Monday, March 17, 2008

Benedict XVI "Opus Dei Pope-number 2" rejected by Rome La Sapienza University




Watch the video here 11:44 minutes interview with a physics professor, a woman student and others at La Sapienza University why the Romans reject the Bishop of Rome.













It is Palm Sunday and the Canadians feature the GISU the Galileo Iceberg at La Sapienza University that has hit the Benedict XVI-Opus Dei B16-OD Titanic Ship. Bravo Canada! The Titanic Ship sunk off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada...likewise B16-OD Titanic Ship is sinking in CBC Canada!

The Titanic sunk on April 14, 1912 near Halifax, Canada and the B16-OD Titanic sink farther in CBC Canada on March 17, 2008, Palm Sunday! What a fitting triumphant day for the GISU Galileo Iceberg at La Sapienza University!

As clone of John Paul II the "Opus Dei pope number 1" Benedict XVI is performing his task to the script of Opus Dei WORLD DOMINATION Agenda. As "Opus Dei pope number 2" at the Vatican Palace, God's Rottweiler continue to suppress the Jesuits especially Jon Sobrino in El Salvador and Tom Doyle, the star witness of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" and the Vatican as the wealthiest institution in the world is absolutely corrupt! Our entire weblog exposes all these secrets invisible to Catholic eyes.

As the Opus Dei prepare the American visit of Benedict XVI, Americans should learn from the La Sapienza University 67 professors and protesting students who successfully ward off the pope and he dared not enter the university for fear of his own life. Alas, the Benedict XVI-Opus Dei B16-OD Titanic Ship has been hit by GISU, the Galileo Iceberg at La Sapienza University, right at the pope's own turf. The Bishop of Rome is rejected by his own sheep because he is their shepherd no more, his voice is corrupt as in Crimen Solicitationis.

Thanks to the CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for sending a (fair) journalist to go to Rome and research on GISU and for presenting this video on Palm Sunday 2008. May American students watch and learn from this Canadian video and treat Benedict XVI visit to America in April in the same manner -- putting him in his proper place...outside American universities.

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Faith Versus Science In Rome

http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2008/03/031608_5.html#comments

How is it that the controversial President of Iran could speak freely at an American university - but the Pope had to back out of his speech to an Italian university that's practically at the Vatican's front door? We take you to Rome, the Eternal City, where the forces of faith and science are still at war.


Comments (14)

A priest, speaking for the Vatican, labelled those who protested "intolerant" --- I find this very ironic given that the religious institution he represents has a long "reported" history of gross intolerance and not only by today's standards. When it comes to tolerance the Catholic Church has no credibility as a role model; it cannot expect of others what it is not willing to do itself.

I agree with R. Ciren: When a respected scientist or secular person can stand on the balcony in St. Peter's Square and address the faithful then, perhaps, a pope can speak at a university.

Posted by: D. Ellis | Mar 17, 08 10:28 AM

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Let us always remember:

Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 5,448 priests - John Paul II + Benedict XVI + Opus Dei (the new Roman Catholic Trinity!)

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Benedict XVI the Great Sinner "list of new sins"

Benedict XVI is the Great Sinner of the 20th and 21st Century and he has come up with a "list of new mortal sins" from the sinking Benedict XVI-Opus Dei B16-OD Titanic Ship that was hit by the GISU Galileo Iceberg at La Sapienza University professors and students! As we keep pointing to the world the most heinous sin in the 20th century against children was committed by the new Roman Catholic Trinity: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Opus Dei.

How hypocritical of THE PHARISEE Benedict XVI, clone of Pharisee John Paul II, and the Opus Dei at the Vatican Palace to have come out with a new "list of new sins", mortal sins, forgivable only by the black magic of the Sacrament of Confession...confessing to black men Catholic priests....yeah, right, the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

Let us always remember:

Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 5,448 priests - John Paul II + Benedict XVI + Opus Dei (the new Roman Catholic Trinity!)


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New Sins of the 21st Century

The Vatican has unveiled some new sins for the 21st Century, such as genetic manipulation, pollution and social injustice.

Associated Press (owned and operated by Opus Dei)

Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number-two official for sins and penance, told L'Osservatore Romano that he saw bioethics as posing the greatest risks for the human soul.

"(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control," he told the Vatican's official newspaper on Sunday in an interview headlined "New Forms of Social Sin."

The Roman Catholic Church has previously spoken out against stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, believing that life begins at conception.

Girotti also attacked drugs, saying they "weaken the mind and obscure intelligence."

On the growing gap between rich and poor, he said it causes "an unbearable social injustice."

Pope Benedict has made several strong statements on the environment in recent months, saying problems like climate change had become critical to humanity's future.

Catholicism has two basic types of sin: Venial, which are relatively less important and forgivable, and mortal. Those can include acts like abortion and murder, although the church doesn't keep a well-defined list.

Mortal sins can cause a person to go to Hell unless confessed to a priest, who then absolves the sinner in God's name.

With files from The Associated Press

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Benedict XVI 'not part of Jesuit joy'




http://www.h2onews.org/_page_videoview.php?id_news=464&lang=fr -- video of 30 minutes meeting with Benedict XVI at the Vatican

Closing Mass of GC35 at Gesu Church in Rome presided by new Superior General Alfonso Nicolas

After we threw a brick on the head of Francis de Mello SJ telling him "Shame on you!", he wrote this final blog without mentioning the name of Benedict XVI and the Jesuit obedience to the pope but spoke about obedience in this way:

"...Jesuit obedience as one where, following the example of Ignatius, a Jesuit will exercise creativity in carrying out his mission as he sees circumstances require and will go beyond what has been asked in the true spirit of the magis."

Apparent translation means Jesuit obedience is "'beyond' obedience to the Pope. Alas, the word "obedience to the Pope" or "approved by the Pope" as Pinocchio John Allen in his ncr cafe keeps feeding Octopus-Dei-Lies to his thousands of readers is nowhere to be found. No, Benedict XVI did not have the last word in this last blog of the Jesuit General Congregation 35 in Rome.

That's because the B16-OD Benedict XVI-Opus Dei Titanic Ship has been hit by the Galileo Iceberg at La Sapienza University and Humpty Dumpty Pope Benedict XVI cannot be put together again by the Opus Dei eunuchs!

06/03/2008

Leaving full of hope and joy

Francis de Melo, SJ

We end today. 5 decrees worked and reworked, discussed to fine detail, and finally passed. And a whole list of 20 “suggestions” presented to Fr. General for implementation through the normal governance procedures of his office.

These 2 months – we started on January 7 and end today, March 6 – have been tiring trying to capture the new way of being demanded of us Jesuits in a world “marked by profound changes”, and to put it into words that would truly convey this to the differing views of different cultures and experiences.

Here are some of the key ideas that emerged in our decrees. We see ourselves anew in the decree on our identity, “A Fire that Kindles Other Fires: Rediscovering our Charism” which tells our Jesuit story particularly at its source, bringing back the experience that places a Jesuit, quite simply, with Christ at the heart of the world. (cf. CN 246, 4°; 223 §§ 3-4.) Its central image is of Jesuits entering, with Christ who offers living water,(Cf. John 4: 10-15) into a world that is confused about why it is turning the wonders of life and the opportunities of technology in a dry and life-killing lifestyle that does not satisfy.

Globalisation was a major background to our new vision, with its new global culture, the vast numbers to whom it brings bitterness while bringing great opportunities to many. As the decree “Challenges to our Mission Today: Sent to the Frontiers” says, “…our commitment to the poor calls us to see the world from the perspective of the poor and marginalised, acting with and for them.” It calls us to use new communications technologies, which have a tremendous impact on all of us, and “in this changing post-modern culture to walk with young people, learning from their generosity and compassion and helping them to grow through their fragility and fragmentation to an integration of their lives with God and others”.

The decree “Collaboration at the heart of Mission” presents our way of working with the many who have chosen both to work with us and to share our sense of mission. It calls for us to share leadership positions with these collaborators - whether lay, religious or diocesan, Christians or those of other traditions – and to develop opportunities and structures for the formation of these to know the Jesuit spirit and history and choice of mission.

The spirit of always doing more than just what is expected is seen in the decree on Obedience which presents Jesuit obedience as one where, following the example of Ignatius, a Jesuit will exercise creativity in carrying out his mission as he sees circumstances require and will go beyond what has been asked in the true spirit of the magis.

The “suggestions” presented to Fr. General for further action covered areas like ecology, youth, migrant peoples, modern communications, the intellectual apostolate, etc.

This morning, as a conclusion, 4 of us presented prayerful sentiments of what we felt. There was a clear sense that we leave full of hope and joy. There is a shared sense of satisfying accomplishment, that while what we have expressed is not perfect, it says much about where God is calling our Society today.

Benedict XVI the Tyrant of Jesuits



Opus Dei Pope Benedict XVI and the Jesuit-Elephants
...tied to the Octopus Dei leash of the Vatican Palace

Benedict XVI is the Tyrant of Jesuits because he treats them like slaves and animals using his Octopus Dei leash...meaning threatening them with excommunication and the brand of a "heresy" if they do not carry out the Opus Dei WORLD DOMINATION Agenda.

These Jesuit-elephants are "full of joy" to go to the circus or "frontiers" that the Opus Dei Pope has assigned them to go. (See Jesuit article "Document on Mission" to 'frontiers' below) In the past, the Jesuits worked for the Pope against the Protestant Reformations and amassed wealth for the Vatican like the wealth of Marcos from the Philippines being transferred to the Vatican Bank via the religious diplomatic immunity of the Jesuits as these websites have shown us.

Today, the Jesuits will continue to do the dirty job for the Opus Dei Pope and work among the poor subverting them by pledging Jesuit allegiance to the Opus Dei Pope and not really to Christ. Beware Jesuits because the B16-OD Benedict XVI-Opus Dei Titanic Ship is sinking slowly but surely! Benedict XVI has a John Paul II Millstone tied to his neck because together with the Opus Dei he covered-up the most heinous crime against children in the 20th century. The Opus Dei Pope Benedict XVI should be in jail like Conrad Black, and not wallowing in the lap of luxury at the Vatican Palace dressing up to his GAY Zeffirelli daily movie with celebrities.

Like virus and cancer, the "obedience to the Pope" of the Jesuits mutates according to the needs of the times. The wealth that the Jesuits have amassed for the Vatican have given them also secure wealth and therefore they will continue to be Jesuit-elephants of the mutated papacy that is now Opus Dei Papacy with an Opus Dei Pope Benedict XVI, his twin-pope Opus Dei Bishop Echevarria of Rome, and Opus Dei Catholic Bishops of Conference.















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The Document on Mission
[06/03/2008]

On February 15th, the deputatio appointed five members to draft a new decree on Mission: Fernando Franco, Fred Kammer, Tomasz Kot, Bienvenido Nebres, and Eugenio Valenzuela.

The drafting committee produced three drafts which, after discussion and amendment, resulted in the decree approved on Wednesday, March 5th.

The decree contains several key themes: reaffirmation of mission; its new context; right relationships and reconciliation; and our apostolic response to new challenges. It also confirmed the global apostolic preferences of Africa, China, intellectual apostolate, inter-provincial institutions in Rome, and migrants and refugees.

In the first part, the congregation reaffirms the Jesuit mission articulated by General Congregation 32 and developed by General Congregations 33 and 34. That mission is the service of faith, inextricably linked to the promotion of justice, and dynamically related to the inculturated proclamation of the Gospel and dialogue with other religious traditions.

In the section on context, key themes are globalization, a new world culture, and the tensions and paradoxes in our lives resulting from this new world, including threats to humanity and our environment.

The congregation recalls the prophetic and Jubilee traditions of proclaiming right relationships with God, with one another, and with creation. It develops this proclamation with the understanding of the role of Jesus Christ as the reconciliation of God. From this understanding, our mission today involves the call to right relationships and reconciliation which in our history has taken us from the centers of the known world to the frontiers of new continents and new ideas. This theme of “frontiers” from the address of Pope Benedict XVI to us inspired the decree’s title: “Challenges to Our Mission Today: Sent to the Frontiers.”

The decree spells out the contemporary challenge for Jesuits today under three headings. Under the relationship with God are: contemporary spiritual hungers and the need for new forms of evangelization; cultural subjectivism and relativism as an opportunity and challenge to dialogue and proclamation; renewed search for meaning and the value of the Spiritual Exercises in many forms; need for inter-religious dialogue in a context of fundamentalism and erosion of traditional religions; and the importance of ministry to youth in a fragmented world.

In our relationship with others, the decree includes: the call to see this globalized world from the viewpoint of the poor, learn from them, and accompany them; the importance of building bridges across societal divides and of collaboration among ministries; and the importance of new communications vehicles for advocacy, education, and networking.

In the section on our relationship with creation are: how care for creation is critical to our relationships with God and others; the impact of environment damage, particularly on the poor; the importance of environment research and stewardship, advocacy in union with the poor, and preaching and teaching on our covenant with creation.

The decree closes with an emphasis on authenticity in our own spiritual and community lives, incarnation of right relationships within ministries, and the important potential of our universality for greater apostolic effectiveness and as a witness to solidarity for our world.

Fred Kammer, SJ



Jesuit links exposing Jesuit hidden agendas for the Opus Dei Pope http://wikicompany.org/wiki/911:Vatican_%26_Jesuits

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Benedict XVI 'not part of Holy Spirit' in Jesuit General Congregation 32

Alas, there is no mention of the Opus Dei Holy Father Benedict XVI in "The Enkindling Experience in the Spirit" in the General Congregation 35 of the Jesuits in Rome. And that is the way it should be because Pope Benedict XVI is not the alter ego of Christ just like John Paul II is not the "other Christ" as we have continuously exposed in the John Paul II Millstone. These two popes and the Opus Dei are the ones responsible in the cover-up of the most heinous crime of priest-pedophilia in the 20th century...therefore there is nothing godly about them...no matter how holy-like-Pharisees they appear to be in their Latin Mass and rosary chantings.

Read this final Jesuit blog which shows the Pope (in essence the Opus Dei) is not part of the Holy Spirit that has enkindled the Society of Jesus. It is this same Holy Spirit that sent the Galileo Iceberg that hit the B16-OD Benedict XVI-Opus Dei Titanic Ship at La Sapienza University last January on the onset of the Jesuit General Congregation after Benedict XVI dismantled the Jesuit Vatican Observatory:

04/03/2008
The Enkindling Experience in the Spirit
Hector D' Souza, S.J.


“I will send my Spirit, He will guide you…do not be afraid”
Couldn’t have been better felt, experienced and relished
At the GC 35, as the Spirit moved, directed, inspired and enkindled.
There was a lurking fear and a deep abiding anxiety,
As we searched: This one, that one, which one?
The media in different continents had projected many names…
The Profile suggested was a demanding picture of a saint.
Who will fill in the shoes of Ignatius, Laynez …Arrupe, Kolvenbach?

Day one, some names shared, considered and contemplated on,
Day two, lots of mumuratio, but very few spotted the fragile man
Day three, some movement of the spirit, there is sage with an age,
Day four, ‘bit by bit the spirit rained’, there was a focus.
Day five, the first was a mere indication of the gush of the Spirit,
Aloha, at the second vote, we had the General, Spirit triumphed!
Adolfo Nicolas. The Spirit reigned gracefully and danced eternally.

Then the ad negotia stage, it was the third week, Spirit was sleeping.
Fourth, the first drafts appeared, shared and discussed
And they disappeared as fast, ‘troubled waters’ knee deep.
Fifth, Ordinary Governance topics shaped up, pondered upon
The elections for Ad Providentiam, a bit of relaxation to recoup,
Sixth, second drafts were criticized, shredded and thrown.
Troubled Spirit, “Where are thou?” we asked, “How is it possible?”

Seventh week, the fatigue is setting in, prayers intensified
Light at the end of the tunnel, third drafts were shaping up
Inspiration, mission, structures, collaborators, obedience
And accountability were falling in line, finally the “the gentle breeze”
The “detectives of grace” were spotting the hovering Spirit all over.

Eighth week, “A Fire that kindles more Fires” was sighted,
New Provincials were announced in each continent
With the thunderous applause, Spirit became more active
The movement was on and the light was seen, the end is near.
Another morn, a fresh direction, a new resurrection!

The Spirit acted, “Veni Creator Spiritus” on the First Day
Often laudate, at times miserere, regularly suscipe,
Until the “Te Deum” to erupt on the last day in gratitude.
The Spirit has set the spark, kindled the ‘being and doing’
Thanks to the thousands of “Friends in the Lord” all over
Storming heavens, for the Spirit to enkindle, round the clock

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This is the Holy Spirit of the Opus Dei -- the Mystical Marriage of St? Josemaria Escriva and Pope John Paul II (whom Opus Dei is in a hurry to canonize)
















If I were to enter a one-minute vignette on John Paul II in the new reality TV show 'On the Lot' this is how it would be.


Title: MR. Pope John Paul II and MRS.Saint Josemaria de Opus Dei


Subtitle: The new Mystical Marriage in the Catholic Church of the Pope and Opus Dei

Wedding song: You and Me against the World


Reality: The Groom Pope John Paul II wears robe in white (only) and the Bride Saint Josemaria de Opus Dei wears robe in black (only).


The Groom's name John Paul is a composite of two males (same-sex, gay), the Bride's name Josemaria is androgynous - one name of a male and a female (go figure, like the Androgynous Devil in the Passion of the Christ movie)) Actually, heshe has mutated hisher name so many times it taste bitter to pronounce hisher name
see: http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2006/11/john-paul-ii-and-saint-josemaria.html


The Church is the Mystical Bride and Christ is the Bridegroom, so it is said (and taught)in Catholic Catechism. That wedding took place in the first century. In the 20th century a new mystical gay wedding took place at the Vatican when MRS. Saint Josemaria 'bought' the Vatican for 1 Billion to bail it out of the scandal of the Ambrosiano Bank. This was hisher mystical Opus Dei bridal dowry.
(see www.OctopusDei.org and http://www.odan.org/foundations.htm for the wealth of Opus Dei)


MR.Pope John Paul II abolished the office of the Devil's Advocate -- the office that proved anything negative and why a person must not be canonized a saint. That is why he was able to canonize his bride, MRS.Saint Josemaria as the fastest saint to be canonized in modern times.


So instead of spending his gay time examining his JPIIPPA John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army and using his gay papal powers to stop their heinous gay pedophiliac activities during his 26 years papacy, MR. John Paul wallowed in narcisstic self-glory with MRS. Saint Josemaria as they spent their honeymoon in the gay papal bed at the Vatican -- and prepared also for his own imminent canonization by his papal clone Benedict XVI -- their mystical marriage gay love child.


Ending: St. Michael the Archangel pushes the John Paul II Millstone...... and MR.John Paul II rolls into the deep Tiber River...... and MRS.Saint Josemaria is weeping as an androgynous widow with blood dripping from hisher black cossack ......surrounded by wailing Opus Dei members beating their heads against the walls of the 86 Billion Euro Vatican real estate they've acquired......with blood dripping also from their pants - because of the cilice they wear around their thighs!



OPUS DEI CILICE



This is posted on the occasion of the the feast of Saint(?) Josemaria and June monthlong celebrations of the Opus Dei with the Pope, Cardinals and Bishops concelebrating Mass in cathedrals -- as they want to show-off their imperial power worldwide.


These are the SAME Cardinals and Bishops COHORTS in the CRIME of priest pedophilia --- who control the judges handling survivors abuse cases -- to protect the Opus Dei vested interest at the Vatican and the papacy!

Link: The John Paul II Millstone http://jp2m.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Benedict XVI circus Jesuit-elephants: Jesuits vote on Obedience to Pope as Conrad Black goes to jail










The Jesuit Delusion
of General Congregation 35 Jesuit-elephants
all tied to the Benedict XVI-Octopus Dei-leash
and feeding on Octopus-Dei-lies




March 3, 2008 in America and in Rome: Conrad Black goes to jail in Florida and Jesuits vote on obedience to the Pope & to the Opus Dei in Rome...go figure!

It is the Laity who has the sense and system of justice, not the Pope nor the Opus Dei nor the Roman Catholic Church. Proof:It is quite a coincidence that Conrad Black enters jail the same day the Jesuits vote obedience to the criminal Pope, the main responsible leader for the worst crime in church history in the 20th century. The Pope and Cardinals and Bishops are not in jail while Conrad Black goes to jail for a fraction of their crimes. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Cardinal of Boston for his share of the crime of cover-up of priests-pedophiles and costs Boston more than $100 million - but he was promoted to Archpriest of St. Mary Maggiorre and to 7 other Vatican prestigious posts...while Conrad Black goes to jail, go figure!

Compare the CRIMES and their VICTIMS in America

Victims - Attackers - Responsible Leaders

Pearl Harbor - 3,000 victims - 170 planes - Admiral Yamamoto

WTC & 9/11 attacks - 5,000 victims - 19 Muslims - Osama bin Laden

USA Priest Pedophilia - 12,000 victims - 5,448 priests - John Paul II and Benedict XVI and Opus Dei

A jury of nine women and three men in Chicago convicted Black in July for his role in the theft of $6.1 million from the Chicago-based newspaper publisher now known as the Sun-Times Media Group Inc. He was also found guilty of knowingly removing documents sought by U.S. authorities from his Toronto office.

$6.1 million of Conrad Black compared to the $3 Billion of Benedict XVI. O Justice where art thou?

The Jesuit-elephants in the Benedict XVI-Opus Dei circus

The Benedict XVI-Octopus Dei leash is now tied to the legs of the 225 Jesuit-elephants at their General Congregation 35 in Rome and they will go back home and tie it to the rest of the 19,000 Jesuits who will obey the Pope and Opus Dei every whim....the Jesuits are now part of the Opus Dei WORLD DOMINATION AGENDA!

On March 3, the Jesuits voted the second decree "On Obedience" including a special section of obedience to the Pope as Benedict XVI has written on his letter at the eve of their GC35. Benedict XVI-Opus Dei dismantled the Vatican Observatory -- to prove that he can also dismantle the Jesuits if they do not do as the Opus Dei tell them to do. Opus Dei wanted Jesuits to have blind obedience - "like a dead man" - towards the Pope and they got it!

But God in his justice is not sleeping and within a week of the dismantling of the Vatican Observatory, the GISU Galileo Iceberg at La Sapienza University hit the B16-OD Benedict XVI-Opus Dei Titanic Ship. Imagine, 67 lay science faculty members and students protested the coming visit and speech of Benedict XVI on their opening school day on January 21 and Benedict XVI trembling in fear cancelled his visit. Yap, right in his own turf. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome but his Roman sheep no longer hear his Opus Dei voice at the Vatican!

It is now evident that the laity will no longer "obey" the Pope and the Opus Dei like the Jesuits do. Note that as the Jesuits are having their historic GC35 and drafting their obedience to the Pope and Opus Dei, Ireland's Voice of the Faithful wrote this letter entitled "Betrayal" to the Irish Bishops Conference. The Jesuits should learn from these two lay groups who refuse to be Benedict-XVI-Opus Die-circus-elephants. (Hopefully the VOTF in Ireland will not become the VOOP Voice of Opus Dei as the VOTF in America has become recently as we exposed in their recent national elections.)

The Jesuits will now go back and work for the Opus Dei by promoting the canonization of John Paul II, the responsible leader, together with Benedict XVI and Opus Dei in the most heinous crime in modern church history. Even George Bush warned John Paul II about the activities of his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

The Jesuits should learn from the sense and system of justice of the laity and the VOTF of Ireland.

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'Betrayal' - our letter to the Irish Bishops' Conference

Voice of the Faithful
2 Greenhill Road, Coleraine, N. Ireland, BT51 3JE
18th February, 2008

Most Rev William Lee
Episcopal Secretary
Irish Bishops' Conference
St Patrick's College
Maynooth
Co Kildare

Dear Dr Lee,

Betrayal

"Bishops placed the interest of the church ahead of children ---"
The Ferns Report (page 256), October 2005.

Among the undersigned are survivors of clerical sexual abuse who seek healing within the framework of their Christian faith. They, and the rest of us, find it deeply disturbing, and inexplicable, that, since the Ferns report was published, not a single bishop of the Irish Church has commented on this verdict - to point out that every one of the children abused in Ferns was a full, baptised member of the Catholic church.

How could the most innocent and vulnerable members of our church ever have been considered expendable by any of its leaders - by those especially charged with a duty of spiritual care for all children?

How could two successive bishops of an Irish diocese (and Ferns is so far the only Irish diocese that has been publicly scrutinised) ever have thought that the interests of the church could be 'placed ahead of children'? (Q1)

We now know also that child sexual abuse by clergy is first recorded in the archives of our church in 309 (the Council of Elvira), and that at different times before the modern era, severe sanctions were placed against clergy who behaved in this way.

Now, day after day, global news media inform us that those Irish bishops who quite recently endangered children were far from exceptional. Using the Internet, any Irish teenager today can, in a matter of hours, discover that, in at least twenty-five countries across the globe, Catholic bishops prioritised 'the church ahead of children'. This happened not in the distant past but in recent decades - causing lifelong trauma to countless innocents. A US investigation has established that two thirds of US bishops behaved in this way.

What theological misunderstanding of 'church' could have led to this practice right across the Catholic world? (Q2)

To 'place the interest of the church ahead of children' in such a way as to endanger them is, logically, to sacrifice the lives and happiness of children.

Certain that the answer cannot be 'the church' we ask: for what exactly were those children sacrificed? (Q3)

Why does one of the bishops who did this (Bernard Cardinal Law, disgraced former Archbishop of Boston) still enjoy a position of honour in Rome? (Q4)


The Failure of Catholic Bishops to Learn and to Teach

We have heard it said in extenuation of this catastrophe that bishops did not know until very recently (i) that child sexual abuse has appalling and usually lifelong psychological consequences for its victims, and (ii) that many perpetrators of that abuse are likely to be compulsive in this behaviour and therefore permanently dangerous to children.

But since we now know that the phenomenon of clerical sexual abuse of minors has been documented in church records as early as 309, and also that St Peter Damian warned the papacy in the mid 11th century of the moral and spiritual damage caused to children by such abuse, any such claims raise further profound questions.

As the magisterium has always claimed an overarching teaching competence in relation to sexual and spiritual matters, it follows logically that it has always had a duty to study these matters intensively. How then could it have failed to learn - over seventeen centuries - (i) that sexual abuse of children causes intense, lifelong anguish, (ii) that clerical child sexual abuse adds a further dimension of intense spiritual suffering - a personal hell on earth - and (iii) that child abusers are typically compulsive in their abusive behaviour?

If the magisterium did indeed fail to learn these things over such a long period, what are the implications of this for its claimed teaching authority - especially in light of Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2 ? (Q5)

If the magisterium needed to hear these things from secular psychology and psychiatry, how can this recommend its own expertise on matters of the human soul? (Q6)

And if the magisterium did indeed know or suspect these things, and suppressed this suspicion or knowledge, what are the implications of this for its claimed moral authority? (Q7)

When most bishops behave as though they have no need to address any of these questions - and deliberately avoid any occasion when they could be asked - they make it virtually impossible for survivors to trust them, or to believe in their sincerity and competence.

Not to provide such occasions, in the midst of the greatest crisis to befall our church in living memory, is to betray the church as a community, and to betray even the leadership office that bishops hold. It represents a flight from leadership, reality and responsibility - and an inexcusable prolongation of the pain of survivors.


'Denial' as a Factor

As some of us have experienced from clergy a reaction of denial and concealment (e.g. 'To report the abuser would hurt the body of Christ!') we strongly suspect that this reaction may also have been deeply embedded historically in the church as an institution, and may provide at least part of the explanation for the longstanding failure of bishops to deal with the issue.

This too needs to be subjected to intensive investigation - because continuing denial prevents the discovery of truth, the delivery of justice and the achievement of healing. It will also wittingly or unwittingly enable further abuse.

Denial is a state of mind that forbids further investigation of difficult yet critical issues.

Has the magisterium been in denial of the gravity of clerical child sexual abuse, and of its compulsive nature for perpetrators - for seventeen centuries? (Q8)

And was it this culture of denial that delayed the implementation of adequate child protection measures by the church leadership until the secular media made total denial impossible in our own time? (Q9)

The known historical sequence certainly permits that conclusion. For example, although Irish bishops took out insurance against liability for clerical child abuse in 1987, no child protection measures were adopted until 1996 - after the first major Irish child abuse public scandal in 1994 (the Brendan Smyth affair).

We ask the Irish Bishops' Conference to look frankly at this sequence, and to comment upon it:

309 the magisterium knows about clerical sexual abuse of children;
c. 1051 St Peter Damian warns the papacy of the damage caused to children by clerical sexual abuse;
1994 Ireland learns of this phenomenon - through the secular media;
1995/6 the Irish magisterium begins to act to protect children.

To have any hope of stemming the loss of trust and confidence that is now racking the church the conference must not ignore this sequence. To do so would be to raise further strong suspicions about the ongoing strength of denial - the enemy of truth, justice and healing - among the appointed leaders of the church.


Secrecy as a Danger to Children

It is already clear that many thousands of children have been endangered and harmed by the withholding by bishops and other church leaders of vital information about dangerous clergy from parents. This practice was a betrayal of families, despite the magisterium's regular protestations about the critical importance of the family to the church and to society.

While warmly welcoming the transparency offered by Bishop Eamonn Walsh to the Ferns inquiry, and that granted by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to the Dublin inquiry, we are deeply disappointed that so far there has been no general recognition by bishops of the danger posed by church secrecy to children and families, or any promise of a diminishment or an end to it.

Indeed, according to a number of different sources the following solemn promise is still required of a Cardinal at installation:

"I [name and surname], Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, promise and swear to be faithful henceforth and forever, while I live, to Christ and his Gospel, being constantly obedient to the Holy Roman Apostolic Church, to Blessed Peter in the person of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, and of his canonically elected Successors; to maintain communion with the Catholic Church always, in word and deed; not to reveal to any one what is confided to me in secret, nor to divulge what may bring harm or dishonour to Holy Church; to carry out with great diligence and faithfulness those tasks to which I am called by my service to the Church, in accord with the norms of the law. So help me Almighty God."

Unable to authenticate this text, and aware that it is a translation of the original Latin, we nevertheless believe that in the wake of the Ferns report - and the recent High Court challenge to the Dublin inquiry - it gives serious cause for concern. We ask:

Do all Irish bishops accept that many children have been harmed by clerical secrecy in the past, and that for their sake no leader of the church should ever define the interests of 'Holy Church' as standing apart from and above the interests of children and other vulnerable members of the people of God? (Q10)


Unaccountability as a Factor

All abuse - whether sexual, spiritual, emotional or physical - is an abuse of power.

Attaching as it does a superior dignity and authority to the Catholic priest, Catholic clericalism empowers the priest above all lay members of the church. This is part of the power imbalance that has too often been exploited abusively, not just towards children but towards vulnerable adults who come seeking spiritual care. In no way accountable to the people of God, a minority of clergy have abused this power simply because they could do so with impunity.

It was this lack of accountability to the faithful also that led to the mishandling of abuse by so many bishops - further imperilling all vulnerable members of the church community.

Recognising that, in the case of the Ferns and Dublin inquiries, two Irish bishops have accepted the principle of accountability to external state investigation, why has no Irish bishop yet addressed the obvious connection between the lack of clerical accountability to the faithful within the church, and clerical abuse, including the administrative abuse that harmed children who would otherwise have been safe? (Q11)

This failure also strongly supports a conclusion that the magisterium generally is still in denial over the causes of abuse.

Sooner or later, unchecked power is always abused. We do not believe that recent moves towards child protection in the Irish church (which have not yet anyway been approved by the papacy) are adequate. We strongly believe that abuse is institutionalised within the church through the absence of structures that would make clergy in any way directly accountable to those they serve. We do not believe that children and vulnerable adults will ever be as safe as they should be in the church until this issue of clerical accountability has been addressed.

Nor do we believe that Catholic bishops can recommend to Irish children the principle of moral accountability until they have accepted it themselves.


The Need for Action

In October 2007, Archbishop (now Cardinal) Sean Brady delivered a sermon in Wilton, Cork, in which he emphasised his personal commitment to the programme for dealing with the issue of clerical child abuse proposed by Pope Benedict in 2006. This called for the uncovering of the causes of abuse, for justice to survivors, and for healing. Having read this sermon one of our survivor members responded spontaneously as follows:

"We know them by their ACTIONS and so far all we get is rhetoric.
If they want to 'understand' have they gone on training courses? =ACTION
Have they visited survivors to hear their story? = ACTION
Have they written prayers about it? = Action
Have they given funds to clergy abuse groups? = ACTION
Have they had a memorial service? = ACTION
Have they built a monument? = Action
Have they challenged their lawyers about gag orders? = ACTION
Have they given money for survivor retreats? = ACTION
Have they knelt at the feet of survivors repenting their closed eyes & ears of years past?
= ACTION
Have they opened files to independent people and admitted what THEY did or did NOT
do? =ACTION
Have they sponsored conferences? =ACTION

Have they held a national day of prayer for survivors of sexual abuse? (=ACTION)
Have they funded research into the needs of survivors of clergy abuse? (= ACTION)"

Recognising that individual bishops may be able to answer some of these questions in the affirmative, we ask the conference to understand that survivors often feel there has been a lamentable failure of the Irish hierarchy generally to travel outside the comfort zone of their own scripts. These are almost always delivered in contexts of immunity - where none of the questions we have asked above can be put freely by members of the faithful, and especially by survivors, or by relatives of those who have not survived.

And, when potentially fruitful action is proposed - as in the Irish bishops' document 'Towards Healing' of February 2005 - this seed bears no fruit - not even an invitation from bishops to priests and people to read this document together. Two years later it had disappeared totally from view. In place of a climate of confident discussion and learning in our church there is still in most dioceses a deep and awful silence on these issues - another major consequence of leadership failure.

This makes it impossible for us to trust that Irish bishops generally are yet capable of taking the risks necessary for the discovery of the whole truth, and for the forwarding of the causes of understanding, justice and healing - the programme given them by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

Christian leadership does not shrink from those steps that are necessary to prove its courage and sincerity to those it has wronged. It does not hide behind lawyers or seek refuge in PR advice.

It does what Jesus did: it seeks an enduring companionship with the broken and listens to whatever they may wish to say.

The actions that will lead to real healing can only be negotiated freely between the leaders of the church and those they have failed to protect. When will this process begin? (Q12)


Betrayal

'Betrayal Trauma' is a recognised psychological and spiritual injury, caused chiefly by a betrayal of trust by those to whom total trust is awarded. It has been defined as follows:

Betrayal trauma occurs when people or institutions that are depended on for survival violate human trust. An example of betrayal trauma is childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.

Believing that this is the best succinct description of the impact of this catastrophe upon its victims, we have no doubt that they have been betrayed by the institution upon which they too depended - for spiritual care and for survival of all the challenges of life. They never expected that the most severe challenge they would ever experience would come from the leaders of the church that taught them to hope and to believe in the goodness of God. In seeking to come to terms with this catastrophic betrayal we discover betrayal of other kinds also:

Betrayal of the values of the Gospels that bishops are sworn to uphold;

Betrayal of parents and the family, the cornerstone of the church's life;

Betrayal of the Church itself, the happy home we have almost lost;

Betrayal of the office of bishop, to which we once looked as a moral bulwark in an increasingly dangerous world.

Having waited in vain for the Irish Conference of Bishops to address this betrayal, and especially the questions that arose out of the Ferns Report over two years ago, we send this letter now in the faint hope that the conference will not respond in the same totally inadequate way to the forthcoming report of the state inquiry into the handling of clerical abuse by the Archdiocese of Dublin.

Deeply frustrated by an inexplicable failure to address issues that may well frustrate all the hopes that may rest upon another papal visit to Ireland, we place those issues again in the public domain.

Seeking truth, understanding, justice and healing we ask the Irish conference of bishops urgently to face, investigate and explain this betrayal, responding honestly to the questions we ask here - especially those numbered Q1-Q12.


The Prospective Visit to Ireland of Pope Benedict XVI

Unknown to the vast majority of Irish Catholics, the betrayal described above was actually ongoing (e.g. in Ferns) when Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979. Knowing this now, Ireland is a vastly different place. It is therefore unthinkable that Pope Benedict XVI could visit Ireland in the near future without alluding to that betrayal, or that he could leave it at the end of such a visit with these questions (Q1-Q12) still unaddressed.

And were he to leave Ireland without meeting, in dialogue, a representative gathering of survivors, this could only be regarded as a papal endorsement of that betrayal and as final proof that our church leaders pay only lip service to the principle of the equal dignity of all members of the church.

Such a visit would therefore signal not a revival of the Irish church but the final triumph of denial and evasion, and the end of any prospect of a 'New Evangelisation' in Ireland in its aftermath.

Yours sincerely,

Acting Coordinator, p. p. those named below

Carol Brady Patrick McCafferty (Rev) Patricia O'Conaill
Pat Callan Connolly McLaughlin Sean O'Connor
Siobhan Carroll Teresa Mee Martin Ridge
Marie Collins Bryan Maguire Sean Walsh
Marie Crowley Gerry Mulligan Bernadette Wyer
Kevin Kelly Irene O'Beirne-Maguire Danny Duddy
Margaret Kennedy Sean O'Conaill



The true Papal Cross of Pedophilia


On Obedience, approval of the second decree

[03/03/2008] On the afternoon of 3 March, the General Congregation has approved its second decree, about obedience.

While recent general congregations have touched on themes related to obedience, the last time a general congregation issued a decree on the topic was GC 31 in 1966. Vatican II had just ended, and we had just begun to respond to the council's call to renew our Jesuit life from two sources: scripture and the charism of our founder. That renewal has matured, so the decree on obedience of GC 35 begins with a reflection on what the experience of the First Companions and the scriptures' portrayal of Jesus teach us about Jesuit obedience.

The decree then moves to the contemporary scene. At the time of GC 31, many were asking how we can ensure that structures which sustain the body of the Society not stifle individual creativity. The terrain has shifted in forty years. Now many are asking how we can ensure that individual efforts are integrated into the mission of the body. The decree suggests that both the account of conscience and renewed structures of community life are essential to achieving balance in that regard.

Anyone who looks at the history of the Society will see that we have always understood our role of service in the Church in relation to the papacy. Therefore, the decree goes on to offer some reflections on living our relationship of obedience to the papacy today, especially with regard to our mission in the broadest sense.

Before work on the decree began, discussion groups of delegates surfaced some areas of our life of obedience in the Society where they felt a word of advice or reminder was needed. In response, the decree ends with some reflections on obedience in our day to day life directed to Jesuits in formation, formed Jesuits, and superiors.

Fr. Tom Feely, SJ

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