Smoke And Wolves Inside The Church

In a post of mine three weeks ago, I touched upon several avenues by which the smoke of Satan is entering into the Catholic Church.  In this post, I'll deal with several of these avenues.  First we look at the various partnerships that the Vatican has struck with those opposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ (fifth bullet point).

Caritas is reputedly the main social organization inside the Vatican.  Yet as the Lepanto Institute and other organizations have pointed out, Caritas has been funding and even directing socialist organizations in their promotions of abortion, contraception, marxism etc.

Lepanto has discovered yet another squalid venture of Caritas.  An outfit called Cordaid is apparently a co-founder of Caritas, and remains as the representative of Caritas in the Netherlands.  As you read the link to the Lepanto expose, you'll see that Cordaid is directly involved in the distribution of contraception, sex education, condoms, etc to African countries.  They even gave money to Planned Parenthood of Siera Leone.  It appears that Cardinal Maradiaga stepped down as head of Caritas and was succeeded by Cardinal Tagle of the Philippines.  The Lepanto article ends with a suggestion that Cardinal Tagle be petitioned to separate Cordaid from Caritas.  That might be nice, but give what I've seen of Cardinal Tagle, one should not be surprised if these petitions are disregarded.

By the way - the Cordaid link contains a video report of the misdeeds of Caritas.  Accuracy in Media checked out the facts stated therein and found them to be accurate.  Caritas is promoting disobedience to the Church's teachings on life and sexuality, and also those regarding communism.

Now we'll address the second bullet point in my "smoke" post: advancement of the gay agenda.  First a shout-out to the Lepanto Institue for ferreting out all these snakes in the grass.  We'll now look at some mischief surrounding the Pope's visit to Philadelphia next September.  It's a big conference and as can be expected, there will be many exhibitors.  Someone has to decide what organizations will be allowed to exhibit at this conference.  Who might that someone be?  Lepanto found the answer and it is most disquieting to say the least.  Her name is Teresa Matozzo and she works for Talley Management Group.  She is also a gay activist in a lesbian relationship.  Do we see any potential for dissident bias in the decision-making process?  As critical as that question might be, that's not the most serious question here.  That would be, "what possessed the event organizers to allow a gay activist to have such a role in this papal conference?"

Today we learned from LifeSiteNews that in the wake of the Irish vote disaster and the "shadow council", that Cardinal Kasper wants the synod to consider "the question of same-sex couples".  Cardinal Kasper has written his own book called Pope Francis' Revolution Of Tenderness And Love.  (Since when is love a revolutionary concept in the Catholic Church?)  It's published by Paulist Press.  Father Janus, president of Paulist Press, gave to the pope a copy of that book along with a film about LGBT Catholics called "Owning Our Faith".  Watch the clip and you'll see immediately the heresies therein; (is the priest interviewed in that film still allowed to conduct himself as priest?)  If Father Janus is championing both the film and book, I can only surmise that the book is similarly oriented.

It sure seems we're being force-fed a raunchy diet of pro-sodomy propaganda.  I suspect it's part and parcel of the "maturation" that we're supposed to undergo before the next October sin-nod.  I might suggest a read of Lepanto's treatise on Fatima as it relates to sodomy.

Does Caritas Control The Catholic Relief Services?

Many of you recall that I have blogged about Caritas, the faux-katholyc "social justice" racket honchoed by Cardinal Maradiaga.  I won't rehash all its deadly and anti-God activities; the link to the anthology is here for your review.

When I posted yessterday's article about Carolyn Woo's statement as released by Zenit, one tiny detail caught my eye.  I repost it here.  Notice - in the very first sentence - that Catholic Relief Services is being billed as "the US branch of Caritas".  Am I the only one who did not know this?  Here I thought all along that CRS was an arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and wholely controlled by them.

This fact raises a whole bevy of questions:

• Are all donations and grants raised from US sources staying with CRS, or is a percentage of them making its way to the international organization?  How much of Catholic's donations to the CRS in-pew collection are being funneled to Cordaid and the World Social Forum?
• How much control do US bishops have over the doings of CRS as opposed to Caritas leadership?
• Does Caritas exert any control over other areas and outreaches commonly believed to be controlled by the USCCB?
• When and how did Caritas become insinuated as a controller of CRS?
• If Caritas is controlling CRS and proiding leadership to the World Social Forum (see the first link for a treatmetn of World Social Forum), would that not mean that CRS and the World Social Forum are sister organizations?  It is reasonable to believe that CRS and Cordaid are sister organizations since Cordaid is the Netherlands branch of Caritas.

By the way - if any overzealous CRS employee is reading this and is thinking of asking Zenit to pull this article down in "knee-jerk damage-control fashion", don't bother!  It's been archived!  Why make yourselves look sillier than you already do?

This is just the latest reason why not one red cent should be given to any outreach run by the USCCB.  We don't know where that money is going.

US Bishops Push For Amnesty - Part And Parcel Of Larger Corruption?

The US bishops seem to have interpreted last week's elections as a referendum (in part) on the Obamanista regime's attempt to grant large-scale amnesty and loosen our borders.  To be fair, they are correct in understanding that most people of common sense understand these policies to be crippling to the US and helpful to no one in the long run.

They - that is, the leadership of the bishops - are in a tizzy over this development.  As you might recall, they've been caught accepting millions of dollars (through grants to Catholic Charities) for the express purpose of absorbing the millions; see this link.  If those big ole' GOP meanies get their way, why, that spigot might be stopped!  Note: "spigot" in this context means millions of our tax dollars flowing into corrupt Catholic Charities coffers.

Therefore, in complete disregard for the will of the American citizens - you know, the ones whose wallets are being raided for these Catholic Charities grants - the bishops, from their meeting in Baltimore, are urging that we support the Messiah Most Miserable in this latest power grab.  Here are details from Huffington Post.  I know, some of you are going to dismiss that link as liberal wishful thinking.  Would that were true - but they're right as you can see from this USCCB-controlled site.

But might there be another motive besides the filthy lucre?  Might someone in high places in the Vatican have a stake in allowing the influx of Central Americans, including Hondurans, into the US?  The "Hondurans" reference might give you a hint of my theory.  It wouldn't surprise me a bit to learn that Cardinal Maradiaga of Honduras might be pulling a lot of strings to get the US bishops to screech for de facto open borders.

Does he have the influence?  He most certainly does.  As the acknowledged leader of the group of eight cardinals selected to advise the pope, he has the pope's ear and consequently many churchmen might be inclined to pay him quite a bit of deference.  If you read a bit of that article, you'll notice that one goal of their's is to give more power to the various bishops' conferences; at this time, they have no canonical authority over their member bishops.  Of course this would include the USCCB.

This leader of the Council of Cardinals has shown himself to be a counselor for evil in the various dealings that he has.  He is president of Caritas International.  This organization sits on the International Council of the World Social Forum.  In other words, Caritas has an active role in setting goals and priorities for the World Social Forum.  Among the goals and priorities of the World Social Forum is the promotion of abortion and homosexuality: two anti-life realities that are completely contrary to Christ and the teaching of His Church.  Please read this report by American Life League and watch the related video.

The Tablet has an article about the bishops' debate regarding Holy Communion for divorced/remarried - that is, adulterous - Catholics.  Cardinal Kasper led the way, but Maradiaga was right beside him.  Cardinal Burke stood for the Church's teaching as it has stood for nearly 2000 years; last week he received persecution from his brother bishops in high places and yes, the pope.  Remember - Maradiaga has the pope's ear.  In his piece entitled "Burke And Another Translation Error", Robert Royal rightly includes Maradiaga in a list of "unreliable counselors" to the pope.

I have here an anthology of posts dealing with Maradiaga: Caritas (discussed above), his envirowhackoism, and his push to get the US to assimilate Hondurans into the US.  He seems to be working in concert with the Honduran president to ship as many of their problematic citizenry into the US as possible.  See here and here.

So this gang of eight wants the conferences to have more power?  Let us pray that they - at least the USCCB and its state counterparts - are abolished.  This bunch is trying to amass power for itself, as its push for amnesty illustrates.

Vatican Social Justice Apparatus Controlled By Progressives

Michael Hichborn of the American Life League reports that Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican's top social justice agency, is providing leadership to the World Social Foundation.  The latter in turn is unabashedly promoting communism, homosexuality, contraception and even abortion.  Please watch the video below and download ALL's full report on this latest scandal.  It would appear that not only have progressives infiltrated the Vatican's social justice apparatus; they control it lock, stock and barrel.

Both this video and the report conclude by asking that all petition the Caritas director, Cardinal Maradiaga, to end all contact with the World Social Forum.  I believe this suggested action would be akin to asking the fox to guard the hen house.  I have written before about Cardinal Maradiaga, and his recent actions that suggest his embrace of the Cloward-Piven Strategy.  Most notably I pointed out the key role he played in precipitating our recent crisis with thousands of Central Americans pouring across our borders.  I think that along with prayer, the best we can do is to keep shining the light on these outfits and watch for any actions they may undertake in your locality so that you can best determine how to combat these.

Reply To Tom Peters' Objections About Our Concerns

Two days ago Tom Peters posted a blog article in which he attempts to rebut concerns broached against an earlier post of his.  I would suspect that among the "reactions" to which he is, well, reacting is my post about the rose-colored glasses and/or the Vortex embedded therein.  I am somewhat taken aback by what appears to be judgmentalism and condescension regarding heartfelt concerns that motivate us.

His second paragraph begins with, "sure, I get it, it’s fun to be a cynic. It’s cool to be the one always predicting the next bad thing that’s going to happen."  Tom et al, I assure you that we are not having "fun" dealing with the messes that are issuing forth from the Vatican.  We see these "bad things" as causing confusion - the sort of confusion that can destroy faith and damn souls to hell.  We write to obtain clarification of these conundrums, not because we "enjoy the novelty of being papal skeptics".

Peters then lets off with "We must trust that when the cardinals chose Cardinal Brogoglio to be Pope, the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing. So let’s quit with the doom mongering."  Again, we are not "doom mongering" when we point out problems so obvious that one would have to be in active denial not to acknowledge it.  But let's look at the quote again.  Here we have him stating a premise then a conclusion.  However, the conclusion doesn't necessarily follow from that premise.  We trust that the Holy Spirit knows what he was doing; but that doesn't mean we should remain silent when there is cause for alarm.

Case in point.  No one denies that the Holy Spirit guided the Cardinal's actions many centuries ago when Pope Alexander VI ascended to the papacy.  No one can deny that Alexander's papacy was one huge debacle.  Hailing from the Borgia family, he brought with him some "family traditions".  He had people murdered, he fathered whole broods of illegitimate children and yes, he taught his children to be cut-throats as well.  Lucretia Borgia was his daughter via one of his concubines.  From another woman he sired Cesare Borgia - so ruthless was he that Machiavelli based his signature work The Prince on his chequered career.  Would Tom Peters have called it "doom mongering" to point out Alexander's foibles?   Yes, the laundry is indeed a tad spotty.

By the way - in the quote from Peters' piece that appears two paragraphs ago, I copied and pasted it from Peter's blog.  Thus the misspelling "Brogoglio" is Peters', not mine.  It should read "Bergoglio".

My friend at The Tenth Crusade put up an excellent rebuttal of Peters' piece.  I urge you to read it.  I need not rehash what she has said.  Rather, I'll direct your attention to this question that he poses in his second-to-last paragraph.  "If Pope Francis sees dissenting Catholics living more active lives of charity, showing more passion in their desire to fix the problems of the world, and being more vocal in the great debates of our time, what happens then?"   What Peters proposes is an impossibility.  Dissenting Catholics by definition are those who hold in disregard the Teachings of the Church that originate from Our Lord Himself.  In separating themselves from the Church, they cut themselves from the grace of truth and they usually attempt to draw others into their dissent.  Not only do they endanger their own immortal souls, but the souls of those whom they successfully seduce into their sinful patterns of belief and conduct.  Whatever else "charity" may mean, it does NOT mean the facilitation of the damnation of souls.  Charity leads to eternal salvation, not perdition.  Far from "fixing the problems of the world", they greatly exacerbate them owing to their disobedience to the Creator of the World.  For the life of me, I don't understand how Peters could suggest such an outlandish situation.  I might suggest a careful study of Pope Benedict's Caritas In Veritate.  As the title suggests, Pope Benedict made plain that there is no authentic charity without an adherence to truth.  And yes, truth does include (in many cases) "tradition" with a small "t", for those willing to disregard "tradition" are often quite willing to jettison "Tradition".

Peters, in the final paragraph, asks "So which is it going to be?"  I'll answer that.  As we see problems (and yes, Tom, they ARE problems), we will continue to bring them to light in order to bring about their rectification.  That's a part of "living the Gospel".  I for my part ask, "How much longer are you going to engage in denial and play the Three Monkeys?"

First Sunday In Lent - Time To #sayno2crs - Boycott Operation Rice Bowl

Today and tomorrow mark the First Sunday of Lent 2017.  This is the weekend when the ubiquitous Catholic Relief Services rice bowls will sprout like kudzu in the lobbies of most Catholic parishes in the United States.  Last year many of us Catholic bloggers urged a boycott of this CRS collection.  When we do so, we always hope that the offending target of the boycott will heed the message of the boycott and take corrective measures to make themselves more worthy of Catholic donations.  Alas, our hopes are dashed this year as CRS has proven itself to be even more unworthy of Catholic dollars than they were last year.

So what have been the lowlights of the Catholic Relief Services since Lent of 2016?

• One of their vice presidents was found to be in a same-sex #mowwidge, that is, he was a flagrant pervert.  Only when the light was shown on this sin did CRS announce his resignation.
• Brushes off our discoveries of their moral failures as "attacks".
• Questionable influence of Caritas over CRS
• Two more sodomy promoters within its ranks

Such are the relatively current scandals of the CRS.  For some of their older scandals, see here, here, here (with some videos), here (w/more videos).  You can also put "crs" or "Catholic Relief Services" in the search box at the top left to see much more material.  The scandals abound.

Last year I suggested a way to do an effective boycott of the rice-bowl effort. I reiterate the suggestion below.

• Pick up one of those "rice bowls" from your church lobby and assemble it.
• At the bottom of the Lepanto article is a note that you can use to let CRS know why you'll not contribute.
• Place that note in your now-assembled "rice bowl".  I intend to sign mine, but that's optional.
• When your parish announces that it's time to return the rice bowls to church, please do so. Yours will have the note and no money.

So why are the scandals so numerous?  I suspect that CRS, like its cousin CCHD, was never founded to be truly conformable with the Catholic mission of saving souls.  Please participate in our boycott and urge your family and friends to do the same.  Feel free to post this blog post to your own sites.  CRS is a beast that needs to be starved to death.

Hichborn On CCHD, Cdl Maradiaga And Their Corrupting Influences On The Church

Christine Niles of Forward Boldly recently interviewed Michael Hichborn of Lepanto Institute.  Hichborn has done extensive research on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and other socialistic encroachments into the leadership and structure of the Catholic Church.  Another corroding element upon which he touched is Cardinal Maradiaga.  He focused on Maradiaga's leadership of Caritas International.

The interview was extensive so perhaps time did not permit the discussion of other issues regarding Maradiaga; I've touched upon some of these, as you can see in this anthology of blog posts.  One of them is the role that Maradiaga played in our recent and ongoing influx of illegal aliens pouring through our southern border.  The other is the role that he played in the SinNod last month, advocating for the distribution of Holy Communion to those living in adultery.  Yet another is the role that Maradiaga holds as he is de facto head of the group of eight cardinals who are top advisers to the Holy Father.  Pope Francis picked them himself.  I find it difficult to believe that the Holy Father was unaware of Maradiaga's unsavory doings at the time of his selection.

Please continue to offer prayers (especially the Mass and Rosary) for Holy Mother Church.  Now here is the interview.

Abortion Is A "Pelvic Issue"!

That precious pearl of wisdom has been bestowed upon us, courtesy of the Catholic University of America.  What has gotten into the water cooler inside of the CUA faculty lounge?

On September 12, at Catholic University of America, there was a forum entitled "International Religious Freedom: An Imperative for Peace and the Common Good".  If that sounds like a progressive gab-fest, that's because it was.  It was jointly sponsored by the USCCB, Catholic Relief Services, CUA and the university's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.  That tells us a lot right there.  We've learned quite a bit about CRS.  We've also learned recently that the IPRCS is directed by Stephen Schneck, who just happens to be co-chair of Catholics for Obama.

A CUA faculty member named Maryann Cusimano Love spoke on - you guessed it! - women.  Why?  Well, according to her, "women are more religious than men" and "attacks on religious freedom affect women more than men".  I dunno - but those sound like rather sexist statements to me (by-the-by, I am a woman)!  But don't expect her to be called on that blatant sexism by lame-brain-main-stream media, because she's portraying us as victims and that means she's a victim too!  Got that??  There I go, digressing again.

Love went on to complain against those who "block" CRS and Caritas (funny how she omitted mention of CARE - but I'm sure it was quite inadvertent!  Of course - so stop that snickering!).  She does go so far as to acknowledge that some differ with the Church on various issues.  Guess what those issues are, according to Love?  Why, they're PELVIC ISSUES!

I can only conclude that the brutal murder of babies, the dismembering of tiny unborn children are what Love calls "pelvic issues".  I've been on the pro-life front-lines for some time now, and I must say this is a "first".  Pelvic issues!!!  What euphemisms will these pro-death progressives concoct next?

She then goes on to say that the Church should "make the unexpected choice to reach out to people who are not like us" in "areas where we have common ground".  Sorry, dear!  There simply is no "common ground" with murder.  And yes, we do "reach out" when we practice the Spiritual Works of Mercy, such as rebuking the sinner and instructing the ignorant.  It is God and His laws that dictate the proper motives and methods of "reaching out", not an institute directed by someone so fuzzy-headed that he advocates voting for the most pro-baby-murder president ever to occupy the Oval Office.

Two weekends ago I practiced those two Spiritual Works of Mercy when I put my letter in the collection basket in lieu of a donation to CUA.  I hope others did the same.

Regarding Illegal Immigration, Here Are Questions The Liberals And USCCB Refuse To Answer

I'm going to follow up on yesterday's posting with some observations and questions - mostly questions, for there seem to be many questions that aren't being asked.  Who know?  Perhaps these questions are being actively stifled.  Well, I'll ask them (in no particular order) and hope that this serves to wake some folks up.

Today I received my newsletter from Help Save Maryland, a conservative organization in Maryland.  They in turn reprinted a National Review article, called "The Moral Crisis On Our Southern Border" by Victor Davis Hanson.  He rightly points out that the bulk of these children are not Mexican; rather, they hail from Central America.  Since Mexico (ironically) has much tougher immigration policies than does the United States, how can it be that these children were not turned away at Mexico's southern border?  Did Mexico admit them because they wanted them shipped to the United States?  If so, for what purpose(s)?

Hanson asks some questions that bear review, and I'll "copy-and-paste".  What sort of callous parents simply send their children as pawns northward without escort, in selfish hopes of soon winning for themselves either remittances or eventual passage to the U.S? What sort of government allows its vulnerable youth to pack up and leave, without taking any responsibility for such mass flight?

These questions deserve answers, as do the following questions that arise because of Hanson's.

• There are thousands of kids coming across.  Did their parents willingly send their children abroad, or were they pressured to do so?  I have difficulty believing that thousands of parents could be so roguish and callous as to just send them away on a train.  Could it be that those children were seized from their parents?
• Assuming that the kids were indeed sent ahead of their parents to be tools for their own immigration to the US, what tracking mechanisms (if any) were put in place so that these parents could eventually find their children?  The whole procedure seems so hodge-podge (at least north of the border) that I don't see how any reunion would be possible.
• Regarding the de facto abandonment of these children by their parents OR the seizure of the children from their parents, why do we hear nary a peep from Catholic bishops on either side of the Rio Grande regarding this practice?  When it comes to deportation, the US bishops are among the first to pitch royal snit-fits about "disrupting the unity of families".  Now that the families are being shattered south of the border in the process of the kids coming here, where, oh where, is that noble indignation of the bishops?  Why do we hear crickets on that score from the USCCB?

Rush Limbaugh pointed out a few days ago that the mobilization of all these kids was no spontaneous event; there had to be a considerable amount of organization to pull it off.  I bet even Limbaugh did not know how much the Church establishment was part and parcel of all that coordination.  Father Z reprinted news that he in turn obtained from Liberty News.  As early as 2010, dioceses along the Mexican border received grants from both Health and Human Services and Department of Homeland Security for the express purposes of preparing them to receive this increased influx of illegal immigrants.  So when you hear of border dioceses "opening their doors", etc, realize that a large part of all this "generosity" is your tax dollars at work.  The chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Migration, Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, told attendees of the conference last week that "it is not because we have a political agenda..it is something we are impelled to do".  Yes, I'd imagine that millions of dollars in DHS and HHS grants would be quite "impelling".  As for "political agendas", how else will the Democrats buy enough voters to keep them in power?

At that same Migration Conference held last week, Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, president of Caritas International, gave yet another pitch at trying to inflict a guilt-trip on good people wanting to defend their borders.  His failure to do so was overshadowed by his inaccurate knowledge of world history.  He stated, "Can you imagine if St Paul tried to get into Europe nowadays? Rather than being welcomed with unusual kindness he would probably be classed as an undocumented migrant and sent back home."  Your Eminence, most of the western world at that time, including Europe, was part and parcel of the Roman Empire - and Paul was a Roman citizen.  Under no circumstances would he have been considered an immigrant, let alone illegal.  Earlier he made a similar (and common) gaffe about Jesus "living as a migrant".  He is referring to the Holy Family's flight into Egypt.  I point out that at that time, both Egypt and Israel had been subsumed into the Roman Empire.  So here we see yet again more conflation of Scripture and world history on the part of these progressives.

In that same speech he made a startling admission (probably inadvertently).  "Many of these children are from my own country, Honduras. They flee gangs who want to induct them into a life where they will surely die a violent death at a young age."  Your Eminence, before you come to the US to chide us for defending our country from a swell of immigrants that we cannot assimilate, you and your brother Honduran bishops would do well to address the problems in your own country that seem to be making life in Honduras miserable.  You will not be addressing the issues in Honduras by shipping them north of the Rio Grande!

By the way - the House of Representatives has nixed Obama's $3.7 billion "emergency request".  Will that dry up the DHS and HHS grants to the churches?  We hope!

Accountability Software For The Church

That's what Michael Voris dubbed the social media ventures of faithful Catholics who've taken it upon themselves - or ourselves I should say - to shine much-needed light on misdeeds within the Church and committed by those on high.

Important note: as one of his examples of misdeeds of Catholic institutioins, he pointed out the on-going stonewalling, uh, I mean, "deliberations" regarding the sodomite Catholic Relief Services official who still retains his position.  Since then, we've had the earthquake in Nepal, and many people have contributed to CRS, wanting to assist the victims but not considering that they are also lining the pockets of the corrupt upper eschelon of the CRS structure.  ChurchMilitant.TV alerted us to an alternative that does place proper emphasis in fidelity to the truth, as well as funnel much-needed resources to the striken areas.  It is called Caritas In Veritate.  It does seem to be an outfit that will not forget its Catholic mission any too soon.

Here's today's Vortex.