At the Vatican, Up Against the World

[giovonni]

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Pope marks milestones amid signs of frailty, succession talk



VATICAN CITY | Sun Apr 15, 2012

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict marks two milestones this week and while his health appears stable, signs of frailty have again prompted speculation over whether he will be the first pontiff in seven centuries to resign. Benedict, one of the oldest popes in history, turns 85 on Monday, and on Thursday he marks the seventh anniversary of his election as successor to the immensely popular John Paul II...
Read more - http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...83E06220120415

[giovonni]

From the Schwartz Report...

Landmark Church Sex Abuse Case Ends Testimony

"The child sexual abuse trend is moving to a new level. If Monsignor Lynn is convicted, as I think is likely, it will place the trial of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City in an entirely different context. If both men are convicted, coming on top of the Irish reports, and Belgian reports, and... on... and on I think it will force the church into crisis equal to the Reformation."


Graphic testimony in landmark church sex abuse case

ELAINE QUIJANO - CBS Evening News

It could be a pivotal case for prosecutors in the nationwide scandal of child sex-abuse by Roman Catholic priests.

Five weeks of testimony concluded Thursday in the Philadelphia trial of a senior clergyman who allegedly chose to protect the church, instead of the children.

It's the first time in the U.S. that a senior official with the Catholic Church has faced charges in the church's child sexual abuse crisis.

CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano reports that Monsignor William Lynn is accused of endangering children by helping reassign priests suspected of child sex abuse to jobs where they continued to prey on boys and girls. Lynn was in charge of Philadelphia's priests from 1992 to 2004.

Jurors have heard graphic testimony from victims recounting how priests under Lynn's supervision sexually abused them sometimes inside churches. One witness testified he went directly to Monsignor Lynn with his complaints ...

Read more with video news report - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_16...nds-testimony/

[giovonni]

More strangeness from an institution (in my opinion) that is tittering on the brink of being labeled almost perverse ...

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Two items from ~ The Daily Beast

Nuns Gone Wild! Vatican Chastises American Sisters

American nuns are pushing ‘radical-feminist themes,’ according to a damning new Vatican report...
Barbie Latza Nadeau on why the U.S. sister act is too hot for the men of the Holy See ...

Read more - http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...n-sisters.html

Also ~

Vatican Investigating Girl Scouts for Links to Safe-Sex Education Groups



The Catholic Church is not investigating the Girl Scouts for their sinfully delicious cookies, but rather for the organization’s ties to nonprofits such as Médicins Sans Frontières and other groups that teach safe-sex education. Barbie Latza Nadeau on how one U.S. official’s claim that the GSA has links to Planned Parenthood has snowballed.

Should there be any doubt left about how the Vatican views women after clamping down on American nuns late last month, the leaders of the billion-strong Catholic Church have now set their sights on the devilish Girl Scouts. No, it’s not about the sinful cookies, but a claim that the Girl Scouts are associating with 'questionable” groups that the church believes do not strictly adhere to their tenets. In particular, the Vatican believes that several groups the Girl Scouts endorse, including Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam, both of which cater to the poor but also ...

Read More - http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...on-groups.html

[mountain_jim]

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1vhw2RZ8B

Missing girl 'buried in murdered mobster's tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties', claims Catholic Church's leading exorcist priest



The Catholic Church's leading exorcist priest has sensationally claimed a missing schoolgirl thought to be buried in a murdered gangster's tomb was kidnapped for Vatican sex parties.
Father Gabriel Amorth, 85, who has carried out 70,000 exorcisms, spoke out as investigators continued to examine mobster Enrico De Pedis's tomb in their hunt for Emanuela Orlandi.
Last week police and forensic experts broke into the grave after an anonymous phone call to a TV show said the truth about Emanuela's 1983 disappearance would be 'found there'.
And although bones not belonging to the mobster were recovered they have not yet been positively identified as hers.
However Father Amorth, in an interview with La Stampa newspaper, said: 'This was a crime with a sexual motive.
'It has already previously been stated by (deceased) monsignor Simeone Duca, an archivist at the Vatican, who was asked to recruit girls for parties with the help of the Vatican gendarmes.
'I believe Emanuela ended up in this circle. I have never believed in the international theory (overseas kidnappers). I have motives to believe that this was just a case of sexual exploitation.
'It led to the murder and then the hiding of her body. Also involved are diplomatic staff from a foreign embassy to the Holy See.'

Today there was no immediate response from the Vatican to Father Amorth's claims.
But Vatican officials insisted they had always co-operated with the investigation into Orlandi's disappearance - a claim that her brother has often disputed.

Father Amorth is a colourful figure who in the past has also denounced yoga and Harry Potter as the 'work of the Devil'. He was appointed by the late Pope John Paul II as the Vatican's chief exorcist.
It is not the first time Father Amorth has raised eyebrows with his forthright views - two years ago he said sex scandals rocking the Catholic Church were evidence 'the Devil was at work in the Vatican.'


..... (rest at link)

[Camilo]

The total collapse of the corrupted institutions all over the wold is inevitable, and we're seeing it happening day by day.

[giovonni]

They always blame it on the butler !

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Vatican detains 'Pope's butler' as suspect in leaks probe

The Vatican says it has detained a person suspected of leaking a series of confidential documents and letters to the media.

Reports citing unnamed sources said he was the Pope's personal butler.

The "Vatileaks" scandal, as it is known, has enraged the Holy See. The leaks have revealed alleged corruption, mismanagement and internal conflicts...

Read more - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18209956

[giovonni]

will share this here ...

Red Ice Radio - Tom Horn - Hour 1 - Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope

Descriptive:

Published on May 26, 2012 by RedIceRadio

Thomas Horn is an internationally recognized lecturer, radio host and bestselling author of several books including his newest books, Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope Is Here. He is a well-known columnist who has been interviewed by US Congressmen and Senators on his findings as well as featured repeatedly in major media. Thomas received the highest degree honorary doctorate bestowed in 2007 from legendary professor Dr. I.D.E. Thomas for his research into ancient history. He returns to Red Ice to discuss Petrus Romanus. For more than 800 years scholars have pointed to the dark augury having to do with "the last Pope." The prophecy, taken from St. Malachy's "Prophecy of the Popes," is among a list of verses predicting each of the Roman Catholic popes from Pope Celestine II to the final pope, "Peter the Roman," whose reign would end in the destruction of Rome. St. Malachy's list heralds the beginning of "great apostasy" followed by "great tribulation" sets the stage for the imminent unfolding of apocalyptic events. According to this prophecy, the next Pope will be a false prophet who leads the world's religious communities into embracing a political leader known as Antichrist.

http://www.redicecreations.com/

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayvksfg-abw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayvks...em-uploademail

[sdv]

FYI - a list of all cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, as of May 30 2012 here: http://www.catholic-pages.com/hierar...inals_list.asp

Gosh, most of them are rather old!

[giovonni]

These old farts are forever diving deeper into a bottomless pit of lies, deceit and corruption...

"There just is no bottom to this story. You just can't make this up. And remember to place this revelation in the context of the bishops attacks on the nuns for spending too much time doing what Jesus said to do, and not enough on the bishops' anti-gay, anti-choice agenda; as well as their inquisition of the Girl Scouts." Stephan A. Schwartz

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Cardinal Dolan Quiet on $20K Payments to Pedophile Priests



COLLEEN CURRY - ABC News

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the archdiocese of New York is keeping quiet today after his old diocese, the archdiocese of Milwaukee, confirmed that under his leadership the church paid individual sums of $20,000 to priests accused of molesting children.

Dolan, who became a cardinal in February and serves as the head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is recorded discussing the payments in the minutes of financial committee meetings in 2003, documents released as the Milwaukee archdioecese goes through bankruptcy court in Wisconsin.

The archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed to the Associated Press Wednesday that the church paid the priests money to voluntarily sign papers to leave the priesthood because it was cheaper and faster than removing them by other administrative routes, which would have included going through the Vatican.

"In 2002, the Church affirmed that priest offenders should no longer be functioning as priests in ...

Read More - http://abcnews.go.com/US/cardinal-do...2#.T8oNCcVRK8C

[giovonni]

"The Nuns of the Roman Catholic are an example of what beingness can achieve."

From the Schwartz Report
http://lifeboat.com/papers2/stephan.a.schwartz.pdf

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American Nuns Fight Back Against Vatican Crackdown



BIGAIL PESTA - The Daily Beast

American Catholic nuns issued a fiery response to recent Vatican claims that they are showing signs of 'radical feminism” by failing to vigorously promote church teachings on issues such as abortion and homosexuality. The sisters said Friday that the Vatican’s assessment had 'caused scandal and pain throughout the church community, and created greater polarization.”
nuns-fight-back-pesta

In April, the Vatican released a highly critical report on the main umbrella group of U.S. nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, or the LCWR, a group that trains sisters and holds general assemblies. The study, conducted by a Vatican unit called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, acknowledged the 'great contribution” of nuns in 'schools, hospitals, and institutions for the poor,” but said nuns had 'stayed silent on the right to life from conception to natural death.” Further, the study said, 'the church’s biblical view of family life and human ...

Read More - http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...crackdown.html

[giovonni]

No respite for pope as more documents leaked



(Reuters) - Pope Benedict got no rest on Sunday from a leaks scandal when an Italian newspaper published documents showing that his butler was not the only person in possession of confidential correspondence indicating a Vatican in disarray....
Read more - http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources...=CBRE85210N100

[giovonni]

Below...

Gianluigi Nuzzi, an investigative reporter, wrote a book based on “VatiLeaks,” telling of high-stakes power struggles in the church....



As Vatican Manages Crisis, Book Details Infighting


RACHEL DONADIO - The New York Times

VATICAN CITY -- In an undisclosed location here, the Vatican authorities are busy questioning Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s butler, and others in a widening leaks scandal that has made the seat of the Roman Catholic Church appear to be a hornet’s nest of back-stabbing and gossip.

Across town, in the lobby of a fancy hotel on the Via Veneto, Gianluigi Nuzzi, the investigative reporter whose new book based on some of the leaks has sent the Vatican into a tailspin, was holding court and looking rather pleased.

'I’m serene, I’m tranquil, convinced that I did my work in a correct way, without raising questions about the Holy Father,” Mr. Nuzzi said in an interview last week, during which he was twice interrupted by fans asking him to sign copies of his book, 'Your Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI.”

With its glimpses of behind-the-scenes spats in ...

Read More - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/wo...nfighting.html

[giovonni]

Vatican Criticizes US Nun's Book on Sexuality


NICOLE WINFIELD - NBC29/Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican on Monday sharply criticized a book on sexuality written by a prominent American nun, saying it contradicted church teaching on issues like masturbation, homosexuality and marriage and that its author had a "defective understanding" of Catholic theology.

The Vatican's orthodoxy office said the book, "Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics" by Sister Margaret Farley, a member of the Sisters of Mercy religious order and emeritus professor of Christian ethics at Yale Divinity School, posed "grave harm" to the faithful.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that in the 2006 book, Farley either ignored church teaching on core issues of human sexuality or treated it as merely one opinion among many.

Farley said Monday she never intended the book to reflect current official Catholic teaching. Rather, she said, she wrote it to explore sexuality via various religious ...

Read More - http://www.nbc29.com/story/18690915/...k-on-sexuality

[onawah]

Public Declaration to the Vatican & The Republic of Kanata (Canada)
Interview with Kevin Annett and Alfred Lambremont Webre
Posted on June 11, 2012 by itccs

Does anyone know if this group (itccs) has the ability to follow through with these projected actions?

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08e30vnE6js

n this video interview with Alfred Lambremont Webre, Rev. Kevin Annett, Acting Secretary of the International Tribunal for Crimes of Church and State – www.itccs.org – discusses a public declaration to Pope Ratizinger and the Vatican stating that unless specific actions are taken by the Pope and the Vatican by September 15, 2012, "every known Roman Catholic priest or official who has harmed a child or protected those who have will be publicly named by our network, and will be publicly arrested and expelled from their churches."

The Declaration continues, "This decision is made under the common law right of citizenship arrest of those who endanger children when established authorities refuse to protect the community.

Such direct action to protect our children will be accompanied by ongoing occupations and seizures of Roman Catholic Church property commencing globally on September 15, 2012.

These measures are being taken because of the refusal by you and your church hierarchy to do justice to your victims and abide by the law and morality; and specifically, because of your refusal to agree to these ten measures, issued to you on May 4, 2012 by our Tribunal:

1. Issue full reparations to survivors
2. Surrender the remains of those who died for a proper burial.
3. Return all land and wealth taken from church victims
4. Surrender all evidence and perpetrators of crimes against children
5. Annul Crimen Sollicitationis and all Vatican policies that protect child rapists
6. Expel and defrock all child raping priests and those who protect them, including the pope
7. Agree to the licensing of all clergy as public servants
8. Withdraw from all tax exemptions, concordats and privileges
9. Annul the status of the Vatican as a state and abolish Rome's authority over its congregations
10. Redistribute the wealth of the Vatican Bank to church victims and the community, as Christ commands

Update on Genocide of First Nation Children at Brandford, Ontario

Rev. Annett also provides and update on the continuing search and discovery of evidence of child genocide at the residential school at Brandford, Ontario, where an infiltration and disruption effort by the Government of Canada was successfully deconstructed and defeated.

The Republic of Kanata (Canada)

The separation and disaffiliation of Canada from the UK Monarchy is necessary, states Rev. Annett, because of the leading role that UK Monarchs, including Elizabeth Windsor, have taken in implementing the aboriginal genocide and in retarding true democracy in Canada. He cited polls that showed that 68% of Canadians were in favor of establishing a republic of Canada. Rev. Annett discusses the practical steps that are now undertaken to establish a Republic of Kanata (Canada), including upcoming public meetings in Vancouver, BC and other locations in Canada.

[giovonni]

In regards to above post...

From onawah

Does anyone know if this group (itccs) has the ability to follow through with these projected actions?

From my point of view... Any focus intent that brings public awareness to these atrocities > has everything to do with eroding and preventing these culprits > from hiding or finding any protection or sanctuary from facing the spiritual consequences of their crimes against humanity.

[giovonni]

Again there is no escaping the inevitable consequences of this cover-up and these culprits ill intent...



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Church Battles Efforts to Ease Sex Abuse Suits




LAURIE GOODSTEIN and ERIK ECKHOLM

While the first criminal trial of a Roman Catholic church official accused of covering up child sexual abuse has drawn national attention to Philadelphia, the church has been quietly engaged in equally consequential battles over abuse, not in courtrooms but in state legislatures around the country.

The fights concern proposals to loosen statutes of limitations, which impose deadlines on when victims can bring civil suits or prosecutors can press charges. These time limits, set state by state, have held down the number of criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits against all kinds of people accused of child abuse - not just clergy members, but also teachers, youth counselors and family members accused of incest.

Victims and their advocates in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York are pushing legislators to lengthen the limits or abolish them altogether, and to open temporary 'windows” during which victims can file lawsuits no ...

Read More - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/us...pagewanted=all

[giovonni]

"The Prophecy of the Popes, attributed to Saint Malachy (1094-1148) -- the first Irish saint and archbishop of Armagh -- says that after Benedict XVI, there will be only one final pope. It is beginning to look possible..."

The Final Battles of Pope Benedict XVI



FIONA EHLERS, ALEXANDER SMOLTCZYK and PETER WENSIERSKI - Der Spiegel (Germany)

The mood at the Vatican is apocalyptic. Pope Benedict XVI seems tired, and both unable and unwilling to seize the reins amid fierce infighting and scandal. While Vatican insiders jockey for power and speculate on his successor, Joseph Ratzinger has withdrawn to focus on his still-ambiguous legacy.

Finally, there is clarity. The Holy See has cleared things up and made the document accessible to all: a handout on checking whether apparitions of the Virgin Mary are authentic.

Everything will be much easier from now on. The Roman Catholic Church has taken a step forward.

This "breaking news" from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) reveals the kinds of issues the Vatican is concerned with -- and the kind of world in which some there live. It's a world in which the official Church investigation of Virgin Mary sightings is carefully regulated while cardinals in ...

Read More - http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-838830.html

[A Simple Human]

Vatican Gets Fox Media Adviser (Associated Press)

Vatican Gets Fox Media Adviser
By Nicole Winfield and Victor L. Simpson | June 23, 2012

The Vatican has brought in the Fox News correspondent in Rome to help improve its communications strategy as it tries to cope with years of communications blunders and one of its most serious scandals in decades, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

Greg Burke, 52, will leave Fox to become a senior communications adviser in the Vatican's secretariat of state, the Vatican and Burke told the AP.

"I'm a bit nervous but very excited. Let's just say it's a challenge," Burke said in a phone interview.

He defined his job, which he said he had been offered twice before, as: "You're shaping the message, you're molding the message, and you're trying to make sure everyone remains on-message. And that's tough."

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed the move to the AP, saying Burke will help integrate communications issues within the Vatican's top administrative office, the secretariat of state, and will help handle its relations with the Holy See press office and other Vatican communications offices.

Burke, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, is a member of the conservative Opus Dei movement. Pope John Paul II's longtime spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, was also a member of Opus Dei.

The Vatican has been bedeviled by communications blunders ever since Pope Benedict XVI's 2005 election, and is currently dealing with a scandal over Vatican documents that were leaked to Italian journalists. While the scandal is serious — Benedict himself convened a special meeting of cardinals Saturday to try to cope with it — the Vatican's communications problems long predate it.

Benedict's now-infamous speech about Muslims and violence, his 2009 decision to rehabilitate a schismatic bishop who denied the Holocaust, and the Vatican's response to the 2010 explosion of the sex abuse scandal are just a few of the blunders that have tarnished Benedict's papacy.

Burke acknowledged the task ahead but said that after turning down the Vatican twice before, he went with his gut and accepted the third time around. "This is an opportunity and challenge that I'm not going to get again," he said.

He said he didn't know what, if any, role his membership in Opus Dei played. Opus is greatly in favor in the Vatican these days, particularly as other new religious movements such as the Legion of Christ have lost credibility with their own problems. Currently, for example, the cardinal who is heading the Vatican's internal investigation into the leaks of documents is the Opus Dei prelate, Cardinal Julian Herranz.

"I'm an old-fashioned Midwestern Catholic whose mother went to Mass every day," Burke said. "Am I being hired because I'm in Opus Dei?" he asked. "It might come into play." But he noted he was also in Opus when he was hired by Time and Fox.

Burke has been a Fox correspondent since he joined the conservative U.S. network in 2001. He was the Time magazine correspondent in Rome for a decade before that. At Fox, he led the network's coverage of the death of John Paul and election of Benedict, and has covered the papacy since then, traveling with the pope around the globe. But he has also used Rome as a base for non-Vatican reporting, including several stints in the Middle East during the last intifada, labor law protests in France and the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid.

He is a graduate of Columbia University's School of Journalism.
End

Ah yes, it's not about telling the truth as Greg Burke confirms. It's all about shaping the message, molding the message, and trying to make sure everyone remains on-message. That previous statement is probably the last true (perhaps only true) statement Greg Burke will ever make in his career from this point on.

[giovonni]

Cardinal’s Aide Is Found Guilty in Abuse Case

"This is the latest in the Catholic abuse saga. It represents the first breach in the U.S. of the firewall the Church has maintained separating errant priests from the upper hierarchy. Not too long into the future this will all be seen in an historical context, dissertations will be written, and it will be discussed in the way we now talk about the corruption of the Renaissance popes. I follow this trend, and publish these stories because one out of four Americans is at least nominally Roman Catholic, and when an institution that pervasive goes through this level of crisis it affects our society in a myriad of ways.

This is a two thousand year old organization, the oldest virtual corporate state on earth, and it is imploding, not just over sexuality, but financial corruption, and internal wars as well. What is going to emerge is not yet clear but the effects will echo across the world."

Stephan A. Schwartz

JON HURDLE and ERIK ECKHOLM - The New York Times

PHILADELPHIA -- Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former cardinal’s aide, was found guilty Friday of endangering children, becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.

Monsignor William J. Lynn, walking into court before the verdict reading, was the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States to be convicted for covering up child sexual abuses by priests.

The 12-member jury acquitted Monsignor Lynn, of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, of conspiracy and a second count of endangerment after a trial that prosecutors and victims rights groups called a turning point in the abuse scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church.

The single guilty verdict was widely seen as a victory for the district attorney’s office, which has been investigating the archdiocese aggressively since 2002, and it was ...

Read More - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/us...pagewanted=all

[giovonni]

right on sister !

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An American Nun Responds To Vatican Criticism

From NPR

In April, the Vatican announced that three American bishops (one archbishop and two bishops) would be sent to oversee the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a member organization founded in 1956 that represents 80 percent of Catholic sisters in the United States, to get them to conform with the teachings of the Church.

In its assessment of the group, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the leadership conference is undermining Roman Catholic teachings on homosexuality and birth control and promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." It also reprimanded the nuns for hosting speakers who "often contradict or ignore" church teachings and for making public statements that "disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church's authentic teachers of faith and morals."

In their own statement, the nuns said the Vatican's doctrinal assessment of the group was based on "unsubstantiated accusations" ...

Read More - http://www.npr.org/2012/07/17/156858...n-condemnation