Reports Say Pope Francis Is Evicting U.S. Cardinal From His Vatican Home

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Word of the action against Cardinal Raymond Burke came after the prelate’s increasingly pointed critiques of the reform-minded pope.

Cardinal Raymond Burke has been Pope Francis’ leading critic from the traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church. | Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
Almost as soon as Pope Francis became the head of the Roman Catholic church in 2013, Raymond Burke, an American cardinal, emerged as his leading critic from within the church, becoming a de facto antipope for frustrated traditionalists who believed Francis was diluting doctrine.

Francis frequently demoted and stripped the American cleric of influence, but this month, the pope apparently finally had enough, according to one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Francis told a meeting of high-ranking Vatican officials that he intended to throw the cardinal out of his Vatican-subsidized apartment and deprive him of his salary as a retired cardinal.

The news of the possible eviction was first reported by the conservative Italian newspaper La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, which is close to Cardinal Burke and recently sponsored a conference featuring the prelate criticizing a major meeting of bishops convened by Francis. The newspaper’s report comes only weeks after Francis removed another vocal conservative critic, Joseph Strickland, the bishop of Tyler, Texas, after a Vatican investigation into the governance of his diocese. » | Jason Horowitz and Ruth Graham | Jason Horowitz reported from Vatican City, and Ruth Graham from Dallas.| Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Thousands Line Up to Pay Their Respects to Pope Benedict XVI

Jan 2, 2023 | Thousands of people have been queuing to pay their last respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI, whose remains are lying in state at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

A Chance to Say Goodbye to Benedict Draws Tens of Thousands: The pope emeritus is lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica, where more than 40,000 mourners, including Roman Catholic faithful and tourists, had paid last respects by Monday afternoon. »

Benedict XVI Lies in State in St. Peter’s Basilica: Thousands of the Roman Catholic faithful and tourists lined up to pay their respects to Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus. »

Former Pope Benedict XVI Dies Aged 95 - BBC News

Dec 31, 2022 | Former Pope Benedict XVI has died at his Vatican residence, aged 95, almost a decade after he stood down. He led the Catholic Church for less than eight years until, in 2013, he became the first Pope to resign due to ailing health since Gregory XII in 1415. For much of his papacy, the Catholic Church faced allegations, legal claims and official reports into decades of child abuse by priests. Earlier this year the former Pope acknowledged that errors had been made in the handling of abuse cases while he was archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982.

Former Pope Benedict XVI Dies Aged 95

THE GUARDIAN: German predecessor to Pope Francis became first pontiff to step down as head of Catholic church in 600 years

Pope Benedict XVI leads the Ash Wednesday service at the St. Peter’s Basilica on February 13, 2013. Photograph: Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Pope Benedict XVI, who served as leader of the Catholic church from 2005 until his resignation in 2013, has died aged 95, the Vatican has announced.

A statement from Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: “With sorrow, I inform you that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away today at 9.34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican. Further information will be provided as soon as possible.”

His death comes after Pope Francis announced during his weekly audience on 28 December that Benedict was “very sick”.

Benedict’s death brings to a close an unprecedented period in recent history where two popes have co-existed, a situation that has caused tensions within rival camps in the Vatican. It paves the way for his successor, Pope Francis, to consider whether to follow Benedict by retiring at some point – impossible while the outcome would have been three popes.

Benedict, born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in Germany in 1927, was a deeply conservative pontiff, whose tenure was overshadowed by sex abuse scandals in the church. He retired leaving a chequered reputation after a papacy that was at times divisive. » | Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent | Saturday, December 31, 2022

Frédéric Martel : Book Alleges a Vatican Gay Subculture, Hypocrisy

Feb 20, 2019 (15 Feb 2019) A gay French writer has lifted the lid on what he calls one of the world's largest gay communities, the Vatican, estimating that most of its prelates are homosexually inclined and attributing much of the current crisis in the Catholic Church to an internecine war among them.

In the explosive book, In the Closet of the Vatican, author Frédéric Martel describes a gay subculture at the Vatican and calls out the hypocrisy of Catholic bishops and cardinals who in public denounce homosexuality but in private lead double lives.

Aside from the subject matter, the book is astonishing for the access Martel had to the inner sanctum of the Holy See. Martel writes that he spent four years researching it in 30 countries, including weeks at a time living inside the Vatican walls.

He says the doors were opened by a key Vatican gatekeeper and friend of Pope Francis who was the subject of the pontiff's famous remark about gay priests, "Who am I to judge?"

In an interview Friday in a Paris hotel, Martel said he didn't tell his subjects he was writing about homosexuality in the Vatican.

But he said it should have been obvious to them since he is a gay man who was researching the inner world of the Vatican and has written about homosexuality before.

He said it was easier for him, as a gay foreigner, to gain the trust of those inside the Vatican than it would have been for an Italian journalist or Vatican expert.

Martel says he conducted nearly 1,500 in-person interviews with 41 cardinals, 52 bishops or monsignors, and 45 Vatican and foreign ambassadors, many of whom are quoted at length and in on-the-record interviews that he says were recorded.

Martel said he was assisted by 80 researchers, translators, fixers and local journalists, as well as a team of 15 lawyers.

The 555-page book is being published simultaneously in eight languages in 20 countries, many bearing the title "Sodom."

The Vatican didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Martel appears to want to bolster Francis' efforts at reforming the Vatican by discrediting his biggest critics and removing the secrecy and scandal that surrounds homosexuality in the Church.

But the book's Feb. 21 publication date coincides with the start of Francis' summit of church leaders on preventing the sexual abuse of minors, a crisis that is undermining his papacy.

The book isn't about abuse, but the timing of its release could fuel the narrative, embraced by conservatives and rejected by the gay community, that the abuse scandal has been caused by homosexuals in the priesthood.

Martel said no special interests financed the book, other than his advance from the publisher.


Related.

”The Majority of the Vatican Priests Are Gay” | Sternstunde Religion | SRF Kultur | Reupload

Mar 31, 2020 • It is well known that the Vatican frowns upon men who love men. But that the centre of power of the Roman Catholic Church should at the same time be one of the largest gay communities worldwide was new to many when Frédéric Martel brought this thesis to the world in 2019.

After having published "In the Closet of the Vatican" simultaneously in eight languages, the French author and journalist was invited to countless talk shows, but the Vatican was shrouded in silence.

Whoever felt somehow different - just homosexual - as a young man in the 30s, 40s and 50s of the last century, found an oasis in the Roman Catholic Church, according to Martel. Men living among men, wearing different clothes and singing in a choir, that would have been the salvation for many, which was also accepted by society.

While most of the men Martel spoke to are very old, their world view remains: Homophobic on the outside, homophile on the inside. This led to a dangerous double standard, a culture of silence, which had very unhappily promoted the scandals around the Catholic Church.

Sternstunde Religion vom 29.3.2020


Deutsche Version hier.

What Did the Pope Know about the Holocaust? | DW Documentary

The Vatican opened once-secret records on Pope Pius XII on March 2020. This gave researchers a brand new insight into the Catholic Church during the Nazi era. What did the Pope know about the Holocaust?

Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli, is one of the most controversial figures in recent church history. New archive material sheds light on his career and politics. As ambassador of the Holy See in Germany and Cardinal Secretary of State of the Vatican, Pacelli witnessed Hitler’s rise to power. He was elected Pope in 1939, just months before the start of World War II. But what role did he play during the Holocaust? Many accuse him of shirking his responsibilities; of complicit silence while minorities were murdered, especially the Jewish.

Just days after the archives opened, church historian Hubert Wolf discovered a document describing the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. Pope Pius XII read the paper on 27 September 1942, but its contents were never published. Nor were the notes in the margins by members of the Secretariat of State. But the Vatican claimed for decades that nothing was kept from the public.

Defenders of Pius XII say he acted in secret to save the lives of many Jews. Thousands were hidden in church institutions, and the Roman Curia helped them to escape abroad. But the credibility of the Roman Curia during the Holocaust is now at stake, with many still unanswered questions. Why did Pius XII not join the Allies’ protest in December 1942 against the extermination of the Jews?

Vatican Planned to Move to Portugal If Nazis Captured Wartime Pope
Pope Pius XII. Photo: GoogleImages
THE TELEGRAPH: Secret plans were drawn up by the Vatican to elect a new Pope and flee to a friendly country should Hitler have carried out his threat to kidnap the wartime Pontiff, it was claimed yesterday.

Pope Pius XII told senior bishops that should he be arrested by the Nazis, his resignation would become effective immediately, paving the way for a successor, according to documents in the Vatican's Secret Archives.

The bishops would then be expected to flee to a safe country – probably neutral Portugal – where they would re-establish the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and appoint a new Pontiff.

That Hitler considered kidnapping the Pope has been documented before, but this is the first time that details have emerged of the Vatican's strategy should the Nazis carry out the plan.

"Pius said 'if they want to arrest me they will have to drag me from the Vatican'," said Peter Gumpel, the German Jesuit priest who is in charge of researching whether Pius should be made a saint, and therefore has access to secret Vatican archives.

Pius, who was Pope throughout the war, told his advisers "the person who would leave the [Vatican] under these conditions would not be Pius XII but Eugenio Pacelli" – his name before he was elected Pontiff – thus giving permission for a new Pope to be elected.

"It would have been disastrous if the Church had been left without an authoritative leader," said Father Gumpel.

"Pius wouldn't leave voluntarily. He had been invited repeatedly to go to Portugal or Spain or the United States but he felt he could not leave his diocese under these severe and tragic circumstances." Vatican documents, which still remain secret, are believed to show that Pius was aware of a plan formulated by Hitler in July 1943 to occupy the Vatican and arrest him and his senior cardinals. >>> By Nick Squires in Rome and Simon Caldwell | Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Anglican Bishops in Secret Vatican Summit
" … There can be no future for Christianity in Europe without Rome." - Anonymous Bishop of the Church of England
THE TELEGRAPH: Senior Church of England bishops have held secret talks with Vatican officials to discuss the crisis in the Anglican communion over gays and women bishops.

They met senior advisers of the Pope in an attempt to build closer ties with the Roman Catholic Church, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was not told of the talks and the disclosure will be a fresh blow to his efforts to prevent a major split in the Church of England.

In highly confidential discussions, a group of conservative bishops expressed their dismay at the liberal direction of the Church of England and their fear for its future.

They met members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the most powerful of the Vatican's departments, the successor to the medieval Inquisition, which enforces doctrine and was headed by Pope Benedict XVI before his election. Anglican Bishops in Secret Vatican Summit >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent | July 5, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

West Risks Obsession with Islam, Warns Vatican
What is particularly surprising in this newspaper article is the comment made by Cardinal Tauran that all religions are equal. Did you ever think you would hear a cardinal stating such a thing? If Christianity is no better than any other religion, then why should people convert to it? Shocking! Can’t the Vatican do better than that? Little wonder the churches are emptying! - ©Mark

TIMESONLINE: The Vatican has given warning that the West's efforts at inter-faith dialogue must not be “held hostage" by Islam and are in danger of becoming "obsessed" with it at the expense of other religions.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, said that the Church “has to have regard for all religions". He said that the council had this week discussed new guidelines for inter-faith dialogue.

“What was interesting about our discussions was that we did not concentrate on Islam because in a way we are being held hostage by Islam a little bit," he told the Catholic website Terrasanta.net. "Islam is very important, but there are also other great Asiatic religious traditions. Islam is one religion."

Pope Benedict XVI has convened an unprecedented Catholic-Muslim forum for October. He has also sought to make amends for his controversial speech at Regensburg University two years ago, when he appeared to suggest that Islam was irrational and inherently violent. He later visited Turkey and prayed at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul alongside the local imam. West Risks Obsession with Islam, Warns Vatican >>> By Richard Owen in Rome | June 10, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers
The Dawning of a New Dark Age –Paperback, direct from the publishers

The Vatican Gives Latin Online Boost
Image of ‘Biblia Sacra’ courtesy of the BBC
BBC: The Roman Catholic Church, for centuries a bastion of Latin usage, has given the ancient tongue a 21st Century boost by launching a website in Latin.

The Vatican website now has a section - Sancta Sedes (Holy See) - with Latin papal texts and religious works. Vatican Gives Latin Online Boost >>>

THE VATICAN:
Sancta Sedes: Documenta Latina >>>

Fr Reginald Foster: The Latin Lover >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Vatican Baptism No Good, Says Muslim Scholar
Photo of Arif Ali Nayed courtesy of the BBC
BBC: A Muslim scholar involved in high-level dialogue with the Vatican has denounced the Pope's baptism on Saturday of a prominent Italian Muslim convert.

Aref Ali Nayed, the head of Jordan's Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, called the baptism of journalist Magdi Allam a deliberate and provocative act.

The Vatican has not yet commented, but its official newspaper said the gesture aimed to promote religious freedom.

The Pope traditionally baptises adult converts to Catholicism on Easter eve.

Mr Allam's invitation to the ceremony, which took place in St Peter's Basilica, was however kept secret by the Vatican, until just before the Easter vigil mass.

The Egyptian-born Italian TV and newspaper commentator has been an outspoken critic of Islamist militancy and a strong supporter of Israel.

He says such controversial views and his conversion to Christianity have provoked threats on his life, and he is now protected by a police escort. Muslim Scholar Denounces Muslim Baptism >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Fewer Confessions and New Sins
BBC: The Vatican has brought up to date the traditional seven deadly sins by adding seven modern mortal sins it claims are becoming prevalent in what it calls an era of "unstoppable globalisation".

Those newly risking eternal punishment include drug pushers, the obscenely wealthy, and scientists who manipulate human genes. So "thou shalt not carry out morally dubious scientific experiments" or "thou shalt not pollute the earth" might one day be added to the Ten Commandments.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into Hell".

The new mortal sins were listed by Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti at the end of a week-long training seminar in Rome for priests, aimed at encouraging a revival of the practice of confession - or the Sacrament of Penance in Church jargon.

According to a survey carried out here 10 years ago by the Catholic University, 60% of Italians have stopped going to confession altogether. The situation has certainly not improved during the past decade.

Catholics are supposed to confess their sins to a priest at least once a year. The priest absolves them in God's name.

Talking to course members at the end of the seminar organised by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican department in charge of fixing the punishments and indulgences handed down to sinners, Pope Benedict added his own personal voice of disquiet.

"We are losing the notion of sin," he said. "If people do not confess regularly, they risk slowing their spiritual rhythm," he added. The Pope confesses his sins regularly once a week. Greatest sins of our times >>> By David Willey

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
confessions, sins,

Sarkozy Meets Pope, But Without Carla Bruni
Photo of Sarkozy with Carla Bruni courtesy of The Times
TIMESONLINE: Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, was received by Pope Benedict XVI on an official visit to Rome this morning - but without Carla Bruni, his Italian-born girlfriend.

Both French and Italian media had speculated that Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni would enjoy a pre-Christmas “Roman holiday”.

Christophe Barbier, the editor of the French magazine L'Express, which broke the news of the Sarkozy-Bruni relationship, had suggested that Rome would be Ms Bruni's first appearance as unofficial “First Lady” of France.

However Vatican officials made clear to the Elysée Palace that Ms Bruni would not be welcome at the encounter because she and the French President are not married. Under Vatican protocol it was “inappropriate” for a head of state to meet the pontiff on an official visit accompanied by a girlfriend, sources said. Sarkozy meets Pope – but ex-model girlfriend Carla Bruni is not welcome >>> By Richard Owen in Rome

Mark Alexander (Paperback)

Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Pope to Purge Modern Music
Photo of Pope Benedict XVI courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: The Pope is considering a dramatic overhaul of the Vatican in order to force a return to traditional sacred music.

After reintroducing the Latin Tridentine Mass, the Pope wants to widen the use of Gregorian chant and baroque sacred music.

In an address to the bishops and priests of St Peter's Basilica, he said that there needed to be "continuity with tradition" in their prayers and music.

He referred pointedly to "the time of St Gregory the Great", the pope who gave his name to Gregorian chant.

Gregorian chant has been reinstituted as the primary form of singing by the new choir director of St Peter's, Father Pierre Paul. Pope to purge the Vatican of modern music (more) By Malcolm Moore

Why the Pope is right to purge modern music By Damian Thompson

Holy Smoke By Damian Thompson

Mark Alexander

Vatican Plans Budget Flights for Christian Pilgrims
BBC: The Vatican is to launch a low-cost charter flight service to transport pilgrims to holy sites worldwide.

The inaugural flight on 27 August will go from Rome to Lourdes in France.

A small Italian airline, Mistral, will provide the planes, with the interiors decorated with sacred inscriptions such as: "I search for your face, Lord."

Other destinations could include Fatima in Portugal and Santiago di Compostela in Spain, the Holy Land, Poland and a Catholic shrine in Mexico. Vatican plans flights to shrines (more)

Mark Alexander

The Islamization of Europe a Real Concern for the Vatican

Georg Gänswein, the urbane Private Secretary of Pope Benedict XVI

DAILY EXPRESS: POPE Benedict XVI’s private secretary has warned of the 'Islamisation' of Europe and demanded that the Continent’s Christian roots not to be ignored.

"Attempts to Islamise the west cannot be denied," Monsignor Georg Gaenswein was quoted as saying in a copy of the weekly Sueddeutsche Magazine published today.


"The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness," the magazine quoted him as saying.

Gaenswein also defended a speech Pope Benedict gave in Regensburg, Germany, last year linking Islam and violence, saying it was an attempt by the Pontiff to "act against a certain naivety."


In the interview with the respected German weekly, Gaenswein confirmed that the Pope wrote his own speeches and that the remarks had not been edited.

He said: "I believe that the speech from Regensburg, as it was held, is prophetic."

Asked if the idea of a serious dialogue with Islam that exists in the real world was naive, given that it was a religion where human rights were trampled under foot, he said: "Attempts to Islamize the West cannot be denied.

"The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness. Vatican warns of Islamisation of Europe (more) By Emma Bamford

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