Back to Basics

It is said that one out of every three Americans are Christian. These statistics may mean less than at any other time in our history. Recently one source reported that in fact it may be only 15 percent of Americans are actually professing and practicing Christians. We can hope this is not an accurate statistic, but with so many believers going rogue, liberal and licentious, perhaps, sadly - it is!

The 2012 elections reflected the apostasy of both Catholic and Protestant believers. Whether it is the Bible or the current position of the Catholic Popes, abortion and same sex marriage are forbidden and in direct opposition to the word and will of God. So how did President Obama, a man who supports abortion and same sex marriages, sail unscathed into a second term?

The Catholics alone could have blocked Mr. Obama’s re-election bid with over 60 million Catholic voters, but they chose to go with the popular consensus rather than their own under-shepherd. What went wrong can be described in a single word – apostasy. The ‘falling away’ of the church is both prophesied and clearly defined, (2 Th 2: 3) but the product of the apostasy is so much more than a mere definition.

The apostate church is a divided church, and its product is weakness which allows the advancement of the opposing forces of darkness. The god of this world (Satan) is delighted with wishy-washy Christians and welcomes the trend to bend, to meet his agenda for the end. He is chomping at the bit to be ‘revealed’ to the world as Paul told the Christians in Thessalonica, but the believers have to ‘give it up’ for that to happen. Don’t look now, but that that trend is already a speeding train without brakes.

The world reads the wispiness of the believers as a lack of courage and a failing of conviction. We can hardly fault them for taking this view of us since our Lord himself gave us fair warning about salt that loses its ‘savour’ (Mt 5: 13) and workers who become ‘unfit’ (Lk 9: 62) because they are prone to look back. What could be more telling about Christ’s view of the vacillating heart than this verse spoken to all the churches?

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” (Rev 3: 15, 16)

Reason number one for blaming the Christians, the right or the conservatives when things go bad, like the recent attack in Boston, is because Americans are keenly aware of cowardice and they hate it!

They will argue tooth, nail and claw against our stated positions, but when we fold like a house of cards they will despise us even more. The line from our national anthem which says ‘o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave’ is based on the understanding that maintaining freedom always requires bravery. Are today’s Christians brave?

A cross-dressing Roman Catholic priest accused of selling more than $300,000 worth of methamphetamine out of his Waterbury, Conn., residence pleaded guilty on Tuesday to drug dealing in federal court. The original charges also included owning and operating a pornography business while performing the religious duties of a church pastor, according to drug enforcement officials.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin confessed to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and was scheduled to be sentenced June 25. The prosecution and defense agreed on a sentence of 11 to 14 years in prison.

Prosecutors said the 61-year-old Wallin had methamphetamine mailed to him from co-conspirators in California and sold the drugs out of his Waterbury apartment last year. He also bought an adult video and sex toy shop named Land of Oz & Dorothy’s Place, and used it to launder thousands of dollars in drug money, according to police.

Wallin admitted in court that the drug operation involved nearly four pounds (two kilograms) of methamphetamine. Methamphetamine is a synthetic stimulant akin to cocaine, however the duration of the “high” lasts much longer than coke.

Wallin is the former pastor at St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, Conn. Four additional suspects arrested in the case are being held by police.

“We’re glad to have resolved this part of the case,” Connecticut U.S. Attorney David B. Fein said outside the courtroom. “It’s a serious conspiracy charge involving a very dangerous drug.”

Dubbed “Monsignor Meth” by reporters, Wallin was pastor of St. Augustine Parish for nine years until he resigned in June 2011, citing health and personal reasons. He previously served six years as pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Danbury, Conn., until 2002.

The Bishop had suspended him from his ministry when Wallin faced accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior with other men in the church rectory. Church leaders said they never suspected that Wallin was involved with drugs dealing, pornography, and money laundering at the time of his suspension.

An undercover officer bought meth from Wallin six times from Sept. 20, 2012, to Jan. 2, 2013, paying more than $3,400 in total for 23 grams of the drug, police said.

From the “You can’t please everyone” archives, this dilly: Pope Francis incurs wrath for exaggerated humility!

With all of the problems that have confounded the Catholic Church recently, who would have imagined that the new Pope would ignite a firestorm of protest for being too humble?

Is that even possible, given the model of selfless sacrifice and love established by Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago?

Still, as reported, Pope Francis is being pummeled in some circles for taking humility too seriously:

Over the past two weeks, with one act of humility after another, Pope Francis has proven he’s willing to break with tradition.

Just after being named the new pontiff, he asked the faithful to pray for him, rather than the other way around. He’s refused to stand on the customary platform above other archbishops and dressed himself in simpler vestments than his predecessors. He’s made a practice of shunning the rich trappings of the position, from paying his own hotel bill to opting out of the palatial apartment popes have lived in for a century in favor of simpler digs.

Many of these acts send a signal about who Jorge Mario Bergoglio is and what reforms he thinks the Catholic Church’s leadership needs to make. He’s making a point of continuing the humble lifestyle he lived in Argentina (where he was known to take the subway and fly coach) and showing how the Church’s bureaucracy has become too wrapped in clerical privilege.

But an act of Pope Francis’s on Thursday perhaps says the most about his humility. Taking part in a tradition of Christianity’s holy week that reenacts the humble gesture Jesus made toward his 12 disciples before the Last Supper, Francis washed the feet of 12 people. What was unusual, however, was that he did not wash the feet of priests or even lay men, as have his predecessors, and he did not do it within the hallowed walls of a Roman basilica. Rather, he washed the feet of 12 juvenile prisoners at the Casal del Marmo Penitentiary Institute for Minors. Two of the young people were women and one was a Muslim, marking the first time a pope had included either group in the ceremony.

The move to kiss the feet of women has some religious experts expecting controversy, saying the pope’s action could “set a questionable example.” Meanwhile, those who hope it’s a sign that he will consider ordaining women as priests may be disappointed. The Associated Press reports that in his 2011 book, he voiced support for the theological underpinnings of excluding women from the priesthood.

Still, the pope’s latest convention-busting move at the very least shows an interest in greater inclusivity. It reveals Francis to be a leader who is not merely humble, but courageously willing to reach beyond the Church in new ways. Thursday’s breach of established ritual may have been his most significant break from tradition so far—but probably won’t be his last.”

Of course, not all Catholics are enamored with humility.

For example as earlier reported this week, Vice President Joe Biden spent nearly one million dollars on hotel lodging for just two nights in January, proving that humility is not necessarily a Catholic thang!

Are we witnessing the fulfillment of prophecy?

13 March 2013: At 7:07 p.m. (1907 hours) local time, white smoke billowed from the Vatican, signaling that the conclave of Cardinals appointed a new pope to lead the Roman Catholic Church. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, having taken the name Pope Francis I.  From Argentina, Cardinal Bergoglio is a Jesuit, or from the Order of the “Black Robes.”  Could we be witnessing the fulfillment of the Prophecy of the Popes, otherwise known as the St. Malachy Prophecy?  That prophecy indicates this will be the “final” pope, also known as the “black pope.”

On February 14, 2013, Tom Horn and Cris Putnam, co-authors of Petrus Romanus, The Final Pope is Here, and Steve Quayle were guests on The Hagmann & Hagmann Report for the entire three-hour broadcast. This virtually commercial free broadcast is the equivalent of six hours of regular radio broadcast time and set all records for listeners, along with their previous Sunday, January 13, 2013 broadcast.

Prophecy of the Popes

St. Malachy, the archbishop of Armagh and Irish saint who lived from 1094 to 1148, depicted the final pope as written:

“In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the City of Seven Hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people.”

Which will Joe do first: Beg for a ride in the Popemobile, or ask when he’s going to get to meet “Mrs. Francis”?

From CBS News:

According to a senior U.S. government official, Vice President Joe Biden – America’s first Catholic vice president and the highest ranking Catholic official in the country – will lead the U.S. delegation to witness the installation of Pope Francis in Rome, CBS News Chief White House correspondent Major Garrett reports. The White House has yet to announce the full delegation for the inauguration Mass, which will be held next Tuesday.

“I am happy to have the chance to personally relay my well wishes, and those of the American people, when I travel to Rome for his Inaugural Mass,” Biden said in a statement today.

“The Catholic Church plays an essential role in my life and the lives of more than a billion people in America and around the world, not just in matters of our faith, but in pursuit of peace and human dignity for all faiths. I look forward to our work together in the coming years on many important issues.”

Biden is expected to tell Pope Francis that the Obama administration is committed to ongoing dialog with the Catholic church and its affiliates. Well, their lawyers at least.

If Biden attends a service, he shouldn’t expect to receive holy communion:

Moreover, on behalf of the bishops of Latin America, also in 2007, Cardinal Bergoglio presented the “Aparecida Document” regarding the situation of the Church in their countries. The document, approved by Pope Benedict XVI in July of that year, made a very clear statement regarding the consequences of supporting abortion, disallowing holy communion for anyone who facilitates an abortion, including politicians.

The text states in paragraph 436 that “we should commit ourselves to ‘eucharistic coherence’, that is, we should be conscious that people cannot receive holy communion and at the same time act or speak against the commandments, in particular when abortion, euthanasia, and other serious crimes against life and family are facilitated. This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors, and health professionals.”

Twitchy on Biden’s trip to Rome: What could go wrong?

Tuesday night’s NBC News story, “America’s Hopes for a New Pope,” was typical of how the liberal media tried to force the Roman Catholic Church further to the left. The tone of the coverage was that the Catholic Church, in picking a new pope, had to make peace with “diversity”—liberals, feminists and homosexuals demanding state recognition of “gay marriage” in the United States.

With the selection of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, the liberals have lost out. He opposes abortion, euthanasia, and homosexuality. A Catholic insider tells me, “Looks like we might have ourselves a relatively conservative new pope. He appears to be opposed to liberation theology and doesn’t approach ‘social justice’ from the political end.” The latter means that while he is an advocate of helping the poor, he doesn’t believe this should be done through state socialist schemes.

Liberal and “progressive” websites are already attacking the first Latin American pope as someone who may have a “dark past” and be linked to the Argentine military during the “dirty war” against the communists. The accusations, which have now been picked up by the Associated Press, show the bitterness of the left, as their hopes were dashed of a “Red Pope.”

Mark Engler, a leftist writer, had promoted another candidate, Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, as having “significant progressive bona fides” and noted that he was “a personal friend of former Brazilian president and Worker’s Party leader Lula da Silva.” The Worker’s Party is a Marxist political organization in Brazil and Lula was a personal friend of Fidel Castro as well. Critics say that Hummes “supported communist strikes” and allowed Lula “to make political speeches during his Masses.” In 1990, after the demise of the old Soviet Union, Lula facilitated the holding of a conference in São Paolo, Brazil, bringing together the communist and leftist parties and guerilla movements of the continent, which came to be known as the São Paulo Forum. Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff, the current Brazilian President, is a former communist guerrilla leader.

“Hummes would open the door for the revival of social justice ministry in the Catholic Church,” Engler had written. Of course, “social justice” is already a theme of many of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, who have funded liberal projects with parishioners’ money through the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) for decades, enraging conservative Catholics in the process. It was a CCHD project that helped train Barack Obama as a community organizer on the streets of Chicago. These schemes are ways to attain political power and they have paid off well for Obama and his associates but not for the poor people they were supposedly intended to help.

In a 2005 story, “Champion of Workers and the Poor,” The Washington Post noted that Hummes had emerged as “a critic of the U.S.-backed free-market policies that were adopted in much of Latin America.” In other words, he helped pave the way for leaders such as Marxist Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who clutched a crucifix until the day he died. The Post went on, “In May 1998 he [Hummes] became archbishop of Sao Paulo.

White smoke rising.

Elected on the fifth ballot:

Cardinals elected a new pope to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics on Wednesday, overcoming deep divisions to select the 266th pope in a remarkably fast conclave.

Tens of thousands of people who braved cold rain to watch the smokestack atop the Sistine Chapel jumped in joy when white smoke poured out, many shouting “Habemus Papam!” or “We have a pope!” — as the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica and churches across Rome tolled, signaling a pontiff had been chosen.

The pope, whose identity isn’t yet known, is due to emerge from the loggia overlooking St. Peter’s Square to deliver his first words as the Bishop of Rome.

More details to come. We’re still waiting for the introduction.

Live video here.

Chuckles while we wait:

Update:

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was named as the new pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

Photo gallery here.

Update II: TMZ has some shocking — shocking — news about the new pope’s position on a couple of issues:

With African Catholic Cardinal Peter Turkson in the running as the next pope, the media have noted that he carries the fancy title of the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, an arm of the Vatican. But they have failed to note the existence of a left-wing lobby in the U.S. working feverishly on his behalf. It is the same group of radicals, with connections to billionaire hedge-fund operator George Soros, who backed Obama for president by claiming he shared their Catholic values.

One of Turkson’s chief supporters in the U.S. appears to be Stephen Schneck, an associate professor of politics at the Catholic University of America (CUA) and a top official of “Catholics for Obama.” He runs CUA’s Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies and holds conferences featuring left-wing and liberal speakers.

Former AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney, a member of Democratic Socialists of America, told one of Schneck’s conferences that Jesus Christ was pro-union. Another was socialist Harold Meyerson.

speaker

When Turkson’s Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a controversial 2011 document, “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Political Authority,” Schneck called it “breathtaking” and a “Catholic way forward” from the present crisis.

A “global political authority” was endorsed by Pope Benedict XVI’s “Charity in Truth” encyclical in 2009.

Schneck, who served on the board of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a group funded by Soros, is so important a figure in progressive Catholic circles that there is speculation that Obama will appoint him as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. A writer noted that Schneck “has worked hand-in-glove with different offices at the USCCB [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops], with Catholic Relief Services, with the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders and the Catholic Coalition for Climate Change, and with other Catholic groups, organizing conferences that call attention to important issues.”

He wrote that “Schneck’s range of political and media contacts, his organizational capabilities, his ability to distinguish a central from a peripheral issue, all are vital to making these conferences a success. He brought Cardinal Peter Turkson to CUA two years ago for a conference on Rerum Novarum.”

Rerum Novarum is a papal encyclical in which, as William Mayer notes, “the Church proclaimed itself competent to speak on economic matters, establishing a justification for governmental control, to a greater or lesser degree, of the marketplace and by extension, players within the economy, including everyday citizens and businesses.”

Rerum Novarum is the basis for many “social justice” theories promoted by leftist and Marxist operatives in the church.

Turkson, who is from Ghana, has taken “social justice” to the global level, arguing for a “global financial authority” to solve the world’s economic problems.

For this reason, left-wing “progressives” backing Obama hope Turkson will be the next pope and use the Vatican in a global campaign against capitalism.