Posts

Vatican: Pope Francis Hospitalized In Rome

Pope Francis will be hospitalized in Rome for a “few days” after a scheduled checkup on Wednesday, according to the Vatican.

Francis, 86, visited the Gemelli Hospital Wednesday afternoon for his checkup, Holy See spokesman Matteo Bruni said. The Vatican later said that Francis went to the hospital for a respiratory infection after experiencing breathing difficulties and will remain hospitalized for a “few days,” the BBC reported. The pope canceled his audiences through Friday.

A statement from the Vatican said that the pope’s condition would “require a few days of appropriate hospital medical therapy.”

“Pope Francis is touched by the many messages received and expresses his gratitude for the closeness and prayer,” the statement added. The pope appeared to be in relatively good condition when he was in front of a general audience earlier on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. (Read more from “Vatican: Pope Francis Hospitalized In Rome” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

U.S. Media Barred From Biden’s Meeting With Pope Francis

President Joe Biden met with Pope Francis at the Vatican Friday morning, but U.S. media traveling with the president were not granted access to the event.

The Vatican additionally canceled the live broadcast, a decision protested by the White House Correspondents’ Association, and the reporters, photographers, and television crews traveling with the president on his second European trip were barred from participating. The Vatican did provide a handful of photos of the visit and a heavily edited video of Biden and first lady Jill Biden touring the facilities.

(Read more from “U.S. Media Barred From Biden’s Meeting With Pope Francis” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Despite Being Accused of Sex Abuse Inside Vatican, Powerful Figures Helped This Teen Become a Priest

The warnings started coming eight years ago, sent to some of the most powerful figures in the Roman Catholic Church, alerting them to a potential sex abuse crime that stood out from other church cases.

The profile of the alleged abuser, by itself, was unusual: not a priest, but rather a teenage altar boy, who was said to have coerced a peer to engage in various sex acts night after night over six years. And then there was the purported location: inside the Vatican’s own walls, at a youth seminary for the 15 or so altar boys who served the pope. . .

For a church trying to better contend with abuse and coverup across its empire, the warnings about Gabriele Martinelli were a direct institutional test. The events described in the anonymous letter, as well as in accounts from the alleged victim and a witness, were said to have taken place right under the church’s nose. By 2013, the complaints about Martinelli had been communicated to the pope and a who’s who of cardinals and bishops. The next year, the Vatican’s third-ranking official wrote a letter that referred to the accusations and asserted that the pope “knows the case well.” . . .

But a Washington Post review of more than 2,000 pages of documents, most never previously reported, reveals that more powerful figures within the church hierarchy discounted warnings as they facilitated Martinelli’s rise. Centrally responsible for Martinelli’s fate were Cardinal Angelo Comastri and Bishop Diego Coletti, who quickly dismissed the claims against Martinelli as “calumny,” according to Coletti’s own account. Neither prelate is involved in the trial or any other known church disciplinary process. (Read more from “Despite Being Accused of Sex Abuse Inside Vatican, Powerful Figures Helped This Teen Become a Priest” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Vatican Invites Abortion Advocate To Talk About ‘Health’ And The ‘Soul’

The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture is set to host Chelsea Clinton, Anthony Fauci, Deepak Chopra, and others for a May conference to explore the “mind, body, and soul” and its role in health care.

The Vatican Council for Culture and the Cura Foundation and the Science and Faith (STOQ) Foundation are partnering together to host “the world’s leading physicians, scientists, leaders of faith, ethicists, patient advocates, policymakers, philanthropists and influencers to engage in powerful conversations on the latest breakthroughs in medicine, health care delivery and prevention.” . . .

Speaker Chelsea Clinton is a high-profile abortion advocate, like her mother and father, Hillary and Bill Clinton. Chelsea labels the pro-life movement as an “anti-choice movement,” and is an outspoken supporter of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S.

In 2018, Chelsea spoke at a “Rise up for Roe” event in New York City, a meeting organized by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood to oppose Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. During her address, she glowingly credited legal abortion for adding trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy. R(read more from “Vatican Invites Abortion Advocate To Talk About ‘Health’ And The ‘Soul’” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Pope Francis Condemns Homosexuality

The Vatican published a document Monday saying the Catholic Church would not bless same-sex unions, a statement that likely let down a number of Catholics who identify as LGBT. . .

The pope-approved statement called homosexuality a choice and said God “does not and cannot bless sin,” which means the church, too, cannot bless sin.

Blessings belong to the category of the sacramentals, whereby the Church “calls us to praise God, encourages us to implore his protection, and exhorts us to seek his mercy by our holiness of life.” In addition, they “have been established as a kind of imitation of the sacraments, blessings are signs above all of spiritual effects that are achieved through the Church’s intercession.” . . .

For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex. The presence in such relationships of positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciated, cannot justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing, since the positive elements exist within the context of a union not ordered to the Creator’s plan. . . .

Furthermore, since blessings on persons are in relationship with the sacraments, the blessing of homosexual unions cannot be considered licit. This is because they would constitute a certain imitation or analogue of the nuptial blessing invoked on the man and woman united in the sacrament of Matrimony, while in fact “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”

(Read more from “Pope Francis Condemns Homosexuality” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE and MeWe HERE

Former Head of Vatican Bank Found Guilty of Embezzlement

A former head of the Vatican bank, Angelo Caloia, has been found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering and sentenced to eight years and 11 months in prison, making him the highest-ranking Vatican official to be convicted of a financial crime.

The Vatican court on Thursday also convicted Gabriele Liuzzo, 97, and his son Lamberto Liuzzo, 55, both Italian lawyers who were consultants to the bank.

Caloia led the bank, officially known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), from 1989 to 2009. The 81-year-old Italian was tried over corrupt real estate deals.

He was accused of conspiring with others to make millions from the below-market sale of more than 20 IOR properties in Italy and laundering the proceeds in Switzerland. (Read more from “Former Head of Vatican Bank Found Guilty of Embezzlement” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE and MeWe HERE

Vatican: Coronavirus Vaccines ‘Morally Acceptable,’ Even From Aborted Babies

The Vatican announced Monday that it is “morally acceptable” for Roman Catholics to receive vaccines that used cell lines based on research from aborted babies.

“It is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses” in research and production when “ethically irreproachable” vaccines are not available, the Vatican concluded according to the Associated Press. The Vatican emphasized, however, that “licit” uses of these vaccines “does not and should not in any way imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted fetuses.”

The potential that the highly anticipated coronavirus vaccines would use cells from aborted babies posed weighty moral problems for many Americans who object to abortion — particularly Catholics, since the Catholic Church says abortion is a “crime against human life.”

The COVID-19 vaccines that have begun to be distributed in various countries will probably have used cell lines “drawn from tissue obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century,” the Vatican said, according to the AP. The Vatican also emphasized that “health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated,” the publication reported.

It is unclear whether 84-year-old Pope Francis will be vaccinated against the virus or what vaccine he will receive if he is vaccinated, the AP reported. (Read more from “Vatican: Coronavirus Vaccines ‘Morally Acceptable,’ Even From Aborted Babies” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Vatican Computers Hacked in Chinese Espionage Effort; Trump’s Ex-Chief Strategist Says US Should Seize President Xi’s Personal Assets

By Washington Examiner. Hackers working for the Chinese Communist Party allegedly accessed the private computing network of the Vatican for several months ahead of a September meeting to discuss the appointment of bishops in the Asian country.

Analysts with Recorded Future, a Massachusetts-based cybersecurity company, said they had detected an attack on Vatican computers in which Chinese infiltrators accessed communications between high-ranking officials in the church, who openly discussed upcoming negotiations pertaining to the pope’s role in confirming bishops to the heads of Chinese churches, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

According to a Recorded Future report set for release on Wednesday, the espionage tactics began in early May. The firm outlined how one electronic file was masked in such a way that it appeared as if it was sent from the Vatican to Monsignor Javier Corona Herrera, the head chaplain of the Holy See’s Study Mission in Hong Kong. (Read more from “Vatican Computers Hacked in Chinese Espionage Effort” HERE)

_______________________________________________

In Wake of Espionage Effort, Steve Bannon Says Go After Chinese Leaders’ Personal Assets

By Jenni Fink. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon praised America’s strong response to China on Tuesday and said if he was the one making the call, he’d take it a step further and go after President Xi Jinping.

Bannon told CNBC’s Squawk Box that China as a country and Xi are in the United States’ “gun sights.” Along with backing off support for the Chinese Communist Party, the U.S. should target Xi and those associated with them on a personal level, he said. Bannon also advocated sanctioning Xi and his “henchmen” and seizing all of their assets. . .

Bannon added that it’s “breathtaking” how U.S. strategy morphed into an “alliance of liberty,” bringing in the United Kingdom, India and Japan. Around the world, people are standing up to China, Bannon said, and this will be the “greatest legacy of President Trump’s eight years in White House” . . .

“The truth is that our policies, and those of other free nations, resurrected China’s failing economy, only to see Beijing bite the international hands that were feeding it,” [U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said recently]. “Whatever the reason, today China is increasingly authoritarian at home and more aggressive in its hostility to freedom everywhere else.” (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Dissident Claims Chinese Communist Party Pays Vatican $2 Billion Annually to Keep Shut

By DNA India. Guo Wengei, exiled Chinese dissident, has claimed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) assigns $2 billion every year to pay off the Vatican for its silence concerning atrocities by Beijing.

During a recent interview on The War Room on June 20, Guo revealed that the CCP earmarks massive budget each year to secure the allegiance of foreign nations including the likes of Vatican, Italy, and Australia, US-based Breitbart news reported.

He also added that the Vatican receives up to USD 2 billion from the Chinese Communist party.

“The Chinese Communist Party allocates 2 billion US dollars each year” to increase their influence over the Vatican’s internal policymaking and to finance for its silence on the CCP’s repression of religious freedom, said the billionaire whistleblower.

Guo had previously stated that China has drafted a complete strategy for world domination known by the initials “BGY,” which stands for Blue (control the Internet), Gold (buy influence with money), and Yellow (seduce key people with sex). (Read more from “Dissident Claims Chinese Communist Party Pays Vatican $2 Billion Annually to Keep Shut” HERE)

__________________________________

Dissident Tycoon Says Chinese Communist Party Pays Vatican as well as other Countries to Stay Quiet

By Mailonline Reporter. Fugitive tycoon Guo Wengui claimed in a podcast that the Communist Party had been paying the Holy See generously since 2014 because Beijing ‘wanted the Vatican to shut up about China’s religion policies.’

US-based Guo, 52, said in the interview that the Communist country had also spent large sums to muzzle other countries – including Italy and Australia – from voicing concerns. . .

‘[They] want Vatican to shut up and follow the CCP about the religion polices,’ Guo said on [Steve Bannon’s] radio show. ‘That is disaster.’

The Chinese dissident also claimed that the Chinese government was paying the Holy See with $100million (£80million) before 2014, without specifying when those payments initially started.

‘CCP knows, if the Vatican tells the truth about Chinese Christians and Catholics, CCP is die,’ Guo said. (Read more about how the Chinese Communist Party pays Vatican, other countries to stay quiet HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE

Francis’ Appointment of Jesuits to Lead Vatican Offices an ‘Anomaly’ in Church’s History

When Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in 2013 became the first Jesuit in history to be elected the Roman pontiff, there was not a single member of his religious order serving at the Vatican in a leadership position.

Six-and-a-half years later, Pope Francis has now appointed three of his former confreres in the Society of Jesus to the Vatican’s highest posts. The latest was Spanish Jesuit Fr. Juan Guerrero Alves, who the pope appointed Nov. 14 to become the prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

Guerrero, formerly an official at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, joins Spanish Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who heads the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, who leads the Vatican office that advocates for global migrants and refugees. . .

“In the modern era, relations between the Jesuits and the papacy have been very hostile,” said Michela Catto, an Italian church historian who has written a number of books on the Jesuits and their relations with the Vatican.

Catto, a researcher at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, called Francis’ choices “an anomaly and certainly not traditional.” (Read more from “Francis’ Appointment of Jesuits to Lead Vatican Offices an ‘Anomaly’ in Church’s History” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE