The Story of the Vatican (1941)

On Ash Wednesday Francis met with LGBT group after his general audience

It’s Ash Wednesday, let’s meet some unrepentant homosexuals and lesbians!

Francis rolls out the red carpet for perversion and sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance in the middle of his homosexual clerical sex abuse scandals. What a way to kick off the Lenten season!

 

source: LGBT+ CATHOLICS WESTMINSTER MEET POPE FRANCIS, facebook @ LGBT Catholics Westminster, 11 March 2019.

This group is pro-priest marriage, pro-homosexual marriage, pro-perversion, marches in PRIDE parades, and is committed to spreading all manners of depravity throughout the world. It can be summed up by this quote from their official website, “A fully inclusive pastoral ministry with and for LGBT Catholics, parents and families, inevitably leads to understanding Church teaching on sexuality and gender identity as a developing area of magisterial teaching and not something fixed once and for all in previous documents from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith...we therefore call upon the Church's hierarchy, globally and locally, to undertake a serious listening process, involving LGBT Catholics, parents, theologians and pastoral workers, bishops and priests, in order to bring about the vision expressed by Pope Francis in The Joy of Love (Amoris Laetitia): “The unity that we seek is not uniformity, but a “unity in diversity”, or 'reconciled diversity'. Fraternal communion is enriched by respect and appreciation for differences within an overall perspective that advances the common good."”

The Epitome of the Novus Ordo

Below is a chapel in the San Ignacio Jesuit Center in Salamanca, Spain. This chapel won the award for “best religious space 2018” from Faith & Form’s Annual Religious Art and Architecture Design Awards.  “The Faith & Form association, is based in Washington and supported by the Vatican.”

The ‘Chapel of Encounter’ demonstrates what

the Novus Ordo is — empty, sterile, and cold.

Francis loves speaking about “encounter!”

Fr. Thomas ‘three Martinis a day’ Rosica writes that Francis is a dictator with no regard for Holy Scripture or for Catholic Tradition which are both “disordered attachments”.

“Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants because he is “free from disordered attachments.” Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”  

— Fr. Thomas Rosica, (English language media attaché of the Holy See Press Office & CEO of Salt and Light)

The Ignatian Qualities of the Petrine Ministry of Pope Francis, Salt and Light TV, (31 July 2018).

Two peas in a pod. To get an idea of how pro-rabbinic, pro-homosexual, modernist, and anti-Catholic Rosica is (click here).

“The whole concept of setting up committees, consulting widely, convening smart people around you is how Jesuit superiors usually function. Then they make the decision. This sort of discernment – listening to all and contemplating everything before acting – is a cardinal virtue of the Ignatian spirituality that is at the core of Francis' being and his commitment to a "conversion" of the papacy as well as the entire church. It’s hard to predict what will come next. Francis is shrewd, and he has repeatedly praised the Jesuit trait of "holy cunning" – that Christians should be "wise as serpents but innocent as doves," as Jesus put it. The pope's openness, however, also a signature of his Jesuit training and development, means that not even he is sure where the spirit will lead. He has said: "I don't have all the answers. I don't even have all the questions. I always think of new questions, and there are always new questions coming forward."”

— Fr. Thomas Rosica, (English language media attaché of the Holy See Press Office & CEO of Salt and Light)

The Ignatian Qualities of the Petrine Ministry of Pope Francis, Salt and Light TV, (31 July 2018).

Lowlights from Francis Q & A sessions with Jesuits in Chile and Peru

The following quotes out of Francis’ mouth are taken from La Civiltà Cattolica’s “Where have our people been creative?”: Conversations with Jesuits in Chile and Peru.

 “There is something that does not take peace away from me, but which does hurt me, and that is gossip. I don’t like gossip, it makes me sad. It often spreads in closed-off worlds. When it happens in a world of priests and religious I want to ask: how is this possible? You left everything, you decided not to have a wife next to you, you didn’t marry, you had no children… Do you want to finish as a gossiping old bachelor? Oh, my God, what a sad life!”

“I never call a difficulty a “resistance” for to do so would be to renounce discernment. I prefer to discern. It is easy to say there is resistance and not realize that a moment of conflict is actually bringing out some crumbs of truth. So I think that such conflicts can help me. I often ask a person: “What do you think?” This would help me to relativize many things that at first sight might seem like resistances but are actually a reaction that comes from a misunderstanding, from the fact that some things need to be repeated, better explained… This might be my defect, the fact that sometimes I take things for granted and make a logical jump without explaining the process clearly, for I am convinced that the person I am talking to has quickly understood my reasoning. I am aware that, if I go back and explain things better, then at that point the other will say, “Ah, yes, agreed…” All in all, it is very helpful for me to examine the meaning of conflicts carefully. But when I am aware that there is true resistance, certainly, I am displeased. Some say to me that it is normal that there is resistance when someone wants to make changes. The famous “this has always been done this way” reigns everywhere: “It has always been done this way, why should we change? If things are the way they are, they have always been done this way, so why change?” This a great temptation that we all faced in the period after the Second Vatican Council. The resistances are still present and try to tell us to relativize the Council, to water it down. I am even sadder when someone joins a campaign of resistance. And alas I see this too. You asked me about resistances, and I cannot deny that there are some, then. I see them and I know them.

There are doctrinal resistances that you know about better than I. For my own good I do not read the content of internet sites of this so-called “resistance.” I know who they are, I know the groups, but I do not read them for my own mental health. If there is something very serious, they tell me about it so that I know. You know them… It is displeasing, but you have to go on. Historians tell us that it takes a century for a Council to put down its roots. We are halfway there.

Sometimes we ask: but that man, that woman, have they read the Council? And there are people who have not read the Council. And if they have read it, they have not understood it. Fifty years on! We studied philosophy before the Council, but we had the advantage of studying theology after it. We lived through the change of perspective, and the Council documents were already there.

When I perceive resistance, I seek dialogue whenever it is possible; but some resistance comes from people who believe they possess the true doctrine and accuse you of being a heretic. When I cannot see spiritual goodness in what these people say or write, I simply pray for them. I find it sad, but I won’t settle on this sentiment for the sake of my own mental well-being.”

“I think that one of the things that the Church most needs today is discernment. This is put very clearly in the pastoral perspectives and objectives of Amoris Laetitia. We are used to a “yes you can or no you can’t” mentality. The morality used in Amoris Laetitia is the more classic Thomist morals, that is, the one from St. Thomas himself not the decadent version of later Thomism that some have studied. I too received a formation in the way of thinking of “yes you can or no you can’t,” or “up to this point you can, up to here you can’t.” I wonder if you remember [and here the pope looks at one of those present] that Colombian Jesuit who came to teach morals at the Collegio Massimo? When he taught the sixth commandment someone dared to ask: “Can a man and a woman who are engaged to be married kiss each other?” If they could they kiss each other! Do you get it? And he replied: “Yes they can! No problem! They just have to put a tissue between them.” This is a forma mentis (a way of thinking) for doing theology generally. It is a forma mentis that is based on a limit. And we bear the consequences.

If you take a look at the panorama of reactions to Amoris Laetitia you will see that the strongest criticisms of the exhortation are against the eighth chapter: “Can a divorced person receive communion, or not?” But Amoris Laetitia goes in a completely different direction; it does not enter into these distinctions. It raises the issue of discernment. This was already at the heart of truly great classic Thomist morals. So the contribution that I want from the Society is to help the Church to grow in discernment. Today, the Church needs to grow in discernment. And to us the Lord has given this family grace to discern. I do not know if you know this, but I have said it during other similar meetings with Jesuits: at the end of Fr. Ledóchowski’s time as superior general, the highest work of the spirituality of the Society was the Epitome. Everything you had to do was all regulated in an enormous mix of the Formula of the Institution, the Constitutions and the rules. There were even rules for the cook. And it was all mixed, without following a hierarchy. Fr. Ledóchowski was a great friend of the abbot general of the Benedictines and once he went to visit him bringing along this volume. Shortly after, the abbot sought him out and said: “Father General, with this you have killed the Society of Jesus.” And he was right, for the Epitome took away any room for discernment.”

“Thank you. The word “reconciliation” is not only manipulated, it is demolished. Today – not just here for this applies in other Latin American countries too – the word “reconciliation” has been emptied of its power. When St. Paul describes the reconciliation of all with God, in Christ, he delivers a strong word. Today, however, “reconciliation” has become wrapping paper. It’s been emptied out. It’s been weakened not only of its religious content but also of its human content, that is, what we share when we look each other in the eye. Instead, today, it is being done under the counter.

I would say that these stunts should not be accepted, nor should we struggle against them. We must say to those who adopt it in its weaker form: use it, but we won’t use it, for the concept has been demolished. We do need to continue to work, however, seeking to reconcile people. From below, from the sides, with a good word, with a visit, with a course to help understanding, with the weapon of prayer that will give us strength and make miracles, but especially with the human weapon of persuasion, which is humility. Persuasion acts through humility.”

“Yesterday I spoke to the priests and religious men and women of Chile in the cathedral of Santiago. This is the greatest desolation that the Church is suffering. It brings shame, but we need to remember that shame is also a very Ignatian grace, a grace that St. Ignatius asks us to make in the three colloquies of the first week. And so let us take it as a grace and be fully ashamed. We have to love the Church with her wounds. Many wounds…

Let me tell you something. On March 24 Argentina remembers the military coup d’état, the dictatorship, the desaparecidos (the disappeared)… and every March 24 the Plaza de Mayo fills to remember it. One year, on March 24, I left the archbishop’s house and went to serve as confessor for the Carmelite sisters. On my return I took the subway and got out six blocks away from Plaza de Mayo. The Plaza was full … and I walked those six blocks to enter by the side. When I was about to cross a road, there was a couple with a child of two or three years, and the child ran ahead. The father said to him: “Come, come, come here… Be careful of the pedophiles!” How shameful I felt! What shame! They didn’t realize that I was the archbishop, I was a priest and… what shame!

Occasionally there are “consolation prizes,” and someone might even say: “OK. Look at the statistics … I don’t know … 70 percent of pedophiles are in the family setting, people known to the family. Then at the gyms and in the swimming pools. The percentage of pedophiles who are Catholic priests does not reach 2 percent, it’s 1.6 percent. It is not that much.” But it is terrible even if only one of our brothers is such! For God anointed him to sanctify children and adults, and instead of making them holy he has destroyed them. It’s horrible! We need to listen to what someone who has been abused feels. On Fridays – sometimes this is known and sometimes it is not known – I normally meet some of them. In Chile I also had such a meeting. As their process is very hard, they remain annihilated. Annihilated!

For the Church this is a great humiliation. It shows not only our fragility, but also, let us say so clearly, our level of hypocrisy. In cases of corruption, in the sense of abuse of an institutional type, it is notable that there are some newer Congregations whose founders have fallen into these abuses. These cases are public. Pope Benedict had to suppress a large male Congregation. The founder had spread such habits. He abused young and immature religious men. It was a Congregation that had a female branch, and the female founder had also spread such habits. Benedict had started the process on the women’s branch. I had to suppress it. You here have many painful cases. But it is curious that the phenomenon of abuse touched some new, prosperous Congregations.

Abuse in these Congregations is always the fruit of a mentality tied to power that has to be healed in its malicious roots. And I will add: there are three levels of abuse that come together: abuse of authority (mixing the internal forum with the external forum), sexual abuse and an economic mess.

There is always money involved. The devil enters through the wallet. Ignatius places the first step of the devil’s temptations in riches…then come vanity and pride, but first of all, it’s riches. The three levels come together very often in the new Congregations that have fallen into this problem of abuse.

Forgive my lack of humility in suggesting that you read what I said to the Chileans. That material is more carefully articulated and reasoned than what comes to me now spontaneously.”

“Thank you. I’ll reply with just one word. It might seem that I say nothing, but instead I say everything. And the word is “Council.” Pick up again the Second Vatican Council, and read Lumen Gentium. Yesterday, with the bishops of Chile – or was it the day before, I don’t even know what day it is! – I encouraged them to declericalize. If there is something that is very clear, it is the awareness of the faithful holy people of God, infallible in credendo, as the Council teaches us. This brings the Church forward. The grace of being missionary and proclaiming Jesus Christ comes to us in baptism. From there we can move forward…

We should never forget that evangelization is done by the Church as a people of God. The Lord wants an evangelizing Church, I see that clearly. This came from my heart, in simplicity, in the few minutes I spoke during the general congregations before the conclave. A Church that goes out, a Church that goes out proclaiming Jesus Christ. After or in that very moment when she adores and fills herself with him. I always use an example tied to the Book of Revelation where we read: “I am at the door and knock. If someone opens I will enter” (cf. Rev 3:20). The Lord is outside and wants to come in. Sometimes the Lord is inside and is knocking because he wants us to let him out! The Lord is asking us to be a Church outside, a Church that goes out. Church as a field hospital… Ah, the wounds of the people of God! Sometimes the people of God is wounded by a rigid, moralist catechism, of the “you can or you can’t” variety, or by a lack of testimony.

A poor Church for the poor! The poor are not a theoretical formula of the communist party. The poor are the heart of the Gospel. They are the center of the Gospel. We cannot preach the Gospel without the poor. So I say to you: it is along this line that I feel the Spirit is leading us. And there are strong resistances. But I must also say that for me the fact that resistances arise is a good sign. It is a sign that we are on the right road, this is the road. Otherwise the devil would not bother to resist.

I would say these are the criteria: poverty, being missionaries, the conscience of the faithful people of God… In Latin America, particularly, you should ask: “But where have our people been creative?” With some deviations, yes, but it has been creative in its popular piety. And why have our people been able to be creative in popular piety? Because the clergy weren’t interested, and so they let them do it… the people went on ahead…

And then, yes, what the Church is asking today of the Society – this I have said often, and Spadaro, who publishes these things, has grown tired of writing it – is to teach discernment with humility. Yes, as pontiff I ask this of you officially. Generally, above all, we who are part of the religious setting of life as priests and bishops often show little ability to discern, we don’t know how to do it for we have been educated with another theology that is more formal. We go as far as “you can or you can’t,” as I said to the Chilean Jesuits concerning the resistances to Amoris Laetitia. Some people are reducing the entire fruit of two synods – all the work that has been done – to “you can or can’t.” Help us to discern then. Certainly, someone who is not discerning cannot teach others to discern. And to be discerning you have to enter into practice, you have to examine yourself. You have to start with yourself.”

Francis spoke about ‘Amoris Laetitia’ in Colombia. Was it because the “Filial Correction” was weighing on his mind?

Francis meeting with his fellow revolutionary Jesuits in Colombia.

While in Colombia during his travels, Francis stopped the city of Cartagena de Indias, the capital of the region of Bolívar, on 10 September 2017.  After meeting the crowds of laity there, “he went into the inner courtyard where he met privately with representatives of the community of the Society of Jesus made up of 65 religious.”  A brief Question & Answer session transpired between Francis and the assembled Jesuits.  Even though none of the Jesuits present asked about Amoris Laetitia Francis felt the need to speak of it.

“I’ll use this question to say something else that I believe should be said out of justice, and also out of charity. In fact I hear many comments – they are respectable for they come from children of God, but wrong – concerning the post-synod apostolic exhortation. To understand Amoris Laetitia you need to read it from the start to the end. Beginning with the first chapter, and to continue to the second and then on … and reflect. And read what was said in the Synod.

A second thing: some maintain that there is no Catholic morality underlying Amoris Laetitia, or at least, no sure morality. I want to repeat clearly that the morality of Amoris Laetitia is Thomist, the morality of the great Thomas. You can speak of it with a great theologian, one of the best today and one of the most mature, Cardinal Schönborn.

I want to say this so that you can help those who believe that morality is purely casuistic. Help them understand that the great Thomas possesses the greatest richness, which is still able to inspire us today. But on your knees, always on your knees…”

source: La Civiltà Cattolica, Grace is not an ideology: Pope Francis’ private conversation with some Colombian Jesuits

Wow!  The five dubia and “Filial Correction” must have been grating Francis’ nerves for him to bring this topic up.  Then Francis proceeds to tell his audience that Amoris Laetita is Thomistic!  This from the mouth of the same man who told another fellow Jesuit (Michael Rogers) in 2014 that, “Studying fundamental theology is one of the most boring things on earth.”  Everyone who follows the Vatican closely know that Francis perverted buddy, ‘Smoochie’ Fernandez ghostwrote Amoris Laetitia and anyone who has read St. Thomas Aquinas and Amoris Laetitia understands that not only does it distort St. Thomas, it uses his writings to support an unsound point as well as suggesting things contrary to St. Thomas (see Amoris Laetitia, #301).  Fernandez reminds us of the bible-nullifying Talmudic rabbis.  Francis next has the audacity to recommend speaking with “a great theologian”, Cardinal Schönborn!  Here’s what Francis had to say about Schönborn last year,

“I can say yes, period. But it would be an answer that is too small. I recommend that you read the presentation of Cardinal Schonborn, who is a great theologian. He was the secretary for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and he knows the doctrine of the faith well. In that presentation, your question will find an answer.”

The presentation which Francis mentions, (can be read here) answers how Amoris Laetitia should be interpreted concerning the question of sacraments for those in “so-called irregular situations” (hint: communion for all).  This shouldn’t be a surprise as the zionist, Christoph Schönborn, “is a descendant of old nobility of the Holy Roman Empire known for its sheltering of usurers, rabbis, intelligencers and the Talmud itself (see: Judaism Discovered) and peddling of alcohol on credit via Judaic front-men to the poorest of Christian peasants.”  The Schönborn family are experts at keeping “the Christian common folk as mystified, dumbed down, docile sheep for shearing by themselves and their fellow rabbi and banker mobsters.”  Essentially, the freemason Cardinal Schönborn is carrying out what his family has done for centuries.  Lastly, Francis mentions getting down “on your knees” ostensibly to pray to God.  Have you ever seen Francis on his knees in prayer?  We at Call Me Jorge... can only recall him getting on his knees once to pray at Palm Sunday Mass, usually he is kneeling to do things such as wash transgenders feet on Maundy Thursday or receive blessings from people.

Why the four dubia cardinals (Caffarra, Burke, Brandmuller, and Meisner) felt the need to have their confusion concerning Amoris Laetita clarified when Francis through his actions and words clearly explains how it is to be implemented leads us to conclude that they are members of a limited hangout. 

Why the 146 ‘scholars’ felt the need to sign the “Filial Correction on Account of the Propagation of Heresies” when the document itself is in need of massive corrections leads us to conclude it is an empty act of virtue signaling done for the benefit of the few conservatives left in the Novus Ordo.

Why Francis felt the need to bring this matter of Amoris Laetita up in an off-the-cuff Q & A in Colombia demonstrates how fragile his ego is.

As we have written before, “Things continue to become more and more interesting at the chaotic Vatican!”

Francis loves to blather, no matter how banal or un-Catholic his message is. 


***** UPDATED 29 SEPTEMBER 2017 *****

the new evangelization in Illinois with the Jesuits

Jesuits imitating misogynistic drug dealing and using musicians

Basketball & devil horns!

Shamanism returns to the Vatican in the form of ‘Noh’

This Rome Reports video mentions that a Noh performance was held at the Vatican.  Don’t worry though, it’s OK as, “This work was written 1,000 years ago by a German priest who, while studying in Japan, wanted to make Christianity known. Japan is a country with one of the greatest cultural and religious diversity.”  Let’s do some math:  today it is 2017 minus 1,000 years equals the year A.D. 1017.  The Jesuits, the first Christian priests to arrive in Japan landed there in A.D. 1549.   Does Rome Reports know something that the rest of the world doesn’t or is their Opus (Ju)Dei re-write of history?    When will they reveal the name of this German priest who studied in Japan 532 years before the Jesuits arrived?  In fact, Rome Reports is once again performing sloppy work.  These Noh performances happened at the Palazzo della Cancelleria (Palace of the Chancellery), an extraterritorial property of the Holy See, and were put on by the Hōshō school led by director Kazufusa Hōshō.  The two Noh plays were ‘Okina’, a Shintoan liturgy, and ‘Resurrection of Christ’, written by German missionary Hermann Heuvers, S.J. in 1957.  Nonetheless, as indicated by the quoted paper below, Noh’s root are Shamanist.  This is fitting as, what can one say about Francis and his cronies, other than that they are attempting to magically transform the Church instituted by Jesus the Christ through occult ritual.

source: Shamanism and Noh by Ralph Abraham

Related:

• A shaman visits Francis at the Vatican and works her sorcery during a private audience

• the day Saint John Paul II was exorcised by a Mexican witch doctor

Francis names Luis Ladaria Ferrer as new head of the Congregation for the Destruction of the Faith

Francis named a fellow Jesuit, Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer as the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Destruction of the Faith. Ladaria’s other duties include serving as consultors for the Congregation for Bishops and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity as well as being on the committees of the Study for Women Deacons and of the SSPX-Modernist Rome dialogue. Vatican watchers are predicting smooth sailing for Francis and his revolutionary agenda as he and Ladaria are reading from the same modernist playbook.


More on Ladaria’s Universalist beliefs:

• Mahound’s Paradise, Pope Francis Appoints a Universalist - All Men Will Be Saved - to Replace Müller as Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

 Ladaria reads from his book ‘Jesus Christ: Salvation of All’

Is James Martin trying to tell us something about himself?

The term #trans which James Martin refers to in his tweets is a mentally sick person who is born one sex but self-identifies as wanting to be the other sex.  

 source: twitter @JamesMartinSJ 22 February 2017

source: twitter @JamesMartinSJ 22 February 2017

source: twitter @JamesMartinSJ 22 February 2017

source: twitter @JamesMartinSJ 22 February 2017

source: twitter @JamesMartinSJ 22 February 2017

contra...

The Holy Bible

“A woman shall not be clothed with man' s apparel, neither shall a man use woman' s apparel: for he that doeth these things is abominable before God.”

— Book Of Deuteronomy 22, 5 —

“Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.”

— First Epistle Of Saint Paul To The Corinthians 6, 9-10 —

More on James Martin:

• All dogs go to heaven according to the New York Times and Crux News!

• new Vatican commission to be set up to study the possibility of women deacons

• Thomas ‘three Martinis a day’ Rosica is a fan of Martin Luther & his 95 Theses!

• Francis, “believe me, in my pastoral work, there is no place for homophobia.”

• The illogic of the Jesuits

The illogic of the Jesuits

More on James Martin:

• All dogs go to heaven according to the New York Times and Crux News!

• new Vatican commission to be set up to study the possibility of women deacons

• Thomas ‘three Martinis a day’ Rosica is a fan of Martin Luther & his 95 Theses!

• Francis, “believe me, in my pastoral work, there is no place for homophobia.”

Martin Scorsese, married five times, director of the blasphemous The Last Temptation of Christ, and glorifier of mobsters, has a private audience with Francis

Just another day of business at the Vatican!

‘Holocaustianity’ in the ‘Noahide’ Novus Ordo

Teachers!!! Learn how ‘Holocaustianity’ is central to your life, is an on-going dynamic matrix, where its deepest roots are from, and finally take home a cutting edge understanding of ‘Holocaustianity’ which you can then bring into every subject taught at your school!

Dennis McManus wants Christians to pay back the principle and interest on the debt he feels they owe to the Talmudic Jews

the latest anti-Catholic bilge spewing from Francis’ mouth in French interview

Francis, Guillaume Goubert, and Sébastien Maillard pose in front of a painting of (a made up Francis devotion) Mary Untier of Knots, while looking at an issue of La Croix in the Vatican.

This is the English translation of an interview Francis recently gave to the French daily newspaper, La Croix on Monday, 9 May, 2016.  The original interview published in French can be found here.  The interview contains the usual double speak and macabre jests which have become a daily routine for Francis as he puts the final nails into the coffins of Europe and the Novus Ordo.

INTERVIEW Pope Francis

– In your speeches in Europe, you refer to the “roots” of the continent without ever describing them as Christian. Rather, you define “European identity” as “dynamic and multicultural.” In your view, is the expression “Christian roots” inappropriate for Europe ?

Pope Francis : We need to speak of roots in the plural because there are so many. In this sense, when I hear talk of the Christian roots of Europe, I sometimes dread the tone, which can seem triumphalist or even vengeful. It then takes on colonialist overtones. John Paul II, however, spoke about it in a tranquil manner.

Yes, Europe has Christian roots and it is Christianity’s responsibility to water those roots. But this must be done in a spirit of service as in the washing of the feet. Christianity’s duty to Europe is one of service. As Erich Przywara, the great master of Romano Guardini and Hans Urs von Balthasar, teaches us, Christianity’s contribution to a culture is that of Christ in the washing of the feet. In other words, service and the gift of life. It must not become a colonial enterprise.

– On April 16, you made a powerful gesture by bringing back the refugees from Lesbos to Rome. However, does Europe have the capacity to accept so many migrants ?

Pope Francis : That is a fair and responsible question because one cannot open the gates wide unreasonably. However, the deeper question is why there are so many migrants now. When I went to Lampedusa three years ago, this phenomenon had already started.

The initial problems are the wars in the Middle East and in Africa as well as the underdevelopment of the African continent, which causes hunger. If there are wars, it is because there exist arms manufacturers – which can be justified for defensive purposes – and above all arms traffickers. If there is so much unemployment, it is because of a lack of investment capable of providing employment, of which Africa has such a great need.

More generally, this raises the question of a world economic system that has descended into the idolatry of money. The great majority of humanity’s wealth has fallen into the hands of a minority of the population.

A completely free market does not work. Markets in themselves are good but they also require a fulcrum, a third party, or a state to monitor and balance them. In other words, [what is needed is] a social market economy.

Coming back to the migrant issue, the worst form of welcome is to ‘ghettoize’them. On the contrary, it’s necessary to integrate them. In Brussels, the terrorists were Belgians, children of migrants, but they grew up in a ghetto. In London, the new mayor (Editor: Sadiq Khan, the son of Muslim Pakistanis) took his oath of office in a cathedral and will undoubtedly meet the queen. This illustrates the need for Europe to rediscover its capacity to integrate.

I am thinking here of Pope Gregory the Great (Editor: Pope from 590 – 604), who negotiated with the people known as barbarians, who were subsequently integrated. This integration is all the more necessary today since, as a result of a selfish search for well-being, Europe is experiencing the grave problem of a declining birth rate. A demographic emptiness is developing. In France, at least, this trend is less marked because of family-oriented policies.

– The fear of accepting migrants is partly based on a fear of Islam. In your view, is the fear that this religion sparks in Europe justified?

Pope Francis: Today, I don’t think that there is a fear of Islam as such but of ISIS and its war of conquest, which is partly drawn from Islam. It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam. However, it is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest.

In the face of Islamic terrorism, it would therefore be better to question ourselves about the way in an overly Western model of democracy has been exported to countries such as Iraq, where a strong government previously existed. Or in Libya, where a tribal structure exists. We cannot advance without taking these cultures into account. As a Libyan said recently, “We used to have one Gaddafi, now we have fifty.”

Ultimately, co-existence between Christians and Muslims is still possible. I come from a country where they co-habit on good terms. Muslims come to venerate the Virgin Mary and St George. Similarly, they tell me that for the Jubilee Year Muslims in one African country formed a long queue at the cathedral to enter through the holy door and pray to the Virgin Mary. In Central Africa, before the war, Christians and Muslims used to live together and must learn to do so again. Lebanon also shows that this is possible.

– The significance of Islam in France today, like the nation’s Christian historical foundation, raises recurring questions concerning the place of religion in the public arena. How would you characterize a positive form of laicity (Editor: ‘laicity’ refers to the French system of separation of Church and state)?

Pope Francis: States must be secular. Confessional states end badly. That goes against the grain of History. I believe that a version of laicity accompanied by a solid law guaranteeing religious freedom offers a framework for going forward. We are all equal as sons (and daughters) of God and with our personal dignity. However, everyone must have the freedom to externalize his or her own faith. If a Muslim woman wishes to wear a veil, she must be able to do so. Similarly, if a Catholic wishes to wear a cross. People must be free to profess their faith at the heart of their own culture not merely at its margins.

The modest critique that I would address to France in this regard is that it exaggerates laicity. This arises from a way of considering religions as sub-cultures rather than as fully-fledged cultures in their own right. I fear that this approach, which is understandable as part of the heritage of the Enlightenment, continues to exist. France needs to take a step forward on this issue in order to accept that openness to transcendence is a right for everyone.

– In a secular setting, how should Catholics defend their concerns on societal issues such as euthanasia or same-sex marriage?

Pope Francis: It is up to Parliament to discuss, argue, explain, reason [these issues]. That is how a society grows.

However, once a law has been adopted, the state must also respect [people’s] consciences. The right to conscientious objection must be recognized within each legal structure because it is a human right. Including for a government official, who is a human person. The state must also take criticism into account. That would be a genuine form of laicity.

You cannot sweep aside the arguments of Catholics by simply telling them that they “speak like a priest.” No, they base themselves on the kind of Christian thinking that France has so remarkably developed.

– What does France mean to you?

Pope Francis: It is the eldest daughter of the Church, but not the most faithful! (Laughs) However, during the 1950s, they also spoke of “France, the mission country.” In that sense, it remains a periphery to be evangelized. However, to be fair to France, the Church there does have a real creative capacity.

France is also a land of great saints, great thinkers such as [Jean] Guitton, [Maurice] Blondel, [Emmanuel] Levinas, who was not Catholic, and [Jacques] Maritain. I am also thinking of the depth of its literature.

I also appreciate how French culture is impregnated with Jesuit spirituality compared to the more ascetic Spanish current. The French current, which began with Pierre Favre, gave it another flavor, while continuing to emphasize discernment of spirits.

There have also been great French spiritual figures such as (Louis) Lallemant, or (Jean-Pierre) de Caussade. And the great French theologians who helped the Society of Jesus so much, namely Henri de Lubac and Michel de Certeau. I really like the last two. Two Jesuits who are creative.

Overall, that’s what fascinates me about France. On one hand, that exaggerated laicity, the heritage of the French Revolution, and on the other hand, so many great saints.

– Who is your favorite?

Pope Francis: Saint Therese of Lisieux.

– You have promised to come to France. When might such a trip be possible?

Pope Francis: I recently received an invitation from President François Hollande. The episcopal conference has also invited me. But I don’t know when the trip will take place because next year is an election year in France, and in general, the policy of the Holy See is not to organize such trips during these periods.

Last year a few hypotheses emerged regarding such a trip, including a visit to Paris and its suburbs, to Lourdes and to a city that no pope has yet visited, such as Marseille, which represents an open door to the world.

– As elsewhere, the Church in France is experiencing a serious crisis of priestly vocations. How is it possible to manage today with so few priests?

Pope Francis: Korea provides a historical example. That country was evangelized by missionaries from China who later left. Then, for two hundred years, Korea was evangelized by lay people. It is a land of saints and martyrs that now has a strong Church.

So there is not necessarily a need for priests in order to evangelize. Baptism provides the strength to evangelize. And the Holy Spirit, received at baptism, prompts one to go out, to take the Christian message with courage and patience. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist of whatever happens in the Church, its motor. Too many Christians are ignorant of this.

On the other hand, the opposite danger for the Church is clericalism. This is a sin committed by two parties, like the tango! The priest wants to clericalize lay people and lay people request to be clericalized because it’s easier.

In Buenos Aires, I knew many good priests who, whenever they saw a capable lay person, immediately exclaimed “let’s make him a deacon!” No, let him remain a lay person.

Clericalism is particularly significant in Latin America. If popular piety is strong, it is precisely because it is the only lay initiative that has not been clericalized. This is not understood by the clergy.

– The Church in France, particularly in Lyon, has been shattered recently by historical pedophilia scandals. What should be done about this situation?

Pope Francis: It is true that it is not easy to judge the facts decades later in a different context. Reality is not always so clear. Nevertheless, there can be no statute of limitations for the Church in this field. As a result of these abuses, a priest, whose vocation is to lead a child to God, destroys him. He disseminates evil, resentment, distress. As Benedict XVI said, there must be zero tolerance.

Based on the information that I have, I believe that Cardinal Barbarin in Lyon took the necessary measures and that he has matters under control. He is courageous, creative, a missionary. We now need to await the outcome of the civil judicial proceedings (Editor: As opposed to canon law proceedings).

– So Cardinal Barbarin does not need to resign?

Pope Francis: No, that would be a contradiction, imprudent. We will see after the conclusion of the case. At the moment, however, that would amount to an admission of guilt.

– On April 1, you received Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior-general of the Priestly Fraternity of St Pius X. Is the re-integration of the Lefebvrists into the Church again under consideration?

Pope Francis: In Buenos Aires, I often spoke with them. They greeted me, asked me on their knees for a blessing. They say they are Catholic. They love the Church.

Bishop Fellay is a man with whom one can dialogue. That is not the case for other elements who are a little strange, such as Bishop Williamson or others who have been radicalized. Leaving this aside, I believe, as I said in Argentina, that they are Catholics on the way to full communion.

During this year of mercy, I felt that I needed to authorize their confessors to pardon the sin of abortion. They thanked me for this gesture. Previously, Benedict XVI, whom they greatly respect, had liberalized the use of the Tridentine rite mass. So good dialogue and good work are taking place.

– Would you be ready to grant them the status of a personal prelature?

Pope Francis: That would be a possible solution but beforehand it will be necessary to establish a fundamental agreement with them. The Second Vatican Council has its value. We will advance slowly and patiently.

– You have already convoked two synods on the family. In your view, has this long process changed the Church?

Pope Francis: This process was started by the consistory (Editor: The consistory of February 2014) where it was introduced by Cardinal Kasper, prior to an Extraordinary Synod in October the same year which was followed by a year of reflection and an Ordinary Synod.

I think that we all came out of the various processes different from the way that we entered. Including me.

In the post-synodal exhortation (Editor: Amoris Laetitia, April 2016), I sought to respect the Synod to the maximum. You won’t find canonical prescriptions there about what one may or may not do.

It is a serene, peaceful reflection on the beauty of love, how to educate the children, to prepare for marriage… It emphasizes responsibilities that could be developed by the Pontifical Council for the Laity in the form of guidelines.

Beyond this process, we need to think about genuine synodality, or at least the meaning of Catholic synodality. The bishops are cum Petro, sub Petro (Editor: with Peter and under Peter). This differs from Orthodox synodality or that of the Greek Catholic Churches, where the Patriarch only counts as a single voice.

The Second Vatican Council set out an ideal of synodal and episcopal communion. This still needs to be developed, including at parish level, with respect to what is required. There are parishes that still do not have a pastoral council, nor a council for economic affairs, even though these are obligations under canon law. Synodality is also relevant at this level.

Translation Stefan GIGACZ for la Croix Interviewed by Guillaume Goubert and Sébastien Maillard (in Rome)

Francis apologizes to Moslem “refugees” (invaders) for not being welcoming enough!

There are several things in life Francis loves.  The first thing he loves is to make videos.  For someone who is supposed to be humble, he certainly never exhibits this behavior.  Francis’ second love is uttering heretical statements.  His last love is bringing Moslems into Europe so they can conquer it or in his words words revitalize it.  We are not joking he really has said publicly several times that the Moslem invaders will bring a new life and spirit into Europe.

In a video released this morning at the Annual Report of the Astalli Center, Francis addreses the board and the refugees temporarily living at the Astalli Center.  The occasion was the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Astalli Center, by the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Pedro Arrupe.   The Astalli Center is located in Rome and is run by the Jesuit Refugee Service.

Some of what Francis said,

“(We) walk together, as one people. And this is very well and good! We must continue with courage. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.  I was a stranger... Each of you, refugees who knock on our doors has the face of God, and is the flesh of Christ.”

“Your experience of pain and hope reminds us that we are all strangers and pilgrims on this earth...you fled from your homeland because of oppression, of war, of an enviroment disfigured from pollution and desertification, or the unjust distribution of the planet's resources...”

“Too many times we have not received you!  Forgive us the closure and the indifference of our society and those who fear the change of life and mentality that is required by your presence. You are treated as a burden, a problem, a cost, when instead you are a gift. You witness how our God is gracious and merciful, who knows how to turn the evils and injustices of which you suffer into a good for everyone. Because each of you can be a bridge between distant peoples, which makes possible an encounter between different cultures and religions, a way to rediscover our common humanity.”

‘humble’ Francis apologizing to the Moslem invaders

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) launches 'Mercy in Motion'

Turning the church into an NGO as 

it helps de-christianize Europe!

How much do you want to bet 'proper formation' doesn't include educating the moslems about their Savior, Jesus the Christ, nor informing them of the New Testament?

The calculated 'humbleness' of Francis

"“Where’s my briefcase?” asked Pope Francis. The papal entourage had arrived at Fiumicino Airport in Rome for the pontiff’s first trip abroad. Jorge Mario Bergoglio had been pope for just four months and was now bound for Rio de Janeiro, where 3.5 million young people from 178 countries were waiting to greet him at World Youth Day in Brazil. And he could not find his briefcase.

“It’s been taken on board the plane,” an aide explained.

“But I want to carry it on,” said the pontiff.

“No need, it’s on already,” the assistant replied.

“You don’t understand,” said Francis. “Go to the plane. Get the bag. And bring it back here please.”

Members of the press, who were already waiting on the plane, soon saw from their windows that Pope Francis was moving purposefully through a crowd of functionaries to the aircraft, carrying a black briefcase in his left hand. This was a story: Popes had never before carried their own luggage."

"It’s a new normal: Francis has presented himself to the world as an icon of simplicity and humility, eschewing papal limousines and the grand Apostolic Palace, and instead being driven in a Ford Focus and living in the Vatican guesthouse. But being simple can be a complex business if you are the leader of one of the world’s largest religious denominations and also a head of state. And Francis’s life story shows that humility is not an innate quality of his, but a calculated religious, and sometimes political, choice."

"By his own admission Bergoglio was a political animal. As a teenager he had been interested in the relationship between faith and communism."

"Another senior Jesuit told me: “He drove people really crazy with his insistence that only he knew the right way to do things. Finally the other Jesuits said: ‘Enough.’”

By the time he was sent into exile, according to one senior Jesuit in Rome, around two-thirds of Argentina’s Jesuits had lost patience with him."

"But as a bishop and archbishop he embraced many of the central doctrines of Liberation Theology—on poverty, inequality, and economic justice—because they fit his changed priorities.

As Francis settled into the early months of his papacy, big gestures like moving to live in two rooms in a Vatican hostel surprised and even shocked people. But it has since become clear that the gestures are not spontaneous or random responses to situations in which he happens to find himself. They are being planned to set out what is in effect the program of his papacy. Some are directed to the world and draw the attention of the media, but others are aimed at the clerical establishment and at the ordinary faithful."

quotes excerpted from: The Atlantic Magazine, Where Pope Francis Learned Humility by Paul Vallely