Not for the Timid - Video about Vatican Scandals

I have had to tell a few people,
"Francis is not a Franciscan. He is a Jesuit.
Jesuits are power hungry extreme Leftists - and devious.
Jesuit is a common insult in the Roman Catholic Church.

I am only linking this video because it is quite disgusting in one place and not accurate in dealing with Pope Francis, who is hardly the answer to anything. The video ends with glowing references to Francis. Ha.

This video touches on the ways of the real power in the Vatican, the Curia, and the major scandals in the world-wide Church of Rome, chiefly child abuse and the homosexual control of Rome, but also sinister banking practices at the Vatican Bank. I have been following the major scandals since 1987 or so and researched some of them at the University of Notre Dame before that.

The use of intimidation, divide-and-conquer, and other forms of manipulation should not be unusual for Lutherans or any other denomination. The clericalism of Rome is no different from the clericalism in the LCMS, WELS, ELCA, the CLC (sic), or the ELS - Rome's methods are just bigger and better.

I expect more of this in Catholic parishes.

Vatican is forced to admit Pope Emeritus Benedict's health has worsened following reports 'he will not be with us much longer' | Mail Online

Vatican is forced to admit Pope Emeritus Benedict's health has worsened following reports 'he will not be with us much longer' | Mail Online:

Health: Benedict embraces his successor Pope Francis as he arrives at the Castel Gandolfo summer residence last month, hoping he will soon inherit it.

It was revealed in March that Pope Benedict had had a pacemaker fitted about ten years ago, and that a replacement had been fitted soon before he announced his retirement - while his eyesight is also thought to be deteriorating.

Pope Benedict's health was also called into question by some commentators in 2010 during his gruelling state visit to Britain when he attended huge events across the country.

'At his final public appearances, it was evident that he was having difficulty walking. He started using a cane about a year ago. The overall decline has been steady, there's no doubt about it,' one insider told The Telegraph.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307510/Vatican-forced-admit-Pope-Emeritus-Benedicts-health-worsened-following-reports-longer.html#ixzz2QDPy7bER
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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On the First Pope Named after a Quadruped Movie Star

quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Second Thessalonians Really Made an Impact on Gori...":

slightly off topic:

That Roman reactionary Barhardt website you posted the other day (http://barnhardt.biz/) has gone full parabolic in panic over the pope being a less-than-devout fellow. (What was the first clue? That he was the stalker candidate at Ratzinger/Benedict's election?) Her recent posts are hilarious in a piteous way, especially the cardinal-to-be-pope celebrating puppet masses.

But sit up and take notice of the answer given by new Pope's confidant:

Q: In what sense is reform necessary?
Cardinal Hummes: Not just of the Curia, but many other things: our way of celebrating ("fazer", lit. "making", "doing") Mass, of doing evangelization, this new evangelization needs new methods. The pope spoke in the meeting with the cardinals of new methods, we need to find new methods.

BWAAAAA HAH Hahahaahahahaha!!
Which of the washed up C&C consultants can we export to Rome?

Another View of the Jesuit Pope - From an Old-Fashioned Roman Catholic

"Thou art the wind beneath mine alb."
(The Holy Spirit does not allow the pope to err - they claim.)

ON FRANCIS

POSTED BY ANN BARNHARDT - MARCH 14, AD 2013 10:34 AM MST

http://barnhardt.biz/

Let me start with a positive comment. Remember, this is the best I could come up with:
If we had gotten the pope we DESERVE, we would now have Pope Snoop Dogg.

And thus ends the positivity.

Francis, like his homeland of Argentina, is a total disaster. He has overseen the near-total destruction of the Church in Argentina. He hates and despises the Tridentine Mass, which is to say that he hates the Mass - let's not mince words, and is a rabid persecutor of anyone in Argentina who shows ANY signs of tradition. A priest in Argentina literally risks the end of his career if he wears a cassock in public. He has forbidden the Tridentine Mass in Argentina, which is an act of direct disobedience, specifically against the papal decree Summorum Pontificum, but embraces horrific "charismatic" and "Superfun Rockband"-type liturgical sacrilege.

Which brings us to his regard for the papacy, and the Church itself. He said yesterday in his bizarre little speech, again and again, that he was the Bishop of Rome, which is true, but in being the Bishop of Rome the pope is the head of the Universal Church, not just the city of Rome. Francis does not believe this, and even made a reference to the idea that the pope is "first among equals". This means that he regards the Church as a mere loose confederacy, and also that he thinks the Church is, or should be, a democracy. The proof of this is, again, his blatant disobedience to Summorum Pontificum. He will never do anything to clean up the sodomite infiltrators in the Church outside of Rome because he doesn't feel that the pope has any authority outside of Rome. Bottom line here: many bishops and archbishops have been kept in line over the past eight years because Benedict was relatively aggressive in booting out extremely bad bishops. Benedict was feared in a healthy way. This guy is basically the big green light to every Marxist-homosexualist to just go ahead and do whatever, because they know Francis will never remove them or even chastise them, because Francis doesn't believe that the pope has any universal authority and is merely the bishop of the city of Rome proper - at least that is the excuse that will be given when nothing is done about abuses and heresies **that Francis is sympathetic towards.**

BUT, like all insecure leaders who say that they reject authority and obedience, reports from Buenos Aires are that he is an iron-fisted totalitarian against traditionalists, precisely because he has no confidence in or respect for his own authority, and thus assumes that no one else does either, and thus wields power against his perceived enemies only from brute force. Again, this is TEXTBOOK 20th century Marxist worldview and psychology. It is also the diametrical opposite of the virtue of MEEKNESS, which is power under control.

Next, he is an "ecu-maniac", which is to say that he is in the "all religions are equal and can't we all just get along" camp. In Buenos Aires he knelt before and received the "blessing" of a Superfun Rockband Church "pastor", and even received "communion" from a Protestant. There are pictures floating around of that episode. This is terrifying. He clearly does not have a strong belief in or understanding of Our Lord, His Church, the Mass or the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. But, as I have stated repeatedly, almost none of the men ordained in the 1960s, 70s or 80s do.

Next, he's a Jesuit. Now, I must disclose that I have a deep personal, seething, visceral hatred of Jesuits, but my hatred of them is a corollary to the fact that they long ago descended into truly evil heresies and apostasy. Jesuits, in addition to being a cult of sodomites who hate God, are also … wait for it … Marxists. Now Francis has in the past put up some token resistance to so-called "Liberation theology", which is just Communist Totalitarianism in religious drag, but he is huge, huge, huge on "social justice", which is merely code for Marxism. This guy's worldview revolves around giving people free stuff because it's nice, which as we have discussed is contrary to logic and reason, specifically in the subset of mathematics, and thus is contrary to Our Lord who is FIRST the Logos, with the Divine Caritas (charity) proceeding out of the Logos. Bottom line, there will be zero positive assistance to the world from Francis with regards to the inevitable economic collapse. Not only will there be nothing helpful coming from him, he will almost certainly come out in favor of more debt, more "free stuff", and more rhetoric about how people are "entitled" to physical and service commodities (which are someone else's man-hours, remember) as "rights".

But Ann! He has gone on record against homosexual "marriage" and abortion!

Wow. Is this really how far we have sunk? The Roman pontiff is on record as being against sodomy and killing babies and we cite this as proof of ORTHODOXY? Really? I wonder if he also believes in gravity. Does belief in gravity constitute a conservative worldview now?

Benedict thought that between the "Natural Solution" (the passage of time yielding the death or retirement of the bad guys) and the appointments he was able to make over the last eight years that he had set up the College of Cardinals to elect a successor that was very much in the Ratzingerian camp. Benedict was wrong. Not only did they not elect a Ratzingerian, they elected the anti-Ratzinger. In the 2005 conclave Francis came in second to Ratzinger, which is to say that Francis was the "opposition". In what must have Benedict's mind reeling today, after eight years of purging and priming the College of Cardinals, the very men Ratzinger placed turned around and elected the anti-Ratzinger. This proves, as I have said all along, that playing prevent defense, namely the "natural solution" of waiting for the bad guys to die is UNSOUND. In war, you fix your bayonets, say your prayers, and you charge.

Tridentine Mass-goers and clergy, this guy will be on the warpath against us at some point. Prepare. Brace. He may attempt to undo Summorum Pontificum either directly or through intense passive aggression. Any hopes of reconciling the good guys in the SSPX is now totally over. Beyond that, the splinter factions will now claim that "they were right", and sadly even more schism will result, and more people will remain outside the Church. So sad.

We got what we deserved, and probably better than we deserve. God's chastisement of His people is sending them bad priests, bishops, and now, in all likelihood, a bad pope. What do you expect? Look around. The world is awash in staggering sin and blasphemy and no one will lift a finger to do anything about it. And, as my last essay on penance proved via my email box, no one is sorry or has any desire to make reparation to Our Lord for any of it. No one has the slightest comprehension of the notion of taking on the burden of guilt for sins that they didn't directly commit, which blows my mind because that is LITERALLY the ENTIRE POINT of the Incarnation. The mind reels at the collective obtuseness needed to miss that glaring point.

No one has the slightest comprehension of the idea of seeing Our Lord in agony and simply stepping over to Him and asking, "What can I do to help You? What can I do to make You feel better? Let me take some of Your burden. Let me go with You."

Nope. So long as we all leave Him alone in His Passion, He will leave us to our self-absorption and indifference.

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

Viva il Papa.

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GJ - Notice how the popes were anti-Socialist before but now are accommodating the Big State philosophy of the end times.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2997331/posts

PIUS IX (1846-1878):
“Overthrow [of] the entire order of human affairs”
“You are aware indeed, that the goal of this most iniquitous plot is to drive people to overthrow the entire order of human affairs and to draw them over to the wicked theories of this Socialism and Communism, by confusing them with perverted teachings.”

LEO XIII (1878-1903):
Hideous monster
“...communism, socialism, nihilism, hideous deformities of the civil society of men and almost its ruin.” (Encyclical Diuturnum, June 29, 1881)

Destructive sect
“...socialists and members of other seditious societies, who labor unceasingly to destroy the State even to its foundations.” (Encyclical Libertas Praestantissimum, June 20, 1888)

Socialists debase the natural union of man and woman and assail the right of property

“They [socialists, communists, or nihilists] debase the natural union of man and woman, which is held sacred even among barbarous peoples; and its bond, by which the family is chiefly held together, they weaken, or even deliver up to lust. Lured, in fine, by the greed of present goods, which is ‘the root of all evils, which some coveting have erred from the faith’ (1 Tim. 6:10.3), they assail the right of property sanctioned by natural law; and by a scheme of horrible wickedness, while they seem desirous of caring for the needs and satisfying the desires of all men, they strive to seize and hold in common whatever has been acquired either by title of lawful inheritance, or by labor of brain and hands, or by thrift in one’s mode of life.” (Encyclical Quod Apostolici Muneris, December 28, 1878, n. 1)

PIUS XII (1939-1958):
The Church will fight to the end, in defense of supreme values threatened by socialism
“[The Church undertook] the protection of the individual and the family against a current threatening to bring about a total socialization which in the end would make the specter of the ‘Leviathan’ become a shocking reality. The Church will fight this battle to the end, for it is a question of supreme values: the dignity of man and the salvation of souls.”

JOHN XXIII (1958-1963):
“No Catholic could subscribe even to moderate socialism”
“Pope Pius XI further emphasized the fundamental opposition between Communism and Christianity, and made it clear that no Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism.”

JOHN PAUL II (1978-2005):
Fundamental error of socialism: A mistaken conception of the person
“Continuing our reflections, ... we have to add that the fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socio-economic mechanism.

BENEDICT XVI (2005 - present):
“We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything”

http://www.tfp.org/tfp-home/catholic-perspective/what-the-popes-have-to-say-about-socialism.html

They Have a New Pope!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/13/174201655/a-pope-is-chosen

The world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics have a new spiritual leader.

As afternoon turned to evening in Vatican City on Wednesday, around 7:08 p.m. local time, white smoke rose from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel and bells rang through St. Peter's Square — the traditional signals that the church's cardinals have chosen a new pope.

Still to come: the identity of the cardinal chosen to take the now-retired Pope Benedict XVI's place.

Now, as NPR's Sylvia Poggioli has said, the new pope and the church face a choice: "Whether to continue an inward looking conservative path or to open up to the broader world of the faithful and introduce more collegiality, as had been indicated by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago."

We'll have much more about the new pope and what his selection means as the day continues. Be sure to hit your "refresh" button to see our latest updates.

The papal selection came after five votes by the 115 cardinals eligible to cast ballots. They voted once on Tuesday, twice Wednesday morning and then twice again on Wednesday afternoon. It takes a two-thirds majority (77 in this case) to become pope.

Update at 2:12 p.m. ET. Who Is It? We'll Know Soon:

According to Vatican Radio, which is streaming its coverage on YouTube, the identity of the new pope — who will appear on a balcony above St. Peter's Square — should be known within an hour or so. At this moment, Vatican Radio says, he's likely changing from the vestments he's worn as a cardinal into those made for a pope alone.

Pope Mahoney? - Nope. L.A. archdiocese to pay $10M in priest abuse cases

L.A. archdiocese to pay $10M in priest abuse cases:

Ex-priest, later convicted, had confessed to Cardinal Mahony in 1986 to abusing boys.

(Photo: Filippo Monteforte, AFP/Getty Images)

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay four men almost $10 million to settle allegations of sexual abuse by a former priest who more than a quarter century ago had confessed to molesting children, attorneys said Tuesday.

Two brothers will receive $4 million each, and the other two men will get nearly $1 million apiece, said John Manly, a plaintiff's attorney.

The settlement is the first since the Catholic Church released thousands of internal records detailing the actions of the defrocked priest, Michael Baker, and how church officials responded. Baker was convicted in 2007 of child molestation and paroled in 2011.

In January, as the files were about to be made public, a California judge ordered the archdiocese to identify all priests and church officials named in the documents.

STORY: L.A. Diocese told to identify officials in abuse cases

The confidential files -- medical and psychiatric records, abuse reports, church memos and letters with the Vatican -- revealed that in 1986, Baker told Cardinal Roger Mahony that he had abused boys beginning in 1974. Mahony removed Baker from ministry and sent him to New Mexico for psychological treatment.

A year later, however, he returned with a doctor's recommendation that he not spend any time with minors and that he should be defrocked immediately if he did. Nonetheless, the abuse continued until 2000, when Baker was finally removed.

Mahony retired as Los Angeles archbishop in 2011. Last month, his successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, stripped him of his official duties.

Mahony is in Rome participating in the conclave selecting the next pope. He was aware of the settlement, J. Michael Hennigan, an archdiocese attorney, told the Associated Press.

"We have for a long, long time said that we made serious mistakes with Michael Baker, and we had always taken the position in these cases that whatever Baker did we were responsible for," he said. "That was never an issue."

Two cases were scheduled for civil trial in April.

Another plaintiff attorney, Vince Finaldi, told the Los Angeles Times that he believed that the release of the files was a major factor in the settlement.

"Once we got the files it confirmed everything we had argued for years and years," Finaldi said. "Cardinal Mahony's fingerprints were all over the case."

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GJ - Listen to Lutheran leaders exclaim, "We didn't know!" In the ELCA debacle, one known predator, ordained, cost them $40 million.

Ask the LCMS, WELS, and ELS what they spend settling lawsuits each year. They will say, as WELS did to a court of law, "We don't know of any."

Cardinals open papal conclave at Sistine Chapel; no pope selected on first day - The Washington Post

Cardinals open papal conclave at Sistine Chapel; no pope selected on first day - The Washington Post:

"But no single candidate has clearly claimed that title here. Instead, the focus was on a small group of papabili, or possible popes, including Cardinals Angelo Scola of Italy, Odilio Scherer of Brazil and Marc Ouellet of Canada.

Other possibilities are Cardinals Timothy Dolan of New York and Sean O’Malley of Boston, either of whom, if elected, would emerge as the first “superpower” pope. Argentina’s Jose Bergoglio, the Philippines’ Luis Antonio Tagle and Italy’s Angelo Bagnasco are among the cardinals listed as long shots."

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Cardinals open papal conclave at Sistine Chapel; n...":

Front runner to be the next pope, and confidant of ex-Pope Benedict, Scola of Milan, has plenty of links to the mafia:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/12/cardinals-overcome-divisions-conclave-pope

But even as preparations for the mass were being made, Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan – and reportedly the hot favourite to be the next pope – suffered a blow.

Anti-mafia detectives swooped on homes, offices, clinics and hospitals in Lombardy, the region around Milan, and elsewhere. A statement said the dawn raids were part of an investigation into "corruption linked to tenders by, and supplies to, hospitals".

Healthcare in Lombardy is the principal responsibility of the regional administration, which for the past 18 years has been run by Roberto Formigoni, a childhood friend of Scola and the leading political representative of the Communion and Liberation fellowship. Until recently, Scola was seen as the conservative group's most distinguished ecclesiastical spokesman.

But Scola's candidacy has been overshadowed by his past links to a movement that has been linked with pervasive sleaze in Lombardy. By the time Formigoni dissolved the regional assembly last year, 13 members of the governing majority were under investigation, suspected of offences ranging from taking bribes to incitement to violence.

Thoughts on the Catholic Church | Churchmouse Campanologist. Worthwhile Reflectins about the Catholic Church and the Pope

The Antichrist and the Archbishop of Canterbury are leaders of apostasy.

Thoughts on the Catholic Church | Churchmouse Campanologist:

This ties in with the ideas behind la nouvelle théologie: dogma changes over time and old tenets of the faith, even scriptural teachings, can be discarded.

Indeed, Benedict XVI helped to develop the changes which emanated from Vatican II:

Ratzinger became a professor at the University of Bonn in 1959; his inaugural lecture was on “The God of Faith and the God of Philosophy”. In 1963, he moved to the University of Münster.

During this period, Ratzinger participated in the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). Ratzinger served as a peritus (theological consultant) to Cardinal Frings of Cologne. He was viewed during the time of the Council as a reformer, cooperating with theologians like Hans Küng and Edward Schillebeeckx. Ratzinger became an admirer of Karl Rahner, a well-known academic theologian of the Nouvelle Théologie and a proponent of church reform.

Read more here.

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GJ - This article deserves a careful reading, because it comes from a former Roman Catholic, now a Protestant, who has experienced the changes and studied the background of Pope Benedict.

BBC News - 10 things about the conclave.Electioneering Goes On, Just Like WELS, LCMS, and ELS

BBC News - 10 things about the conclave:

10 things about the conclave

Continue reading the main story

In today's Magazine

• Marwa's story: 10 years since the bomb fell
• Canberra: Deathly dull at 100?
• Affection for Britain brews in Germany
• Wolfing down Singapore's wobbliest cake

The cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are gathering to elect a new pope. At some point, white smoke billowing from the Sistine Chapel will show that a decision has been made. But what goes on behind the closed doors before the smoke appears? Here are 10 lesser-known facts about the conclave.

1. It's a lock-in. Conclave comes from the Latin "cum-clave" meaning literally "with key" - the cardinal-electors will be locked in the Sistine Chapel each day until Benedict XVI's successor is chosen. The tradition dates back to 1268, when after nearly three years of deliberation the cardinals had still not agreed on a new pope, prompting the people of Rome to hurry things up by locking them up and cutting their rations. Duly elected, the new pope, Gregory X, ruled that in future cardinals should be sequestered from the start of the conclave.

2. Spying is tricky. During the conclave they are allowed no contact with the outside the world - no papers, no TV, no phones, no Twitter. And the world is allowed no contact with them. The threat of excommunication hangs over any cardinal who breaks the rules.

Before the conclave starts, the Sistine Chapel is swept for recording equipment and hidden cameras. It is a myth that a fake floor is laid to cater for anti-bugging devices... Anti-bugging devices are used, and the floor is raised, but only to protect the marble mosaic floor.

3. Portable loos play an essential role. Until 2005, the cardinals endured Spartan conditions in makeshift "cells" close to the Sistine Chapel. They slept on hard beds and were issued with chamber pots. Pope John Paul II changed that with the construction of a five-storey 130-room guest house near St Peter's - Domus Sanctae Marthae (St Martha's House). But cardinals still have to rough it while voting. In an interview with the Catholic News Service last week, Antonio Paolucci, the director of the Vatican Museum said: "I believe they may be installing portable chemical toilets inside the chapel."

One of the world's better furnished polling stations

4. An "interregnum" is ending. The pontificate used to be known as a "reign" - hence the period between two popes being called an interregnum ("between reigns"). Many of the regal trappings of the papacy were set aside by Pope Paul VI, who began his pontificate in 1963 with a coronation, but never wore the beehive-shaped papal tiara again.

The last coronation, in 1963 - and the last outing of the crown

5. Counted votes are sewn up. The cardinals hold one vote on day one and then two each morning and afternoon until a candidate wins a two-thirds majority. Each writes his choice on a slip of paper, in disguised handwriting, and folds it in half. Cardinals then process to the altar one by one and place the ballots in an urn. The papers are mixed, counted, opened and scrutinised by three cardinals, the third of whom passes a needle and thread through the counted votes. At the end of each morning and afternoon session the papers are burned.

The Conclave's secrecy means outsiders are left looking for clues in the smoke

6. Chemicals colour the smoke. Those 115 ballot papers produce an unusual amount of smoke... which pours out of a chimney specially installed on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. A chemical is mixed with the paper to produce black smoke when voting is inconclusive, or white smoke when a pope has been elected. But even the white smoke looks dark against a bright sky, so to avoid any possible confusion, white smoke is accompanied by the pealing of bells. In 2005, though, the official responsible for authorising the bells was temporarily occupied with other duties, so there was a period of confusion while white smoke billowed out, and the bells of St Peter's remained silent.

7. Robes are prepared in S, M and L. The Pope has to look the part when he is presented to the faithful from a balcony overlooking St Peter's Square. So papal tailors Gammarelli prepare three sets of vestments - in small, medium and large sizes. These will include a white cassock, a white silk sash, a white zucchetto (skullcap), red leather shoes and a red velvet mozzetta or capelet with ermine trim - a style revived by Benedict XVI. The Pope dresses by himself, donning a gold-corded pectoral cross and a red embroidered stole. (Popes traditionally wore red, but in 1566 St Pius V, a Dominican, decided to continue wearing his white robes. Only the Pope's red mozzetta, capelet and shoes remain from the pre-1566 days.)

8. Huge bets are laid. Experts suggest more than £10m ($15m) will be wagered as people guess which cardinal will get the nod - making this the world's most bet-upon non-sporting event. It's not a new phenomenon. In 1503 betting on the pope was already referred to as "an old practice". Pope Gregory XIV was so cheesed off that in 1591 he threatened punters with excommunication, but the gambling continues unabated. Prominent Italian and Latin American names currently lead the field.

9. No-one ever refuses. Catholics believe the Holy Spirit is at work during the conclave, so the cardinals' choice is ultimately the choice of God. And it's not really done to turn down God. That said, few relish the prospect of leading the world's largest Church, beset as it is at the moment with falling congregation numbers, sex abuse scandals and internal wrangling. So many new popes are overcome with emotion after their election that the first room they enter, to dress for the balcony scene, is commonly known as the Room of Tears.

10. There is no gender test. Chairs with a large hole cut in the seat are sometimes thought to have been used to check the sex of a new Pope. The story goes that the aim of the checks was to prevent a repeat of the scandal of "Pope Joan", a legendary female cardinal supposedly elected pope in the 14th Century. Most historians agree that the Joan story is nonsense.

Reporting by Michael Hirst.

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Could Your DP or SP Become Pope According to This Group?Only two papal candidates 'clean' of sex abuse scandals, says victims group - Telegraph

Only two papal candidates 'clean' of sex abuse scandals, says victims group - Telegraph:

Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle and Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn Photo: AP

By Nick Squires, Rome

10:56AM GMT 08 Mar 2013

Only two of the dozen cardinals in the running to become the next Pope are "clean" in terms of their handling of scandals involving sexually abusive priests, a prominent association of victims of clergy sex abuse said on Thursday.

The damning indictment came as it was claimed that there were up to 20 moles inside the Vatican prepared to leak more confidential documents in order to expose corruption, following the example of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler, who was jailed for theft after handing a stash of stolen papers to an Italian journalist.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the vast majority of cardinals are tainted by having ignored cases of predatory priests or by having actively covered them up and impeded efforts by police and prosecutors to bring the offenders to justice.

The only two "papabili" or papal contenders who have a credible record on sex abuse scandals are Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria.

The network of victims named a third member of the Church who had a laudable record – Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin.

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But he is not a cardinal, will not take part in the conclave to elect the new Pope and therefore has only a very slim chance of being chosen as the new pontiff.

“I think it’s telling that they had to go outside the College of Cardinals to find a third “clean” candidate,” said John Allen, a Vatican analyst with the US-based National Catholic Reporter.

The survivors network, known by its acronym SNAP, said that Cardinal Tagle was “one of the very few prelates who have spoken clearly about the “culture of shame” that surrounds victims of sex abuse.”

Cardinal Schoenborn “has spoken out several times regarding clergy abuse and cover-ups” since becoming a cardinal in 1998 and had publicly criticised very senior figures in the Church, the group said.

“This is not a ringing endorsement – these three are the least worst papal candidates," said Barbara Dorris, a member of SNAP from the United States who was herself molested as a child by a priest.

"The common link between them is their courage – at times they have been bluntly honest about the failings of the Church. They realise the paedophile priest scandal is far from over.”

A “ticking time bomb” of sex abuse by priests in Asia, Africa and Latin America means that “we have just seen the tip of the iceberg."

On Wednesday the group released a “dirty dozen” of papal candidates who had a particularly poor record of shielding paedophile priests, naming cardinals from the US, Australia, Canada, Ghana, Mexico and other countries.

The embarrassing accusations came as a decision was awaited from more than 150 cardinals meeting in the Vatican on a start date for the conclave, the arcane process by which a new Pope will be chosen.

If the new Pope is not sufficiently committed to transparency and rooting out corruption and nepotism, he can expect fresh leaks of sensitive Vatican documents, a mole within the Holy See told La Repubblica newspaper.

The unnamed “deep-throat” said Paolo Gabriele, Benedict’s disgraced butler, was not the only person stealing and leaking confidential papers.

He had the sympathy and support of around 20 others, including members of the Secretariat of State, the Vatican administration and L’Osservatore Romano, its official newspaper.

The leaking of documents last year, in a scandal dubbed “Vatileaks”, was intended to expose nepotism and intrigue at the heart of the Holy See and improve transparency.

The anonymous mole said he hoped the resignation of Benedict would “reverse the decline and offer the opportunity to his successor to start again from scratch. I hope that there will no longer be a need for moles to speak out.”

He also said that reports of a powerful gay lobby within the Vatican were true. “I could give the names of cardinals and monsignors, bishops and functionaries,” he said.

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Cardinals pray before conclave to choose new pope | Reuters

Cardinals pray before conclave to choose new pope | Reuters:

10 of 17. Sri Lanka's Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, holds a chalice while leading mass at the San Lorenzo In Lucino church in Rome March 10, 2013.
Credit: REUTERS/Chris Helgren

By Philip Pullella and Crispian Balmer

VATICAN CITY | Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:48pm EDT

(Reuters) - Roman Catholic Cardinals prayed on Sunday for spiritual guidance ahead of a closed-door conclave to choose a new pope to lead the Church at one of the most difficult periods in its history.

Cardinals will hold a final pre-conclave meeting on Monday to discuss the state of their Church, left reeling by the abdication last month of Pope Benedict and struggling to deal with a string of sexual abuse and corruption scandals.

The 115 cardinals who will take part in the secret ballots, which start on March 12, fanned out around Rome on Sunday to hold myriad Masses, either in the quiet of private chapels or in the grandeur of Rome's great cathedrals and basilicas.

Each cardinal is traditionally assigned to a church in the Italian capital and congregations swelled in parishes visited by those considered the most likely papal contenders -- such as Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"We're all preparing for the conclave because we need to make the right decision to decide who is going to be the new pope," Scherer told a small Baroque church in the heart of Rome, crammed with well-wishers.

He was later driven away in a minivan with darkened windows, declining to speak to the waiting hoards of reporters -- a taste of the pressures to come if he should become the first non-European to be elected pope in some 1,300 years.

Just up the road, another non-European touted as a possible candidate, U.S. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, also received star treatment as he arrived for Mass in ornate vestments.

"I say sincerely that we hope this is your last visit as cardinal," said parish priest father Rocco Visca, prompting loud applause and cheers from the well-heeled congregation.

LOW PROFILE

A coach load of faithful from northern Italy travelled down to Rome to hear Milan's cardinal, Angelo Scola, give a sermon at the monumental Santi Apostoli church.

"Let us pray that the Holy Spirit gives the Church a man who can lead her in the footsteps of the great pontiffs of the past 150 years," said Scola, seen as the leading Italian candidate.

Like fellow cardinals, he appeared eager not to draw too much attention to himself and exited quietly via a back door.

Some cardinals, such as Manila's Luis Antonio Tagle, who is considered a long-shot because of his relatively young age, 55, kept an even lower profile, mostly staying inside the walls of seminaries or other religious institutions.

Open canvassing is frowned upon in the run-up to the conclave, with prelates aware of the Rome saying "he who enters the conclave a pope comes out a cardinal".

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the so-called princes of the church had been in constant contact in recent days and had reached initial conclusions.

"They therefore feel ready to confront the decisive step of electing a new pope," he told Vatican Radio.

The 115 cardinal electors under the age of 80 will enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday afternoon and hold one vote that evening. They will vote up to four times day thereafter until one of their number receives a two-thirds majority, or 77 votes.

If a pope is not elected in two or three days it means that cardinals are probably severely divided and might have to turn to a dark horse candidate to find consensus.

No conclave has lasted than more than five days in the past century. Pope Benedict was elected within barely 24 hours in 2005 after just four rounds of voting. But this time, no clear favorites have emerged to take the helm of the troubled Church.

Apart from Scola, Scherer and O'Malley, other potential candidates most mentioned are Canada's Marc Ouellet, U.S. cardinal Timothy Dolan and Argentina's Leonardo Sandri.

It was unclear how much the geographical distribution of the cardinals would weigh. Sixty cardinals come from Europe, including 28 Italians, while there are 19 from Latin America, 14 North Americans, 11 Africans, 10 Asians and one from Oceania.

The Italians held the papacy for 455 years before the 1978 election of Polish-born Pope John Paul.

Many of the Italian cardinals work within the Vatican bureaucracy, which has come under heavy criticism in recent years because of infighting and perceived incompetence.

Some Italian newspapers said many of the Italian prelates were rallying around Scherer, while many outsiders favored Scola, believing he had the clout and knowledge needed to revitalize and reform the creaking Vatican government.

(Additional reporting by Tom Heneghan, Anna Valderama, Elly Biles and Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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Ingredients, the Church of Rome, and UOJ

LPC has left a new comment on your post "A Corrupt Tree Brings Forth Evil Fruit. UOJ at Wor...":

Right on Brett.

There are RCC sleeper cells in the SinCons.

There are implants embedded in their midst.

Notice how these clergy salivate when the Pope is mentioned.

LPC

***

GJ - On Facebook someone brought up my father's bakery in downtown Moline. My father semi-retired, reluctantly, and went back to making candy at home - a unique style of peanut brittle he developed over the years.

I worked there as soon as I could do something worthwhile. I remember spending Saturday mornings there, at age 8. I was still working there just before college graduation and marriage, so I literally grew up there, washing dishes, mopping floors, making doughnuts, serving customers.

The shop has been gone for 25 years or so, but people talk about it. He made the best doughnuts anywhere, and I have tried them all.

The inescapable first step at Melo Cream was finding the best ingredients. No matter what the ingredient was, several grades could be purchased. He bought the finest grade of coconut, peanuts, and walnuts. No one sees those on bakery products now. Walnut halves are so much better than crumbles.

Chocolate icing should begin with cocoa. We bought squares that we melted with warm water underneath the metal pan. The vanilla icing was poured on top the melted squares and stirred to make a rich, chocolate icing. Many bakeries use a substitute or a hybrid with a chocolate look and little taste. Carob is so handy for that - the pods that the Prodigal Son wanted to take from the pigs when he was down and out.

I used to laugh whenever someone explained that cookies made with margarine were just as good as ones made with butter. Why argue with someone lacking taste buds? Cheaply made goods taste cheap.

That remains the situation today - in the food industry and in the church. When people are served up mediocrity, they develop a taste for it. In time, they demand it and turn away from richer fare. If the SinCons based their work on Luther and the Confessions, everyone would laugh their recent contributions off the stage.

But look at how they prove their case. They begin with their false assumptions--God has declared the entire world righteous, with false citations--and quote their own faction endlessly. Every so often they declare, "Oh my! We just found another UOJ quotation in Luther - or Calov - or the Book of Concord." A cursory examination shows that the passage concerns the atoning death of Christ, followed by, but left unquoted, justification by faith.

People must get past their loyalty to Holy Mother Church and realize that their leaders are nothing more than wolf-preachers who feast on mutton daily.

One indication should be enough. Missouri and WELS are happy to work with ELCA, even while ELCA pastors slaughter their own children with abortion coverage in their health plan. ELCA uses their lobbying system to protect abortion on demand from any pro-life measures. WELS and Missouri support this genocide by sleeping with the enemy.

Twenty plus years ago, Slick Brenner would say, "WELS is piling up sins for Judgment Day."

To paraphrase Luther, they would not pay $1 for a Gausewitz justification by faith catechism, so now they pay $20 for a Kuske UOJ catechism. Gausewitz was Biblical and concise. Kuske is...weird and verbose.

The District Pope who publishes in favor of plagiarizing false teachers will surely overlook lewd, alcoholic behavior. The brethren, as they call themselves, will definitely pounce on anyone who shows signs of leaving the cell-block, going over the wall to freedom. Plagiarists have a unity they cherish - "thick as thieves" as the saying goes.

But one cannot defy natural law forever. The price will be paid. I predicted that obvious fact to DP Robert Mueller, who became red-faced with anger. Soon his district was forking over $400,000 to a girl abused by one of their vicars.

Do members of WELS and Missouri know how much overhead is built into their contributions? Attorney fees, lawsuit settlement costs, higher insurance rates? Those little details are nothing compared to the human cost, the souls destroyed.

The Church of Rome has that cost already calculated into their budgets and theology. They have been taking hits for 25 years, out in the open, with one enormous settlement after another. Many assets have been sold, others hidden, to deal with final disposition of cases that never seem to stop.

Missouri pastors know that as they join Rome. The Whore of Babylon is indefectible, they say. Even if the pope runs off with Cardinal Secretary of State, Rome itself remains pure and spotless, because the Holy Spirit would not tolerate anything less. In fact, the turpitude of the clergy is used to highlight that fact.

WELS says it a slightly different way, laughing, "We are not good in sanctification." When faith sanctifies, and they deny faith, sanctification is impossible.

I will take one thimble of Luther over the entire Wawautosa set or the laughable Our Great Heritage. But I never liked Hostess doughnuts or moon pies.