So much for the concept of collegiality!

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday permanently removed a German bishop from his Limburg diocese after his 31 million-euro ($43-million) new residence complex caused an uproar among the faithful.

The Vatican said Monsignor Manfred Grothe, currently an auxiliary bishop in Paderborn, would take over but that Tebartz-van Elst would get a new job “at the opportune time.”

Pope Francis “fires” fellow bishop over financial embarrassment.

Editor’s note: Maybe the good bishop would enjoy running the Vatican Bank?

 

Cardinal Marx has a point

In a March 13 homily to the German bishops, Cardinal Marx said that the Gospel account of the woman caught in adultery (Jn. 7:53-8:1) should be applied to discussions of divorce and remarriage.

After reviewing the textual history of the passage and recalling that some rigorists in the early Church did not think that the sin of adultery could be absolved, Cardinal Marx said that Jesus showed the scribes and Pharisees, who wanted the woman to be stoned, that they, too, were sinners. “One thinks of the rigorists of all time in the Church … All are sinners like the woman, all have need of forgiveness.”

The prelate added that Jesus’ forgiveness of the woman, his restoration of her dignity before God, and loyalty to his example of mercy to sinners are important in the Church’s discussion of divorce and remarriage, especially as applied to confession, which is intended to offer sinners forgiveness and to save people from “the sentence of God” and “also from social death.”

Jesus’ forgiveness of the woman, however, is not a call to laxism– a reference to Christ’s words, “Go, and sin no more”– but a “call to a new life,” Cardinal Marx continued

The passage is crucial in understanding guilt and forgiveness, he concluded. “If we pastorally, spiritually, and theologically practice this more, then more doors could open than we think at the moment. Amen.”

Link to story

Editor’s note: What do you think?

No surprise: German Catholics reject sex rules.

PARIS, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Germany’s Catholic bishops,
responding to a worldwide Vatican survey, said on Monday that
many Church teachings on sexual morality were either unknown to
the faithful there or rejected as unrealistic and heartless.

They said the survey, drawn up for a synod on possible
reforms in October, showed most German Catholics disputed Church
bans on birth control and premarital or gay sex and criticised
rules barring the divorced from remarriage in church.

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Nasty church politics and intrigue in liberal Germany

One might think we were living back in the days of the Renaissance.

Tremendously high expenses for “luxurious” buildings by the Bishop of Limburg have brought him into the headlines as the “Protz-Bischof” (“the showy Bishop”). Scandal has rocked the diocese and Rome decided therefore in October 2013 that bishop Tebartz-van Elst was to take some time out, while a committee investigated the matter. He has retired to the Bavarian monastery of Metten, while awaiting a final decision.

Given the reaction of the press, of the diocese and the general public outcry, one might have thought he had done something far more serious. In reality, this affair is really about something quite different than a project that went over budget.

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Priest reports: Liturgical abuse in Germany “horrible”. Mass is no longer Catholic. And there’s more…

My colleague said it:
“. I remember, you were pale then and came to my room and hammered your fists against the wall.”
And all this happens even though the bishops, after having been admonished by Rome, sent their priests clear instructions.

You have never let me celebrate, because they have understood that I am a priest who faithfully followed the Roman Missal and fearing perhaps that the faithful could make a comparison. […]

“Not Only Contemptuous Disobedience, but Devilishly”

All this is not only contemptuous disobedience and contempt for the authority of the Church. All this is demonic, because it is non-Catholic thinking and a non-Catholic style in the Catholic Church which is enforced with violence. It not only it thus intended to take away the people of God’s faith, one goes even further: it wants to take away their faith in the Church.

In Rome you know these things exactly. “Perhaps we will soon do something concrete?”

“What?” laughed my colleague. “They will give the Archbishop a cardinal’s hat at the next consistory, because certain Archbishop seats are connected to the dignity of Cardinal. But the owners of this right are obviously not obliged to ensure that their priests obey Church law.”

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German Catholic Church far from poor: 27 dioceses hold an estimated $100 billion worth of assets.

Pope Francis’s decision to suspend Germany’s Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst has brought worldwide attention to the bishop’s lavish spending. But it’s also drawn attention to the special relationship that the Roman Catholic Church has with the German state. Some observers say the fact the church is partially subsidized by Germany’s taxpayers, giving it an estimate net wealth of $100 billion, is the underlying reason for Bishop Tebartz-van Elst’s opulent lifestyle.

Here’s a closer look at why Germany’s Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest branches in the world:

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Editor’s note: The love of money is the root of all evil – not merely having it.  But Jesus warned us that the rich are going to have a tough time getting into heaven. I wonder how that applies to the Catholic Church, exactly? Will God permit the end times church to be looted by the Beast and the Antichrist? That said, today’s German Catholic Church is the envy of many religious institutions, the world over.

Funny that nobody ever thought to reform church finances during Vatican II. Multi-hundreds of billions in cash and other hard assets must not be “pastoral” enough for that obtuse spirit of the world!

Acts 3:1-9

(1) Now Peter and John went up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer.
(2) And a certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was carried: whom they laid every day at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, that he might ask alms of them that went into the temple.
(3) He, when he had seen Peter and John, about to go into the temple, asked to receive an alms.
(4) But Peter with John, fastening his eyes upon him, said: Look upon us.
(5) But he looked earnestly upon them, hoping that he should receive something of them.
(6) But Peter said: Silver and gold I have none; but what I have, I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.
(7) And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up: and forthwith his feet and soles received strength.
(8) And he leaping up, stood and walked and went in with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God.
(9) And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

How does somebody (especially a Catholic bishop) get “temporarily” suspended?

The pope has suspended the bishop of Limburg for the immediate future. The German cleric was temporarily relieved of his post in the wake of a scandal involving a 31-million-euro ($42 million) renovation project.

Text and video

Editor’s note: Was this bishop some sort of ideologue – or worse yet – a traditionalist? Or, did he simply put his trust in collegiality and cash – instead of Jesus Christ? Perhaps this is some sort of retribution against German Cardinal Ratzinger for his recent criticism of some of Pope Frances’ recent decisions?  Will Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst now be required to operate from a hotel room, cook his own meals, share his lodging with a Jewish rabbi and drive a 1984 Volkswagen Beetle, while feigning abject humility? Why didn’t Cardinal Mahoney get suspended for wasting $660 million of church funds on abuse settlements? Is this just politics? Is the Pope Catholic? Watch this space for further developments!

Sacrilege in Germany: The fruit of modernism run rampant in the Church.

It appears there was a fundraising Mass (or “Mass) held for a children’s hospital operated by Catholic charities/Caritas.  A noble goal, perhaps, but the implementation was disastrous.

A circus was mixed in with the Mass, and the Mass was offered not in a proper church but in a dining hall of some kind, with the Blessed Sacrament brought around to the almost entirely elderly participants seated at their tables.

This seems to be a common thing in Germany, the mixing of the sacred and profane with Masses offered at outdoor beer festivals and the like, with people literally going from sucking on a cigarette, or a stein of beer, or from eating a bratwurst one second, and then turning around and receiving Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament the next.

Or, they rather indiscreetly place the Blessed Sacrament in their pocket.

Link to article

Watch the video (The sacrilege begins at about minute 1:02. The pagan snake dancer comes on at about 3:02. And don’t miss the priest playing his clarinet! )

Bird of a feather, SoS John Kerry.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry continued his bumpy first out-of-the-country tour with an homage to the ugly Americans he represents. Speaking in Germany, he told students, “In America, you have a right to be stupid, if you want to be, and you have a right to be disconnected to somebody else if you want to be. And we tolerate that – we somehow make it through that.”

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Editor’s note: This from a guy stupid enough to have chin implant cosmetic surgery, just to make his jaw a bit bigger than Clutch Cargo’s. We ought to change Kerry’s title to Secretary of Stupid.

No money … No Jesus!

The German Catholic bishops have announced that any Catholic who formally withdraws from the Church, by announcing a decision not to pay the “church tax,” will not be allowed the receive the sacraments or hold office in the Church.

Link

Editor’s note: I wonder if anyone ran this plan past Colonel Klink?

Germany: Christ’s sacred tunic to be displayed for veneration

Christ’s sacred tunic, housed in a reliquary at the cathedral in Trier, will be displayed for public veneration from April 13 to May 13. Pope Benedict has named Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, as his special envoy to the opening ceremonies.

Link

Editor’s note: The hand-woven cloak that belonged to Jesus Christ and was actually worn by him. This is the ONLY authentically Catholic “seamless garment” … although the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin obviously didn’t think so!

“Good” business is where you find it: German Catholic bishop’s company is top purveyor of erotic books.

LifeSiteNews.com reports that the Roman Catholic episcopacy in German also has 50 percent shares in another publisher and bookseller Ver-lagsgruppe Droemer Knaur, which publishes erotic novels. The publishing company WELTBILD, said to have an annual turnover of $1.7 billion and over 2,500 erotica titles, in a recent press release, says it is considering suing media outlets which have accused it of “peddling pornography.” According to WELTBILD, the literature it offers does not meet the legal definition of pornography.

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Pope engages in modernist, politically correct psycho-babble, patronizing German Jews.

by Doug Lawrence

In a recent address to a group of prominent German Jewish leaders, the Pope made the following statement:

“We Christians must also become increasingly aware of our own inner affinity with Judaism. For Christians, there can be no rupture in salvation history. Salvation comes from the Jews. When Jesus’ conflict with the Judaism of His time is superficially interpreted as a breach with the Old Covenant, it tends to be reduced to the idea of a liberation that views the Torah merely as a slavish enactment of rituals and outward observances. In fact, the Sermon on the Mount does not abolish the Mosaic Law, but reveals its hidden possibilities and allows more radical demands to emerge. It points us towards the deepest source of human action, the heart, where choices are made between what is pure and what is impure, where faith, hope and love blossom forth.”

Link

Let’s “parse” the Holy Father’s statement:

“We Christians must also become increasingly aware of our own inner affinity with Judaism.”

OK. Let’s start with what we believe about Jesus Christ, the Holy Trinity, the Church, and the means of eternal salvation.

“For Christians, there can be no rupture in salvation history. Salvation comes from the Jews.”

Insofar as what God has done … especially through Jesus, Mary, and the Apostles … and in spite of the continuous Jewish denial and rejection of virtually every Christian truth … the words of the Holy Father are true. But the facts show that even Muslims routinely show a greater degree of respect for Jesus Christ and his mother, than does a typical Jew.

“When Jesus’ conflict with the Judaism of His time is superficially interpreted as a breach with the Old Covenant, it tends to be reduced to the idea of a liberation that views the Torah merely as a slavish enactment of rituals and outward observances…”

There’s ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SUPERFICIAL about it!

Pius XII: Mystici Corporis, 29: “And first of all, by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ…but on the Gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. “To such an extent, then,” says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, “was there effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from the many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as Our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom.”

30: “On the Cross then the Old Law died, soon to be buried and to be a bearer of death, in order to give way to the New Testament of which Christ had chosen the Apostles as qualified ministers”

Council of Trent, ch 1, 793: “but not even the Jews by the very letter of the law of Moses were able to be liberated or to rise therefrom”

Council of Trent, Session 6, ch 2: “that He might both redeem the Jews, who were under the Law”

Council of Trent, Canon 1: “If anyone shall say that man can be justified before God by his own works which are done through his own natural powers, or through the teaching of the Law…let him be anathema.”

Council of Florence, DS 695: “There are seven sacraments of the new Law: namely, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony, which differ a great deal from the sacraments of the Old Law. For those of the Old Law did not effect grace, but only pronounced that it should be given through the passion of Christ; these sacraments of ours contain grace, and confer it upon those who receive them worthily.”

Council of Florence, DS 712: “It firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosiac law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally.”

“All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Therefore, it commands all who glory in the name of Christian, at whatever time, before or after baptism’ to cease entirely from circumcision, since, whether or not one places hope in it, it cannot be observed at all without the loss of eternal salvation.”

Pope Benedict XIV, Ex Quo Primum, #59: “However they are not attempting to observe the precepts of the old Law, which as everyone knows have been revoked by the coming of Christ.”

Pope Benedict XIV, Ex Quo Primum, #61: “The first consideration is that the ceremonies of the Mosaic law were abrogated by the coming of Christ and they can no longer be observed without sin after the promulgation of the Gospel.”

Pius VI, DS 1519-1520 (condemned the following): “Likewise, the doctrine which adds that under the Law man ‘became a prevaricator, since he was powerless to observe it, not indeed by the fault of the Law, which was most sacred, but by the guilt of man, who, under the Law, without grace, became more and more a prevaricator’; and it further adds, ‘that the Law, if it did not heal the heart of man, brought it about that he would recognize his evil, and, being convinced of his weakness, would desire the grace of a mediator’; in this part it generally intimates that man became a prevaricator through the nonobservance of the Law which he was powerless to observe, as if ‘He who is just could command something impossible, or He who is pious would be likely to condemn man for that which he could not avoid’ (from St. Caesarius Serm. 73, in append., St. Augustine, Serm. 273, edit. Maurin; from St. August., De nat, et “rat., e. 43; De “rat. et lib. arb., e. 16, Enarr. in psalm. 56, n. I),– false scandalous, impious, condemned in Baius (see n. 1504).

*****

Pope Benedict XVI patronizes his Jewish brothers and sisters by failing to tell them the whole truth about salvation … that “it” (more properly HE … Jesus Christ) did (initially) come into the world through the Jews … but that salvation now comes by faith, exclusively through the grace and truth of Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God … and through the Catholic Church that Jesus personally founded … which is the permanent, divinely designated, universal sacrament of salvation, for ALL.

(Romans 10:9-13)  For if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For, with the heart, we believe unto justice: but, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. 

For the scripture saith: Whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded. For there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek: for the same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

No wonder our modern “theologians” have so often run amock, when we have the head of the church and its chief theologian speaking in such a duplicitous way!

Jesus Christ IS salvation.

The Catholic Church is the divinely designated, primary “dispenser” of the saving grace that Jesus obtained for us, on the cross.

It will remain exactly so, until the end of time.

The Jews (along with everyone else) deserve to be clearly informed of all these facts. Not patronized with political, self-serving half-truths and modernist fictions.

(From Dictionary.com)

Definition of duplicity

1. deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same matter.

Pope: “To abide in Christ means to abide in the Church as well.”

Link

Nazis and Islamic supremacists remarkably similar – in using force to shut down opponents.

In Stuttgart, Germany, last week, violent Leftist and Islamic supremacist demonstrators violently menaced anti-jihad activists – giving a sobering picture of where Germany, Europe, and the U.S. as well are headed if we don’t stand up and resolutely defend our freedom now.

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Catholic readers address current German scandals, apostasy, exodus

We’ve heard for years about the “fruits of the council.” Well, now we know who these fruits are. This has all come about since Vatican II, the “Great Council,” and flourished under “John Paul the Great,” who appointed these bishops. The scandal that still gets no coverage is the horrible state of the liturgy and the disobedience of these same bishops who have been instructed to let us have the old Mass back and refuse to do so. We need the old Mass, because it instructs the faithful so much better than the new. — David, US

It is not a question of what the Church can do to win Catholics back, but of those lapsed Catholics realizing that scandal in the Church has always been, and always will be, present in the Church. The present abuse scandal is nothing new. Christ promised the Church infallibility in proclaiming His gospel; He did not promise her impeccability in the conduct of any particular members. Those German Catholics who have deserted the Church because of the abuse scandal would be well advised to reflect on this fact, and return to their religious duties before their desertion causes irreparable harm to their souls. — Geoffrey, United Kingdom

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Under JPII, Catholic faith in Poland soared. Not so with Pope Benedict and his native Germany.

A record number of Catholics in Germany have turned their backs on the church. They officially cancelled their membership in the wake of child abuse scandals that rocked church institutions across the country.

A record 180,000 German Catholics left their church for good in 2010, and it appears the child abuse scandal was the main reason for the dramatic rise in departures.

Data provided by 24 of Germany’s 27 Catholic dioceses and published this week by the newspaper Die Zeit shows that 50,000 more Catholics cancelled their church membership last year than in 2009, an increase of 40 percent.

Link

Four Modern Day Martyrs, But Only Three To Be Beatified By the Church

Soon-to-be beatified priests, along with fellow martyred Lutheran pastor, were ‘shining lights on our common ecumenical path.’

LUBECK, Germany (CNS) — As the Nazi executioner beheaded three Catholic priests and a Lutheran pastor, one after another in a matter of minutes, their blood flowed together, creating a powerful symbol for ecumenism in northern Germany.

On June 25, the three Catholic martyrs of Lubeck — Fathers Johannes Prassek, Eduard Muller and Hermann Lange — will be beatified in the historic city’s Sacred Heart Church, a stone’s throw away from the Lubeck Cathedral, the ministerial home of the Rev. Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, their Lutheran counterpart. Rev. Stellbrink will be honored in a special way that day as well.

The four were executed in Hamburg Nov. 10, 1943. All had been found guilty of disseminating anti-Nazi material — such as the homilies of Cardinal Clemens von Galen of Munster — and other “treasonous” activities.

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Out of every ten people, seven can not live their faith in full freedom.

The most persecuted religion is Christianity, with at least 200 million people suffering from discrimination. This was revealed by the report on religious freedom in the world that is published every two years by the Catholic organization “Aid to the Church in Need.”

In 21 of the 194 countries studied, there is hardly any religious freedom. The report notes that there are two types of religious persecution: one by policy and one by members of other religions.

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Putting Hitler and Stalin into proper “context”

Oliver Stone says his upcoming Showtime documentary series Secret History of America will put the 20th century’s star butchers Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin “in context.”

Hitler and Stalin

That Hollywood would glorify Stalin is hardly a shock to anyone. If you go back to many Cold War-era movies, you will find tortured excuses — even fulsome praise — for Mother Russia.

Only Nazi Germany was allowed to appear on the screen as evil incarnate. For decades, Hitler has been the perfect role model as villain — right out of “central casting.” The highest-priced Hollywood talent scout could not have given the movie moguls a better gift. Funny mustache, silly goose-step, the “Sieg Heil” salutes, a “Master Race” theory, his evil shouting speeches. And that’s before we even learned about the gas chambers and the Holocaust.

Stalin was smarter about his evil. He murdered millions — but — he did not shout himself hoarse in public. He kept his mouth shut, and just did it. A good Hollywood producer can’t do as much with that. Hitler, by contrast, was in the world’s face as he committed mass murder.

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