Canonists speak out on Pope Francis' actions!

Full disclosure; your writer was granted a Decree of Nullity from the Tribunal in the Archdiocese of Toronto, therefore, what I write below is not to be construed as hypocrisy. The annulment was based on a Defect of Canonical Form, it was clear and precise and without question. It took nearly two years (because I was slow). It was not "painful" nor was it "humiliating" nor did it cost a lot of money. I recall that it was somewhere around $900 in three instalments as charitable donations for which tax receipts were issued. If I could not make a donation, it did not stop the process. It was thorough and detailed, witnesses were called and in the end, when the judge determined the issue of lack of form, it could have been decided in ten minutes! C'est la vie!

I didn't cry about it or whine about it. That time was good for me. It taught me patience and opened me up to God's possibilities for me. I didn't demand anything of the Church and I didn't whine about how mean She was. Had it been denied, I would have simply accepted it.

It was not a sacramental marriage, but it was a natural marriage and the fact that it was not sacramental did not necessarily invalidate it. That was not a criteria for considering the defect and I was told this clearly by the Auditor. There were other factors that could have been considered then, perhaps, other than the defect in Form. Under Pope Francis' changes to the annulment procedures, it would have been a slam dunk, notwithstanding the clear defect in form.

I do not support these changes. Not that the Bishop of Rome cares one bit about what I think. Having been through the process I find the whole debate about it insulting and manipulating. 

Marriage must always be presumed to be valid. Lack of faith. of one party to the marriage, must never be a consideration. The Church has always presumed validity of all marriages because marriage existed before the Church and in every culture. It was the Church that elevated it to a Sacrament - a Sacrament exchanged by the man and woman. The Pope may say in one breath that the doctrine is upheld, but the actions of this motu proprio do not support it.

The Pope cannot control what a bishop might do and whether or not he gives blanket approval to any case put before him. The issue of nullity is not an issue of mercy. It is an issue of law precisely because of the upholding of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. This is not the place for sentimentalism and emotionalism.  

Rorate Caeli blog has an important post to read with critical links to the commentary of some important canonists. 

I dare say that under this initiative of Francis, even Henry VIII would have been granted an Decree of Nullity to marry the whore Anne Boleyn and betray his true wife, Catherine of Aragon with Francis' blessing. Clearly, St Thomas More's martyrdom must have been for nought.  

Will the Pope head the advice or will he barrel ahead defying the whole notion of Vatican II collegiality?

How sadly ironic, eh?

It is diabolical to say that to defend dogma is to go against the Pope!

"To begin to say that each nation can begin to decide fundamental questions about the faith and its practice is simply to deny the Catholicity of the Church and to introduce a Protestant principle which would lead then to national churches and once this principal of division enters in it will all simply multiply itself as it has done in the Protestant churches."

"The penitential way has to be a way to help the individual truly repent and repentance includes necessarily a change in one's life."

Sadly this concentration of the question of those in irregular unions and the possibility of offering them Holy Communion has a wider scope ... to begin to say that other individuals who are living in public sin should also receive the sacraments."

"Those of us who are defending what the Church has always taught and practiced are now called the enemies of the Pope."

Africans will save the Church from Kasper and his fascist henchmen

Austin Ruse, President of the Centre for Family and Human Rights, opines at Crisis Magazine that it will be the Africans who save the Church and that he sees similar situations with African diplomats and the West with his work at the United Nations.

I urge you to read it there and subscribe to Crisis.

Here are a few excepts which reveal from Pentin's research the sheer manipulation (in spite of those who denied it and tried to sue me for it); the sheer evil present at the last Synod. Can you seriously doubt any longer that the fascistic and non-collegiality practices and are the work of the Holy Spirit? Does all of this discord come from God? It is not possible! Bishops calling for homosexual unions, Cardinals who should be in jail for covering up homopervert, sodomite priestly and episocopal abuse of children called by the Pope as delegates to the Synod. This is not the action of the Holy Spirit. It is sheer diabolical. The devil is not only sowing confusion, he is sowing deception and millions are falling for it!

Kasper did not learn well from his childhood in Germany. It is regrettable that he did not learn how not to be corrupted by Nazisim as Joseph Ratzinger did.

Pentin's book makes for a jarring wake-up for those who wish bury their heads in sand.

Don't be amongst them.




http://www.crisismagazine.com/2015/the-africans-will-save-the-synod-the-church-and-the-world

Pentin presents evidence of manipulation in practically everything related to the synod, including the fact that homosexuality was barely a topic of conversation for the synod fathers, yet loomed large in the interim document. 

Pentin reports on some things not previously revealed. For instance, he records that the synod secretariat deliberately excluded “conservative” theologians as experts for the meeting. He also reports that Archbishop Bruno Forte was elected to the position of special secretary of the extraordinary “by only a small number of the fifteen-member Ordinary Council of the Synod of Bishops.” Forte is generally blamed for writing the most controversial paragraphs of the interim document. Indeed he was outed as the author of the gay paragraphs by Napier of South Africa during the raucous first-day press conference.

Pentin also presents voluminous evidence that Kasper, seemingly with the approval of Pope Francis, initiated a global campaign to change Church teaching on marriage, beginning with his two-hour address to a consistory of cardinals wherein he “floats the idea of admitting divorced and ‘remarried’ Catholics to Holy Communion without amendment of life.” 

So it’s odd that Kasper and his allies got so angry when a group of cardinals and other experts published a book upholding Church teaching on marriage, and then tried to get copies to the synod fathers. Their efforts were blocked by the synod secretariat. 

Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church.  

They decided the best way was to send them to the temporary addresses, which turned out to be Casa Santa Marta, the hotel-like residence within the Vatican walls. Organizers of the book did display a bit of skullduggery. They made sure the books were deliberately mailed from a post office away from the Vatican, and that “the books were placed in envelopes of different types and colors…” (they must have anticipated that there would be an attempt to block the distribution of the book, Vox)

Trouble brewed when a synod staff member looked inside of one of the packages after “an envelope came open and the book was identified.” Pentin reports that Cardinal Baldeserri “was ‘furious’ to learn that the book was being sent to synod fathers.”

Pentin says Baldeserri wanted the deliveries blocked, but was told that was illegal. Because most of the books had not been stamped by the Italian post office, he decided to send them back for stamping figuring the delay would mean synod fathers would never get them, which turned out to be true.

The cover-up of what happened with the book is quite remarkable. But there is also the fallout—the score settling. Pentin reports that Baldeserri’s cronies tried to get American Father Robert Dodaro to resign his post as president of the Institum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome because Dodaro served as editor of the book.

Remarkably, Kasper said the book should have been given to him in advance so that he could “review it.” Vaticanista Marco Tosatti wrote in La Stampa that a group of Italian bishops told the Pope that the five cardinals who wrote the book had the “sole intention of fighting against Kasper,” and that the cardinals had committed a “mortal sin” in publishing it.

So angry was Kasper that he actually shouted at Cardinal Burke on the floor of the synod meeting. It is said the book was the final straw that caused the Pope to fire Burke from head of the Apostolic Signatura.

The Pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law ... he must not proclaim his own ideas

No, this is not my quote. This is not Vox being snarky or being anti-Francis. 

Rorate Caeli Blog has the whole beautiful homily. Read it and then consider if Francis' personal motion to undermine the process of annulments is prudent and even licit? He can choose tomorrow to demolish St. Peter's Basilica. He has the legal jurisdiction to do that, he is the supreme legislator. Remember that the next time that you neo-Caths cry about "papal infallibility" and "you can't criticise the pope." Read your history of Pius VII and Napoleon and stop ascribing a power to the pope that he does not have. The moon is not made of creamed cheese even he says it and his actions on annulments can and will be undone by a future Pope. History is a merciless judge.

How much do you miss him now, eh?



I miss my Papa so much that I want to cry every time I see his picture and then I realise that it is my fault because I did not pray for him enough that he not "flee for fear of the wolves."

I bet that the title of this post got your attention!

It is not my title, it is the title from an article at the Daily Mail. 

Now, before you opine that it is a tabloid rag and not traditional journalism, that is hardly the point. It is an actual newspaper with tens of thousands of readers and millions on the Internet. The headline is attention getting and the low information reader (most of them, I imagine) and the stupid, non-catechised Catholic (the rest of them) will point to it and believe it. What is worse is, they may actually read it and that would convince them!

It is a terribly incomplete article that cannot be called journalism, but that is not the point.

The point is, the Pope's careless words "who am I to judge" have been used time and time again by the enemies of the Church, the enemies of Truth, the enemies of Christ. The words of the German bishop Bode, written up here on Vox two weeks ago, have been quoted to indicate that it is a certainty.

The fault of this article lies with the unprofessional journalist that wrote it including leaving the reader hanging on the matter of abortion that the Church now has a "softer tone."

The greater fault lies with the Pope who has been careless and imprudent and irresponsible with his off-the-cuff comments (and he doesn't seem to learn from it) and the heretical Bishop Bode (in full communion) who would think in the manner that he does and spout error and lies from his filthy mouth.

Bishop Bode, you are a liar and a deceiver. Repent now or get out!

Christ will not be mocked.

Gay couples could get the Pope's blessing: Francis set to discuss plans with cardinals at key Vatican gathering next month.

Prospect of a major concession to same-sex rights was aired yesterday.

It came ahead of a key gathering of cardinals at the Vatican next month.

Pope is set to discuss plans for priests to give a blessing to gay couples 

By STEVE DOUGHTY SOCIAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 00:19 GMT, 17 September 2015 | UPDATED: 05:12 GMT, 17 September 2015

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3237695/Gay-couples-Pope-s-blessing-Francis-set-discuss-plans-cardinals-key-Vatican-gathering-month.html#ixzz3mBk4v1mr
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Pope Francis (pictured in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City,
 yesterday) is set to discuss plans for Roman Catholic
priests to give a blessing to gay couples

The Pope is set to discuss plans for Roman Catholic priests to give a blessing to gay couples.

The prospect of a major concession to gay rights was aired yesterday ahead of a key gathering of cardinals at the Vatican next month.  

Pope Francis has already set in motion a new liberal approach to another major source of conflict over sex and marriage among Catholics – the attitude of the church to divorced and remarried couples.

He has announced a fast-track scheme to allow divorced Catholics to have their marriages annulled so they can remarry and remain full members of the church.

Now, a similar reform to help gay couples will also come under consideration. 

The idea of blessings for gay relationships was acknowledged by a German bishop who will be among those making decisions at the Vatican synod on the family.

Bishop Franz-Josef Bode, one of three delegates from the liberal German church, told a Roman Catholic news agency that Roman Catholics already agree that there is to be no unjust discrimination against homosexual couples.

He added that it is important that the church should see their 'strengths and not only their weaknesses and deficiencies'.

The Bishop of Osnabruck said that while the church should treat gay couples in 'a positive way', their relationships could not be 'something that would be equal to a marriage'.

However, he added: 'But, with prayers and a private form of a blessing, one will be able to accompany them on their way.'

Bishop Bode's views are thought to have support from a strong body of less outspoken prelates who will be influential at next month's gathering. 

Any new liberal attitude to homosexuality that emerges from the family synod will provoke anger among Catholic conservatives and may make it hard for the Vatican to keep a lid on potential conflicts.

Yesterday a prominent conservative publishing house put out a report which said the synod is likely to introduce gay blessings under the guise of reforms to 'pastoral practice'.

The paper by analyst Edward Pention, put out by Ignatius Press, an imprint from the same Jesuit tradition that produced Pope Francis, said there are likely to be 'subtle attempts to circumvent church teaching'. 

It said that participants in the synod aim 'to emphasise innovative pastoral practice that many others see as being at odds with the church's doctrine'.

The paper added: 'Notwithstanding Pope Francis' wishes for an open discussion yielding a well-grounded unity, the next synod may result in even more confusion and dissension.'

The marriage annulment reform plans made public last week were the first practical liberalisation since Francis was elected in 2013.

The Pope has frequently hinted at his wish to soften Catholic teaching on sex and marriage.

Referring to gay people, Francis said in 2013 that 'we must be brothers'. 

He added: 'If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him?'

Earlier this month, he signalled a softer approach to abortion by extending to all priests the power to forgive a woman who has had an abortion if she makes clear her repentance. 

625,000 Catholics Ask Pope to Dispel Moral Confusion at Synod

How absurd is it that nearly three-quarters of a million Catholic from around the world have to beg the Pope to be Catholic!

Sign it!

News release: 625,000 Catholics Ask Pope to Dispel Moral Confusion at Synod

By TFP Student Action

September 17, 2015

 

Catholics are asking Pope Francis to reaffirm traditional Church teaching on marriage and family at the Synod in Rome next month.  A coalition of 58 pro-family groups is promoting a worldwide petition called Filial Appeal to His Holiness Pope Francis on the Future of the Family.  So far the petition has been signed by 8 cardinals, 170 bishops and more than 625,000 concerned Catholics from a total of 160 countries.

• Sign the petition to Pope Francis here.

Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza

"Catholics in general are deeply perplexed," said HIRH Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza, one of the prominent petition signers.  "As the sexual revolution continues to claim the innocence of our children and rip the family apart, we find shepherds within the sacred walls of Holy Mother Church who issue statements that contradict and undermine 2,000 years of sound Church teaching."

Some prelates slated to attend the upcoming Synod have openly challenged Church moral doctrine.  For example, in a recent interview with La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit periodical,  Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna spoke approvingly of homosexual unions.  “We can and we must respect the decision to form a union with a person of the same sex," the prelate said, "[and] to seek means under civil law to protect their living together with laws to ensure such protection.”

However, many high-ranking Church leaders disagree with Cardinal Schönborn, a delegate at the upcoming Synod.

Cardinal Raymond Burke declared in a video interview released by Polonia Cristiana that, "It is heresy to teach that homosexual relations...are not disordered, to teach that they have positive elements."

In the same documentary video, Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga added: "... if we believe that homosexuals brought something into the Church, it is nothing but debauchery and licentiousness. ... The Holy Scripture beautifully says that such people will not get into Heaven."

Meanwhile, concerned Christian families -- including non-Catholic ones -- who signed the Filial Appeal petition are praying that Pope Francis will set the record straight, dispel the confusion, and reaffirm the Church's unwavering fidelity to divine and natural law.

Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza concluded: "In times like these, we must recall God's promise to Saint Peter, 'That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it' (Matt. 16:18).  It is our duty to remain faithful, knowing that God has already won against the forces of darkness."

On September 29, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, the worldwide pro-family petition to Pope Francis will be officially presented in the Vatican.

Those who wish to sign the petition may still do so, here:

http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/sign-petition-to-pope-francis.html

Rosica and Baldissiri in conversation: "there must be an update ... the Church must be made incarnate into time." Barona asks, "What does he mean?"

Father Thomas J. Rosica, CSB of the great Salt+Light media empire and official English-language spokesman for the Round II of the Synod on the Family interviewed Lorenzo Cardinal Baldissiri in July 2014 on the "Witness" series on the same Salt+Light.

Cardinal Baldissiri was in charge of the Synod on the Family at the behest of Jorge Bergoglio, Bishop of Rome.

Barona at Toronto Catholic Witness has posted a portion of less than a minute from the interview.

"Things have happened, may new things" exclaims the Cardinal to Rosica as he tries to defend how the great Familiaris Consortio needs to be thrown on the dust heap of history as Humanae Vitae will be with this new Synod on "conscience."

So, what does the Cardinal mean? Could it mean, as Father Thomas Rosica has said many times that:

"Doctrine changes when pastoral contexts shift and new insights emerge such that particularly doctrinal formulations no longer mediate the saving message of God's transforming love?" Does he mean that "Doctrine changes when the Church has leaders and teachers who are not afraid to take note of new contexts and emerging insights?" Or does he mean that, "It changes when the Church has pastors who do what Francis has been insisting: leave the securities of your chanceries, of your rectories, of your safe places, of your episcopal residences go set aside the small minded rules that often keep you locked up and shielded from the world?" 

It is all becoming clearer. With the Bergoglio motu proprio permitting "millions" of annulments, the question of Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried, that heretical proposal put forward by Cardinal Kasper and so admired by Pope Francis, is now a moot point. Writing on his blog at Salt+Light, Rosica says that:

"Today’s decrees did not address the significant question of Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried. The Church did not back down from its stand on divorce, but the Church was at least trying to show greater compassion and outreach to those who have experienced a breakup of their marriage. By implementing the compromise in advance, Pope Francis has not resolved the Communion debate; he has put it into a new context. The question must be studied further by the pastors of the Church."

And there we have it. There is no need to debate whether Catholics who divorce and remarry civilly should receive Holy Communion (they cannot as they are in a state of mortal sin - adultery) because everyone can get an annulment and then it is no problem!

The Pope is duplicitous. (as a Catholic, I can't believe I just wrote that). On the one hand, he upholds doctrine on Holy Communion and on the other hand he changes the pastoral practice (by providing annulments for nefarious and new invented reasons such as lack of faith) so that it's no longer an issue. They've done it. They've done exactly what they said that they would do. Earlier this year, I was sued for saying that they would do this even though I was quoting there own very words.

Ipso chango facto!

The next time that they tell you that the Pope did not create "Catholic Divorce" with these reckless changes to the annulment process, read them the quotes above and then get ready for the next wave of heresy that is coming out of Rome under the watchful eye of Francis himself aided and abetted by pervert protectors such as Danneels, sodomite union advocates such as Bonny and those who would equate the murdering of babies and cutting up of their bodies for money with unemployment such as Cupich.

We did not get the Pope we needed in 2013, we got the Pope we deserved.

As Christopher Ferrara states in this video, "They've wrecked the liturgy, they've wrecked the Church's mission to the world" and now they want to wreck the family under their false vision of mercy and maniacal ecumenical infantilism that is better suited to the P2 Lodge than the Holy Catholic Church. When the Grand Lodge of Italy proclaimed that "with the election of Bergoglio nothing will be the same again," know it to be true. 

May the days of this tribulation be shortened lest more souls be lost because of false teachers and false prophets and may we soon see a Holy Pope who will "restore all things in Christ" emerge on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica not with "good evening" but with a resounding Viva Cristo Rey!

Why is Pope Francis blind to Germany's rich and porn producing bishops?

Marx - Germany's new Luther?

The Rhine and Tiber have clearly merged into one filthy polluted river washing over faithful Catholics like the rising floods of Noah. Kasper, Marx and others from Germany continue to scandalise the faithful and debase the truth all under the watchful eye of Jorge Bergoglio, the man whom the Grand Lodge of Italy remarked that with him "nothing will be the same." 

The Synod on the Family became a cesspool of dissent where over half the bishops, though not the two-thirds required, actually wanted some kind of accommodation for Holy Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and unrepentant sodomites. It was to be on the family but it was taken over by these neo-Protestants from Germany. They did this under a false illusion of mercy and deceit and they did it with the acquiescence of the Pope himself for reasons which will become clearer in a moment. 

We've heard a lot about mercy, but we here little of  truth. The homosexualist and sodomite cabal that has overtaken the world from government to schools to businesses is a steamroller of fascist supremacy that will squash anything in its way. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexual orientation as a mental illness not because of science or medicine but because of politics. This same filthy, debased and accursed cabal has infiltrated the Church in a partnership with others to bring down our Church. Some unseen hand is operating in this regard and it has now overplayed itself. Yet, there is another unseen hand that is actually the Hand of God. That it is the Holy Spirit and He is exposing this filth that has infiltrated the Holy Catholic Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ for all to see.

We know that they cannot win, that the "gates of Hell will not prevail" but in these times we must ask, "Where is the Pope?"

A few years ago, LifeSiteNews wrote about the "German Bishops being caught in a massive porn scandal." After a papal rebuke, they announced that it would be sold. Yet we find that one year ago, this has not only not happened; but these same filthy Rhine bishops actually pumped over one billion Euros from Catholics back into its production!

The Catholic Church in Germany is the largest employer after the Government and Mercedes-Benz with over 600,000 employees. Yes, you read that number correctly. The bishops in Germany also earn incomes of up to 150,000 Euros. There is no collection at the Offertory. The Church in Germany is funded through taxes and if you don't pay you don't receive the sacraments. This is simony! What lays behind this German assault on the truth at the Synod is their own survival as a privileged class of bishops in a failing Church. 

These filthy degenerate bishops have taken control of this papacy and it is time to ask Francis a few questions.

"Holy Father, why have you allowed this and what are you doing to cleanse the Church of this filth?"

If you are not familiar with Regina Magazine you should be, and it is free. Published in February 2014, before all these Rhineland shenanigans, is this piece by Beverly De Soto of Wiesbaden titled, The Secret Catholic Insider Guide to Germany and German Catholic Church, Inc. by Harry Stevens. 

It nails the German bishops to the wall and I say that instructively as they refuse to carry their crosses. This rot and filth is falling at the feet of Francis, it is high time we find the courage to call them out, and him.

The mask is falling off.

Sodomite propaganda increasing on the German Bishops' website before the Synod

Homosexual takeover of the Church in Germany: homo-propaganda increasing on the German Bishops' website before the Synod

Mathias von Gersdorff reports on his excellent blog, that the German Bishops Conference is actually increasing its homosexualist propaganda in the run-up to the Synod. In katholische.de, the propaganda arm of the German Bishops' Conference, an article by theology student, Simon Linder,  provides a broad outline of the German bishops' hopes for acceptance of active homosexuality. The bishops, through another propaganda arm, the Central Committee of German Catholics (Zdk) has proclaimed the following: 

Which can be found if you click on Toronto Catholic Witness!

"But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?

It seems that Salt + Light has so run out of faithful Catholics or Pro-Life warriors such as Linda Gibbons to interview that they've now turned to the secular world. 

Steven Colbert

In an interview with Father Thomas J. Rosica, CSB, Executive Producer of the same network and English-language Vatican spokesman, American comedian Steven Colbert said that, “When I heard a woman say ‘This is my body,’ the freshness of hearing a woman say that gave the message a universality that it always should have — and I’m not saying it doesn’t coming out of a male priest — but it opened my ears to the possibility that it is also my body. That in my participation in the Eucharist, I participate in the gift that Christ gives me …”

Mr. Colbert, my Catholic brother; did nobody correct you?

There are no women priests in the Catholic Church and there never will be.

Women can say it's "my body" all they want and they can even cry if they want to, but it doesn't make it so. It's also not your body and that woman, did not celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. You can call it what you want but it does not make it so. 

It seems that Mr. Colbert has, in the past, given a legendary defense of Planned Parenthood, according to Gawker. Also, the Huffington Post reports on his mocking of the State of Arizona's abortion law stating that "They're not only Pro-life, they're pre-life!"

Katie Couric

Barona at Toronto Catholic Witness has found this little gem. It seems that Katie Couric of Yahoo News paid a visit to the network.

According to Barona: 

Planned Parenthood, the same Planned Parenthood that kills for money and cuts up babies for even more money received money from this guest and she was featured on Canada's Catholic Channel of Hope? Amazing. It was an "honour & privilege" to welcome her, we are told. She also gave funds to the Michael J. Fox Foundation? Is embryonic stem cell research a problem?

Celebrity chasers, pfft.

Message to Salt + Light Board of Directors. You cannot sue me for this. I have posted the facts and photos and information publicly available to one and all. 

It's not my fault you continue to lose subscribers. I feel sorry for the old man.

That is all.

Pope's protection of minors is hypocritical - Cardinal Danneels appointed to Synod on the Family by Francis urged minor to "keep quiet!"

Pope Francis has committed a grave scandal against the Catholic faithful by appointing to the Synod on the Family a man that told a minor abused by a sodomite bishop to "keep quiet." 

Every Catholic must rise up and demand that this Pope uphold his supposed concern for justice and the children abused by homosexual and other paedophile priests and rid the Synod of this scandalous Cardinal. This Pope made a big deal about Bishop Finn in Kansas City who's actions came nowhere near the criminal and moral violations of this Cardinal Danneels, why does he appoint Danneels to a Synod on the Family?

The Pope is responsible for this mess. It is high time that he got the message that we, the Catholic faithful are not going to put up with this any longer.

Vox

 

Cardinal urged Catholic sex abuse victim to keep quiet, new tapes reveal

A conversation published this weekend by Belgian media provides a rare glimpse into a transaction between church officials and victims involved in Catholic sex abuse scandals.

By Robert Marquand, Staff writer AUGUST 30, 2010

ARIS — A former Belgian church leader privately urged a victim of sexual abuse to remain silent this past spring, at a time when the Vatican was denying the scope and scale of a pedophile scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church to its core.

The April 8 conversation, captured on tapes published this weekend and confirmed by church authorities as genuine, offers a rare glimpse into a transaction between church officials and victims in what has been described as a widespread practice of hushing pedophile cases.

Cardinal Godfried Danneels is heard telling the victim, a nephew of Bishop Robert Vangheluwe, “The bishop will resign next year, so actually it would be better for you to wait… I don’t think you would do yourself or him a favor by shouting this from the rooftops.”

The tapes came from an April 8 meeting between Cardinal Danneels, Bishop Vangheluwe, and the unidentified victim to discuss how to proceed in an instance of sexual abuse the victim had long tried to report. The case was long ignored until media organizations in Ireland and Germany, as well as The New York Times, revealed a broad pattern of pedophilia by priests that went well beyond Catholic clergy in the United States.

In the taped conversation, published Saturday by the Belgian dailies Het Nieuwsblad and De Standaard, the victim asks for help in reporting the case. But Danneels – the former archbishop of Brussels who ordained Vangheluwe as bishop of Bruges in December 1984 but left his post in January – says he is not in a position to report the case to church authorities or Pope Benedict.

Danneels asked the victim to accept a private apology from Vangheluwe and not "drag his name through the mud" – at least until the bishop retired, which he was expected to do in the coming year. The victim replied, “He [Vangheluwe] has dragged my whole life through the mud, from 5 until 18 years old… Why do you feel sorry for him and not for me?”

Vangheluwe resigned on April 23, admitting that he had illicit relations with a “boy in my close entourage.”

The resignation followed a threatening e-mail to Belgian bishops from someone close to the nephew, calling for Vangheluwe to step down or risk exposure of his misdeeds.

The bishop’s resignation, which came two weeks after the April 8 meeting and two days after Pope Benedict XVI vowed action on sexual abuse of children by priests, followed weeks of a Vatican campaign to downplay the Catholic sex abuse scandal and to attack news organizations for exaggerating pedophilia claims. Pope Benedict later asked forgiveness for the church.

In an April 19 address to a Belgian college, Vangheluwe stated, "I think you need to be well informed about these things... Yes it [pedophilia] is embarrassing... but there have been articles implying that pedophilia is nowhere so little prevalent than in the church," he said, according to a report in De Standaard.

In an April 21 edition of Church and Life, a Flemish Catholic monthly, the bishop writes that "everywhere there are stories of priests abusing children. It is horrible to see these things surface and they hurt us deeply. This shouldn't blind us from the fact that the majority of priests lead exemplary lives."

Why nephew released tapes

Media outlets in Belgium and Luxembourg, citing church sources, have reported that the victim has received monetary compensation for years from the bishop; the victim has said he released the tapes to show that he hadn’t attempted to blackmail his uncle.

The New York Times reported this summer that the victim's family was angered that Danneels, rather than the new archbishop of Brussels, Andre-Joseph Leonard, met in April to discuss the case.

The Times also reported that a retired Belgian priest, Rev. Rik Deville, said he had earlier tried to make the the victim’s case known to church authorities, but was “berated for doing so.”

The bishop’s resignation and admission set off a chain of events in Belgium that led to hundreds of people coming forward to report abuse to an official commission. It was also followed by Belgian police raids on a bishops meeting and on Danneels' home.

The Belgian daily Le Soir reported in August that a significant number of Catholics in the country have asked to be taken off census rolls that identify them as Catholics when they are baptized as infants. Similar reports have come from Ireland and Austria, countries where priestly abuse of children has also been widely discovered. Most of the reported cases took place in the 1970s through the 1990s. 

Time Bomb in Synod document, Canada's Bishops' Shame of the Winnipeg Statement chickens coming home to roost thanks to Pope Francis

Major appeal by theologians urges Pope to delete ‘seriously defective’ Synod text on contraception

 Catholic , Contraception , Humanae Vitae , Pope Francis , Synod On The Family

Note: Ask Pope Francis to uphold traditional Church teaching on marriage and family at the Synod. Join 615,000 and sign the petition here. 

ROME, September 14, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- As many as 60 highly distinguished Catholic moral theologians and philosophers are appealing to Pope Francis to delete a controversial paragraph from the preparatory document for the Synod of the Family that they say “contradicts” Catholic teaching against the “intrinsically evil act” of using contraception.

They say if the text is approved during the Synod next month in Rome, it could have “devastating consequences for the faithful.”

Read all of it at:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/major-appeal-by-theologians-urges-pope-to-delete-seriously-defective-synod

Pope Francis! You have appointed octogenarians Kasper, Sodano and Danneels to Synod but Hong Kong Cardinal John Tong Hong is too old and there are "no exceptions"

Hong Kong Cardinal deemed too old to go to family synod

The head of the largest Chinese Catholic diocese in the world will be absent from the synod on the family because he has been deemed to be too old.

Cardinal John Tong Hon of Hong Kong was not invited to participate in October’s synod because he is older than 75, UCA News reported.

“Now I know that I am not going to the synod,” the 76-year-old cardinal told ucanews.com in a late August interview.

The normal retirement age for bishops is 75.

The cardinal said he was told by a Vatican representative that the Vatican “does not want to make any exceptions” regarding age.

Cardinal Tong said he was unaware if another representative from Hong Kong was chosen in his place.

He knew only that he was “disqualified by age”, he said, laughing.

“They will find somebody . . . if they need somebody,” the cardinal said.

Pope Francis is 78 years old.

Synod participants in general are elected by local bishops’ conferences.

Hong Kong, a former British colony and the largest Chinese diocese in the world with a Catholic population of 560,000, remains a mission area and does not have its own bishops’ conference.

Some Hong Kong Catholics expressed disappointment that the diocese may not be represented at the synod.

“It is a pity that no one from Hong Kong is going,” said Francis Law, a member of a Chinese Facebook page called “Catholic Parents”.

Mr. Law said Hong Kong Catholics could contribute to discussions at the synod, expressing concerns about recent developments on same-sex unions around the world, particularly in the United States.

“These kinds of voices needs to be brought to the synod,” said Mr Law, who is a member of the Diocesan Youth Commission.

Cardinal Tong participated in last year’s extraordinary family synod.

The cardinal said he agreed family and marriage are the most fundamental issues facing the Church and believes the synod fathers will find ways to resolve outstanding issues in line with the Pope’s vision.

1. http://cathnews.co.nz/2015/09/04/hong-kong-cardinal-deemed-too-old-to-go-to-family-synod/