Image: Mater Ecclesiae Convent, Vatican City (the residence of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) — CC BY-SA 3.0
Despite what some folks might say, we’re not in the business of trafficking in conspiracy theories. (Although if you want a good laugh, check out this Bon Iver-style rendition of some choice rants from conspiracy-king Alex Jones. I can’t seem to stop watching it.)
Nevertheless, let me line up some dots for you and see if a picture emerges.
On Saturday, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had a message read to those gathered at the funeral of the late Cardinal Meisner. In it, he said something that drew a great deal of attention:
What particularly impressed me from my last conversations with the now passed Cardinal was the relaxed cheerfulness, the inner joy and the confidence at which he had arrived. We know that this passionate shepherd and pastor found it difficult to leave his post, especially at a time in which the Church stands in particularly pressing need of convincing shepherds who can resist the dictatorship of the spirit of the age and who live and think the faith with determination. However, what moved me all the more was that, in this last period of his life, he learned to let go and to live out of a deep conviction that the Lord does not abandon His Church, even if [sometimes] the boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing.
Some German speakers have since pointed out that the last sentence was slightly more conditional than our translation read. That the word “sometimes” should appear before “the boat”, as I’ve placed it in brackets above. But I find this to be a distinction without a difference. Like many, many others, I had the distinct impression when reading this that the former pope was blinking a message in Morse Code — perhaps subconsciously, perhaps intentionally, but a message nonetheless.
When I read it, my first thought was, “He’s speaking about himself here. That he views himself, too, as a “passionate shepherd and pastor who found it difficult to leave his post” but who “learned to let go and to live out of a deep conviction that the Lord does not abandon His Church”.
Even if the boat looks like it’s about to go under.
Whether this is a self-assessment or really just a reflection on his departed friend from Germany, it is more difficult not to read into this a critique of how the Church is being run today than it is to see it as exactly that. This notion takes on a deeper meaning when we recall that he told the five newest cardinals just weeks ago — rather cryptically — that “The Lord wins in the end.”
It is of course no surprise that everyone is talking about these comments. And it is also not a surprise, therefore, that the former pope’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, has now gone out of his way to deny that there is any such meaning in Benedict’s words [translation by Google with some polishing from me]:
“Nonsense,” said Monsignor Georg Gänswein, “the pope emeritus was deliberately manipulated; with that sentence he was not referring to anything specific, but spoke of the situation of the Church today as in the past as a boat that does not sail in calm waters. Francis also says this. I understand that this may give rise to allusions or false impressions, but behind those words there is no attack. “
Gänswein also dismissed claims, found in some of the sillier quarters of the Internet, that the pope emeritus did not write his own words. He “wrote the message alone,” said Gänswein, from the “first to the last letter in his own hand, and no one helped him.”
But clearly, the impression his statement gave was nearly universal. Many, many Catholics saw the comments as a shot across the bow. As a man forced into a compromise position who was desperate to convey that things in the Church are not as good, in his view, as he has given the public impression he believes.
Which is, perhaps, why I find it exceedingly odd that just today — three days after the former pope’s comments began their viral circulation of the Internet — a new report has come out concerning alleged abuse of members of the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir in Germany, of which Georg Ratzinger, the 93-year-old older brother of the former pope, served as head for 30 years. The report that was issued in 2016 alleged 231 victims; the new story claims at least 547 victims. The initial abuse allegations surfaced in 2010.
Now of course, it’s likely just a coincidence. Clearly, the investigation has been ongoing for the better part of a decade. Perhaps this new report had been scheduled to come out this week all along. But the timing certainly is interesting — a former pope speaks up in a way the world interprets as a criticism of a pontificate known for its autocratic and controlling style, led by a pope a pope known as one who keeps and settles scores, and within 3 days an international news story implicating his elderly brother in a sex abuse scandal is making headlines around the globe.
If nobody is using this as leverage to pressure the former pope into silence, then the odds are simply fascinating. Make of it what you will.
This post has been updated.
Steve Skojec is the Founding Publisher of OnePeterFive.com. He received his BA in Communications and Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2001. His commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Crisis Magazine, EWTN, Huffington Post Live, The Fox News Channel, Foreign Policy, and the BBC. Steve and his wife Jamie have eight children. You can find more of his writing at his Substack, The Skojec File.
Oh, wow, so now we know Pope Benedict actually DID give us that message.
My bad, I thought it was merely more press releases.
Well, as I say over and over, pray for our Pope Benedict, love him and double down on your rosary intentions for him and say a few beads for his brother too.
I love Pope Benedict as well. I sent him a greeting card a bit late for his 90th birthday. I mailed it directly to Matter Ecclesia. I received yesterday a thank you note from a Monsignor who works for Becciu at the Segretaria di Stato. Maybe I am being paranoid, but the first thing I thought was that his mail is being confiscated.
Re his mail: I’ve felt that way for a long time. I thought about writing to him but didn’t because I was afraid he’d never get it for the reason you mentioned.
Maybe he gets it, after being reviewed for content. My aunt rationalized it by thinking that maybe his mail is checked for anthrax, but it gave me a bad feeling anyway.
Given that circumstances, I guess the personal audience of the lay people would be too much to ask.
No harm in asking. If you don’t ask, you won’t get 🙂
I am just observing this picture of the Pope Emeritus’ residence and thinking about the idea of The Great Stalin and MaryKJ. If the Pope Benedict XVI could somehow see us from his window, we could nearby organize “the demonstration of sympathy” for him. I presume the Pope Benedict XVI would be glad. And knowing how jalouse Bergoglio is, it would hit him even more than if we organize the “protest against Pope Francis”.
The Brothers at my Catholic high school in the 60’s were brutal by today’s standards. LOL! But we knew who was boss. Of course, that’s back when America was truly great. That’s the generation that put men on the Moon. Today’s generation is more concerned with putting men in women’s bathrooms. They call it “progress.”
I had the brothers for a time too. There was a well known Brother Kelly, he was a math teacher and he would ask you a question while bending the tip of your thumb down towards the palm and the longer you hemmed and hawed looking for the answer, the more force he would use, helping a distracted pre teen to concentrate a bit better. He was already a man in his 60’s and every other kid in that class had an Irish or Polish last name, he had 25 wild young boys in that class but surprisingly he kept order very well. Oh but heavens me the “abuse”, goodness, lets file a class action suit.
My dad was a deputy head master. Back in the day he also used to administer the cane. Be assured that he could handle 25 wild boys too. But he was NEVER cruel nor used cruelty as a means of teaching! There is NO place for cruelty or abuse in Catholicism!
lol ☺
What you dismiss as discipline in the Catholic schools turned two of my family members into an atheist and a Protestant, respectively. Not to worry, no complaint was filed because grabbing children by the hair and bashing their heads against chalk boards was apparently considered acceptable adult behavior. But I suppose it could have been worse. It could have been a lifetime punishment of a traumatic brain injury. Evil is good and good is evil. I am not laughing.
Yes, I don’t mind corporal punishment, but some of this was really bad.
I had a teacher who once broke a boy’s arm with a cricket bat because he was caught outside the boarding house after light’s out. The Police weren’t even called.
Is that what turned them into an atheist and a protestant?
Really?
I think it was something else.
Yes, I think the abuse my family members suffered while at Catholic school turned each of them away. No belief was one result and “Christian but not Catholic means Methodist” was the other result. It is certainly possible that the stated reasons were not the actual reasons, but it wasn’t a discussion I wanted to have. Sometimes it is better to change the topic if you know what I mean.
One is left to wonder what would have become of them if they got a going over in public school — which was not uncommon not too long ago.
No need to wonder. After a few more abusive situations, both family members were sent to public schools. It was the best thing that ever happened to them. (And it saved a ton of money on Catholic school tuition costs.) At first their public school teachers acted as if they might be “trouble makers.” But then the public school staff figured out that these two kids weren’t what was wrong. Both family members excelled. Nary a problem. High grades. Well-respected by their teachers and peers. Each went on to earn college degrees and then start their own businesses. Thankfully, I was spared the Catholic school experience or I may have ended up atheist or Protestant too.
There is an interesting dynamic going on here. There seems to be a need to paint the institution in a good light at the expense of the (assumed troublemaker) kids. Protect the school and the adults and denigrate the kids. So I have a question: what type of behavior on the part of a child justifies an adult teacher or caregiver smashing that child’s head against a chalkboard?
Abuse goes on in all schools regardless of the religion they claim to uphold. Any abuse is abhorrent but it is especially scandalous when a child experiences abuse at a Catholic school, whether at the hands of an adult or another pupil, such places should guarantee the lived out experience of familial love, friendship and definitely safety from violence.
Sixteen years of Catholic education here, before, during and after “the” council — never witnessed corporal punishment. Never heard of it. Never had nun you would dare cross. Particularly loved the high school Sister principal — Ann Joachim — who could shout your grade point average out when meeting you in the hall as she was giving you Saturday detention.
Was never spared a good wallop at home when required.
Grind your axe someplace else.
Snowflakes in July?
We should pray for Pope Francis too, for his conversion at the very least
Is anyone struck as I am with the coincidences between American and Vatican political developments at this moment? The vicious use of smears, leaks, and “official reports” seems to be l’arme de choix on both sides of the Atlantic currently.
Very strange indeed. Wasn’t there an effort by Podesta and company to infiltrate the Vatican?
I read something about this and about what MSDOTT and Kora mention, viz. Soros. If I understand things correctly, Francis’ Vatican is very chummy with elements of the US Democrat Party and the demonic enemy of Western civilization, George Soros. As the saying goes, you can often judge a man’s character by the company he chooses to keep.
Soros’ men are personally working with Vatican officials on their ‘climate change, population control’ initiative. Indeed they’re joined at the hip.
I have just googled a bit about different conspiracies, and found five names that are considered to be threat to humanity. They don’t mention Bergoglio and Merkel probably because they operate in the Europe, but no doubts that they were connected with: David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Larry Summers, Georg Soros, and Jacob Rothschild. All rich and powerful, thus basically unstoppable.
It’s not nice to say this, but what brings a ray of hope is the fact that some of these “philantrophists” are in the late age at present-day, while Rockefeller has already gone this year. However, may everything be only according to the God’s will.
David Rockefeller died? I never heard he died. When did that happen?
March 2017
Thanks.
Angela Merkel seems to be in too.
This is all so Clintonian….the story on the choir is very old news…the charges against Cardinal Pell is also very old …so why dig it up now? This smacks of new world order intrigue….Remember Hilary, when Sec. of State began complaints about the lack of transparency of the Vatican bank….the Vatican
funds were eventually frozen …..and unfrozen after Benedict’s partial abdication…another coincidence. We are in a battle.
Soros, Soro, Soros….in both cases the underlying cause
This man is a living trouble. It’s hard lately to find something positive about his deeds.
I must admit that I don’t understand him. He already has large sum of money, high social standing and enough age to “retire”. Why can’t he just piecefully enjoy his last days of life traveling the world in stead of causing so much distress to the sociaty? What possible satisfaction can he get from other people’s calamity?
He’s a psychopath
I would add he’s a ‘possessed’ psychopath. The man exudes evil from the inside out.
Probably more of a sociopath…a true psychopath would be unpopular to function in society in the way Soros does
He is probably greedy for POWER! He has everything else. Power over people all over the world is heady stuff.
It is as a macabre symphony.
They are all reading from the same page: Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.
I know. The thought has crossed my mind too. Depressing.
and it was mere chance that the day the Priest Orgy first hit the wires the Cardinal Pell charges came out with 24hrs which successfully steered the mainstream media conversation and headlines away from ‘Cocaine Fueled Homosexual Orgies at the Vatican’ to “Conservative Cardinal Charged with Sex Abuse!’
All coincidence nothing more…
Yes, it is interesting that Cardinal Muller is mentioned also in the article I read from La Croix.
No!
Lord help us. Traditional Catholics must do better research than this (…”some of the physical abuse…appears to be no more than getting some slaps from time to time…”) That is what Georg Ratzinger himself admitted to, and no sources indicate that the rest of the physical abuse, which Georg Ratzinger admitted he was aware of and did nothing to stop, consisted of “no more than some slaps from time to time.”
It is also not true that these claims are new. They have trickled in for years; this report is new but is based on investigations going back to 2010.
Father RP and everyone else, I don’t care whether this post makes me “unpopular” here on 1P5. I am near despair, reading yet another baseless insinuation that all victims come out of the woodwork, seeking money, coordinated to coincide with the ‘progressive’ Catholic agenda. The Regensburg choir allegations have been contested for years. There is more than a bit of smoke there, if you’d care to read up.
Again, we traditionalist Catholics must do better than this. All replies to this comment will be ignored.
You are overreacting to my post. I didn’t say the claims are new, the fact that it’s conveniently/coincidentally being aired again right at this particular time is what is being stated as being worthy of suspicion.
No one said there is only a bit of smoke there, but I am certain that some of it is being hyped. The smoke is being stirred into a flame at this time for a reason.
I am aware of the deepest rot of hell abiding in the Church and that is what I am alluding too. I’ve also considered the possibility of Georg Ratzinger being guilty of more than some slaps, even if only in turning a blind eye (or possibly much worse), and how that might be very effective leverage against Benedict XVI…which is why it’s very convenient that this stuff about the Choir is back in the public eye again (with the threat to do so again the future made clear in the report…)
This may make me unpopular, but like you I don’t care: Abuse is real of every kind and so is lying about it and it’s just as prevalent in our ‘victim’ society. Also, many people think merely spanking a child is abuse, when it isn’t, in fact not spanking a child may very well be abusive. Corporeal discipline and punishment are not evil of themselves, yet in our modern society they are treated as if they are, because we no longer understand human nature and have glorified and elevated ‘feeling’s and self-esteem’ over Truth and Love. Yes corporeal punishment can be very wrong and even evil if administered improperly or evilly which has happened plenty of times, physical abuse is as old as sin. However, in the modern word view every corporeal punishment is regarded as ‘abuse’ which is one of the reasons why society is rotting and turning into the snow-flaked psycho-pharmaceutical wasteland that it is where the gravest evils are considered wholesome and good and spanking your child can get them put into ‘protective’ custody and you in jail.
And whether you care to know it or not, there have been many fake reports of clerical ‘abuse’ made against good priests who have been thrown to the wolves by their bishops. One of the best priests I have ever known isn’t allowed to minister anymore because some two bit hustler conned his diocese into paying him, when there was zero evidence or corroboration of his story. Rome even cleared this priest of all wrong doing, but he is still barred from ministry because there isn’t a bishop who will go near him because his diocese paid his accuser to settle the case. And he’s totally innocent. When he was being accused his bishop wouldn’t even allow him a meeting with him. He was just suspended and then his accuser was paid.
Yeah, that’s a real good policy, I’m sure career criminals and conmen aren’t taking any advantage of it at all…
So true Fr! Every bit of what you say is the way it is. If people think for one minute that after the sex abuse scandal hit the media, there weren’t leeches intent on sucking the blood out of innocent Priests, and Bishops that went along with it all, or even some of them paying for that to happen, they’re not living in the real world. I know one personally who was railroaded by the Church directly. He was an orthodox Jesuit, very high profile who was trying to make some changes they didn’t want, and knew too much. He’s now deceased……may he rest in the peace of Christ. If people actually KNEW the extent of some of the evil that goes on inside the Church it would curl their toenails.
Several mass media outlets are already talking about 500 cases of sexual abuse. The news are getting distorted and are implying the guilt of people who may not be guilty at all.
I have noticed that too. Some are saying also that “it is a ‘fantasy’ and ‘stuped’ to use Pope Benedict XVI against Pope Francis”, but at rhe same time they don’t find a “fantasy” and “stuped” to use George Ratzinger against the Pope Benedict XVI.
Moreover, at least on this site no one is “using” Pope Benedict XVI against Bergoglio. We are opting for the clarification of certain things regarding the Pope Benedict XVI, while the deeds and words (e.i “the style”) of the “Pope Francis” are alone working against him.
Pope Benedict. Ust be having a very bad week.
Fr. Ray Blake thinks this situation may have been one of the reasons Emeritus resigned http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/2017/07/benedict-xvis-resignation-my-theory.html
Yes, physical punishment was common in families and schools forever until our present age when it is legislated against. However, bad language, swearing, immoralities, training in perverted sex, etc….all these are presently okay.
If not the only reason, this seems to be one among few to motivate the Pope Benedict XVI to resign. There is a book “The Case if the Pope” (writen by lawyer Goeffrey Robertson) where such threat is visible.
Also your statement: “All replies to this comment will be ignored” is lacking in charity at best.
As a traditionalist Catholic and an English teacher, I invite you to re-read Fr. RP’s article and perhaps you’ll find your comprehension of his main point was a bit off. Also, coming on here to make a statement but then refuse to hear the response smacks of cowardice.
Please don’t use the term “Byzantine” that way. My mother is Byzantine Catholic, my late father was Ukrainian Greek Catholic, and I’m Ukrainian Greek Catholic.
Thank you for your kind consideration in advance.
I smell a rat. Soros and Podesta must be getting nervous. Has Victoria Nuland been seen in Rome lately?
Yeah right. So many ‘coincidences’.
I think the location of the orgies might be a coincidence
Not in the diabolical realm, it’s definitely intentional on behalf of Satan and his demons.
” In politics, nothing happens by accident.” – FDR (for which he was almost assassinated)
I suspect that all these coincidences are signs of desperation on the part of the enemies of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict’s spiritual mission may be proving more successful than anticipated by the NWO folks …clergy and laity may be resisting with prayer and sacrifice. Perhaps our enemies have underestimated our resolve and the power of the supernatural.
I would say that the Pope Benedict XVI didn’t abandon the Catholic faithful but was taken away from them. According to how he is treated, it seems that he is exposed to a structural abuse, which itself equals to the violation of human rights, civil liberties and social justice by the State of Vatican. Finally, it could be a serious issue for the “Pope Francis”.
Can you summarise please? I really can’t be bothered sifting through so many erroneous modern ideas about “human rights.”
From the Catholic point of view, not all rights are erroneous but those that oppose to the Magisterium. That is why the Catholic Church don’t reject the basic rights (like life, security, education, work, freedom of thought, speach, movement, etc.), and don’t support human trafficking, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment.
The problem is that certain documents they can accept only partially and ratify solely for the Holy See, not for the whole Church. But the Convention against torture in the Holy See is ratified by Vatican in 2002, meaning that if there is some kind of unhuman treatment within the walls, it should be able to be exposed. Unfortunately, this was mostly used to threat to the Pope Benedict XVI, what has been done through the British barriste Geoffrey Robertson.
I thought it was clear that I oppose erroneous ideas. Also, I don’t think the Church teaches about “human rights” as such, just matters of justice.
I apologize, it was misunderstanding.
What concerns the Church teaching, they accept certain rights that don’t oppose to the Magisterium, but how do they exactly interpretate them, I wouldn’t know.
However, the Church has ratified the Convention against torture as it is.
Thanks. I just wanted to know if there was some particular thing in that link you wanted to draw to our attention.
Here is more on Church teachings regarding human rights. You can check only the Chapter three : The human person and human rights.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/justpeace/documents/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html#CHAPTER THREE
Right. I wouldn’t expect Francis to be very just in his interactions with anyone, at this point.
I suspect that Bergoglio is behind the accusation to Ratzinger’s brother.
Is his way of life, revenge and cruelty.
I agree
The really pitiful thing is if Benedict resigned to protect himself or his brother then his attempt probably failed. As soon as he is dead, if not before, an avalanche of spite and innuendo is going to be flung the Ratzinger brothers way.
Bergoglio, Obama, and the Clintons are useful tools of the NWO crowd…and yes, they are behind the efforts to destroy the Catholic Church. The big question is who is manipulating them.
I have t o say this is the thought that crossed my mind when i saw
that headline today and i really don’t doubt it. But I hold dear Pope Benedict’s words “the Lord wins in the end”
I am somewhat weary of reading these ‘coded messages’ from the Pope Emeritus. Can’t the man speak in ‘clear English’ or ‘clear German’ or say something that we can all understand. His resignation (?), if that is what he did, has left the Church in a fine pickle with someone now occupying the Chair who has no idea what is the Catholic Faith.
He’s sensitively nuanced his way throughout his entire life.
Again, feeble, 90 year old man today,who was Pope, freed the TLM and spoke out at Regensburg vs Bishop who wore a business suit 55 years ago to the council,
I know it’s tough for everyone but try to differentiate between the two.
The two things are not the same.
Appreciate your upvote GS and don’t know you but personally I have people today who knew me 20, 30 years ago and won’t speak to me today due to whatever I did or said back then, I was a real prize back then. I try to explain, well, some things have changed, no matter. I pray for them and remember a friendship we once had.
Many of us are late to the vineyard John. Key thing is that you are in it now.
Tell you what, go find an old person, say 90 or so who is being used for their social security checks by an unscrupulous person and ask that old 90 year old person: “hey, can’t you speak for yourself clearly?”.
He’s used similar analogies for years. I think it’s silly to insist that this time he meant it purely as a dig at his successor. He was using it in reference to what he gleaned from recent conversations, so it seems reasonable to conclude that he still sees the church as suffering turbulent waters… and none of us will be free from the inclination to suspect that we know what he was thinking… but, it’s unfair to him to attribute to his message worded as he words things a specific target that he didn’t give it himself.
I’ve never believed that there was a widespread “sex abuse crisis” in the Church. From the moment the scandal broke, I smelled a rat. Just the way the Media handled it was enough to convince me that it was a coordinated assault by Freemasonry. I feel most of these cases were false accusations made by Freemasons. I witnessed this in my own parish. Thankfully, the priest held his ground. This is a form of persecution the West must suffer through. They treated the Master no better and so we should also be prepared for these kind of trials. Our persecution here in the West is mostly spiritual and political, whereas in the cradle of Christianity in Syria, our Catholic brothers and sisters and suffering a much more literal and physical persecution – one that rivals those of Nero and ancient Rome in terms of quality and quantity of the violence.
There was and is a VAST sex-abuse crisis on the Church. We even know when it started – the very late 1940s / early 1950s.
Boys and their buttholes have been ravished for centuries in the Church. It didn’t just start recently, nor just in the last century. There is noting new or novel about pedophilia; not even its advent among the priesthood.
–
But this latest so-called “sex abuse crisis” in the Church was exacerbated and manipulated by the diabolically perverted and abominable Western media and its evil cohorts, and used by vile sodomites to wreak havoc in the Church and to precipitate its utter destruction.
–
Sexual violation and abuse of boys MUST be stopped wherever it is occurring, and those found engaging in it must be severely dealt with, along with the provision of healing for ACTUAL victims. But not at the expense of the obliteration of the Church.
Boys and their …?
How daintily put ……
Your argument here is foolish. Because it is a long-standing practice, because it was reported widely, that makes it somehow less deplorable? If you follow this crazy line of reasoning, all you will do is substantiate what that “abominable Western media” say about the Church.
Please, correct the outright crudity in how you begin your post.
Sorry, Unc, but on this one you’re 1000% wrong. I know from a lot of personal experience (detailed elsewhere at this site) that the “sex abuse crisis” was, if anything, UNDER REPORTED. Like you, I know a priest who was falsely accused, abandoned by his bishop totally, but eventually exonerated just as totally by the Vatican. We cannot use this injustice to demonstrate, however, that the abuse crisis was orchestrated by some nefarious group in society. It was, in fact, very real. I also know personally several other priests who were sodomic criminals. They were prosecuted and convicted in court and eventually admitted their crimes (and they WERE crimes). I also know details of the cases of many more priests with long, sorry rap sheets involving the same kinds of offenses. Burying your head in the sand and denying reality is simply foolish.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the “capsizing” comment at first. But now that Archbishop Ganswein has officially branded the anti-Francis innuendo as “nonsense,” I am much more confident about identifying it as the correct interpretation.
The squabbling in the Anglosphere over the translation is a distraction. The ‘Ultrabergoglian’ Germans and Italians knew exactly what Benedict was saying – which is why they immediately started looking for an imaginary ghostwriter. As Helen Weir noted, the vehement denial on the part of Archbishop Gänswein is the classic – and perfectly transparent – tell.
All coincidence? – Mmmm – What do they say about ‘coincidence’? Its Gods way of showing………….
When I was at school in the 1940s/1950s beatings were the norm in maintaining discipline. No doubt some of it was unfairly administered or excessive but nothing compared with what took place in earlier times. If discipline can be maintained without beatings well and good but to describe all such beatings in the past as ‘abuse’ is just ridiculous. Are the millions of my generation due to be paid substantial compensation and where is the money going to come from? Lol.
What do you mean by “beating?” A swat on the rear, a belting, hitting in the face? They’re all different and have different effects, I’d like to know what happened in schools. My mom never spanked or disciplined us, left that to dad, who would give us a couple mild strokes on the rear with his belt, not enough to actually harm us, he never left a bruise or a mark, but enough to get our attention. And we learned to behave.
What continues to puzzle me what happened to the two volume 300 page dossiers on corruption within the walls of Vatican City that was delivered to Benedict by Cardinal Herranz in December 2012. The press had been clamoring to know its contents. After Bergoglio’s election, the subject was dropped as if it never had occurred. Why? There’s much more to this than what meets the eye. My guess: (1) the press first wanted it exposed to bring down Benedict (or at least to neutralize him) but (2) now that the homosexual protecting and silent advocate Francis occupies the papal apartments (oh, that’s right; he doesn’t), it was dropped so as not to expose the perverted underbelly that is rotting the Holy See from the inside out.
Let’s see this report. It probably could be entitled, “The Lavender Mafia Chronicles: A Tale of Faggotry and Financial Finagling .”
“What continues to puzzle me what happened to the two volume 300 page dossiers on corruption within the walls of Vatican City that was delivered to Benedict by Cardinal Herranz in December 2012.”
Oh, it’s still there. Now it’s being used as a guest list.
🙁
Well this is a bunch of salacious fear mongering if ever I saw ot
Yup, nothing to see here, folks; just move along. You get the Leslie Nielson Award for Heedless Insouciance today.
These aren’t the droids you’re looking for…
Daneels? That you?
LOL!
What leaf to you hide under?
Friends, if you’re reading this, you are probably as alarmed and sick at heart as I am, utterly dismayed by what you see and sense happening in the Church. Imagine if, added to that heartache, you had nowhere to turn to vent your anguish, no place where you could put your mind in touch with insights and information illuminating the truth. It could get a lot lonelier our here! Steve cannot be expected to run this site on his own without help. I urge you to consider sending a contribution today to help keep 1P5 up and running.
Here is Mundabor’s 2 cents: https://mundabor.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/the-capsizing-emeritus/
But yes, the timing of these stories in the media is very interesting.
‘Too interesting’ for comfort if you ask me.
We’ll never know if Pope Emeritus Benedict specifically and carefully chose his words to make a specific point. However, even if he didn’t, doesn’t mean that the point wasn’t there, and wasn’t inspired.
Do you ever see any authority figure, anywhere, actually putting in place any measures to STOP abuse? It seems to me that they are much more concerned about punishing the abusers later. Usually much, much later, when it is convenient, and they have a point to make. The abuse is what gives them control over the abuser. You don’t think Spirit Cooking and Pizzagate are solely the realm of American politicians, do you?
Pope Benedict and Cardinal Mesiner have been friends for a long time.
And here’s another coincidence; Spadaro’s diatribe against American Catholics, conservatives and evangelicals came very shortly after Trump’s powerful and rapturously received Warsaw speech.
The Vatican is full of trash. Time to take it out.
Can I at least hope that means we’re over the target?
Georg Ratzinger was decidedly unhappy about his brother’s election. That has stuck in my mind since 2005.
Means nothing except that he loves his brother and didn’t want to see him thrown to the wolves.
One hopes it means nothing. I certainly do. But given the knowledge and depth experience of the brothers in the service of the Church the manifest lack of fortitude in the face of an opportunity to bring real correction to the trajectory of the Church was startling — and very much remains so.
Rest assured, the Bergoglian possibility was well known.
The inexplicable resignation remains so — until a viable explanation is offered. Health? Fear of death?
“…you have not yet resisted unto death…” Hebrews 12:4
IIRC Bergoglio was second to Pope Benedict in votes no? He’s been there for a while with his “cunning”as Saint Francis described him.
This is not at all coincidence.
We are so cruising for a bruising!! The only question is whether or not the Chastisement will come from God directly in the form of natural disasters or if He will have us do it for Him (ala Hitler, Attila the Hun, Nebuchadnezzar, etc) I feel like I’m living in Jerusalem in the spring of 70AD with no way out.. Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison
, however.
The very silent but, at the same time, very noisy attacks upon people like Cardinal Pell and, covertly, against Msgr Georg Ratzinger and through him, the Pope Emeritus, only brings reality to the idea that there are enemies of the Church both within and without who will stoop at nothing to destroy people they consider the enemies of left wing liberalism. A friend who works in the Vatican has described it this way. The Vatican is a den of busy bodies and tired old men determined to hold on to power for as long as they can and young clerics determined to make a name for themselves.The back biting that goes on in that place would make a school of piranhas look cuddly and friendly. Everybody smiles at everyone else; no-one tells the truth and they all carry knives under their cassocks. Okay the knife part was a little over the top. Even the Pope is not blameless in this. What did anyone expect, he’s a Jesuit.
Since his election, most of the Conservatives and Traditionalists have been removed from the Center of Power in the Vatican. I think, the only one who remains to be disposed of is Cardinal Sarah. This Papacy started, not with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but as we were warned by the enemies of the Church both within and without and through Prophecy. It began with the St. Gallen Group and the influence of this Group has continued to this day. Sadly, the Church is heading for a Schism.
The man we all hoped would say something about the crisis in the Church did, to some extent, let his voice be heard when Archbishop Ganswein read the Pope Emeritus’ message at Cardinal Meisner’s funeral. But, he is tucked out of sight in a little monastery within the walls of the Vatican. You can bet that as good a job as Archbishop Georg Ganswein does is taking care of his beloved mentor, there are those who just can’t wait until this lightening rod of conservative Catholic thought passes from the scene to his heavenly reward.
As for the Gay factor in the Church, it has been there for centuries and, given the improved communication, it is not hard to see why this has come to the fore. Any boy who went to a Catholic Boys School run by Religious Brothers remembers the strips of car tires the Brothers had in their habit breast pockets and used as straps. As soon as you hit High School age, everyone got the unofficial word of which Brothers were a bit odd and the ones never to be caught alone with. But, my own personal experience was, that they were exceptional teachers who gave their all to their profession.