Switzerland: Zurich churches to pass on $2,262,000 in tax money to Islamic associations

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/switzerland-zurich-churches-to-pass-on-2262000-in-tax-money-to-islamic-associations; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

From a Muslim standpoint, this is just the natural order of things. Non-Muslims paying for the upkeep of Muslims is a Qur’anic dictate: “Fight against those who do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)

The caliph Umar said the jizya payments from the dhimmis were the source of the Muslims’ livelihood: “Narrated Juwairiya bin Qudama at-Tamimi: We said to `Umar bin Al-Khattab, ‘O Chief of the believers! Advise us.’ He said, ‘I advise you to fulfill Allah’s Convention (made with the Dhimmis) as it is the convention of your Prophet and the source of the livelihood of your dependents (i.e. the taxes from the Dhimmis.)’” (Bukhari 4.53.388)

The UK jihad preacher Anjem Choudary said in February 2013: “We are on Jihad Seekers Allowance, We take the Jizya (protection money paid to Muslims by non-Muslims) which is ours anyway." The normal situation is to take money from the Kafir (non-Muslim), isn’t it? So this is a normal situation. They give us the money. You work, give us the money. Allah Akbar, we take the money. Hopefully there is no one from the DSS (Department of Social Security) listening. Ah, but you see people will say you are not working. But the normal situation is for you to take money from the Kuffar (non-Muslim) So we take Jihad Seeker’s Allowance.”

“Zurich churches pass on tax money to Islamic associations,” translated from “Zürcher Kirchen leiten Steuergeld an Islamverein weiter,” HeimatKurier, March 15, 2024 (thanks to Medforth):

The Catholic and Protestant Church in Zurich wants to give away a whopping two million francs in tax money to Islamic associations. What is sold as a gesture of goodwill is a cash injection for Islamization. With the gift of money, the Swiss are involuntarily helping to finance the Islamic conquest of land.
In Zurich, only recognized religious communities are entitled to state funding. Currently these are three Christian and two Jewish communities. Since the Protestant and Catholic churches seem to be swimming in money through tax contributions, they now want to give the “Association of Islamic Organizations Zurich” (VIOZ) a cash gift of around two million francs.

Islamization and false tolerance
A staunch supporter of the project is the reformed church council president and former SP cantonal councillor Esther Straub. She promotes the idea and speaks of it as a sign of “interreligious cohesion”. This kind of accommodation is, of course, sought in vain in Islamic countries with Christian minorities. The church uses this money to distribute money to Islamic organizations, which are often noticed in Switzerland with fanatical tendencies.

Promoting moderate Islam?
The former left-wing politician argues that the move is intended to finance decidedly non-radical and moderate Islamic associations. With over 40 facilities, VIOZ operates around 90 percent of the mosques in the canton of Zurich. There are also other associations. In addition to the three VIOZ facilities in Winterthur, there is also the “An nur Mosque”, which, according to security authorities, is a real hotspot for jihadism. How interconnected or separated the VIOZ is with such communities cannot be clearly determined. In the past there have been cases in which the moderate mask slipped off the faces of radical Islamists in Switzerland

Islamism from the streets to the universities
In October 2023, a 25-year-old Syrian also had to appear in court in Winterthur. He had previously been convicted of a jihadist trip to Syria. However, due to a cozy sentence, he was little deterred and continued to carry out terrorist propaganda for IS. The University of Bern provided another case of Islamism. After the Middle East war broke out last fall, an “Islam expert” and lecturer at the university expressed his joy at the event. The author was even the husband of the head of the Islamic Institute. The couple quickly distanced themselves from violence and terror, which meant they were probably back within the definition of “moderate”. In Schaffhausen it even became known that a convicted “ex-terrorist” was teaching in a mosque.

Switzerland withdraws passports from Islamists
The Islamist side effects of the population exchange have led to a return of passport withdrawals in the Swiss Confederation. Since 2020, a total of seven people have had their citizenship revoked, and corresponding proceedings are pending for another dozen. Just a few weeks ago, Zurich became the scene of an Islamic terrorist act in which a 15-year-old Tunisian injured a Jew with a knife on the street.

Remigration instead of Islamization
Due to numerous jihadist incidents and their involvement in Islamic cultural associations, it is uncertain whether the two million francs of tax money that the local churches want to give to Muslim associations will ultimately end up with questionable organizations. In addition, the Swiss people have repeatedly spoken out clearly against further Islamization in the past, for example with the ban on minarets in 2009. By continuing to finance Islamic associations, the canton continues to cultivate a parallel society for itself. This gives rise to Islamist activities and clans, as a look at neighboring states makes clear. Instead of giving further impetus to Islam and the Islamism associated with it, the canton should strive for a policy of remigration. Muslims who want to live strictly according to their beliefs and customs then have the opportunity to do so in an Islamic country.

Italy: Catholic diocese urges Catholics to participate in Islamic prayers and iftar meals during Ramadan

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/italy-catholic-diocese-urges-catholics-to-participate-in-islamic-prayers-and-iftar-meals-during-ramadan; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Lord, what fools these Infidels be. My comments are below; I’m quoted in the article:

“Italian diocese urges Catholics to join Muslims for prayers and meals in Ramadan,” by Jules Gomes, Catholic Herald, March 8, 2024:

An Italian diocese is instructing its priests to participate in Islamic rituals, citing Pope Francis’ directives on interreligious dialogue.

The Diocese of Bergamo issued a communiqué on Monday urging priests to seek out opportunities for interreligious dialogue during the “holy month” of Ramadan by invite the faithful to join in praying with Muslims and joining in the Iftar ritual meal.

The letter from the northern Italian diocese asks the faithful to pray for “a continuous realisation of all the dimensions that make up humanity desired by the Creator” and for “continuous growth in the dialogue between peoples and different faiths.”

Fr Massimo Rizzi, director of the diocese’s Office for Interreligious Dialogue who signed the directive, upset local Catholics for dating the letter according to the Islamic calendar (23 Sha’ban 1445)….

In comments to the Catholic Herald, Islamic scholar Robert Spencer explained that “the idea of Ramadan providing a possibility of outreach to Muslims is a tragicomic display of the failures and inherent limitations of the ‘dialogue’ imperative”.

Spencer, author of over 23 books on Islam and the Middle East, said: “Ramadan is a month in which Muslims are to redouble their efforts to please Allah.

“The highest form of service to Allah, according to Muhammad, is jihad, which principally involves warfare against unbelievers.

“Every Ramadan, therefore, we see an increase in jihad attacks. The idea that this is a time to seek friendship and cooperation with Muslims is laughably naive and demonstrates abject ignorance of Islam.”

Responding to the diocesan letter’s plea for dialogue in the hope of resolving the Middle East crisis, Spencer pointed out that the Vatican has failed to address the clause in Hamas’ charter that threatens genocide against Israel.

In its preamble, the Hamas charter states, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it”….

EX-CATHOLIC MIKE GENDRON: Discerning Deceitful Doctrines of Demons, January 31, 2024

You Will Be Shocked by the Twisted Teachings of Catholicism~April 7, 2023~Catholics submit to a different authority, believe in a distorted gospel and worship a false Christ.

EXPOSED: Biden’s Monstrous ‘Anti-Terror’ Plan to Censor Christians, Conservatives Before 2024 Election

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
When they're not siccing the FBI on Catholic Churches or dragging upset fathers from school board meetings, there's a new and equally monstrous plan to shut up conservatives terrorists before the 2024 election. It is sponsored by your friendly Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Careful guys, don't trip on your jackboots. 

The Media Research Center (MRC) has uncovered a Biden Administration plot — yes, plot —  to silence conservatives before the 2024 election with a "media literacy" program that targets conservatives, Christians, gun owners, and the GOP in the name of fighting terrorism. The program uses federal taxpayer funds to pay people to write, blog, and podcast messages that are anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Republican, and anti-anyone who ever thought Donald Trump wore nice ties.  

This goes beyond campaign bromides and slogans by crazed James Carville politicos; this program uses the force of government to smear anyone to the right of the organized left. We're in Joseph Goebbels territory here. Heil Biden!

Under President Trump, the "Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program" was used to fight terrorists who wanted to blow up and kill Americans, but under Joe Biden, the program morphed into something completely different. Now you are the terrorists and the nation's school children are being activated to hate you

Phase one of the three-phase program pays people to write blogs and do podcasts that are anti-conservative. The first phase, which has already been concluded, tilled the ground to produce the rest of this poisonous harvest. 

MRC reports that the following is some of the material produced in "DHS-commissioned blog posts":

  • “We are all living in a darker, scarier, angrier, less hopeful country thanks to Mr. Trump’s influence. Are we on the verge of civil war?”
  • “Donald Trump was also adopting the shock-jock style that Rush Limbaugh built into a cultural phenomenon, including his misogynistic and racist comments, conspiracy theories, and grievances.”
  • “It won’t be easy, but we really have to reduce Trump’s influence” 
  • “[I]t's tempting and entertaining to tune into the circuses of the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, Louis Farrakans [sic], and MAGA supporters.”
  • “It turns out even Fox Media has limits on how much misogyny and racism it will tolerate from its stars – witness the canceling of Tucker Carlson’s show last week.”

Through Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests, the Media Research Center uncovered an extension of the program that had previously started under the State Department, which they had previously reported.

Phase two of the program uses seminars produced by the University of Rhode Island’s Media Education Lab that "train educators across the country on how to divert students away from conservative ideas and media sources skeptical of the administration’s agenda." American taxpayers gave an initial $700,000 to fund the project used to destroy your freedom of conscience. 

Related: We'd Like the 2020 Election Back: DOJ Admits It Lied About Hunter Biden's Laptop

The Eva Brauns who attend learn how to push schools "to put censorship tools from for-profit media ratings firms Ad Fontes and NewsGuard into American classrooms." Both are leftist organizations cloaking their censorship under "media literacy." MRC says that "the two organizations also have overlapping board members and staff [and] they essentially function as a single enterprise." 

MRC reported:

It is telling that before being allowed to participate in the DHS-funded seminars, educators must declare their political ideology. One teacher who declared herself “conservative” reported that she was confined to a breakout group controlled by the director of the Rhode Island Lab so as to limit her access to the most damning material.

And phase three of the plan grants $1,000 to the Biden Youth to demand action

Children "must create social media posts to increase demands for media literacy mandates"; that's censorship to you and me. It will not surprise you to learn that the program is patterned after a "German socialist model" in partnership with the State Department "which focuses on pushing teachers to turn children into 'media producers,'” otherwise known as state media propagandists. 

This anti-terror program was hijacked in 2019 by DHS apparatchiks who were self-avowed "resisters" in the Trump Administration. You'll recall that at the beginning of the Trump Administration, personnel at multiple agencies announced their #Resistance on social media. One even wrote an anonymous article in The New York Times entitled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." 

The author was later outed as Miles Taylor, who, you will not be surprised to learn, turned anti-terrorism into this self-licking ice cream cone of a program we see today. He was helped along by the former acting head of DHS, Kevin McAleenan, who took the spot when the left curb-stomped Kirstjen Nielsen.

MRC reports how the anti-terror was switched in defiance of then-President Trump. 

This quiet resurrection of TVTP was conducted by then-Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan after months of behind-the-scenes pressure by Miles Taylor. Taylor was the then-“Anonymous” author of the infamous New York Times opinion piece “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” In that article and a follow-up book, Taylor — who had served as the Chief of Staff for the DHS — bragged about spending years “working diligently from within to frustrate” the mission and objectives of then-President Donald J. Trump. Taylor later told Politico he masterminded the TVTP revival and redesign against the direction of Trump’s White House, which was not “initially all that interested” in funding the program.

A mere five years after that article, the Rhode Island Lab is using the funds it received from the TVTP program Taylor helped design to erase the memory of what he did. [emphasis added]

The authoritarianism is strong in this one. 

Once again, Americans have to man the barricades to fight the battles to topple these giant authoritarians who believe they know better than you. 

Read the MRC story about this and then follow up on the recommendations. They suggest that you first check the local schools to determine if Ad Fontes and/or NewsGuard are in the classrooms. If they are, demand that they get rid of them because of their one-sided censorship programs. Call on your congressional reps and state attorneys general to investigate these one-sided censorship programs. Demand that Congress defund these censorship programs. 

PJ Media believes that knowing the truth is necessary for a Constitutional Republic. And that's why I've been green-lighted to bring you a regular dose of Hunter's laptop this year. This isn't about Hunter's debauched behavior but how it impacts his father's job. This is available only to our VIP and VIP GOLD Members, so that's why I want you to cowboy up and support the people telling you the truth by becoming a VIP Member.

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All-Girls Catholic College Reverses Trans Decision After Well-Earned Backlash

AP Photo/Armando Franca
An all-female Catholic college backed down on a new and very un-Catholic policy to allow biologically male “transgenders” in after taking a lot of heat for the decision.

The Daily Signal obtained an email from President Katie Conboy of St. Mary’s College in Indiana. While the report in November was that the college was going to allow men who pretend to be women to enroll in fall 2024, the understandable anger the policy change garnered made the administration rethink its woke strategy. Unsurprisingly, women were a little concerned about having to share dorms, bathrooms, etc., with dudes in dresses.

“This has weighed heavily on our minds and in our hearts,” Conboy said in the Thursday email. “There have been many voices responding to us from many places and perspectives. We have listened closely, and we have heard each of you.” Despite the fact that the Catholic Church doctrinally condemns transgenderism as gravely evil, the college president made the puzzling claim that the proposed policy change was a “reflection of our College’s commitment to live our Catholic values as a loving and just community.” I guess she missed the part of Genesis where God created humans as male and female—from the moment of their existence, based on biology. Conboy did admit that “the position we took is not shared by all members of our community.”

In fact, she added, “Some worried that this was much more than a policy decision: they felt it was a dilution of our mission or even a threat to our Catholic identity.” No kidding. “Moreover, we clearly underestimated our community’s genuine desire to be engaged in the process of shaping a policy of such significance. As this last month unfolded, we lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division where we had hoped for unity. For this, we are deeply sorry,” she continued.

“Taking all these factors into consideration, the Board has decided that we will return to our previous admission policy,” she said. “Although this has been a challenging time for our community, we believe that the College should continually grapple with the complexity of living our Catholic values in a changing world.”

Alumnae and students were excited about the victory against wokeness, as were several Catholic leaders. As Bishop Kevin Rhoades, in whose diocese the college is located, previously said, “The desire of Saint Mary’s College to show hospitality to people who identify as transgender is not the problem. The problem is a Catholic woman’s college embracing a definition of woman that is not Catholic.”

Italy: Catholic Church funds illegal migration, activists brag about not having to work due to Church donations

REPUBLISHED, SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/12/italy-catholic-church-funds-illegal-migration-activists-brag-about-not-having-to-work-due-to-church-donations

The Catholic Church is funding the demise of what is left of Catholic Europe. Interesting times we live in.

“‘The Catholic Church is becoming our Soros’ – Growing scandal around Italian Catholic Church funding illegal immigration, pro-refugee activists brag about not having to work due to Church donations,” by Grzegorz Adamczyk, Remix News, December 18, 2023:

A significant scandal has recently shaken the Catholic Church in Italy, as reported by La Verita Italian paper. Investigations by the city of Ragusa prosecutor’s office have exposed the involvement of certain Italian dioceses in funding Mediterranea, an organization responsible for the illegal migration of African immigrants to Europe.

These dioceses have allegedly contributed at least €2 million, with some of the Church’s payments ending up in the personal accounts of pro-immigration activists, according to Polish newspaper wPolityce.

Key figures in this informal network of bishops include Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, Archbishop Corrado Lorefice of Palermo and several others, with Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg also implicated for donating €25,000.

The scandal’s central figure is Luca Casarini, a leftist activist known for his role in the 2001 G8 summit protests in Genoa. He later became involved in transporting illegal immigrants to Lampedusa. Casarini’s relationship with Pope Francis, beginning in December 2019, has raised eyebrows, especially after Francis invited Casarini to participate in the Vatican Synod of Bishops, despite his lack of active involvement in Church life….

The chaplain of the Mare Jonio, Fr. Mattia Ferrari, a priest known for working in pro-refugee circles, said with astonishment: “The Catholic Church is becoming our Soros,” in reference to the funding they were receiving.

Commentators are debating whether these bishops acted independently or under Pope Francis’ direction, with most leaning towards the former. Their actions, aimed at aligning with the pope’s perceived interests, might result in decreased donations from parishioners and damage the bishops’ credibility….

 

Pope: Priests May Bless Homosexual Couples, But Marriage Is Between Man And Woman

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:05 PM – Monday, December 18, 2023

REPUBLISHED, SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/pope-priests-may-bless-homosexual-couples-but-marriage-is-between-man-and-woman/

In a new statement issued on Monday, Pope Francis formally endorsed the practice of priests blessing same-sex couples, stating that anyone seeking God’s love and compassion should not have to undergo a “moral analysis” in order to be granted it.

This marks a major departure in Vatican doctrine.

“One should not prevent or prohibit the Church’s closeness to people in every situation in which they might seek God’s help through a simple blessing,” said the document from the Vatican.

However, the shift in policy does not alter the church’s position on marriage.

It states unequivocally that such blessing requests from homosexual couples should not be turned down, and it also mentions how anyone pursuing a transcendent relationship with God and those seeking his compassion or mercy should not be subjected to “an exhaustive moral analysis” as a prerequisite for obtaining it, offering a comprehensive explanation of the term “blessing” in scripture.

“Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God,” the document reads. “The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live.”

“It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered,” the Pope added.

The Vatican also maintains that a marriage is an unbreakable bond “between a man and a woman.”

In 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican said that “God cannot bless sin,” so the church was unable to approve of a marriage between two males or two females.

Even the progressive Pope Francis seemed taken aback by the uproar the statement had caused, despite the fact that he had given his formal approval for its release. He dismissed the official who had written it shortly after it was published and reportedly started to prepare for a reversal.

The Vatican stated in the updated document that the church must avoid engaging in “doctrinal or disciplinary schemes, especially when they lead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying.”

It emphasized that everyone involved in “irregular” couplings, homosexual or heterosexual, is living in sin. However, it also expressed that this fact should not rob them of God’s compassion or love.

“Thus, when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it,” the document continues.

As a “huge step forward” and a “dramatic shift” from the Vatican’s 2021 stance, the new statement was highly praised by Rev. James Martin, a notable advocate for greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The document “recognizes the deep desire in many Catholic same-sex couples for God’s presence and help in their committed relationships,” the Reverend said in an email. “Along with many Catholic priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex marriages.”

However, some Evangelical Christians and other social media users online have criticized the new stance, saying that the Pope is just trying to appease the progressive left and liberals. They have also accused him of overstepping his power and attempting to change Biblical doctrine.

Photo via: X (Twitter) @Franklin_Graham

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Pope Francis Stirs Confusion Over Blessing Same Sex Couples

Pope Ignores Bible, Suggests Non-Sacramental Blessings for Same-Sex Unions

AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Pope Francis has just reportedly encouraged non-sacramental blessings for homosexual “couples.” But what about the many Bible verses describing homosexuality as a grave evil meriting damnation unless there is repentance?

As a Catholic, I have found this pontificate very disturbing, as woke globalist Francis seems bent on encouraging people to commit Hell-meriting sins in the name of false “mercy” and “love.” Now, the pope is only infallible when he meets certain specific prerequisites in Canon Law, and he does not have the power to alter official doctrine anyway, but people who aren’t aware of these facts can be easily confused by Pope Francis’s silly letters and comments. That includes the latest reported nonsense, which is the pope’s approval for giving homosexual “couples” blessings.

Some people might say that, since the pope has apparently distinguished the sacrament of marriage from blessings given to homosexual couples, this really doesn’t represent an attack on biblical and Church teaching. They would be wrong. Considering how strong the language used about active homosexuality is in the Bible, how clearly it is stated that such a sin merits death, no Catholic priest should encourage a homosexual to think that his active and regular participation in such a sin is on any level justifiable. This is not cruel. It is not loving to encourage people to destructive behaviors. It is more loving to help them seek truth and forgiveness, for the sake of both their souls and their bodies (homosexuals are at a higher risk of STDs, for instance, and LGBTQ individuals have consistently been found with higher anxiety and depression, and a higher risk of suicidal thoughts.).

The new Vatican document builds on a former letter from Pope Francis indicating blessings of homosexual unions can be given in some circumstances. The Dallas Morning News reported:

The new document repeats that rationale and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. And it stresses that blessings should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.

But it says requests for such blessings should not be denied full stop. It offers an extensive definition of the term “blessing” in Scripture to insist that people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy should not be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” as a precondition for receiving it.

The Dallas Morning News quoted the document: “Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God.” It continued, “The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live.” The pope concluded, “It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered.”

Presuming this translation is correct — and previous actions of the pope’s indicate this is quite possible — Francis has again issued a doctrinally flawed and misleading document. Blessings aren’t just a “means to increase … trust in God.” They are a mark of approval for a person’s actions, and an encouragement to continue those actions. Of course God loves everybody. But it is perfectly clear in Catholic teaching that we ourselves can make the choice either for heaven or hell (see Matt. 25). For Scripture says of the New Jerusalem that there “shall not enter into it any thing defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:27).

So what does the Bible, the inspired Word of God, say specifically about homosexuality? Let’s look at a few verses. From St. Paul:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error…Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them. — Romans 1:25-27, 32

St. Paul also addresses homosexuality in the First Letter to the Corinthians. He explains that people who practice certain sins cannot be part of God’s kingdom:

Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God. —1 Corinthians 6:9-10

This translation is accurate but can be a little confusing. To be clearer, the original Greek word being translated here as “liers with mankind,” ἀρσενοκοῖται, means literally “men engaged in sexual activity with the same sex.” So it would be equally accurate to translate ἀρσενοκοῖται as “homosexuals.”

Homosexuality is addressed in the Old Testament too. Leviticus 18:22 says, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” But the most famous Bible story about homosexuality is that of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 19, two disguised angels visit Abraham’s nephew Lot, a resident of the town, to warn him that Sodom and Gomorrah will be destroyed for their sins. A mob of men shows up at Lot’s house (Genesis 19:5) to demand that he send out his male guests (the angels) “that we may know them.” To “know” someone is often used in the Old Testament to describe or refer to sexual relations (for instance, see Genesis 4:1).

Lot, who seems to be a good host but a highly questionable father, offers, “I have two daughters who as yet have not known man: I will bring them out to you, and abuse you them as it shall please you, so that you do no evil to these men” (Genesis 19:8). The Sodomites refuse Lot’s startling offer and instead become so importunate for the male guests that they almost break down the doors. The angels rescue Lot and blind the Sodomites.

Sodom and Gomorrah are subsequently destroyed with “brimstone and fire” by the Lord God (Genesis 19:24). The older name for homosexuality is “sodomy” because of this Bible story. In other words, it was always understood by Christians, until very recently indeed, that the ancient towns were wiped off the face of the earth for their active homosexuality!

Pope Francis: ‘Demasculinize the Church’~Is a masculine vitality in Christianity truly “a great sin”?

REPUBLISHED, SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/pope-francis-demasculinize-the-church/?


Controversial Pope Francis, whose left-wing leanings are alarming to more traditional and conservative Catholics, recently received members of the International Theological Commission (ITC) at the Vatican, where he sparked a new controversy by informing the gathered theologians that the Catholic Church is “female” and needs to be “demasculinized.”

The ITC was established by Pope Paul VI within the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1969 to assist the Vatican in examining crucial doctrinal issues. It consists at any given time of 30 theologians who serve a five-year term on the Commission. Women have served on the panel since 2004, but never more than two at a time until 2014 when Pope Francis named a record five women to the ITC. In the current membership of the Commission, five again are women.

Among the Pope’s comments to the theologians was a condemnation of the scarcity of women among them. “We must progress on this!” Francis passionately declared. “Women have a different capacity for theological reflection than we men. At the next meeting of the [Council of Cardinals], we will reflect on the female dimension of the Church.”

Fair enough so far. Women often do have a different capacity for theological reflection – reading the great female mystics in history from Hildegard von Bingen to Julian of Norwich to Teresa of Avila demonstrates that – and there is room for debate in the Church about the ministerial role of women. But then the Pope went off the rails. “The Church is female,” he stated, “and if we do not understand what a woman is, what the theology of a woman is, we will never understand what the Church is.”

I humbly submit that the Pope, who is considered by Catholics to be infallible when speaking ex cathedra on matters of doctrine, is wrong on this point. While the Church is believed to be referred to in the Bible as “the bride” of Jesus Christ, this is a theological metaphor about their relationship. It does not make the Church “female,” and certainly not in the way he went on to explicate.

“One of our great sins,” Francis continued, “has been masculinizing the Church. And this is not resolved through ministerial means, that’s another thing. It is resolved through the mystical, the real way.”

It’s unclear how the Church being vitalized with a masculine energy is a sin at all, much less a “great” one, although the West generally speaking is suffused with the assumption, cultivated through decades of relentless feminist messaging, that masculinity is “toxic” and that thousands of years of so-called “patriarchy” have prevented women from stepping up and fixing the mess men have purportedly made of the world. In his comments to the ITC, Pope Francis seems to be pandering to this childish idea.

(Speaking of which, Hollywood funnyman Will Ferrell unintentionally humiliated himself with a virtue-signaling display in his opening remarks for the recent Women in Entertainment Gala. “Isn’t it just time for women to run the planet?” the Saturday Night Live alumnus asked, which predictably drew vigorous applause. “[W]e men, we’ve been running the show since, what, 10,000 B.C., something like that? And we’re not doing so good. So please, can you guys just take over, can you? I think it’s time.” In reality, women increasingly are running the planet – and how’s that been working out for us? Our own epically incompetent Vice President Kamala Harris, Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, the three Ivy League university presidents who recently refused before Congress to take a stand against campus antisemitism, to name just a few – has their sex, broadly speaking, shown any greater capability than men for visionary leadership, for “fixing” the world? We are all, men and women, subject to the same flaws and limitations of human nature.)

Back to the Pope: he concluded by pleading with the members of the International Theological Commission, “This is a task I ask of you, please: demasculinize the Church.”

Demasculinize the Church? How is this notion different in substance from Will Ferrell’s begging for women to take over running the planet? Both men seem to see masculinity as some kind of obstacle to human flourishing and excellence, and see simply replacing men with women as the solution.

Contrary to the Pope’s apparent fear, Catholicism today – and Christianity in general – does not exactly suffer from a surfeit of masculinity. The Church already has been demasculinized, and the result is a foundational institution of Western civilization being in dangerous, accelerating decline.

The New Emangelization Project, dedicated to inspiring Catholic men to greater involvement in the faith, warns that the Church has a significant “Man Crisis”:

About 11 million adult men in the U.S. were raised Catholic but left the faith and men are under-represented in the Church versus their share of the total population (46% of parishioners are male versus 49% of the population).

[…]

Only about 1/3 of Catholic men (36%) say they attend Mass on a weekly basis. One third of Catholic men (32%) are not formally members of a parish. A large portion (42%) of Catholic men attend Mass “a few times per year” or “seldom or never.” Almost half of Catholic men do not engage in a routine of prayer; praying only “occasionally or sometimes” or “seldom or never.”

[…]

The “face” of the Church is feminine; men are underrepresented in the pews (only 37% of regular mass attendees are men). Further, a Notre Dame study shows that 70-90% of catechesis, service, bible study activities are led by women, causing the authors to suggest that “young males…assume that serious religious studies are a women’s business,” resulting in greater numbers of younger men being disengaged.

Christianity, which has always been burdened by the perception that it is a feminized religion – is today in desperate need of exactly the opposite of what Pope Francis called for: it urgently needs courageous, bold, manly leadership to steer the faith away from its ongoing capitulation to our neo-pagan pop culture, away from the degrading influence of “prosperity gospel” hucksters and hipster pastors in skinny jeans, and away from subversion by gender ideologues who are determined to “queer” the faith and replace God the Father with “God is Trans.”

Francis’ feminist position comes as no surprise. After all, he is the Progressive, globalist, open-borders pope who berates Western countries to overcome their “fear” of “foreigners” and take in ever more “refugees” from cultures incompatible with Western values; he denounces capitalism, nationalism, and populism while promoting the big-government Green economy scam; he has taken measures to restrict celebration of the traditional Latin Mass; he insists on whitewashing jihad and has even been praised as a “defender of Islam” by the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University; and he has opened the door for greater acceptance of the LGBTQ agenda. Now he calls for his own already-flaccid Church to emasculate itself, driving Christianity even further into cultural obsolescence, especially in contrast to the perceived hypermasculinity of Islam, which is the world’s fastest-growing religion at least in part because it offers men an alternative that affirms, albeit to a misogynistic extreme, their masculine nature.

Francis’ call to “demasculinize” the Church is, at best, a foolish and irresponsible position for a Pope to take at this critical point in its decline; at worst, it is a deliberate subversion of the spiritual institution that powered our glorious civilization, an institution rendered increasingly impotent in a post-Christian West.

Transgender people can be baptized Catholic, serve as godparents, Vatican says

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The Vatican Says Transgender Catholics Can Be Baptized, Following Years Of Critical Statements

Vatican Says Transgender Adults & Children Can Be Baptized

Pope's lunch with transgender women cements unlikely friendship in the changing church

VATICAN CITY, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Transgender people can be godparents at Roman Catholic baptisms, witnesses at religious weddings, and receive baptism themselves, the Vatican's doctrinal office said on Wednesday, responding to questions from a bishop.

The department, known as the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, was vague however, in response to a question of whether a same-sex couple could have a Church baptism for an adopted child or one obtained through a surrogate mother.

Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro in Brazil sent the doctrinal office six questions in July regarding LGBT people and their participation in the sacraments of baptism and matrimony.

The three pages of questions and answers were signed by the department's head, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and approved by Pope Francis on Oct. 31. They were posted on the department's website on Wednesday using the Italian word for "transsexuals".

Francis, 86, has tried to make the Church more welcoming to the LGBT community without changing Church teachings, including one saying that same-sex attraction is not sinful but same-sex acts are.

In response to a question of whether transgender people can be baptized, the doctrinal office said they could with some conditions and as long as there is "no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful".

It said transgender people could be godparents at a baptism at the discretion of the local priest as well as a witness at a Church wedding, but the local priest should exercise "pastoral prudence" in his decision.

Pope Francis holds a weekly audience at the Vatican

Pope Francis leads the weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square, at the Vatican, November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/file photo Acquire Licensing Rights

"This is an important step forward in the Church seeing transgender people not only as people (in a Church where some say they don't really exist) but as Catholics," Father James Martin, a prominent Jesuit priest and supporter of LGBT rights in the Church said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Francis has met with transgender people and in July, he told a transgender person: "Even if we are sinners, he (God) draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are, this is God's crazy love."

The document said a person in a same-sex relationship could also be a witness at a Catholic wedding, the office said, citing current Church canonical legislation which contained no prohibition against it.

The response was less clear regarding persons in same-sex relationships and their role in baptism, which is the initiation into the Church for infants, children, or adults.

The Brazilian bishop sought guidance on whether a same-sex couple who had adopted a child or obtained it from a surrogate mother could have that child baptized in a Catholic ceremony.

The response said that for the child of a same-sex couple to be baptized, there had to be "a well-founded hope that it would be educated in the Catholic religion".

There was a similarly nuanced response to the question of whether a person in a same-sex relationship could be a godparent at a Church baptism. It said the person had to "lead a life that conforms to the faith".

Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by David Gregorio

Muslim Stabs Children at Dublin Catholic School, Media Covers It Up

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/11/muslim-stabs-children-at-dublin-catholic-school-media-covers-it-up;

SEE ALSO: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/11/ireland-muslim-migrant-stalks-and-sexually-assaults-teenage-girl

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

A 5-year-old girl was receiving emergency medical treatment.

What. Where. Why.

You won’t find any of those ‘Ws’ in any story that the media is interested in covering up, rather than covering.

Take the stabbing of small children at a Catholic school in Dublin, allegedly, by an Algerian Muslim. You can read entire stories about what happened in Dublin without a mention of these key elements of the story.

A FOX News story on the incident would read as quite baffling because it entirely covers the riots after this latest incident of Muslim violence without actually explaining why anyone might be rioting.

Protesters and rioters clashed with police officers and a police vehicle was set ablaze in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday evening after a knife attack that injured five, including three children.

According to Irish media outlet RTÉ, rioters attacked gardaí, officers of the state police force Garda, and set a garda vehicle on fire.

Okay, but why is this rioting taking place? What’s the connection between the ‘knife attack’ and the riots?

The riots came hours after a knife attack outside a school in the heart of Dublin around 1:30 p.m. A 5-year-old girl was receiving emergency medical treatment in a hospital. A woman and two other children were also injured. A 6-year-old girl sustained less serious injuries, and a boy was discharged from a hospital, officials said.

The media can’t tell you that the stabber was allegedly an Algerian Muslim and so it also can’t explain why people might be rioting. The result is a ‘Pravda’ story in which you can only understand things by reading between the lines and inverting the official denial.

Irish police said they weren’t treating the case as terror-related, adding that a man in his 50s, who was also hospitalized with serious injuries, is a “person of interest.” No further details about the man’s identity were released by authorities.

If you’re an average person, this whole story makes no sense. Someone stabs some kids and people riot. But if you’re versed in reading Pravda journalism, you understand that the man’s identity is very important… because the media and the authorities aren’t telling you who he is.

And the one thing the media is telling you, that the case is not terror-related, should be viewed with suspicion.

Nowhere in the story does it get around to mentioning salient facts such as the Muslim attacker targeted children in a Catholic school.

The attack occurred shortly after 1 p.m. near Parnell Square, just off the city’s main boulevard O’Connell Street. The three children, who were lining up in front of their crèche prior to the incident, have been taken to hospital. A five-year-old girl is in a critical condition at Temple Street Children’s Hospital. In total five people have been hospitalized, including a 50-year-old male suspect who is now in custody. Irish media reported that the police ruled out a terror motive. The Catholic school is an Irish language-speaking school called Cólaiste Mhuire, which means St. Mary’s College

And what were the rioters saying?

The area where the attack occurred is ethnically diverse, but predominantly working-class, and host to a major asylum centre as well as a string of hotels turned into refugee accommodations. Certain media sources have described the attacker as an Algerian national.

Shortly after 5 p.m., crowds of young men from nearby housing estates began to gather on the street where the knife attack occurred and quickly engaged in verbal and physical altercations with awaiting police.

Authorities were shortly overwhelmed by the mob with chants of “Ireland for the Irish” and “Get ‘Em Out” heard as mobs of young men began to rush police and attack squad cars. The badly outnumbered police retreated northwards with abandoned vehicles left to be burnt by the gangs.

Now there’s actual context and the story makes sense.

Whatever your political views, any reasonable person has to acknowledge that the thoroughly censored mainstream media version of the story makes no sense. There’s no context and there is no explanation. What, why, and where are sorely lacking. Rioters inexplicably clash with police after a stabbing. Why?

The level of media censorship is so extreme as to make it impossible to understand what’s going on. And that’s no longer media bias, it’s simply political censorship.

Pope Francis’ Silence On Hamas

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/11/pope-francis-silence-on-hamas;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Pope Francis, terminally naïve about Islam, believes he has a true understanding of the faith-based partly on the reassurances given to him by his new friend, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb. “War is deceit,” says Muhammad in a famous hadith, and Al-Tayeb has been cheerfully deceiving the Pope every chance he gets. Pope Francis has learned a lot from Al-Tayeb. He insists in his new book, Non-Sei Solo: Sfide, Risposte, Speranze (You Are Not Alone: Challenges, Answers, Hopes), that “either you are a terrorist or you are a Muslim.” A “true” Muslim, he thinks, cannot be a terrorist. No one has pointed out to the Pope that Muhammad himself says in another hadith that “I have been made victorious through terror.” (Bukhari 4:52.220) And Muhammad is the Perfect Man and the Model of Conduct, whose behavior is to be emulated by Muslims.

Islam talks about peace, all right — the peace that will prevail once Islam everywhere dominates, and Muslims rule, everywhere. Until then war must be made on the Infidels, who when conquered must be either killed, or made to convert to Islam, or to accept the inferior status of dhimmis, enduring a host of social, political, and economic disabilities, including payment of the extortionate jizyah tax. In his infinite wisdom, the Pope has declared on many occasions, and in his latest book, too, that “Islam, in truth, is a religion of peace and the majority of its members are peaceful.” He’s wrong, of course. He need only look around the world at the Muslim terror groups that have been waging war against Infidels, and even against less fanatical Muslims, in recent years: the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Boko Haram, Al-Shebaab, and so many more. Muslims have committed more than 44,000 terror attacks around the world since 9/11. The Qur’an is filled with verses about violence and waging war on Infidels. The Believers are instructed to “kill them [the Infidels] wherever you find them” (Qur’an 2:191, 4:89, cf. 9:5). But one has a distinct impression that the Pope has never read the Qur’an. Why should he bother to do so, when such authoritative experts on Islam like Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb assure him that Islam is all about peace?

Given the Pope’s affection for Islam, it is not surprising that he has been circumspect in his remarks on the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October 7. More on his failure to forthrightly condemn those attacks, which is risking the Vatican’s relations with the Jewish world, can be found here: “The Vatican is risking its relationship with the Jewish world,” by Vittorio Mascarini, JNS, November 16, 2023:

Relations between Israel and the Vatican have become tense in recent weeks.

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, an ecumenical group of Christian leaders that includes the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, issued a joint statement in which they made no explicit mention of the Hamas atrocities. They included only a vague condemnation of any act that targets civilians.

The Israeli embassy to the Holy See criticized the statement’s “immoral linguistic ambiguity,” which failed to be clear about “what happened, who were the aggressors and who the victims. … It is especially unbelievable that such a sterile document was signed by people of faith.”

This controversy is only the latest in the fraught history of Israel-Vatican relations, which were officially established in Dec. 1993. Besides the Catholic Church’s historical antisemitism, the Vatican was long reluctant to formally recognize Israel for several reasons: Israel did not have internationally recognized borders, the status of Jerusalem and access to its holy sites had not been internationally guaranteed, and Catholics and their institutions were, the Church claimed, not adequately protected under Israeli law.

In addition, the Vatican had concerns about the treatment of Palestinians in the disputed territories and feared that relations with Israel could have negative repercussions for Catholics in Islamic countries.

This may explain why, to date, Pope Francis has not labeled Hamas a terrorist organization and has not met with families of Israeli hostages. The latter has not gone unnoticed, especially because the families were received by many leading national figures, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

According to the Catholic news site Cruxnow, the pontiff’s behavior can be explained as “positioning the Vatican potentially to play a mediating and peace-making role.” In addition, “The bulk of the Christian population in the Holy Land is Arab and Palestinian, so Middle Eastern bishops and clergy tend to be strong supporters of the Palestinian cause.”

Given the deplorable treatment of Israel by the Vatican — of which the failure to condemn Hamas is just the latest example, it is doubtful that Jerusalem would accept the Vatican as a mediator between the Jewish state and those who would destroy it.

Moreover, Cruxnow sees a historic shift underway in terms of the Vatican’s interfaith priorities: “Since the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, Judaism has been the Church’s primordial relationship, unquestionably the highest priority in inter-religious dialogue. Under history’s first pope from the developing world, that’s no longer necessarily the case, as other relationships, especially the dialogue with Islam, have become at least an equally compelling perceived priority.”

Given this, it is not surprising that, since war broke out, Pope Francis has spoken with numerous world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, but there are no reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been among them.

Wouldn’t you think that after the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, the Pope would have wanted to speak with the leader of the Jewish state, if only to express his solidarity and understanding? But though the Pope has spoken with many world leaders about the ongoing war in Gaza, he has apparently snubbed the Israeli President. How does he hope to ever be a mediator if he will not talk to the Israeli prime minister?

The larger Catholic world has shown equal ambivalence towards the war. Among Eastern Catholic leaders, the Latin Catholic and Eastern churches in communion with Rome have issued what Israel deems a lukewarm and insufficient condemnation of Hamas. Their first communiqué, issued on Oct. 8, contained a generic statement “against any acts that target civilians, regardless of their nationality.” The next, on Oct. 13, decried the humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for de-escalation. It singled out only Israel in connection with humanitarian issues….

Instead of deploring the Hamas atrocities, the Eastern Catholic leaders uttered a generic condemnation “against any acts that target civilians.” They were afraid of the Muslim reaction if they singled out Hamas — as they should have — which would, however, make the lives of Catholics in the Arab countries more difficult. And just like Pope Francis, they did not mention the 240 hostages held by Hamas, or call for their release.

The Pope has to understand that the Jews of Israel now deserve his unambiguous support as they fight to destroy a murderous enemy that has pledged not only to destroy the single Jewish state and replace it with a twenty-third Arab one, but to kill Jews everywhere. No moral equivalency should be allowed. And he must also denounce, as he has not yet done so, the tidal wave of antisemitism, prompted in part by the war in Gaza, that threatens to engulf much of the world. He needs first to unambiguously denounce Hamas and all those who support the terror group. But will he? The signs from this Pope, who believes “Islam is all about peace,” are not good.

So far, Pope Francis has been weighed and found wanting.

Al-Azhar fatwa committee top dog: ‘Rejoice in the demise of the descendants of the pigs’

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/11/al-azhar-fatwa-committee-top-dog-rejoice-in-the-demise-of-the-descendants-of-the-pigs;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Pope Francis and Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb signed an agreement a few years back about how violence in the name of religion is a perversion of religion. Is the pope naive, or evil?

“Virulent Incitement By Al-Azhar: Praise For Palestinian Jihad Fighters; Israel Is Destined To Perish; U.S. Is The Greatest Satan; Jews Are Descendants Of Apes And Pigs,” MEMRI, November 10, 2023:

In recent weeks, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar institution, the leading center of religious learning and supreme source of religious authority in the Sunni Muslim world, and senior members of this institution have been voicing support for Hamas and for terrorism and inciting against the U.S. and Israel, while using virulently antisemitic rhetoric….

Al-Azhar Fatwa:  The Occupying Entity Will Perish And The Lives Of The Martyrs Will Be Longer Than Those Of Their Murderers

On October 18, 2023,  Al-Azhar’s “Global Center for Online Fatwas” posted a fatwa on its Facebook page which predicted Israel’s demise….

“…In its steadfastness, resistance, and persistent adherence to its land, the Palestinian people continue to present a model of heroism, despite the danger of the arbitrary Zionist bombardment. It [also] places the world – which remains silent, neglects, or [even] encourages these crimes – in a great human and moral predicament, removing the fake mask of humaneness from its ugly face.

“The term ‘civilian’ does not apply to the Zionist settlers of the occupied land. Rather, they are occupiers of the land who usurp rights, disregard the ways of the prophets, and attack the holy sites in historic Jerusalem and the [sites of] Islamic and Christian heritage there…

“The world deliberately ignores the fact that the occupying Zionist entity is a cancer in the heart of the Islamic and Arab nation. According to international conventions and laws, occupying forces have no right to the land, the resources and the holy sites [they are occupying], and their aggression must necessarily be met with resistance against their usurpation, oppression and tyranny….

Faculty Dean At Al-Al-Azhar University: May Allah Bring Perdition Upon The “Cursed,” “Treacherous” Jews, “The Descendants Of Apes And Pigs”

Addressing Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel in a series of posts on his personal Facebook account, Muhammad Omar Al-Qady, dean of the Faculty for Islamic and Arabic Studies at Al-Azhar University, made virulently antisemitic remarks, glorified the jihad in Palestine and wished perdition upon the Jews….

“It brought the Palestinian issue back to the center of global attention, after it had almost disappeared and been forgotten… It managed to shatter the false myth about the might of the Israeli army and prove that it is weak and exhausted… It proved that the entire West – with the exception of the peoples – is a single community, especially the governments of the greatest Satan, America, and of the European countries, who follow the orders of the Zionist lobby that is part of [the camp of] our treacherous enemy… It managed to eliminate, if only for a while, the vast enterprise of [Israel’s] normalization with many Arab and Islamic countries, which was making large and rapid strides… [The resistance] also made additional achievements, which will be discussed in the future. I ask Allah to strengthen His soldiers and his camp and grant our brothers in Gaza, Palestine and in the rest of the Muslim countries victory over their enemy and ours, the enemy of Allah and humanity, the cursed descendants of apes and pigs [i.e., the Jews].”[5]

In another post Al-Qady wrote: “Allah, bring perdition upon the cursed and treacherous [Jews], the murderers of prophets, of rulers and of decent people, and on whoever helped them and agreed to their deeds…”[6]

Abbas Shuman, Inspector General Of Al-Azhar’s Fatwa Committees: “Rejoice In The Demise Of The Descendants Of Pigs”; The Zionists Are Worse Than Rabid Dogs

Abbas Shuman, formerly the deputy of Sheikh Al-Azhar and currently the inspector general of Al-Azhar’s Fatwa committees, likewise slammed Israel and expressed support for Hamas’ terror attack, gloating over the suffering caused to Israel. For example, on October 7, the day of the attack, he shared a post in which he praised it, writing, “Allahu Akbar, long live the noble Palestinian people. Allah will inflict defeat on the oppressive occupation and shame and disgrace on the Zionists and their supporters.”[8]

Additional posts over the following days were equally vitriolic and even antisemitic. For instance, on October 17, 2023, Shuman wrote, “I knew that the Zionists had no morals, but I didn’t imagine that they were filthier and more despicable than rabid dogs…”[9]

On October 18 he posted, “…The situation has reached the point of bombing hospitals, after the murder of children and even of fetuses, and [has reached the point where] the great satans [i.e. the world leaders] have come to Palestine to publicly support the Zionists. Rejoice in the demise of the descendants of the pigs.”[10]

Lecturer At Al-Azhar University: The Jews Of The World Can Be Resettled In Southeast Russia; Aiding Palestine Is A Religious Duty Of Every Muslim

In an October 19, 2023 article in the Egyptian daily Al-Usbu’, Dr. Ahmad Karima, a lecturer on Islamic law and comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University,  stated that “aiding Palestine is a religious duty of all Muslims, a national duty of the Arabs, both Muslim and non-Muslim, and a moral obligation,” which must be carried out by the Muslim armies, according to their ability and the assessments of the rulers, by the wealthy Muslims, according to their financial ability, and by the clerics and experts, according to their rhetorical ability. Later he described his own efforts in supporting the Palestinian cause, including by publishing books and studies on Palestine and Jerusalem, as well as books on jihad….

Pope Francis Removes Conservative Texas Bishop

VATICAN-RELIGION-POPE-AUDIENCE
Pope Francis waves to the crowd during the weekly general audience on November 8, 2023 at St Peter's square in The Vatican. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP) (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)

Pope Francis waves to the crowd during the weekly general audience on November 8, 2023, at St Peter’s square in The Vatican. (Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN’s Abril Elfi 
11:22 PM – Sunday, November 12, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/pope-francis-removes-conservative-texas-bishop/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Pope Francis has removed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas.

On Saturday, Pope Francis ordered the removal of Bishop Strickland who is one of his harshest detractors among Roman Catholic conservatives in the United States, after he refused to resign following a Vatican probe. 

The decision came amid Strickland, 65, who has emerged as a prominent critic of Francis, accusing him earlier this year in a tweet of “undermining the deposit of faith.” 

Strickland recently questioned Francis’ month-long closed-door debate on making the church more welcoming and attentive to the concerns of today’s Catholics. The gathering debated a number of traditionally taboo themes, such as women in leadership posts and accepting LGBTQ+ Catholics, but the final text did not depart from established doctrine.

Strickland called it a “travesty” that such topics were even on the table for debate before the meeting.

The Vatican brought in investigators earlier this year to check into his governance of the diocese, following reports that priests and laypeople in Tyler had complained and that he was making unorthodox assertions.

The Vatican never revealed the conclusions, and Strickland argued in media interviews that he was given a mandate to serve as bishop by the late Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and couldn’t relinquish that role.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the head of the church in Texas said that the two Vatican investigators sent to investigate Strickland “conducted an exhaustive inquiry into all aspects of the diocese’s governance and leadership.” 

“The continuation in office of Bishop Strickland was not feasible,” DiNardo said in a statement Saturday, following their inquiry.

The Vatican urged Strickland to quit on Thursday, but he refused, causing Francis to dismiss him two days later, according to DiNardo’s statement.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

Just What the World Needs: A Woke Pope

Just What the World Needs: A Woke Pope
AP Photo/Eric Gay
In 452, an unarmed and unaccompanied Pope Leo I met Attila the Hun outside the gates of Rome and singlehandedly persuaded him not to sack the city.  In 1095, Pope Urban II gave a rousing speech to the assembled nobles in Clermont, France, which launched the first of a series of Crusades to liberate the Holy Land from the bloodthirsty Turks.  In 1801, Pope Pius VII successfully negotiated a concordat with Emperor Napoleon, effectively protecting religious freedoms for Catholics and Protestants alike from the oppressive zeal of the revolutionary Left.

In 2023, Pope Francis wagged his finger and decried pet owners as guilty of “selfishness.”

For better or worse, whether people like it or not, the Catholic pope is the most influential leader in Christendom.  From the coronation of Charlemagne to the dissolution of the Soviet Empire and beyond, no other Christian figurehead carries as much spiritual or diplomatic weight. The papacy funded the first universities, global exploration, scientific development, and the European Renaissance. It bore the brunt of the Jacobin Terror and pulled Christianity through the dark ages of 19th-century nihilistic rationalism and 20th-century atheistic communism.

The bimillennial history of the papacy has seen its share of both good and bad popes. The Left likes to bleat about keeping religion out of politics. But those versed in religious history know the main problems occur when politics tries to intrude into religion, not vice versa. Most of Catholicism’s bad popes were those too corrupt or too weak to keep political interests from intruding onto their temporal turf. It was during times when popes were able to prevent or undo political intrusion into religion that Christianity flourished.

Enter Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis).

Shortly after becoming pope, he made waves at his first impromptu press conference. When asked about the idea of gay clergy, Francis famously replied, “Who am I to judge?” And, oh, how the press fell all over themselves. How they fawned and swooned. How they chuckled and swayed and surged forth to touch his flowing robes. Not because they agree with biblical teachings on judgment, mind you, but because they (correctly) saw in Francis their long-awaited Manchurian candidate.

Since that staged comment, Francis has made plenty of judgments.

Against whom, you tenderly ask with an inquisitive ear? Against the two Muslim “youths” who cut the throat of 85-year-old Father Jacques Hamel as he was performing Mass at his church in St.-Etienne-du-Rouvray? Francis had nothing to say about them at all, other than to clarify for us the true motive for their attack, about which he stated, “It’s war… a war of interests, for money, resources. I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don’t want war. The others want war.” Gotcha. That video the killers made in which they pledge allegiance to ISIS, along with multiple attempts to travel to Syria to fight in its ranks, made for quite the diversions.

And the Afghan “youth” who attacked traingoers with an axe in Wurzburg while yelling “Allahu Akbar”? Or the Syrian “refugee” who blew up a music festival in Ansbach because Germans “obstruct Islam”? Or the ISIS terrorist who killed 84 people with his truck in Nice, France, in a war against “crusader states”? Were they all motivated by the evils of capitalism as well?

Per Francis, they’re not the problem. The problem is Europeans attempting to prevent millions of military-age men from the Islamic world from arriving. Those who attempt to deter such illegal arrivals, says Francis, are exhibiting “gestures of hate against brothers,” made possible by the “fanaticism of indifference.” Hate and indifference. That’s how Pope “WhoAmIToJudge” judges anyone who disagrees with him on immigration policy.

Ah, but immigration is his pet issue, you say. He’s allowed to get a little rambunctious about it, which would explain why he told a crowd of teenagers in Verona to “make noise” about immigration issues. Don’t pray, don’t sacrifice your time volunteering, don’t offer your lodgings or other resources, and certainly don’t lead by example. Make noise. Be good little activists.

But wait, Francis has more judgment to deal with because he has another pet issue. In November, Francis will travel to Dubai to discuss… Israel’s right to self-defense? Support for religious minorities in the Muslim world? Support for women’s rights? Nope. The world’s most influential voice for the abandoned and oppressed will be discussing (drumroll) climate change!!!  We have “ecological sins” to repent for, you see. And by “we,” he means only Westerners, specifically Americans. Neither the Chinese Communist government nor any other tin pot dictatorship needed to lie awake at night fearing Francis’s vigilant gaze. It will fall upon our unrepentant shoulders to bear his wrath for the sin of making Greta Thunberg’s life miserable.

On other issues, Francis is blatantly contradictory. He has long referred to weapons manufacturers as “merchants of death.” He chides European nations for not giving enough of these same weapons to Ukraine, decisions he blames bizarrely on the arms industry. He rants against American burning of fossil fuels but can’t unequivocally condemn Hamas terrorists who burn alive entire families.

But who or what can fill the void? The Anglican Church? The current Archbishop of Canterbury is totally on board with “affirming” the wrong gender for kindergarteners. The previous Archbishop of Canterbury said that sharia law in England will be “unavoidable,” so the backwoods Tory clingers might as well get with the program. The Orthodox Church? Its biggest denomination, the Russian branch, is Putin’s puppet. One of the myriad American denominations, the Presbyterians and whatnot? The PCUSA is too busy adorning their apses with pride flags and BLM banners to notice their pews emptied a long time ago.

Christendom is not in a good place right now.  The Vicar of Peter is currently George Soros in a miter, and most other Christian leaders follow the latest Quinnipiac poll rather than the Bible. Lately, the only Christian official who seems to be doing any actual fighting in defense of the faith is a French nun who chased down and tackled some pansy environmental activist whom she caught destroying building materials intended for a chapel.

The real question is what the Catholic Church will do once Francis retires or dies. Was Francis an unintended mistake, a Bud Light moment for the church? Or will it continue down this woke path? A course correction would obviously be the ideal scenario not just for the Catholic Church but for all of Christendom. Until that happens, Christians the world over are on their own. For those Christians living among Francis’s “brothers” in Sudan and Pakistan, it’s a death sentence, with each passing day simply a matter of borrowed time. For those Christians living in China, the totalitarian sewer where Francis never met a government official whose boots he didn’t eagerly lick clean, public professions of faith get you permanent vacation in the gulag.

Just this month, Italian police reinforced security at the Vatican, complete with bulletproof vests and machine guns, in response to an Islamic terror attack in Brussels. Keep in mind the two cities are 915 miles apart. That’s like an American president upping security for this entourage in Chicago because there was a shooting in Dallas.

But being woke affords you these double standards. The octogenarian priests getting their throats cut aren’t privy to machine-gun wielding guards, just as the Hollywood jet set isn’t expected to “go green” by flying commercial where they might make eye contact with the hoi polloi, and just as the Martha’s Vineyard folks aren’t forced to fill their hotels, airports, and police station lobbies with illegals the way the rest of us are.

Pope Francis is a base political animal of the abominable liberation theology strain. Let’s hope the College of Cardinals runs better background checks at the next papal election.

Pope Francis: ‘May humanitarian rights be respected, above all in Gaza’

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/10/pope-francis-may-humanitarian-rights-be-respected-above-all-in-gaza;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Like any standard-issue Leftist, the pope assumes that Israel will commit human rights violations in Gaza, but he doesn’t dare say a word about the possibility that those whom he has courted so assiduously for “dialogue” might engage in another orgy of slaughter against civilians, as they did on October 7. After all, he has claimed that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran reject any form of violence,” so he likely thinks that Oct. 7 was an anomaly that his pious friends won’t repeat.

Pope Francis and the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, in 2019 published “A Document On Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.” Here’s one of its egregiously false statements:

Terrorism is deplorable and threatens the security of people, be they in the East or the West, the North or the South, and disseminates panic, terror and pessimism, but this is not due to religion, even when terrorists instrumentalize it. It is due, rather, to an accumulation of incorrect interpretations of religious texts and to policies linked to hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression and pride. This is why it is so necessary to stop supporting terrorist movements fuelled by financing, the provision of weapons and strategy, and by attempts to justify these movements even using the media. All these must be regarded as international crimes that threaten security and world peace. Such terrorism must be condemned in all its forms and expressions…

Terrorism is due to “an accumulation of incorrect interpretations of religious texts and to policies linked to hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression, and pride.” So when the pope sees the Hamas massacres in Israel, he sees something that needs to be addressed by wiping out hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression, and pride. We have to shower money and aid upon the poor dears, not defend ourselves against them.

Israel has taken exception to the papal myopia:

 

“Pope Francis calls for humanitarian corridors to help those under siege in Gaza,” Reuters, October 15, 2023:

VATICAN CITY, Oct 15 (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday called for humanitarian corridors to help those under siege in Gaza and again appealed for the release of hostages held by the militant Islamist group Hamas.

“I forcefully ask that children, the sick, the elderly and women, and all civilians do not become the victims of the conflict,” he said at his weekly address to thousands of people in St. Peter’s square.

“May humanitarian rights be respected, above all in Gaza, where it is urgent and necessary to guarantee humanitarian corridors to help the entire population,” he said…

Pope Francis Hints Openness To Blessing Same-Sex Couples

Pope Francis Hints Openness To Blessing Same-Sex Couples

Pope Francis leads an ecumenical prayer with Protestants and Orthodox at St. Peter’s square in The Vatican on September 30, 2023. (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images) / Canva edit

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
1:30 PM – Tuesday, October 3, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/pope-francis-hints-openness-to-blessing-same-sex-couples/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Pope Francis hinted at a reversal of the official Vatican position by allowing some Catholic priests to bless same-sex nuptials.

On Monday, Francis noted several important qualifications, such as the need for case-by-case consideration and the fact that they should not be seen as equivalent to heterosexual wedding ceremonies.

Back in 2021, the Vatican said that it could not support same-sex relationships because “God cannot bless sin.” The pope did, however, hint that there may be some exceptions to this attitude on Monday.

“We cannot be judges who only deny, reject, and exclude,” he said in a letter to five cardinals who asked for clarity on the issue.

Although Vatican doctrine has not changed, some LGBTQ+ Catholics have seen Francis’ remarks as a significant step toward ending the isolation and judgment they claim to face inside the church.

Francis made the comments in a letter that was released on Monday by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Five conservative cardinals from Asia, Europe, Africa, the United States, and Latin America gave a list of “dubia,” which means “doubts” or “inquiries.”

They pressed him to uphold traditional Catholic doctrine on same-sex unions and other contentious topics like women’s ordination.

In response, Francis stated that there may be “forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons” that might be given sometimes. The clergy were urged to practice “pastoral charity,” which he defined as “kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness, and encouragement.”

The pope continued, saying that these unions “do not convey a mistaken concept of marriage,” however, they also “should not necessarily become a norm.”

This focus on permitting these partnerships on a “pastoral” rather than official basis may be a reference to a number of German Catholic priests who have recently publicly blessed same-sex weddings in a dispute with their diocese.

LGBTQ+ Catholics and other progressives hailed his comments as a major victory for the cause of “religious equality.”

“Though the Vatican’s latest statement about same-gender couples does not provide a full-fledged, ringing endorsement of blessing their unions, the document significantly advances Pope Francis’ work to include and affirm LGBTQ+ people,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, an organization that uplifts LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The 86-year-old pope, who has recently struggled with a variety of health challenges, is no stranger to progressive causes. He has established himself as a strong voice on everything from the immigrant crisis to climate change-related topics.

When challenged about LGBTQ+ matters and priests’ sexual orientations many months into his pontificate, Francis responded, “Who am I to judge?”

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Pope Francis appoints pro-abortion, pro-LGBT friend as founding member of new Vatican institute

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Eugenio Zaffaroni and Pope FrancisVideo screenshot/Unsplash

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has appointed his longtime friend and fellow Argentinian Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni to a Vatican position, despite Zaffaroni’s controversial record and his support for homosexuality and abortion.

Announced on August 18 by the Holy See Press Office, Pope Francis formally recognized a group first created in 2019 and made the peculiar move of designating it as a private association of the faithful.

The Pan-American Committee of Judges and Judges for Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine [COPAJU] had its statutes and logo formally approved by the Pope, along with its first appointments and staffing assignments.

A brainchild and subsidiary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Committee was first established in 2019 from a meeting in the Vatican of 120 magistrates from across the Americas. According to the Pope’s chirograph, the group is oriented to “protection and promotion of social rights from the magistracy, placing special emphasis on the discarded social sectors, affected by the different processes of neo-colonialism.”

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As a subsidiary of COPAJU, Pope Francis instituted a new research group, appointing to it a friend from his native Argentina whose record on life and family issues contradicts Catholic moral teaching. Raúl Eugenio Zaffaroni was appointed as one of the three founding board members of the new “Fray Bartolomé de las Casas” Institute for Research and Promotion of Social Rights.

The new Institute will deal with the “academic, teaching and formation purposes on the field of social rights, migration and colonialism.” As such, it will be financially “supported, directed, and administered by COPAJU and will operate under the auspices of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.”

But Zaffaroni, despite his appointment to a Vatican-based body, has a long-standing record of promoting abortion and homosexuality. A former member of Argentina’s Supreme Court from 2003 through 2015, Zaffaroni also served as a judge for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) from 2016 through 2022.

As LifeSite’s Dr. Maike Hickson reported in 2019, Zaffaroni was chiefly responsible for organizing an event at the Vatican for LGBT activists on the decriminalization of homosexuality. The invitation letter, of which LifeSite obtained a copy, stated that “Professor Zaffaroni’s words will be followed by a historical speech by His Holiness relevant to the subject matter.”

READ: Pope Francis set to give ‘historic speech’ involving ‘persons of the same sex’, leaked letter claims

The event was revealed by Dr. Frédéric Martel, an open homosexual and author of a book alleging widespread homosexuality amongst clergy in the Vatican. Martel described Zaffaroni as “a friend of Pope Francis.”

To support this claim is the well-documented fact that Pope Francis, when still the archbishop of Buenos Aires, invited Zaffaroni in 2010 to participate as a speaker at a diocesan event on children and youth, something that caused indignation among Catholics at the time. A letter penned to then-Cardinal Bergoglio at the time described Zaffaroni as someone who

publicly advocates for abortion rights (at a time when our country is prey to a ruthless campaign for the murder of the innocent), and has clearly and emphatically expressed in favor of homosexual “marriage” (which includes corruption of our children due to the possibility of adoption recognized by law), also in favor of the decriminalization of drugs, and countless sins from which the Church  – as Mother and Teacher – and her pastors, must protect their children.

Indeed, Zaffaroni has made no secret about being a long-standing supporter of the decriminalization of homosexual relationships along with opposing the criminalization of abortion.

Zaffaroni and Francis: Pachamama supporters

An interesting parallel between the Argentine Pope and the Argentine judge is their advocacy for Earth-centered ecology, including support for Pachamama. Pope Francis was infamously a participant at the 2019 Vatican event which saw Pachamama statues being worshiped in the Vatican Gardens. The statues of the Incan fertility goddess were then placed in a church just meters from the Vatican, before being thrown into the river by Catholic activist Alexander Tschugguel. Francis apologized to Amazon indigenous leaders for the statues’ being thrown into the river.

Zaffaroni is himself also a proponent of Pachamama idolatry. A 2017 article written by Pope Francis’ friend — the disgraced former Franciscan priest and liberation theologian Leonardo Boff — praised a book written by Zaffaroni entitled Pachamama and the Human Being. Boff argued the text was in the same spirit as Francis’ 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato Si’ and strongly defended animal rights against centuries of “human cruelty.”

The book also aligns with Francis’ 2020 text Fratelli Tutti, in that a concept of fraternity divorced from religion is proposed as the answer to the crises of humanity. “Only by substituting the knowledge of the dominus for the frater we can regain human dignity,” Zaffaroni wrote.

Zaffaroni and Argentine prostitution

But additional controversy has long surrounded the Argentinian judge. A 2011 investigation by Perfil found that numerous apartments he owned in Buenos Aires were being used for a lucrative prostitution business.

Zaffaroni denied being involved in the business, arguing that management of the property was handled by a real estate company and that he was a victim of a media campaign. Calls were subsequently made for Zaffaroni’s impeachment given he was serving as a judge on the nation’s supreme court at the time.

Then in 2013, Zaffaroni’s attorney Ricardo Montivero testified in court that it was he who had been managing the prostitution business, not Zaffaroni. Montivero paid a fine for the management of a brothel. Montivero’s fine was reportedly the minimum penalty for the offense and it did not lead to a criminal record.

Pope Francis Weighing Removal of Conservative Texas Bishop

Pope Francis Weighing Removal of Conservative Texas Bishop
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Pope Francis is considering a request for the resignation of an outspoken conservative bishop in northeast Texas.

According to a report by Catholic news outlet The Pillar, Bishop Joseph Strickland of the archdiocese of Tyler was the subject of a Sept. 9 meeting between the Holy Father and cardinals-elect Robert Prevost and Christophe Pierre. Prevost is the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, the body responsible for recommending the appointment of new bishops, and Pierre is the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio — or national ambassador — to the United States.

“The situation of Bishop Strickland is the agenda, and the expectation is that the Holy Father will be requesting his resignation,” an unnamed source told the publication.

Strickland has gained notoriety in recent years for his opposition to abortion, vaccine mandates, and LGBTQ ideology.

In January, Strickland criticized President Joe Biden for his support of taxpayer funding for abortions, arguing, “It is time to denounce Biden’s fake Catholicism.”

In May, he accused Pope Francis of “undermining the Deposit of Faith,” a term for the divine authority Catholics believe has been vested in the presumed successor to the Apostle Peter. Although Strickland’s statement was an attempt to clarify that he disagrees with the assertion by a conservative Catholic podcaster that Francis is not the legitimate pope, he implicitly endorsed the podcaster’s criticism of the pontiff for embracing lockdowns and the COVID-19 vaccines while failing to defend the church’s traditional views on issues like abortion, divorce and remarriage, and homosexuality.

And in June, Strickland led a prayer rally outside Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles during the team’s “Pride Night” event featuring a group of drag queens known as the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” one of whose members was recently arrested for “indulging” himself in public. Although the local archdiocese urged Catholics to pray for their community in response to the event, they stopped short of endorsing the rally held outside the stadium, fearing it could lead to confrontation and paint Catholics in a negative light.

Later that month, Strickland was visited in Tyler by emissaries from the Vatican. During his weekly podcast, he compared the visit to “being called to the principal’s office,” saying he was being investigated for “simply preaching the truth.”

However, the Vatican has had eyes on Strickland for at least the last two years.

At the 2021 annual meeting for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Strickland was confronted by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who warned him to tone down his rhetoric because “we’re watching you.”

When contacted by Religion News Service for comment on the report of the pope’s meeting, Strickland said he had not heard anything about it from the Vatican. He also indicated he would not resign if asked to do so.

“As a basic principle I cannot resign the mandate given to me by Pope Benedict the XVI,” he wrote in an email. “Of course, that mandate can be rescinded by Pope Francis, but I cannot voluntarily abandon the flock that I have been given charge of as a successor of the apostles.”

If Strickland is removed by Francis, some critics worry conservative Catholics would view him as a political martyr.

Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, expressed this concern to Religion News Service in May when the aforementioned incident between Strickland and Pierre was first disclosed.

“I believe that the fear is that, if he’s removed, his visibility will be amplified,” Faggioli said.

However, Strickland insists his priority is the gospel of Christ, and he isn’t trying to make a name for himself.

These recent remarks echo what he said during a July episode of his podcast.

“Really, it isn’t about me, but it’s about the truth of our faith,” Strickland explained.

Exclusively for our VIPs: Pope Francis Skewers U.S. Catholic Church for Being ‘Reactionary’

Nevertheless, he indicated nothing would deter him from this mission, saying, “I’m willing to go through anything [that] I have to, to continue to proclaim that message because love for God’s people means we share the good news of Jesus Christ.”

“They won’t stop me,” he continued. “When we’re speaking the truth of Jesus Christ, there is no politically correct. And the world can try to shut us down, but it won’t work.”

Pope Francis and the Vatican might have something to say about that, but it doesn’t appear Bishop Strickland will be riding off into the sunset anytime soon.

Member Of Anti-Catholic Drag Queen Group Arrested For Indecent Public Exposure

Member Of Anti-Catholic Drag Queen Group Arrested For Indecent Public Exposure

Members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
12:48 PM – Wednesday, September 13, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/member-of-anti-catholic-drag-queen-group-arrested-for-indecent-public-exposure/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

According to a sheriff’s office report that the press obtained this week, a prominent member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of primarily gay men who dress in drag and openly mock Catholics, was arrested in California last month for indecent exposure after it was alleged by witnesses that he openly masturbated in public for an hour.

After receiving a report of a man “exposing himself in the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle,” authorities detained 53-year-old Clinton Monroe Ellis-Gilmore at a seaside park, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s office.

“According to numerous witnesses, Ellis-Gilmore had been at that location for approximately one hour, sitting in his truck with the door open, masturbating,” according to a sheriff’s report on the incident, which took place on August 12th at around 6:41 p.m. “The conduct does not appear to have been directed at anyone in particular.” 

In Loleta, California, at Table Bluff County Park, the arrest was made.

The park is described by Google reviews as “good for kids” and the location of “kid-friendly hikes.”

The press was able to obtain Ellis-Gilmore’s booking photo, which shows that he was shirtless when he was taken into custody.

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ decision to recognize the group during an LGBTQ “Pride” event garnered negative backlash for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

However, the group also gained the backing of many mainstream media outlets who supported the organization against those who said it was a perverse hate group, praising them for their “dedication to community service.”

The men typically dress as traditional nuns and use names that are sexually provocative while mocking Catholicism and Christianity.

A local Humboldt County website, The Lost Coast Populist, broke the news of Ellis-Gilmore’s original arrest. They discovered several of his previous social media posts and established the first connection between Ellis-Gilmore and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Ellis-Gilmore made no attempt to conceal what was happening in the park, according to Randy Fleek, a witness who spoke with the officers who conducted the arrest.

Fleek said that Ellis-Gilmore had parked two spaces away from his trailer, leaving the truck door wide open while putting his right leg up on the dashboard. He was also reportedly wearing no trousers, giving Fleek an open side view of Ellis-Gilmore “playing with himself.”

“Well this is f***ed up,” Fleek said, speaking of what he saw. “It’s obvious. You cannot help but see this guy, he’s not hiding it. He wants everyone to see what he’s doing.”

Throughout the hour, he said that vehicles pulled up to the parking area and left, some of them carrying young girls and boys who were passing by. Fleek said that he felt immense relief when the sheriff’s deputies came.

“There’s something wrong with that man. He’s got a weird f***ing desire to show off to the public, to anybody that wants to look at him,” Fleek said. “He puts himself in a position and in a spot that you can’t help but look at the son of a b****.”

The “popular” park, where many cars pass by to gaze at the ocean, added to the unsettling nature of what he saw.

“People do not pull in to view this sort of perverse behavior, they do so to see the ocean.”

He maintained that Ellis-Gilmore’s purported intentions were obvious.

The suspected public masturbator, Ellis-Gilmore, had long been involved with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in Eureka, California. According to social media posts, Ellis-Gilmore appears to go by numerous identities in the organization, including “Novice Sister Bethe Cockhim” and “Novice Sister Man Romeo.”

Ellis-Gilmore took part in a number of Eureka Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence activities, including a book reading at an elementary school where he read to kids while a man in a mock-nun costume and fishnet tights was also seen wearing a blonde wig.

“Yesterday sisters had the most magical time reading story books to the Peninsula elementary school kids in recognition of them Studying LGBT awareness month! Thanks for the honor!” a post from October 31st, 2018 read. 

Additionally, Ellis-Gilmore and the “sisters” have a history of posting sexually explicit statements on social media. Two sister members were shown clutching a fake penis in one of their posts, while Ellis-Gilmore displayed his nipple piercing and a cartoon “gay smurf” drawing with erections and pubic hair.

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Biden ignores genocide of Christians, reaffirms commitment to and ‘friendship’ with ‘democratic’ Nigeria

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/09/biden-ignores-genocide-of-christians-reaffirms-commitment-to-and-friendship-with-democratic-nigeria;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The Daily Signal recognized a pattern last year with the Biden administration, and rightly termed it as an “outrageous betrayal” of Nigeria’s persecuted Christians when “religious freedom designations were declared” and “Nigeria once again was entirely ignored by Biden and company.” Genocide Watch has reported that in Nigeria, more than 6,000 Christians were killed in the 15 months from January 2021 through March 2022, and 45,644 died in the course of 13 years.

Joe Biden has now done it again. He has “reaffirmed his commitment to the longstanding relationship between the country and Nigeria……Africa’s largest democracy,” and has boasted of “the longstanding friendship between our two countries and peoples.”

Nigeria is technically a democracy, but it is a country in crisis, where Christians are suffering under the jihadist threat and the proliferation of jihad activity, and where revolutionary secessionist groups in the southeast create upheaval. It is hardly deserving of a pat on the back from Biden. His continued slap in the face to the Christians in Nigeria and complete exoneration of Nigeria’s government for any responsibility for the nation’s jihad problem is just another indication of Biden’s callousness toward Christians. But that should come as no surprise. A few months ago, Fox News reported that “anti-Christian hostility” is at  “unprecedented levels” under Biden.

“Biden re-affirms commitment to U.S-Nigeria relationship — Nigeria,” by Oluyemi Ogunseyin, The Guardian Nigeria, September 10, 2023:

United States President Joe Biden has reaffirmed his commitment to the longstanding relationship between the country and Nigeria.

This was stated in a statement released by the White House following Biden’s encounter with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, on Sunday.

“President Joe Biden has reinforced our enduring commitment to the U.S.-Nigeria relationship and to the longstanding friendship between our two countries and peoples,” the statement read.

“President Biden welcomed the Tinubu Administration’s steps to reform Nigeria’s economy.

“He also thanked President Tinubu for his strong leadership as the chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to defend and preserve democracy and the rule of law in Niger and the broader region.”…..

President Biden Awards the Medal of Honor to Vietnam Veteran Pilot Captain Larry L. Taylor, for Conspicuous Gallantry~Biden Abruptly Walks Out Of Medal Of Honor Ceremony, Even Before Closing Benediction

'Lack of respect': Joe Biden slammed for 'walking out' of Medal of Honor ceremony

Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot who risked his life by flying into heavy enemy fire to save four members of a reconnaissance team from almost certain death as they were about to be overrun.

Ex-Catholic Mike Gendron: Proclaiming the Gospel

A Devilish Lie That Deceives Catholics

BY MIKE GENDRON OF PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

Of all the deceptive doctrines and dogmas of Roman Catholicism, there is one that is more paralyzing and potentially fatal than the others. It is the falsification of all the spiritual benefits that are purported to be received with the sacrament of water baptism. This distortion of biblical teaching is paralyzing for Catholics because it discourages them from examining their dead, spurious, and misplaced faith.

The Falsification of Spiritual Blessings

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), many spiritual blessings flow out of water baptism. It is said to be the sacrament of regeneration which causes people to be freed from sin, and reborn as sons of God (CCC, 1213). By water baptism, all sins are forgiven, as well as all punishment for sin. Nothing remains in those who have been reborn that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God (CCC, 1263). The horrible deception continues. "Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte a new creature, an adopted son of God, who has become a partaker of the divine nature, member of Christ, co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit" (CCC, 1265). But that is not all! Rome declares "Justification is conferred in Baptism...It conforms us to the righteousness of God" (CCC, 1992). Catholics need to know that absolutely none of these spiritual blessings are received as a result of water baptism. The only way they will know they have been so woefully deceived is when they abide in God's Word and the truth sets them free from religious deception.

Scripture Exposes Rome's Deceptive Teaching

Only when we examine this Catholic teaching through the lens of God's inspired Word can we know how cunningly deceptive it is. Scripture is used for reproof, that is, to expose and to unmask the fatal errors of every false religion (2 Tim. 3:16). Rome's deceitful teaching on water baptism violates and blasphemes the sovereign regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Regeneration results in the new birth, being born again as a child of God. It is solely and completely the work of God. Man has absolutely nothing to do with the new birth as it is irrefutably stated in John's Gospel. Children of God "were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13). Our rebirth is necessary because fallen man is spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins” until he is “made alive” (regenerated) by God (Eph. 2:4-5).

The Timing and Purpose of Water Baptism

Water baptism is an act of obedience and a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ after one has been born again of the Spirit. There is irrefutable evidence for this in Scripture. When the Gentiles heard and believed the Gospel, Peter declared, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did." Then "he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:47-48). In spite of this clear teaching from God's Word, most Catholics are baptized as infants before they can believe anything. Rome makes a fraudulent attempt to overcome this by declaring it is the faith of the infant's parents that validates the baptism. They need to know that God does not have any grandchildren, only children of faith.

Water Baptism Cannot Cause Spiritual Rebirth

Catholics insist that their doctrine of water baptism is supported by the words of Jesus: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit" (John 3:5). Yet, Christian baptism is not mentioned here. In fact, the ordinance had not been introduced yet. The Lord Jesus was explaining that the new birth was entirely a spiritual one, which, like the wind, no man can control. In several places in the Bible “water” is used figuratively as the Spirit of God (John 4:14 and 7:37). The words in John 3:5, "of water and of the Spirit," could be correctly interpreted, "of water, even of the Spirit." Such a rendering is in full accord with Ezekiel 36:25-27, where the water is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit causing spiritual cleansing and rebirth. Jesus chided Nicodemus for not knowing this when He asked, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?" (John 3:10).

Only God and His Word Can Cause Spiritual Life

The two necessary agents to bring about the new birth are the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Peter declared, "you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Pet. 1:23). James wrote: "in the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth" (Jas. 1:18). The new birth is a spiritual, holy and heavenly birth that results in our being made alive spiritually. Almighty God, not man, is the sole source of this radical transformation (Eph. 2:1, 8). It is not the priest and his water; it is the Spirit and the Word of God.

Let us speak the truth in love to Catholics who do not know they have been deceived about life's most important issues. Pray for God to give us open doors of opportunity and for open hearts to receive His Word with humility and repentance. This is a message that will encourage you to evangelize Catholics God's Way.

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