Showing posts with label Liberation Theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liberation Theology. Show all posts

Monday, September 2, 2013

Interview with Secretary of State Parolin: “With Francis, the Impression of a Besieged Church Has Changed to an Open Church"


(Caracas)  Pope Francis accepted  the resignation last Saturday of Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, the new Secretary of State. On 4 August the Venezuelan newspaper published an interview with the former nuncio and future cardinal. The Vatican diplomat Archbishop Parolin is a man of few words, and those he uses, he weighs carefully, as it is expected of a diplomat. It was not easy to persuade him to be interviewed, writes Manuel Isidro Molina, the journalist of the pro-government daily newspaper Ultimas Noticias, who conducted the interview. The answers give some insight into the person, his understanding of diplomacy and thus also a preview of how he will fill the highest office of the Roman Curia behind the Pope.
It took place at the end of July at the Apostolic Nunciature in Caracas, shortly after Nicolas Maduro, the successor of Chavez   returned as Venezuelan president from visiting the Vatican with Pope Francis. The responses of the nuncio and the new Secretary of State of the Holy See took place against the background of Venezuela, which is dominated by Bolivarism,  a left national state ideology with nationalist and Marxist elements.
What has happened in the Church since last 13 March as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen as the new Pope?
I think that nothing new is happening in the Church in the sense that something is new and normal.
Getting ready for renewal?
That's right, always, because the main actor in the Church is the Holy Spirit.
How do you interpret the "phenomenon" Francis?
What moves me and what I consider to be a miracle of the election of Pope Francis is the abrupt climate change, which was perceived immediately. Previously there was a pessimism entirely unjustified, as I add, because Pope Benedict XVI. has done everything humanly possible to renew the Church, if we think for example of the great commitment in the fight against pedophilia.
It seems that to have to face the pressure of pedophilia and corruption, have exhausted him ...
Yes, I suspect that too. We were focused on these issues and it seemed as if the Church were not able to renew itself: but suddenly, after this election and the first utterances of the Pope, the situation changed completely. It made a climate of hope, renewal, a broad future that previously seemed hopelessly blocked. And I really look upon as great miracle. The courage and the humility of Benedict XVI.  to take a step back, goes in the same direction as the courage and the humility of Pope Francis to accept the papacy, and the new wind that he has brought.
What impressed you most in the pontificate of St. Francis?
What impresses me most is the complete change of perception that it was for the Church. From a besieged Church with a thousand problems, one might say, a little sick Church, we have moved to a Church that has opened.
He has revitalized it ...
Exactly, and now we look with great confidence in God's future. It seems to me that that's the best thing that has happened to us.
What does it mean that the Pope made his first trip to Brazil?
That's a coincidence, because it was already decided that the World Youth Day will be held in Brazil. Therefore, it fell to the Pope, any Pope to be there.
A chance also that Pope Francis has taken a decision for the poor and that Brazil was the cradle of liberation theology?
To liberation theology, and I say it with all my heart, because there has been much suffering, things are clarified.These painful, passionate years have led to clarify things. The Church, that’s right, has a preferential option for the poor.This is a decision that the Church has made on a universal level. But it has also clarified that the option for the poor nor is it an alternative option.
But preferential...
Yes, a preferential. However, this means that the Church is church for all. The church offers all the Gospel with a special attention to the poor, because they are especially loved by the Lord, because you know, you can accept the gospel only in an attitude of poverty.
The simplicity, Francis proclaimed ...
Pope Francis goes in this direction. This attention he has shown since the first moments of his pontificate, represents a fundamental option in the center of the Church, which applies to everyone, but with a special attention to the poor.
This is a reading that is true for Latin America and the Caribbean believers. Which reading there might be among the African believers?
There are differences. Liberation theology had less resonance in Africa than in Latin America.
And in Europe with the worker priests ...
Yes, of course, but not in Africa. The attention of Pope Francis for the poor is good news for Africa, which experienced conflicts and forms of inequality in different countries. I think the emphasis that sets the Pope, is also important for Africa,  for the whole area, which relates to the issue of social justice and peace, which were treated by the two synods held in the Vatican for Africa.
The issue of poverty is a human issue for the Church. For Marxists, it is also a question of class ...
The Church can not accept the Marxist categories of class struggle. One point among the various problems that existed with those who represented the liberation theology, was the use of the Marxist category of class struggle in their teaching. The Church is always aimed as a first step in the conversion of hearts and the education of human solidarity, a solidarity which not only personally enables, but structurally  overcomes the problems of society.  The Church receives an enormous treasure, namely its social doctrine.
Which measures the weight of church corruption as the cause of these problems?
The Pope has drawn attention. It is a topic that the Church, because she knows that corruption harms the character of the society and attracts many consequences for how the gennanten. It is important that we fight corruption, especially through education, which is a core area for the church. The education of the people to law-abiding, to be honest, the match between word and deed, so that people are able to reject these temptations and to build a healthy society, a positive society.
Pope Francis has inspired increased inter-religious relations, at least between the monotheistic religions ... What is true for the mixture of Latin American and Caribbean beliefs?
,The Pope has expressed ecumenical dialogue between Christians and the inter-religious dialogue in terms of its predecessors, for example, of the meeting with John Paul II in Assisi. Pope Francis is very clear: we must continue on this path.
And the mishmash of Latin American-Caribbean beliefs?
The Church follows the principle of St. Paul to take note of everything and take what is good and healthy. All that is compatible with the Gospel may be adopted.
Are there signs of a possible visit of Pope Francis in Venezuela?
I can not say. We do not know what  the intentions of the Pope will be.
President Nicolas Maduro has invited him on his visit to the Vatican ...
According to my knowledge, he has not invited him. According to yours?
He has opened him the opportunity to come ...
Yes, but a formal invitation, I think there seems to be no. The President is to have said something like the gates are open to Venezuela.
In any case, he did not tell him that they are closed ...
[Laughter] No, not that. At this moment, as far as I know there has been no formal invitation to the Pope to come to Venezuela.
Is  the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the opinion that this meeting was good?
Yes, yes.
Was there an immediate impact?
The evaluation of the meeting of Pope Francis with President Maduro was positive in terms of the dialogue that advances the Church. It was a testimony of dialogue. The Pope is always ready to welcome all.
He has proved it: with the Argentine President Cristina Kirchner there were rumored  disagreements.
The Pope received and embraced her.
He has received President Maduro, in which you claimed that there were differences ...
That's right, the Pope is open to receive all and talk to everybody. It seems to me that the meeting with President Maduro was helpful for a dialogue with the Church here in Venezuela.
An improvement in the quality?
At least, contact channels are open and  dialogue is seen as a means of solving problems.
To understand the problems?
To understand and solve problems in a peaceful, humane and Christian way.
What perception does the Church have of the social suffering that prevails due to the economic crisis in different European countries?
The Church and the Christians, as the Second Vatican Council says, is currently celebrating its 50 years, to make all the dramas of the contemporary  their own. The Church has appealed that human suffering be taken into account in solving the crisis suffered by Europe.
And what happens to the "wild capitalism” as John Paul II has criticized it?  Benedict XVI. has criticized it and Pope Francis criticizes it. Nevertheless, this direction continues to dominate Europe?
This is a worrying thing. The Church is continuing its demand that all this is corrected, so that the human is measured against  the economic, according to  ethics and morality. Man must come before the economic laws. This creates a sense of love for the poor, solidarity, a truly human economy that helps people develop and that they not be humiliated and have their dignity offended. This is a fundamental discourse for the Church, and we all have papal encyclicals from Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII. up to Caritas in Veritate of Benedict XVI.
Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Don Antonio Lasierra / La cigüeña de la torre
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD




Saturday, June 29, 2013

Brother of Leonardo Boff: "We Should Have Listened to Ratzinger"

(Rio de Janeiro) During these days the media duck made the rounds, the prefect of the CDF, Curia, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller had called for a "reconciliation" with the liberation theology, the brother of the most famous liberation theologians of the world, Leonardo Boff has spoken up, and in a very different sense.

Liberation theology was one of the worst disasters of the Catholic Church. Its inventors are the theologians Gustavo Gutierrez, a Dominican, and Leonardo Boff, a Franciscan. It was created after the Second Vatican Council and is supposed to interpret and respond to the dramatic situation of mass poverty in Latin American countries. That's as far as the noble intention.

In reality, they mingled with the theology with the current fashion and seemingly unstoppable Marxism. First they justify class struggle, then armed struggle which leads inevitably to violence. And many Catholics, including priests, religious and seminarians have followed this siren song. The result has been great suffering and serious cracks and splits in the Catholic Church by priests who bartered the cross with the machine gun. Clerics, who, instead of following the example of the saints, rather imitated the example of Che Guevara and fought in the guerrilla struggle through the cities and the jungle and were eventually shot by the police or military.

For this reason, the Latin American bishops condemned the contagious Marxist theology in 1979. The same was done in detail, explained by the doctrinal congregation, under the leadership of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the express request of Pope John Paul II, who was from in the Soviet-controlled Eastern Bloc, and was particularly sensitive to the topic. The CDF studied the phenomenon from the perspective of orthodoxy and the social doctrine of the Church. The condemnation was accomplished with two documents: Libertatis Nuncio (1984) and Libertatis Conscientia (1986). In both, it was noted that liberation theology was in a dependent relationship to the Marxist critique of society and is therefore incompatible with the Gospel message.

Leonardo Boff, today, with other colleagues of the anti-Church boulevard magazine Fatto Quitidiano has this intervention Ratzinger never forgiven. He turned his back on the church and began a personal vendetta against them, including through its Brazilian "Base Communities". A kind Brazilian Don Gallo .

Recently Boff was reported to praise again and speak of Pope Francis effusively. And the media habitually gave him quite a hearing. It had been Boff, who had demanded on behalf of the Council, to the media, that "someone like Bergoglio" should not even be admitted to the conclave. The reason for the Boff did not mention, of course, is that Cardinal Bergoglio had met in Argentina Marxist liberation theology up close and dislikes. Bergoglio rejected the theses of Marxist theology and opposed his brothers in the Jesuit order, who joined Boff and Gutierrez. The result was a still ongoing resentment from parts of the Order against Bergoglio. As Boff has never forgiven him for the condemnation of the theology he created, so have some have the same Jesuits never forgiven Bergoglio.

It is interesting in this context an interview that the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo was held with Clodovis, the brother of Leonardo Boff. Clodovis, a member of the Servites, contradicted his brother:

"In the two documents published by Cardinal Ratzinger, he defended the original core of liberation theology: the commitment to the poor because of the faith. At the same time he criticized the Marxist influence. The Church can't do this. It's not like a civil society where people can say what they want. We are tied to a belief and if someone professes another faith, he closes himself from the Church. From the outset, it was clear the importance was to make Christ the foundation of all theology. In the hegemonic discourse of liberation theology, however, I have noticed that faith in Christ only appeared in the background. The anonymous Christianity of Karl Rahner was a great excuse to neglect Christ, prayer, the sacraments and the mission in which the focus was only on the change of social structures. "
Clodovis Boff, formerly himself a representative of the Teología de la Liberación , who was already critical of it in 1986 and finally distanced from liberation theology in 2007, added: "In the 70s Cardinal Eugneio Sales withdrew my teaching license of Theology at the Catholic University Rio. Sales told me in a friendly way: "Clodovis, I think you are mistaken. Doing good is not enough to be a Christian. The center is to confess the faith ... " He was right. In fact, the Church was irrelevant for us. And not only Her, even Christ Himself "

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Wikicommons

Link to katholisches...

Friday, February 22, 2013

Liberation Theology Will Get a Boost if Cardinal Turkson


Edit: right now, he’s the most favored to be the next Pope. This article identifies some of his political views which are in line with Liberation Theology and Marxist thinking. Right now Cardinal Turkson is the overall favorite to be next Pope according to Paddy Power, despite attempting to take himself out of the running by telling the press what he’ll do when he becomes Pope.

There is a world where it is possible to ‘wipe the tears from the eyes of those who suffer injustice‘. So says the man tipped by many to become the 294th successor to St. Peter as Pope and spiritual leader of the world’s one billion Roman Catholics.

Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, who currently serves as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is a renowned champion of the poor and marginalized.

In a lecture at Durham University Centre for Catholic Studies two years ago, Cardinal Turkson argued that:

“…despite the naysayers, economic resources do exist that could help wipe the tears from the eyes of those who suffer injustice, who lack the basics of a dignified life, and who are in danger from any deterioration in the climate.”

In a call to action, he added that the poor “benefit from champions in solidarity who believe that injustice can be reduced, that harmonious relationships can be fostered, that our planetary ecology can be made sustainable, that a world of greater communion is possible”.

In October 2011, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace he heads set out a radical critique of global financial arrangements, which skew wealth and power away from developing countries.

Read further...

Another Bishop with connections to Ghana is Bishop Terry Steib S.V.D. of the Diocese of Memphis Tennessee in the USA. Interestingly, the coat of arms shows a connection to Marxist causes of black power movement and East Germany.

It’s not surprising that this Bishop is a very enthusiastic supporter of aberrosexuality.

 Part of his coat of arms even has a red chicken, symbolic of the Convention People's Party of Marxist agitator  Kwame Nkrumah, who was backed by the Soviet Union


Here is a description of Bishop Steib’s coat of arms, since none of the examples on line can be blown up successfully to give a decent picture:


The arms of Bishop Steib feature a tri-colored field - black, red, and green - which recalls the Flag of the Black Liberation Movement [represented by the cockerel]; this in turn is based on the Flag of the nation-state of Ghana, whose independence in 1957 gave rise to the general decolonization of the African continent. The colors represent, respectively, the great people that has sprung from this land, the blood shed in its defense, and the green plains of Africa. [It looks a lot like the flag of Communist East Germany, too]


H/t to Jay’s Analysis 


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Secretary of State Scolds New CDF


Edit:  Archbishop Müller attempts to go over the head of the local ordinary, the Pope, even lies about it, on behalf of his Liberation Theology friends in Peru. 

(Lima) In the Andean country of Peru, there is a rebellious university, which was deprived by Rome of the right to continue to call itself a "Catholic.”  The competent Archbishop and nominal chancellor of the academic institution withdrew the right to teach theology from the entire faculty.  After a heated session, which took place a few days ago in Rome, the Holy See insisted  that the university will continue to rebel without theologians. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone had been invited to the meeting. The senior participants made the intention of the Prefect of the Congregation, Archbishop Curia Gerhard Ludwig Müller to thwart the ruling. He had tried to take the side of the Peruvian rebel party. A "gross error” for the keeper of the faith, as it is described in Rome.
Several dicastries were invited to the meeting  to consider a letter from Archbishop Müller to the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Cipriani Thorne at the end of January. Therein the Prefect demanded an explanation as to why the Peruvian Cardinal had revoked the Church’s permission to teach theology for all the university professors of theology department.   This had notified the university authorities in December of disciplinary action by which the Holy See had withdrawn by its decree of June 2012, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru right to continue to describe themselves as “Papal" and call themselves "Catholic".

University must not describe itself as "papal" and "Catholic" - withdrawal of entire faculty's theology teaching license

The disciplinary measure which took place with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, has lost none of its legal validity, since the university boards continue to refuse to reform the statutes and ecclesiastical regulations to implement the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae for higher education institutions.
Although the Roman decree at the time of appointment of the Bishop of Regensburg to Rome had been adopted, and the new CDF Prefect was active, according to which the rebellious professors had then turned to complain to him. According to this the withdrawal of permission to teach, it was made from "reasons of doctrine." Müller felt thus responsible, and called on the Archbishop of Lima, despite his own existing decision, to let the regular teaching  in theology continue. Müller justified this unusual step by saying that the Holy See had not yet decided the question.

CDF Prefect Müllers' interference in Lima and in the Vatican was not viewed well

The new Prefect’s interference came to nothing in Archbishop's Palace in Lima or in the other departments in Rome. Therefore, the Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone  addressed the situation at the aforementioned meeting at which the Muller's letter was canceled. It was annuled on the grounds that it had merely been a “personal" intiative by the Prefect, who had not even consulted his experts at the Congregation. Mueller also failed to send the letter through the regular channels of the Apostolic Nunciature in Lima. The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Cipriani had instead simply just gotten a fax. The document has ignored the canon law, the other departments, which the competent diocesan bishop for the right to grant and revoke the teaching license.
The result of the meeting was immediately sent through diplomatic channels to Peru. It can be summarized as follows: The letter from Archbishop Mueller is null and void the decision of Archbishop Cardinal Cipriani has undiminished validity.

Müller's letter null and void - “Heavy Blow" for the new Master of the Holy Office

The former Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, whose acronym of PUCP has shrunk in UP, does not have enough teachers who are willing to teach without church permission at the university.
The outcome of the meeting chaired by Cardinal Bertone was a "serious blow all around to the new Prefect, such as Andrés Beltramo Álvarez wrote for Vatican insider. To the Roman Curia  the question is whether the "new German in Rome "is really the right man for such a central post, which requires maximum discipline and allows neither improvisation nor formal or editorial errors".
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana

Friday, August 19, 2011

Ortega Accused of Religious Pandering by Former Culture Minister

Edit: in a country where almost sixty percent identify themselves as Catholics, the Leftist President, Daniel Ortega, now enjoys the support of Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo who was critical of him when he ruled the country beginning in 79 when he toppled Somoza thanks to the benign neglect of President Jimmy Carter.

All is not well, however, Jesuit Ernesto Cardenal, former Sandista Minister of Culture publicly reprimanded by Pope John Paul, and Bishop Abelardo Mata are more cynical about Ortega's newly found faith in God.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Religious processions and chants have become common at the re-election campaign rallies of leftist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who is highlighting his Christianity in his bid for re-election.

The image put forth by Ortega's Sandinista Party has dismayed Roman Catholic Church officials, who say the leader's spirituality is a ploy to deceive Nicaraguans who will elect a president in November.

"It's legal, legal, legal," Ortega said at a recent rally when addressing criticism that he is running a campaign tinged with religion. "No one can ban us from using the word Christian. No one. The Vatican hasn't said a word about it."

Link to AP...

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Msgr Aloysius Winter is Dead

Editor: He said the Latin Mass for the local Diocese. He will be missed by many.

A Catholic Priest

The former rector of the Theological Faculty of Fulda, Prelate Aloysius Winter (79) is dead, according to the 'Fulda Zeitung' yesterday.

The story about his injuries was run on Saturday in Saarland which happened as a result of a robbery in his home in Fulda.

Prelate Winter was attacked on 25. June 2010 in his home in Haimbacher Street in Fulda by a then, 31 year old heroin addict.

The perpetrator broke the bedroom door of his victim down and struck like a beast against the clergyman.

A coroner at the University of Giessen has been directed in legal proceedings to report that the defendant had kicked and stomped his victim at least eight times on the head and trunk.



That had produced among other things, a hemorrhage. This is something from which the Prelate will not recover.
"
A few days after the accident he lay in a Fulda Clinic in a coma and had to have a stomach tube put in, sat on a wheel chair and was cared for around the clock.

Then he came to the rehabilitation center near Bernkastel an der Mosel.

"After that he started to speak in complete sentences, then his health came crashing down" -- said Brother Wilhelm according to Br. Wilhelm.

Since this time Winter can no longer communicate with his environment.


And in order to better serve his health his relatives decided to take him to a new convalescent home, placing him in the area of his birth area of Perl-Besch in Saarland.

"Thre we have visited him daily -- up to his last day. He is said to have died at five o'clock", explained his brother Wilhelm.

According to his own desire he will be interred at his birth place.

Prelate Winter was described by all of his acquaintances as someone with a good temperament but was also very ascertive.

Link to original...kreuz...

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Liberation Theology is Back?


Will Liberation Theology be Exhumed?

Vatican, today the new neo-Conservative Archbishop João Bráz de Aviz takes up his new office as Prefect for the Congregation for the Institutes of Religious Life. For the occasion, the Vatican daily, 'Osservatore Romano' published an interview with him wherein he defended the Old Liberal Liberation Theology. That which is found as a "preferential option for the poor" is being sold as a "holy imperative option for Evangelization". Already the supposedly holy John Paul II has said that Liberation Theology is "not only useful, rather also necessary".

From kreuznet.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Another Critique of Liberation Theology

Not so Liberating: The Twilight of Liberation Theology

by Dr. Samuel Gregg Tue, Dec 29, 2009, 02:02 PM

It went almost unnoticed, but on December 5th, Benedict XVI articulated one of the most stinging rebukes that has ever been made by a pope of a particular theological school. Addressing a group of Brazilian bishops, Benedict followed some mild comments about Catholic education with some very sharp and deeply critical remarks about liberation theology and its effects upon the Catholic Church.

Apart from stressing how certain liberation theologians drew heavily upon Marxist concepts, the pope also described these ideas as “deceitful.” This is very strong language for a pope. But Benedict then underscored the damage that liberation theology did to the Catholic Church. “The more or less visible consequences,” he told the bishops, “of that approach - characterised by rebellion, division, dissent, offence and anarchy - still linger today, producing great suffering and a serious loss of vital energies in your diocesan communities.”

Today, even some of liberation theology’s most outspoken advocates freely admit that it has collapsed, including in Latin America. Once considered avant-garde, it is now generally confined to clergy and laity of a certain age who wield ever-decreasing influence within the Church. Nonetheless, Benedict XVI clearly believes it’s worth underscoring just how much harm it inflicted upon the Catholic Church.

For a start, there’s little question that liberation theology was a disaster for Catholic evangelization. There’s a saying in Latin America which sums this up: “The Church opted for the poor, and the poor opted for the Pentecostals.”

In short, while many Catholic clergy were preaching class-war, many of those on whose behalf the war was presumably being waged decided that they weren’t so interested in Marx or listening to a language of hate. They simply wanted to learn about Jesus Christ and his love for all people (regardless of economic status). They found this in many evangelical communities.

A second major impact was upon the formation of Catholic clergy in parts of Latin America. Instead of being immersed in the fullness of the Catholic faith’s intellectual richness, many Catholic seminarians in the 1970s and 1980s read Marx’s Das Capital and refused to peruse such “bourgeois” literature such Augustine’s City of God or Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

Again, this undermined the Church’s ability to witness to Christ in Latin America, not least because some clergy reduced Christ to the status of a heroic-but-less-than-divine urban guerrilla and weren’t especially interested in explaining Catholicism’s tenets to their flocks.

Then there has been the effect upon the Church’s ability to engage the new Latin American economic world which emerged as the region opened itself to markets in the 1990s. Certainly much of this liberalization was poorly executed and marred by corruption. Nonetheless, as the Economist recently reported, countries like Brazil - once liberation theology’s epicenter - are emerging as global economic players and taking millions out of poverty in the process. The smartest thing that Brazil’s left-wing President Lula da Silva ever did was to not dismantle most of his predecessor’s economic reforms.

Unfortunately, one legacy of liberation theology is some Catholic clergy’s inability to relate to people working in the business world. Ironically, business executives are far more likely to be practicing their Catholicism than many other Latin Americans. Yet liberation theology has left a residue of distrust of business leaders among some Catholic clergy - and vice-versa. Distrust is no basis for engagement, let alone evangelization.

The good news is that the Church in Latin America is more than halfway along the road to recovery. Anyone who talks to younger priests and seminarians in Latin America today quickly learns that they have absorbed the devastating critiques of liberation theology produced by the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the 1980s. If anything, they tend to regard liberation theologians such as the ex-priest Leonardo Boff as heretical irrelevancies.

Indeed figures such as Boff must be dismayed that the Catholic Church has emerged as the most outspoken opponent of populist-leftists such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. As Michael Novak observed in Will it Liberate? (1986), liberation theologians were notoriously vague when it came to practical policy proposals. But if any group embodies the liberationists’ economic agenda, it is surely the populist-left who are currently providing us with case studies of how to drive economies into the ground faster than you can say “Fidel Castro.”

As time passes, liberation theology is well on its way to being consigned to the long list of Christian heterodoxies, ranging from Arianism to Hans-Küngism. But as Benedict XVI understands, ideas matter - including incoherent and destructive ideas such as liberation theology. Until the Catholic Church addresses the legacy of this defunct ideology - to give liberation theology its proper designation - its ability to speak to the Latin America of the future will be greatly impaired.

Dr. Samuel Gregg is Director of Research at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded (University Press of America, 2001) and On Ordered Liberty: A Treatise on the Free Society (Lexington Books, 2003).

Link to original...

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Archbishop Nienstedt hosted Dissident Jesuit Against His Own Policy



This is a recap of the aforementioned event at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Edina, Minnesota, a large, white trimmed, church campus that looks more like a protestant megachurch in a disneyfied colonial style. It's actually difficult to descry a church structure amid the cluster of buildings.



Controversial, pro-homosexual speaker, Fr. Kevin Burke led a retreat at a Catholic Parish earlier this month in opposition to Archdiocesan Policy established by the allegedly conservative Archbishop Nienstedt (Who also supports Socialized Medicine and the CCHD). The response from the Archdiocese to this problem was not decisive and it wasn't in line with its own directives.

As a response to this problem, we just received an e-mail from a probable local yokel named, Peter Canisius, which was written by the Communications Director of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis; which seems to be directed at us, reproduced here in its entirety:

You and I both know who you really are and that you are not a dead Jesuit saint but a poor deluded soul who has tried to serve as some kind of avenging angel to the Church and the Archdiocese over the years. Now I know who disrupted my afternoon with your phone call and your unwillingness to listen to facts.

How dare you defame Archbishop Nienstedt with a fake news release like this that is totally untrue. He issued no "document" to Our Lady of Grace or its Adult Formation Office affirmation that Father Kevin Burke SJ is a priest in good standing and that Liberation Theology is fully in line with the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church." This is not only false, but you have committed the sin of calumny in distributing this falsehood.

Since you are such a self appointed guardian of our Church's teachings and the "Magisterium[''s" edicts, you must know that Archbishop Nienstedt is always a faithful follower of both. He has, as you must know, again, prohibited a number of scheduled speakers who did not conform with the Church's teachings from speaking at some of our parishes. At his direction, I personally called the office of the provincial for the Jesuit Order in California and was told that Father Burke is absolutely a priest in good standing with their order. Who are you to deny their authority?

And Archbishop Nienstedt has never approved Father Burke's appearance nor issued any proclamation. I presented him with the information he had asked for and he has not chosen to interfere in this priest's appearance at the parish. We have, however, also been in touch with the parish and directed them to speak with Father Burke in advance to assure that he does not make statements that conflict with the teachings of the Church.

How dare you accuse the Archbishop of violating both the terms of the Manhattan declaration and his own Speakers Policy? Shame on you!

Dennis McGrath
Director of Communications
Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis


It is a confusing letter, not to mention strident, and is confused about the Archdiocese's own policy regarding Catholic speakers which forbids them from speaking on Diocesan property (which did occur) if their writings are not harmonius with Catholic teaching; and we've already demonstrated that the Jesuit speaker, Fr. Kevin Burke is far from problematic, indeed, his writings reek of heresy. We've also demonstrated that the organizer of the event, Terry Grieb, is a member of the CCCR (Catholic Coalition for Church Reform). In the course of our phone call, Mr. McGrath did mention this organization and said that he and the Archbishop had cancelled several events sponsored by them. Why indeed have they permitted this to take place?

It makes the Archdiocese look bad if it has policies that it isn't enforcing. It almost looks as if the Archbishop isn't really serious about combating error. We made Mr. McGrath aware of the event and he became very angry. In any event, he admits in the letter that he was aware of Father Burke SJ, he admitted that he knew Liberation Theology was bad (and that Fr. Burke promotes it in his writings) but insisted that merely getting a verbal agreement was sufficient to ensure that no error would be taught at the retreat on the 7th and 8th of December. Mr. McGrath accused someone of calumny, we're not sure who, but is he aware there is a commandment against lying?

We've also heard that a local Bishop actually said the event had been cancelled, but we were there. Fr. Burke SJ was present, so the talk went on as planned, against Archdiocesan Policy.

All that taken into account, the current pastor, Father Bob Schwartz, by virtue of his assocation with the aforementioned CCCR, Father Kevin Burke SJ, and his assigned reading list featuring books by dissident authors should be sufficient to demonstrate the problematic nature, not only of the talk which recently took place, but of Father Bob Schwartz himself, who by his assigned writings, promotes an environment of dissent and departure from Catholic teaching, writers like Sr. Joan Chittister (women's ordination, homosexuality) and Fr. Richard Rohr would not be welcome speakers at the Archdiocese of St. Paul, that is, if the policy in place were actually enforced at least as we understand it.



One thing's for sure, you won't be in danger of getting instruction on the Catholic Faith by reading Father Bob's Book List, which we will reproduce here:

FR BOB'S RECOMMENDED Book List

General Spiritual Enrichment:
Finding Sanctuary - Monastic Steps for Everyday Life
By Abbot Christopher Jamison - Liturgical Press [not a reliable publisher]
Finding Happiness - Monastic Steps far a Fulfilling Life
By Abbot Christopher Jamison - Liturgical Press
Forgotten Among the Lilies - Learning to Love Beyond Our Fears [meaningless self-help]
By Fr. Ronald Rolheiser - Doubleday
The Holy Longing - A Search for Christian Spirituality
By Fr. Ronald Rolheiser - Doubleday (Also almost anything else by him)

My Life With the Saints
By Fr. James Martin, SJ - Loyola Press
A Jesuit Off-Broadway [campy]
By Fr. James Martin, SJ
For an even deeper look at the Spiritual Life:
A Blessed Life: Benedictine Guidelines for Those Who
Long for Good Days
By Wil Derkse - Liturgical Press
For Men/ Fathers. Sons and Grandfathers:
Wild at Heart - Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul
By John Eldredge - Nelson Books
The Way of the Wild Heart-A Map of the Masculine Journey
By John Eldredge - Nelson Books
Adam's Return - The Five Promises of Male Initiation
By Fr. Richard Rohr - Crossroad Book
For Anyone Over Sixty:
The Gift of Years - Growing Older Gracefully
By Sr. Joan Chisttister - BlueBridge
"I recommend all of these books very highly. The last one is especially good
reading for anyone who experiencing the troubling questions of aging." [How about preparing for death by having a good confession?]

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Marxist Bishop has Close Contacts with Terrorist Group

By MICHAEL WARREN (AP) – 7 hours ago

ASUNCION, Paraguay — When he was a Roman Catholic bishop, Fernando Lugo taught liberation theology to uplift the poor. Now he is president, he has sent special forces into Paraguay's northern forests to hunt kidnappers whose leaders include a former student and his former altar boy.

The ties between Lugo and the kidnappers of a wealthy rancher are providing fuel for an effort to impeach the president, whose election last year ended 61 years of unbroken right-wing Colorado Party rule. Lugo's government calls it a hypocritical campaign by politicians who committed far worse sins under the nation's long and brutal dictatorship.

Lugo, known as "bishop of the poor," [it's just PR] was elected in large part for his advocacy of liberation theology, a Catholic movement that found inspiration in faith to push for social change, though the Vatican suppressed many versions and discouraged its teaching. Lugo renounced his church vows, saying he could do more for the poor as president than as bishop. [A most honest response for anyone who embrace Liberation Theology to do is to leave the Church, for if this Communist thinks he can do more as a political organizer than as a Bishop, he truly does not understand the mission of the Church]

The kidnapping of rancher Fidel Zavala to finance what the band has called a revolutionary movement for the poor now threatens to turn Lugo's past against him, taking his nonviolent idealism in a criminal direction.

The kidnappers — a group linked to several bank robberies and other kidnappings in the past decade — showed up Oct. 15 on Zavala's ranch wearing military uniforms and calling themselves the Paraguayan People's Army.

The rancher's family pleaded with Lugo not to send in the police, fearing Zavala would be killed. But Lugo is in a tough spot. He is accused by critics on the right of coddling the kidnappers while those on the left say he has potentially violated the rights of poor forest dwellers by sending in police armed with U.S.-provided anti-terror equipment.

"Fernando Lugo continues to be deeply tied to the kidnappers," Colorado Party Sen. Juan Carlos Galaverna declared on television last week. He accused the president not only of mentoring the future kidnappers, but continuing to act as their "chief, or at least the protector of the band."

Interior Minister Rafael Filizzola told The Associated Press that the allegation "defies common sense."

"They're trying to stigmatize the Paraguayan left because of this, but the left has always been nonviolent," he said. "The violence came from (Alfredo) Stroessner, a right-wing dictatorship that tortured and killed. The violence never came from the left, nor the church."

Filizzola described the kidnappers as dangerous. On Monday he asked Paraguay's Congress for $1 million to finance the special forces' overtime and to pay for tips on Zavala's whereabouts.

"We have the objective of finding them, capturing them and making them face justice," he said.

The kidnappers' leader, Osvaldo Villalba, has been a fugitive since 2001 after claiming a $2 million ransom to release the daughter-in-law of a former economy minister. Police later recovered $600,000 and arrested several members of the group, including his sister Carmen Villalba, who is among about 40 people serving long prison terms.

The Villalbas — eight brothers and sisters in all — were raised in poverty by a mother who trained as a nun in Europe and promoted liberation theology while working for a bishop who, like Lugo, provided some refuge to opponents of the brutal 1954-89 dictatorship.

While Lugo denies knowing any of the kidnappers personally, Monsignor Adalberto Martinez of Lugo's San Pedro diocese acknowledged that several probably studied in the seminary directed by Lugo in the 1990s. Osvaldo Villalba's brother Jose also told the AP that one of the leaders was Lugo's seminary student, and a former kidnapper, Dionisio Olazar, said another member of the band, Manuel Cristaldo Mieres, served as Lugo's altar boy.

According to Interior Minister Filizzola, the People's Army comprises a core of about 20 uniformed combatants with military training and heavy weapons, a larger group whose members hold day jobs but sometimes participate in crimes and a much larger group of backers who occasionally provide logistical support.

Filizzola rejects the idea that liberation theology inspired the gang to become kidnappers, and says there is little evidence of any guiding ideology since they began calling themselves guerrillas. [Denying the clear and obvious truth, since Lugo's former seminary students and an altar boy belong to the organization]

But the group clearly expresses political goals in pamphlets and statements delivered anonymously to local journalists. "We will look for radical and revolutionary changes, the only way to dignify the suffering and hunger of our poor people," one reads. [The same rhetoric of Liberation Theology]

Jose Villalba, a carpenter who also raises chickens and pigs on his subsistence farm, says armed revolution is a necessary response to extreme poverty.

"This president promised us poor people during his campaign that he would bring change, but now that he's in power, he doesn't do a thing," Villalba said by telephone from the village of Santa Rosa.

Lugo's opponents have cited Zavala's kidnapping as evidence of a "failure to fulfill his presidential duties," a vague but impeachable offense in Paraguay.

There were more than a dozen high-profile kidnappings during the previous president's tenure, and no one pushed for impeachment then, but the threat is real in Lugo's case because he has so little support in Congress — only three sure votes among 125 lawmakers.

Filizzola said using the Zavala case to push for Lugo's ouster "is an act of opportunism for the same people who supported the dictatorship, who supported political assassinations, tortures, persecutions."

Associated Press Writer Pedro Servin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Pope Benedict Warns of the Dangers of Liberation Theology

Vatican City, Dec 7, 2009 / 11:42 am (CNA).- In a meeting with a group of Brazilian bishops on Saturday, the Holy Father warned of the dangers of Marxist liberation theology and noted its grave consequences for ecclesial communities.

During the ad limina visit, the Pope recalled that “last August marked 25 years since the Instruction “Libertatis nuntius” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on certain aspects of liberation theology. The document "highlights the danger involved in the uncritical absorption, by certain theologians, of theses and methodologies that come from Marxism."

The Pope warned that the “more or less visible” scars of Marxist liberation theology, such as “rebellion, division, dissent, offenses, anarchy, are still being felt, causing great suffering and a grave loss of dynamic strength in your diocesan communities.”

For this reason, he exhorted all those who in some way feel attracted or affected by “certain deceitful principles of liberation theology” to re-visit the instruction and be open to the light that it can shed on the subject.

Benedict XVI also recalled that “the supreme rule of faith of the Church in effect arises from the unity that the Spirit established between Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church, in such reciprocity that they cannot subsist independently of each other,” as John Paul II explained in his encyclical “Fides et Ratio.”

The Instruction “Libertatis nuntius” was published on August 6, 1984, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Its purpose was to focus the attention of pastors, theologians and all the faithful on the deviations of certain forms of liberation theology that are dangerous for the faith and for the Christian life and that are based on Marxist thought.

It warned that the grave ideological deviations of Marxist liberation theology inevitably lead to the betrayal of the cause of the poor and that a Marxist analysis of reality leads to the acceptance of positions that are incompatible with the Christian vision of man

link to original...

Monday, November 30, 2009

Another Jesuit...from Berkeley

Prepare for Christmas with Advent Retreat ―The Advent of Open Eyes‖ is a retreat for adults, led by Kevin Burke, S.J.—Friday evening, Dec. 4 and Saturday all day, Dec. 5 at OLG. Father Burke, a Jesuit, is a professor of theology at Santa Clara University in California. The retreat is sponsored by the Ignatian Associates of the Twin Cities, OLG and Loyola Spirituality Center. Cost is $25, if paid by Fri, Nov. 27. Brochures, with registration forms and more information, are available in the kiosk in the Commons. Call Terry Griep at 651-457-4339.
_________________________________

Kevin Burke SJ from Berkeley Union, Theological Seminary is an exciting and brave modern thinker, writer, champion of the poor, sexual minorities, he is a truth teller and a storyteller. He teaches and is the president of Union Theological Seminary, which hosts some of the world's foremost queer scholars.


He is an authority on Jesuit Revolutionary, Ignatio Ellacuria, who, although he was scorned and condemned by authority, was ever eager to join arms with the brave men of the FMLN who challenged North American Imperialism.


Not only is Kevin Burke SJ challenging our historico-theological assumptions but he is also engaged in directing our gaze within to address the oppression of sexual minorities whose marginalization today is such a burden on the conscience of the Church.


Come see how Liberation Theology is relevant for the future of "prophetic utopian realism". (qf. The Ground Beneath the Cross, preface)


"Nor is discrimination based on sexual identity new (even if such discrimination manifests itself in particularly virulent forms under the aegis of modernity) what is new is the realization that we cannot understand the reality of sexual preference apart from the culture that express and repress it. As each of these examples suggests the new attention to cultural diversity involves the humbling acknowledgement that we cannot access the signficance of such diversity apart from a genuine encounter with members of diverse cultures." ( Kevin Burke SJ - Discernment and Truth)

Monday, November 16, 2009

A Questionable Champion of the Soviet "martyr" Jesuits: the infamous Bishop Hubbard



Catholic News service is eager to get the full service story about the USCCB which can't get its story straight about some revolutionary Jesuits who thought they knew better how El Salvadoran citizens should spend their money than they themselves knew, and promised us, that there was severe political repression without giving us any concrete examples or even a demonstrable understanding of economics. Unfortunately, the Salvadoran Army gave the Soviet interlopers in Central America something they could really use, "martyrs". Despite years of actual oppression by the Socialist regimes for whom they worked, Cuba and the Soviet Union, these Jesuits didn't and still don't have much to say about how they'd improve the lot of the ordinary Salvadoran; nothing workable, just pie in the sky penumbras. Maybe land reform would be the ticket? That didn't work either, and the El Salvadoran government the Communist rebels and their Jesuit allies were trying to topple actually enacted those reforms too.

But the USCCB, ever eager to show how it believes in Central Command Economy, has today stepped in to remind America about a few traitorous Jesuits who supported Communist insurgency in Central America and got in the line of fire for their troubles.


BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops added their collective voice to those of others in honoring the memory of the six Salvadoran Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, all of whom were assassinated 20 years ago by a Salvadoran death squad.

Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., chairman of the bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, said in a statement issued Nov. 16 -- the anniversary date of the murders -- that the bishops joined many others in "commemorating the lives and work of the six Jesuits and their collaborators."


Remaining article...

For years we've been hearing about the shenanigans of the Jesuits. The morally and financially bankrupt Oregon Province, for example. So then, we have a credibly accused and maleficent Bishop who defends causes indicative of outright Marxism. That romantic worker's struggle in Central America. Despite all of the evidence that the Jesuits so engaged were at best fools and at worst scoundrels of the worst possible kind, these clerical men of the left insist we remember them as heroes. These leftists and their sordid connections and questionable associations, who say certain things and believe certain things or at least say they believe certain things.

His fascination with "No Nukes".

Then there's the suspicious suicide of one Bishop Hubbard's detractors, the conservative Father Minkler, just three days after he signed an affidavit denying that he'd written a 1995 letter to Cardinal O'Connor accusing Bishop Hubbard of homosexuality. Suspiciously, the autopsy took months to complete and was finally ruled a "suicide". In the wake of accusations, the Diocese hired an independant investigator, Mary Jo White to clear his name. According to John Aretakis, an attorney for many of the alleged victims of Bishop Hubbard and his priests, the cost went into the millions. Bishop Hubbard and his liberal Colleague, Bishop Mathew Clark both took lie detector tests but habitual liers can defeat them.

Link to another article by Matt C. Abbott in 2004...

And from Maurice Pinay about Bishop Hubbard's rabbinical associates also involved in pederasty and giving him some public good PR in the wake of the scandal, here.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Heretical Jesuits celebrate 20th Anniversary of Soviet "Martyrs"

Despite the established fact that the Salvadoran rebel FMLN was determined as the guerrilla force backed by Soviet military intervention by the State Department as early as 1981 [El Salvadoran Civil War, Globalsecurity.org], quite a few leftists within the Jesuit order are still prepared to defend their involvement on the losing side in the war, and they get to teach your children at places like Creighton, Gonzaga, Georgetown and Loyola, at high prices, indoctrinating them, or at least trying. One wonders how these tired fellow travellers keep doing what they do.

The Jesuits engaged in armed struggle while identifying their socialist struggle with "defending the rights of the poor against the rich". Jesuit priests gave aid and support to these revolutionary agents of the Soviet Union and this is something they won't be discussing tomorrow.

So many times, leftist sympathizers ignore the reality of the Soviet role played in the El Salvadoran civil war, and on November 16th, they are going to commemorate this deception by remembering the Liberation Theology Jesuits who got caught in the middle of the fighting where they occasionally took up arms on the wrong side and paid the ultimate price as men must do. Unfortunately, the word "martyr" is applied to these men, but a look at the individuals engaged in this mad adulation reveal a pedigree of dissent from Church teachings and active if not passive engagement with Marxist causes.

Even the Democratic Congress places itself under suspicion by its recent passage of a resolution to commemorate these communists.

H. Res. 761, remembering and commemorating the lives and work of the six Jesuit Fathers and two women on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of their deaths at the UCA in San Salvador on November 16, 1989. The United States House of Representatives is set to pass House Resolution 761.


See Jesuit website depicting Communists as "martyrs".

Related article... portraying the commemoration taking place in all Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States. One wonders if anyone will show up.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Leftists Gather to Comemorate Slain Jesuits from El Salvador

Six Jesuit priests killed in El Salvador are to be honored this November 16Th as the 20Th anniversary of their deaths at 28 Jesuit Colleges to include figures like Noam Chomsky, Liberation theologian Rodolfo Cardenal, pro-choice leftist Congressman from Massachusetts, James McGovern.

Link here...

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Former Bishop Fernando Lugo dismisses Commanders admid Coup fears

CNN) -- Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo on Wednesday ordered the replacement of top military commanders, a day after publicly dismissing rumors circulating the capital about a military coup.

The announcement came from the armed forces themselves, not the president's office.

In his capacity as commander-in-chief, Lugo named replacements for the heads of the army, air force and navy, according to a statement from the armed forces.

Read further...