You may recall that last October, we ran a report from Michael Hichborn at American Life League (and now, of the Lepanto Institute) about the involvement of Caritas Internationalis, the international organization of Catholic charities run by the Vatican, in a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, communist organization known as the World Social Forum.
If you need a refresher, here’s the video:
At the time, Caritas Internationalis was run by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, arguably the most troubling of Pope Francis’s close advisors and appointees. He was replaced earlier this month by Cardinal Tagle of Manilla, who is also a close friend of Pope Francis and has given no indication of his intentions to reform the organization.
In a report this week by Cliff Kincaid at Accuracy in Media, he reveals that an independent investigation has verified the claims made in Hichborn’s 2014 video – and that nothing has changed. But there’s more:
Hichborn told AIM that he delivered a copy of the report to the Vatican office known as Cor Unum, but that nothing came of it, and that one Vatican official concerned about the issue was relieved of his duties.
It’s interesting to learn that it’s possible for a Vatican appointee to actually be relieved of their duties because of something they’ve done. May we then entertain hope that action will be taken as regards some of the men on this ever-growing list?
More from Kincaid:
An independent review of the ALL report confirms the research into the links between Caritas Internationalis and the WSF. In fact, a document on the Caritas website still affirms that “Caritas has been involved in the WSF since its beginnings. Caritas believes it’s an opportunity to exchange ideas and to build the momentum towards real change.”
After the ALL report was released, a conference at the Vatican was sponsored by Caritas Internationalis that featured Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University professor and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, and Gustavo Gutierrez, the father of Marxist-oriented Liberation Theology.
As Accuracy in Media reported, Sachs wrote an article for the Jesuit publication America attacking the “American idea” of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as narrow and selfish. He suggests that America’s founding document is outmoded and incompatible with his idea of Catholic teaching about social justice.
Sachs is an advocate of global taxes to extract hundreds of billions of dollars from the American people in order to finance some form of world government. The climate change movement, based on dubious science, is the most popular current vehicle that Sachs and others can use to bring this about.
Seizing on Sachs’ extraordinary remarks in a major Catholic publication, the well-known writer Edward Cline comments on the Family Security Matters website that “It would take a village—or, at least, the ‘global’ one—to subjugate and sack America. That is what is being proposed by Jeffrey Sachs.”
The Cline piece carries the title, “The ‘Sach-ing’ of America,” and he concludes that “In its essentials, Sachs’ plan for the future sacking of America differs little from Islam’s.”
In short, the American way of life is at risk, this time from a Vatican alliance with America’s academic elites and the U.N.
The World Social Forum itself just held another international conference focusing on one aspect of the Sachs agenda: global taxes. The WSF announced the launch of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, including a statement that “Our vision entails progressive redistributive taxation polices that fund the vital public services, end inequality and poverty, address climate change and lead to sustainable development.”
The topic fits nicely with the expected papal encyclical on climate change.
At the Caritas conference, Pope Francis adviser Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga said that critics of the proposed papal document are advocates of an “ideology” that he concludes “is too tied to a capitalism that doesn’t want to stop ruining the environment because they don’t want to give up their profits.”
At Fatima, Our Lady warned us that “If My requests are not granted, Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions against the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be annihilated.”
As Marxist influences at the Vatican continue to assert themselves and even to escalate, it’s hard not to wonder what Our Lady’s words will mean for us. I suspect we’ll find out sooner rather than later.
