17 October 2024
Pope Francis Said He Will Consider ‘Openness’ to ‘Transgender People’ When Naming New Us Bishops: Report
So Francis will appoint Bishops who are "open" to heretics who are attempting to force their mental illness on the Church and society?
From LifeSiteNewsBy Michael Haynes
Pope Francis allegedly ‘said that when he appoints new bishops in the US he will consider their openness to [so-called] transgender people as a criteria,’ according to a member of a meeting between Francis and the LGBT activist group New Ways Ministry.
wo people who participated in Pope Francis’ private meeting with New Ways Ministry on Saturday have attested that the Pope committed to consider “openness to transgender people” as a criteria for appointing new U.S. bishops.
According to Deacon Raymond Dever, who was cited in The Times, Francis was impacted by the closed-door meeting he had with LGBT activists.
The Times reported Dever – who was one of the 11 guests of Francis in the meeting – as saying that “Francis mentioned that situations experienced by [so-called] transgender people will be more on his mind.”
Dever added that “He [Francis] said that when he appoints new bishops in the US he will consider their openness to transgender[-identified] people as a criteria.”
The Times cited another member of the meeting who attested hearing the quoted comment from Francis.
LifeSiteNews contacted New Ways Ministry – the LGBT group that sponsored the meeting – asking if they could confirm the remarks attributed to Pope Francis, but did not receive an answer.
Held on Saturday, the meeting between Francis and the New Ways Ministry group lasted nearly 90 minutes.
The guests “urged” Francis “to move past the Church’s negative approach” to so-called “gender-diverse people, and to encourage Church leaders to listen more attentively” to what they called “the lives and faith of LGBTQ+ people.”
According to Reuters – whose Vatican correspondent has close links with NWM – Francis faced “calls to overturn the Catholic Church’s ban” on so-called “gender-affirming care,” namely, calls to overturn the Church’s prohibition of “sex-change” surgery.
Dever was one of five people in the meeting who shared a personal testimony with Francis. A retired married deacon, Dever is father of a “transgender” male who attempted suicide after “transitioning.”
Delivering his testimony to Francis, Dever stated about his son (now living as a “woman”) that “with our unconditional love and support, [he] eventually came out and transitioned fully, socially, legally, and medically, a process that took almost 10 years – if [he] hadn’t done that, [he] probably wouldn’t be alive today.”
However, transgender drugs have been linked to bone density loss, suicide risk, and other major medical problems and can leave individuals permanently infertile. Transgender surgeries aim to remove healthy organs, including genitals, thus leaving individuals infertile and mutilated.
Dever claimed that gender-confused people “are being excluded from the life of the church in too many dioceses and parishes – they are denied the sacraments, they are not allowed to attend Catholic schools.”
Instead, Dever and his wife urged the Church “to talk about, to learn, and to discern the truth about these issues.”
Catholic teaching rejects transgender ideology, affirms the reality of the two sexes, and condemns bodily mutilation, such as “gender transition” procedures, as “against the moral law.”
The Church also teaches, in accordance with Sacred Scripture and the constant Tradition of the Church, that homosexual activity is mortally sinful and a “sin that cries to heaven” and that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered.”
Another individual who testified at the meeting was “Michael Sennett,” a “transgender man” involved in church work “for many years,” who told Francis that he appreciated having had “sex-change” surgery.
There are a number of U.S. episcopal sees which could become vacant in the coming years as bishops reach the age of 75, at which point they submit their retirement to Francis who makes a decision on whether to accept it.
A number of prelates already seen as very much in line with Francis’ thinking, and open to LGBT issues, are already in key sees. Indeed, just two days before the NWM meeting Francis met with three of the U.S. bishops who conform to this description.
Cardinals Joseph Tobin, Blase Cupich, and Robert McElroy were all received in private audience, with Tobin telling journalists the next day that he had personally requested it.
He said briefly that they discussed the Church, synodality, and “discernment,” stating that they are topics that the three cardinals talk about amongst themselves.
Notably, D.C. Cardinal Wilton Gregory was not present, stating later that “I didn’t get the invitation.”
NWM was co-founded by Sister Jeannine Gramick, the heterodox pro-LGBT nun whose official Vatican censure remains in place, though she has received signal favor from Francis in recent years.
Gramick was personally censured by the Vatican in 1999, and in 2010 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) further declared that New Ways Ministry “has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church” to speak on the LGBT issue.
The World’s OLDEST Wooden Church [c. 1060]
The Church of St Andrew. Stolen from us during the Deformation.
Built in 1060, Greensted Church is the oldest wooden church in the world, and possibly the oldest wooden building in Europe, a remarkable testament to early English craftsmanship. However, it also raises some questions. What does it mean for a building to be the oldest of its kind, and do later renovations make its status less chronologically distinct? Let's discuss!
Breaking: Cardinal Zen Warns Synod Aims ‘To Overthrow’ Church’s Hierarchy for ‘A Democratic System’
His Eminence sees what I've been saying since the Sin-od was announced. It is an attempt to change the Divine Constitution of the Church so it can join the One World Religion Francis wants.
By Michael Haynes
'Obviously, the purpose of this conference was to overthrow the hierarchical class of the church and implement a democratic system,' wrote Cardinal Joseph Zen about the Synod on Synodality.
Cardinal Joseph Zen has issued a strong warning about the Synod on Synodality and the persistent division resulting from Fiducia Supplicans, saying the “future of the Church” is “uncertain” unless issues are resolved.
“I feel most anxious about how this so-called ‘synodality’ of the Synod of Bishops can be concluded smoothly,” began Zen, the emeritus bishop of Hong Kong.
The cardinal’s latest essay, published October 17, renews his prior concern and criticism about the Synod on Synodality, but also ties in to the controversial 2023 declaration Fiducia Supplicans which approved same-sex “blessings.”
Synodality to ‘overthrow’ the Church’s hierarchy
Zen presented a traditional understanding of a synod, explaining that “there is a church document that explains the Synod (meeting), an important historical fact of the Church, that the Synod is a structure in history through which the hierarchy leads the Church.”
The Synod on Synodality is comprised of lay and clerical voters, in a seismic change which has prompted much criticism that it is no longer a Synod of Bishops. Synod leaders have persistently posited the “common dignity of Baptism” as the rationale behind lay and clerical voters present at the Synod.
But Zen warned that while all the Church should engage in “the mission of evangelization,” only “the hierarchy can ensure the direction of the Church’s journey and safeguard the content of the faith handed down from the apostles. Jesus entrusted the Church to the ‘apostolic college headed by Peter,’ and the successors of the apostles are the bishops.
The synod’s multi-year process and large scale plan for involving people was “unprecedented in its scale,” commented Zen.
But he raised concerns about the procedure:
At the continental level, the central secretariat clearly exercised strict control using specific procedures: emphasis on sharing and avoidance of discussion. Unexpectedly, the same approach was used at the official Synod.
Zen joined Cardinal Gerhard Müller and Bishop Athanasius Schneider in critiquing the involvement of lay voters, making the striking statement that “[o]bviously, the purpose of this conference was to overthrow the hierarchical class of the Church and implement a democratic system.”
“The Pope had the right to convene any advisory meeting, but the Synod of Bishops pioneered by Pope Paul VI was specifically designed to enable the Pope to hear the opinions of his brother bishops,” he added. “With ‘non-bishops voting together, it was no longer a Synod of Bishops.”
Outlining a way for the meeting to be true to the identity of a synod, Zen opined that “it should return to the way it was when the Synod was first established, which worked well for many years: that is, to let the bishops lead, discuss and vote, and present their recommendations to the Pope for his consideration as fellow bishops.”
He urged his fellow bishops to “fight for more power, and at least prevent non-bishops from voting with them.”
Same-sex blessings
Zen levied particular criticism at Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J. – Relator General of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops; Cardinal Mario Grech – Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod; and Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández – prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith:
From the beginning of this synod, the two cardinals leading the assembly and the Pope’s appointed head of the doctrinal office did not emphasize preserving the faith, but emphasized making changes changes to, in particular, the operational structure of the Church and its ethical teachings; and the ethical justification of “sex,” especially regarding homosexual relationships.
Zen made reference to the famous Dubia he issued with four other cardinals last year which pertained, among other things, to the subject of same-sex “blessings.” The Pope’s lengthy reply, approving same-sex “blessings” in some cases, came just one day later – which prompted Zen last year to suggest it had been pre-written by the synod leaders.
This charge he repeated in his new essay: “The answer could not have been written by the Pope himself that day. It was obviously prepared by the person in charge of the conference to support their arguments for changing the Church’s doctrine.”
Confusion must be resolved for future of the Church
Zen has been a leading critic of Fiducia Supplicans, calling on its author, Cardinal Fernández, to resign while warning that it is “a heresy when you call a sin as something good.”
Francis and Fernández have stated that the document is not up for further discussion, something which Zen now styled as “a rude act, not allowing the bishops to discuss it, and ‘they’ have reached a conclusion on that issue.”
He highlighted the “major split within the church and chaos among the faithful” following the document’s release last December. “This was rare in the history of the Church,” he said, adding that while “the Pope and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expressed their ‘understanding’ in the face of this situation,” they did not withdraw the document.
“Will this issue be discussed at the 2024 meeting?” he queried.
Zen urged his brother bishops to persuade the Pope not to implement Fiducia Supplicans, and warned that if the issue “is not resolved at the meeting [Synod 2024] the future of the Church will be very uncertain”:
I would have thought that at least the question of blessing same-sex partnerships should be spared endless debate. I hope the bishops will persuade the Pope to decide to postpone the implementation of that statement sine die (indefinitely). Jesus told Peter, “Tu aliquando conversus, confirma fratres tuos” [“thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren,” not] After you have thoroughly considered it, confirm your brothers.
If this issue is not resolved at the meeting, the future of the Church will be very uncertain, because some friends of the patriarch and the pope who insist on changing Church traditions continue to vigorously promote their plans.
He decried the LGBT lobby which he described as “actively promoting their plans outside the assembly hall while the assembly is in session,” as evidenced by recent events hosted by Father James Martin and New Ways Ministry.
“What is worrying is that even those so-called ‘new pastoral ministers’ who advocate gender change have been warmly received by the Pope in recent days,” continued Zen, making a direct reference to to New Ways Ministry’s papal audience last weekend.
Synod to split the Church?
Members of the synod are currently discussing whether to afford local bishops’ conferences increased autonomy, including on whether to be able to decide doctrine on a local level. The question has reportedly received pushback in the synod hall, but it remains to be seen what the final document will recommend to the Pope.
Warning about this focus and synodality itself, Zen said that “this is tantamount to discussing whether lay people should have more rights to ‘share’ the responsibilities of hierarchical ‘pastors.’”
“If those advocating this change cannot win over the whole Church, will they fight for diversity among local churches?,” he questioned.
Will individual Bishops’ Conferences have an independent position on matters of faith? This is a frightening prospect. If this idea succeeds, we will no longer be Catholic (the Anglican Church in London has approved same-sex marriage, and their followers have become a minority of less than 20% of the global Anglican Church. Can we not be vigilant?)
The cardinal closed by recommending his readers not to be anxious but to turn to prayer and penance in the timeless custom of the Church:
It is useless for us to be anxious about these problems. Fasting, praying (especially the rosary)! We must never despair.
Pictured: His Eminence Joseph, Cardinal Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong.
Transgender-Critical Authors Cancel Brussels Conference After Death Threats
“More and more people are calling me a conservative feminist. And I’m actually fine with that. If keeping a sense of reality, saying that there are 2 sexes and that 2 + 2 = 4, is conservative, don’t worry, I’m conservative. I’m conservative! I’m conservative!” ~ Dora Moutot
By Hélène de Lauzun, PhD
“Faced with people who explicitly write that they want us dead, we choose life,” co-author Marguerite Stern said.
French essayists Dora Moutot and Marguerite Stern, who denounced the evils of transgender ideology in their book Transmania, have been forced to cancel a conference scheduled for October 22nd in Brussels after being subjected to violent threats from the extreme Left. This is not the first time they have been intimidated into silence. On this occasion, they felt that the risk to their safety was too great.
The two women made headlines with the publication of their essay in April 2024, denouncing the assault on Western society by the transgender lobbies. Since then, they have held a series of conferences to alert the public to the risks posed by these activists to children and teenagers, as well as to freedom of expression and women’s rights. On several occasions, the venues where the events were to be held have suffered serious damage. On a personal level, they have received death threats and are now travelling under police protection.
One of their scheduled conferences in Versailles recently had to be cancelled at the request of the intended venue. Stern and Moutot had planned to hold another conference in Brussels on October 22nd, at the initiative of the Café Laïque—founded by renowned academic Florence Bergeaud-Blacker, herself a regular victim of censorship. This time, they decided to cancel it themselves in the face of mounting threats.
Dora Moutot explained in a long post on X:
Some will be disappointed or say that we’re giving up, but that is not the case. Everything we have to say is in our book Transmania.
However, we don’t want to play with fire; we don’t want to lose an eye like Salman Rushdie, or even our lives, like the journalists at Charlie Hebdo, because a bunch of trans activists would find it “glorious” to kill us.
As Moutot explains, some of these activists explicitly call for their deaths in a manifesto circulating on the web via the Paris Lutte Info website. It was this manifesto that inspired the far-left groups in Brussels to step up the pressure over their possible visit to the Café Laïque.
Marguerite Stern added: “Faced with people who explicitly write that they want us dead, we choose life.”
Stern and Moutot have lodged a complaint against the authors of the manifesto calling for their death, which appeared on the Paris Luttes Info website. They are also asking the Ministry of the Interior to dissolve this violent group.
Once again, Brussels appears to be a place where freedom of expression is being undermined by pressure from the Left and the far Left.
In December 2022, the Café Laïque suffered damage for inviting psychologists Caroline Eliacheff and Céline Masson, authors of an essay on the tragedy of transgender children.
Last spring, the National Conservatism Conference bore the brunt of this poisonous climate, being threatened with closure by the local authorities. In the end, the conference was only made possible by legal action. In the aftermath of the event, the MCC Brussels branch published a manifesto in defence of free speech in the European capital.
Pictured: Dora Moutot
Iraqi Immigrant Leaves Sweden After 20 Years Because of Violent Crime
'"It is much safer in Iraq than in Sweden," the restaurant owner said.
From The European Conservative
By Kristina Holmgren-Larson
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| Police officers Michael Cojocaru (L) and Rissa Seidou patrol the main square in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, Sweden. |
An immigrant restaurant owner who fled Iraq 20 years ago has left Sweden and returned to his home country because of the violent crime he faced in his Stockholm suburb.
I moved to Sweden because it was a safe country. Now I’m moving from Sweden because it’s not safe anymore.
The man, speaking under the alias ‘Amin,’ said in an interview with Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter that he was the object of threats and violent attacks by criminal gangs and was forced to pay them to avoid harassment.
Amin came to Sweden after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, started a business, got married, and had children. But his successful restaurant was threatened by growing criminal activity in the area. A drug cartel began to extort business owners, typically demanding $1,000-5,000 per month to ‘protect’ them. Businesses that refused to pay suffered vandalism and threats.
”Imagine how it feels if you work ten hours a day. And then some disgusting person comes and threatens you and says nasty things to you,” Amin said.
Refusing to give up his hard-earned money, he was faced with increasingly violent threats. “I’ll destroy your whole d**n face. Your family won’t recognize you anymore,” one gang member says in an audio recording Amin collected as evidence. Over a decade, he was repeatedly threatened and assaulted.
The threats and violence forced him to close his restaurant, and the tense situation also led to his marriage falling apart.
Amin’s experiences highlight the growing insecurity in Swedish cities, where gang crime increasingly disrupts everyday life for many residents.
Once a homogenous country where every murder made the front page of every newspaper, had from the beginning of 2024 until May 15th experienced 109 shootings with 14 dead and 19 injured. During the same period, police recorded 50 bombings, 29 attempted bombings, and 74 preparations for bombing attacks.
Last year, the total number of shootings recorded by police in the country was 363, with 53 deaths, as well as 149 bombings.
Back in Iraq, Amin has again opened a restaurant and says about his current situation, “I live like a king! I am developing, I feel good. It is much safer in Iraq than in Sweden.”
The True Reason Why Monarchies Got Overthrown
It was always an elite seeking power for itself.
In our modern world there are not that many Monarchies left, as the Age of Enlightenment and Democracy rolled in, Monarchism was abandoned in favour of Representative Democratic Republics, a system supposedly representing the will of the people, thus Monarchies are seen as old systems the people constantly rebelled against in favour of Liberty and Democracy. But were Monarchies really overthrown by people seeking freedom, or was it perhaps another culprit with other motives?
Report: Hundreds of Cars Seized by Green-Posturing London Mayor
I'm surprised that the "Right Honourable" Sadiq Khan hasn't given the stolen cars to the Muslim voters who have kept him in office.
From The European Conservative
By Graham Barnfield
First, Sadiq Khan’s Ultra-low Emissions Zone penalised low-income drivers; now it confiscates their property.
Newly released figures reveal that almost 1,500 cars were snatched last year on the orders of the Mayor of London’s office, as part of its Ultra-low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), the largest in the world, incorporating all London boroughs.
Under Sadiq Khan, a total of 1,429 cars were removed from their owners in the 12-month period ending in July 2024. Around half (761) of the vehicles were subsequently auctioned, raising £710,000.
Transport for London (TfL), the branch of municipal government responsible, claims that £25.6 million (€30.62m) of debt was recouped over 12 months. Officially, this money is clearing drivers’ unpaid fines, but Mayor Khan promises to spend it on improvements to city bus routes and services.
TfL is reportedly tripling the size of its investigations team, meaning that controversial work with enforcement agents, including bailiffs and ‘heavies’ paid to protect ULEZ cameras, will expand significantly.
Critics have long argued that the ULEZ scheme works to punish the poor, since its main exemption is for newer cars, registered after 2005. Non-compliant cars that fall below fixed emission standards must pay a daily £12.50 (€14.40) charge or face fines of up to £180 (€207). In turn, unpaid fines increase over time. Each unpaid day attracts a separate fine, meaning that a four-figure debt can be incurred relatively quickly.
The rationale for the scheme, initiated by then-Mayor Boris Johnson but expanded by Khan, is that pricing pollution—measured in nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter emissions—will improve London air quality. Environmentalist rhetoric is then used to browbeat critics of the scheme.
Anti-ULEZ campaigners are routinely smeared as ‘far-right’, while the ‘blade runners’ who sabotage the cameras face the full force of the law. In 2023, former mayoral candidate Laurence Fox was arrested after merely declaring his support for the saboteurs on social media.
The current mayor of London—where knife crime is out of control—is also responsible for policing the capital, but his priorities seem elsewhere. In May this year, a separate 20 vehicles, obtained through the voluntary ULEZ ‘scrappage scheme,’ were sent to Ukraine. Khan’s ‘experts’ have yet to say whether these four-wheel drive vehicles have since worsened local air quality.
Maritain as Ambassador ~ Two
0:00 Welcome and opening remarks | Augustin LAFFAY OP, General Archivist of the Order of the Preachers.
27:10 Jean- Dominique DURAND (Université Lyon 3): The Rome of the Maritains.
1:01:01 Claude LORENTZ (Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg): The Jacques and Raissa Maritain collection of the Bnu of Strasbourg and its Roman Archives.
1:29:39 Audrey VIROT (Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas) : The diplomatic activity of Maritain Discussion.
Jesus Revealed His Heart to St Margaret Mary, but It Was This Saint Who Brought It to the World
Today is St Margaret Mary Alacoque's Feast Day. St Claude La Colombière was her Spiritual Director and responsible for spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart.
From Aleteia
By Larry Peterson
Our Lord promised the visionary a faithful servant and perfect friend.
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Claude de la Colombiere was born in 1641, in the old province of Dauphine, in France. He was the third child of Bertrand Colombiere and Margaret Coindat. Soon after Claude was born, the family moved to the town of Vienne, and this is where the young boy began his education. It was during this time period that Claude began feeling the call to the Jesuits.
Claude began his secondary studies at the Jesuit school in Lyon. He was now 17 and wrote in his journal that he had “a terrible aversion for the life embraced.” Later on, those who knew him attributed those comments to his being away from home and missing his family, to whom he was very close. Plus, he loved the arts, literature and active social life. But the selfless side of Claude won out, and he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Avignon. Here he finished his studies in rhetoric and philosophy.
In 1666 he went to the College of Clermont in Paris to study theology. He took his first vows and completed his studies in philosophy. He became a professor of grammar and literature and stayed in that position for the next five years. Well known for his tact, poise, and devotion to the humanities, Claude was appointed by his superiors as tutor for the children of France’s Minister of Finance, Jean Baptiste Colbert. Unknown to Claude, God had bigger plans for him.
Claude was now a priest and returned to Lyon. Here he taught in the college and became a full-time preacher and also the moderator of several Marian congregations. After 15 years as a Jesuit, Father Colombiere began his probation in a Jesuit’s final spiritual formation. This was known as the Tertianship, and it would be the final pathway for the priest to his still unknown destiny.
Upon Father Colombiere’s profession of solemn vows, he was named rector of the College at Paray-le-Monial. Most people who knew of Father Colombiere wondered why such a talented priest would be sent to such an unknown and obscure place. The answer was well known to the superiors who sent him.
The reason was for him to see a simple, humble nun at the Monastery of the Visitation. Her name was Margaret Mary Alacoque. The reports were that she told her superiors that Jesus was appearing to her and revealing the secrets of His most Sacred Heart.
Sister Margaret Mary was being spurned by the other sisters and ridiculed. She agonized over and was uncertain of what was actually happening. Jesus had told Sister Margaret that He would send her the “faithful servant and perfect friend.”
Sister Margaret Mary had endured much because of the disbelief of the other nuns at the monastery. She felt isolated and alone, even though she had been chosen by Christ Himself to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart. When Father Colombiere arrived at the monastery and began hearing the confessions of all the nuns, Sister Mary Margaret knew the “faithful servant and perfect friend” that Jesus had promised her had finally come.
She willingly confided in Father Colombiere and opened her heart to him. After speaking and meeting with her a number of times Father Colombiere was convinced of the truthfulness and the validity of her visions. He became her most ardent supporter and apostle for her and devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Father Colombiere left Paray in 1676 and headed for London. He kept in touch with Sister Margaret Mary by letter. He had been assigned to be the preacher to the Duchess of York and later, to the Queen of Great Britain. He even took up residence in St. James Palace.
Colombiere’s belief and loyalty to his Catholic faith never wavered, even under the intense pressure against the Catholic faith in England. In 1678 he was accused and arrested as one of those involved in the fictional popist plot designed to overthrow King Charles II. He spent over three weeks in squalid prison conditions weakening his frail health to the point of no return.
After his release, in 1679, he was sent back to Paray. Father Colombiere died on February 15, 1682, from a severe hemorrhage. He was only 41 years old.
Jesus had appeared to St. Margaret Mary revealing His wishes for devotion to His Sacred Heart. But it was St. Colombiere who helped the quiet, humble visionary announce it to the world. Father Claude de la Colombiere was canonized a saint on May 31, 1992, by Pope St. John Paul II.
St. Claude, please pray for us. His feast day is February 15.
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