Apesar de Negar, Papa Francisco Recebeu Carta de Vítimas de Abuso de Pedofilia do Chile.

Hummm...por vezes, o Papa fala algo que a mim parece mentira, simplesmente mentira. Por exemplo, assim que ele foi nomeado Papa, ele disse que antes de dizer sim ao pontificado, saiu da cerimônia para refletir sobre o peso das obrigações, isso depois foi completamente negado pelos participantes, nem o local que disse ter ido existia. O sim dele foi imediato.

Depois ocorreram outros momentos. E por vezes, as frases mentirosas são aquelas mentiras que a gente ouve no trabalho. Um chefe novo chega e diz: "olha, quem tiver críticas a mim, minha porta está aberta, pode entrar lá sem bater que atenderei com maior prazer".

O Papa disse isso várias vezes.

Isso é simplesmente mentira. O Papa Francisco não é conhecido por respeitar seus críticos, nem mesmo por receber seus críticos, vide os quatro cardeais da dubia.

Agora, temos uma mentira muito séria. O Papa Francisco disse quando saiu do Chile recentemente que não recebeu nenhuma informação das vítimas de pedofilia no Chile, que elas não o procuraram.

Só que ele recebeu em mãos, em 2015, uma carta detalhada das vítimas de pedofilia sobre o que aconteceu com elas e quem são os culpados. O Cardeal O'Maley confirmou isso várias vezes!!

Além de mentir, o Papa contradiz suas palavras de que terá "tolerância zero" com a pedofilia dentro da Igreja.

Vejam o relato do jornal Catholic Herald.

AP: Despite denial, Pope received abuse victim’s letter

Pope Francis received an 8-page letter in 2015 detailing abuse at the hands of Fr Karadima, AP reports

Pope Francis received a victim’s letter in 2015 that graphically detailed sexual abuse at the hands of a priest and a cover-up by Chilean church authorities, contradicting the Pope’s recent insistence that no victims had come forward, the letter’s author and members of Pope Francis’ own sex- abuse commission have told The Associated Press.

The fact that Pope Francis received the eight-page letter, obtained by the AP, challenges his insistence that he has “zero tolerance” for sex abuse and cover-ups. It also calls into question his stated empathy with abuse survivors, compounding the most serious crisis of his five-year papacy.

The scandal exploded last month when Pope Francis’ trip to South America was marred by protests over his vigorous defence of Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused by victims of covering up the abuse by Fr Fernando Karadima. During the trip, Francis callously dismissed accusations against Barros as “slander,” seemingly unaware that victims had placed him at the scene of Karadima’s crimes.

On the plane home, confronted by reporters, the Pope said: “You, in all good will, tell me that there are victims, but I haven’t seen any, because they haven’t come forward.”

But members of the Pope’s Commission for the Protection of Minors say that in April 2015, they sent a delegation to Rome specifically to hand-deliver a letter to the Pope about Bishop Barros. The letter from Juan Carlos Cruz detailed the abuse, kissing and fondling he says he suffered at Fr Karadima’s hands, which he said Barros and others witnessed and ignored.

Four members of the commission met with Pope Francis’ top abuse adviser, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, explained their objections to Pope Francis’s recent appointment of Barros as a bishop in southern Chile, and gave him the letter to deliver to Francis.

“When we gave him (O’Malley) the letter for the Pope, he assured us he would give it to the pope and speak of the concerns,” then-commission member Marie Collins told the AP. “And at a later date, he assured us that that had been done.”

Cruz, who now lives and works in Philadelphia, heard the same later that year.

“Cardinal O’Malley called me after the Pope’s visit here in Philadelphia and he told me, among other things, that he had given the letter to the Pope — in his hands,” he said in an interview at his home Sunday.

Neither the Vatican nor O’Malley responded to multiple requests for comment.

While the 2015 summit of Pope Francis’ commission was known and publicized at the time, the contents of Cruz’s letter — and a photograph of Collins handing it to O’Malley — were not disclosed by members. Cruz provided the letter, and Collins provided the photo, after reading an AP story that reported Pope Francis had claimed to have never heard from any Karadima victims about Barros’ behaviour.

The Barros affair first caused shockwaves in January 2015 when Francis appointed him bishop of Osorno, Chile, over the objections of the leadership of Chile’s bishops’ conference and many local priests and laity. They accepted as credible the testimony against Fr Karadima, a prominent Chilean cleric who was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for abusing minors. Bishop Barros was a Karadima protege, and according to Cruz and other victims, he witnessed the abuse and did nothing.

“Holy Father, I write you this letter because I’m tired of fighting, of crying and suffering,” Cruz wrote in Pope Francis’s native Spanish. “Our story is well known and there’s no need to repeat it, except to tell you of the horror of having lived this abuse and how I wanted to kill myself.”

Cruz and other survivors had for years denounced the cover-up of Fr Karadima’s crimes, but were dismissed as liars by the Chilean church hierarchy and the Vatican’s own ambassador in Santiago, who refused their repeated requests to meet before and after Bishop Barros was appointed.

After Pope Francis’s comments backing the Chilean hierarchy caused such an outcry in Chile, he was forced last week to do an about-face: The Vatican announced it was sending in its most respected sex-crimes investigator to take testimony from Cruz and others about Bishop Barros.

In the letter to the Pope, Cruz begs for Pope Francis to listen to him and make good on his pledge of “zero tolerance.”

“Holy Father, it’s bad enough that we suffered such tremendous pain and anguish from the sexual and psychological abuse, but the terrible mistreatment we received from our pastors is almost worse,” he wrote.

Cruz goes on to detail in explicit terms the homo-eroticised nature of the circle of priests and young boys around Fr Karadima, the charismatic preacher whose El Bosque community in the well-to-do Santiago neighbourhood of Providencia produced dozens of priestly vocations and five bishops, including Barros.

He described how Fr Karadima would kiss Barros and fondle his genitals, and do the same with younger priests and teens, and how young priests and seminarians would fight to sit next to Fr Karadima at the table to receive his affections.

“More difficult and tough was when we were in Karadima’s room and Juan Barros — if he wasn’t kissing Karadima — would watch when Karadima would touch us — the minors — and make us kiss him, saying: ‘Put your mouth near mine and stick out your tongue.’ He would stick his out and kiss us with his tongue,” Cruz told the Pope. “Juan Barros was a witness to all this innumerable times, not just with me but with others as well.”

“Juan Barros covered up everything that I have told you,” he added.

Bishop Barros has repeatedly denied witnessing any abuse or covering it up. “I never knew anything about, nor ever imagined, the serious abuses which that priest committed against the victims,” he told the AP recently. “I have never approved of nor participated in such serious, dishonest acts, and I have never been convicted by any tribunal of such things.”

For the Osorno faithful who have opposed Barros as their bishop, the issue isn’t so much a legal matter requiring proof or evidence, as Barros was a young priest at the time and not in a position of authority over Fr Karadima. It’s more that if Bishop Barros didn’t “see” what was happening around him and doesn’t find it problematic for a priest to kiss and fondle young boys, he shouldn’t be in charge of a diocese where he is responsible for detecting inappropriate sexual behavior, reporting it to police and protecting children from pedophiles like his mentor.

Cruz had arrived at Fr Karadima’s community in 1980 as a vulnerable teenager, distraught after the recent death of his father. He has said Fr Karadima told him he would be like a spiritual father to him, but instead sexually abused him.

Based on testimony from Cruz and other former members of the parish, the Vatican in 2011 removed Fr Karadima from ministry and sentenced him to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for his crimes. Now 87, he lives in a home for elderly priests in Santiago; he hasn’t commented on the scandal and the home has declined to accept calls or visits from the news media.

The victims also testified to Chilean prosecutors, who opened an investigation into Karadima after they went public with their accusations in 2010. Chilean prosecutors had to drop charges because too much time had passed, but the judge running the case stressed that it wasn’t for lack of proof.

While the victims’ testimony was deemed credible by both Vatican and Chilean prosecutors, the local Church hierarchy clearly didn’t believe them, which might have influenced Pope Francis’s view. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz has acknowledged he didn’t believe the victims initially and shelved an investigation. He was forced to reopen it after the victims went public.

He is now one of the Argentine Pope’s key cardinal advisers.

By the time he finally got his letter into the Pope’s hands in 2015, Cruz had already sent versions to numerous other people, and had tried for months to get an appointment with the Vatican ambassador. The embassy’s December 15, 2014, email to Cruz — a month before Barros was appointed — was short and to the point:

“The apostolic nunciature has received the message you emailed December 7 to the apostolic nuncio,” it read, “and at the same time communicates that your request has been met with an unfavourable response.”

One could argue that Pope Francis didn’t pay attention to Cruz’s letter, since he receives thousands of letters every day from faithful around the world. He can’t possibly read them all, much less remember the contents years later. He might have been tired and confused after a weeklong trip to South America when he told an airborne press conference that victims never came forward to accuse Bishop Barros of cover-up.

But this was not an ordinary letter, nor were the circumstances under which it arrived in the Vatican.

Francis had named Cardinal O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston, to head his Commission for the Protection of Minors based on his credibility in having helped clean up the mess in Boston after the U.S. sex abuse scandal exploded there in 2002. The commission gathered outside experts to advise the church on protecting children from paedophiles and educating church personnel about preventing abuse and cover-ups.

The four commission members who were on a special subcommittee dedicated to survivors had flown to Rome at their own expense specifically to speak with O’Malley about the Barros appointment and to deliver Cruz’s letter. A press release issued after the April 12, 2015, meeting read: “Cardinal O’Malley agreed to present the concerns of the subcommittee to the Holy Father.”

Commission member Catherine Bonnet, a French child psychiatrist who took the photo of Collins handing the letter to Cardinal O’Malley, said the commission members had decided to descend on Rome specifically when Cardinal O’Malley and other members of the Pope’s group of nine cardinal advisers were meeting, so that Cardinal O’Malley could put it directly into the Pope’s hands.

“Cardinal O’Malley promised us when Marie gave to him the letter of Juan Carlos that he will give to Pope Francis,” she said.

Cardinal O’Malley’s spokesman in Boston referred requests for comment to the Vatican. Neither the Vatican press office, nor officials at the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, responded to calls and emails seeking comment.

But Cardinal O’Malley’s remarkable response to Francis’ defence of Barros and to his dismissal of the victims while he was in Chile, is perhaps now better understood.

In a rare rebuke of a Pope by a cardinal, O’Malley issued a statement on January 20 in which he said the Pope’s words were “a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse,” and that such expressions had the effect of abandoning victims and relegating them to “discredited exile.”

A day later, Pope Francis apologised for having demanded “proof” of wrongdoing by Bishop Barros, saying he meant merely that he wanted to see “evidence”. But he continued to describe the accusations against Bishop Barros as “calumny” and insisted he had never heard from any victims.

Even when told in his airborne press conference on January 21 that Fr Karadima’s victims had indeed placed Bishop Barros at the scene of Fr Karadima’s abuse, Pope Francis said: “No one has come forward. They haven’t provided any evidence for a judgment. This is all a bit vague. It’s something that can’t be accepted.”

He stood by Bishop Barros, saying: “I’m certain he’s innocent,” even while saying that he considered the testimony of victims to be “evidence” in a cover-up investigation.

“If anyone can give me evidence, I’ll be the first to listen,” he said.

Cruz said he felt like he had been slapped when he heard those words.

“I was upset,” he said, “and at the same time I couldn’t believe that someone so high up like the Pope himself could lie about this.”

Ditador Turco Vai Agradecer ao Papa Francisco. Porque o Papa é Contra Trump.

O Papa Francisco condenou Trump porque o presidente dos Estados Unidos reconheceu Jerusalém como capital de Israel.

O ditador turco, Recep Erdogan, vai agradecer ao Papa pessoalmente por isso.

Como diz a reportagem do Jihad Watch, essa não é a primeira vez que o Papa Francisco é honrado por muçulmanos.

Humm...Israel está vendo dois inimigos do estado judeu se encontrando.

E os curdos também está vendo dois inimigos do estado curdo se encontrando. O que pensarão os cristãos sírios?

Turkey’s Erdogan to meet with Pope, thank him for opposing Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

FEB 4, 2018 9:29 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER

This is not the first time a Muslim leader has thanked Pope Francis for being so very useful to the global jihad. Last September, the Pope met in the Vatican with Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, the secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL), a group that has been linked to the financing of jihad terror. During the meeting, al-Issa thanked the Pope for his “fair positions” on what he called the “false claims that link extremism and violence to Islam.” Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar, has also thanked Francis for his “defense of Islam against the accusation of violence and terrorism.”

Pope Francis has proclaimed that “authentic Islam and the proper understanding of the Koran reject every form of violence,” doing his bit to ensure that as many Christians as possible would remain ignorant and complacent about the jihad threat that his precious “dialogue” does nothing to mitigate.

And now this. Pope Francis is a disgrace to the Church, to Judeo-Christian civilization, and to the free world.

“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)

“Jerusalem to dominate Erdoğan’s meeting with Pope Francis,” Daily Sabah, February 2, 2018:

The United States’ controversial recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is expected to dominate talks between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pope Francis on the president’s first trip to the Vatican on Sunday.

According to presidential sources, Erdoğan will thank Pope Francis for his stance against U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision and his efforts to protect the status quo in the holy city.

The Turkish president previously expressed his appreciation to Pope Francis who strongly opposed the bitterly-contested move announced by Trump at the end of last year. The two leaders held several phone calls regarding the issue and voiced their determination to follow developments regarding Jerusalem.

The current humanitarian crisis in Syria, regional developments, terror, cooperation against Islamophobia and xenophobia are also among the topics which the two leaders are set to discuss during their meeting.

The Argentine pope met Erdoğan during his trip to Turkey in November 2014 as the first world leader to visit the Turkish presidential complex in Ankara. The return visit will be the first by a Turkish president since 1959.

Francis has repeatedly praised Turkey’s efforts to welcome Syrian refugees and has said the country could be a “great peacemaker.”…

Onde Está o Espírito Guerreiro da Igreja Católica contra o Islã?

Se tem uma coisa que mostro no meu livro Teoria e Tradição da Guerra Justa é o espírito guerreiro de tantos santos, teólogos e papas contra o Islã.

Mostro o espírito guerreiro contra o Islã de santos como São Francisco de Assis (que participou da 5a Cruzada), São Tomás de Aquino (que decifrou e detonou a religião islâmica em pelo menos dois livros), São João Damasceno (o primeiro a descrever com clareza o que é o Islã e Maomé), São Bernardo Claraval (que tanto pediu para os cristãos se levantarem contra o Islã), e tantos papas, teólogos e até escritores católicos que mostro no livro que tinham espírito guerreiro contra o Islã, como Miguel de Cervantes (que descreveu a teoria da Guerra Justa no livro Dom Quixote) e Dante Alighieri (que descreveu Maomé como herético no inferno).

(meu livro está disponível em todas os sites de livrarias do Brasil, clique aqui e veja).

Lembrei do meu livro ao ler um artigo hoje do Life Site News. 

O artigo pergunta se a Igreja Católica pode recuperar o espírito guerreiro em relação ao Islã. O artigo foi escrito por William Kilpatrick, que entende e costuma escrever muito sobre o Islã.

Em poucas palavras, Kilpatrick diz que para a Igreja recuperar seu espírito guerreiro precisa de líderes que saibam que o Islã é maligno e tenham coragem para enfrentá-lo.

Ele recomenda uma coisa que meu livro faz: deve-se observar a coragem dos líderes da Igreja no passado.

Ele menciona como corajosos Charles Martel (que expulsou os muçulmanos da França), Papa Pio V (que planejou a Batalha de Lepanto que venceu o Islã. Cervantes participou dessa batalha) e o polonês Jan Sobieski (que expulsou os muçulmanos de Viena). Eu trato deles no meu livro. Kilpatrick também mostra a coragem de papas recentes, como Pio XII que enfrentou o nazismo (também falo muito dele no livro, inclusive sobre como ele usou padres-espiões da Igreja e dissidentes do Hitler para tentar matar Hitler) e João Paulo II que enfrentou o comunismo.

Kilpatrick diz que o Papa Francisco não respeita esse espírito guerreiro milenar da Igreja e fica rodopiando dizendo que o Islã é religião de paz.

Ele conclui dizendo que o Islã é um inimigo bem antigo do cristianismo e que é uma ameaça maior do que o comunismo ou nazismo.

Concordo plenamente.

Vejam abaixo texto de Kilpatrick:

Can the Church Recover Its defensive Fighting Spirit against militant Islam?

February 2, 2018 (Turning Point Project) – The Islamic world is waging—and winning—a war on Judeo-Christian civilization.

With 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide, the Catholic Church is potentially one of the most powerful centers of resistance to Islam. It certainly has been in the past. Unfortunately, that’s not the case today. What are those 1.3 billion Catholics doing in regard to the struggle with Islam? Well, essentially, very little. Many of them are just standing on the sidelines.

Why is that? The chief reason is that Catholics are receiving little guidance about Islam from their leaders. And what little information they receive is misleading. The hierarchy is still sticking with the message that Islam is a religion of peace which has recently been given a bad name by a tiny handful of terrorists who misunderstand the beneficent nature of their faith.

Meanwhile, while Catholic leaders have been pedaling this rosy picture of Islam, 90,000 Christians were murdered for their faith in 2016. Between 2005 and 2015, 900,000 Christians were martyred. In most cases the executioners were Muslims.

That tiny handful of extremists must be extremely busy. Either that, or the extremist ideology is actually widespread and the bishops have been woefully mistaken in their assumptions about Islam. As Islam gobbles up more and more of the geographical and cultural landscape, the latter possibility seems most likely. The Catholic leadership has been dead wrong about Islam and, as a result, a lot of Christians who were put off their guard by clerical reassurances, are dead, period.

Before 900,000 becomes 9 million, the Church’s hierarchy needs to engage in an agonizing reappraisal of its Islam policy. What is required is not simply a change of mind, but a change of heart. Cor, the Latin word for heart, is also the source of the word “courage.” And it will take considerable courage to abandon the familiar and comfortable narrative about Islam, and chart a new course.

One way to summon the requisite courage is to look to the past. Church leaders need to recover the memory of past examples of courageous resistance to tyranny. In former times, the Church didn’t declare its solidarity with oppressors, it fought against them. If the Church is going to successfully resist the Islamization of the world, it needs to recover its fighting spirit.

There are numerous examples from which to draw courage. At the battle of Tours in 732, the Catholic army of Charles Martel defeated a larger Muslim army and saved Europe from an Islamic invasion. In 1571, a Catholic fleet organized by Pope Pius V defeated the larger Muslim fleet at Lepanto and staved off another invasion. In 1683 at the battle of Vienna, the Catholic Polish King Jan Sobieski arrived with his army at the last moment and saved Europe once again.

But let’s fast forward to a twentieth century example of Catholic resistance to tyranny—the Church’s struggle against communism. This resistance actually began before the twentieth century. Long before anyone else saw the problem, Catholic popes, theologians and intellectuals warned about the dangers of communism. And during the Cold War, under the leadership of Pope John Paul II, the church played a major role in bringing an end to communism in Eastern Europe.

In 1979, against the wishes of the Soviets, the pope made a nine-day visit to Poland. Tens of thousands lined the route from the airport to Warsaw; 250,000 attended the opening Mass at Victory Square. When the pope went to the shrine at Czestochowa, a crowd of a million were on hand. When he celebrated Mass in Krakow, between two and three million turned out. Altogether some 12 million Poles, or one third of the population, saw John Paul during his trip.

That trip marked a turning point in history. One year later, Lech Walesa called for a massive strike of workers at the shipyard in Gdansk. That was the beginning of the pro-Catholic solidarity movement in Poland, and that was the beginning of the end of communism in Europe.

Another individual who was inspired by the pope’s Polish trip was Ronald Reagan. From the time of their first meeting, the pope and the president became partners in a deliberate effort to bring down the Soviet empire. Reagan wasn’t Catholic, but several of his closest advisors were, and in private with Reagan they often spoke of the “DP”—the “Divine Plan” to take down communism.

Without the inspiration provided by the pope, the “DP” might not have succeeded. And, of course, he paid a heavy personal price for the role he played. Two years after his Polish visit, John Paul was the victim of an assassination attempt—an attempt that was ordered by the GRU, Soviet Army Intelligence. Not everyone understood the crucial role that John Paul played in converting the world away from communism, but the Soviets certainly did (for the details of this amazing story, see Paul Kengor’s A Pope and A President).

Another example of courageous resistance to tyranny is Pope Pius XII. Many today think of Pius XII as “Hitler’s pope” because in the 1960s the Soviets launched a disinformation campaign to discredit the Church, and make Pius out to be an anti-Semite (even then, the Russians were pedaling fake news). But the charges are far from the truth. During the Nazi occupation of Rome, Pius asked all the churches, seminaries, convents, and monasteries in Italy to shelter Jews. Roman convents and monasteries sheltered approximately 5,000 Jews. Almost 500 were sheltered in the Vatican itself, and another 3,000 found refuge at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence. All told, 85 percent of Italy’s 40,000 Jews were saved.   Jewish historian Sir Martin Gilbert said that Pius had a direct role in saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of European Jews. Pinchas Lapide, another Jewish historian, puts the number at 700,000. And far from being Hitler’s pope, Pius XII was actively involved in a dangerous plot to kill Hitler. In fact, he was one of the key figures in the plot.

If the Church hopes to withstand Islam’s military and cultural onslaught, it needs to recover the fighting spirit that saw it through difficult times in the past. At the risk of being branded as politically incorrect, one might even speak of a manly spirit. Although courage seems to be equally distributed between the sexes, and although the fighting spirit is not absent in women, that spirit has always been recognized as a predominantly masculine trait. Which may be one of the reasons that Christ appointed an all-male priesthood. He realized that in every age the Church would have to fight for its existence.

The Church seems to be in just such a fight right now. And it makes intuitive sense that a feminized Christianity won’t fare well in the fight. A case in point is Antje Jackelen, the Archbishop of Uppsala. She is the Church of Sweden’s equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and her official motto is “God is Greater” or “Allahu Akbar” in Arabic. That’s no coincidence, but part of a deliberate policy to appease the faith that seems on course to take over Sweden within a decade or two. Two years ago, another Swedish bishop, the Reverend Eva Brunne (Sweden’s first lesbian bishop), made headlines by proposing to remove the Christian symbols from the Seaman’s Church in Freeport in order to make it more inviting for visiting sailors. The land of the Vikings is being invaded, but, thanks to the feminization of Sweden, there don’t seem to be any Viking types left to resist.

There aren’t many Viking types in the Catholic hierarchy either. But, being men, they have more of a chance of recovering some fighting spirit than do the matriarchs in Sweden. That doesn’t mean that priests and bishops need to take up arms. Although he took a bullet in the course of his struggle with communism, John Paul fought back with spiritual weapons. And Pius XII didn’t raise up an army to fight Hitler. There are other ways to fight tyranny.

But before resistance comes recognition. Before you can resist tyranny, you need to grasp that it is a tyranny. Catholic leaders have not yet reached that stage of recognition in regard to Islam. For the most part, they’re still stuck in the “must-show-solidarity-with-fellow-Abrahamic-faith” stage. Unless they’re pursuing some ultra-clever secret strategy, it looks like they’ve fallen for the Islamic party line.

This, too, bespeaks a lack of the kind of manly vigilance displayed by earlier leaders. For example, although one can argue that Pius XII could have done more to resist the Nazis, one can’t say that he was ever fooled by the Nazis. About a year before Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler, the future Pope Pius XII helped Pius XI compose the anti-Nazi, anti-racist encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge. Pius had no illusions about the Nazis. The same cannot be said of Pope Francis in regard to Islam. He seems to genuinely trust that the whitewashed version of Islam presented to him by prominent imams is the authentic one.

Accordingly, he sees no problem with opening up Europe to waves of Muslim migrants. And he justifies this stance with a very emotional appeal: “Christ himself asks us to welcome our brother and sister migrants and refugees with arms wide open.”

There’s nothing wrong with faith-based appeals as long as they actually apply to the situation at hand. But it’s not clear that what Christ said about taking in the stranger applies to a million strangers many of who are imbued with an ideology of conquest. In any event, Catholicism is supposed to be based on faith and reason, and I don’t recall any well-reasoned arguments emanating from the Vatican for admitting Muslims by the millions to Europe. If you’re a spiritual father, it would seem that you have a responsibility to get your facts straight about this unprecedented migration before exposing your spiritual children to the deluge.

But Francis has not bothered to do this, and the result is that millions of Europeans are now at grave risk–and one group in particular.

Pius XII has been falsely smeared as “Hitler’s pope” and an anti-Semite. But, in a sense, it is Francis who is the real anti-Semitic pope. I say “in a sense” because I don’t believe Francis is personally anti-Semitic in any way. On the other hand, the immigration policies he promotes have created an extremely dangerous situation for European Jews. For almost five years he has been telling Europeans that Christ is asking them to welcome into their midst masses of people who, upon examination, turn out to be the most anti-Semitic people on the planet. As a result of the welcoming offered by Francis and by European governments, Jews have been leaving Europe in droves. Perhaps they have fewer illusions about their “brother and sister migrants.”

While Francis asks Europeans to embrace Muslims, he himself seems to have embraced the fallacy of the “new Jews.” The “new Jews,” of course, are the Muslims. To assuage their guilt over the Holocaust, Europeans determined to banish every trace of prejudice from their lives. But since there were relatively few Jews left to practice their openness on, Muslims—the “new Jews”—became the beneficiaries of the new-found tolerance. No one seemed to notice—or care—that Muslims as a group are deeply anti-Semitic. In short, the “new Jews” were like the old Nazis. In retrospect, the substitution of the “new Jews” for the old Jews as reparation for the Holocaust has to rank as one of the dumbest projects ever conceived.

Yet this self-contradictory idea goes unchallenged in Rome. This doesn’t necessarily indicate a lack of intelligence, but it does suggest a lack of something else—namely, mental fortitude. Now, mental fortitude is not unrelated to intestinal fortitude. It often takes guts to speak the truth. In other words, the fighting spirit also plays a part in the life of the intellect. It is a passionate desire to get at the truth of things, no matter the cost or danger. Unfortunately, one doesn’t see much evidence of it in the bishops’ approach to world affairs. Instead, they seem content to repeat secular clichés such as “Islamophobia,” “xenophobia,” and—one of the pope’s favorites—“encounters between cultures.” For many in the hierarchy, the mere repetition of these incantations is all the argument that is needed. Moreover, insofar as they approach issues from a distinctly Christian point of view, they ignore the Church’s rich tradition of reason, and rely instead on the emotional tug that one feels when he is told that Christ wants us to welcome migrants “with arms wide open.”

Warfare, whether physical or ideological, is a constant in world affairs. While hoping for peace, nations and institutions can’t afford to lose their readiness to fight. But it’s difficult to summon that fighting spirit if you won’t acknowledge that you’re under attack. Many in the Church have succumbed to a double-barreled disinformation campaign intended to put them off their guard. It comes from Islamists on the one hand, and cultural Marxists on the other. So far, it has been quite effective.

Generals speak of the fog of war, but one can also speak of the fog of ideological war. Indeed, the fundamental purpose of ideological warfare is to create a fog of confusion in the mind of one’s enemies. As a result of this fog, the Church’s leadership has failed at the essential task of accurately sizing up the dangerous situation that they—and we—face.

Islam has been a perennial foe of Christianity. Arguably, it presents a greater threat to Christians than Nazism or communism. In alliance with the cultural Marxist heirs of communism, it is a formidable enemy, and it ought to be seen as such. The Church was once a bulwark against Islam. And it can be today. The Church doesn’t command armies any more but, then, much of the battle that needs to be fought now has to be fought on the intellectual, informational, and spiritual levels. To fight this culture war successfully, Church leaders must recover the fighting spirit displayed by previous popes, bishops, saints, and warriors. They also need to acquire that clear-eyed view that Catholics of earlier generations took when faced with an ideological foe.

Wall Street Journal: Papa Francisco Perde Áurea de Protetor dos Oprimidos.

Aqui vai mais um artigo do Wall Street Journal, publicado hoje. sobre as ações do Papa Francisco na China. O jornal diz que o que o Papa está fazendo com os católicos chineses é mais um ato que contradiz a imagem dele como protetor dos oprimidos. 

O jornal relembra que o Papa já abandonou os católicos perseguidos da Ucrânia e do Oriente Médio.

Na China, o Papa está obrigando dois bispos nomeados pela Igreja a renunciarem em favor do Partido Comunista da China, para que esse partido nomeie bispos em seu lugar. Em suma, o Papa despreza os próprios clérigos em nome do comunismo chinês.

Engraçado que o Papa Francisco só procura se reconciliar com inimigos históricos do cristianismo: comunistas e muçulmanos, penalizando os próprios católicos. Com os católicos conservadores que desconfiam de seu pontificado só sobram ataques e desprezo do Papa. O diálogo e a rendição é apenas para aqueles que nunca se curvarão à Igreja, formados umbilicalmente no ódio à Igreja. Em nome dos comunistas e muçulmanos, os católicos não valem muito para o Papa.

O jornal tenta dar ao Papa o benefício da dúvida, supondo que quem sabe podem dar certos os acenos que o Papa faz aos muçulmanos e comunistas, mas o autor do artigo (Francis X. Rocca) fecha dizendo que muitos católicos deploram as ações do Papa na China, o resto do mundo é que julgará as ações dele dependendo do sucesso.

Faltou apenas definir o que o jornalista chama de sucesso.

Pope’s China Calculation Clashes with Image as Champion of Oppressed

Some believers say they feel abandoned when Pope Francis pursues diplomatic goals in China, Russia, Mideast

By Francis X. Rocca

ROME— Pope Francis ’ recent decision to replace two Chinese bishops loyal to Rome with selectees of the country’s Communist government, heralding his broader moves to reset the Vatican’s ties with Beijing, has drawn cries of betrayal from advocates of the country’s long-persecuted “underground” Catholic Church.

The pope’s actions in China are characteristic of a leader who has repeatedly practiced realpolitik to achieve important goals. But they clash with Pope Francis’ image among many Catholics and others as a defender of the oppressed—a profile likely to be further tested by his campaign to improve Vatican-China relations after seven decades of estrangement.

The pope has decided to recognize seven government-appointed Chinese bishops, according to a person familiar with the matter, in a major concession to Beijing in pursuit of warmer relations and—in the very long term—possible reestablishment of diplomatic ties broken in 1951. As part of that decision, Pope Francis has moved to replace two bishops loyal to the Vatican with prelates from China’s state-controlled Catholic.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, a former bishop of Hong Kong, wrote on Monday that the Vatican seemed to be “selling out the Catholic Church in China.” Vatican officials now expect the pope’s stance in China to provoke more such criticisms from Chinese Catholics who reject government control of the church.

This isn’t the first time Catholics have complained that the pope has abandoned them in pursuit of diplomatic or political ends. But while the outcome of his China initiative remains uncertain, when Pope Francis has seemed to make such trade-offs in the past, the nature of his long-term goals has generally limited the outcry and any damage to his image.

Pope Francis “is a man of extreme realism who calculates very much the effects of what he says or does,” said Sandro Magister, a Vatican expert who writes for Italy’s L’Espresso magazine. “In order to achieve certain results he is quite ready to play down the concern that he otherwise shows for the persecuted and the oppressed.”.

Ukrainian Christians say Pope Francis has deemphasized Russian aggression against their country by describing the fight against Russian-backed separatists in the east as “fratricidal.” They say that stance reflects his effort to cultivate relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the Kremlin. In 2016, he achieved a dramatic milestone in his effort to reunify the Catholic and Orthodox churches after a 1,000-year split when he held the first meeting by a pope with a Russian Orthodox Patriarch.

Similarly, Middle Eastern Christians have accused the pope of neglecting their plight to promote better ties with Islam, such as when he brought only Muslims back with him after a 2016 visit to a refugee camp in Greece. His conciliatory approach to the Muslim world, including his repeated insistence that Islamist terrorism is in no way inspired by religion, has been widely understood as an effort to make peace with a religion with more than 1.6 billion followers world-wide.

Many saw that approach as vindicated in 2017, when an audience at a Muslim university in Egypt welcomed the pope’s denunciation of violence committed in the name of God.

In China, the pope seeks to increase at least incrementally the religious liberty of Catholics, even by means of compromise with an officially atheistic state. He also seeks to unify the underground Catholic community and members of the state-controlled church.

A number of Catholics and their sympathizers are bound to deplore that policy no matter what happens next. Whether the rest of the world judges it as prudence or opportunism will depend on its success.

Papa se Rebaixa para a China. Terrível.

Tenho acompanhado a rendição do Papa Francisco para o governo totalitário chinês. Eu tenho experiência em negociação com chineses, e a primeira recomendação que dou é: não confie no governo chinês. Quantas vezes o governo da China prometeu investir bilhões no Brasil, na Argentina, etc, e desapareceu? Negociar com a China é negociar no escuro.

O Papa Francisco parece achar que a China vai se conformar em incluir sete bispos dela dentro da Igreja Católica e assim passará a respeitar a Igreja Católica. Desde Tucídides, a história conta que não se respeita quem se rende e por que a China vai respeitar a Igreja se nem a Europa respeita?

O Cardela Zen disse exatamente isso, lembrando Churchill: não se negocia com governo totalitário.

Rezemos pelos católicos chineses abandonados pelo próprio Papa.

Triste demais. Mas não desesperemos. É pecado. Confiemos no Espírito Santo. Vamos superar esse desastroso pontificado. O Espírito Santo surpreende sempre.

Vejam  texto do Wall Street Journal, cujo título resume tudo: Papa Francisco se Rende para China.

Pope Francis to Bow to China With Concession on Bishops

Vatican to move to end standoff and gain authority by recognizing seven excommunicated prelates

By 

Francis X. Rocca in Vatican City and

Eva Dou in Beijing

Pope Francis has decided to accept the legitimacy of seven Catholic bishops appointed by the Chinese government, a concession that the Holy See hopes will lead Beijing to recognize his authority as head of the Catholic Church in China, according to a person familiar with the plan.

For years, the Vatican didn’t recognize the bishops’ ordinations, which were carried out in defiance of the pope and considered illicit, part of a long-running standoff between the Catholic Church and China’s officially atheist Communist Party.

The pope will lift the excommunications of the seven prelates and recognize them as the leaders of their dioceses, according to the person familiar with the situation. A Vatican spokesman declined to comment.

The decision reflects the Holy See’s desire for better relations with China—where Christianity is growing fast, though mostly in the form of Protestantism—and for an end to the division between the government-controlled church and a larger so-called underground church loyal to Rome. Catholics are estimated to number from 9 million to 12 million, while Protestants run from 40 million in some studies to two or more times that number in the estimates of some missionary groups.

The pope’s conciliatory approach stands out at a moment when China is tightening its grip on religious practice under the more assertive leadership of President Xi Jinping.

Cardinal  Joseph Zen, a former bishop of Hong Kong and a prominent champion of such Catholics, warned against any deal between China and the Holy See. “Winston Churchill said, ‘How can we deal with a totalitarian regime? How can we trust a totalitarian regime?’ They are simply not trustworthy,” he said in an interview.

The bishops approved by the Beijing-backed Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association are seen as more willing to toe the government’s line, or even to support a Chinese Catholic Church free of the Vatican’s influence. Several of the bishops are members of a government advisory body controlled by the Communist Party.

Some in the church see a rapprochement with an increasingly powerful Beijing as necessary for maintaining influence in China. Cardinal John Tong, who until August was bishop of Hong Kong, called a rapprochement the “lesser of two evils” last year in an influential essay.

The Vatican has told Beijing informally of the pope’s decision, which he has yet to sign into law, but which could be announced this spring, according to the person familiar with the situation.

It would then be up to Beijing to accept a proposed agreement giving the pope veto power on future bishop candidates, whom he would approve or veto after their selection by the Chinese government. Beijing’s major condition for that agreement has been that the pope recognize the seven bishops, the person said.

The Communist Party keeps a tight grip on all religious practice, mandating that religious institutions be free of foreign control. New regulations that went into effect on Thursday require that religious institutions gain government approval for teaching plans, overseas pilgrimages and other activities.

The pope’s recognition of the seven bishops would resolve a headache for Beijing, which has refrained from appointing bishops without Vatican approval in recent years, in part to show good will and avoid the negative publicity, said Anthony Lam, executive secretary at the Catholic Church-run Holy Spirit Study Centre in Hong Kong.

The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, the government body that oversees China’s Catholics, referred requests for comment to the government’s State Administration for Religious Affairs, which in turn didn’t respond to faxed requests.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told the Italian daily La Stampa this week that a deal on bishop appointments would remove the major impediment preventing Chinese Catholics “from living in communion with each other and with the pope.”

Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen opposes Vatican recognition of Chinese government-appointed bishops. PHOTO: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Beijing broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1951. Since the 1980s, they have cooperated informally to agree on most bishop appointments, but the government has periodically appointed bishops without Vatican approval.

Vatican officials fear that failure to reach an agreement will lead Beijing to appoint many more bishops on its own, widening the divide with Rome and with Chinese Catholics outside the government-backed church, the person familiar with the decision said.

On the other hand, a deal would represent a breakthrough: the first official recognition by the Communist government of the pope’s jurisdiction as the head of the Catholic Church in China.

An agreement on bishop appointments would leave unresolved other major questions about the Catholic Church’s status in China, including the position of more than 30 bishops recognized by Rome but not by Beijing. The re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Beijing and the Vatican would remain a distant goal.

In December, Vatican officials traveled to China to ask bishops in the dioceses of Shantou and Mindong who shun the government-controlled church to step down in favor of government-appointed bishops. They are the first two “underground” bishops to be asked to take such a step.

In Mindong, where most Catholics are outside the government-backed church, the former underground bishop will continue to lead those Catholics as assistant to the government-selected bishop, the person said.

The Vatican’s actions drew criticism from Cardinal Zen, who traveled to Rome last month to make a personal appeal to the pope over the two bishops being asked to step aside.

Cardinal Zen said he still hopes to rally enough public pressure to get the Vatican to put the negotiations on hold, “even if someone condemns me as the great sinner” for his efforts.

Phone calls to the Shantou and Mindong dioceses weren’t answered on Thursday.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said at a regular media briefing on Wednesday that the government wants to improve relations with the Vatican, but that she had no information on the two bishops asked to step down.

Inferno para o Papa Francisco e para São João Bosco.

Hoje eu li que o Papa Francisco fez um discurso sobre a morte, mas não mencionou nem Paraíso nem o Inferno, a morte seria apenas "um fato, um legado, uma memória".

Talvez, com muita boa vontade, o Papa, em resumo queria apenas dizer que devemos estar preparados para a morte. Mas, além de não citar o julgamento de Deus, ele chega a dizer que a morte é o fim. E a teologia católica ressalta recorrentemente que a morte NÃO é o fim.

De outro lado, como ontem foi o dia em que se celebra a festa de São João Bosco, li um texto em que São João Bosco descreve um sonho (pesadelo) em que viu o Inferno.

Encontrei essa descrição do sonho de Dom Bosco em português.

Minha sugestão é que é melhor todos nós considerarmos o que disse o santo e não o Papa.

Leiam o relato terrível do Inferno por São João Bosco, clicando aqui, é muito importante.  É muito longo para um blog, vou apenas colocar os primeiros parágrafos:

VISÃO DO INFERNO 
São João Bosco

Durante a noite de domingo, 3 de maio de 1869, festa do Patrocínio de São José,

Dom Bosco retornou a narração do que tinha visto nos seus sonhos.

- Devo – principiou – contar-vos outro sonho, que se pode considerar conseqüência dos que vos narrei na 5ª e na 6ª feira à noite, os quais me deixaram tão cansado, que dificilmente me podia manter em pé. Chamai-lhes sonhos ou dai-lhes outro nome...; chamai-lhes como quiserdes. 

No dia seguinte inteiro, estive pensando na péssima noite que haveria de passar; e chegada a hora, não me decidia a ir dormir. Fiquei lendo, sentado à mesa, até meia noite. Enchia-me de terror a idéia de ter que presenciar ainda outros espetáculos terríveis. Fiz, afinal, violência sobre mim mesmo e fui deitar-me. 

Para não dormir tão rapidamente, com temor de que a imaginação me levasse aos costumeiros sonhos, apoiei o travesseiro na parede, de modo a ficar quase sentado no leito. Mas, como estava moído de cansaço, sem que me desse conta o sono logo se apoderou de mim. E eis que de repente vejo no quarto, junto a minha cama, o homem da noite anterior, o qual me diz: 

- Levanta-te e vem comigo! 

- Rogo-te, por caridade – lhe respondi – deixa-me tranqüilo, pois estou cansado demais. Há vários dias sou atormentado pela dor de dentes. Deixa-me descansar. Tive sonhos espantosos; estou extenuado. 

Dizia isso também porque a aparição desse homem é sempre sinal de grande agitação, cansaço e terror. 

- Levanta-te, que não há tempo a perder! – me respondeu. 

Então levantei-me e segui-o. No caminho, perguntei:

- Aonde me queres levar desta vez? 

- Vem e verás. Conduziu-me a um lugar onde se estendia uma imensa planície. 

Olhei à volta, meã de lado algum conseguia ver os confins dela, de tal forma era ela extensa. Era um verdadeiro deserto! Não aparecia ser vivo algum. Não se via nem uma planta nem um rio; a vegetação seca e amarelecida mostrava aspecto desolador. Não sabia onde me encontrava, nem o que iria fazer. Durante alguns instantes perdi de vista o guia. Receei me ter perdido. Não estavam comigo nem o Padre Rua, nem o Padre Francesia, nem ninguém mais. Eis que descubro de novo o amigo, que vinha a meu encontro. Respirei e lhe perguntei: 

- Onde estou? 

- Vem comigo e verás. 

- Bem, irei contigo. Caminhava ele na frente e eu o seguia em silêncio. 

Após uma longa e triste caminhada, pensando que precisaria atravessar toda a imensa planície, dizia para mim mesmo: 

- Pobres de meus dentes! Pobre de mim, com as pernas inchadas!... 

De repente, sem saber como, aparece diante de mim uma estrada. Rompi então o silêncio, perguntando ao meu guia: 

- Aonde vamos agora? 

- Por aqui – respondeu-me. E nos encaminhamos por aquela estrada. 

Era bonita, larga, espaçosa e bem pavimentada. Via peccantium complanata lapidibus, et in fine illorum inferi, et tenebrae, et poenae (Eclesiástico, 21, 11) [O caminho dos pecadores é muito bem pavimentado, mas no final dele estão o inferno, as trevas e os castigos]. 

Nos dois lados do caminho, havia duas belíssimas sebes, verdes e cobertas de flores encantadoras. As rosas, especialmente, brotavam por todas as partes entres as folhas. 

À primeira vista esse caminho parecia plano e cômodo; e sem suspeitar de nada, me pus a caminhar por ele. 

Mas à medida que prosseguia, notei que ia imperceptivelmente declinado e, ainda que não parecesse muito rápida e descida, sem embargo disso eu corria a uma tal velocidade que parecia estar sendo levado pelo vento. 

Mais ainda, dei-me conta de que avançava quase sem mover os pés, tão rápida era nossa carreira. Refletindo que retornar depois por uma estrada tão longa me custaria grande esforço e fadiga, perguntei ao amigo: 

- Como é que faremos para voltar depois ao Oratório? 

- Não te preocupes – me respondeu – o Senhor é onipotente e quer que tu vás. Quem te conduz e te mostra como ir para a frente saberá também reconduzir-te de volta. 

 O caminho baixava sempre. Continuávamos nosso trajeto por entre flores e rosas, quando, pelo mesmo caminho, vi os meninos do Oratório, juntamente com muitíssimos outros companheiros que eu jamais vira antes, caminhando atrás de mim. 

E encontrei-me no meio deles. Enquanto os observava, de repente vejo que ora um, oura outro, caíam, e em seguida eram arrastados por uma força invisível rumo a uma horrível encosta que se entrevia à distância, a qual depois vi que ia dar numa fornalha. 

Perguntei a meu companheiro: 

- Que é que faz cair esses jovens? Funes extenderunt in laqueum; iuxta iter scandalum posuerunt (Salmo 139) [Estenderam cordas à maneira de rede; junto do caminho puseram tropeços]. 

- Aproxima-te um pouco mais – respondeu. 

Aproximei-me e vi que os meninos passavam entre muitos laços, alguns postos à altura do chão, outros à altura da cabeça; estes últimos não se viam. Dessa forma, muitos jovens, enquanto caminhavam sem dar-se conta do perigo, eram colhidos pelos laços; no momento de ser colhidos davam um salto, depois caíam no solo com as pernas para o ar e, levantando-se, se punham em desabalada corrida para o abismo. Um era agarrado pela cabeça, outro pelo pescoço, outro pelas mãos, por um braço, por uma perna, pela cintura, e imediatamente depois eram arrastados. Os laços estendidos pela terra, que mal se podiam ver, eram parecidos com estopa. Lembravam uns fios de aranha, e não pareciam muito nocivos. 

Sem embargo, vi que também os jovens colhidos por tais laços caíam quase todos por terra. Eu estava espantado. E o guia me disse: 

- Sabes o que é isso? - Um pouco de estopa, não mais do que isso – respondi. 

- Menos ainda do que isso; é quase nada – acrescentou. É apenas o respeito humano. 

Vendo, entretanto, que muitos continuavam a se enredar nesses laços, perguntei: 

- Mas como é que tantos ficam atados por meio desses fios? Quem é que tantos ficam atados por meio desses fios? Quem é que os arrasta desse modo? 

- Aproxima-te mais, olha e verás. 

Olhei um pouco e disse: 

- Não estou vendo nada. 

- Olha um pouco melhor – repetiu. 

Segurei então um dos laços, puxei-o para mim e notei que sua ponta não aparecia; puxei um pouco mais, mas não conseguia ver onde é que terminava aquele fio; pelo contrário, notei que também a mim ele me arrastava. 

Segui então o fio e cheguei à boca de uma espantosa caverna. Parei, porque não queria entrar naquela voragem; puxei para mim o fio e percebi que ele cedia um pouquinho. Mas era necessário fazer muita força. 

Depois de muito puxar, pouco a pouco foi saindo fora da caverna um feio e grande monstro que causava repugnância e segurava fortemente um cabo ao qual estavam atados todos os laços. 

Era ele que, mal caía alguém na rede, imediatamente o puxava para si. 

- É inútil – pensei comigo – competir em força com este monstro medonho, porque não sou capaz de vence-lo; o melhor é combate-lo com o sinal da Santa Cruz e com jaculatórias. 

Voltei, pois, para junto do meu guia, e ele me disse: 

- Já sabes agora o que é? 

- Sim! Já sei, é o demônio que estende esses laços para fazer meus jovens caírem no Inferno. 

Observei então com atenção os muitos laços e vi que cada um deles lavava escrito seu próprio título: laço da soberba, da desobediência, da inveja, da impureza, do roubo, da gula, da preguiça, da ira etc.

Feito isso, coloquei-me um pouco atrás para observar quais daqueles laços colhiam maior número de jovens. 

Eram os da impureza, da desobediência e do orgulho. A este último estavam atados os outros dois.

Além desses vi muitos outros laços que faziam grande estrago, mas não tanto como os primeiros. 

Sem parar de observar, vi que muitos jovens corriam mais precipitadamente que outros, e perguntei: 

- Por que essa velocidade? 

- Porque – foi-me respondido – são arrastados pelos laços do respeito humano. Olhando ainda mais atentamente, vi...

(continuem a ler, clicando aqui)