| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 301 online users.
» 1 Member(s) | 298 Guest(s)
Bing, Google
|
|
|
| Nicaragua extinguishes legal status for religious orders |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-23-2024, 07:55 AM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
|
 |
Nicaragua extinguishes legal status for religious orders
![[Image: 20240102T1558-NICARAGUA-STATE-DEPARTMENT-1770757.jpg]](https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240102T1558-NICARAGUA-STATE-DEPARTMENT-1770757.jpg)
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. (OSV News photo/Oswaldo Rivas, Reuters)
August 20, 2024
(OSV News) — The Nicaraguan government has extinguished the legal status of more than 25 Catholic organizations, including religious orders such as the Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, another diocesan Caritas chapter, and lay Catholic groups, as part of an attack on civil society with the closure of 1,500 nongovernmental organizations.
The closures, announced Aug. 19 by the Interior Ministry, targeted religious and civic groups ranging from Protestant churches to the Rotary Club to agricultural producer associations and even the National Chess Federation.
Recent closures and targeted groups
A source familiar with Nicaragua described the Aug. 19 actions as “an extraordinary effort by the Nicaraguan State to crush nongovernmental organizations across Nicaraguan society.”
The attack from the increasingly totalitarian regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, further eliminated civic spaces beyond their control, while further attacking freedom of worship.
The regime has closed at least 5,000 nongovernmental organizations and silenced independent media since 2018, when protesters took to the streets to demand the president’s ouster — only to be met with violence from police and paramilitaries.
The Aug. 19 closures especially targeted evangelical congregations, many of which were described as modest by independent media.
Impact on Catholic organizations
The assault also continued on the Catholic organizations, putting among the canceled religious orders: the Capuchin Friars Minor, Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus, the Augustinian monks and nuns, Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz, the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (also known as “Trappist” Sisters), and the Brothers of Charity.
A pair of Salesian ministries were canceled: the Association of Salesian Cooperators, and the Association of Salesian Women. Other Catholic organizations losing their legal standing were Lumen Christi Catechist Missionaries, the Saint Pio Foundation, and the Association of Base Christian Communities.
The Caritas chapter in the Diocese of Granada was also shut down. The closure follows the Aug. 12 shuttering of the Caritas chapter in the Diocese of Matagalpa — headed by exiled Bishop Rolando Álvarez. The source speaking with OSV News described the targeting of Caritas chapters as an attack as the regime “not wanting anyone but the state or anyone they consider reliable providing services to the citizenry.”
Government’s allegations and asset seizures
The interior ministry alleged that the 1,500 NGO groups losing their registrations had failed to properly report their finances “for periods of between one and 35 years,” along with “hindering” its “control and oversight” over such organizations. The Nicaraguan state effectively seizes the assets of nongovernmental groups that lose their legal standing.
The closure of so many churches and church organizations — evangelical and Catholic — underscored the suppression of religious life under the Sandinista regime.
An Aug. 19 statement from the Centro de Asistencia Legal Interamericano en Derechos Humanos described evangelical churches as “the last places where Nicaraguans can freely meet. Hence, the remaining NGOs still exercise freedom of association in a minimal way.” The human rights group, Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más, reported that at least 21 evangelical pastors have been exiled, while three were denied reentry into the country. It has counted the legal cancellations of about 420 Christian organizations.
Suppression of religious life
Nicaragua’s evangelical congregations had been perceived as being less outspoken and not drawing the regime’s ire until recently.
Catholic Churches have long been spied upon, according to sources, with priests having to watch their words, even during homilies. The regime has also forbidden expressions of faith, shuttering Catholic media outlets, canceling church charitable projects and halting processions and patron saint celebrations outside of church property.
Martha Patricia Molina, an exiled lawyer who tracks aggressions against the Nicaraguan Catholic Church, has counted 9,688 attempts at thwarting processions and religious activities since April 2018. Her latest report on church persecution was released Aug. 15 and documented 154 bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians and 91 nuns unable to work in Nicaragua, having fled the country, being forcibly exiled or simply denied reentry after traveling abroad.
Impact on Catholic clergy and laity
Since 2018, nearly 250 priests, nuns, bishops and other members of the Catholic Church were forced out of the country, according to Molina’s report — with three bishops and 136 priests being expelled and arriving either in the United States or the Vatican.
At least 14 lay Catholics are currently imprisoned for religious reasons, Molina told news outlet Confidencial. More shortages have decimated dioceses such as Matagalpa and Estelí — both headed by Bishop Álvarez — along with the Diocese of Siuna, from which Bishop Isidoro Mora was exiled. Both Bishops Álvarez and Mora were exiled in January to the Vatican, along with 17 other churchmen.
The Diocese of Matagalpa has lost more than 80% of its priests, according to Molina, while the Dioceses of Estelí and Siuna have suffered significant losses of clergy.
“Because there are no priests in the area, it’s the laity who are assuming certain roles, such as celebrating the word or visiting the sick to bring them Communion,” Molina said.
Recent developments and exiled priests
The cancellation of 1,500 NGOs came as two more priests were exiled to the Vatican. Fathers Leonel Balmaceda and Denis Martínez were sent to Rome on Aug. 17, according to independent Nicaraguan media.
The Society of Jesus, which was kicked out of Nicaragua in 2023, released a statement on the one-year anniversary of its prestigious Central American University being confiscated and later reopened as a Sandinista-aligned institution, calling for the government to “stop the repression, stop committing systemic human rights violations and release the political prisoners.”
The Aug. 15 statement from the Jesuits’ Central American province continued by urging the government to “accept the search for a rational solution, in which truth, justice, dialogue, academic freedom and the rule of law prevail.”
|
|
|
| The Rosary and the Immaculate Heart, Fatima’s two last remedies for the world |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-23-2024, 07:42 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- No Replies
|
|
The Rosary and the Immaculate Heart, Fatima’s two last remedies for the world
Sister Lucy of Fatima said the Immaculate Heart of Mary would be our refuge,
and that the Rosary can resolve any problem, no matter how difficult.
![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...7x819.jpeg]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1923f42f-5072-41ef-a84c-184a4e06f513_1457x819.jpeg)
Wiki Commons
M. J. McCusker/ WM Review | Mar 01, 2022
Delivered at numerous pro-life rallies across Ireland in 2018. Edited for publication.
It is not unusual for those fighting for any length of time in the pro-life, pro-family movement to be subject at certain times to the temptations of hopelessness and despair. It can often seem as though we are constantly fighting a losing battle, as country after country falls away from the Catholic faith and the natural law and embraces the mass-killing of unborn children, the killing of the elderly and disabled, and the destruction of the structure of family designed and willed by God. In the face of this unparalleled collapse of western civilisation, many members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church chose to defect from the faith, and from the Church, and chose instead the path of collaboration with evil.
It is common to reassure ourselves, and others, with the following assertions “the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church” or “Our Lady has already crushed Satan’s head”. These assertions are absolutely true, and are the foundations of our confidence, yet unless they lead us to clarity about the actions we are to perform in the present moment they may not be sufficient to deliver us from the temptation of despair. It is important therefore to form some clear resolutions on which to ground our combat for Christ.
In this context it is interesting to note that in recent years, and especially during the centenary year of 2017, a growing number of men and women in the pro-life, pro-family movement are becoming convinced that we must return to the message of Our Lady of Fatima and take seriously her warnings, her requests and her promises.
In 1957 Sister Lucy met with Fr Augustin Fuentes, a Mexican priest who had been appointed postulator of the cause of beatification of her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto, the two other seers of Fatima.
She told him:
Quote:“[T]he devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Also, from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil. There is no other possibility.”
She continued:
Quote:“God is giving two last remedies to the world. These are the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies, which signifies that there will be no others.”
In his letter to the Ephesians St Paul wrote:
Quote:“[D]raw your strength from the Lord, from that mastery which his power supplies. You must wear all the weapons in God’s armoury, if you would find strength to resist the cunning of the devil.
“It is not against flesh and blood that we enter the lists; we have to do with princedoms and powers, with those who have mastery of the world in these dark days, with malign influences in an order higher than ours.
“Take up all God’s armour, then; so you will be able to stand your ground when the evil time comes, and be found still on your feet, when all the task is over.” (Eph 6:10-13)
In this spiritual combat with diabolical forces, God has given us two particular last remedies from his “armoury” – the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart.
Sister Lucy explained:
Quote:“[I]n the plans of Divine Providence, God always, before He is about to chastise the world, exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever, then as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us with ‘certain fear’ the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother.”
The message of Fatima is about God sending His Most Holy Mother to warn of the consequences, both for individuals and societies, of our rebellion against Him. By returning to Fatima that we can more fully understand the significance of the two means of victory that God has given to us in our age.
Our Lady appeared at Fatima six times to the three shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco. The apparitions culminated in the great miracle of the sun on 13 October 1917 in which more than 70,000 people witnessed the sun dancing in the sky before plummeting to earth and then returning to its place in the heavens. This great public miracle was a guarantee of authenticity of the visions and message that Sister Lucy was chosen to transmit to the world.
This message concerned the need for mankind to turn back to God in prayer and penance. On 13 June 1917 Our Lady revealed to the children the terrible personal consequences of sin when she showed them a terrifying vision of Hell. She then continued by warning of the devastating consequences that sin has for society as a whole. She said:
Quote:“You have seen Hell — where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wants to establish throughout the world the devotion to My Immaculate Heart.
“If people will do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. The war is going to end.
“But if they do not stop offending God, another and worse war will break out in the reign of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you, that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger, persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father.
“To forestall this, I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
“If they heed My requests, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she shall spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated; in the end, My Immaculate Heart shall triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted, and a period of peace will be given to the world.”
Mankind has not responded fully to Our Lady’s message.
“Another and worse war” did break out during the reign of Pius XI. And shortly after the apparitions at Fatima ceased the Communists seized power in Moscow and, from the beginning, waged war against the family and against the Church. In Soviet Russia divorce was legalised in 1918 and abortion in 1920. The first sex education programmes, explicitly designed in order to destroy the family and uproot the Catholic faith, were introduced in Hungary in 1919 by the Bolshevik regime of Bela Kun. This “sexual revolution”, first implemented in Russia in the 1920s, has become dominant in the west since the 1960s. It is one of the primary manifestations of the errors of Russia which Our Lady came to warn us about.
When we look back from our vantage point in 2018, we can see that Our Lady’s warnings regarding Russia could not have been more accurate. Russia “shall spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church”. That one sentence is quite an accurate summary of the history of the twentieth century. In the decades following the Russian Revolution Communist governments were established across the world, and invariably worked for the destruction of the family and of the Church. Countries that escaped Communist regimes have fallen victim instead to insidious subversion, to “cultural Marxism”, the attempt to advance Communism by what one its proponents called “the long march through the institutions”, that is, through the subversion of institutions – schools, universities, charities, governments departments, international organisations, using every means at their disposal to advance atheistic materialism and to expel God from the life of individuals and of society. There is hardly an institution in the west today that has not been subverted to at least some degree in the cause of this revolution, including, tragically, many of the structures of the Catholic Church.
In response to these evils Our Lady called for prayer and penance. And the form of prayer that she urged continuously was the Holy Rosary. At every single apparition at Fatima she requested that the Rosary be said every day. And, after the great miracle of the sun, she revealed herself under of the title Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.
In 1957 Sister Lucy said to Fr Fuentes:
Quote:“The Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary. She has given this efficacy to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations, that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary we will save ourselves. We will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.”
If we consider how many saints have urged us to pray the rosary, and how much they extolled its great power, how much more encouraged should we be by Sister Lucy’s words that “the Most Holy Virgin, in these last times in which we live, has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary.”
The second of the great means of deliverance that we have been given is devotion to the Immaculate Heart.
Sister Lucy described the essence of this devotion very simply:
Quote:“… devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Most Holy Mother, consists in considering Her as the seat of mercy, of goodness and of pardon, and as the sure door by which we are to enter Heaven.”
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart can be practised in a wide variety of different ways and can be introduced into every area of our lives. However, there are two particular acts that have been specified by Our Lady, one that can be practised by all the Catholics, the other which is reserved to the pope.
Our Lady called on us all to make reparation for offences against her Immaculate Heart through the practice of the five First Saturdays.
This practice consists of carrying out the following acts on the five consecutive First Saturdays with the intention of making reparation for offences against her Immaculate Heart:
- Going to Confession
- Receiving Holy Communion
- Praying at least five decades of the Rosary
- Meditating on one or mysteries of the Rosary for at least fifteen minutes.
Through this devotion Our Lady has given us a simple means of making reparation for sin and of participating in her victory over Satan. This devotion leads to deeper participation the fullness of the Church’s liturgical and sacramental life, leading souls as it does to the practice of regular confession, frequent reception of Holy Communion and the practice of mental prayer.
Our Lord, in a later apparition, told Sister Lucy that it was to be practiced on five First Saturdays because there are five principal offences against his mother’s Immaculate Heart:
- Offences against her Immaculate Conception
- Offences against her virginity
- Offences against her motherhood
- Offences against her sacred images
- And the offence caused by those who turn her children away from devotion to her.
The second practice requested by Our Lady at Fatima is the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart by the pope in union with all the bishops. Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart, and no doubt many extraordinary graces have been poured out on the world as a result of those consecrations.
Our Lord told Sister Lucy that the consecration of Pius XII in 1942 had obtained the shortening of the Second World War. Yet the consecration requested by Our Lady has not yet been done according to her specific requirements. When it is Russia will be converted as Our Lady promised.
In 1936 Sister Lucy, already troubled by the lack of response to Our Lady’s message, asked Our Lord why he didn’t just convert Russia anyway, even without the consecration. Our Lord’s answered her in a vision and said:
Quote:“Because I want My whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary so that it may extend its cult later and put the devotion of the Immaculate Heart beside the devotion to My Sacred Heart.”
Our Lord desires that the salvation of the world will come through His Mother’s Immaculate Heart and that we should acknowledge and glorify her for it.
The great sin of the human race in recent centuries has been that man has exalted himself into the place of God. We have placed our trust not in God but in science and technology, political ideologies, economic theories, or, now, even in “New Age” mysticism. All of our attempts at building an earthly utopia, a world without God, have failed and will fail and, in the end, we will be saved from ourselves not by any great or impressive human achievement, but by a simple prayer offered by Christ’s vicar on earth:
Quote:“[I]n the end, My Immaculate Heart shall triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted, and a period of peace will be given to the world.”
But by God’s power, not man’s.
Sister Lucy warned us already in 1957:
Quote:“… the most Holy Virgin is very sad because no one has paid any attention to Her Message, neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on their way, but without giving any importance to Her Message. The bad, not seeing the punishment of God actually falling upon them, continue their life of sin without even caring about the Message. But believe me, Father, God will chastise the world and this will be in a terrible manner. The punishment from Heaven is imminent.”
And she urges us:
Quote:“… we should not wait for an appeal to the world to come from Rome on the part of the Holy Father, to do penance. Nor should we wait for the call to penance to come from our bishops in our diocese, nor from the religious congregations. No! Our Lord has already very often used these means, and the world has not paid attention. That is why now, it is necessary for each one of us to begin to reform himself spiritually. Each person must not only save his own soul but also help to save all the souls that God has placed on our path.”
“The devil does all in his power to distract us and to take away from us the love for prayer; we shall be saved together or we shall be damned together.”
So let us now turn with renewed hope and confidence to Our Lady, trusting that by making use of the means that she has given us, we will soon participate in the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart!
|
|
|
|
| Left-wing research paper includes ideas on manipulating conservatives into eating less red meat |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-23-2024, 07:36 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
|
|
Left-wing research paper includes ideas on manipulating conservatives into eating less red meat
The authors suggested nuancing the language to make eating more artificial foods palatable.
![[Image: Shutterstock_2250134527.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Shutterstock_2250134527.jpg)
Shutterstock
Aug 22, 2024
(LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted, not all hyperlinks included]) — Professors seeking to know how to manipulate people into eating less red meat have released a study on the subject.
Three professors and one Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California published their findings in Climatic Change magazine on August 12. Over 5,000 Democratic, Republican, and Independent Americans were surveyed for the report.
Working under the presumption that red meat is “a major contributor to climate change,” the study wanted to know if changes in language might induce ordinary citizens to reject red meat and eat more “climate-friendly” foods.
The study begins by noting that “people’s attitudes can be influenced by … variations in terminology.” It adds that Americans are most familiar with the terms “climate change” and “global warming.” The more partisan-infused phrases “climate justice” and “climate emergency” are not as well known.
The paper ultimately found that a willingness to eat less red meat fell along partisan lines, with Democrats being more eager to deny themselves the nutrient dense food, which is chock full of vitamins and proteins that aid in muscle growth. Republicans, on the other hand, were “often unresponsive” to changes in terminology.
The paper concludes that “climate change communications may therefore need to go beyond terminology.” It recommended that “effective communication strategies include using compelling everyday language, presenting clear graphs, emphasizing social norms, and making climate-friendly actions the default.”
It added that “efforts to reach Republicans may require messages from Conservative spokespeople, and involving the private sector in climate change mitigation.”
Reducing red meat consumption while promoting fake food and plant-based protein is a top priority for organizations like the World Economic Forum and the Club of Rome. Western oligarchs like Bill Gates as well as U.S.-based companies like Tyson are also investing billions in the movement by pouring money into synthetic eggs and lab-grown chicken, all in the name of purportedly fighting climate change.
But farmers in the Netherlands and a growing number of European countries are refusing to go along with the efforts. In December 2023, Italy’s lower and upper chambers of Parliament passed a bill that bans artificial food for public consumption.
The growth of imitation meat and genetically modified crops has caused many health experts as well as concerned citizens and chefs across the world to worry about the future of food and its impact on human beings.
While groups like the World Economic Forum have long touted them as alternatives that can help curb climate change, others argue they are a tool global elites use to seize control of the food chain and poison human beings with toxic ingredients to ensure a sick population so Big Pharma and the medical industry can reap massive profits.
|
|
|
|
| New study traces Shroud of Turin to time of Jesus in first-century Middle East |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-23-2024, 07:31 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
|
|
New study traces Shroud of Turin to time of Jesus in first-century Middle East
The new finding that the Shroud of Turin’s fabric is consistent with linens found in Israel during the first century is further evidence that it is the authentic burial shroud of Jesus Christ.
![[Image: Untitled-25.png]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Untitled-25.png)
Shroud of Turin
Screenshot
Aug 22, 2024
TURIN, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — Researchers have newly traced the Shroud of Turin – long believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ – to Israel during the time of Jesus, discrediting previous theories that the Shroud is only a medieval forgery.
Italian scientists used a wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) method to examine the shroud’s cellulose fibers, yielding data that is “compatible with the hypothesis that the Turin Shroud is a 2000-year-old relic,” the study concluded.
The research team, led by Dr. Liberato De Caro, found that the cellulose in the shroud had a breakdown pattern consistent with other linens from Israel that date back to the first century.
“The data profiles were fully compatible with analogous measurements obtained on a linen sample whose dating, according to historical records, is 55-74 AD, found at Masada, Israel [Herod’s famous fortress built on a limestone bedrock overlooking the Dead Sea],” reads the study, published in the journal Heritage.
According to the researchers, the nature of the cellulose breakdown suggested that the Shroud of Turin was likely kept at a temperature of about 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit and a relative humidity of 55 percent for about 13 centuries before it was brought to Europe.
Preserved in the royal chapel of the cathedral of San Giovanni Battista in Turin, Italy, since 1578, the shroud was thought by some to have been manufactured between 1260 and 1390 after researchers examined the cloth in 1988 using radiocarbon dating.
However, when the team compared the shroud with linens made between 1260 and 1390 AD, their X-ray determined aging did not match up.
In addition, particles of pollen that come from the Middle East were lodged in the linen fibers, appearing to exclude the possibility that the shroud originated in Europe, according to Dr. De Caro.
He said that the error of the 1988 dating is likely due to contamination of the fabric, which he said is a normal occurrence.
“Fabric samples are usually subject to all kinds of contamination, which cannot be completely removed from the dated specimen,” he said, according to the Daily Mail. “If the cleaning procedure of the sample is not thoroughly performed, carbon-14 dating is not reliable,” he added.
The research team dated the shroud’s fabric at Italy’s Institute of Crystallography of the National Research Council, where another group of experts said in 2017 they found evidence that the shroud bore the blood of a man who suffered intensely.
They had identified the substances creatinine and ferritin, found in the blood of victims who suffer severe traumas, such as torture.
It is noteworthy that the shroud’s bloodstains show a man who was scourged on his back, crowned with thorns, and stabbed in the side, all consistent with Scripture’s account of Jesus Christ’s Passion and death.
Scripture also describes how Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Jesus in a linen cloth after he died, and placed him in a tomb: “And Joseph taking the body, wrapped it up in a clean linen cloth. And laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewed out in a rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the monument, and went his way.” (Matthew 27:59-60)
An image of Jesus Christ based on the Shroud of Turin, rendered by AI, has recently gone viral.
|
|
|
|
| Archbishop Viganò Interview w/ Il Messaggero - August 20, 2024 |
|
Posted by: Stone - 08-22-2024, 06:38 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
- No Replies
|
|
Interview by Franca Giansoldati
published in 'Il Messaggero' newspaper on August 20, 2024 (p. 10)
Taken from here.
1. A step back in time: in 2011 Pope Ratzinger implored you to accept being appointed as Nuncio to the United States, leaving the role of the Governorate where you were cleaning it up internally. You had clashes with Cardinal Bertone, then Secretary of State, whose name is linked to the scandal of the misappropriation of funds from the Bambino Gesù [Hospital] even though he was never investigated. What did Benedict XVI say to you? How did things go that day, and what were the main reasons for the disagreement with Bertone?
To speak of a “disagreement” seems euphemistic to me. Thirsty for power, unscrupulous, manipulative, and contiguous to Masonic circles: this is the portrait of Cardinal Bertone, to whom Benedict XVI was unfortunately subjugated. Bertone did everything he could to remove me from the Secretariat of State, because in my very delicate role I prevented him from promoting “his” candidates, men of his circle, who were corrupt and often sexually perverted. He managed to transfer me to the Governorate on July 16, 2009, where in my action to combat the vast network of corruption I had discovered the role and complicity of the Secretary of State himself in covering, supporting, and promoting the malfeasance and in making personal profit from it. Benedict XVI told me – during the private audience granted to me on April 4, 2011 – that he wanted to appoint me President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, but Bertone (with the complicity of Cardinal Lajolo, President of the Governorate, who was also involved in the network of corruption) imposed himself forcefully on the Pope and obtained my expulsion from the Roman Curia.
Aware of this plot hatched to the detriment of the Holy See and Benedict himself, and knowing that the Pope’s will that I continue to “clean up” was being subverted (while my removal would have nullified the work done and left the corrupt unpunished), I initially tried to resist, not without great difficulty, since I was precluded from having any direct access to the Pope.
Thus, after a long inner travail, a personal letter from Benedict XVI convinced me to accept the nomination to the United States. He wrote to me: “I would like to tell you that I have been reflecting and praying about your condition after the latest events. The painful news of the death of His Excellency Msgr. Pietro Sambi has confirmed me in the conviction that your providential position at this time is the Nunciature in the United States of America. Furthermore, I am certain that your knowledge of this great country will help you to take on the demanding challenge of this work, which in many ways is decisive for the future of the universal Church.”
2. Bertone still lives in the “famous” apartment in the Vatican, while you, when your mandate in the United States ended, had your apartment in the Curia taken away. A further humiliation. Here too: how did things go, and how do you explain it?
The apartment I was assigned was located in the Santa Marta Hospice, known as Santa Marta Vecchia (not to be confused with the Domus Sanctæ Marthæ) where the priests who worked in the Secretariat of State were housed and where I had already lived for eleven years. It was John Paul II who made it available to me when I returned from Nigeria. The then Secretary of State Cardinal Sodano sent me a letter in which he specified that the reason for this assignment desired by the Pope was “so that you may reside permanently in the Vatican.”
On the same day of my seventy-fifth birthday, in January 2016, I received a letter signed by the then Substitute Becciu in which I was informed that Bergoglio ordered me to leave my apartment immediately, also denying me the possibility of residing in the Casa San Benedetto prepared by Benedict XVI for retired Nuncios. The justification given to me was that there was a need for that apartment for the heads of the Dicasteries. As far as I know, it remained vacant for at least the next seven years, and perhaps it still is today. This was clearly a vindictive action, because Bergoglio wanted to get rid of those who knew too much and those who, being neither blackmailable nor corruptible, were therefore not able to be manipulated. Bergoglio also knew that I would not be deceived by his lies, since I was amply aware of them.
The important thing, however, was to get me away from the Vatican, and this is what happened. With today’s eyes, however, I thank Providence for this expulsion: had I remained within the Vatican walls, I do not think I would have been able to enjoy the necessary freedom to express myself and to denounce Bergoglio and his accomplices.
3.Recently, the court of Enna [in Sicily] sentenced the priest Don Giuseppe Rugolo, arrested in Ferrara in April 2021, to 4 years and 6 months in prison for attempted aggravated sexual assault against a minor. The investigations revealed disturbing cover-ups: how can this attitude be reconciled with the supposed “zero tolerance” for cases of sexual abuse by the clergy affirmed by Pope Francis?
In 2019, Bergoglio promulgated the Motu Proprio Vos Estis Lux Mundi, later amended in 2023, in which he established that a Bishop who covers up a case of sexual abuse by one of his priests must be removed and prosecuted. This document was intended by Bergoglio to give credence to the “zero tolerance” narrative. The sequence of scandals that have come to light even very recently demonstrate that this is in reality a mere facade operation, which also has the immediate effect of taking cases of this type to Rome, allowing them to be controlled and – indeed – covered up.
Faced with the detailed complaints of the young Antonio Messina for acts committed between 2009 and 2013 in Piazza Armerina by Fr. Giuseppe Rugolo, who was still a seminarian at the time, the Curia and the Roman Dicasteries contacted by the victim and her parents in 2016 did not take any action. Bishop Rosario Gisana actually moved to cover up the case and offered the victim 25,000 euros to hush everything up. In a wiretap that was made public, Bishop Gisana admitted: “The problem is also mine because I covered up this story… oh well; never mind; we’ll see how we can get out of it.” Fr. Vincenzo Murgano, the priest who had suggested to Antonio Messina that he should just “forget” the violence, has been responsible for the service for the protection of minors of the Diocese of Piazza Armerina since 2019.
Transferred to Ferrara in 2019 for “treatment,” Fr. Rugolo was assigned by Archbishop Giancarlo Perego to the pastoral care of the faithful, thus exposing young people to the risk that the priest would repeat his crimes. Archbishop Perego, informed of “a proceeding against Fr. Giuseppe for an episode prior to his ordination,” declared that “[Bishop Gisana] showed me that this incident had already been evaluated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and that it absolutely did not constitute a limitation to his presence with us.” Perego’s responsibilities are therefore the same as Bishop Gisana’s, since he could not have been unaware of the reasons for the transfer of the Sicilian priest to his diocese. Yet in the summer of 2020, Archbishop Perego even allowed Fr. Rugolo to organize a camp for teenagers in the parish of Vigarano Mainarda. The trial documents show that between March 2020 and January 2021, Fr. Rugolo accessed pornographic sites with the search term “teen” at all times of the day and night, with an average of at least 60 per day, while he met with local young people and hosted a former student of his from Enna in a hotel in Ravenna.
Last December 2023, when Fr. Rugolo and other accomplices were sent to trial during the criminal trial conducted by the Court of Enna, Jorge Mario Bergoglio publicly expressed his appreciation for the work of Bishop Gisana: “Well done; this bishop, well done. He was persecuted, slandered, and he was firm, always, just, a just man. For this reason, that day when I went to Palermo, I wanted to stop first in Piazza Armerina to greet him; he is a good bishop.” With this public act he heavily interfered in the autonomy and independence of Italian judges, using the authority and prestige of the Papacy – which Bergoglio usurps – to shamefully cover up the corruption of his protégés.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, so eager to impose excommunications on those who denounce the modernist coup underway in the Church, obviously remains silent. Its Prefect, Tucho Fernández, is a pornographer and author of obscene heretical and erotic pamphlets – including La pasión mística [The Mystical Passion] and Sáname con tu boca [Heal Me With Your Mouth] – and it is clear that such a figure has no intention of shedding light on scandals in which both he and his Principal have shown a disturbing contiguity, protecting and even promoting the culprits. How likely is it that Bishop Gisana and Archbishop Perego will be tried by Fernández, when it is actually Bergoglio should be the first defendant in this and other similar criminal cases? Dog doesn’t eat dog!
The Catholic Church is in the same situation as many governments: it is held hostage by a subversive network of corrupt and perverted people who have reached the top of the institutions and are capable of silencing all the scandals in which they are complicit. When the horrors committed by this global criminal organization, especially crimes against minors, come to light, those responsible will have nowhere to hide.
4. And so we come to the schism: how are you experiencing this moment full of tensions?
During these very days, citizens in Great Britain are protesting against the government, whose policies of ethnic replacement through the continuous flow of illegal immigrants make peaceful coexistence impossible and cause an exponential increase in crime. The police have orders to repress all demonstrations and to protect the gangs of violent non-EU citizens, mostly Muslims, ready to establish Sharia law manu militari in England. In practice, the British government, in order to make the English people disappear according to the globalist agenda, promotes and finances uncontrolled immigration while repressing and taxing its own citizens.
The situation in the Church is very similar – in Rome, too, there is a government that wants to replace its Hierarchy and the people of the faithful by “unloading” – so to speak – into the very bosom of the Church a mass of people who lead lifestyles objectively incompatible with Catholic Faith and Morals, but whom Bergoglio’s synodal Church considers as the main interlocutors and whom it welcomes in the name of inclusiveness and “todos todos todos!” Those who are naïve think that the Hierarchy acts in this way out of a zeal for charity that is perhaps excessive and human pity for migrants. Those who observe reality without blinders understand that the ultimate goal of Bergoglian immigrationism is to create division in the ecclesial body, knowing what the results are also by looking at the precedent of what is happening in civil society.
This project of ethnic (and in this case, religious) substitution acts on two fronts: on the external front, it makes us believe that in order to belong to the Church it is not even necessary to believe in the Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and that all doctrinal and moral differences can be overcome in the name of an impossible brotherhood (just as globalist governments make us believe that it is possible to welcome hordes of Muslims into Christian nations without devastating consequences on the social fabric). The insistence of Bergoglio and almost all the bishops on welcoming immigrants is part of this divisive action. On the domestic front, however, Bergoglio abuses the authority of the Papacy (which he usurps) in order to remove from the Church those Catholics who have remained faithful, so that he can eliminate any internal opposition to his subversive plan.
Those who denounce the Bergoglian coup and more generally the globalist coup d’état must be silenced. The excommunication against me, even if manifestly invalid and null and void, constitutes a form of repression of dissent and should serve as a deterrent for others. I am convinced that I would have gravely failed in my duties as Bishop and Successor of the Apostles if I had continued to remain silent, as unfortunately all my confreres do.
5. The Vatican claims it declared you to be in schism because in some of your statements you have denied the authority of the Pope. How do things now stand?
Schism is a sin against the unity of the Church. It is carried out at the moment when a baptized person refuses to submit to the authority of the Roman Pontiff and to remain in the communion of faith and charity of the Catholic Church. But what happens if on the Chair of Peter there is – instead of a Pope who defends and governs the Church – there is a usurper who systematically demolishes her, and who is chosen and appointed by fraud by the St. Gallen Mafia for this very purpose? The Catholic Church is presently occupied by an extraneous body that superimposes itself on her and obscures her, similar to an eclipse: this extraneous body is not the Church, but the anti-church of the False Prophet, and as such it is not possible to be in communion with it. Catholics belong to the Catholic Church, not to its conciliar and synodal counterfeit of which Bergoglio is the head. It is Bergoglio who is in a state of schism with the Church of which he claims to be Pope, and as a heretic and schismatic he does not have nor can he exercise any power, nor demand any obedience.
I reiterate, however, that the use of the judiciary for political purposes that we witness in the civil sphere, especially in the United States of America, is mirrored in the ecclesiastical sphere through instrumental and specious canonical sanctions. And I know for certain that the excommunication against me was desired directly by Bergoglio, who is so arrogant and brazen in his action that he rewarded with an ecclesiastical office the official who carried it out, appointing him archbishop: we are well beyond simony.
6. Where do you live? In Switzerland, in the United States, or near Viterbo?
After my memorial about Cardinal McCarrick was published in August 2018, a contact of mine from the United States warned me that my life was in danger: for this reason I do not reside in a fixed place. I don’t want to end up like Cardinal Pell, nor my predecessor in Washington, the Apostolic Nuncio Pietro Sambi (who strenuously confronted McCarrick so much that you could hear his screams throughout the Nunciature as he rebuked the predatory Cardinal). Archbishop Sambi died in circumstances that have never been clarified, after a trivial operation at John’s Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore (which is connected to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum in Davos). McCarrick disappeared for a month in 2011 – simultaneous to the death of the Nuncio – and did not attend his funeral. The death certificate issued to Msgr. Jean-François Lanteaume, Chargé d’Affaires at the Nunciature, did not explain the causes of the Nuncio’s death, nor was an autopsy ever carried out on Archbishop Sambi.
7. What are your thoughts on the accusation that you have rejected the Second Vatican Council?
The accusation of having “rejected the Second Vatican Council” has nothing to do with schism, because if anything it touches on questions of the Magisterium and not on canonical discipline. The accusation is specious: there are cardinals and bishops who deny solemnly defined truths of the Faith without Bergoglio ever lifting a finger against them; indeed, they receive his applause.
I would like to draw attention to a fundamental and very important element. We must understand that “the masterstroke of Satan,” the sworn enemy of the Church, has occurred by his appropriating authority and abusing the power connected with her, so that his disintegrating action has had all the appearances of at least formal legality. The Second Vatican Council was to be the juridical instrument with which to place the dynamite at the very foundation of the Church, and then detonate it later. It had to look like a Council, it had to give the idea of having the same authority as the Council of Nicaea or Trent, but at the same time it could not define as truths to be believed any heresies that the Magisterium had already condemned. Thus those errors were insinuated by means of equivocation – deliberately imprecise formulations which at the right moment could serve as a basis on which to implement the revolution. People continue to speak of “the Council,” but we should have the honesty to recognize that for the “conciliar church” born with Vatican II there is only one “council,” which surpasses in authority and importance all the other twenty ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church.
The anomaly is represented by this Council, because it was used for a subversive purpose, under the formal appearance of a solemn act of the Church and with the authoritativeness (as well as the authority) of the Pope and the Council Fathers. The purpose of Vatican II was to create the doctrinal premises – not necessarily explicit and indeed often hidden in ambiguous formulations – to revolutionize the Church, Protestantizing and secularizing her, so as to be able to ferry her towards the syncretistic union of all religions. And this is the project of Freemasonry: the ecumenical and inclusive Religion of Humanity.
The Second Vatican Council has spread through the Church like a cancer. It has committed the entire ecclesial body – in every order and degree, in its institutions and structures – to the subversion of its divine constitution. The new Catechism, the new Code of Canon Law, the new Mass, the new Sacraments, teaching in seminaries and universities, preaching in parishes, the action of Catholic associations, religious life in convents and monasteries: everything has been tampered with and reshaped according to the conciliar paradigm. The results are there for all to see.
For this reason, just as the authority of the Pope cannot be used to destroy the Papacy, so the magisterial authority of a Council cannot be maliciously used to destroy the Church. It ipso facto loses its authority, since it overturns its rationale, that is, its ultimate end. My rejection of the Council is therefore motivated precisely by the fact that this Council contradicts the infallible Magisterium and all twenty previous Ecumenical Councils.
8. It is said that you want to create a parallel Church, a bit like Archbishop Lefebvre did. What plans do you have for the future?
Archbishop Lefebvre never wanted to build a parallel church, but rather he always testified to his fidelity to the one Church of Christ and to the Papacy. Archbishop Lefebvre continued doing the same things he had done as a bishop until before the Council: it is the “conciliar church” that changed doctrine, morals, liturgy, and discipline. He continued to ordain priests, to give them a traditional formation, and to ensure the celebration of the Apostolic Mass.
Today, fifty years later, the subversive plan denounced by Lefebvre is even more evident, and the answers that were valid then today require a new approach. Although it was evident that Popes such as Paul VI or John Paul II were modernists, it was unthinkable to hypothesize their explicit intention to destroy the Church. Today Bergoglio has dispelled all doubts and shows himself as an inimicus Ecclesiæ fiercely determined to carry out the task assigned to him and that he himself had set for himself.
I am convinced that my action – and that of every pastor who has at heart the souls entrusted to him – must today be broader and must be addressed not only to young vocations, but also to the “recovery” of the many good priests and religious – as well as, of course, the lay faithful – who understand the very serious crisis triggered by the Council. In times of war, so to speak, anyone who is able to fight must unite and enlist, even if they have not attended a military academy. All these souls who love the Lord can be accompanied with charity to re-embrace the Catholic Faith in its integrity and to consciously reject the conciliar revolution and its disastrous consequences.
Founding a parallel church is the dream of all heresiarchs: a true Catholic, even more so if he is a bishop, remains in the one Church and continues to serve her, even if he is the only one left to do so. I try to do and preach what the Church has always done and taught, because this is what I have solemnly sworn, and what the Lord commands me. On the other hand, today no honest Catholic can deny that the Hierarchy has completely sold itself out to the powerful of the world, and that its betrayal is a scandal even to those who are not believers.
9. What should be our response to this rupture?
We are going through a period of very serious crisis in the Church and in society. The authorities of all institutions are now carrying out the will of the globalist elite and obey supranational powers. We are witnessing a deep and almost unbridgeable rift between those who govern – both the State as well as the Church – and the citizens or the faithful. We may say that on the one hand the social pact that is the basis of the recognition of the authority of the State has failed, and on the other the bond of obedience to Christ on the part of those who exercise authority in the Church has also been destroyed. In practice, the rulers of the State have rebelled against Christ the King and the exponents of the Catholic hierarchy have rebelled against Christ the High Priest: their authority has been usurped. It is necessary to heal this wound by restoring to Christ His Universal Lordship.
10. Throughout all these years of tensions, has Pope Francis ever picked up the phone to call you, or has he ever sent you letters or messages through an intermediary?
I have never received private communications of any kind from Bergoglio (nor from any Vatican authority). In public, the Argentine Jesuit has had no qualms about insulting and slandering me. In a 2019 interview with Valentina Alazraki for the Mexican broadcaster Televisa (here), Bergoglio publicly lied, denying the conversation that he had with me on June 23, 2013. He even went so far as to obsessively claim to know nothing about McCarrick:
“I knew nothing about McCarrick, of course, nothing. I have said so several times; I didn’t know anything; I had no idea. And when [Viganò] says that he spoke to me that day, that he came . . . I don’t remember if he spoke to me about this, if it’s true or not. I have no idea! You know that I knew nothing about McCarrick, otherwise I would not have been silent.”
I cannot fail to mention Bergoglio’s recourse to slander, in an attitude that betrays a cowardly soul willing to discredit the honesty of the interlocutor rather than refute his accusations.
This occurred after the publication of my testimony on my return from the trip to Ireland, when Bergoglio told the journalists present:
“You all read [Viganò’s] communiqué carefully and make your own judgment. I will not say a word about this. I believe that the communiqué speaks for itself, and you have enough journalistic capacity to draw conclusions. It is an act of trust: when some time has passed and you have drawn conclusions, perhaps I will speak. But I would like your professional maturity to do this job: it will do you good, really. That’s okay.”
A year later, responding to the Mexican Vatican journalist Alazraki, he returned to the subject:
“This case of Viganò, I hadn’t read the entire letter; I saw a bit of it . . . And I already know what it is, and I have made a decision: I trust in the honesty of journalists. And I said to you, “Look, you have everything here, study and draw your own conclusions.” And this you did, because you did the work, and in this case it was fantastic. I was very careful not to say things that were not there, but then a judge in Milan said them, three or four months later, when he convicted him. . . . I kept silent, because if I had spoken I would have been throwing mud. So that journalists could find it out. And you have discovered it, you have found all that world. It was a silence based on trust in you, journalists. Not only that, but I also told you, “Hold it; study it; that’s all.” And the result was good, better than if I had started to explain, to defend myself. You judge the evidence in hand.”
Bergoglio tried to make me look like a dishonest man and a thief, referring to my painful and personal family events, which involved my brother priest (who was afflicted by a stroke and manipulated by unscrupulous lawyers), whom I did not want to attack by challenging an unjust sentence, preferring instead to follow the Gospel command (Mt 5:40). The accusations against me were widely disavowed by all my brothers and by the evidence of the facts (here).
As is typical of the nature of tyrants, Bergoglio has an implacable hatred for me, not only for what I have revealed about him, but also and above all for what I am still able to reveal. By excommunication he wanted in a certain way to condemn me to death, but the truth cannot be killed.
It is now understood that Bergoglio does not want to solve the crisis of which he is the architect: he wants to make it irreversible, because his purpose is to create division: divide et impera.
11. You have accused Pope Francis of having ignored the rumors relating to the homosexuality and abuse of minors by Cardinal McCarrick, who was later convicted of pedophilia, reduced to the lay state, and expelled from the College of Cardinals. The Vatican only took action in 2017 after an accusation that was considered credible. Why didn’t it act earlier? What concrete evidence was there?
As Delegate for the Pontifical Representations, I dealt with the McCarrick case myself, and since then I have asked for his dismissal from the Cardinalate. My direct superiors are responsible for not having taken due account of my judgment based on incontrovertible testimony. Obviously, McCarrick’s work was convenient for someone in the Secretariat of State, starting with the huge sums raised through the Papal Foundation that the Cardinal had set up in the United States. I remember well a comment made to me by the Argentine Leonardo Sandri, then a Monsignor with whom I shared the same office for eleven years when we were both secretaries of the Substitute: “But this McCarrick is always here!” Sandri later became the Substitute, and it was precisely to him that I delivered my Note detailing McCarrick’s misconduct, but ambition and the prospects of advancing his career led him to keep quiet and cover up the scandals. The fact that he repeatedly expressed to me his bad opinion of Bergoglio – “That man is a madman!” – did not prevent him from becoming his accomplice anyway.
Bergoglio owes his “election” to McCarrick: McCarrick himself declared this during a conference at Villanova University where on October 11, 2013 he affirmed that he had favored the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio during the General Congregations prior to the Conclave held a few months earlier, and that he had spoken about it with “a very influential Italian gentleman” (here) who supposedly confided to him how in the space of a five-year period the new Pope would “reform” – that is, revolutionize – the Church.
McCarrick also had strong connections with members of the Democratic Party and assiduously frequented the White House during the Obama-Biden administration, but also under previous Presidents. McCarrick was involved, for example, on behalf of the American government in negotiations with the Iranian Ayatollahs for the development of nuclear weapons.
And that’s not all: McCarrick worked closely with the then White House Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, in the management of the Alliance for Prosperity desired by President Obama, which in 2014 alone – under the guise of a humanitarian action – facilitated the trafficking of 65,000 unaccompanied children who were transferred to the United States across the Mexican border, as White House stenographer Mike McCormick revealed.
Finally, Bergoglio also made use of McCarrick to make the secret agreement between the Vatican and China, which was strongly desired by both the Jesuits and the democratic establishment.
Bergoglio’s extraordinary action of removing McCarrick’s status as Cardinal and dismissing him from the clerical state served to save Bergoglio’s “reputation.” But these sanctions were not decided after a fair trial: the witnesses were not given the opportunity to name McCarrick’s accomplices, and no judge was ever able to impose any compensation for the victims, because Bergoglio arrogated to himself the right to declare the cause res judicata, without ever disclosing the official decree, which is also a public act. The administrative measure decided on by Bergoglio was intended to hide the network of complicity in which he was and is personally involved, and this is exactly what happened.
The reason why the Vatican only acted in February 2019 (i.e., six months after the publication of my August 2018 Memorial) is that the scandal was no longer manageable, despite the fact that McCarrick’s crimes had been known for decades. The paradox arose with the publication on November 10, 2020, of a substantial Report on McCarrick drawn up by Attorney Jeffrey Lena and costing the Holy See millions, in which he falsely goes so far as to say that I was the one responsible for the failure to timely initiate canonical proceedings against McCarrick (here).
12. As a bishop and pastor of souls, would you like to leave a message to our readers?
Holy Scripture warns us about the reign of the Antichrist that will be established throughout the world in the last times, and about the role of the False Prophet in manipulating the masses. It is difficult not to see the preparation for all this in the globalist ideology that embodies the synarchic project of Freemasonry and in the total subservience to it of the leaders of the Bergoglian church. And here we are not speaking of abstruse questions, but of the very foundations of the Catholic Faith: the uniqueness of the Church as an instrument of salvation, her mission for the conversion of souls to God, and the need to restore the social Kingship of Christ as the only safeguard against all tyranny, both temporal and spiritual.
Before the Second Coming of Our Lord, the Church, which is His Mystical Body, must go through her own Passio in a ferocious persecution: Sacred Scripture clearly tells us this, in particular the Book of the Apocalypse of Saint John. This should help us to understand the importance of bearing witness to Christ and denouncing the false prophets who try to persuade us to come to terms with the world.
13 August 2024
|
|
|
|
|
