Speaking of damage control, it’s good to know the Vatican realizes the world is watching. In my opinion, if we were on the cusp of the reign of the Antichrist (instead of on the cusp of the minor chastisement leading to the restoration and triumph of the Church) this would have not only been permitted, it would have been globally promoted: https://www.wsj.com/articles/vatican-blocks-german-plan-to-expand-communion-1528117103 Vatican Blocks German Plan to Expand Communion Pope blocks a proposal by German bishops to expand the ranks of Protestants who may receive Communion, a setback for progressives Francis X. RoccaJune 4, 2018 8:58 a.m. ET By Francis X. Rocca VATICAN CITY—Pope Francis blocked a plan by German Catholic bishops to expand the ranks of Protestants who may receive Communion in Catholic churches, in a setback for progressives despite the pope’s apparent openness to the move as recently as last month. The decision indicates that the pope, who has allowed bishops around the world to take divergent approaches on such matters as how to translate the Mass and when to let divorced Catholics in second marriages receive Communion, recognizes doctrinal impediments to such decentralization. ... To Read the Full Story
I agree DM but I can't hit the like button. I suspect next to the Russians that the Church had its share of Masons deliberately planted as well and then there are always the ABC's to consider also.
DivineMercy, I agree also. I agree with Brian's post too, "The Vatican realizes the world is watching". The pressure has really mounted since January, my feeling is that Pope Francis will begin to clean house regarding this situation and we could in fact see the fulfillment of Bl. Emmerich's prophecy of the Church becoming "more magnificent than ever before". I think that we may know soon, if I am correct about this. Edited to add: Brian, Thank you. Wow, thank God! From the article the you posted, "But a conservative minority of seven German bishops led by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne appealed to the Vatican for a ruling on Communion for Protestants, arguing that local churches mustn’t be allowed to decide a question as central as access to the Eucharist. Last month, the German bishops’ leaders traveled to Rome to discuss the question with Archbishop Ladaria and other officials of the Vatican’s offices for doctrine, ecumenism and church law." I hadn't realized this about Cardinal Woelki being from Cologne or I had forgotten about this. There are some prophecies about Cologne, some appear to refer to a physical battle but other lesser known prophecies may refer to something else. In 1790, a Catholic nun named Helena Walraff predicted the following, "The Pope will be forced to flee, followed by four cardinals. He will find refuge in Cologne." and in the 1950's Alois Irlmaier stated, "Thereafter the Pope will return and the first great 'Te Deum' will be sung in the Dome in Cologne...". The above prophecy of Alois' has stood out to me because of the following prophecies of Saint Bosco, "Having heard that, the Holy Father began the march. The farther he went the greater did the procession behind increase. When finally he set foot in the Holy City, he wept bitter tears for the distress in which he found the people and the large number now missing. As he entered St. Peter's he intoned the 'Te Deum' to which a choir of angels replied singing: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will." "From the beginning of the exile until the singing of the 'Te Deum,' the sun rose in the East two hundred times. The time that passed for the fulfilling of those things corresponds to four hundred risings of the sun." It is also interesting that many of us have wondered if Saint Bosco's prophecy of the two full moons occurred this past March and many of us also believe that the Triumph of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart has begun. Praying, praying, praying... Ref. https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/profecias/esp_profecia01c1a.htm#top
https://gloria.tv/article/MpNmaBoHwQXS2mVNHVyi7Bpca “Do you like Pope Francis?” – Italian Minister: “Let’s say I prefer Cardinal Burke”
YAY about the blocking of the German plan for inter-Communion. YAY. Also, very glad to see the rest of the posts and prophecies above. Still praying, as you are doing
While I should call this parish office, I don't think I understand why a plastic life sized owl is perched on a corner of wall at the rectory of a local conservative church. Perhaps to scare away birds. There is also large stature of Our Lady at the doorway of that side entrance. I guess only someone who knows of the association with the Bohemian Group would wonder about such a "scare crow".
Yes, they ARE used to scare away nuisance birds and rodents. It’s relatively common and lawn and garden centers sell them specifically for that purpose. https://sciencing.com/owl-work-scare-birds-away-4913851.html
Don and ComeSoon, It appears that the problem was/is much bigger than most news outlets have previously exposed, http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Chile/ . I am wondering if we are beginning to witness the fruition of the following scripture. Many people believe that stars may refer to the clergy and that the woman is Our Lady and she may be helping to renew the Church & possibly redirect the Pope or that an "Angelic Pope" will be ordained some time in the near future, Revelation 12 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and the dragon[Satan] stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might devour her son. 5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne. On Chile, Pope Francis is way past the tip of the iceberg now Inés San Martín Jun 4, 2018 https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2...ancis-is-way-past-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-now/ VATICAN CORRESPONDENT Members of Chile's bishops' conference Luis Fernando Ramos Perez, left, and Juan Ignacio Gonzalez, meet reporters at the Vatican, Monday, May 14, 2108. (Credit: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia.) After ignoring warning signs before, Pope Francis is now getting a clear sense of just how big Chile's clerical abuse mess really is. Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series. Tomorrow’s conclusion will explore what Pope Francis means when he calls Chile to become once again a “prophetic church.” ROME - It’s a universally acknowledged reality of the sea that it’s never the tip of the iceberg that sinks a ship, but what lies under the water unseen. Yet, to the trained eye, the visible white mass usually is enough to warn of the dangers ahead and to change course. In the case of Chile’s clerical sexual abuse scandals, Pope Francis first brushed against the tip of the iceberg in 2015, when he decided to transfer a Chilean bishop named Juan Barros, accused of having covered up abuse, to a southern diocese. Yet Francis repeatedly ignored the alarms that came loud and clear. Victims of the pedophile priest Fernando Karadima, for whom Barros allegedly covered up, spoke with anyone who would listen, including members of the pope’s own Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The media, both in Chile and in Rome, kept the case in the spotlight. Chilean politicians sent a letter to the pope asking him to change course, and even some bishops spoke up against the nomination. But Francis kept going, full steam ahead. The inevitable collision came with a decision to send two papal envoys to Chile to investigate the Barros case. Their 2,300 page report, the product of 64 personal interviews, forced the pontiff to confront what was underneath the waters. The document by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Spanish Father Jordi Bertomeu remains confidential, but in the past two weeks, since the Chilean bishops have been to Rome and back, presenting their resignations to Francis, ample evidence has arisen showing just how big the iceberg is. In the diocese of Rancagua, for instance, 14 priests who were part of a clan that called itself “La Familia” have been suspended pending investigation on allegations both of sexually abusing minors and of having consensual gay sex with adults. Bishop Alejandro Goic, who until last week was the president of the Chilean Church’s National Commission for the Prevention of Abuses, has apologized for “my actions in this case,” and acknowledged that he hadn’t moved with appropriate nimbleness. He’s had to step down from the commission. It’s also been made public that Father Óscar Muñoz Toledo, former chancellor of the archdiocese of Santiago, was removed from that position on Jan. 2, days before Francis’s visit to the country, after he actually reported himself for sexual abuse. Though the details weren’t clear at the time, it’s now known that he sexually abused some of his nephews, who were minors at the time. This means the man tasked with taking the statements of some of Karadima’s victims was, at the same time, sexually abusing children himself. In addition, former religious sister Consuelo Gómez left her congregation last year after being sexually abused on more than one occasion by a Chilean superior while the two were in Spain. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan released a statement through the bishops’ conference acknowledging that they had known of the allegations, and that the way they had addressed the issue didn’t live up to “our mission and vocation.” According to the former nun, the order told her to keep the abuses to herself and that they “had been her fault.” Last Thursday, the Jesuits in Chile - Francis’s own order - announced through a statement that they had closed an investigation against Father Jaime Guzmán Astaburuaga on charges of sexual abuse of minors, and that the information compiled will be sent to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). According to the terms of St. Pope John Paul II’s 2001 document Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela, the trying of a case of a priest accused of sexually abusing a minor is exclusively reserved to the CDF, though the CDF can assign the case to a local church. The allegations against Guzmán involve abuses that took place before 1994, meaning that under Chilean civil law, the crimes have passed the country’s statute of limitations, unless the Chilean congress passes a bill presented by President Sebastián Piñera in the past month aimed at lifting the statute of limitation for sexual abuse crimes. Guzmán received a canonical sanction in 2012, and he’s been banned from public ministry and from being in contact with minors. In an effort to comply with Francis’s request to move forward toward “transparency, truth, justice and reparation,” the statement by the Jesuits also disclosed that two other religious have been removed from public ministry in recent years for sexual abuse. They are Fathers Raúl González, denounced in 2011 by a former student for abuses which happened in 1999, and Juan Pablo Cárcamo, accused by a grown-up woman of abuse of conscience and sexual transgressions during a spiritual retreat. continued...
continued from above... In addition, revelations against the Marist brothers, who’ve already acknowledged decades-long situations of abuse of children, continue to arise. Two of the closest collaborators of Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, head of the Archdiocese of Santiago from 1961 to 1983, Fathers Cristian Precht and Miguel Ortega, have been found guilty of abuse. Both Precht, a hero of the human rights movement until the allegations surfaced, and Ortega, who died in 2015, have faced new accusations in recent days, this time from victims of the Marist brothers, who say the two sexually abused children when visiting Marist facilities, including making sexual advances to teenagers who went for confession. On May 21, at a closing Mass for a diocesan synod, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, accused by victims of covering up abuse and ignoring allegations, said the CDF had assigned him responsibility for six cases of clerical sexual abuse while he was in Santiago. On Friday, his archdiocesan website published the names of the six priests and what their sentences had been. In the case of Precht, the site says he’d been sentenced to a five-year suspension of his priestly ministry, that he currently has no pastoral position, and that there’s a new investigation due to new allegations. Four others were suspended permanently and lost their clerical status, and another was suspended and died soon afterwards. Two survivors, a doctor named Jaime Concha and a real estate agent named Jorge Franco, spoke to Scicluna and Bertomeu earlier this year about the abuses they suffered. They’ve also accused Father Alfredo Soiza-Piñeyro, who was defrocked in 2013 after allegations of sexual abuse reached the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Soiza-Piñeyro gained national fame in 1987 when he mediated in the kidnapping of a colonel in the Chilean army, Carlos Carreño. In a letter he gave to the bishops in Rome, Francis spoke of a Chilean Church guilty of destroying evidence, of hiding the importance of the allegations, and of having practicing homosexuals forming seminarians. On the last point, there are reports dating back to 2011 of abuses in the seminary of San Rafael in Valparaiso. They include abuses of a sexual nature, but also of power and conscience: seminarians who were forced to swim naked with their superiors, and a man who today is the local bishop, Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortázara, publicly slapping an aspirant to the priesthood because he wouldn’t kiss him on the mouth. That incident is said to have happened in 1992. Mauricio Pulgar, a former seminarian of Valparaiso, spoke with local news site The Clinic in 2011 and said that his superiors sent him to talk to a psychologist to overcome his “affectivity problems.” “If you don’t like to be touched [on your private parts], you’re the one with a problem,” he said. “If you don’t like your lips to be grazed, you’re the problem. If you don’t like to walk around hugging, you’re the problem. Always, the deviant is you,” he said at the time, in allegations he’s repeated since. Pulgar has spoken up against several priests in addition to Duarte, but nothing has come so far of the charges. Duarte is over 75, so he had presented his resignation to Francis even before the Chilean bishops traveled to Rome. By now, it’s clear that the crisis of the Catholic Church in Chile is deep. Observers say that cleaning the house, undoing the damage, compensating survivors, and rebuilding trust in the institution and the faith among those in the pews will take decades. Regardless of how many resignations from the bishops Francis eventually accepts, the challenges go well beyond the simple rolling of heads, as he’s said time and time again. There’s a “culture of abuse” and cover up that must “never again” be repeated, he wrote in a letter to Chilean Catholics on May 31. RELATED: Pope to Chile: I’m ashamed we ‘didn’t listen’ on abuse Traditionally, to choose a new bishop the Vatican relies on information provided by the local hierarchy and the papal representative in the country. In this case, however, the credibility of Archbishop Ivo Scapolo, the current papal ambassador in Chile, has been tarnished, with many at the grassroots asking for his resignation. Francis still has a long road ahead after the Vatican’s ambivalent response to the various allegations, and his own, though his steadfast approach of the past 45 days, has garnered him the support of the New York Times editorial board, which back in January had gone after him for his defense of Barros. However, in the meantime, at the grassroots level there are still men and women, “the holy people of God, faithful and suffering,” in Francis’s words, who are keeping the faith in Chile alive, answering his call to build a “prophetic Church.” In the words of Chilean Father Mariano Puga, “I ask myself, what happens with the poor of the Church after the pope’s decision, after the allegations against the bishops? What happens with those who’ve baptized their children, who go to Mass on Sundays, who receive Communion? What happens with those who believe in Jesus and are outside of all these scandals?” On June 1, Father Francisco Astaburuaga, one of a group of nine Chileans, some victims of sexual abuse, others of conscience, others who supported survivors, and seven of them priests, unknowingly answered that question after meeting the pope. “I want to communicate to them [the laity], that always after the experience of the cross comes the resurrection,” he told journalists on Friday, the day of his arrival in Rome. “What the pope is telling us with his actions and words is nothing else than an exhortation to being reborn, to the courage of making the conflict ours, looking at it in the face and confronting it with hope, that which comes from Christ. I’m convinced that we will all come out of this renewed in our faith, both the Church as a community as well as each faithful,” he said. “The time has come for every Catholic in Chile to open generously to the dynamic of hope,” Astaburuaga said.
I didn't read the WSJ report in your link, but reading the report by the Catholic News Agency, I get the impression that the Pope only stopped the German Bishops' Conference from issuing the document the dissenting Bishops objected to. From the CNA report: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...cts-german-proposal-for-inter-communion-61699 "In his letter to Cardinal Marx, Ladaria noted that while there are “open questions” in some sectors of the Church in regards to the interpretation of canon 844, “the competent dicasteries of the Holy See have already been charged with producing a timely clarification of these questions at the level of the universal Church.” However, he said it would be left up to diocesan bishops to judge when there is a “grave impending need” regarding the reception of the sacraments." Looks like the Jesuit Pope and the Jesuit head of the CDF have taken the Jesuit route of giving the wink and nod for Cardinal Marx and his clique to keep on doing what they had been doing anyway but not to make it look too official. The report about Cardinal Woelki (the only one of the dissenting German prelates included in the discussions with the Pope) having changed his tune suggests that the fix was already in at that meeting. Now, "reputable" Catholic news outlets like the CNA can run a headline giving the impression that the Pope really is orthodox for reining in his German buddies when the body of the report doesn't really confirm that.
This has always been the practice of the Church, though, right? Isn’t that the exception that BXVI outined? Canon 844 of the 1983 code of Canon Law states *Can. 844 §1. Catholic ministers administer the sacraments licitly to Catholic members of the Christian faithful alone, who likewise receive them licitly from Catholic ministers alone, without prejudice to the prescripts of §§2, 3, and 4 of this canon, and ⇒ can. 861, §2. §2. Whenever necessity requires it or true spiritual advantage suggests it, and provided that danger of error or of indifferentism is avoided, the Christian faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister are permitted to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick from non-Catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid. §3. Catholic ministers administer the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick licitly to members of Eastern Churches which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church if they seek such on their own accord and are properly disposed. This is also valid for members of other Churches which in the judgment of the Apostolic See are in the same condition in regard to the sacraments as these Eastern Churches. §4. If the danger of death is present or if, in the judgment of the diocesan bishop or conference of bishops, some other grave necessity urges it, Catholic ministers administer these same sacraments licitly also to other Christians not having full communion with the Catholic Church, who cannot approach a minister of their own community and who seek such on their own accord, provided that they manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed
Yes, but the CNA report didn't mention the CDF letter saying anything about "cannot approach a minister of their own community". "Grave impending need" can mean anything a Bishop wants it to mean if the Vatican doesn't tell him that it doesn't mean all Lutheran spouses in his diocese should be given Communion. That kind of language was sufficient when all Bishops were orthodox at least on the surface. It's not sufficient nowadays, especially in Germany. The Germans are already giving Communion to Lutherans. The CDF letter didn't tell them to stop. It just told them not to publish that particular document because it could cause problems.
I still feel that this is very hopeful news and from the CNA article it could be that they want to help the German Bishop's who requested the intercommunion to "save face". This is just a suggestion but the following paragraphs from the CNA article are very interesting imho especially the second one, "His letter to German prelates follows a May 3 meeting on the topic of inter-communion between a delegation of German bishops and members of Vatican dicasteries to discuss whether the question of inter-communion for non-Catholic spouses in inter-denominational marriages could be decided at a local level, or whether it needed Vatican intervention. The meeting was called after reports, later denied by the German bishops’ conference, came out saying the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had rejected a proposal by the German bishops to publish guidelines allowing non-Catholic spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist in certain limited circumstances." Dolours may be correct also that the Vatican may want to allow some German dioceses to continue to allow intercommunion but Cardinal Marx is stating that they are still working on the solution. So at some point the formal document needs to be presented to the Vatican (or represented?) and per the following declaration it appears that it won't be sooner than this autumn. POSTSCRIPT – In the evening Cardinal Marx released the following declaration: "The letter of the prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith of May 25, 2018 was received this evening, June 4, 2018, by the president of the German episcopal conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx. In the conversation of May 3, 2018 in Rome the participating bishops were told that they would have to find 'a unanimous solution if possible, in a spirit of ecclesial communion.' The president is therefore surprised that this letter should have arrived from Rome even before this shared solution has been found. The president sees expressed in the letter the necessity for further conversations within the German episcopal conference, first of all in the permanent council and in the plenary assembly in the autumn, but also with the respective Roman dicasteries and with the Holy Father himself." The above postscript is from the following article which is the original source of this story, Francis Blocks the Document by the German Bishops in Favor of Intercommunion. The Complete Text of the Letter http://magister.blogautore.espresso...tercommunion-the-complete-text-of-the-letter/ June 4, 2018 ****** Here are some more articles about this, the first one is the CNA article that Dolours provided a link to and it contains the link to the article above, Pope Francis rejects German proposal for inter-communion In a letter dated May 25 and addressed to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop ... discussion, Ladaria said the pope “came to the conclusion that the document is … Catholic News Agency June 4, 2018 Communion for Protestant spouse, Pope holds back the German bishops Pope Francis is ramping ... by cardinals such as the Archbishop of Utrecht, … La Stampa June 4, 2018 Vatican Formally Says No to Intercommunion for Protestants On Monday, German Catholic news site Kath.net published exclusive quotes from the letter, dated May 25. Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Abp. Luis F. Ladaria ... Pope Francis last month, the Holy Father … Church Militant June 4, 2018 German Bishop on Protestant Spouses, Eucharist: Yearn for Unity; Respect Beliefs And a May 25 letter addressed to Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop ... Luis Ladaria, the Vatican’s top authority on matters of doctrine, said the text of the German proposal “raises a series of problems of considerable importance” and … National Catholic Register June 4, 2018
I still hold out hope. We haven't seen the end of this yet. At some point, hopefully, our Church will be purified. Thank God.
