Francis blessing tons of Rosaries for Talmudic Jews

It’s no secret that Francis doesn’t exactly have a great love for the rosary. 

He has said publicly, in an interview, that in 1985 he began to recite the fifteen decades of the Rosary daily because of the example of John Paul II whom he prayed them with.  Sounds like a heartwarming soundbite.  Fast-forward to 6 June 2013 when the true Jorge Mario Bergolio makes an appearance as he lamented to representatives of Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious (CLAR), of receiving a spiritual bouquet from a group of Catholics stating they were saying 3,525 rosaries for him. He called these people Pelagians and disparaged that they wished to send the church back sixty years or even worse to the 1940’s. Then in the November of that year, Francis passes out 20,000 boxes of ‘Mercy Pills’.  These boxes looking like drug medications contained: rosaries, the problematic Divine Mercy holy card of Faustina, instructions on how to recite the Divine Mercy chaplet, and rosaries with the broken cross as their crucifix.  On 6 March 2014, Francis boasted to the priests of Rome how he had stolen the crucifix from the rosary of his late confessor while he was in the coffin for viewing during Easter Sunday and he keeps the stolen crucifix on his person to this day because it has stored up grace and mercy. If this isn’t a magic talisman, what is?  How much more can the man belittle one of the greatest gifts given by the Blessed Virgin Mary to Catholics?

Bp. Fulton Sheen wrote the following about the Rosary,

p. 220, The World’s First Love by Bp. Fulton J. Sheen (1952)

Dear reader, as you continue to read the post keep what Bp. Sheen said in the back of your mind. Ask yourself — Does Francis have the gift of faith?  Does Francis really recite the Rosary?

The following are the instances Call Me Jorge... are aware of when Francis blessed rosaries for Talmudic Jews, not with Holy Water and the traditional prayer but instead with a touch and wave from his hand while a muttering of a few unintelligible words. But he’s the boss who relishes breaking protocol and pretty much does whatever he wants to do.

Little more than a half year later after belittling the Catholics who were saying rosaries for him, Francis receives a delegation from the American Jewish Committee on 13 February 2014.  During this private audience Francis blessed rosaries and an assortment of Catholic religious items for the Talmudic Jews. He even blessed the Star of David necklace of an apostate Catholic who converted Talmudic Judaism and is now a regional director of the AJC. It was at this meeting that Francis received the book, Chagall: Love, War and Exile, which includes his favorite blasphemous painting, Marc Chagall’s “White Crucifixion” from members of the AJC.

On 9 February 2017, Francis received the Rome Mission of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.  Before the group left, he did a mass blessing of rosaries for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

Fast forward to 8 March 2019, when another delegation from the American Jewish Committee stops in for a visit, Francis once again blessed rosaries for perfidious Jews.

Peter Schäfer is a renowned scholar of religious studies and a specialist on Talmudic Judaism. In 2007, he wrote the book, Jesus in the Talmud, which was published by Princeton University Press. This website on Judaism succinctly sums the book up, Schäfer “shows the Talmud teaches that Jesus was a mamzer [bastard] conceived adulterously in niddah [menstrual filth] by a Roman soldier named Pandera [Kallah 51a] of a whore [Sanhedrin 106a] and that He is now in Hell boiling in feces and, in some editions because Jesus is accused of sexual perversion, semen [Gittin 57a]. Schafer documents much more, including the Talmud claim that the Sanhedrin justly executed Jesus because he was an idolater [Sanhedrin 43a] who worshipped a brick [Sanhedrin 67a], even boasting that the Sanhedrin overcame Roman opposition to the execution of Jesus [Sanhedrin 43a].”

If this is what the Talmud teaches about Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, what could these Talmudic Jews from the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith possibly want rosaries blessed by Francis for? Do people really think that perfidious Jews are going to start praying the rosary? Why did Francis acquiesce to the Talmudic Jews wishes and agree to do this? We at Call Me Jorge... believe that it was Francis’ way of giving back to his spiritual brothers.

Shortly after each one of these private audiences, batches of rosaries show up on sites such as ebay for sale.  The Talmudic Jews and Francis certainly share value$.

With ‘friends’ like these, who needs enemies? — #2

Israeli spies in the USA (2012)

More:

• With ‘friends’ like these, who needs enemies?

Who was today’s daily Talmudic Jewish visitor at the Vatican?

We’ll give you a hint...


He works for an offshoot of the Jewish Lodge in Freemasonry, B’nai B’rith...


It wasn’t Skorka...


nor was it Bergman...


or for that matter was it Di Segni...


If you guessed the national director of the Anti-Defamation League then, congratulations!

Below is a transcript of the full speech given by Jonathan Greenblatt to Francis laying out the Talmudic program for the noahide Novus Ordo church and the promotion of their religion of Holocaustianity.  We remind the reader that Mr. Greenblatt vowed to register as a Moslem if the federal government of the United States of America creates a registry of Moslems.  We ask Greenblatt why is he silent on the mistreatment of Christians and Moslems in Israel?  Why has he not registered as a Moslem in Israel which has a Moslem registry?  The answer is simple, he is a hypocrite who runs an organization which was founded on the defense of Leo Frank, a pedophile who raped and murdered a young gentile girl employed at one of his factories, which sought to scapegoat a black man for Frank’s crimes.   After Mr Greenblatt’s remarks, the transcript of Francis’ words to the ADL follows.

Remarks by Jonathan Greenblatt CEO of the Anti-Defamation League to Pope FrancisThe Vatican, February 9, 2017

Your Holiness,

This week, in synagogues all over the world, Jews will read Shirat Ha-yam, the “Song of the Sea” from the book of Exodus that Miriam, Moses and the Israelites sang after they miraculously passed through the Sea of Reeds on dry land.

As a newly free people, they expressed their thanks to God for their redemption, saying:

Who is like you, o eternal, among the celestials;

Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

Awesome in splendor, working wonders!

For both Jews and Christians, the Exodus from Egypt, the transition from slavery to freedom, represents the promise of the redemption.

The new relationship between Jews and Catholics that began with the Second Vatican Council and the Declaration Nostra Aetate is living witness to the power of reconciliation to transform relationships.

It has been a blessing to both communities and demonstrates that even centuries of conflict can be overcome. It holds within it the promise of the final redemption for which for Jews and Catholics hope and pray.

We are well aware, your holiness, of your close relationship with the Jewish community in Buenos Aires, and with our friend, Rabbi Avraham Skorka and others. We sincerely thank you and join you in your prayers for the victims of the AMIA bombing and your call for justice. In Argentina, ADL and DAIA are launching #denunciaelodio.

This campaign aims to empower and engage people to denounce hate speech – mainly in social media platforms - in order to promote respect for all and #porunmundosinodio.

We know you understand and share our concern about the resurgence of anti-Semitism, especially in Europe.

And we share your concern about the horrendous persecution of ethnic and cultural minorities, many of them Christians – indeed, we are troubled that the world seems not to pay enough attention to this tragic situation.

We are grateful for your continued support for the right of Israel to exist.

We have not forgotten that you placed a wreath on the grave of Theodore Herzl during your historic visit to Israel, recognizing the role Zionism has played in Jewish liberation from suffering.

And we appreciate greatly your efforts to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians -- for example, by bringing President Shimon Peres and President Mahmoud Abbas together here at the Vatican.

We pray for a negotiated end to that conflict, so that, in the words of the prophet, Jews and Palestinians can each sit under their vine and under their fig tree, with none to make them afraid.

When the Israelites left Egypt, they spent 40 years in the desert. They were refugees on their way to a new home and they were often unwelcome and abused, something that many generations of Jews have experienced.

The refugee crisis today calls for a merciful response, for recognizing those who are fleeing unimaginable violence as our brothers and sisters who desperately need our help and compassion.

We are deeply troubled by the rise of violent religious extremism and of reactionary nationalism, including in the United States. The love of neighbor, enshrined in the book of the Leviticus and considered the greatest commandment by both Jesus in the Gospels and Rabbi Akiva, seems to be in short supply. Instead, we seem, too often, to fear the stranger—rather remember that once, we were strangers in a strange land.

The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 with a dual mission: to fight the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all.

For over 100 years we have stood up for the rights of Jews in the United States and around the world while at the self-same time, time working tirelessly against bigotry and prejudice of all kinds -- against the extremisms of both the right and the left.

We have advocated at the highest level of government for the protection of the immigrant, for religious freedom, and for the equality and dignity of every human being. And we appreciate your Holiness’ remarkable contributions to this work.

We especially value our relationship with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Together, our two organizations sponsor “Bearing Witness,” a program that trains teachers in Catholic middle and high schools how to teach about the Shoah, the history of Jewish-Catholic relations, and the post-conciliar teachings about Jews and Judaism.

Since the inception of the program, we have trained over 2,000 teachers reaching thousands of students.

For many years, we have hosted an Interfaith Passover Seder for Jewish and Catholic school children. Last year, we invited a Muslim school to join with us, and they will do so again in just a few weeks. The sight of Jewish, Catholic and Muslim children learning from each other is, in its own way, also a sign of reconciliation and redemption.

Jews and Christians have been described as partners in waiting, waiting for the messiah to come, or to come again.

While we pray for that day to dawn, we are grateful for the friendship of the Catholic Church and for the privilege of working together to protect the needy, the vulnerable, the homeless, and persecuted.

I can think of no more fitting words with which to conclude than these, which come from the final paragraph of “The Gifts and Calling of God Are Irrevocable,” issued by the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews for the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate:

“When Jews and Christians make a joint contribution through concrete humanitarian aid for justice and peace in the world, they bear witness to the loving care of God. No longer in confrontational opposition but cooperating side by side, Jews and Christians should seek to strive for a better world.”

Ken yehi ratzon – may this be God’s will.

Francis accepts a ‘tzedakah box’ from Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, during a meeting with a delegation from the organization at the Vatican 9 February 2017.

ADDRESS OF FRANCIS TO THE DELEGATION
OF THE "ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE"

Hall of Popes
Thursday, 9 February 2017

Dear Friends,

I offer you a warm welcome, and I thank you for your kind words. My predecessors, Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI, also received delegations from your organization, which has maintained relations with the Holy See since the Second Vatican Council. I am grateful that these contacts have intensified: as you noted, our meeting here is a further testimony, beyond that of our shared commitment, to the valuable power of reconciliation, which heals and transforms relationships. For this we give thanks to God, who surely rejoices in the sincere friendship and fraternal sentiments which today inspire Jews and Catholics. Thus, with the Psalmist we too can say: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life for evermore” (Ps 133: 1, 3b).

Whereas the culture of encounter and reconciliation engenders life and gives rise to hope, the “non-culture” of hate sows death and reaps despair. Last year I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. There are no adequate words or thoughts in the face of such horrors of cruelty and sin; there is prayer, that God may have mercy and that such tragedies may never happen again. To this end let us continue to help one another, as Pope John Paul II so desired, “to enable memory to play its necessary part in the process of shaping a future in which the unspeakable iniquity of the Shoah will never again be possible” (Letter on the Occasion of the Publication of the Document “We Remember: a Reflection on the Shoah”, 12 March 1998): a future of genuine respect for the life and dignity of every people and every human being.

Sadly, anti-Semitism, which I again denounce in all its forms as completely contrary to Christian principles and every vision worthy of the human person, is still widespread today. I reaffirm that “the Catholic Church feels particularly obliged to do all that is possible with our Jewish friends to repel anti-Semitic tendencies” (Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable, 47).

Today more than ever, the fight against anti-Semitism can benefit from effective instruments, such as information and formation. In this regard, I thank you for your work and for combining efforts to counter defamation with education, promotion of respect for all, and protection of the weakest. Caring for the sacred gift of all human life and safeguarding its dignity, from conception to death, is the best way of preventing every type of violence. Faced with too much violence spreading throughout the world, we are called to a greater nonviolence, which does not mean passivity, but active promotion of the good. Indeed, if it is necessary to pull out the weeds of evil, it is even more vital to sow the seeds of goodness: to cultivate justice, to foster accord, to sustain integration, without growing weary; only in this way may we gather the fruits of peace. I encourage you in this work, in the conviction that the best remedies against the rise of hatred consist in making available the means necessary for a dignified life, in promoting culture and favoring religious freedom everywhere, as well as in protecting believers and religions from every form of violence and exploitation.

I am grateful to you also for the dialogue which, at various levels, you maintain with the Catholic Church. Upon our shared commitment and our journey of friendship and fraternal trust, I invoke the Almighty’s blessings: in his munificence may he accompany us and help us to bring forth the fruits of goodness. Shalom alechem!

Freemasons holding court in the Vatican

Tim Sebastian turns the screw on Bp. Fellay

or

for those pressed for time

this video clip sums up the interview

How much longer will Bp. Fellay continue to be the superior general of the FSSPX?

Cardinal Schönborn urges Europe to continue to accept Moslem invaders with open arms instead of raising a new ‘Iron Curtain’

Related:

• Schonborn and B'nai B'rith Ancestors, Together Cruelly Exploiting Common People for Centuries

• Schönborn Bishops and Fellow "Parasites"

• Schönborn Upstages Falwell

• Cardinal Schoenborn sends the Church to the 'Holocaust' guilt chambers

• Who is Nikolaus von Ankershofen?

The three Catholic statesman cited by Cardinal Schönborn who helped create the anti-Christian monstrosity known as the European Union.

(left to right) Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman, and Alcide De Gasperi

Nostra Aetate: A Lever That Moved the World

a John Courtney Murray, S.J., Lecture 

given by Rabbi Daniel Polish

(CMJ note: Have to turn volume up as the audio isn't very loud.)

Nostra Aetate is the ongoing kabbalistic alchemical transformation of the Catholic Church into the Noahide Novus Ordo Church of Holocaustianity (aka Churchianity) through one-way dialogue with the followers of the Talmud.

 Was Daniel F. Polish discussing Martin Buber with Francis at the Vatican?

Perhaps the two discussed Abraham Heschel when Francis dropped by New York?

Another 'Moslem terrorist' promoted by the Talmudic Jewess terror-monger, Rita Gabbay-Katz, turns out to be a Talmudic Jew

• Maurice Pinay blog, For 9-11: The technique and operation of the rabbinic ghetto protection racket which has taken the world hostage

Merchant of bigotry & Christ-denial, Abe Foxman honored by the Archdiocese of Krakow

• ADL Director Abraham Foxman Honored by Archdiocese of Krakow with the Pope John Paul II Medal of Honor

Pharisee Dolan celebrates the 28 year career of fellow Pharisee Abraham Foxman, which was one of relentless bullying, smear-campaigning, career-wrecking, culture and religion-destroying, etc.

Dolan isn't wearing his pectoral cross in this photo.  It appears he left it at home as he was spending the evening with his fellow Talmudists celebrating the career of Abe Foxman.

• Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a gold-loving political whore

Francis meets with B’nai B’rith International

Francis Address to the Delegation of B’nai B’rith International

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to greet you during your visit to the Vatican. My predecessors met with delegations of B’nai B’rith International on several occasions, and today I offer you my welcome with renewed respect and affection.

Your organization has enjoyed relations with the Holy See since the promulgation of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate. This document constituted a milestone on the path of mutual knowledge and esteem between Jews and Catholics, based on the great spiritual patrimony that, thanks be to God, we share in common.

Looking back on these fifty years of regular dialogue between the Catholic Church and Judaism, I cannot help but thank the Lord for the great progress that has been made. Many initiatives fostering reciprocal understanding and dialogue have been undertaken; above all a sense of mutual trust and appreciation has developed. There are many areas in which we as Jews and Christians can continue to work together for the good of the peoples of our time. Respect for life and creation, human dignity, justice and solidarity unite us for the development of society and for securing a future rich in hope for generations to come. In a particular way, we are called to pray and work together for peace. Unfortunately, there are many countries and regions of the world that live in situations of conflict – I think in particular of the Holy Land and the Middle East – and that require a courageous commitment to peace, which is not only to be longed for, but sought after and built up patiently and tenaciously by everyone, especially believers.

During these moments together, I wish to recall with heartfelt gratitude all those who have fostered friendship between Jews and Catholics. I particularly want to mention Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II. Saint John saved many Jews during the Second World War, met with them numerous times, and greatly desired a conciliar document on this theme. Regarding Saint John Paul, his various historical gestures remain very much alive in our memories, such as his visit to Auschwitz and to the Great Synagogue of Rome. With the help of God, I wish to walk in their footsteps, encouraged too by the many beautiful encounters and friendships I enjoyed in Buenos Aires.

May the Almighty and Eternal One bless our dialogue abundantly, especially during this year in which we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Nostra Aetate, so that our friendship may always grow deeper and bear abundant fruit for our communities and the entire human family.

Francis friendship with his Talmudic buddies bears abundant fruit for their co-religionists.

Since Francis has participated in several Kristallnacht services sponsored 

by B’nai B’rith International, it is only natural to wonder if he has a 

framed membership certificate in his rooms in Casa Santa Marta.

Pharisee Timothy Dolan celebrates 50 years of the Noahide church!

The blabbermouth Pharisee Dolan (aka Cardinal Dolan) has been at it again.  In February, he gave an address at a Shabbat service in a New York synagogue (see, Pharisee Dolan's address to his fellow pharisees at the synagogue), followed in March by leading the NYC St. Pat's Day Parade with sodomites in tow (see, Nothing says happy Feast of St. Patrick in New York City, like a Pharisee leading a parade with at least one sodomite group in it), and recently gave a speech at the Jewish Theological Seminary but don't worry he did hide his pectoral cross so not as to offend his brother Pharisees (see, Timothy Dolan celebrates Nostra Aetate and 50 years of Catholic sensitivity and submission to Deicide Judaism's hatred of Christ).  Now he is here to indoctrinate those under his pastoral care into his Noahide church.  Read on and see Dolan quote several rabbis as if they were Church Fathers, give a shout out to the 'Talmudic Jewish periti' who helped write Nostra Aetate at the Second Vatican Council and invoke the 'sacred' name of Abraham Heschel and his heretical beliefs. 

Nostra Aetate and the Church’s Dialogue with Jews – – Fifty Years and Forward in the United States!

“What’s the big deal?”  sincerely asked a young priest when I told him how much I was looking forward to this golden jubilee of Nostra Aetate.

He inquired about the significance of this day not sarcastically or cynically, but genuinely.  Simply put, he so took Catholic-Jewish amity for granted that he wondered why it was necessary to celebrate this half-century old document.

For this fine young priest, that anyone would have ever considered the Jews guilty of Deicide, thus meriting scorn, harassment, isolation, or tragically worse, was utterly illogical and stupid.  He had been raised in a Catholic grade and high school where textbooks treated Jews with dignity and respect, and the full horror of the Shoah had been carefully examined; he had grown up in a parish where Catholics and Jews alternated years coming together in prayer on the eve of Thanksgiving, one year in the synagogue, the next in the parish church; as a seminarian, he had taken a course in Judaism taught by a Rabbi; and, now as a parish priest, is in a weekly scripture study with an interfaith group of local clergy that included a Rabbi.

He had no idea that it was not always so . . . which is only another argument for the case we make today:  that the implementation of Nostra Aetate, especially here in the United States, has been remarkably successful, that the invitation to respect and dialogue offered by the council fathers has been enthusiastically accepted, and has borne much fruit.

His “ho-humm” about today’s celebration, though, is not only a cause for gratitude, in that Jewish Catholic friendship is now so-taken-for-granted, but also a cause for some concern, since, well, Jewish-Catholic friendship is now so-taken-for-granted!  For, as my grandpa used to say, “What you take for granted can easily be ungranted!”

To be here with cardinals, bishops, priests, scholars, rabbis, and leaders in interfaith dialogue is an honor.  To work on behalf of my brother bishops as co-chair with Rabbi David Strauss of the official dialogue with the National Council of Synagogues, following the towering achievements of Cardinal William Keeler and a generation of devoted Catholic and Jewish leaders, is a privilege.

Veterans in this sacred task note that Jewish-Catholic friendship and cooperation has never been stronger, and I would concur.

The recent passing of the former Chief-Rabbi of the Eternal City, Elio Toaff, reminds us of his deep companionship with Pope St. John Paul II, as we realize that the late pontiff expressed explicit gratitude to only two people in his last testament:  his loyal priest secretary and spiritual son, Stanislaus Dziwicz, and Rabbi Toaff.

Here in the United States we note the perseverance of the official Jewish Catholic dialogue, both in the previously mentioned meetings between bishops and the representatives of Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Judaism in the National Council of Synagogues, in our consultations with the Rabbinic Council of America, and with the Orthodox Union.

Nor can we forget the nearly four dozen centers of joint study between Christians and Jews, such as the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations, or the thousands of local and neighborhood partnership between parishes and synagogues in prayer, theological discourse, and community service.

Catholic clergy and people regularly benefit from ongoing education sponsored by the AJC, the Anti-Defamation League, the Hartman Institute, the Karski Institute and Yahad-in-Unum in Paris.

I could go on and on, but I’m preaching to the choir, as I think we are all in concert observing that the brave fathers of the council, aided by Jewish periti, could never have foreseen such progress.

Besides the organizational and educational progress referred to above, two other areas  this last half-century deserve special mention.

One is the fruitfulness of mutual theological study.  It was Pope John Paul II’s dream that Christians and Jews could return to the theological conversations between Jews and Christians so rudely interrupted 1,945 years ago when the Roman army leveled Jerusalem.  Beliefs cherished by each of us – – creation, election, covenant, promise, redemption, the law, grace, revelation, to name a few – – were kitchen table talk, or arguments, between Jews and Christians in the decades right after Jesus, but faded in 70 A.D. when another priority – – survival! – – took over.

Thanks to the green light of Nostra Aetate, such topics are back on the agenda.  Alleluia!

The second area of progress has been the candor with which we have confronted the testy controversies which have arisen.  Raised voices over such issues as the Good Friday prayer, the cross and convent at Auschwitz, the visit of Kurt Waldheim to Pope John Paul, the lifting of the excommunication of a holocaust – denying priest, the neuralgia over Dominus Jesus, the role of the Holy See during World War II, the reputation of Pius XII, necessary revision in the Oberammergau Passion Play, diplomatic exchanges between Israel and the Vatican, and even last week’s nod to Palestine by Pope Francis – – just to name a few – – have caused spats and arguments.  That we have not dodged them and have actually persevered through them is a test of our mettle!

I remember my first meeting as a bishop-member of the Jewish-Catholic dialogues, being amazed at the blunt bickering over Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ.

“I could have stayed home and had dinner with my family if I wanted this kind of arguing,” I whispered to an older bishop during the break.

“But that’s the point,” he came back.  “We are family, so we argue because we get scared and mad when something threatens to tear us apart.”  Not bad . . .

As we look back over the last five decades of progress since Nostra Aetate, I wonder what other successors will observe in May, 2065, when they gather to savor, please God, the advances made since today.

I do see five areas where we have indeed begun to “cast out to the deep,” challenges that could bring us into an even more durable and beneficial alliance.  See if you agree . . .

One would be an intensification of the most obvious imperative for any enterprise by any group of believers: to reclaim the primacy of the God in a world that prefers not to take Him seriously, to ignore Him, or even to deny Him.

Here we face together the impact of that loaded word secularism.  This is a point I spent a whole lecture on two weeks ago at the Jewish Theological Seminary back home in New York, proposing that this effort at the core of both Jewish and Catholic belief was the essence of Pope Saint John Paul II’s post- Nostra Aetate agenda.  I was glad that the respondents, Rabbi Burton Visotzky and Chancellor Arnold Eisen, agreed.

Simply put, I pointed out that John Paul II was convinced that the most insidious toxin infecting humanity was the denial of God’s sovereignty, even existence, and that the Church’s most natural ally in restoring faith in a world gone skeptical were the Jews.  Humanity’s fateful preference, lurking since the Enlightenment, lurching now, was, to use Rabbi Jonathan Sax’s definition of secularism, “to get along just fine without God.” 

The pope was convinced that the Jewish community would share his urgency that such a cultural sidelining of faith must be reversed.  He died, while not without hope, certainly with an impatience that neither Jews nor Catholics seemed to be making much progress in inviting the world to believe that, in the words of the psalmist, “Only in God is my soul at rest.”

I recounted the story of John Paul’s heroic and tumultuous 1979 return to Poland in what historians now call “nine days that changed the world,” and how, inspired by his presence and words, a two-million strong throng in Warsaw on his last day chanted at the top of their voices, to the grimaces of the KGB and Polish communist officials, “We want God!”

“We want God!”  The primitive cry of faith, humanity’s innate longing for the Divine, a thirst denied, ignored, ridiculed, outlawed, and rationalized away for too long by the oppression of a regime that had vainly sought purpose in systems that forgot God!  It was as if the Polish Pope had put on the lips of his people the pining of the Hebrew psalmist, “Like a deer that thirsts for living water, so my soul longs for you, my God.”

And, it was his aspiration that what most naturally bound Jews and Catholics together would be the common effort to help humanity articulate once again the desire what for too long had been suppressed, “We want God!”

Both Jews and Christians look out their windows daily to behold, in the prescient observation of Blessed John Henry Newman a century-and-a-half ago, “a world that is simply irreligious.”          

Two, the friendship inspired by Nostra Aetate coaxes us to explore together the pastoral issues that befuddle both of us.

Not long after my arrival in New York, Rabbi Peter Rubenstein kindly invited me to meet a group of his congregants at Central Synagogue.  They thoughtfully spoke to me about their concerns, not surprisingly concentrating on those familiar two categories that have characterized post- Nostra Aetate dialogue; namely, theological issues such as covenant, election, Israel, and neuralgic points such as the hoped-for opening of the Vatican archives, and their apprehension at the time that the Church’s commitment to Nostra Aetate was slackening.

Then they kindly asked me what I thought should concern us Catholics and Jews.  I stayed away from the theological and neuralgic, and went for the pastoral.

“I have a hunch,” I began, “that you committed Jews at this Synagogue have the same concerns that my parishioners at Saint Patrick’s have:  how to pass on the faith to our kids and grandkids who are growing-up in a culture that hardly has room for religion; how the reality of intermarriage affects us; how to preserve the Sabbath in a society where soccer and shopping reign; how to make sure our kids have some tether to the faith when they leave for college; how to entice back the crowds of our spiritual kin who have drifted away.”

It was a light bulb moment, as my new Jewish neighbors sat-up and exclaimed, “Oh, my, you Catholics worry about all that, too?”

You bet we do!  And putting our shoulders and Yarmulkes together to talk about them could be one of the more rewarding results of our celebrated Nostra Aetate friendship – – comparing notes on common pastoral challenges!

A couple months ago, I was invited to preach a Sabbath service at a local synagogue.  During the prayer, a young boy celebrated his Bar Mitzvah.  After the ceremony I commented to the Rabbi how powerful such a ritual was.  He looked at me and commented, “Odds are, we won’t see that young man again for thirty years, until he brings his son here for Bar Mitzvah!  “Oh,” I replied, “We Catholics call that the Sacrament of Confirmation!”

That’s what I mean by common pastoral challenges!

And point three is a common front on the most pressing pastoral burr in the saddle of all:  the unavoidable fact that what sociologists call “inherited religions” – – read:  Jews and Catholics – – are losing their members.

Both Jews and Catholics now approach the findings that Pew Research Center as we do the obituary page, but we can hardly ignore their challenge.  Yes, both of us can rejoice in the data that the majority of Catholics and Jews remain steadfast in their allegiance; yes, there’s a bit of evidence that the rate of defection may be leveling off . . . but, it’s “alarm-clock time” for both of us, because the statistics present unavoidable conclusions: belief may be high, belonging is not; and no longer can we presume that being born Jewish or Catholic is a guarantee that one will freely choose to live and die in that faith.

As Pope John Paul soberly commented, no longer can we count on birth, family tradition, or culture to automatically pass on the faith.

We Jews and Catholics – – and, lest we forget, Islam (which brings up yet another challenge!) – – believe we are born into the faith, we inherit it.  We did not choose our faith – – God chose us!  We have no more business choosing our supernatural family than we do our natural family!  We’re stuck with it.  Rabbi Joshua Heschel entitled his masterpiece, not “Man’s Search for God,” but God’s Search for Man!

When the teenage girl asked the “Whisky Priest” in Graham Greens’ classic, The Power and the Glory, the priest fleeing Mexican troops persecuting the Church, why he didn’t just leave the Church and save his life, he replied, “But I can’t just leave it.  It’s part of me.”

“Oh, like the birthmark on my arm,” the girl asked.

“That’s it . . . like a birthmark.”

In Jewish and Catholic chemistry, our belonging, our religious identity, is “like a birthmark.”

No more for a growing swath of our people!  And therein is the most towering pastoral problem we face together: to recover the sense of belonging   we believe essential to our relationship with God.

We Jews and Catholics face two obstacles in our mutual insistence on belonging:
The first is the sociological phenomenon noted above, that people today prefer belief over belonging:  They want God as their Father as long as they’re the only child; they want the Lord as their shepherd as long as the flock consists of one lamb – – themselves; they want God as their general as long as it’s an army of one.  None of this sits well with Jews who believe God chose a people, or Catholics who believe we are only a part of a body with many members.

The second obstacle we face is America itself, which stresses personal choice in everything from coffee to religion.  In fact, our highly Puritan, Calvinist religious climate puts the premium on my personal choice of God, not His choice of me.  Cardinal Francis George used to worry that Catholics in America were becoming “Calvinists with incense.”  His fear was well-grounded.

So, what’s happening is that religion is now listed under “hobby” or “personal interests,” if at all, instead of “family background and history” – – and that, my friends, is a juicy challenge for both of us.  For us to tackle it together could be a good time!

Four, the gruesome reality of religious persecution is yet another worry that unites us.  Somewhere right this moment a Jew or a Catholic is in the crosshairs of the rifle scope of an extremist.  All believers – – Jews, Christians, and, yes, genuine moderate Muslims – – which means most of them – – are at risk in vast regions of the world.  Christians fear ISIS and Boko Haram in the Mideast and Africa, and Islamic and Hindu extremists in the far East, while Jews fear Islamic terrorists in Israel and anti-Semitic thugs in Europe.
Our God, we both believe, can bring good out of evil, leading to what Pope Benedict, Cardinal Koch, and Pope Francis have called an “Ecumenism of Martyrdom,” as Jews and Christians huddle more closely together to protect, advocate for, and care for each other as mobs with torches and swords threaten our churches and synagogues in other parts of the globe.

Five, and finally, Nostra Aetate has given us an infrastructure of friendship these past fifty years allowing us to reclaim and preach again the Biblical reality that popular soothing spirituality would rather us forget: sin and redemption

Why in the world we Jews and Catholics have lost our voice in preaching sin and redemption is beyond me.  If our people believe they are without sin, that they need no salvation, why would they sense a need for church, synagogue, religion, belonging?  Affirmation and fellowship they can find much easier over a latte at Starbucks or at the gym … and they are!

Here I will defer to an eloquent author, David Brooks, whose new bestseller, The Road to Character, should be gift wrapped for every graduate these days.

Monday I interviewed him on the radio, and got red with embarrassment when he asked why the Church, why the Synagogue had stopped preaching sin and redemption, without which culture is doomed to pledge continued allegiance to the central fallacy of modern life, that “The Big Me,” the culture of achievement, our total focus on what he terms “resumé virtues” as opposed to “eulogy virtues,” can lead to true fulfillment.

No, David Brooks insists, we must preach that I am flawed; I am imperfect; I have a dark side; I am incomplete; I am a sinner; I need redemption, and I can’t give it to myself!
That’s our forte, folks! That’s the Jewish and Christian vocabulary!  That’s what the prophets and saints claimed!

Earlier I suggested that we Jews and Catholics are losing our people.  Where are they going?  I can only answer for Catholics: most go to no other religion, but became a “none.”  But those who do join another church sure aren’t registering with the Unitarians!  They’re more than likely signing–up at a Bible waving mega-church that bellows sin and salvation in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, because all they’re hearing at Sunday Mass is a version of the discredited “I’m ok – you’re ok” therapy of thirty years ago.

It’s time to reclaim our specialty as Jews and Christians: sin, grace, mercy, redemption!
Enough from me . . . By now it’s obvious that I am far from a theologian, and still a rookie in Jewish-Catholic dialogue compared to distinguished veterans here with us.  I was only fifteen when Nostra Aetate was promulgated by Blessed Paul VI.

But I am a pastor, and, as such, both rejoice in the progress that has been made, and relish the goals we realistically admit loom before us.

And, for the record, I told that young priest, “Listen, Buddy, this is a big deal!”

Source: May 22, 2015 entry on Timothy Cardinal Dolan's blog

Dolan & Francis, two ger toshavs.

Francis receives 'Noahide' rainbow artwork on flight LY514

Francis is presented with 'Faith-Visual Pray' a work by kinetic artist Yaacov Agam by a representative of El Al airline onboard flight LY514

Several things are worth mentioning about Yaacov Agam's upbringing before we write of the artwork which was given to Francis.  Yaacov's father Yehoshua, was a rabbi and a noted kabbalahist.  Agam was educated at a Talmudic religious school until he dropped out and his father hired a melamed (religious teacher) to tutor him at home.  Of his art Yaacov says, 

"I don't pray with words, I pray visually.  My works are, so to speak, a visual prayer."

Another interesting connection is the one with the Guggenheim family whom have helped Agam by purchasing his artwork and holding shows to promote his artwork at their museums.  The Guggenheim family was also responsible for bringing famous author Malachi Martin to America as well as bringing Marc Chagall to America.  Chagall is the artist responsible for Francis favorite piece of blasphemous artwork White Crucifixion.  

The work 'Faith-Visual Pray' by Yaacov Agam is in the color of the noahide rainbow.  Much of Agam's artwork uses the rainbow.  It contains the Magen David, the emblem of Zionism, and a  Menorah, which brings to mind the Talmudic tale of god being pleased with the Jewish people and their vainglorious celebrations.  Many towns and cities around the world have a public menorah dutifully put up by various Chabad-Lubavitch branches.  Agam is responsible for building the world's largest chanukah menorah for the Lubavitchers which is erected in New York City every year on at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street.  The menorah is also the symbol of the Mossad, the intelligence and special operations division of Israel.  The work's message is that if Christianity will tolerate (be subservient to) Talmudic Judaism (by obeying the noahide laws) the messiah will come again.  This isn't first time one of Agam's works has been given to a pontiff.  In 2004, the Anti-Defamation League's Abe Foxman presented Saint John Paul II a piece titled, 'Visual Prayer for Mutual Hope'.

'Faith-Visual Pray' by Yaacov Agam

page 208 from Agam: Beyond the Visual

Israeli Artist Yaacov Agam Explains Jewish Kinetic Rainbow Painting Presented to Pope Francis

by Joshua Levitt

When Pope Francis, and the hundred Vatican officials and international journalists who accompanied him to the Holy Land, boarded the specially outfit El Al Israel Airlines Boeing 777 flight LY514, clad with the Pontiff’s coat of arms, for the return flight to Rome on Monday, airline president David Maimon showered him with gifts.

A published book of greetings and messages sent via social media from El Al passengers around the world, a bottle of Altitude 720 kosher wine from Barkan Winery affixed with a special label with the date and flight number of the historic voyage, and a painting by 86-year-old Israeli artist Yaacov Agam called, ‘Faith-Visual Pray.’

Maimon told the Pope that the artwork integrated symbols of Judaism, including the Star of David and the Menorah, symbolizing the Holy Temple of Jerusalem and the seven churches of Christianity.

In an exclusive interview, Agam, one of the pioneers of the kinetic art movement, told The Algemeiner the story behind the special painting.

“El Al wanted to give the Pope a gift, and they looked to different galleries, and this was in Art Market,” a gallery in the port of Tel Aviv, he said.

“They chose this work of art because it expresses this idea, the feeling of being Jewish,” he said.

“The art work is very significant because you see the rainbow, and the rainbow is the expression of color. And the beauty of the rainbow is symbolizing – you have red and blue and yellow and violet. You have all the different colors, and they tolerate each other. And all together, they make a beautiful thing – a rainbow.”

“And this is symbolizing the world – if we tolerate each other there will be a great peace in the world and Moshiach [the Messiah] will hopefully come,” Agam said.

“At the same time, it represented some of the most Jewish values and also represented the State of Israel, with the Magen David [the Star of David] and the Chanukiah [Menorah], with seven branches, and there are also the seven branches of Christianity,” Agam said.

Reflecting on his role as an artist, Agam, who has been featured in retrospectives at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, in Paris, and at the Guggenheim Museum, in New York, said that in “Egyptian art, they represent their religion, their values – they’re not just works of art. They represent their religion, so I tried to make a good work of art that represents Jewish values.”

In Israel, where everything is imbued with ancient ideas, El Al said that nearly 66 years ago, when the decision was made to establish a national airline, in search of an appropriate name, they turned to the Bible for inspiration and chose “El Al,” from the book of Hoseah, signifying “to the most high.”

Audio of Allen's speech to the ADL

-----------------------
Call Me Jorge... covered this speech of John L Allen, Jr. to the Anti-Defamation League's National Executive Committee on 7 February 2014 under the entry Jews “basically won the lottery”.  Now we have what was actually said, not just notes from a reporter on the speech.  It is similar to the speeches Allen was giving while touring the world telling people who Francis truly is.  At the 16 minutes and 41 seconds Allen goes off his usual script and has a message just for the Jews.  He specifically mentions Abe Foxman a little after 22 minutes 16 seconds and tells him to assist the Vatican so Francis is coached in how to not accidentally offend the Jews during his (then) upcoming trip to Israel.

Less than 2 weeks later, listen to what Abe Foxman tells the media about Francis.

Looks like Foxman received all his wishes from Francis!

To see and hear Foxman in his own words say he is running a scam watch the excellent movie, Defamation by Yoav Shamir, below.

gatekeeper John L. Allen, Jr.'s important role in The Francis Revolution

 John L. Allen, Jr. and Saint John Paul II

 John L. Allen, Jr. and Benedict XVI

  John L. Allen, Jr. and Francis

Before we get to John Allen's talk, a little background on the man.  Allen is an insider's insider at the Vatican having covered the beat for 16 years.  He is currently an editor at the Boston Globe where he also writes about religion and Francis.  One can listen to Allen on NPR or watch him on television on CNN where he is the Vatican correspondant.  Allen has written, not one but two biographies of Benedict XVI, a book on New York's laughing cow Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and a puff piece on Opus (Ju)Dei.  Here is where it gets interesting.  John is considered an expert of Catholic/Jewish relations and for the past two years has been the headline speaker at the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith's National Executive Committee Meeting.  One other thing, John's wife is Shannon Levitt and yes she is a practicing Jew.  Notice on her necklace in the photo below a ✡.

Shannon Levitt a supporter of Obama!

So where is all this leading?  Sometime in September the Boston Globe is going to launch a Francis website.  The topics will be Francis, Catholicism, and the New Evangelization.  Mike Sheehan, CEO of the Boston Globe said, 

“Don’t think of this site as the place you go to buy statues you bury in the backyard.  It’s going to be news and analysis of all things Catholic.”

Joining John L. Allen, Jr. at this new website will be; Teresa Hanafin, San Martin, Michael O’Loughlin, and Christina Reinwald.  If we are to speculate, Call Me Jorge... and other Catholic websites have been so effective countering the lies told about Francis in the establishment media that they now need a full time website to tell you what to think about Francis.  We doubt if any of these stories will be covered by them:

• Francis' gluttony
• the King and Queen of Spain who support sodomy visit Francis
• his blasphemous jokes (as Francis) & (as Bergoglio)
• photo-op at Bethany beyond the Jordan
• Francis' reign is the end of the Medieval Papacy
• Francis hiding his pectoral cross so as not to offend rabbis
• papal ring designed by a freemason
• picking his nose (as Francis) & (as Bergoglio)
• receives the Maimonides Award for Inter-religious Dialogue
• lunches with sixteen rabbis
• significance of trip to the Kotel (aka Western Wall, Wailing Wall) 
• the blasphemy in Francis' favorite painting
• lunches with Evangelicals
• symbolism of Yad Vashem visit
• and many, many more!!!

 

If you haven't read the entry, a reader comments on 'FOBs' the Friends of Bergoglio, showing how Allen plays a very important role in framing the language and topics to be discussed about Francis, then  we urge the reader to do so.  Without further ado, here is John L. Allen telling the audience not to panic as Francis is catholic.  The problem is we just haven't ever had such a humble man in the papacy before and it's going to take some time to get used to it.

The Francis Revolution: The Papacy at the One-Year Mark

 

Jews “basically won the lottery”

(John Allen, Jr with Maria Elena Bergoglio, Francis' sister)

In a follow up to the post, Huckster Abe Foxman on Francis, we look at comments made by John L. Allen, Jr. in his address, Friday 7 February 2014, to the Anti-Defamation League's National Executive Committee.  Note in 2007, Mr. Allen addressed the same group about implications for the Jews of Benedict XVI's policies.  Kosher approved, Allen has long been in bed with the enemies of the Church and has written puff pieces on Cardinal Dolan, Opus Dei, and two biographies of Joseph Ratzinger.  The ADL was formerly named the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.  It was created after the infamous Leo Frank trial and subsequent lynching.  The ADL promotes Zionism, sodomy, LGBT marriage, and campaigns against anything Christian in American society.  B'nai B'rith is a freemasonic Jewish Lodge established in 1843.

John Allen was formerly a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter and is currently an associate editor of the Boston Globe.  The quotes below are taken from a story written by Michele Dargan that appeared in the Palm Beach Daily News, Judaism ‘won the lottery’ with new pope.

John Allen, Jr. opens his remarks to the ADL meeting with this joke,

“I know you have a jam-packed schedule and limited time, so as Henry the Eighth said to each of his wives, ‘I won’t keep you long,’”

Wow, joking about the person responsible for the deaths of thousands of people not to mention the souls lost.  As well as creating his own religion, Henry VIII helped destroy the institution of marriage.  Guess Allen was playing to his perfidious kosher audience.

Allen goes on to dicuss, “the tsunami in Catholicism that was unleashed” with the election of Jorge Bergoglio on March 13, 2013.

He then discusses Francis' trip to Rio in 2013 for World Youth Day.

When he arrived and started to step out of the “Popemobile,” a group of Brazilian nuns rushed him “shrieking like a bunch of teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert.”

Can you picture that?  Did they throw their underwear at him?

After dropping the above bombshells, Allen gets to the meat of his message:

In regards to Catholic/Jewish relations under this pope, Allen told the ADL group, “You basically won the lottery.”

Most Latin American cardinals have no experience with Judaism, and many are pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli, Allen said. Bergoglio is the exception.

“Pope Francis regards the relationship with Judaism as the primordial interfaith relationship of the Catholic church and the one that, by far, is the most important and in which he is the most invested,” Allen said. “Ladies and gentlemen, you have a friend in Pope Francis.”

With all his connections and his insights, Allen ends up by describing the theme Francis has for his reign: 

“In the long run, Francis is going to be remembered as the ‘pope of mercy.’  Everything he is doing — from the policy on gays and lesbians and divorced and remarried Catholics — is calculated so that when the outside world looks at the Catholic Church, they will perceive a community of mercy — a community that doesn’t just pay lip service to mercy but actually practices it.”

Did you catch that?  Francis who claims to shun the attention of the world and publicly has stated the media misunderstands and distorts what he says.  At the same time he runs his policies off of a feedback loop of how the media perceives him!  If that isn't insanity!

So to recap, 

• Francis is a tsunami in Catholicism or a series of waves which destroy everything in its path, 
• Novus Ordo nuns act like shrieking teenage girls towards Francis as opposed to respecting him,  
• The Jews got the best possible Pope. In other words, the one who furthers their agenda and leaves them in their spiritual darkness, 
• and Francis wants to be known as a the 'pope of mercy'.  He runs his agenda according to how the secular world perceives him not how God views him.

To quote the comic strip character Charlie Brown, "Good grief!"

May God have mercy on us and this man called Francis.