Friday, 8 April 2016

The Pope to feel the bern? (I couldn't resist)

Just when you thought you'd heard it all.

Clowns to the left of me. Jokers to the further left.

There is only one man I can think of who is arrogant and dumb enough to have engineered this debacle!

Yeah, you know.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/275583-sanders-to-visit-pope-francis

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Friday morning announced a visit to the Vatican next week to attend a conference hosted by Pope Francis on social, economic and environmental issues.

“I am delighted to have been invited by the Vatican to a meeting on restoring social justice and environmental sustainability to the world economy," the Vermont senator said in a statement.

"Pope Francis has made clear that we must overcome ‘the globalization of indifference’ in order to reduce economic inequalities, stop financial corruption and protect the natural environment. That is our challenge in the United States and in the world.”

The meeting, held on April 15, will come just four days before the New York primary. The announcement came on the same day that Pope Francis issued a major publication called "The Joy of Love," that called for the Catholic community to be more open to those who have been divorced and for individual decisions to be matters of conscience.

"I was very moved by the invitation, I am a big, big fan of the pope," Sanders said in an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday.

"People think Bernie Sanders is radical. Read what the pope is writing."

And then ...

Blog Briefing Roomicon

Blog Briefing Room feed

April 08, 2016, 12:21 pm

Vatican official accuses Sanders of 'monumental discourtesy'

By Jesse Byrnes

154

Getty Images

A senior Vatican official said Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders showed "monumental discourtesy" in reaching out to obtain an invitation to a church-sponsored conference.

“Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons,” Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, told Bloomberg on Friday, suggesting the Independent Vermont senator pushed for the invite for political reasons.

“I think in a sense he may be going for the Catholic vote but this is not the Catholic vote and he should remember that and act accordingly — not that he will," she added.

The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences is hosting the conference on social and economic issues that Sanders's campaign said he was slated to attend April 15, four days before the New York primary.

Sanders earlier in the day Friday said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that "it was an invitation from the Vatican," adding, "I was very moved by the invitation."

"I am a big, big fan of the Pope. Obviously there are areas where we disagree on women’s rights or gay rights. But he has played an unbelievable role ... injecting a moral consequence into the economy," Sanders said.

His campaign had released a statement from academy saying it was "delighted" to host the conference and mentioning Sanders by name along with the presidents of Ecuador and Bolivia, among others.

TAGS:Bernie Sanders,

OR IS IT THIS?

Sanders Aide Disputes Vatican Story on Lobbied Invitation

“Your story is categorically untrue. The invitation came to the senator from the Vatican,” Bernie Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs says in e-mail. Related: Sanders Accused of ‘Discourtesy’ in Vatican Invitation

Apostolic excruciating mess

The Bishop of Rome has set the Catholic Church on a path of doctrinal dissolvement. The brief passages I have read so far are not good. You know every paragraph that starts to sound Catholic has a "but" coming. It's all over it.

Different strokes for different folks is what he is advocating. This is not Catholic. It is heretical. He has also adopted Canada's "Winnipeg Statement" on conscience and elevated to papal teaching. Another heresy. The reference to homosexual "orientation" is a heretical phrase adopted from the secular world. There is no "orientation" there is sin! While on one hand he condemns "gender ideology" on the other he adopts their mantra. The "internal forum" is now the arbiter. This Pope, and yes, for better or worse, he is the Pope; this Pope assumes that mercy has never been a part of parish life. I know priests who are deeply hurt by his condemnation of them for an apparent "lack of mercy." The German menace in this document and papacy is profound. There is a schism but it is not those of us faithful to the Church who are in schism.

Complete heresy by the Bishop or Rome himself! Sin is no longer, sin.

301. For an adequate understanding of the possibility and need of special discernment in certain “irregular” situations, one thing must always be taken into account, lest anyone think that the demands of the Gospel are in any way being compromised. The Church possesses a solid body of reflection concerning mitigating factors and situations. Hence it is can no longer simply be said that all those in any “irregular” situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace.

Do you remember this?

The Promoter

"Will this Pope re-write controversial Church doctrines? No. But that isn't how doctrine changes. 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. Doctrine changes when the Church has leaders and teachers who are not afraid to take note of new contexts and emerging insights. 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."

With that quote, (originating at the NCReporter) Father Thomas J. Rosica, on numerous occasions, laid out the plan of the Synods on the Family and Pope Bergoglio. You can bet your sweet bippy (since we are back in the 1970's) the at the likes of Rosica and the rest of the clericalist twitterati will be praising this document.

Oh, they have won, for now and they will have their reward, you can be sure.

Let's look at some of what I've read so far; right away in paragraph 3:

3. Since “time is greater than space”, I would make it clear that not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it. This will always be the case as the Spirit guides us towards the entire truth (cf. Jn 16:13), until he leads us fully into the mystery of Christ and enables us to see all things as he does. Each country or region, moreover, can seek solutions better suited to its culture and sensitive to its traditions and local needs. For “cultures are in fact quite diverse and every general principle… needs to be inculturated, if it is to be respected and applied”.

Paragraph 79, as an example, is a deception. On one hand, it gives the reader assurance that what is being said is in the great Familiaris Consortio of John Paul II. Yet, while it refers to what it wants to state from 84 in FC, it does not add the rest of it:

However, the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.
Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they "take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples."[180]Similarly, the respect due to the sacrament of Matrimony, to the couples themselves and their families, and also to the community of the faithful, forbids any pastor, for whatever reason or pretext even of a pastoral nature, to perform ceremonies of any kind for divorced people who remarry. Such ceremonies would give the impression of the celebration of a new sacramentally valid marriage, and would thus lead people into error concerning the indissolubility of a validly contracted marriage.
By acting in this way, the Church professes her own fidelity to Christ and to His truth. At the same time she shows motherly concern for these children of hers, especially those who, through no fault of their own, have been abandoned by their legitimate partner.
With firm confidence she believes that those who have rejected the Lord's command and are still living in this state will be able to obtain from God the grace of conversion and salvation, provided that they have persevered in prayer, penance and charity.

In paragraph 186, we are told:

The Eucharist demands that we be members of the one body of the Church. Those who approach the Body and Blood of Christ may not wound that same Body by creating scandalous distinctions and divisions among its members. This is what it means to “discern” the body of 142 the Lord, to acknowledge it with faith and charity both in the sacramental signs and in the community; those who fail to do so eat and drink judgement against themselves (cf. v. 29). The celebration of the Eucharist thus becomes a constant summons for everyone “to examine himself or herself ” (v. 28), to open the doors of the family to greater fellowship with the underprivileged, and in this way to receive the sacrament of that eucharistic love which makes us one body. We must not forget that “the ‘mysticism’ of the sacrament has a social character”.207 When those who receive it turn a blind eye to the poor and suffering, or consent to various forms of division, contempt and inequality, the Eucharist is received unworthily. On the other hand, families who are properly disposed and receive the Eucharist regularly, reinforce their desire for fraternity, their social consciousness and their commitment to those in need.

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, one again there is an attempt to show continuity, but while Pope Benedict writes of the Eucharist as "the reality both of being loved and loving others" and that if not, it is "intrinsically fragmented" Benedict does not use secular and worldly terms which take on Marxist rhetoric and equate them with mortal sin! Christ did not come to bring unity, though He certainly prayed for it in the Garden, he came to "bring a sword." He came to bring "division." We must have "contempt" for radical ideologies and the people that advocate them and seek to destroy our culture. "Inequality?" While people may be equal before the law, or should be, cultures are not. The behaviour of certain ethnic groups is not acceptable. This is sheer Marxist rhetoric and to equate it with being improperly disposed for Holy Communion is abominable. Nowhere in this document is this stated over sodomy but tell the kid to stop washing your window as you stop at a red light and you'll go to Hell.

Paragraph 297 is a complete contradiction and confusing jumble of platitudes. Are we or are we not to permit open adulterers, abortionist, sodomites to read at Mass or not? Now, if we all went to the traditional Mass, this would not be an issue!

297. It is a matter of reaching out to everyone, of needing to help each person find his or her proper way of participating in the ecclesial community and thus to experience being touched by an “unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous” mercy. No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel! Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves. Naturally, if someone flaunts an objective sin as if it were part of the Christian ideal, or wants to impose something other than what the Church teaches, he or she can in no way presume to teach or preach to others; this is a case of something which separates from the community (cf. Mt 18:17). Such a person needs to listen once more to the Gospel message and its call to conversion. Yet even for that person there can be some way of taking part in the life of community, whether in social service, prayer meetings or another way that his or her own initiative, together with the discernment of the parish priest, may suggest. As for the way of dealing with different “irregular” situations, the Synod Fathers reached a general consensus, which I support: “In considering a pastoral approach towards people who have contracted a civil marriage, who are divorced and remarried, or simply living together, the Church has the responsibility of helping them understand the divine pedagogy of grace in their lives and offering them assistance so they can reach the fullness of God’s plan for them”,328 something which is always possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

What a bunch of jesuitical bile speaking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time. So, there is no Hell? The Gospels are wrong? Jesus lied?

As for 299, they are not "excommunicated" and get off this sentimentalist claptrap of "feelings."

What a bunch of 1970's bile. Will the felt banners be at the next Papal Mass?

Paragraph 301-306 are pure an unadulterated, if you'll pardon the pun, heresy! The door is open for Kasper and the rest of these heretics to drive a locomotive through. This is a schismatic document issued from the Bishop or Rome himself!

The Pope backs sex-education in schools. This is not Catholic, it belongs in the home, period!

Pure idiocy from which, I dissent!

The author

Abortion bears hardly a mention. Where is the call to arms to families? Where is the demand that Catholic parents rid themselves of pornography and ensure that this pernicious evil never enters the family domain? Where is the call to be more like "rabbits" and rebuild the culture? Where is the demographic crisis discussed and the effect this will have on Catholic families? Mercy, mercy, mercy me? I've heard about enough of this mercy crapola.

On a positive note, the scripture reflections are quite nice.

The Presenter

The hidden men behind this document are modernists, Marxists, heretics and sodomites! May God convert them or damn them all to Hell.

I'm sick of them, I'm sick and tired of these rotten liberals as Mother Angelica, may she even now see Him face to face, opined. I've had enough of what they did to my childhood faith. What they did to our heritage, our Catholic culture and our lives. They have done this. These bishops and cardinals, these theologians and twitterist clerics - they are responsible for what has happened to the family. They have done this.

You, Catholic out there. You have been misled. You have been lied to. Get up and educate yourself. You have no excuse anymore. These are evil men destined for eternal damnation, do not be amongst these goats.

May the Bishop of Rome enjoy his time at Lesbos. If he likes it enough there, maybe they can make room for him. He'll wash their feet and worship their same god as he bows to the vagina asteroid!

A future Pope will fix this. May it be the next one and sooner rather than later.

Pat Archbold "shameful and a grave evil"
http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2016/04/the-shameful-document.html

Francis advances "situational ethics"
http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/eef697b31863ac4b1bb8405c418215e8-561.html

One Peter Five's - intial view
http://www.onepeterfive.com/pope-francis-departs-from-church-teaching-in-new-exhortation/

One Peter Five - home page for additional
http://www.onepeterfive.com/

Rorate Caeli
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/04/summary-of-amoris-laetitia.html

Father Alan Macdonald
http://southernorderspage.blogspot.ca/2016/04/heres-summary-as-posted-by-rorate-caeli.html

Dr. Edward Peters
https://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/first-thoughts-on-the-english-version-of-pope-francis-amoris-laetitia/

How CNN spins the Pope's ambiguity!
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/08/europe/vatican-pope-family/index.html

Voice of the Family
http://voiceofthefamily.com/catholics-cannot-accept-elements-of-apostolic-exhortation-that-threaten-faith-and-family/

Full bile
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia.html

Thursday, 7 April 2016

Prepare for the worst but don't lose your wits!

Knowing Hilary's manner, you can bet what's coming is not good. She is bang-on. You must rise up!

The author

The conservative Catholic must make a choice. The neo-Cath must make a choice. You, must make a choice.

After tomorrow, you will either be a Catholic or you will be a heretic!

Either you will be with our Lord Jesus Christ and the sheep on the Last Day or you will be with the goats.

The Presenter

People - laity, priests, bishops, cardinals and popes are going to burn in Hell.

Don't be with them.

Every one of them must be denounced and resisted. Do not follow them into the fiery furnace.

Remember the Prophesy of Ezekiel in the third chapter and the eighteenth verse:

Si, dicente me ad impium: Morte morieris, non annuntiaveris ei, neque locutus fueris ut avertatur a via sua impia et vivat, ipse impius in iniquitate sua morietur, sanguinem autem ejus de manu tua requiram.

If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: thou declare it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may be converted from his wicked way, and live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand.

When I threaten I the sinner with doom of death, it is for thee to give him word, and warn him, as he loves his life, to have done with sinning. If not, he shall die as he deserves, but for his undoing thyself shalt be called to account.

Wednesday, 6 April 2016

Sodom in Sudbury; lives lost, faith lost, souls lost even still

Just after Easter, I sat with some friends at dinner. One expressed the sadness that their father would not darken the door of a Church and was in fact, hostile. She is practicing her faith and mostly in the traditional liturgy. She said that her father grew up in Sudbury and he often made derogatory remarks about a priest or priests that led her to believe that something malicious happened. He would never want to talk about it.

I've sent this report on. He would be the right age.

What Mr. Carmichael of the Sudbury Star does not state is that John E. Sullivan was a homosexual!

This pervert was a Priest of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and was ordained on the 25 May 1958. He was first charged in 1989 ane eventually faced 32-charges related to allegations of sex abuse of nine boys age 9 to 12 between the years 1958 and 1979 (one source says 15). Sullivan pleased guilty! He was sentenced to two years and six months. There have also been lawsuits launched by three brothers alleging abuse by Sulllivan when he served as priest at Canadian Forces Base Falconbridge, Ontario. Further criminal charges were laid June 2012, and two more charges in Fall of 2012. Sullivan just went to face justice on Easter Sunday, the same day as Mother Angelica. For her, it was a "blessing" according to Pope Benedict XVI; what was it for Sullivan a traveller, gardiner and host of many friends.

If this sodomite raped you as a boy in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Wawa or anywhere else he was appointed, write me at voxcantoris@rogers.com. If the Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie did nothing, write me.

These men were sodomites -- homosexuals. They came into the Catholic priesthood to seek out their victims. These filthy, disgusting, vile perverts became seminary rectors, they became bishops such and chronic masturbators such as child-porn aficionado, Raymond Lahey. They became liturgists and destroyed the Mass such as Barry Glendinning who left a trail of rape from London to Edmonton and back to Toronto aided and abetted by Gerald Emmett Cardinal Carter.

Shame on these filthy men. Shame on the bishops today who continue to cover them up.

Let God determine mercy.

http://www.thesudburystar.com/2016/04/05/sudbury-victim-has-harsh-words-for-church

Sudbury victim has harsh words for church

By Harold Carmichael, The Sudbury Star

Tuesday, April 5, 2016 12:38:19 EDT AM

Supplied photo
Father John Edward Sullivan celebrates mass in this undated photo.

The victim of a now-dead priest he calls a "serial molester" had harsh words for the Catholic Church after settling his lawsuit in Sudbury on Monday.

The victim, identified only as P.J.J., issued the statement following an out-of-court settlement with the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie.

"This five-year ordeal has cemented my thoughts that this church from the top down is not truly interested in action "¦ only hollow words of apology to placate the masses," he wrote in a statement released by Beckett Litigation Lawyers of London, Ont.

"If they were truly repentant I would call for them to immediately defrock the pervert collars (I cannot bring myself to ever use the term priest or father), and then offer all the support required to assist the victims. This would also mean to stop defending the convicted collars in litigation immediately.

Tuesday, 5 April 2016

Asia Bibi continues to languish and the Pope and Vatican still do nothing! Adultererists and sodomites are so much more enticing for these malefactors!

No less than six times, this is now the seventh, have I blogged about the continual suffering of Asia Bibi, a Catholic ridiculously accused of blaspheming a dead and rotted man when blasphemy can only be against God. She languishes in prison in the failed state of Pakistan, removed for five years from her husband and children, suffering, all of them. Who cares?

Where has the Bishop of Rome been on this?

Sandro Magister is now asking the same question with the reminder of how her husband and daughter were insulted and not given an minute of time nor even a blessing.

http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/search/label/Asia%20Bibi

Asia Bibi Sentenced To Death For Faith. But in the Vatican Her Case Is Taboo

Every time Islam is in the middle, Francis is extremely cautious. But on Pakistan his reticence is at its highest. Here is the story of the Christian mother on which he is silent. She has been in prison for seven years, and her fate is interwoven with the Easter massacre in Lahore

by Sandro Magister

ROME, April 5, 2016 – In commenting on Lahore’s bloody Easter, Pope Francis was very careful not to bring up the authors of the attack and not to address the meaning of that crime, which on the contrary he called “meaningless”:

> "Regina Coeli" del 28 marzo 2016

In doing this he bowed down to the canons of that minimalist diplomacy which traditionally guides the steps of the Holy See on the most mine-strewn terrain, justified by the intention of not exposing to further danger the most vulnerable Christian communities, precisely like that of Pakistan.

And up to this point there is no surprise. Whenever Islam is in the middle, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is extremely cautious. Only once has he made a departure, and entirely on his own initiative, with Turkey on the “genocide” of the Armenians, making a bit of a mess for the secretariat of state, which had to scramble for months to patch things up with the Turkish authorities:

> Genocidio armeno. Francesco tra diplomazia e "parresìa" (24.4.2015)

But on Pakistan the pope is even more reserved and silent than ever, far below the expectations of the Christians of that country. The Pakistan dossier is one of the most voluminous and distressing at the secretariat of state, and yet none of this appears in what Francis says and does on the rare occasions on which he finds himself obligated to speak out.

The emblem of this reticence is in the 12 seconds - not one more - of face-to-face that the pope had in Saint Peter’s Square on April 15 one year ago, with the husband and youngest daughter of Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Catholic sentenced to death in 2010 under the spurious accusation of having offended the prophet Muhammad, and imprisoned since then while awaiting a new sentence that would save her life.

In the fleeting encounter along the barriers - as can be seen in the video - the pope brushes past the two, accompanied by the children’s tutor. He does not listen to them, he does not speak, he does not bless them. The girl looks at him with amazement at such coldness. Everything takes place as if the name of Asia Bibi means nothing to Francis:

> Rome Reports. Francisco saluda...

On November 17, 2010, a few days before she was sentenced to death, Benedict XVI publicly called for Asia Bibi to be set free. But this has remained the first and only time a pope has spoken her name in public, in spite of the subsequent mobilization of many in support of her and in spite of the fact that her case is interwoven with all the following events of anti-Christian hatred in Pakistan, up to the massacre this past Easter, with 74 dead and 350 wounded, most of them women and children.

Asia Bibi was arrested on June 19, 2009, and sentenced to death on November 11, 2010, on the charge, not supported by evidence, of having violated the law in Pakistan that punishes with execution an offense against the Islamic religion.

The family appealed, and many people swung into action for the liberation of the condemned woman and for the revision of the law against blasphemy, including the governor of Punjab at the time and a potential future prime minister, Salmaan Taseer, a Muslim, who also went to visit her in prison.

But on January 4, 2011, Taseer was killed by one of his bodyguards, Mumtaz Qadri, precisely out of retaliation for his efforts.

And two months later, on March 2, someone else was assassinated for the same reason, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic champion of human rights and the minister for minorities. Benedict XVI knew him personally, having met him in Rome in September of the previous year and feeling great esteem for him.

On January 10, 2011, a few days after the killing of Taseer and a few before that of Bhatti, Benedict XVI dedicated to the question this passage of his new year’s address to the diplomatic corps:

“Among the norms prejudicing the right of persons to religious freedom, particular mention must be made of the law against blasphemy in Pakistan: I once more encourage the leaders of that country to take the necessary steps to abrogate that law, all the more so because it is clear that it serves as a pretext for acts of injustice and violence against religious minorities. The tragic murder of the governor of Punjab shows the urgent need to make progress in this direction: the worship of God furthers fraternity and love, not hatred and division.”

Shahbaz Bhatti’s brother, Paul, has sought since then to inspire a national and international mobilization in support of religious freedom, with Asia Bibi as the emblematic case.

In his country, Paul Bhatti founded and leads the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, and was minister for national harmony. And today he claims that steps forward have been made in defense of minorities, in oversight of the Quranic schools in which hatred against the “infidels” is instilled, in the legal reforms brought by the supreme court to blasphemy cases and above all in a more decisive commitment of the authorities, not only political but also military, in fighting Islamic radicalism, especially after the appalling attack on December 16, 2014 on the military school in Peshawar, with the deliberate killing of 132 students between the ages of 17 and 18.

One effect of this evolution has been, in Bhatti’s judgment, precisely the acceptance by the supreme court of Pakistan, on July 22 of 2015, of Asia Bibi’s appeal. Who, while awaiting a new trial to acknowledge her innocence, continues from prison to make her voice heard, with letters and appeals.

For example, with this open letter of December 2012, in which she thanks Benedict XVI for having interceded in her favor:

> "Scrivo da una cella senza finestre…"

As also with the two letters she sent personally to Pope Francis, which received no response.

Asia Bibi has been kept in a maximum security cell since 2010, in an isolation justified by the continual threats against her life. Even her food is checked, to prevent its being poisoned.

But her family too, her husband Ashiq Masih and five children Imran, Nasima, Isha, Sidra, and Isham, must hide in secret locations for security reasons. This is what they had to do, in particular, at the end of last February, in conjunction with the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, the author of the 2011 assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Naseer.

The hanging of Qadri, which took place on February 29, prompted the mass reaction of his supporters and of radical Islamic groups, who took to the streets in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, and other cities, here and there with explosions of violence.

For all of them Qadri is a “national hero,” and they are calling for his exoneration and raising effigies of him. While for Asia Bibi they are incessantly demanding death.

On the day of Easter, one month after Qadri’s execution, 30,000 took to the streets in Islamabad, the capital, and tried to break through the “red zone” of the institutional buildings. But they were pushed back. On the afternoon of the same day, in Lahore, a twenty-year-old Muslim suicide bomber blew himself up at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal park, massacring women and children who were celebrating the holiday, introduced by the government for the first time this year.

Responsibility for the massacre was claimed by an Islamic organization called Jamaat-ul-Aharar, a faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, as a deliberate attack against the Christians celebrating Easter.

And it is not the first attack carried out in Pakistan with this declared objective, on a Sunday and in front of crowded churches. The same thing happened on September 22, 2013 in Peshawar, with 126 victims, and on March 15, 2015 in Yuhannabad, with 26 dead and many wounded, all Christians.

Last March 31 the radical Muslims left the streets, boasting of having received from the government the assurance that Asia Bibi would be hung soon. The Pakistani authorities denied it.

On Wednesday, March 2, at the end of the general audience in Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Francis had met briefly with two Pakistani officials, ports and shipping minister Kamran Michael and religious affairs minister Sardar Muhammad Yousaf. The two had passed on to the pope an invitation from prime minister Nawaz Sharif to visit Pakistan. And they had interpreted the pope’s response as a “yes,” giving the impression that he would make a stop in Pakistan next September, on the occasion of the journey to Calcutta to canonize Mother Teresa.

In reality, as Fr. Federico Lombardi clarified, this year the pope will not go to Calcutta, much less to Pakistan.

Nor has he yet dedicated a single word to Asia Bibi. Whose ordeal extends to her husband and children, who since she has been in prison, for almost 2500 days, must continually take shelter in hiding, their lives being in danger as well.

From their village of Ittanwali they moved to Lahore, a big city in which anonymity is easier. But soon they were also recognized and threatened there. In order to hide, the husband had to quit working. Last summer they were driven out of their home and now have taken shelter in a school of the Renaissance Education Foundation.

The director of this foundation, Joseph Nadeem, is the gentleman in the tie beside the daughters of Asia Bibi, in the video of the meeting with Pope Francis.

To whom he tried uselessly to say in Spanish who the man and his daughter were, not even succeeding in handing him the dossier he wanted to give him.

Vox Cantoris

A corporal work of mercy.

Pages

Friday, 8 April 2016

The Pope to feel the bern? (I couldn't resist)

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