Pope Francis Revises the Concept of Martyr

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Unitarian Universalist?

Unitarian Universalist?

Nigerian Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme has just announced the most devastating strategy to thwart the Islamist world takeover that’s been heard in years.

Other than that, nobody seems to be doing anything besides crying and ‘pontificating.’

Vatican Radio writes:

Drawing inspiration from the First Reading of the Act of the Apostles which tells of the stoning and martyrdom of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, the Pope remembered “our brothers whose throats have been slit on the beaches of Libya”, he spoke of “the young boy who was burnt alive by his companions because he was Christian”, he recalled “the migrants who were thrown from their boat into open sea” because, they too, were Christians.

The Pope is very vocal about the now widespread slaughter of Christians, praising their courage and their faith, and comparing them to past martyrs and saints like Stephen.

“God’s Word is always rejected by some. God’s Word is inconvenient when you have a stone heart, when you have a pagan heart, because God’s Word asks you to go ahead trying to satisfy your hunger with the bread which Jesus spoke of.  In the history of the Revelation many martyrs have been killed for their faith and loyalty towards God’s Word, God’s Truth”.

Pope Francis continued comparing the martyrdom of Stephen to that of Jesus: he too “died with that Christian magnanimity of forgiveness, praying for his enemies’.

And those who persecuted the prophets – the Pope pointed out – believed they were giving glory to God; they thought they were being true to God’s doctrine.

“Today – the  Pope said – I would like to remember that the true history of the Church is that of the Saints and the martyrs,” of so many who were persecuted and killed by those who thought they possessed the ‘truth’- whose heart was corrupted by ‘truth’:

Now, what does Pope Francis mean by that?  Did the truth have some corrupting effect on the hearts of those persecutors?  I thought they became corrupted by lies, or worldliness or other temptations.

“In these days how many Stephens there are in the world! Let us think of our brothers whose throats were slit on the beach in Libya; let’s think of the young boy who was burnt alive by his companions because he was a Christian; let us think of those migrants thrown from their boat into the open sea by other migrants because they were Christians; let us think – just the day before yesterday – of those Ethiopians assassinated because they were Christians… and of many others. Many others of whom we do not even know and who are suffering in jails because they are Christians… The Church today is a Church of martyrs: they suffer, they give their lives and we receive the blessing of God for their witness”.

Around the world in places like Nigeria, Christians slaughtered by Muslims are Catholics, but in most of the Middle East they are schismatic separated Christians.  They are more faithful and virtuous than many Roman Catholics, but they are still not united to the Church to which St. Stephen belonged.  Where we may be removed through sin and false catechesis, they are separated in a different way.

Their churches vary in teaching from the Truth in matters like marriage and authority.  This is heresy, and heresy like any other sin committed in ignorance or not, is never right.  The Pope makes it seem like it’s all one Truth and one Church; as if it didn’t matter.

Will all non-Catholic men and woman who choose to confess Christ in the face of death go to Heaven?  They may be ahead of the rest of us, but what if they’ve lived distorted misguided lives?  What if, like most Protestants, they’ve rejected the Sacraments?  At what point are they dying for something that is not really the Truth, but they nevertheless consider Christian?  Pope Francis seems to believe they still die for the Truth anyway.

Islam itself was born of the Arian Heresy.  They can’t technically be called Christians but that misused word can be a pretty low bar.  The Qur’an is full of references to Jesus and Mary.  Are Muslims martyrs when they kill each other?

Can Mormons be martyrs?

Were the Yazidi’s martyrs?  They died for being Yazidis, another form of NOT Muslim.  Not enough, right?  But Protestantism is.

Unitarianism?  Quakers?

Either way, isn’t Pope Francis muddying already black waters here by constantly holding up Protestants killed by Muslims as examples of Catholic martyrs?  These brave Christians are dead now.  The rest of us have to live on with true examples of men and women who were actually Catholic and died for the Christ’s Church.  Must we underestimate the necessity of true unity with the Church Militant at every turn, dropping important truths and picking up heresies here and there as we go along in one big ‘ecumenism of blood’ (whatever that means)?

The Pope plays so loose with hard Catholic concepts in an effort to distort!  Oscar Romero is made martyr because undefined right-wingers shot him at Mass ending his nationwide alignment with Communist guerillas, i mean, ‘the poor.’

And now we have special ‘hidden martyrs.’

The Pope also pointed out that there are also many “hidden martyrs: those men and women who are faithful to the voice of the Spirit and who are searching for new ways and paths to help their brothers better love God”.

He said they are often viewed with suspicion, vilified and persecuted by so many modern ‘Sanhedrins’ who think they are the possessors of truth.

This sounds familiar.  I think we’ve found something that’s definitely NOT a martyr in FrancisChurch.  It’s an actual Catholic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuba: Pope Francis Makes Andrew Cuomo Proud

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Big deals and a bright Cuban Francisfuture

Big deals and a bright Cuban Francisfuture

Local New York CBS reports:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to return to New York from Cuba on Tuesday with two major business deals in hand.

As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, although the trade mission was supposed to be about developing future business, the group actually came back to the states with two deals made, including one where an upstate medical facility is going to be able to run clinical trials of a lung cancer vaccine developed by Cubans.

That’s what’s been going on in Cuba all these years.  They developed a vaccine for lung cancer!  Thank you Pope Francis for this new arrangement.  Obama couldn’t have done it without you.  Can I be in the clinical trial?

Cuomo, who became the first U.S. governor to visit Cuba in decades, said he also laid the groundwork for more New York-based businesses to get a foot in the door on the island nation.

Oh, no news yet on any U.S. businesses starting up in Cuba though.

“We believe this is going to be a dramatic change that is going to be to the benefit of the people of Cuba and also to the people of the United States,” Cuomo said.

While the embargo would have to be lifted by Congress, President Barack Obama can grant licenses to businesses to trade with Cuba.

So the embargo is still in effect except when Obama says it isn’t.  There are so many laws like that now!

The governor was accompanied by other New York lawmakers and executives from JetBlue, MasterCard, Pfizer, Chobani and other companies.

Cuomo took a tour of a new nearly $10 million deep water Port of Mariel, which could be just the ticket for New York businesses to get their goods to Cuba and the rest of Latin America.

Cuomo is no stranger to big construction projects, but still, he was suitably impressed with the Cuban government’s efforts to build a massive commercial port and duty free zone west of Havana that could revolutionize the way Cuba does business, Kramer reported.

“We have had a friendship that went on for decades. It is about rekindling that friendship,” Cuomo said.

What is it with New York Italians, politicians, unions, ports, big construction projects, places like Cuba, and Catholic bishops?

Cuomo also met with Cuban Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino while in Havana.

The governor expressed admiration for the cardinal’s efforts in expanding the church’s reach in the Communist-ruled country.

“We’re very proud of what his eminence has done,” Cuomo said. “We’re very proud of what the Catholic church has done.”

Isn’t that nice?  Andrew Cuomo is very proud of our Church.  I guess we can all be proud of that then.

When asked if his decision to move so quickly to help end the embargo had anything to do with his late father Mario, Cuomo said “My father said isolation is not going to work. Isolation is just going to cause bitterness and it’s going to accomplish nothing.”

Back in New York, Republicans called the governor’s trade mission a political stunt.

One lawmaker said it was offensive to Cuban-Americans whose families have been victims of the Castros’ rule.

Who was that one lawmaker?  What a silly thing to say.  Castro is nice now.  It was all America’s bitter isolation as they sinned against dialogue, encounter, accompaniment, heartfelt closeness, and that Catholicism whose flag Communism stole.

 

 

 

 

Finn Removal: Before It’s Over FrancisChurch Will Be So Squeaky Clean There Won’t Be a Catholic Left

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Problem Solved!

Problem Solved!

If Francis truly were the ‘peoples’ pope’ he would actually care about Catholic people – you know those Pharisees who need ‘religious observances’ out of pride and mental illness, but won’t ever get to Heaven.

Real Catholic faithful and clergy loved Kansas City Bishop Finn.  The National Catholic Reporter didn’t.  True Catholics in Chile are furious Pope Francis would give them a Bishop like Juan Barros, but Francis doesn’t care what people like that think, does he?

The more outraged real Catholics become, the more he seems to like it.

Parishioners in a southern Chile diocese are gathering wherever their new bishop appears, but their presence is not the sort of assembly the Catholic Church would expect.

In the month since Bishop Juan Barros was installed in Osorno, the priest has had to sneak out of back exits, call on riot police to shepherd him from the city’s cathedral and coordinate movements with bodyguards and police canine units.

Such is the public routine of the bishop who is denounced by his opponents as having shielded Chile’s most notorious pedophile priest. For his part, Barros says relations are improving.

Meaning: the crowd is giving up and getting accustomed to my infernal presence.

The appointment of Barros by Pope Francis has unleashed an unprecedented protest, with more than 1,300 church members, 30 diocesan priests and nearly half of Chile’s Parliament sending letters urging the pope to reconsider.

They may be emboldened after Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of a U.S. bishop, Robert Finn, who pleaded guilty to failing to report a suspected abuser, answering calls by victims to hold priests accountable and ensure children are protected.

At least three men say Barros was present when they were sexually molested in the 1980s and 1990s by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. Karadima was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2011 for sexually abusing minors, ordered to live out his life cloistered in a nun’s convent. Barros has said he knew nothing of Karadima’s abuses.

The controversy is being watched by victims, advocacy groups and lawmakers as a test of the pope’s promises to crack down on clerical sex abuse. On April 12, members on the pope’s sex abuse advisory committee traveled to Rome to voice their concerns.

Well, he’s cracked down now in Missouri!  Still, you can’t remove every bishop that inspires a peep of protest.  You must pick and choose. After all, what’s the point of this whole priest-pedophilia abuse dance anyway if you can’t use it to intimidate and banish honest clergy?

And what’s the point of approving a gay ambassador to the Vatican if he’s barely even gay and he’s faithful?

What’s even wrong with gay pedophilia?  They teach gayness to four years-olds now and all the GOP Presidential candidates are terrified into attending gay weddings.  When a man is your mother and a woman is a husband anything goes, except Catholicism.