A little swim in a river does no one any harm. His Idols floated; so I'm sure he would too. Well...Maybe.
So glad for Alexander T. and camera man! May their generation see the end of abortion, apostasy and heresy. It just takes a few to inspire a multitude more to do what is right.
after watching a number of his interviews today, I think he was Divinely inspired! The youth watching him and his fortitude and courage has to be inspiring... It was for me! Pray for this young man...may God and all the heavenly host protect him!
I just saw an interview with him on the ewtn news. I am very impressed. Yes, we need to pray for him.
*** Nov. 4, 2019 Austrian Catholic: Why I Threw Pachamama Statues into the Tiber Alexander Tschugguel tells the Register his motivations for seizing the idols, why he’s decided to come forward, and what he hopes his action will achieve. Edward Pentin | http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edwa...-why-i-threw-pachamama-statues-into-the-tiber Alexander Tschugguel, a 26-year-old Austrian Catholic convert from Lutheranism who has worked for the pro-life movement in his country, revealed himself Nov. 4 to be the person behind throwing the Pachamama idols into the Tiber River during the Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazon Region. Tschugguel, who had been in Rome at the beginning of the Amazon Synod, was disturbed by seeing indigenous people bowing down to the statuettes in the Vatican Gardens. He flew to Rome to carry out what he saw as a correction of a grievous breach of the First Commandment that had upset many faithful Catholics. According to CNA, the statues, which were identical carved images of a naked pregnant Amazonian woman, had been displayed in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, close to the Vatican, and used in several events, rituals, and expression of spirituality taking place during the Oct. 6-27 synod. Pope Francis issued an apology Oct. 25 asking forgiveness from those who were offended by the “Pachamama” statues being thrown into the Tiber River, and said that they had been displayed in the church “without idolatrous intentions.” In his latest YouTube video, Tschugguel appeals for people to subscribe to his channel, and includes a link to the “Boniface Institute,” a simple website with links to make donations via Paypal and Patreon. “We put up this institute to bring together all the people who want to support us” Tschugguel told the Register Nov. 5. “Many around the world asked how to give donations. I did not want these donations to go in my pocket, so I founded this institute to use the funds to spread Catholic culture.” In this Nov. 4 interview with the Register, Tschugguel explains in more detail why he took what representations of what Pope Francis called “pachamama” out of a Rome church and threw them in the Tiber, why he has decided to come forward now, and whether he is concerned about repercussions. He also pays tribute to faithful U.S. Catholics whom he calls a “backbone for us European Catholics” for a modern Church that he sees as “not leading the way anymore, but following the world.” Tell us about yourself. What’s your background? I’m an Austrian, born in Vienna, I’m 26 years old, I converted 10 and a half years ago from Lutheranism to Catholicism, which is rare in Austria as most Austrians are Catholics. I converted back to the Catholic Church as my great grandfather was a Catholic convert from Protestantism. I try to work in the pro-family and pro-life movement, I try to do major projects there and am always trying to get in touch with all people in the Church. I got married this summer, and very happy with that. I have a fantastic life right now. It’s our duty to show the Pope what is happening, because the synod is there to give advice to the Pope, but if the synod fathers only give advice to the Pope which doesn’t represent what the Catholic people believe the teaching of the Catholic Church says, then I think it’s our duty as laymen to stand up and tell the Pope: “We believe in what the Church has always taught us, why do we need to change that?” I got into that kind of fight when I fought for the pro-life, pro-family movement in a German-speaking area which was a very difficult task. Why did you take the action to take the statues and throw them into the river? It’s a very quick answer. When I walked into the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina — I was in Rome at the beginning of the Amazon synod — I saw in side chapels these statues and asked the volunteers what they depicted. They told me they were fertility goddesses and another told me they were symbols of “Mother Earth.” Then it all came together. I saw the rituals in the Vatican Gardens and then I saw the so-called “Way of the Cross.” At that point, I knew it really and clearly this is against the First Commandment. So [having left Rome soon after the beginning of the synod] I just went to the airport, booked the flight, came [back] to Rome in the morning, and then booked the flight back to Vienna. The Vatican was criticized for not being clear about what the statues were. Was that also part of the motivation to take this action, that the Vatican wasn’t being straightforward about what the statues were? Yes, of course, because I want the Vatican and I want our bishops and all the cardinals to be clear about everything. Being Catholic means being clear, and the problem is that even the high officials in the Vatican called them “Pachamamas.” It was an official term, and so if it can be official that you can have indigenous idols in your church, then that’s just wrong. What do you say to critics have said these were harmless symbols of life and fertility, that indigenous culture should be respected, and that this was a racist and colonialist act? Yes, I’m very sorry for this because it cannot be harmless if people bow down to them. They bowed down to them in the Vatican Gardens so it’s not just an image, a symbol. You don’t bow down to a symbol, you bow down to something which you think is higher than you, is more important than you. You can see in the videos of the Vatican Gardens ceremony and the Way of the Cross that it’s not just a symbol, and not to do anything would be to want the indigenous below me, but I want exactly the opposite. I want them to get the same grace from the Church that He has granted us, firstly baptism, which my so-called Austrian friend, Bishop Erwin Kräutler says, he has never done: baptized indigenous people. So I want them all to be baptized, I want them to go to heaven, and I really could never be a racist because I love human beings way too much to be one. But Austrian Bishop Kräutler has reportedly denied saying he ever said that about baptism. I know, but in his book he writes it. In his book about Amazon life there’s this passage where he says: “I normally don’t baptize people,” and so I asked people within the church, the volunteers in Santa Maria in Traspontina, and they confirmed to me that they don’t want people to be baptized either. The Vatican said it was theft, the Pope asked for forgiveness from those who were offended. What is your response to these reactions? Firstly, it’s not theft because I didn’t enrich myself with it, I didn’t get the statues and sell them or anything. I just threw them into the Tiber. If it were something like that then it’s not theft. The second thing is if the Pope apologized to those who were offended, he can do this, he’s the Holy Father so of course, if he thinks people are offended, of course he can apologize and maybe he’s in the right to do that. But the point is that I released my video to tell all those people that I only had one reason to do it: to defend the glory of God, to defend God and His teaching, and Jesus’ teaching. That’s the only reason, and if people get offended, I’m very sorry, I cannot change that. Another thing about people saying maybe it’s a theft, well I don’t think it is because from what I heard, it was not the private property of someone, they were on display to show Catholics Amazonian culture, and my whole purpose was to take them outside the church. If I had just taken them out of the church and placed them next to it, they would have just put them back in again, so I had to take them somewhere. I didn’t want to chop them down or burn them, I just wanted to bring them to the place where they cannot bring them back to the church. They managed to fish some out of the Tiber, but at least they didn’t bring them back to the church. So I was successful, it was good. Some are saying that what happened over the Pachamama is symbolic of everything that’s wrong with the Church today, that the First Commandment — worshiping Christ and placing him at the center — isn’t honored and with this episode we saw this in a very visible way. What do you say to this view? I agree, because the First Commandment says you shall not bow down to any graven image which is not God or his people, so it really is a clear sign. If you bow down to a graven image of wood of the Pachamamas, then clearly it unfortunately shows you what happens in the wider Church. For example, when the Amazon synod was finished, the first people who responded were bishops’ conferences who brought out the Pachamama and some German bishops were saying the Amazonian bishops had exactly the same problems we have here in Germany. But I’m Austrian, I live next to Germany, I lived in Germany for more than three years. I’m not aware of the jungles where the indigenous live, so you can clearly see it’s not about the indigenous, they are used as an excuse for bringing through this new, Catholic modernist, former Catholic world. It’s very Protestant, it’s very connected to the world, and I think very wrong. continued...
continued from above... It puts Christ aside and places man at the center? Christ is a hippie, he’s not the Son of God who came down on earth to die on the Cross and take our sins with Him on the Cross. Now Christ only came to Earth and told them, “Yeah, I love you all.” But he gave us a very big Commandment, he gave us rules, he gave us explanations, he really tried to explain how God works and what His plan is, and He said no one can come to the Father except through me, so you have to go through Christ to get to heaven, you have to be baptized to go to heaven. Why have you decided to come forward now and are you concerned about repercussions, possible legal action? I decided to come forward now because the Amazon synod finished last week. I saw that those from the synod, the synod fathers, tried to push down every discussion about these problematic things. I thought that’s not good at all, so I just wanted to issue a reminder to them that there are millions of faithful Catholics who don’t want the synod and the Catholic Church to develop the way the synod fathers at least told us in interviews and in press conferences, and in the final document which on many points is problematic. There are theologians, bishops and cardinals who can point that out way better than I can. As for any legal action, I don’t care about that. If they do that, I just pray to God that people will support me so that I don’t have a big financial problem, but I think it will all work out. Your action has been met with a powerful response among some Catholics, especially in the United States. Do you have a word for them? I have a very important word for them: I’m really very happy that many American Catholics are so faithful. They really are — and maybe they don’t know this but I know — the backbone for us European Catholics. We’re really happy that we see there are possibilities in America to be publicly and openly Catholic and traditional without too many problems. In Europe we have a society that is always strongly connected with the Church, which was of course good, and has brought us a great amount of culture and teaching and knowledge, but right now I see the Church is not leading the way anymore, but following the world. So in Europe we have some really good people left, and as long as American faithful are a backbone and help us get stronger again, then we can be a big group of faithful Catholics again. *** Nov. 4, 2019 Pontifical Academy of Sciences Embraces UN’s ‘Sustainable Development’ Agenda The little-publicized declaration consists of 14 pledges to “build together effective solutions for sustainable development of Amazonia.” Edward Pentin | http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edwa...s-embraces-uns-sustainable-development-agenda VATICAN CITY — The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, governors from the Pan-Amazon region, and officials from the United Nations were among those who signed a declaration of commitment to sustainable development in the Amazon at the Vatican on Oct. 28. The little-publicized declaration, signed at Casina Pio IV, the Academy’s headquarters, consists of 14 pledges to “build together effective solutions for sustainable development of Amazonia.” The Register requested a copy and received one from the secretary of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The meeting was entitled the “First Summit of Amazonian Governors — Pathways and Commitments to Sustainable Development in Amazonia.” The academy said a second intention of the meeting was to “open a debate” to find ways of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals — a U.N. initiative aimed at combating poverty, improving health and education, reducing inequality and tackling climate change by 2030. The goals also include ensuring “universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes.” This advocacy for “sexual and reproductive health-care services” and for “reproductive health” — terms that in the U.N. setting have been interpreted to include provision of abortion— is not mentioned in the governors’ declaration. Instead, all the pledges are temporal in nature relating to the environment, science and socio-economics. The first is to “emphasize the fundamental importance” of the Pan-Amazon Synod just ended and to “defend the orientations provided” in the final document published Oct. 26 — a document that has no doctrinal weight but serves as an instrument to help Pope Francis write his post-synodal apostolic exhortation. Other pledges are a commitment to a “green economy,” building a “new model of sustainable development” based on valuing “environmental heritage, socioeconomic inclusion and respect for the culture of Amazonian peoples,” and calls for “empowerment” of local Amazonian governments, organizations and initiatives. The declaration also promotes the expansion of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, urges greater international cooperation, and calls for “zero illegal deforestation” and for “significant resources” to be given to local initiatives. Companies are also pressured to “control their supply chains” to avoid “new forms of slavery.” The signatories also claim the world’s “climate and humanitarian crisis” calls for “rapid, integrated and urgent action.” Signatories include the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, governors from the regions of Brazil and Peru, and representatives of two advocacy groups that co-sponsored the meeting with the pontifical academy: the Interstate Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Legal Amazon and the Amazon Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN-A). Two U.N. officials were also present: Alexis Arthur, program officer and support for Governors’ Climate and Forest Task Force at the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), and Charles Ian McNeill, senior adviser at Forests and Climate, U.N. Environment Program (UNEP). The declaration ends by proposing that the summit become a “permanent forum for discussion.” One of the governors suggested the next meeting take place in his state. During the Oct. 28 meeting, the governors expressed a wish to partner with the Church and any organization that sought to preserve the Amazon, but reportedly voiced their opposition to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's position on the environment and the Amazon, in particular his support for mining and extensive agriculture in the region. A ministerial representative of the Bolsonaro government who was present at the meeting reportedly voiced opposition to the assertion that the environment is in crisis. He was a significant addition as the governors are depending on federal funding for environmental projects. Indeed, aside from the declaration’s lofty goals, an underlying aim of the meeting was financial, especially as some external sources have dried up. After the Vatican summit, some of the governors went to Berlin also to seek funds. “They came to raise money,” a Vatican source told the Register, disclosing that most of the governors were from socialist parties. One of them, Flavio Dino of the northeastern state of Maranhão, is a member of Brazil’s main communist party, the PCdoB, which holds radical positions diametrically opposed to Church teaching. One of their members, Jandira Feghali, was one of six leftist politicians invited to a Rome parallel meeting of the synod in October, despite her strongly pro-abortion views and her opposition to a bill condemning infanticide in Amazonian tribes. Such policy differences were avoided, even when, during Monday’s meeting, Dino called upon Brazilian Bishop Sebastião Lima Duarte of Caxias, Maranhão, to make an intervention. The bishop, who took part in the synod, agreed with everything Dino had said in his address, according to the source. “The participants didn’t say anything about theological questions or the issue of abortion, because the left, when they deal with the Church, never mention those issues, preferring instead to talk about the environment — the issue that can bring them and Pope Francis together,” he said. “The left will try to use members of the Church to advance their political agenda,” he added, mentioning that they also wanted to “use this opportunity to raise their international profile to finance their projects.” Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the relator general of the Pan-Amazon Synod, also addressed the meeting. According to sources, his intervention also dwelled only on temporal rather than supernatural matters, with environmental concerns and the rights of indigenous peoples the central focus. Such meetings are not rare for the pontifical academy, which has held 13 conferences on environmental issues since 2013, often bringing in people with views diametrically opposed to key Church teachings but with concerns about the environment. “The Vatican these days seems more concerned with saving the world than saving souls,” said one source close to the Holy See. The Register asked Bishop Sánchez for more details on the meeting, including whether the participants would be incorporating Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation expected at the end of the year, and how the Vatican intends to work with the U.N. on ecological questions in the future. Bishop Sánchez said he was too busy to respond.
Two things: Ivereigh's first point of criticism against young Tschugguel was to accuse him of being an anti-globalist. Ivereigh doesn't seem to understand that, when it was taking the Catholic Faith around the world, the Catholic Church was the most global of institutions. Secondly, the Pontifical Academy of Science has completely compromised itself by embracing the UN policy of sustainable development. These people have no greater vision of The Church than of being just another NGO and wish to surrender it to the service of the 'religion of man'. Anyway, now to have a look at this Boniface Institute!
Idols at the Amazon Synod Dan Lynch November 5, 2019 “My House Will Be Called a House of Prayer.” Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out with a whip all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. And He declared to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’” (Matthew 21:12). At the Amazon Synod, the house of prayer of Santa Maria, a Catholic church in Rome, was violated by the placement in it of several statues of an Amazonian idol, Pachamama (Mother Earth). In the spirit of Jesus driving buyers and sellers out of the temple, two young men removed the idols from the church, took them to the Tiber River and, as seen around the world, threw them in. The idols show a naked woman in late term pregnancy. Idolaters turn to her for fertility and good fortune, instead of turning to the one true God and trusting in His goodness and providence. The Pachamama is an object of veneration, a goddess to which some Bolivians sacrifice llamas, especially their fetuses. It is an earth deity worshiped by some Peruvians, rooted in pagan Incan beliefs and practices, including human sacrifice. The idols were placed in the Catholic church as part of the Amazon Synod. Alexander Tschugguel and another young man removed the idols. Alexander is a 26-year-old Austrian Catholic who said that he did not want the Catholic Church to allow the worship of idols. He founded the St. Boniface Institute in order to promote the Catholic faith and culture through the voices of young Catholics who want to stand up for the truth in public places and be heard. Alexander named his Institute in honor of St. Boniface who was an eighth century missionary in Germany where the pagans idolized "sacred" trees. As the pagans looked on and cursed him, Boniface strode up to the tree of Donar, that honored the false god Thor, and struck it with an ax. The huge tree miraculously fell and shattered into pieces. At the sight of this extraordinary spectacle, pagans stopped their cursing and, on the contrary, began to believe and bless the true God. Later, St. Boniface used the pieces of the tree to build a church on the spot in honor of St. Peter. In 16th century Mexico, Hernan Cortes, the Spanish Conquistador, saw Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec idol, at the top of the temple in what is now Mexico City. 80,000 people were sacrificed before this idol in a four-day orgy in 1487. Cortes demanded its removal. The Aztec priests refused to remove the idol. So, Cortes marched up the temples steps, grabbed a metal bar and, according to an eyewitness, he supernaturally leapt up into the air and smote the idol’s eyes saying, "We must risk something for God!" He then stripped the temple pyramid of its idols, cleansed the stone of its blood and erected a new altar for the sacrifice of the Holy Mass. On what had been the place of evil bloody human sacrifice, now became the place of the unbloody, eternal and true sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Alexander and his friend simply followed the good examples of St. Boniface and Cortes and dishonored false gods. “I Am the Lord Your God, You Shall Have No False Gods Before Me.” God’s first commandment is, “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no false gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3). “You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them”. (Exodus 20:4-5). Before the idols were placed in the Santa Maria church, they were exhibited as part of a pagan ritual before the very eyes of Pope Francis. As he looked on, an Amazonian woman chanted to the idols. I saw a video clip of several people who carried the statues in procession to Pope Francis who made the Sign of the Cross over them. After that they were placed in the church. Although Vatican spokespersons denied that the statues were Pachamama, Pope Francis himself called them by that very name. Also, as Bishop of Rome he asked “pardon of the people who were offended by this act”, as if Alexander and his friend had done something wrong. However, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, formerly the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who was removed as its head by Pope Francis without explanation, called the statues “idols.” Pagan Rituals Denounced On the EWTN October 24 The World Over show, Cardinal Müller said that “to bring the idols into the church was a grave sin, was a crime against the divine law. The great mistake was to bring the idols into the church, not to put them out, because according to the Law of God Himself – the First Commandment – idolism [idolatry] is a grave sin and not to mix them with the Christian liturgy. To throw it out, can be against human law, but to bring the idols into the Church was a grave sin, a crime against the Divine Law.” Bishop José Luis Azcona of Marajó in the Amazon region confirmed that Pachamama is a pagan goddess and denounced the rituals in the Vatican. In his homily on October 16 in Brazil, he said, “In those rituals there is the devil, there is magic. The invocation of the statues in front of which even some religious have bowed in the Vatican (and I will not mention the religious order to which they belong) is the invocation of the mythical power of Mother Earth, to which they are asking blessings upon humanity or offering gestures of gratitude. These are scandalous demonic sacrileges, especially for the little ones who can't discern." The statements and actions of Pope Francis set a bad example and are scandalous to faithful Catholics. Because of this scandal, many more fundamental Protestants may now believe that Catholics are really and truly idolaters, just like they’ve always said. They can proselytize Amazonians to support their charges and drive them away from the Catholic Church. Moreover, for Pope Francis to imply that the removal of the idols by Alexander and his friend was wrong, is analogous to saying that Jesus was wrong to overturn other people’s tables in the temple without their permission. See Alexander's YouTube video testimony here.
Wow!! Unbeleiveable!! https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/a...red-the-sanctuary-of-god?utm_source=OneSignal
God bless and protect Abp Vigano. This is incredible! He left no stone unturned. He has validated all of our concerns and fears. "This is not an ordinary battle but a war!"
He is a very holy and very brave man! God protect him. I hope he has good bodyguards. My favorite part was what he said about the tiny remnant of faithful having much to suffer, but being rewarded with the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart! Would he mention that, do you think, if he didn’t feel that it would happen sooner rather than later?
Unfortunately, Padraig, it is very believable. At this stage, nobody with a smidgen of wit believes that the Synod's purpose was evangelising the Amazonians. Clearly, the organisers and participants had other priorities. Some want a change in Church teaching on sexual morality, a change in the nature of the priesthood, and decentralisation of the Church leading to an erosion of papal authority. Others want to make the Church into an NGO - a branch of the UN with a religious flavour. The Franciscans missionaries have become the poor man's Jesuits - the remedial class for slow learners. Useful tools, syncretism appears to be their goal. What's the real aim of the Jesuits? They haven't pulled out all the stops for a fringe element of the population of Latin America. With European and American support, Pope Francis has already dismantled Catholic teaching on sexuality, has aligned the Church with the UN's population control agenda, and doesn't need an Amazonian Synod to ordain married men or invent a new role for deaconesses. Could the pachamama business merely be the lead-in to something like this for the universal Church?
We know for a fact that it is happening, but it is still in some way unbelievable that it is, that it has actually come to this and in our lifetimes. I would have been aware of the prophecies for quite some time, but would have (self-interestedly?) thought these events were going to be for an unfortunate future generation. Well, here we are and Archbishop Vigano isn't pulling any punches, God bless him. It is, bar a spectacular divine intervention, going to get a whole lot worse. I think we are promised that this time will be shortened. We may pray that this be so.
Wow is right God bless and protect Abp Vigano. This interview along with the new Akita message appears to be dire. I know the message is still being vetted but sack cloth and ashes and praying the rosary are hardly monumental news. Our Blessed Mother has asked us for prayers for literally a century. I have failed on a lot of accounts but I am renewed in my fervor for prayer and especially adoration. The synod seemed like a front, even from the beginning.
