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"In 1095 AD, Urban II, bishop of Rome, made a call for a Holy Crusade in order to take Jerusalem from Jews and Muslims in the name of Christianity. When they captured Jerusalem, they embarked on a merciless killing spree.
They burned Jews alive within their Synagogues.
They slaughtered Muslims.
And to add insult to injury, they made their captive Muslims clean up all the blood and body parts that littered the streets.
Ninety-two years of decadence and savagery against Jews and Muslims followed, until Saladin and his Muslim armies sent the bastards packing on October 2, 1187, and freed the Holy Land from European occupation.
Unlike the genocide of the Crusaders a hundred years earlier, there were no scenes of senseless slaughter after the European surrender. Saladin even allowed Richard to take home the relics from the Church of the Sepulchre.
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The Templars were divided into knights, chaplains, sergeants, and craftsmen, organized under a Grand Master and general council. Wearing a white cloak with a red eight-pointed cross on the left shoulder, they attracted many nobles and soon became an expert military force, which bravery in the field was unquestionable, and also a powerful and wealthy order, with branches throughout Europe.
Order of the knights templar
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In 1189, Pope Gregory VIII issued a Papal Bull that prompted the Third Crusade. The idea was to take back Jerusalem from Saladin's armies. During this Crusade, the man we know today as Richard the Lionhearted showed the true Lion's Heart of a Christian. Over a failed negotiation, Richard ordered the slaughter of all his Muslim prisoners 2700 men, women, and children, in full view of Saladin's army.
The fact that we still refer to him as "the Lionhearted" today says a whole lot about Western values, doesn't it? In any case, the Crusade was a failure. They never took Jerusalem.
Texas George And
The Last Crusade
By Hsing Lee
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Vatican on a quest for the Crusaders
Richard Owen, Rome
March 21, 2006
THE Vatican has moved to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the "noble aim" of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity.
The Crusades are seen by many Muslims as acts of violence that have underpinned Western aggression towards the Arab world ever since. Followers of Osama bin Laden claim to be taking part in a latter-day "jihad against the Jews and Crusaders".
The late Pope John Paul II sought to achieve Muslim-Christian reconciliation by asking "pardon" for the Crusades during the 2000 millennium celebrations. But John Paul's apologies for the past "errors of the church" -- including the Inquisition and anti-semitism -- irritated some Vatican conservatives.
According to insiders, the dissenters included Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict reached out to Muslims and Jews after his election and called for dialogue. However, the Pope, due to visit Turkey in November, has in the past suggested that Turkey's Muslim culture is at variance with Europe's Christian roots.
BATTLES FOR THE HOLY LAND
HISTORIANS count eight Crusades, although dates are disputed:
The first, 1095 to 1101, was called by Pope Urban II; then came the 1145 to 1147 Crusade, led by Louis VII; Richard I led the 1188 to 1192 Crusade; the 1204 Crusade included the sacking of Constantinople; the 1217 Crusade led to the conquest of Damietta; the Crusade in 1228 and 1229 was led by Frederick II; Louise IX of France led two Crusades, from 1249 to 1252 and in 1270. Until the 11th century, Christians, Jews and Muslims coexisted in the Holy Land. But after ambushes of Christian pilgrims, Byzantine emperor Alexius appealed to Pope Urban II, who called on Christendom to take up arms to free the Holy Land from the "Muslim infidel"
At the conference, held at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, Italian historian Roberto De Mattei recalled that the Crusades were "a response to the Muslim invasion of Christian lands and the Muslim devastation of the Holy Places".
Professor De Mattei noted that the desecration of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by Muslim forces in 1009 helped provoke the first Crusade, called by Pope Urban II at the end of the 11th century. He said the Crusaders were "martyrs" who "sacrificed their lives for the faith".
He was backed by Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University, who said that those who sought forgiveness for the Crusades "do not know their history". He attacked Ridley Scott's recent film Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom, as "utter nonsense".
Professor Riley-Smith said the script, like much writing on the Crusades, was "historically inaccurate". "It depicts the Muslims as civilised and the Crusaders as barbarians. It has nothing to do with reality." It fuelled Islamic fundamentalism by propagating "bin Laden's version of history".
He said the Crusaders were at times undisciplined and capable of great cruelty but the same was true of Muslims and troops in "all ideological wars".
American writer Robert Spencer, author of A Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, told the conference that the mistaken view had taken hold in the West, as well as the Arab world, that the Crusades were "an unprovoked attack by Europe on the Islamic world". In reality, Christians had been persecuted after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem.
the australian.news.com.au/
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ABUSE AT NATIVE RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN CANADA
Religioustolerance.org
Overview. About residential schools
The arrival of Europeans to North and South America marked a major change in Native society. Millions died due to sickness, programs of slavery, and extermination. 1 Europeans and their missionaries generally looked upon Native Spirituality as worthless superstition inspired by the Christian devil, Satan.
"During the colonial period, the 650 aboriginal nations in Canada were relegated to reserves, usually in isolated, unproductive regions of the country. Native populations declined drastically until the 1940s, languages were lost, and traditional ceremonies were outlawed." 2
Native spirituality was actively suppressed by the U.S. and Canadian governments. Spiritual leaders ran the risk of jail sentences of up to 30 years for simply practicing their religious rituals. This came to an end in the U.S. when the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 was passed (later amended in 1994). 3,4 Canadian Natives obtained a guarantee of religious freedom with the rest of Canadians in 1982 when the Canadian Charter of rights and Freedoms was passed.
During the late 19th century and much of the 20th century, the Canadian and American governments goal for their Native populations was assimilation. Sometimes this is referred to contemptuously as "Making apples" -- changing the culture and religion of Native peoples so that they become "white" on the inside, even as their skin remained red. The goal was to force Natives to disappear within the larger, predominately white, society. A key component of this policy were the residential schools, which were operated for over a century, from 1879 -- shortly after Confederation -- to 1986. About 160,000 Native students passed through the school system. About 91,000 claim that they were physically and/or sexually abused. 5
The end result of various assimilation processes can be seen in the current mental health of First Nations people. A rough indication of this is mirrored in their suicide rates. Canada's overall suicide rate is typically about 14 per 100,000 people -- a little higher than the U.S. Suicide rates in the First Nations populations are two or three times higher. 6 An extremely high rate of 80.2 has been observed among 10 to 19 year-old Native males living on the northern coast of Labrador.
According to Glen Coulthard of the University of Alberta, The Canadian government's policies included the destruction of much of Native culture, values and religion. 7 With the help of the Christian churches, these traditions were largely replaced with versions of western Christianity. The main players were the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, the United Church of Canada, and the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The government financed residential school systems; religious institutions ran them. Sometimes, children were kidnapped and taken long distances from their communities in order to attend school. Once there, they were held captive, isolated from their families of origin, and forcibly stripped of their language, religion, traditions and culture. Many native children grew up with little knowledge of their original culture.
Not mentioned in Coulthard's essay was the extremely high level of physical and sexual abuse suffered by Native children at the religious schools. The result has been that, as adults, many suffer with depression, have difficulty in parenting, and live with a loss of culture. Some commit suicide.
The residential schools:
They were operated over the period 1879 to 1986. "Department of Indian Affairs reports...show that between 1890 and 1965 an average of 7,100 native students attended residential schools compared to 11,400 who attended day schools in the same period." 8
Author Jim Miller has commented: "Writing about the 'Basic Concepts and Objectives' of Canada's Indian policy in 1945, an official of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs put his finger squarely on the motivation behind residential schools. Noting Ottawa's desire to promote self-sufficiency among the indigenous population, and rightly zeroing in on Canada's systematic attack on traditional Indian religion and cultural practices, the observer concluded that the dominion's purpose was assimilation. As important as the push for self-support and Christianization [sic] among the Indians was in its own right, it was 'also means to another end: full citizenship and absorption into the body politic.' Clearly, Canada chose to eliminate Indians by assimilating them, unlike the Americans, who had sought to exterminate them physically. 'In other words, the extinction of the Indians as Indians is the ultimate end' of Canadian Indian policy, noted the American official." 8 Some definitions of the term "Genocide" would encompass such assimilation. 9
Students were often beaten if they spoke their native language, or practiced their faith's rituals. There are allegations that the students were often poorly fed and clothed. Sexual and physical abuse was widespread. Individual natives and native communities continue to suffer the after-effects of students' brutal and criminal treatment in these schools.
LECTURE SERIES
"Unbelievers deserve not only to be separated from the Church, but also... to be exterminated from the World by death." - Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, 1271).
Christian civilization, by virtue of its exclusivist heresy and monotheism, became the self-justifying destroyer of all non-Christian culture.
5 part lecture series, delivered in New Westminster, BC, based on two books written by Reverend Kevin Annett, Hidden From History: The Canadian Genocide and Love and Death in the Valley. Click on lecture links below to listen. - webpage
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Canada and its Churches are Accused of Genocide by Major Guatemalan Indigenous Organizations
Vancouver, May 23:
On Thursday, May 20, 2004, a representative of three major indigenous groups in Guatemala presented a formal protest letter or "denuncia" to Monica Izaguire of the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala City.
This protest letter accused Canada and its mainline churches of committing and concealing acts of Genocide against its native populations for more than a century, in their Indian Residential Schools and hospitals.
The letter called for the Canadian government to support an international investigation into these allegations of Genocide by Canada and its churches. The letter was endorsed and signed by the Defensoria Indigena, the Consejo de Esperanza of San Andres Itzapa, and the Consejo Asesor Indigena of San Andres Itzapa.
To quote the letter,
"To the Government and Prime Minister of Canada,
"We are deeply alarmed and concerned by the fact that crimes of Genocide are alleged to have been committed against the indigenous peoples of Canada by your government and by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and United Church of Canada.
"According to eyewitnesses and official documentation, these crimes are alleged to include murder, torture, rape, involuntary sexual sterilization, forced labour, biological warfare, medical experimentation, land theft, cultural eradication, pedophilia, and the conducting of a prolonged war of extermination against non-Christian aboriginal people.
"These crimes are alleged to have occured for more than a century in the state-sponsored and church-run Indian Residential Schools which legally interned every Indian child across Canada between the years 1890 and 1984. During this period, more than 50,000 children died in these schools, according to the statistics of your own Department of Indian Affairs. Most of the bodies of these dead children have never been located or recovered.
"According to the evidence before us, paid employees and officials of these Indian Residential Schools perpetrated, condoned and concealed every act defined as Genocide by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, which was passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, and ratified by Canada in 1952.
"The same evidence indicates that the highest officials of church and state in Canada knew of these crimes and continually approved them as a matter of policy. As such, your government and the churches in question appear to be responsible for having committed and concealed intentional Genocide, as defined by the United Nations.
"We understand that your government and the churches in question have only acknowledged the physical and sexual attacks on native children in these schools, and have refused to take responsibility for any of the other crimes attested to by eyewitness survivors. In this way, your institutions can be considered to be openly violating international law, and holding yourselves unaccountable for crimes against humanity committed by your employees and accountable officials.
"As representatives of indigenous organizations throughout the Americas, we therefore call upon your government and the churches in question to abide by morality and international law, and do the following:
"1. Support a motion before the United Nations General Assembly and the International Criminal Court to establish an International War Crimes Tribunal into Genocide in Canada.
"2. Surrender to this Tribunal all evidence held by your government and the churches in question pertaining to any and all crimes committed against indigenous people and their land, including murder and Genocide.
"3. Surrender to this Tribunal the names of all persons who are guilty of such crimes in the Indian Residential Schools.
"4. Respond publicly to the allegations of Genocide made against your government and the churches in question by survivors of the residential schools.
"5. Revoke the charitable, tax free status of the churches in question on the grounds that they are accused of having committed and concealed crimes against humanity, and should therefore not be subsidized and aided by the public until these allegations are proved or disproved.
"We are communicating this appeal to the world community and its media, prior to further public action on this matter."
This statement has been delivered to the world press, as the first in a series of further denuncias anticipated by the Guatemalan indigenous groups, which are working with The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada to make these facts known.
- hiddenfromhistory.org
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Deja Vu? Hey! Remember those Nazis?
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Read what the press of the Spanish dictator, Franco, published on the 3rd of May, 1945, the day of Hitler's death. It said, "Adolf Hitler, son of the Catholic Church, died while defending Christianity." It goes on to say, "Over his mortal remains stands his victorious moral figure. With the palm of the martyr, God gives Hitler the laurels of Victory."
Hitler himself stated, "I learned much from the Order of the Jesuits. Until now, there has never been anything more grandiose, on the earth, than the hierarchical organization of the Catholic church. I transferred much of this organization into my own party."
- A 20th Century Inquisition
flashback Pope John Paul II
In the early 1940's, a young Polish salesman, employed by I.G.
Farben Chemical Company (manufacturer of cyanide gas)* sold
cyanide to the Nazis, for use in Auschwitz. He also worked as a
chemist manufacturing the cyanide gas that exterminated millions
of Jews and other peoples in the very heart of the Auschwitz
extermination camp. Fearing for his life after the war, he took
refuge in the Catholic church (cult) and was ordained a priest in
late 1946. In 1958, he was ordained Poland's youngest bishop. After
the 30-day reign and assassination of his predecessor, he assumed
the papacy as Pope John Paul II THE FUGITIVE POPE
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PANZERPOPE ALERT! Ratzinger is 'elected' as new pope
St Peter's Square is now full of people eager to greet the new pope
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been elected as the pope - the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
Taking the name Pope Benedict XVI, the 78-year-old German has appeared on the balcony of the Vatican palace.
His arrival was greeted by cheers from the many thousands of pilgrims who had packed St Peter's Square as news of his election spread.
He was chosen on the third round of votes by the 115 cardinals meeting to select Pope John Paul II's successor.
bbc |
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HE WAS KNOWN AS GOD'S ROTTWEILER...NOW HE'S POPE BENEDICT XVI
HARDLINE new pope Joseph Ratzinger meekly described himself yesterday as a "simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord".
The 78-year-old German - a former Hitler Youth member who is dubbed "God's Rottweiler" - emerged as leader of the world's 1.1billion Catholics after one of the fastest elections in 100 years.
As the 265th pontiff he took the name Benedict XVI, possibly signalling his intention to be a peacemaker after Pope Benedict XV early in the last century.
The Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, the Most Rev Patrick Kelly, called him "wise and profound". The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said: "He is a theologian of great stature."
But Benedict's zeal for Catholic orthodoxy, which has won him the nicknames of "The Enforcer" and the "Panzer Cardinal", worries those seeking a softer church line on contraception, abortion, women priests and homosexuality. - mirror
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Ratzinger the Panzerkardinal ?
John Paul II appointed him Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) – an organisation once known as the Inquisition – which has allowed him to stamp his theological conservatism on the Church over a period of more than 20 years.
His role and hard-line views saw opponents nickname him the "Panzerkardinal" but he also has many supporters and is the ultimate Vatican insider.
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In the corridors of the Vatican his other nicknames include 'vice pope' and 'John Paul III'.
Cardinal Ratzinger has seen his mission as defending Catholic teaching following liberal moves after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. He has criticised the introduction of the non-Latin Mass as a 'tragic breach'. In the 1980s he described homosexuality as an 'intrinsic moral evil' and said rock music could be a 'vehicle of anti-religion'. To some he is a saviour to the Church in an increasingly secular world, to others he is an authoritarian who punishes liberal thought.
Scotsman
Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
"...the Inquisition. You history buffs will remember the Inquisition: those Catholic zealots who in the Middle Ages couldn't abide apostates and doubters of the One True Faith. They perfected the use of thumbscrews and the rack to force Jews, Muslims and other dissenters to adopt the Vatican's more ‘accurate' understanding of Christianity...." Kathy Mcmahon, BreakForNews.com
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"I wasn't a Nazi - I had a bad finger!!?
Ratzinger's past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement and wartime service with a German anti-aircraft unit. However, he was never involved in Nazi atrocities, and joined the Hitler Youth only after membership was made compulsory in 1941. Two years later he was enrolled in an anti-aircraft battalion that protected a BMW factory whose workforce included slave labourers from Dachau concentration camp.
The pontiff has insisted he never took part in combat and said he never fired a shot because one of his fingers was badly infected. He was later sent to Hungary where he was obliged to set up tank traps. While there he saw Jews being deported to the death camps. - independent
Traunstein was also where Ratzinger went through the harrowing years of Nazi rule and World War II.
In his memoirs, Ratzinger wrote he was enrolled in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He said he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.
Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper, a common task for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. A year later he was released, only to be sent to the Austrian-Hungarian border to construct tank barriers.
He deserted the Germany army in May 1945 and returned to Traunstein - a risky move, since deserters were shot on the spot if caught or publicly hanged as examples to others.
When he arrived home, U.S. soldiers took him prisoner and held him in a POW camp for several weeks. Upon his release, he re-entered the seminary.
Ratzinger was ordained, along with his brother, in 1951. He then spent several years teaching theology. In 1977, he was appointed bishop of Munich and elevated to cardinal three months later by Pope Paul VI. - Albuquerque tribune
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Alperin v. Vatican Bank was originally filed in Federal Court in San Francisco in November 1999. The plaintiffs are concentration camp survivors of Serb, Jewish, and Ukrainian background and their relatives as well as organizations representing over 300,000 Holocaust victims.
The plaintiffs seek an accounting and restitution of the Nazi Croatian Treasury that according to the US State Department was illicitly transferred to the Vatican bank and other banks after the end of the war.
Name defendants currently include the Vatican Bank, Franciscan Order, and the Croatian Liberation Movement. These defendants combined to conceal assets looted by the Croatian Nazis from concentration camp victims, Serbs, Jews, Roma and others between 1941-1945.
Levy v. CIA is a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act seeking release of US Intelligence agency files regarding the notorius Vatican spymaster, Fr. Krunoslav Draganovic. New records on Draganovic were released as a result of that lawsuit in 2001. - vaticanbankclaims
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Opus dei?
On becoming pope in October 1978 - he celebrated his silver jubilee in 2003 - he chose to be called John Paul II. That was partly in deference to his predecessor, John Paul I, who had died after only 33 days in office. It was also a tribute to John XXIII (1958-63), the first of the contemporary popes to understand the need to modernise the Church, laying down a more liberal role in the historic Vatican Council II.
However, those who hoped that John Paul II would continue the liberal tradition of the Vatican Council II were disappointed. Paradoxically for someone so internationally adventurous and innovative, his spiritual and pastoral legacy was that of a conservative.
While still a cardinal, he defined the task of a theologian within narrow confines: namely, to "guard, defend, and teach the sacred body of revelation in strict subordination to the Pope and his bishops". This intolerance of dissent remained throughout his reign and led him into conflict with Hans Kung, the German theologian, over papal infallibility.
He refused to endorse the message of liberation theology coming from Latin America, where radical priests, influenced by Marxist ideology, sought to combat social injustice by establishing a "church of the poor". Priests who joined the Sandinista government in Nicaragua were excommunicated.
The conservative in John Paul led him to give less weight to the traditionally influential counsels of the Jesuits. Instead he turned to the Opus Dei movement, making it one of the most powerful forces in the politics of contemporary Catholicism. He beatified in an almost unseemly hurry Monsignor Josemara Escrivá de Balaguer, Opus Dei's Spanish founder.
On ethical matters he was uncompromising - especially where they concerned the family and birth control. With age, he became more dogmatic, and his 10th encyclical, Veritas Splendor, published in 1993, sealed his unwavering opposition to non-natural methods of birth control.
ft.com
The term ``Fascist'' has created some confusion. The ideology of Opus Dei has all the features commonly found in the abstract political category of ``fascism'' even though it is a very special form of this ideology, since it is mixed with elements of the Christian religion. Reading Escriva's book ``The Way'' with the above definition of fascism in mind, it is evident that he is the perfect Fascist.
On 05 Sept 2000, the Vatican issued a major document (authored by Cardinal Radzinger, fundmentalist head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Inquisition) re-affirmed that salvation is possible only with the Catholic faith. Among those present at the news conference was Msgr Fernando Ocariz, Vicar General of Opus Dei.
The document (called Dominus Jesus) declared that
- other religions are defective,
- sacred writings of other religions are not inspired by God like the Christian ones
- prayers and rituals of other religions do not have a 'divine origin' and contain 'some superstitions or errors'.
The document was branded by progressives as fundamentalist and racist but the Opus Dei had endorsed its arrogant sentiments.
excerpts from:
The Unofficial Opus Dei FAQ
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Th[e] rigid anti-Communist stance fits very much in line with Ratzinger's involvement also in the Fatima mysteries. If you'll recall, the Virgin Mary herself supposedly appeared to peasant children in Portugal during the first World War to warn of the rise of Communist Russia. The so-called 'Second Secret' she revealed at Fatima went:
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'Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will suffer much and various nations will be annihilated.'
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for more analysis see:
Tim Boucher Cardinal Ratzinger - Could the Next Pope Be a Nazi?
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Pope blasts gay marriage, abortion
June 07, 2005 - POPE Benedict XVI has condemned homosexual marriage, abortion and genetic engineering, just days before Italy is to vote in a referendum aimed at relaxing the country's stringent fertility legislation.
In his first clear pronouncement on gay marriages since his election, he branded same-sex unions fake and expressions of "anarchic freedom" that threatened the future of the family.
The Pope also condemned divorce, artificial birth control, trial marriages and free-style unions, saying all of those practices were dangerous for the family.
"Today's various forms of dissolution of marriage, free unions, trial marriages as well as the pseudo-matrimonies between people of the same sex are instead expressions of anarchic freedom which falsely tries to pass itself off as the true liberation of man," he said in Rome.
Speaking to families at St John's Cathedral, he said "pseudo freedoms" such as gay marriages were based on what he called the "banalisation of the human body" and of man himself. - From correspondents in Rome - The Australian
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Did Ratzinger help Bush with the Election in 2004?
Did that many Catholics really listen to the panzer Cardinal?
President Bush treated his final visit with Pope John Paul II in Vatican City on June 4, 2004, as a campaign stop. After enduring a public rebuke from the pope about the Iraq war, Bush lobbied Vatican officials to help him win the election. "Not all the American bishops are with me," he complained, according to the National Catholic Reporter. He pleaded with the Vatican to pressure the bishops to step up their activism against abortion and gay marriage in the states during the campaign season.
About a week later, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger sent a letter to the U.S. bishops, pronouncing that those Catholics who were pro-choice on abortion were committing a "grave sin" and must be denied Communion. He pointedly mentioned "the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws" -- an obvious reference to John Kerry, the Democratic candidate and a Roman Catholic. If such a Catholic politician sought Communion, Ratzinger wrote, priests must be ordered to "refuse to distribute it." Any Catholic who voted for this "Catholic politician," he continued, "would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion." During the closing weeks of the campaign, a pastoral letter was read from pulpits in Catholic churches repeating the ominous suggestion of excommunication. Voting for the Democrat was nothing less than consorting with the forces of Satan, collaboration with "evil." -
by
Sidney Blumenthal, a former assistant and senior advisor to President Clinton [who has a vested interest in covering up VOTE FRAUD which would make Bonesman Kerry look very complicit]
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Benedict calls for "new world order" to correct economic imbalances
Sun Dec 25, 2005 By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, in his first Christmas address, on Sunday urged humanity to unite against terrorism, poverty and environmental blight and called for a "new world order" to correct economic imbalances.
The Pope made his comments to tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered under umbrellas in a rainy St Peter square for his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message and blessing. In his address, telecast live from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica to tens of millions of people in nearly 40 countries, he also urged his listeners not to let technological achievements blind them to true human values. He said humanity should look to the Christ child for encouragement in times of difficulty and fear.
"A united humanity will be able to confront the many troubling problems of the present time: from the menace of terrorism to the humiliating poverty in which millions of human beings live, from the proliferation of weapons to the pandemics and the environmental destruction which threatens the future of our planet," he said. "Do not fear; put your trust in him! The life-giving power of his light is an incentive for building a new world order based on just ethical and economic relationships," he said, speaking in Italian.
Marching bands of the Swiss Guard and Italian police played for the crowd near a larger-than-life nativity scene, making for a festive atmosphere despite the rain. The address by the leader of the world's some 1.1 billion Roman Catholics was different in style than those of his predecessor John Paul, who died last April. John Paul wrote his Christmas addresses in free-style verse and resembled poetry, whereas Benedict's was in prose like a normal homily or speech.
After the address, Benedict wished the world a Happy Christmas in 33 languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Swahili, Japanese and Latin. His predecessor sometimes used twice as many languages on Christmas.
DO NOT MAKE TECHNOLOGY A GOD
Since his election, the Pope has repeatedly reminded Catholics not to give in to an "ethical relativism" where circumstances can be used to justify actions that should be considered wrong in all cases. The Pope, wearing a gold cape and with a gold mitre, continued in that line on Sunday address by focussing on the dangers of technology and progress.
"Today we can dispose of vast material resources. But the men and women in our technological age risk becoming victims of their own intellectual and technical achievements, ending up in spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart," he said. "That is why it is so important for us to open our minds and hearts to the birth of Christ, this event of salvation which can give new hope to the life of each human being," he said.
He also urged respect for the rights of people suffering in the Darfur region of Sudan, made another appeal for peace in the Holy Land and called for "actions inspired by fairness and wisdom" in Iraq and Lebanon.
The Pope asked God to favour dialogue on the Korean peninsula so that "dangerous disputes" there and elsewhere in Asia can be solved peacefully. The Sunday Urbi et Orbi followed a Christmas eve midnight mass attended by a congregation that packed St Peter's Basilica. In his homily at that mass he urged the world's Catholics to be beacons of peace in a troubled world. The next major event on the Pope's Christmas season calendar is a mass on the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6. In early January, the Pope is due to publish his first encyclical, a major writing addressed to all Church members. The encyclical deals with the individual's personal relationship with God. - reuters
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Peres Says Pope Hopes to Visit Israel in '07 - Both Condemn All Terrorist Attacks
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 6, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said that Benedict XVI had told him he hoped he would be able to visit the Holy Land in 2007.
During a papal audience today, Peres, a senior Kadima party politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner, transmitted to the Holy Father the invitation presented by interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro Valls published a statement after the audience, confirming the invitation but making no mention of a date for the trip.
"In the talks there was an exchange of opinions on the topic of peace in the Holy Land, in respect of the United Nations resolutions and agreements reached to date," the Vatican spokesman said.
"In this context, all forms of terrorism, regardless of any pretext to justify them, were unanimously condemned," Navarro Valls noted.
He added: "Relations between the state of Israel and the Holy See were also examined -- in the light of agreements endorsed in 1993 and 1997 -- as well as the relations of Israeli authorities with the country's Christian communities."
After being received by the Bishop of Rome, Peres met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
On hand were Oded Ben-Hur, the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, and Monsignor Pietro Parolin, undersecretary of the Vatican section for relations with states.
- zenit.org
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HK's cardinal: Vatican, China discussing relations
2006/4/10 - By William Foreman HONG KONG, AP
Hong Kong's new cardinal said the Vatican and China are holding "real talks" in Rome about normalizing formal relations that were cut off more than five decades ago when the communists took over the mainland.
Cardinal Joseph Zen's comments on the Sunday TV talkshow "Newsline" on Hong Kong's ATV World were among the most detailed he has made about the nature of the meetings between the Beijing and Catholic leaders in Rome.
The show's host, veteran journalist Frank Ching, noted that a senior Chinese religious official, Ye Xiaowen, recently said Beijing and the Vatican have only been in "contact" about the issue of forging new relations. But the outspoken Zen insisted the meetings were much more substantial than mere contacts.
"My impression is that they've entered into real talks," Zen said, adding that negotiators were meeting in Rome.
Zen said one sticking point has been who would have the authority to appoint bishops. He said the Vatican would be willing to show China a list of candidates and allow Beijing to share its opinion, but that the Vatican should have the final say.
"The final word should not be exclusively on the side of an atheist government," said Zen, who was appointed cardinal last month.
Since Beijing cut formal ties with the Vatican in 1951, the Communist government has only allowed the faithful to worship in churches run by the state-sanctioned Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.
Zen said one of the Vatican's conditions for re-establishing relations was that there must be religious freedom in China. But he said the Vatican wasn't insisting on absolute religious freedom.
When asked whether the Vatican was satisfied with the level of religious freedom now, Zen did not directly answer the question.
"I think we can hope that the cage will become bigger and bigger, and we hope at the end they'll let the birds fly," the cardinal said.
Zen recently hosted a reception celebrating his new appointment, and officials from China's liaison office in Hong Kong were invited but didn't attend. Zen said they declined the invitations because they had other engagements or were traveling.
"I would not make a big issue of that," he said about the no-shows. But he added that Beijing was still unsure about his new role. "They are watching and they have not made up their mind yet about how to treat me. I'm a troublemaker," he said.
- chinapost.com
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Catholic priest convicted over satanic ritual murder of nun
By JAMES EWINGER
13 may 06 - The advertiser
A U.S. jury yesterday found a Roman Catholic priest guilty of the satanic ritual-style murder of a 71-year-old nun which went unsolved for more than 25 years.
Father Gerald Robinson, above, was sentenced to a mandatory jail term of between 15 years and life.
There were gasps in the court after the verdict, but the 68-year-old priest remained impassive.
Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was found murdered on a chapel floor in April, 1980. She had been strangled, covered in an altar cloth and stabbed 31 times in the shape of an upturned holy cross.
She had been grabbed from behind and choked so violently that the blood vessels in her eyes burst and two bones in her neck broke. Prosecutor Dean Mantros said that Robinson pushed up the nun's robe and pulled down her underwear.
Robinson was an early suspect but was only arrested in 2004, after a woman came forward with claims that she had been sexually abused by a group of priests who performed satanic rituals and held sadomasochistic orgies.
A spot of blood on the priest's letter opener was found to match a bloodstain on the altar cloth that had covered Sister Pahl's body.
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Pope Benedict receives Tony Blair
Press Association - Saturday June 3, 2006 guardian.co.uk
Pope Benedict XVI has received Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, in an audience.
It was the first time the pontiff has met privately with Mr Blair since Benedict's election last year, but the second time he has met Mrs Blair.
The Vatican gave no details of the meeting, which it described as a private audience.
Mr Blair a day earlier held talks in Rome with Italy's new prime minister, Romano Prodi, about the Italian troop withdrawal from Iraq, which Prodi has said will be completed this year.
Mrs Blair met the Pope in April, when she took part in a Vatican conference on children, which he addressed.
Mr Blair was expected to tell the Pope that moderate religious leaders must work together to tackle extremism and terrorism.
A Downing Street spokesman earlier said the two men had "lots to discuss".
"The Vatican is an influential player on the world stage and, through all the Catholic communities around the world, has a significant influence on international opinion," he said. "The Prime Minister will be interested in the Pope's views on key foreign policy issues. "In particular he will want to discuss with the Pope inter-faith relations and how best inter-faith dialogue can help with conflict resolution and how the moderate voices of the world's main religions need to work together to tackle and confront extremism and terrorism."
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