canonize a Spanish friar who brought the Catholic faith to California.

Francis was to celebrate the Mass of canonization for Junipero Serra in Spanish. Several thousand of the 25,000 tickets to the event were set aside for Spanish-speaking people, many from California. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception erected a temporary sanctuary on the east portico for the Mass.

On Thursday, Francis planned to deliver the first papal address ever to Congress, speaking to Republican-majority legislators deeply at odds with Obama on issues such as gay rights, immigration, abortion and climate change. Those same issues are roiling the early months of the presidential campaign.

Francis has been pressing his environmental message ahead of crucial climate change talks later this year in Paris, issuing a major teaching document on humanity's obligation to protect God's creation and aiming to spur world leaders to make commitments to reverse global warming. He will bring that message to the United Nations on Friday.

___

Associated Press writers Juliet Linderman and Jessica Gresko in Washington and Religion writer Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this report.
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« Reply #42 on: September 25, 2015, 10:43:54 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=35894
THE SHOCKING MESSAGE POPE FRANCIS PREACHED AT NEW YORK’S ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL
Geoffrey Grider | September 25, 2015 | 12 Comments

THE POPE, THE SELF-PROCLAIMED “VICAR OF CHRIST”, PREACHING A MESSAGE OF THE FAILURE OF JESUS ON THE CROSS.

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18 (KJV)

Like many people, I missed the message that the Pope preached at St. Patrick’s Cathedral because it was not streamed live as far as I was aware. And honestly, I was much more interested from a prophecy perspective in what he was going to say to Washington and the United Nations. So I did not bother to take a peek and see what he preached at St. Patrick’s. When I did, I about fell off my chair.

First of all, Pope Francis gave a shout-out to his “Muslim brothers and sisters” when he said this – “I would like to express two sentiments for my Muslim brothers and sisters: Firstly, my greetings as they celebrate the feast of sacrifice.” In case he doesn’t know, Islam clearly teaches that their god, Allah, has no son. None at all. So for a Christian to be a spiritual brother or sister with a Muslim is impossible. The Qu’ran boldly declares that Allah has no son:

“It is not [befitting] for Allah to take a son; exalted is He! When He decrees an affair, He only says to it, “Be,” and it is.”  Surah 19:35,36

Pope Francis has been wooing the Muslims into the Vatican tent for sometime now. In November of 2014, he prayed inside a Mosque in Istanbul, in December of 2014 Pope Francis defended Islam as a “religion of peace”, and just a few weeks ago issued the order for all Catholics in Europe to take in Muslim migrants to live with them in their homes.

BUT IT DIDN’T STOP THERE, NOT BY A LONG SHOT. POPE FRANCIS DECLARED THE WORK OF JESUS ON THE CROSS TO BE A FAILURE

Perhaps the most shocking, the most stunning words to ever come out of the Pope’s mouth had to do with him talking about the “failure of the Cross”. What?? It is because of Jesus on the cross, that we have salvation. It is because of the cross that we now have access to the Father and a FULL pardon for our sins. It is because of the cross that Heaven, and not Hell, is our destination. This is what he said:

“The cross shows us a different way of measuring success. Ours is to plant the seeds. God sees to the fruits of our labors. And if at times our efforts and works seem to fail and not produce fruit, we need to remember that we are followers of Jesus Christ and his life, humanly speaking, ended in failure, the failure of the cross.”

**There's this "lordship salvation" strawman being used to no end since the 2nd half of the 20th century - pretty much, these critics make a BIG fuss over "fruit inspectors"(ie-calling them hypocritical Pharisees). Bottom line, if you are born-again and regenerated by the Holy Ghost, you WILL produce ongoing fruit in your life(despite backslidings), period! A tree is known by its fruit!

That was it, not another word. You would expect him to say something like “while it appeared to be a failure to His disciples, the cross was actually a victory…” or some such thing. I have heard that preached many times before in church. But the thing is, he didn’t say that. He just simply stated that the life of Jesus on the cross “ended in failure”, which is a complete and total lie. How he could just leave it there, in defeat, to declare the cross a FAILURE and not expound one, tiny bit more is beyond imagination. The Pope, the self-proclaimed “vicar of Christ”, preaching a message of the FAILURE OF JESUS on the cross. Honestly, words fail me at this moment. Truly.

What better way could Pope Francis end a “sermon” whose opening remarks call Christ-rejecting, Hell-bound Muslims our “brothers and sisters”, and whose main point is the “failure of Jesus on the cross”, than by praying to Mary and asking for her blessing:

“Dear brothers and sisters, in a few moments, we will sing the Magnificat. Let us commend to our lady the work we have been entrusted to do. Let us join her in thanking god for the great things he has done…”

You can click here to read the full transcript of this sermon from the pit of Hell, but honestly, why would you want to?

Pope Francis, as far I am concerned, still retains his title of The False Prophet…and then some.
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« Reply #43 on: September 26, 2015, 11:10:39 pm »

Yeah, BA2, I've noticed that, too. In the ongoing headache that is Round SaturnsEye, I'm constantly being barraged by his subscribers with that kind of "who are you to judge?" nonsense that is very reminiscent of the easy believism crowd.
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« Reply #44 on: October 02, 2015, 04:01:17 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-popes-visit-davis-not-form-support-092505075.html
Vatican: Pope met with gay student, partner in Davis twist
10/2/15

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Friday distanced Pope Francis from Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk at the center of the U.S. gay marriage debate, saying she was one of dozens of people the pope greeted as he left Washington and that their encounter "should not be considered a form of support of her position."

And in a new twist, the Vatican revealed that the "only real audience" Francis had in Washington was with a former student and his family, who later identified himself as Yayo Grassi, an openly gay Argentine who met the pope with his longtime partner and some friends.

The revelations turned the table on the narrative of Davis' encounter, making clear that Francis wanted another meeting to come to light: that of an old student and his "family," who happens to be gay.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis met with "several dozen" people at the Vatican's embassy in Washington just before leaving for New York. Lombardi said such meetings are normal on any Vatican trip and are due to the pope's "kindness and availability."

And Lombardi said Davis' "brief" meeting that afternoon was by no means a papal endorsement of her cause.

"The pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects," Lombardi said.

"The only real audience granted by the pope at the nunciature was with one of his former students and his family," Lombardi added.

Lombardi didn't reveal who the student was, but the man subsequently came forward: In a video posted online, Grassi is shown entering the embassy, embracing his former teacher and introducing Francis to his partner, whom Francis recognized from a previous meeting, and a few friends from Asia.

A Vatican assistant spokesman, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, confirmed that the former student was indeed Grassi.

An audience differs from a meeting in that it is a planned, somewhat formal affair. Popes have audiences with heads of state. They have meetings and greeting sessions with benefactors or Catholic VIPs. So the fact that Lombardi described Grassi's encounter as the only "real audience" in Washington made clear that Francis wanted to emphasize that encounter over Davis' "brief meeting" with several dozen other people invited to the embassy at the same time.

Davis, an Apostolic Christian, spent five days in jail for defying federal court orders to issue same-sex marriage licenses after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide.

A judge ultimately freed Davis on the condition she doesn't interfere with her deputies issuing the licenses. When Davis returned to work, she replaced the licenses with new ones saying they were issued "pursuant to federal court order."

View galleryKentucky's Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis makes remarks …
Kentucky's Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who was briefly jailed for refusing to issue marriage l …
Davis said earlier this week that she and her husband met briefly with the pope at the Vatican's nunciature in Washington and that he thanked her for her courage and encouraged her to "stay strong."

"Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we're doing and agreeing, you know, it kind of validates everything," she told ABC.

The Vatican statement made clear the pope intended no such validation.

However, Davis' lawyer, Mat Staver, told The Associated Press that the Vatican initiated the meeting as an affirmation of her right to be conscientious objector.

"We wouldn't expect the pope to weigh in on the particulars of any case," Staver said Friday. "Rather, the meeting was a pastoral meeting to encourage Kim Davis in which Pope Francis thanked her for her courage and told her to 'Stay strong,'" Staver said in a statement. "His words and actions support the universal human right to conscientious objection."

He said an unnamed Vatican official initiated the meeting on Sept. 14, the day Davis returned to work after being jailed, saying the pope wanted to meet her. He said Vatican security picked up her and her husband from their hotel and told her to change her hairdo so she wouldn't be recognized since the Vatican wanted the meeting kept secret.

Staver disputed a Vatican spokesman's claims that the pope only met Davis in a "farewell lineup" or receiving line. He said the couple was in a separate room with Francis and Vatican security and personnel and that no member of the general public was present, to keep the meeting secret. He said the Vatican official who arranged the meeting insisted that it not be made public until after Francis had left the U.S., and gave him the "green light" to make it public after Francis was back in Rome.

News of the meeting sent shockwaves through the U.S. church, with Davis' supporters saying it showed the pope backed her cause and opponents questioning whether the pope had been duped into meeting with her.

Initially the Vatican only reluctantly confirmed the meeting but offered no comment.

On Friday, Lombardi met with Francis and issued a fuller statement to "contribute to an objective understanding of what transpired." Francis has made clear he dislikes being used for political ends, and Lombardi's statement appeared intended to make clear that the encounter should in no way be exploited.

Lombardi declined to say who invited Davis into the nunciature or what the pope knew of the case ahead of time. Such encounters are arranged by the Vatican ambassador and his staff, not the pope's delegation or the U.S. bishops' conference.

The Vatican nuncio in Washington is Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, an Italian best known for his role in the Vatileaks scandal, which helped bring about Pope Benedict XVI's resignation: The scandal began in 2012 when an Italian journalist broadcast letters from Vigano, then the No. 2 Vatican administrator, to Benedict in which he begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros. Vigano was eventually transferred to Washington to become ambassador.

He has since strongly taken up the religious liberty charge championed by U.S. bishops, suggesting that he might well have supported Davis in her battle over gay marriage: In a 2012 speech to the University of Notre Dame, Vigano denounced threats to religious liberty in the U.S. and abroad, citing a public school curriculum presenting same-sex relations as "natural and wholesome."

Rosica, Lombardi's assistant, said he believed the pope would have been given a list of the several dozen people who were invited to farewell as he left Washington, but he was unaware of the details of Davis' case or any possible implications of the meeting. He hypothesized that the reception amounted to a receiving line-type event, with people in various rooms on the first floor of the embassy to greet the pope and receive a rosary from him.

"I don't think he knew the details, the full biographies of each person, except for the names of the people there," Rosica said.

"I don't think it's a matter of being tricked as of being fully aware of the situation and its complexities," he said. "I don't think anyone was willfully trying to trick the pope, and at the same time nor was the pope briefed properly on who was he meeting. He wasn't properly briefed on the person or the impact of such a visit."

He said Davis' supporters had "overblown" the encounter.

As he left the country, Francis told reporters who inquired that he did not know specific cases in detail, but he defended conscientious objection as a human right.

"It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right," Francis said.
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« Reply #45 on: October 02, 2015, 05:42:06 pm »

I`ve always been curious and for many years now, to see how much Christianity One World Religeon will swallow up. In my opinion the extent of the corruption and damage will be surprising to many. Be careful lest the finger you point at the Catholics also points at your own church. There is more Catholic tradition among Protestants then is generally known.
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« Reply #46 on: October 02, 2015, 06:32:35 pm »

I`ve always been curious and for many years now, to see how much Christianity One World Religeon will swallow up. In my opinion the extent of the corruption and damage will be surprising to many. Be careful lest the finger you point at the Catholics also points at your own church. There is more Catholic tradition among Protestants then is generally known.

The Southern Baptist Convention is also pushing Catholicism as well(via Rick Warren, Emergent Church, Richard Foster, Beth Moore, etc) - maybe not blatantly like the Protestants do, but nonetheless they have let them slip through the back door.
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« Reply #47 on: October 03, 2015, 04:31:56 am »

I`ve always been curious and for many years now, to see how much Christianity One World Religeon will swallow up. In my opinion the extent of the corruption and damage will be surprising to many. Be careful lest the finger you point at the Catholics also points at your own church. There is more Catholic tradition among Protestants then is generally known.

That is the whole point. The Catholic church is nothing more than ancient Babylon's religion with different names. The Babylonian religion permeate through out the whole world and all share some aspects to Catholicism. You have the candles and magic aspect and familiars of new age witchcraft, Hindus share many different deities and prayer beads. Islam is just an off shoot of Catholicism. Every religion can find its roots in the Babylonian religion, or today called the Catholic church. That is why the pope tries so hard to bring all religions together. With the exception of true Christianity and Jews.

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Be careful lest the finger you point at the Catholics also points at your own church.

All churches that meet in a building is already following catholic tradition.
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« Reply #48 on: October 03, 2015, 06:06:27 am »



All churches that meet in a building is already following catholic tradition.


I see. Then you must also agree that Peter was the first Pope since the people in Acts 2 were havin their meeting in the second story of a building.
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« Reply #49 on: October 03, 2015, 06:38:12 am »


I see. Then you must also agree that Peter was the first Pope since the people in Acts 2 were havin their meeting in the second story of a building.

Peter NEVER went to Rome. His grave is in Jerusalem. They met in the second story room of a building, not a church. Please dont play word games here. The Church up to the creation of the papal system always met at peoples homes or fields. And those that did not join the Papal system didnt follow the catholic teaching. That was one reason for the Catholic persecution of the real Church. The Catholic church is exactly the same as the ancient Babylon churches.
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« Reply #50 on: October 03, 2015, 07:10:04 am »

Peter NEVER went to Rome. His grave is in Jerusalem. They met in the second story room of a building, not a church. Please dont play word games here. The Church up to the creation of the papal system always met at peoples homes or fields. And those that did not join the Papal system didnt follow the catholic teaching. That was one reason for the Catholic persecution of the real Church. The Catholic church is exactly the same as the ancient Babylon churches.


The upper room was a large area that held at least 120 people and surely even more then that. It was used for meetings, religeous ceremonies (ie Passover, feast of Pentecost) and for prayer. It was a church in every sense of the word. There are absolutely no Biblical restrictions regarding meeting places. Two or more can gather in Jesus name and have church anywhere, including in a building. Really friend you shouldn`t expect anybody to take a remark like that one seriously.

The church houses existed because it was dangerous to be a Christian. I am not opposed to them FYI in fact I see some advantage to the concept but I am sure that those early believers would have preferred to be able to meet in public, in safety and in larger numbers then a house makes possible. A blanket statement, stating that meeting in a building makes you Catholic isn`t reasonable.
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« Reply #51 on: October 07, 2015, 09:30:01 am »

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/05/us-pope-synod-idUSKCN0RZ0PP20151005
10/5/15
Pope says Church can't be 'museum', must be open to change

Pope Francis told a Roman Catholic meeting on family issues on Monday that the Church should not be a stuffy "museum of memories" but have the courage to change if that was what God wanted.

Francis urged bishops at the start of a three-week gathering, known as a synod, to humbly empty themselves of conventions and prejudices. They should not "point fingers at the others to judge them" or feel superior to those with different ideas.

In a passage that appeared to be directed at unbending traditionalists, the pope said bishops should beware the "hardening of some hearts, which despite good intentions, keep people away from God".

Yet he also made a nod to conservatives, calling for courage that "does not let itself be intimidated by the seductions of the world" and passing fads.

Since his election in 2013 as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Francis has given great hope to progressives who want him to forge ahead with his vision of a more inclusive and less polarized Church that concentrates on mercy rather than the strict enforcement of rigid rules they see as antiquated.

Faith was "not a museum to look at and save" but should be a source of inspiration, he said, calling on the synod to have "courage to bring life and not make our Christian life a museum of memories".

The gathering of some 300 bishops, delegates, observers and 18 married couples has been preceded by intense jockeying between conservatives and liberals on sensitive issues.

It will discuss ways to defend the traditional family and make life-long marriage more appealing to young people while reaching out to disaffected Catholics such as homosexuals, co-habiting couples and the divorced.

Francis told the first working session the bishops should not just talk but try to hear what God wanted for the Church, and to listen to differing opinions among themselves.

But key participants said they did not expect any radical modifications to Church teachings on family issues.

NO RADICAL CHANGES

At a news conference after the first session, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris warned reporters they would be "disappointed" if they expected radical changes to basic Church doctrine on family issues such as marriage.

While he noted that the pope was the ultimate arbiter, Vingt-Trois predicted the changes would be to the pastoral approach to sensitive issues rather than to doctrine.

Italian Archbishop Bruno Forte, one of the synod's secretaries, said times had changed. "The Church cannot remain insensitive to the challenges ... the synod doesn't meet for nothing," Forte said.

The meeting is the follow-up to one held a year ago which was marked by stormy differences between conservatives and liberals on how welcoming the Church should be to homosexual Catholics.

The run-up to the synod has been dominated by gay issues.

Conservative Catholics held a conference in Rome just before it started on how homosexuals can live by Church rules that they be chaste. Activists held their own gathering, demanding full acceptance of active gays in the Church.

On Saturday, the Vatican dismissed a Polish priest from his Holy See job after he came out as gay and called for changes in Catholic teachings against homosexual activity.

The Vatican said his very public coming-out put undue media pressure on the synod. Francis appeared to refer to outside pressure, saying the synod should be "a protected space where the Church feels the action of the Holy Spirit".

Another key topic will be how to involve Catholics who have divorced and remarried in civil ceremonies.

They are considered to be still married to their first spouse and living in sin. Some bishops want a change to the rules that bar them from receiving sacraments such as communion.

Francis is believed to be in favor of the Church showing more mercy toward such Catholics on a case-by-case basis but he wants the bishops to reach common ground on the divisive issue.

The bishops, meeting behind closed doors, will submit reports to the pope. He may use these to write his own document, known as an Apostolic Exhortation, on family issues.
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« Reply #52 on: October 08, 2015, 06:37:04 am »

Based on the evidence I have seen I believe apostate Christianity will be destroyed by the great tribulation, including the Catholic faith. When satan has his hour he will not tolerate Christianity of any kind no matter how flawed it is.The great falling away will be the end of Catholicism. In every new testament instance of falling away it is a complete departure from the faith, an end of belief in Jesus.

The great delusion which is the UFO phenomenon will cause it to happen. Interesting to note that Pope has recently spoken of it. Disclosure of the truth will destroy those who don`t believe and along with the tribulation it will destroy apostate believers down to the to the last person.
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« Reply #53 on: October 12, 2015, 10:20:02 pm »

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/12/us-pope-synod-idUSKCN0S623520151012
10/12/15
Leaked letter adds intrigue, confusion to Vatican bishops meeting

A gathering of world Roman Catholic bishops was thrown into confusion on Monday with the leak of a letter from conservative cardinals to Pope Francis bitterly complaining that the meeting was stacked against them.

It was published by the same Italian journalist whose press credentials were stripped by the Holy See last June after he ran a leaked copy of the pope's major encyclical on the environment.

The gathering, or synod, of more than 300 bishops, delegates and observers, including some married couples, is discussing how the 1.2 billion-member Church can confront challenges facing the modern family.

The bishops are debating ways to defend the traditional family and make life-long marriage more appealing to young people, and at the same time reach out to disaffected Catholics such as homosexuals, co-habiting couples and the divorced.

L'Espresso newsweekly, which published the English-language letter in full, said 13 cardinals signed the letter and one of them hand-delivered it to the pope last week.

It complained that the synod's working paper needed "reflection and reworking" and was inadequate as the basis for a final position paper the pope may use to write his own document.

The published letter also complained that a change in which small group discussions have greater influence than speeches to the assembly "seems designed to facilitate predetermined results on important disputed questions".

A Vatican spokesman said letters to the pope were private.

Four of the conservative cardinals cited by the magazine later disassociated themselves from the letter. Several said private letters should remain so and one said he signed a similar but different version.

The leak of the letter added a new layer of intrigue and confusion in the debate between conservatives and liberals on a host of sensitive issues. One topic is how to reach out to Catholics who have divorced and remarried in civil ceremonies.

They are considered by the Church to be still married to their first spouse and living in a state of sin. Some bishops want a change to the rules that bar them from receiving sacraments such as communion.

Conservatives are trying to block change to the current teaching on divorced Catholics. They also oppose resolutions that could be interpreted as a weakening of the Church's teaching against homosexual acts.

Since his election in 2013, Francis has given hope to progressives who want him to forge ahead with his vision of a more inclusive Church that concentrates on mercy rather than the strict enforcement of rigid rules they see as antiquated.
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« Reply #54 on: October 13, 2015, 11:23:19 pm »

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/patsy-mcgarry-pope-francis-sows-confusion-among-bishops-at-synod-1.2387423
Patsy McGarry: Pope Francis sows confusion among bishops at synod
‘Are we writing to the Holy Father, to the families of the church, or to the world?’

10/12/15

It was the late Brian Friel who coined the phrase “confusion is not an ignoble condition”.

Not many senior prelates in the Catholic Church might agree. Certainty has been their forte but confusion is their lot at the synod of bishops in Rome. They do not know what is expected of them in the final document on the family they are to agree by October 25th.

This uncertainty was evident last Friday in reports from the synod’s 13 working groups. Each is constructed along language lines and is made up of about 20 bishops.

One of the four English language groups, one chaired by Canadian cardinal Thomas Collins, said of that document “we felt limited in our ability to respond by not knowing clearly who the audience of the document is. In other words, are we writing to the Holy Father, to the families of the church, or to the world?” It is a central question.

The report from another group, chaired by Ireland’s primate Archbishop Eamon Martin, admitted that “we have been somewhat uncertain about the task presented to us”. It said “at times our work has seemed more muddled than methodical”.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, secretary of a third group, told The Irish Times: “I have no idea myself what way the synod is going to go . . . we’re writing a document, or contributing to the writing of a document, we don’t know who it’s being written for. Is it written for the pope?”

Apostolic Exhortation
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, too, has been candid. On Saturday he said: “at the end of this first week we don’t know what will happen in three weeks. Perhaps the pope will give clearer indications”.

Since 1975 such synods have prepared a final document for the pope who then went on to pronounce an Apostolic Exhortation (statement) which might or might not be influenced by that document.

Current confusion in Rome centres on what Pope Francis will do with such a document. He has appointed a committee of 10 to draft it with the bishops. Will he accept it and ignore it? Or accept it and issue an Apostolic Exhortation based on it? Will he bother with an Apostolic Exhortation at all? Or will he, in this new spirit of collegiality, issue the bishops’ final report as guidance for the universal church and leave it at that?

The answer to all of this rests with Pope Francis himself. For now, however, he’s saying nothing. Meanwhile his brother bishops flounder in strange waters.

In his opening address to the synod last Monday he made it clear that the church’s teaching on marriage was not for changing. His concern was with compassionate pastoral care for the family and his direction to the bishops was “. . . discuss.”

Candid comment
And he wants open, frank discussion of real issues facing families around the world today. He has removed the rubber-stamp predictability of such synods in the past when bishops’ addresses amounted to lengthy but positive quotations from the pontiff of the day and little more.

Francis wants candid comment, and in under three minutes! This is strange territory for a great many bishops. It is also something of a leveller. Veterans of many synods find themselves in the same position as rookie bishops there for the first time.

One such is Archbishop Eamon Martin (53), attending his first synod since becoming Archbishop of Armagh in August of last year. He told The Irish Times it was exciting to discover that for so many other bishops, including Cardinal Wuerl of Washington who is attending his eighth synod, “it’s a new experience. I think we’re dealing with a new form of synodality and collegiality at work here”.

Excitement has not necessarily been the response of older peers. Unable to direct irritation at the pope they have found an ideal alternative in the synod’s Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, which they have been discussing as the basis for their final report.

Based on a questionnaire issued to Catholics worldwide and reflections on that, it is an unwieldy, inelegant composite and an ideal whipping boy for frustrated bishops.

It was mercilessly criticised in working group reports last Friday. The Cardinal Collins group described it as “chaotic” and “without inherent logic”. Its text was “flawed or inadequate, especially in its theology”. Members felt “Pope Francis and the people of the church deserve a better text, one in which ideas are not lost in the confusion”.

The group chaired by Archbishop Eamon Martin said of it “the going was very slow indeed at times, and we are left wondering how on earth we will manage to make our way paragraph by paragraph through the entire document before the end of the synod”.
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« Reply #55 on: October 19, 2015, 03:22:59 pm »

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/opinion/sunday/the-plot-to-change-catholicism.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=3
10/17/15
The Plot to Change Catholicism

THE Vatican always seems to have the secrets and intrigues of a Renaissance court — which, in a way, is what it still remains. The ostentatious humility of Pope Francis, his scoldings of high-ranking prelates, have changed this not at all; if anything, the pontiff’s ambitions have encouraged plotters and counterplotters to work with greater vigor.

Francis’s purpose is simple: He favors the proposal, put forward by the church’s liberal cardinals, that would allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion without having their first marriage declared null.

Thanks to the pope’s tacit support, this proposal became a central controversy in last year’s synod on the family and the larger follow-up, ongoing in Rome right now..

But if his purpose is clear, his path is decidedly murky. Procedurally, the pope’s powers are near-absolute: If Francis decided tomorrow to endorse communion for the remarried, there is no Catholic Supreme Court that could strike his ruling down.

At the same time, though, the pope is supposed to have no power to change Catholic doctrine. This rule has no official enforcement mechanism (the Holy Spirit is supposed to be the crucial check and balance), but custom, modesty, fear of God and fear of schism all restrain popes who might find a doctrinal rewrite tempting.

And a change of doctrine is what conservative Catholics, quite reasonably, believe that the communion proposal favored by Francis essentially implies.

There’s probably a fascinating secular political science tome to be written on how the combination of absolute and absolutely-limited power shapes the papal office. In such a book, Francis’s recent maneuvers would deserve a chapter, because he’s clearly looking for a mechanism that would let him exercise his powers without undercutting his authority.

The key to this search has been the synods, which have no official doctrinal role but which can project an image of ecclesiastical consensus. So a strong synodal statement endorsing communion for the remarried as a merely “pastoral” change, not a doctrinal alteration, would make Francis’s task far easier.

Unfortunately such a statement has proven difficult to extract — because the ranks of Catholic bishops include so many Benedict XVI and John Paul II-appointed conservatives, and also because the “pastoral” argument is basically just rubbish. The church’s teaching that marriage is indissoluble has already been pushed close to the breaking point by this pope’s new expedited annulment process; going all the way to communion without annulment would just break it.

So to overcome resistance from bishops who grasp this obvious point, first last year’s synod and now this one have been, to borrow from the Vatican journalist Edward Pentin’s recent investigative book, “rigged” by the papal-appointed organizers in favor of the pope’s preferred outcome.

The documents guiding the synod have been written with that goal in mind. The pope has made appointments to the synod’s ranks with that goal in mind, not hesitating to add even aged cardinals tainted by the sex abuse scandal if they are allied to the cause of change. The Vatican press office has filtered the synod’s closed-door (per the pope’s directive) debates to the media with that goal in mind. The churchmen charged with writing the final synod report have been selected with that goal in mind. And Francis himself, in his daily homilies, has consistently criticized Catholicism’s “doctors of the law,” its modern legalists and Pharisees — a not-even-thinly-veiled signal of his views.

(Though of course, in the New Testament the Pharisees allowed divorce; it was Jesus who rejected it.)

And yet his plan is not necessarily succeeding. There reportedly still isn’t anything like a majority for the proposal within the synod, which is probably why the organizers hedged their bets for a while about whether there would even be a final document. And the conservatives — African, Polish, American, Australian — have been less surprised than last fall, and quicker to draw public lines and try to box the pontiff in with private appeals.

The entire situation abounds with ironies. Aging progressives are seizing a moment they thought had slipped away, trying to outmaneuver younger conservatives who recently thought they owned the Catholic future. The African bishops are defending the faith of the European past against Germans and Italians weary of their own patrimony. A Jesuit pope is effectively at war with his own Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the erstwhile Inquisition — a situation that would make 16th century heads spin.

For a Catholic journalist, for any journalist, it’s a fascinating story, and speaking strictly as a journalist, I have no idea how it will end.

Speaking as a Catholic, I expect the plot to ultimately fail; where the pope and the historic faith seem to be in tension, my bet is on the faith.

But for an institution that measures its life span in millennia, “ultimately” can take a long time to arrive.
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« Reply #56 on: October 20, 2015, 01:00:58 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/popes-family-synod-no-changes-everything-changed-182929101.html
Pope's family synod: No changes, but everything has changed
10/19/15

VATICAN CITY (AP) — It's now quite certain that Pope Francis' big summit on family issues won't endorse any changes to church doctrine on the church's teaching about homosexuality or whether civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.

And yet, it seems, everything has changed.

From the crucial role African bishops have played in the debate, to calls to remove "intrinsically disordered" from the church's language on gays, to the freedom bishops now enjoy to speak their minds on once-taboo issues, Francis' synod on the family has at the very least shaken up the church for years to come.

And if Francis has his way, there's more ahead.

Francis delivered a sleeper bombshell of a speech over the weekend kicking off the final week of the synod in which he called for nothing less than a revolution in the concept of the Catholic Church itself. He said it's not a top-down organization with the pope in charge but rather an inverted pyramid where the summit — the pope — is underneath and in service to the "holy faithful people of God" who are its base.

He called for a "healthy decentralization" of authority on certain problems from Rome to local bishops' conferences, and said the papacy itself should be rethought, with the pope guiding the church but really just one bishop among many, one Catholic among many.

"It's a very delicate moment, where you realize that the relationship between the church and the world is at stake," the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit close to Francis, said as the synod entered its third and crucial week.

The 270 synod "fathers" are hammering out a final document to submit to Francis on Saturday conveying a host of proposals for how the church can better minister to Catholic families today. They will vote paragraph by paragraph on the text, amending what has been a near-universally scorned draft working document.

What Francis does with the final paper is up to him: He can use it as a basis for a document of his own, he can ignore it, or he can publish it as a synod document. During Round One of the bishops' family meeting last year, Francis not only published the final document in full, he published the three paragraphs that didn't receive the necessary votes to pass — those that dealt with the vexing issues of ministering to gay Catholics and civilly remarried Catholics.

The key question of Round Two has been how the bishops would pick up those two outstanding issues, after Francis called for a more merciful, less doctrinaire approach.

Francis has shown a far more pastoral attitude to gays, famously saying "Who am I to judge" about a purportedly gay priest. But church teaching holds that while gays themselves should be treated with dignity and respect, homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered."

Progressives have sought a new language that is more welcoming and less condemning, but proposals last year to recognize that homosexual unions had some merit were quashed by conservatives. While the final document won't be known until Saturday, several bishops have said the church's language towards gays must emphasize that gays like heterosexuals are children of God, regardless of their sexual orientation, and must be welcomed into the church.

On the civil remarriage issue, church teaching holds that unless these remarried Catholics annul their first marriages, they are committing adultery and cannot receive Communion.

Progressives have sought wiggle room, to look at remarried couples on a case-by-case basis, accompanying them on a path of reconciliation that could lead to them eventually receiving the sacraments. Conservatives led by Africans have held fast to doctrine, insisting that Jesus himself taught that a valid marriage is indissoluble.

"I don't think we're ever going to get consensus on some of these hot-button issues," Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge told reporters Monday. "But was that ever a realistic possibility? I doubt it. The one thing that is certain about next Sunday is that we won't have finished the task. This journey will continue."

Indeed, many participants have spoken about the remarkable freedom they now feel to speak about previously taboo topics — encouraged by the Jesuit pope to use the Jesuit spiritual exercise to discern what God really wants from them. That has implications for how bishops at home will deal with pastoral issues, listening to their flock more and perhaps being more creative in their ministry than merely reciting doctrine. And it may well trickle down to ordinary Catholics, called upon to discern in their conscience what God wants from them.

On the first full working day of the synod, Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher proposed ordaining women as deacons, to help relieve the priest shortage and give women more roles in the church.

The proposal hasn't gone anywhere, but the fact that it was even tabled is indicative of a new atmosphere Francis has ushered in, where bishops can speak in total freedom in the protected synod hall, knowing that journalists are kept at bay and that the pope is the guarantor of the church's unity.

And even after the synod ends, Francis may have more surprises up his cassock sleeve. On Dec. 8, he launches his yearlong "Jubilee of Mercy," during which he has already given ordinary priests rather than just bishops the ability to absolve women of the sin of abortion.

"We have to understand that we are living an ecclesial process of huge dimensions," the Jesuit Spadaro told Vatican Radio. "So we shouldn't be surprised that there are moments of fatigue, of blockage, difficulty and tensions. There's also the joy that we are creating history together."
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« Reply #57 on: October 20, 2015, 10:21:54 pm »

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/pope.francis.calls.for.revolution.in.catholic.church.with.pope.at.the.bottom.of.inverted.pyramid.holy.see/68132.htm
Pope Francis calls for 'revolution' in Catholic Church with pope at the bottom of inverted pyramid Holy See
10/20/15

Pope Francis could rewrite the Catholic doctrine and "alter Catholicism" itself as he continues to push through his plan to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion even before they get an annulment, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat says.

Over the weekend, Pope Francis made known his intent to radically changed Catholicism itself when he called for a "revolution" in the concept of the Catholic Church. He said the Holy See should not be a top-down organisation with the pope in charge but rather an inverted pyramid where the summit — the pope — is below and in service to the "holy faithful people of God" at the top, according to an Associated Press report.

In his op-ed commentary, Douthat says the pope could name an advisory body "rigged" to approve his proposal in the ongoing synod of bishops on the family.

"Procedurally, the pope's powers are near-absolute: If Francis decided tomorrow to endorse communion for the remarried, there is no Catholic Supreme Court that could strike his ruling down," Douthat writes.

The conservative journalist believes that the pope is "clearly looking for a mechanism that would let him exercise his powers without undercutting his authority."

This mechanism, he says, can be provided by the bishops' synod, the papal advisory body that "can project an image of ecclesiastical consensus."

Douthat says as it is the "church's teaching that marriage is indissoluble has already been pushed close to the breaking point" when Pope Francis decreed an expedited annulment process.

To ensure the success of his plan, Douthat points to the claim made by Vatican journalist Edward Pentin who wrote in his recent investigative book that the synod has been "rigged" by organisers appointed by the pope "in favour of the pope's preferred outcome."

But despite all the scheming, Douthat believes the pope might not succeed in pushing through his plan. "There reportedly still isn't anything like a majority for the proposal within the synod," he writes.

The Associated Press also says that the synod on family issues is unlikely to endorse any changes in church doctrine on the church's teaching about homosexuality or whether civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.

"And yet, it seems, everything has changed," an AP report says.

"From the crucial role African bishops have played in the debate, to calls to remove 'intrinsically disordered' from the church's language on gays, to the freedom bishops now enjoy to speak their minds on once-taboo issues, Francis' synod on the family has at the very least shaken up the church for years to come," AP says.

Over the weekend, Pope Francis made known his intent to radically changed Catholicism itself when he called for a "revolution" in the concept of the Catholic Church. He said the Holy See should not a top-down organisation with the pope in charge but rather an inverted pyramid where the summit — the pope — is below and in service to the "holy faithful people of God" who are its base.

Pope Francis called for a "healthy decentralisation" of authority on certain problems.

He said the papacy itself should be rethought, with the pope guiding the church but really just one bishop among many, one Catholic among many, according to AP.

"It's a very delicate moment, where you realise that the relationship between the church and the world is at stake," said Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit close to Pope Francis, as the synod entered its third and crucial week this week.
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« Reply #58 on: October 21, 2015, 12:18:25 pm »

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/20/synod-bishops-dispute-us/74269984/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-newstopstories
10/20/15
Clash of the archbishops: Synod dispute between U.S. churchmen goes public

ROME (RNS) — The eight American bishops taking part in a Vatican summit on family life stay at a huge seminary built high on a hill overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica and the rest of the Eternal City.

It’s a lovely place with spacious apartments for each bishop and any amenity they might need.

But for all that, it may be getting a tad uncomfortable.

In the latest installment of an increasingly sharp exchange conducted via the media, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput on Monday rejected what he took as a swipe at him by Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, also a member of the U.S. delegation at this gathering of global bishops.

Chaput, who hosted Francis for the final two days of the papal visit to the U.S. last month, didn’t like what he saw as Wuerl’s attempt to lump him in with the conservative opposition to the pope at the gathering, called a synod.

“If the welcome we gave Pope Francis in Philadelphia last month looked like opposition, people need a trip to a really good eye doctor,” Chaput told Catholic News Agency, a conservative wire service he has long supported.

The Philadelphia archbishop has been a regular critic of the synod process that Francis set out, and of those at the synod who want to explore reforms to church practices so that, for example, divorced Catholics who remarry without an annulment could receive communion.

The reformers would like the church to find ways to be more welcoming to gay Catholics, among other things.

In a Wall Street Journal column last Friday, Chaput struck again, knocking the synod’s methods — which have been backed by Francis — but also taking a dig at the motives of the reformers.

In the article, Chaput said the more the champions of reform insist they are not changing church doctrine on marriage, the less believable they are to the other cardinals and bishops at the synod.

That jab came on top of the ongoing furor over a secret letter that 13 conservative cardinals sent to Francis just after this synod began earlier this month in which they blasted the process and argued that it was rigged to favor reforms that would lead the Catholic Church down the road to heresy and ruin.

One of their chief complaints was the composition of the 10-member committee drafting the final report; that committee, which the conservatives said was too progressive, includes Wuerl, who was personally named by Francis.

In an unusual breach of ecclesiastical etiquette, two of the signers of the letter were Wuerl’s fellow Americans, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Galveston-Houston Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.

Apparently, it was all a bit much for Wuerl — normally one of the most cautious and diplomatic of churchmen — and on Sunday he fired back at the critics in separate interviews with three publications.

While he didn’t mention Chaput or the others by name, Wuerl fiercely defended the synod and Francis against charges that reformers were “manipulating” the synod.

He noted that Francis had actually broadened the committee charged with writing the final report, which will be debated later this week, and he said Francis is not changing doctrine but trying to get the church to better reflect Jesus’ teachings.

“I wonder if some of these people who are speaking, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes half-way implying, then backing off and then twisting around, I wonder if it is really that they find they just don’t like this pope,” Wuerl told America magazine, a Jesuit-run weekly. “I wonder if that isn’t part of it.”

The cardinal went on to rip those who continued to argue that the synod is being “rigged” and said their accusations had “tainted” the public’s view of the process.

Asked what he would say to those bishops who said and did such things, Wuerl replied:

“There’s not much you can say because if someone isn’t willing to hear you ... ”

He added that he saw no evidence that synod leaders are perverting the will of the bishops or changing the teaching of the church: “I just don’t see it.”

Chaput, speaking to Catholic News Agency, insisted he was only speaking frankly when he made his criticisms, just as Francis had asked the 270 churchmen at the synod to do.

“I believe he (the pope) means what he says,” Chaput said.

“It would be very strange for any bishop to doubt that; or for anyone to discourage or mischaracterize an honest difference of views among the synod fathers. That’s especially true as it applies to cardinals. One of their main jobs is to offer their best counsel to the pope. So I suppose you need to ask America’s editors why they ran their story. The reason escapes me.”

The contretemps follows comments last Friday by Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich, a synod delegate who is viewed as an ally of Wuerl and Francis, who said he didn’t see any reason for the “anxiety” that Chaput claimed was dominating the synod.

The verbal volleying comes as the synod enters its final stretch, with everyone speculating, but few actually confident, about what the bishops will produce at the end of the week, or whether Francis will push reforms forward or punt.

It has contributed to an atmosphere of melodrama — or maybe it’s all much ado about nothing?

In another interview Monday, Cardinal DiNardo, a signer of the infamous letter, played down the contentiousness of the debate.

“Some people are making out that internal to the synod there are all kinds of horrible things going on, but there really aren’t,” he told the Catholic news site Crux. “People who have just said something opposed to one another then hang out over the coffee breaks together.”
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« Reply #59 on: November 26, 2015, 09:35:28 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-says-christian-muslim-dialogue-essential-peace-054916021.html#
Pope says 'catastrophic' if interests derail climate talks
Pope says 'catastrophic' if special interests block curbs on fossil fuels in climate talks

11/26/15

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Pope Francis warned Thursday that it would be "catastrophic" for world leaders to let special interest groups get in the way of a global agreement to curb fossil fuel emissions as he brought his environmental message to the heart of Africa on the eve of crucial climate change talks in Paris.

Francis issued the pointed warning in a speech to the U.N.'s regional office here after celebrating his first public Mass on the continent. The joyous, rain-soaked ceremony before 300,000 faithful saw the Argentine pope being serenaded by ululating Swahili singers, swaying nuns, Maasai tribesmen and dancing children dressed in the colors of Kenya's flag.

Francis has made ecological concerns a hallmark of his nearly 3-year-old papacy, issuing a landmark encyclical earlier this year that paired the need to care for the environment with the need to care for humanity's most vulnerable. Francis argues the two are interconnected since the poor often suffer the most from the effects of global warming, and are largely excluded from today's fossil-fuel based global economy that is heating up the planet.

On Thursday, Francis repeated that message but took particular aim at those who reject the science behind global warming. In the United States, that includes some Republican presidential candidates and lawmakers, who have opposed steps President Barack Obama has taken on his own to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"It would be sad, and dare I say even catastrophic, were special interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and interests," Francis said.

He didn't elaborate, but in the United States at least, there has been a well-funded campaign that rejects the findings of 97 percent of climate scientists that global warming is likely man-made and insists that any heating of the Earth is natural. Politicians have cited these claims in their arguments that emissions cuts will hurt the economy.

Francis' message was praised by NASA historian Erik Conway, who co-wrote the 2010 book "Merchants of Doubt," which detailed the attempts by far-right institutions and like-minded scientists to discredit the science behind global warming and spread confusion in the public.

Conway said it was difficult to determine today how much money is still being directed into climate change denial since much if it goes through foundations.

"But what that funding has achieved is the nearly complete conversion of Republican Party leadership into denial of human-caused climate change as well as public confusion over the content of the science," he said in an email.

Francis, who has said global warming is "mainly" man-made, said the world was faced with a stark choice in Paris: either improve or destroy the environment. He said he hoped the Paris talks would approve a "transformational" agreement to fight poverty and protect the environment by developing a new energy system that depends on minimal fossil fuel use.

View galleryPope says 'catastrophic' if interests derail climate …
Pope Francis smiles as he arrives for a visit to the United Nations regional office in Nairobi, Ken …
"Many are the faces, the stories and the evident effects on the lives of thousands of people for whom the culture of deterioration and waste has allowed to be sacrificed before the idols of profits and consumption," he said. "We cannot remain indifferent in the face of this. We have no right."

His speech followed a similarly emphatic one before the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, and in various speeches on his travels to South America and Asia.

Thursday was the second day in a row that Francis had touched on environmental concerns after he arrived in Kenya for a six-day pilgrimage that also takes him to Uganda on Friday and the conflict-ridden Central African Republic.

Francis' first full day in Africa began with a meeting with about 25 Kenyan Christian and Muslim leaders. He warned them that they had little choice but to engage in dialogue to guard against the "barbarous" Islamic extremist attacks that have struck the country.

"Dialogue is not a luxury. It is not something extra or optional, but essential," he said.

He later celebrated Mass before about 300,000 people at the University of Nairobi, where he received a raucous welcome from the crowd as he zoomed around in his open-sided popemobile, some 10,000 police providing security. Some people had been at the university since 3 a.m., braving heavy showers that turned the grounds into enormous, slick mud puddles. Others waited in queues 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) deep to get close to the venue.

"I am a Catholic and I believe he is godsend," said Nelly Ndunge, 29, as she waited to see Francis at the Mass. She said Francis' visit to Kenya was a blessing because it would renew her faith - and had boosted her printing business: She said she had already sold nearly 3,000 copies of a 2016 calendar with the pope's portrait on it.

Still others turned back, fearing a stampede given the disorganized security.

"We were all disappointed," said Sarah Ondiso, a senior government official. "The organizers could have done better."

The size of the crowd - estimated by both police and the Vatican - was far smaller than the 1.4 million that Kenyan authorities had expected after declaring Thursday a national holiday. Vatican officials had predicted a maximum of a half-million people, and said the lower number was apparently due to accreditation and ticketing problems.

In his homily, Francis appealed for traditional family values, calling for Kenyans to "resist practices which foster arrogance in men, hurt or demean women, don't care for the elderly and threaten the life of the innocent unborn."

The African church is among the most conservative in the world, and African bishops have been at the forefront in insisting that traditional church teachings on marriage and sexuality, and its opposition to abortion, be strongly emphasized.

Francis obliged, but also stressed issues of his own concern: He called for Kenyans to shape a more just society that looks out for the poor and to "reject everything that leads to prejudice and discrimination, for these things are not of God."

It wasn't immediately clear what he was referring to. But in the crowd, there were Kenyans wearing t-shirts and toting umbrellas reading "Who Am I to Judge" - a reference to Francis' famous quip when asked about a purportedly gay priest. The citation has often been taken to embody Francis' insistence that gays must be welcomed in the church and not discriminated against.
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