Sunday, February 14, 2016

Meeting of the Millennium: Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill

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Pope Francis (L) addresses the audience after signing agreements with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana, February 12, 2016. (REUTERS/Alejandro Ernesto/Pool)



Unity call as Pope Francis holds historic talks with Russian Orthodox Patriarch



Pope Francis (left) and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill exchange a joint declaration on religious unity at the Jose Marti International airport in Havana, Cuba (12 February 2016)Image copyrightAP
Image captionThe two leaders exchange a joint declaration on religious unity at Marti International airport in Havana

Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill have called for restored Christian unity between the two churches at historic talks in Cuba.
The meeting was the first between a Pope and a Russian Church head since the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity split in the 11th Century.
In a joint declaration, they also urged the world to protect Christians from persecution in the Middle East.
The Pope has now arrived in Mexico for a five-day visit.
A crowd of 300,000 braved the cold in Mexico City to welcome him to the country which has the world's second largest Catholic population.
The Pope was greeted at the airport by President Enrique Pena Nieto.

'Churches ravaged'

The two-hour talks on Friday between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill were held at Havana airport.
Patriarch Kirill goes on to Brazil and Paraguay.
The pair embraced and kissed each other at the start of their talks.

"I'm happy to greet you, dear brother," the Russian Church leader said.
"Finally," the pontiff said.
At a news conference after the meeting, Kirill said the discussions were "open" and "brotherly", while Francis described them as "very sincere".
"We hope our meeting contributes to the re-establishment of this unity wished for by God," their joint declaration said.
The document called on the world community to defend Christians, saying that "in many countries of the Middle East and North Africa whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated."
"Their churches are being barbarously ravaged and looted, their sacred objects profaned, their monuments destroyed."

At the scene: BBC's Oleg Boldyrev

In the swirl of Vatican officials and security dressed in black, Pope Francis was a lone figure in white on the heated tarmac of Havana airport as he arrived to do his part in healing one of the longest religious disputes.
Russian Patriarch Kirill had arrived shortly before. The venue was a compromise - it would be impossible to have the first such meeting in the Vatican or Moscow, and Catholic Cuba is still in the Russian sphere of influence.
Back home the Patriarch has to overcome the anger of conservatives who still consider Catholicism a deviation from true Christianity. Clearly, this is a criticism he feels safe to ignore now.
Minutes later, the Pope and the black-robed Patriarch were holding each other by the shoulders and smiling warmly. Then the leaders of Catholics and Russian Orthodox Christians sat down. It was almost business as usual.

Russian state TV described the talks between the two men as the "meeting of the millennium".
In purely symbolic terms, this is an extraordinary moment, but it is perhaps even more significant in terms of Church diplomacy, the BBC's Will Grant in Havana says.
Patriarch Kirill has been the head of the Russian Orthodox Church since February 2009, while Pope Francis took up his role in March 2013.
The Roman Catholic Church has more than a billion members worldwide, while the Russian Orthodox Church numbers about 165 million.
The Russian Church is the largest and most powerful in the Orthodox faith, which is made up of a number of separate churches.
The encounter in Havana is not expected to lead to any immediate rapprochement between the Eastern and Western Churches.
Ahead of the meeting, the foreign policy chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Illarion, said there were still differences between the two churches, in particular on western Ukraine.
One particular issue is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which follows eastern church rites but answers to the Holy See.
The Russian Orthodox Church has considered western Ukraine its traditional territory, resenting papal influence there.



Sun rises above Orthodox Church (left) and Catholic Church (right) in Navahrudak, Belarus. Photo: January 2016Image copyrightAP

Uneasy relations

Key dates:
  • 1054 - Mutual excommunications by Western Church leader in Rome, Pope Leo IX, and Eastern Church leader in Constantinople, Patriarch Cerularius, lead to Great Schism
  • 1274 and 1439 - Attempts to re-unite the two Churches at Councils of Lyon and Florence fail
  • 1997 - Planned meeting between Pope John Paul II and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II cancelled
Why Cuba?
  • Reportedly chosen because it is far from Rome, Istanbul and Moscow with all their historical baggage of schism
  • Two leaders can focus on main issue: how to protect Christians - both Catholic and Orthodox - in Middle East and North Africa from persecution
Thorny issue
  • Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in western Ukraine, which follows Eastern Church rites but answers to Vatican
  • Russian Orthodox Church sees western Ukraine as its traditional territory, resenting papal influence

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Taken from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35565085

Friday, February 12, 2016

Electrical Engineer Overturns Einstein’s Theory After 97 Years

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.  - Albert Einstein

An excellent article written by Arend Lammertink: 

Last week the newspapers were filled with the discovery of “impossible” particles traveling faster than the speed of light. A month ago an “impossible” star was discovered and earlier the Pioneer space probes alsorefused to adhere to the lawThis way, the scientific establishment will slowly but surely be forced to return to reality, the reality of the existence of a real, physical ether with fluid-like properties. The inevitable result of that will be that Einstein’s relativity theory will go down in the history books as one of the biggest fallacies ever brought forth by science. In the future they will look back to relativity with equal disbelief as to the “Earth is flat” concept. The relativity theory not only goes against common sense, as Tesla already said in 1932, a fundamental thinking error has been made by Maxwell in his equations. This eventually lead to the erroneous relativity theory, as is proven in this article. It is therefore no exaggeration to state that the scientific establishment is going to have a religious experience.
 
The scientific establishment has been completely beside the mark by worshiping Albert Einstein and forgetting about Nikola Tesla. This logically thinking realist already wiped the floor with the theory of relativity in 1932 and thus proved for the umpteenth time to be far ahead of his time:
“It might be inferred that I am alluding to the curvature of space supposed to exist according to the teachings of relativity, but nothing could be further from my mind. I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved, is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view.
Isn’t it just beautiful how Tesla makes perfectly clear that the Emperor of modern physics has no clothes with simple logic?
Think about it. Space is literally no thing, nothing. It is the emptiness, the void, wherein physical stuff exists, but space in and of itself is not part of anything physical. And the way we describe it is nothing more and nothing less than an abstract definition, a mere thought construct to track what is where at any given time. Just like a treasure map: twenty paces north, thirty steps west. And because space is not physical at all, it can have no physical properties. Saying that space becomes curved by large bodies is the same as saying that a street map becomes curved because the cities and villages that are printed on it are so heavy. So, when your theory demands your abstract (nonphysical) “space map” to be adjusted in order to straighten your theory out, then something is seriously wrong with your theory, no matter how many times you repeat it and preach it. Tesla said it like this:
The theory of relativity is a mass of error and deceptive ideas violently opposed to the teachings of great men of science of the past and even to common sense.

The theory wraps all these errors and fallacies and clothes them in magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king. Its exponents are very brilliant men, but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists. Not a single one of the relativity propositions has been proved.”
Whereof deed.
Incidentally, Tesla already managed to break the speed limit before 1931 with his system of wireless transmission of energy. The principle of this system is that it transmits longitudinal electric waves through the interior of the earth, which propagate at a speed of pi/2 times the speed of light. He came to the idea of transmitting waves through the interior of the earth after he observed stationary waves caused by lightning. His system based on that observation is not understood by many. Eric Dollard describes it correctly in his book “The Theory of Wireless Power”. Given that the propagation speed of longitudinal electric waves (which according to the current theory cannot propagate trough a vacuum) is about 1.6 times the speed of light, it would be a very interesting experiment to see whether or not moon bouncingcould be achieved practically with longitudinal electric waves. If Tesla is right, we would see an Earth-Moon-Earth round-trip time of in the order of 1.6 seconds, while normal EM waves would take more than 2.5 seconds.
Anyway, now the counter of “impossible anomalies” stands at three, one can safely say that the theory of relativity has been proven to be incorrect. Further investigation shows that the origin of the errors in the theory of relativity can be found in the Maxwell equations. These equations describe the phenomenon of electro-magnetism, or the electromagnetic field, mathematically. A fundamental mistake has been made in the formulation of these equations.
The mathematician James Clerk Maxwell formulated his equations based on the experiments by Michael Faraday. Hereby, he assumed that the electromagnetic fields were caused by charge carriers, matter. Today we know from the particle-wave duality principle and quantum mechanics that matter is nothing but some kind of localized electromagnetic wave. In other words, there’s a hole in the explanation of the mainstream science you can drive a truck through:
Either the fields cause the matter, or the matter causes the fields, but not both at the same time! Make up your mind, folks!
It may be clear by now that quantum mechanics is correct in this respect and that the Maxwell equations are therefore incorrect or at least incomplete. Both the electric and the magnetic field can exist on and by themselves and can also propagate trough space. When the Maxwell equations are corrected for this omission, as Prof. Dr.-Ing. Konstantin Meyl does in his paper “Faraday or Maxwell?”, we basically return to the good old ether model. The ultimate result of that is that Einstein’s relativity theory should be referred to the realm of fantasy.
Because Maxwell assumed that charge carriers were the causes of the fields, implicitly a certain reference frame is linked to the description of the fields. That leads to the Maxwell equations being not invariant to the so-called Galilean transform. This sounds complicated, but if you want to describe a ripple in a glass of water in a passing train, you have to take into account the speed difference between observer and train. Well, that’s all the Galilean transform does. So, in order to describe the waves propagating trough the ether “generally”, you have to basically use the same correction. And because the Galilean transform can be applied to all classical mechanics laws, we call these “invariant” for the Galilean transformation:
“Galilean invariance or Galilean relativity is a principle of relativity which states that the fundamental laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames. Galileo Galilei first described this principle in 1632 in his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems using the example of a ship traveling at constant velocity, without rocking, on a smooth sea; any observer doing experiments below the deck would not be able to tell whether the ship was moving or stationary.

Maxwell’s equations governing electromagnetism possess a different symmetry, Lorentz invariance, under which lengths and times are affected by a change in velocity, which is then described mathematically by a Lorentz transformation.

Albert Einstein’s central insight in formulating special relativity was that, for full consistency with electromagnetism, mechanics must also be revised such that Lorentz invariance replaces Galilean invariance. At the low relative velocities characteristic of everyday life, Lorentz invariance and Galilean invariance are nearly the same, but for relative velocities close to that of light they are very different.”
What happened is that it turned out that the Galilean transform is not working with the Maxwell equations. In other words, the Maxwell equations are not invariant to the Galilean transform. However, this is ultimately caused by the incorrect assumption that the fields are caused by matter. As Dr. Charles Kenneth Thornhill argued some time ago, science resorted to the so-called Lorentz transformation, mathematically correct but in fact nonsense in terms of having any physical relevance. And it is this Lorentz transformation which requires the speed of light to be constant, while we actually know this is not the case.
After all, within different materials, different media, the speed of light differs and is less than that in free space. And because materials consist of elementary particles, it is clear that the presence of (elementary) particles affects the speed of light. This is what causes light rays to break in the transition from air to glass. And since we also know from the particle-wave duality principle that all electromagnetic waves in the Universe are particles and we know that the Universe is filled with all kinds of electromagnetic waves, it is clear that throughout the Universe the speed of light is affected by the presence of all kinds of particles. The claim that the speed of light is constant in the Universe is therefore absolutely untenable.
Update (sept 30, 2011):
It turns out that it has actually been experimentally proven that the speed of light in deep space is not fixed, as reported by William H. Cantrell, Ph.D.:
“Evidence has surfaced that the speed of light is not c in deep space, based on satellite data from Pioneer 10 and 11. Launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively, radio signals received from these satellites contain an “anomalous” Doppler shift. Renshaw showed that this can be explained by assuming classical Newtonian mechanics for the Doppler-shifted radio signal in a heliocentric frame of reference. Staunch relativists take note: Here is a clear case, for both satellites, whereclassical theory gives the correct answer, but relativistic corrections lead to the wrong results.Einstein’s relativity cannot explain this result, and indeed, it is the cause of the problem in the first place!”

“Wallace discovered that radar data for the planet Venus did not confirm the constancy of the speed of light. Alarmed and intrigued by these results, he noticed systematic variations in the data with diurnal and lunar-synodic components. He attempted to publish the results in Physical Review Letters, but he encountered considerable resistance. His analysis indicated a heretical “c + v” Galilean fit to the data, so as a result, he had no alternative but to publish elsewhere. To say that Wallace was less than tactful would be something of an understatement. He made heated claims that NASA had noticed the very same results and was using non-relativistic correction factors to calculate signal transit times.”
I just love coincidences like this. One day you prove theoretically that the speed of light cannot be fixed across the Universe and just two days later you find the experimental evidence just like that. And thearticle by Dr. Cantrell provides much more evidence that Einstein’s relativity theory really is untenable after all.
When we add just this “anomalous” Doppler shift (which is a completely different phenomenon than the slow down anomaly referred to above) and the “anomalous” radar data, the count already stands at five. And still counting, cause I haven’t even finished reading Dr. Cantrell’s article…

Conclusion:
1. The concept of our description of “space” is an abstract concept, comparable to a street-map. Space itself is the emptiness, the void, in which physical (tangible) entities exist and thus space in and of itself cannot have physical properties. Therefore space cannot be curved, because it cannot have physical properties.
2. The field descriptions (Maxwell equations) are incorrect, because of the incorrect assumptionthat the fields are caused by particles. When this error is corrected, the normal Galilean transform applies, which does not demand a fixed speed of light.
3. The speed of light is not constant within the Universe, and therefore the Lorentz transform cannot be applied in the real physical Universe, even if it would have had any physical relevance.
And that means the bottom drops from underneath the whole relativity theory.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH9vAIdMqng
Update (Oct 20th 2011): Note that only one of these arguments has to be true on order for Einstein’s theory to be disproven. After all, the whole idea of the speed of light supposedly being fixed is because that is being demanded by the Lorentz transform. So, Tesla’s argument that space cannot be curved, because it cannot have physical properties is just an additional illustrative argument that shows how simple it really is to recognize that relativity cannot be correct. And the argument that the Maxwell equations are incorrect is the root cause that explains how and why physics went bazerk for over a hundred years.

Update (April 6th 2013): Actually, Einstein himself said that “space without aether is unthinkable”:
 
Subsequently, the work of Hans Jenny is very interesting. He published a number of breathtaking videos which show what you can do with sound waves, e.g. in a bowl of water (parts 12 en 3). He shows that many kinds of geometric shapes can be formed using standing sound waves in the fluid, whereby matter flows together naturally to certain areas and stays away from other areas. And that’s also what happens in the ether. So, gravity is simply an electrostatic phenomenon caused by longitudinal standing waves in the ether, which determines the geometry of the solar system, our galaxy, and so on. Everything is connected to everything through these standing waves.
Well, and if you’re that far off with your fundamental theory, it should surprise no one that you get strange results every now and then. The reported Pioneer anomaly is simply due to the distribution of ether pressure, the same kind of ether pressure that keeps our planet in orbit.
And for those who are still looking for the ether wind that they could never find: near the surface of the earth this exercises a force on matter, such that matter accelerates with about 9.81 m/s2 towards the earth. This still unexplained force can therefore be nullified pretty easily using very high electrical voltages, as Thomas Townsend Brown proved in the sixties with his “mysterious” anti-gravity experiments. (Recently replicated on a small scale by Jean-Louis Naudin).
So, IMHO, it’s high time to restore the old ether theory and return to “reality” instead of “relativity”. And to be honest, that seams relatively easy to me.
Arend Lammertink, MSc, September 26, 2011.

In case you feel that I might have little admiration for Einstein, this my favorite quote of this great scientist:
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
With this one, I totally agree:
“Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the “old one.” I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.”


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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

With His New Book, Pope Francis Unlocks the Door




Pope Francis meets with people involved in the publishing of  "The Name of God Is Mercy" at the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican Jan. 11. The book features an interview the pope did with Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano, handout)
Pope Francis meets with people involved in the publishing of “The Name of God Is Mercy” at the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican Jan. 11. The book features an interview the pope did with Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano, handout)

By



A book on mercy might be expected to be a warm bath in kindliness, all sweetness and light, but Pope Francis, in “The Name of God Is Mercy,” offers a tough-minded reflection on an urgently needed public virtue, together with firm, if kindly, pushback against his critics.
The Pope’s now mythic line—“Who am I to judge?”—endeared him to many who long for humane authority, but it alarmed those who worry that the traditional center of religious and social order cannot hold. (Who are you to judge? You’re the Pope, that’s who!) That the question was asked in the context of an apparent tolerance of homosexuality made it especially threatening to the culture warriors, for whom gay rights is a flash point. Was the Pope yielding on a point of doctrine? Indeed, was doctrine at risk in his seeming openness to readmitting the divorced and remarried to Communion, or in his refusal to give due emphasis to other touchstone issues of sexual morality? Was there, in the Times columnist Ross Douthat’s incendiary phrase, a “plot to change Catholicism”?
Not that Francis equates himself with Jesus. What makes his book most moving is the way in which this man, without disrespecting his own privacy or offering false bromides of modesty (what Douthat derides as “ostentatious humility”), opens the sacred space of his conscience to explain how he came to center his ministry, and now his papacy, around mercy. “The Pope is a man who needs the mercy of God,” he tells Tornielli. “I said it sincerely to the prisoners of Palmasola, in Bolivia.” Palmasola is the infamous, vastly overcrowded, and hyper-violent penitentiary that Francis visited last July. “Every time I go through the gates into a prison to celebrate Mass or for a visit, I always think: why them and not me?” he says. “I should be here. I deserve to be here.”
In “The Name of God Is Mercy,” Pope Francis lets us see how he came to be the man he is. His most profound and shaping instruction, he says, occurred on the priest’s side of the confessional screen, where he was long entrusted with litanies of suffering, failure, despair, and sin. “When I heard confessions, I always thought about myself, about my own sins, and about my need for mercy, and so I tried to forgive a great deal,” he says. This was what he calls “the gift of confession,” and it was transforming. When he was a parish priest in Argentina, he tells Tornielli, a woman he knew “had to prostitute herself to provide her children with food.” He made sure that she and her children received gifts at Christmastime, but when the woman came to thank him, it was not for that. Rather, she explained that she was grateful “because you never stopped calling me ‘Señora.’ ”
“As a confessor, even when I have found myself before a locked door, I have always tried to find a crack, just a tiny opening, so that I can pry open that door and grant forgiveness and mercy,” Francis says. His new book comes out toward the start of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which he inaugurated in December, in a centuries-old ritual, by unlocking the ceremonial Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Church of which Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope, nearly three years ago, was itself a locked door. As Francis, he has, exactly, found a “tiny opening.” He is pushing, and, to universal surprise, the door is beginning to swing open.

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Monday, January 11, 2016

‘I made a huge mistake’ – Why one radical feminist changed her mind on abortion

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jan 6, 2016 / 04:58 pm (CNA).- Brazilian feminist Sara Winter used to work to legalize abortion. She was one of the founders of a radical group that carries out offensive topless protests at churches.
Now, she says people should learn from religious women who put their faith into action – and reject the powerful forces promoting abortion in her country.
What changed her mind? The birth of her child.
“I understand I made a huge mistake, and I ask forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. The way to achieve public policy changes for women has nothing to do with mocking people’s religions,” she said in a Dec. 15 Facebook post.
“What I was missing was love (which changed when I became a mother), love that came to me after having reflected a lot on today’s militant feminism,” she said.
Sara Winter is the pseudonym of Sara Fernanda Giromin. Three years ago she was one of the founders of the Brazilian branch of Femen, a radical feminist organization of sometimes violent, often offensive activists who protest topless in favor of abortion and LGBT activism.
Winter asked for forgiveness “from all those people, whether religious or not, that I offended during a feminist protest last year involving a same-sex kiss in front of a church in Rio de Janeiro.”
Last month she denounced international funding to promote abortion in Brazil. She asked forgiveness for having been “part of that scheme to get abortion legalized.”
“But I never knew that all that talk about legalizing abortion in Brazil had been the work of organizations controlled by tycoons, rich men interested in reducing my country’s population.”
Sara confessed that she had always thought that an abortion was “something every woman should be able to get.”
“I’m not waving that flag any more. I don’t agree with women being jailed for having an abortion, I think they should always be treated with compassion, but I’m against the promotion of abortion being carried out by the feminist NGOs.”
The young woman also encouraged feminists “to learn from women who are religious.” While feminists are “putting on ridiculous protests (I myself used to be one of them) which are embarrassing to women, there are women of faith with homes protecting rape victims, and other women giving life by providing housing, taking in women in dangerous situations, and providing all kinds of assistance.”
“There are a lot of NGOs and institutions that need a helping hand and volunteers to care for the victims of violence, so let’s get going, help them, do your part. Take care of, assist and love other women,” she encouraged her readers.
Sara first began to speak about this radical turnabout in her life in October 2015.
“I regret having an abortion and today I’m asking for forgiveness,” she wrote on Facebook Oct. 14, almost one month after the birth of her second child. Since her baby was born, she said, “my life has taken on new meaning.”
“I don’t want you to go through the same thing I did,” she told her readers.
Years before, she underwent an abortion using a drug provided by a feminist.
“I almost bled to death and had very serious complications,” she recalled, adding that the person who came to her aid in those circumstances was a man who had “no connection to radical feminism.”
On abortion, she urged, “feminism should be focusing more on taking care of women instead of putting their lives at risk.” She said her prior abortion had caused difficulties early into her second pregnancy.
Sara has also become a critic of transgender ideology. She explained that she has no animus against people who say they are transgender, but she added, “I don’t think that changing your clothes, getting silicone breast implants and making the transition with hormones and surgery can change anybody’s sex.”
By mid-November, Sara was urging Brazilian feminists to “respect women who are religious believers.” Although she has no religious affiliation, she said that “one of the things I regret in my life is pulling away from God and devoting all my time to militant feminism.”
“Having faith is not a retrogression and other people’s religion needs to be respected,” she urged.
Sara said that she has faced a hostile reaction from the feminist faction she has abandoned.
“You have no idea of the reprisals I’ve been a victim of coming from the feminists,” she wrote. “I’m afraid of even stepping out on to the street with my baby, but I have faith that all this is going to go away.”
In early December, Sara published a short digital book about “seven times I was betrayed by the feminist movement.” The book is a compilation of the bizarre experiences she says she had as part of the Brazilian feminist movement, involved orgies, alcohol, drugs and misuse of funds.
For every book sold, she has offered to donate a Brazilian Real (about 25 cents) to “initiatives helping women in violent situations and against abortion.”
Sara stated that “feminism has a cure and I’m the greatest proof of that.”
She said the main reason Brazilian people do not like the feminists is because most of them act hysterically and use social media “to mock and humiliate religious people, preach hatred against men, besides being extremists and disrespectful of other people’s religious heritage.”
“I’m just as guilty. I used to be like that too, but thanks be to God I’ve been healed,” she said.
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Taken from: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/i-made-a-huge-mistake—why-one-radical-feminist-changed-her-mind-on-abortion-92648/

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Francis lays out case for mercy in 1st book as pope


 
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis lays out his case for emphasizing the merciful face of the Catholic Church in his first book as pontiff, saying God never tires of forgiving and actually prefers the sinners who repent over self-righteous moralizers who don’t.
“The Name of God Is Mercy,” a 100-page conversation with Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli, is being published this week in 86 countries to help kick-start Francis’ Holy Year of Mercy. A copy was provided in advance to The Associated Press on Sunday.
In the book, Francis condemns what he calls the “scholars of law” — the doctrinaire-minded rigorists who throughout the history of the church have challenged Jesus’ message of unconditional love and mercy for even the most wretched of sinners. He says often these self-righteous Christians are hypocrites themselves, using the law to hide their own “deep wounds.”
“These are men who live attached to the letter of the law but who neglect love; men who only know how to close doors and draw boundaries,” Francis is quoted as saying.
Francis has rankled many conservatives with his frequent dismissals of theological and legalistic arguments stressing doctrine over his more pastoral message of welcome and mercy for society’s most marginal. The clash in approaches has been particularly evident in recent church debates over marriage and divorce.
“We must avoid the attitude of someone who judges and condemns from the lofty heights of his own certainty, looking for the splinter in his brother’s eye while remaining unaware of the beam in his own,” Francis says. “Let us always remember that God rejoices more when one sinner returns to the fold than when 99 righteous people have no need of repentance.”

Pope Francis holds the pastoral staff during a Mass …
Pope Francis holds the pastoral staff during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican
The Vatican is officially launching the book Tuesday with a high-level panel discussion featuring Francis’ secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and ‘Life Is Beautiful’ actor Roberto Benigni, signaling the importance Francis places on getting the message out.
In the book, Francis insists that his now-infamous “Who am I to judge” comment about gays was merely a repetition of the church’s teaching on homosexuality. Francis won praise from gays with the comment, uttered during his first press conference in 2013. But many conservatives have criticized the remark as vague and incomplete since church teaching also holds that gay acts are “intrinsically disordered.”
Francis says the church has long held that gays should be treated with dignity and respect and seen as individuals. And he goes to some length throughout the text to cite scripture and previous popes to make clear that his radical agenda is fully rooted in the church’s basic teachings.
“People should not be defined only by their sexual tendancies: Let us not forget that God loves all his creatures and we are destined to receive his infinite love,” he says. “I prefer that homosexuals come to confession, that they stay close to the Lord, and that we pray all together. You can advise them to pray, show goodwill, show them the way, and accompany them along it.”
Francis has made clear from the start of his pontificate that his would be a papacy focused on mercy, and he called a jubilee year to emphasize it. Throughout the book, Francis refers repeatedly to his own ministry to prostitutes and prisoners in Argentina, showing how his own personal encounters with society’s outcasts have shaped his view about the faith and formed the bedrock of his papacy.

Pope Francis kisses during statue of baby Jesus a Mass …
Pope Francis kisses during statue of baby Jesus a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican
As a confessor, Francis is quoted as saying, “I have always tried to find a crack, just a tiny opening so that I can pry open that door and grant forgiveness and mercy.”
But Francis’ opening isn’t a free-for-all: He says of course prisons can’t throw their doors open and let violent criminals out onto the streets. But he says once a debt is paid, prisoners must be reintegrated back into society and welcomed. And he distinguishes between ordinary and even repeat sinners and those who are corrupt, saying corruption is a condition, a state of life and often a hypocritical one incompatible with Christianity.
“The corrupt man often doesn’t realize his own condition, much as a person with bad breath doesn’t know they have it,” he says.
Some conservatives have balked at Francis’ mercy-over-morals priorities, saying it has sent confusing messages to the faithful especially after two previous popes spent so much time stressing doctrine. Even some cardinals have called on Francis to make clear-cut policy statements on certain hot-button issues, especially on the divisive question of whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.
Church teaching holds that, if these Catholics are living in sin, they cannot receive the sacraments.
Francis launched a two-year study on the issue and other matters related to Catholic family life, and is expected to weigh in this year with a document on whether any accommodation can be found.
In the book, Francis doesn’t commit himself one way or the other, but he indicated that his ultimate decision may draw on a personal experience.
Francis recounts that one of his nieces wanted to marry a man who had children from a previous marriage but hadn’t yet obtained an annulment, a church decree that his first marriage was null.
The couple got married in a civil ceremony and went on to have three children. Francis recalls that every Sunday when they went to Mass the man went to confession and told the priest that he knew he couldn’t be absolved from the sin of adultery, but he asked for a blessing.
“This is a religiously mature man,” Francis said.
Progressives, led by the German bishops, have said such religiously mature Catholics should be allowed to participate fully in the life of the church, including receiving the sacraments.
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Taken from: http://news.yahoo.com/francis-lays-case-mercy-1st-book-pope-060520924.html

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

“Where is the child who has been born the King of the Jews?"





Pope Francis: Church doesn’t shine with its own light

2016-01-06 Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) In his homily at Mass celebrating the solemnity of the Epiphany, Pope Francis said the Church is called to be a missionary Church and announcing Christ is not a profession and nor is it about proselytism. He said the Church cannot delude herself that she shines with her own light but instead draws her brightness from the light of Christ.

Please find below a translation in English of Pope Francis’ prepared remarks for his homily at the Mass in St Peter's Basilica celebrating the solemnity of the Epiphany:

                The words of the Prophet Isaiah – addressed to the Holy City of Jerusalem – are also meant for us.  They call us to go forth, to leave behind all that keeps us self-enclosed, to go out from ourselves and to recognize the splendour of the light which illumines our lives: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (60:1).  That “light” is the glory of the Lord.  The Church cannot delude herself into thinking that she shines with her own light.  Saint Ambrose expresses this nicely by presenting the moon as a metaphor for the Church: “The moon is in fact the Church… [she] shines not with her own light, but with the light of Christ.  She draws her brightness from the Sun of Justice, and so she can say: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’” (Hexaemeron, IV, 8, 32).  Christ is the true light shining in the darkness. To the extent that the Church remains anchored in him, to the extent that she lets herself be illumined by him, she is able to bring light into the lives of individuals and peoples.  For this reason the Fathers of the Church saw in her the mysterium lunae.
                We need this light from on high if we are to respond in a way worthy of the vocation we have received.  To proclaim the Gospel of Christ is not simply one option among many, nor is it a profession.  For the Church, to be missionary does not mean to proselytize: for the Church to be missionary means to give expression to her very nature, which is to receive God’s light and then to reflect it.  There is no other way.  Mission is her vocation.  How many people look to us for this missionary commitment, because they need Christ.  They need to know the face of the Father.
                The Magi mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew are a living witness to the fact that the seeds of truth are present everywhere, for they are the gift of the Creator, who calls all people to acknowledge him as good and faithful Father.  The Magi represent the men and woman throughout the world who are welcomed into the house of God.  Before Jesus, all divisions of race, language and culture disappear: in that Child, all humanity discovers its unity.  The Church has the task of seeing and showing ever more clearly the desire for God which is present in the heart of every man and woman.  Like the Magi, countless people, in our own day, have a “restless heart” which continues to seek without finding sure answers.  They too are looking for a star to show them the path to Bethlehem.
                How many stars there are in the sky!  And yet the Magi followed a new and different star, which for them shone all the more brightly.  They had long peered into the great book of the heavens, seeking an answer to their questions, and at long last the light appeared.  That star changed them.  It made them leave their daily concerns behind and set out immediately on a journey.  They listened to a voice deep within, which led them to follow that light.  The star guided them, until they found the King of the Jews in a humble dwelling in Bethlehem.
                All this has something to say to us today.  We do well to repeat the question asked by the Magi: “Where is the child who has been born the King of the Jews?  For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage” (Mt 2:2).  We are impelled, especially in an age like our own, to seek the signs which God offers us, realizing that great effort is needed to interpret them and thus to understand his will.   We are challenged to go to Bethlehem, to find the Child and his Mother.  Let us follow the light which God offers us!  The light which streams from the face of Christ, full of mercy and fidelity.  And once we have found him, let us worship him with all our heart, and present him with our gifts: our freedom, our understanding and our love.  Let us recognize that true wisdom lies concealed in the face of this Child.  It is here, in the simplicity of Bethlehem, that the life of the Church is summed up.  For here is the wellspring of that light which draws to itself every individual and guides the journey of the peoples along the path of peace.
(from Vatican Radio)

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Jesus: “I have revealed to you the whole ocean of my mercy”.

7 ways that St. Faustina is influencing Pope Francis on mercy

The Holy Year of Mercy has at its core a figure straight out of the St. John Paul II playbook


By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor January 4, 2016
ROME — Because Pope Benedict XVI was seen as a man of tradition, it was often easy to miss the innovative aspects of his papacy. In equal-and-opposite fashion, because Pope Francis is seen as a maverick, it’s tempting to overlook the various ways he stands in continuity with his predecessors.
Yet Francis’ signature initiative — probably the thing he would tell you he’s been building toward from the beginning, his Holy Year of Mercy — has at its core a figure straight out of the St. John Paul II playbook.
In fact, there’s a woman behind the pontiff’s jubilee: St. Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun who launched the worldwide Divine Mercy devotion.

Faustina was an early 20th century mystic who belonged to an order called The Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. She reported a series of visions, captured in her 700-page diary, in which she said Jesus told her to spread devotion to his mercy under the motto, “Jesus, I trust in you.”
Growing up in Krakow, the young Karol Wojtyla was fascinated that this message of mercy arose in Poland between the two World Wars. Later, as John Paul II, the Polish pope would beatify and canonize Faustina, and he also established a feast of Divine Mercy for the first Sunday after Easter — another request that Faustina said came straight from Jesus.
It’s true that Francis has not talked much about Faustina out loud in connection with his Year of Mercy, leading some devotees to wonder if she’s in danger of becoming the “forgotten woman” of the jubilee.

Yet upon closer examination, it seems clear that her fingerprints are all over it. Consider the following seven indications of her influence on Francis and his thinking about mercy.
1. Papal bull
When Francis issued a formal papal bull decreeing his holy year, titled Misericordiae Vultus, he chose to do so on April 11, 2015 — the vigil of the feast of Divine Mercy, the observance directly associated with Faustina.
“May she, who was called to enter the depths of divine mercy, intercede for us and obtain for us the grace of living and walking always according to the mercy of God and with an unwavering trust in his love,” he wrote.
2. Programmatic line
Looking back, it seems clear that the programmatic line for Francis’ jubilee came during his first airborne news conference returning from a trip to Brazil in July 2013.
Although he was asked specifically about Communion for the divorced and remarried, he gave a broad reply about the importance of mercy. He said he believes the present era is a “kairos” of mercy, using an evocative Greek New Testament term that means a privileged moment in God’s plan of salvation.
In the next breath, Francis cited John Paul II and Faustina.
“But John Paul II had the first intuition of this,” he said, “when he began with Faustina Kowalska, the Divine Mercy …. He had intuited that this was a need in our time.”


3. “Ocean of Mercy”
In his homily for this year’s New Year’s Day Mass, marking his first public utterance of 2016, Francis argued that alongside a “torrent of misery” in the contemporary world, there is also an oft-overlooked “ocean of mercy.”
Though he didn’t explicitly cite Faustina, he easily could have. “Ocean of mercy” is one of her signature phrases, appearing in her diary a robust 16 times.
Here’s a classic for-instance, in this case from one of her visions of Jesus: “I have revealed to you the whole ocean of my mercy,” she reports Jesus saying. “I seek and desire souls like yours, but they are few.”
In another place, Faustina writes that “during Holy Mass, I was given knowledge of the heart of Jesus and of the nature of the fire of love with which he burns for us … he is an ocean of mercy.”
4. Poland trip
At least in terms of crowd size and the magnitude of the event, the highlight of Pope Francis’ jubilee year isn’t likely to come in Rome. Instead it’s likely to be in Krakow in late July, when Francis travels there to lead the Church’s World Youth Day.
Obviously, the legacy of John Paul II and Faustina will be front-and-center throughout that trip.
To make sure no one misses the point, Francis signed off on making John Paul II and Faustina the co-patrons of World Youth Day, referring to them both as “apostles of divine mercy.” The outing shapes as an homage by Francis to Faustina and the pope who canonized her, and one can expect him to reflect on the Divine Mercy devotion at length.


5. The “misericordina”
On Nov. 17, 2013, Francis used his typical Sunday Angelus address to do something more customary in TV infomercials: He hawked a prescription drug, even having people hand out samples in St. Peter’s Square.
Only the “drug,” in this case, wasn’t actually from a pharmacy, even though it was made up to look that way. Instead it was a small packet containing a rosary, the Divine Mercy image with the motto “Jesus, I trust in you,” and instructions for use. Italians call it the misericordina, a play on the word for mercy.
“It’s a spiritual medicine,” the pope told the crowd that day. “Don’t forget to take it, because it’s good for you, it’s good for your heart, your soul, and your whole life.”


6. Roman priests
In March 2014, Francis held a session with priests of Rome in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall, saying he wanted to devote it to the theme of mercy. He spoke at length about John Paul II and Faustina.
“In his homily for the canonization, which took place in 2000, John Paul II emphasized that the message of Jesus Christ to Sister Faustina is located, in time, between the two World Wars and is intimately tied to the history of the 20th century,” Francis said, going on to quote several passages from the homily.
In a key line, Francis said, “Today we forget everything far too quickly … but we cannot forget the great content, the great intuitions and gifts that have been left to the People of God. And Divine Mercy is one of these.”
In retrospect, it seems a clear hint that Francis understands his jubilee of mercy as an extension of that “intuition and gift.”


7. Francis in Cuba
When Pope Francis traveled to Cuba just before heading to the United States last September, he chose “messenger of mercy” as the motto for the outing, making it something of a preview of his jubilee.
He said Mass in Havana’s Revolution Square on Sept. 20, and commentators noted the irony that alongside the towering images of Che Guevara and José Martí that dominate the space, there was also a large image of Jesus that was put up for the day.
What was less commented upon, however, was the nature of that depiction: It was the Divine Mercy image, with the motto “Jesus, I trust in you” in Spanish.


An earthier brand of mercy
Granted, the approach Francis takes to the theme of mercy is not simply a photocopy of Faustina’s.
Hers was a highly spiritual version of mercy, focused on compassion for lost souls and people suffering under the weight of sin. Francis’ brand of mercy is earthier, insisting on finding expression in concrete acts of solidarity with the poor, with migrants and refugees, with prisoners, and other victims of what he calls a “throwaway culture.”
That’s why one could make a strong case that the other woman behind the pope’s jubilee is Mother Teresa, and it’s probably no accident that her canonization also seems likely to take place during the year, perhaps in early September.
Yet these are questions of emphasis, not contradiction. Francis certainly would acknowledge that one does not have to be poor to need mercy, and it’s not as if Faustina was blind to the social gospel; the order she joined in Poland, after all, was devoted to helping troubled women, including unwed mothers and prostitutes.
Make no mistake: Francis is a change agent in many respects. But when it comes to his jubilee of mercy, he’s not reinventing the wheel; he’s giving a new push to a wheel that started rolling with a Polish nun and was sped up by a Polish pope.
As a final note, Francis would no doubt also say that Faustina offers a classic illustration of his oft-stated argument that women in Catholicism don’t have to be ordained priests in order to exercise influence.
It’s entirely possible that by the end of the jubilee, it’ll be like a hockey game with three stars of the game acknowledged: Francis, who called it; Faustina, who inspired it, and Mother Teresa, who provided its model for mercy-in-action.
In other words, the female contribution may actually trump that of the male. If so, that’s something in which a pope who’s repeatedly vowed to seek greater roles for women in the Church may find food for thought.

John L. Allen Jr., associate editor, specializes in coverage of the Vatican. More