70% Approve Homosexuality, Money Laundering, New Francis Book & They Wanted Martini?

70% Approve Homosexuality, Money Laundering, New Francis Book & They Wanted Martini?

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Propagandist Poll for the Homosexual Agenda?

"70% of "Catholics" approve of homosexuality which is a jump from 58% last year..."

Pew study: More Americans reject religion, but believers firm in faith

The 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study, released Tuesday (Nov. 3) by the Pew Research Center, also shows that nearly all major religious groups have become more accepting of homosexuality since the first landscape study in 2007. 

More striking numbers in the study describe changing Christian attitudes toward gay Americans. Though the new landscape survey is not the first to document such change, it shows in detail how dramatically members of a broad swath of denominations — even those that officially oppose homosexuality — have shifted in their views.
The number of evangelical Protestants, for example, who said they agreed that “homosexuality should be accepted by society” jumped 10 percentage points between the 2007 and 2014 studies — from 26 percent to 36 percent. The increase for Catholics was even steeper, from 58 percent to 70 percent. For historically black Protestant churches, acceptance jumped from 39 percent to 51 percent.
“Despite attempts to paint religious people as monolithically opposed to LGBT rights, that’s just not the case and these numbers prove that,” said Jay Brown, head of research and education at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the national gay rights group.

Read it all here!
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/11/03/pew-americans-religion-believers-faith/ 

Vatican spokesman confirms money laundering investigation 

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, papal spokesman, is pictured during an Oct. 26 press conference at the Vatican. Investigations into money laundering, insider trading and market manipulation through a Vatican office were launched after an initial report was filed by the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority in February 2015, the Vatican spokesman said Nov. 4. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See LOMBARDI-NATTINO-INVESTIGATION Nov. 4, 2015.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Investigations into money laundering, insider trading and market manipulation through a Vatican office were launched after an initial report was filed by the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority in February 2015, the Vatican spokesman said.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman, issued a statement Nov. 4 about the investigations involving the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. The office, known by its Italian acronym APSA, handles the Vatican's investment portfolio and its real estate holdings.
The Vatican spokesman's statement comes on the heels of a report by the British news agency Reuters that Giampietro Nattino, chairman of a private Italian bank, had accounts at APSA and used them for personal trades on the Italian stock market.
The Reuters article says investigators looked at Nattino's activities between May 22, 2000, and March 29, 2011. The investigations revealed that the Italian banker transferred more than 2 million euros out of his APSA account to a Swiss bank account several days before stricter financial regulations at the Vatican went into effect, Reuters reported.
The report also states that the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority passed its findings on to Vatican City State judicial authorities regarding Nattino's activities and recommended the Vatican prosecutor, Gian Piero Milano, also investigate possible involvement by some members of the APSA staff.
Although APSA in 2012 told investigators from "Moneyval" -- the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism -- that the Vatican decided in 2001 to phase out individual accounts, the Vatican's internal investigation revealed that accounts like Nattino's were active until 2009.
Father Lombardi said the Vatican prosecutor's office requested the involvement of Italian and Swiss judicial authorities in the investigation "by requests sent through diplomatic channels on Aug. 7, 2015."

Catholic-Lutheran document sums up agreements, maps steps to "full unity" (cough, cough)

Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore holds a Catholic-Lutheran document titled "'Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist" during a a telephone news conference Nov. 4 in Washington. The newly released 120-page document marks the progress in Catholic-Lutheran relations over the past 50 years and maps the remaining steps needed to achieve full unity. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn) See CATHOLIC-LUTHERAN Nov. 5, 2015.

A new 120-page document marks the progress in Catholic-Lutheran relations over the past 50 years and maps the remaining steps needed to achieve full unity.

The "Declaration on the Way" was prepared by a joint task force of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has more than 3.7 million members in 9,300 congregations across the United States.
The document was inspired by a December 2011 speech by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and draws on the work of national and international Catholic-Lutheran dialogues since 1965, particularly on the topics of church, ministry and the Eucharist. It was intended to mark the 50th anniversary of Catholic-Lutheran dialogue in 2015 and the upcoming 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.
"It's amazing to think that 500 years ago we were killing each other over" issues on which there is now consensus between the two communions, said ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton in a Nov. 4 telephone news conference about the declaration.
"We grew up in a time when our communities were absolutely divided; now instead we are rejoicing in the places we find agreement," she added.
Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore, the Catholic co-chairman of the task force, said Pope Francis on his recent U.S. visit and throughout his papacy has emphasized "a culture of dialogue" that is reflected in concrete form in the new declaration.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, a former ELCA presiding bishop, served as Lutheran co-chairman of the task force.
The document's introduction says the two churches have come a long way since "the disunity, suspicions and even hostilities that characterized our relationships for generations," but says the time has come "to claim the unity achieved through these agreements, to establish church practices that reflect this growth into communion and to commit ourselves anew to taking the next steps forward."
It concludes by asking the Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of 145 churches in 98 countries, and the Pontifical Council on Promoting Christian Unity to jointly "receive, affirm and create a process to implement" the 32 statements of agreement outlined in the declaration and to establish "a process and a timetable for addressing remaining issues on church, Eucharist and ministry."
"The expansion of opportunities for Catholics and Lutherans to receive holy Communion together would be a significant sign of the path toward unity already traveled and a pledge to continue together on the journey toward full communion," the task force added.
In addition, the task force urged action and study at the local level between Lutheran congregations and Catholic parishes, as well as formal and informal cooperation among bishops of both denominations at the regional level.
The declaration is not a statement of the full body of Catholic bishops, but was affirmed in October by the ELCA Conference of Bishops, an advisory body, which asked the ELCA Church Council to forward the document to the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, its highest legislative body.
Bishop Madden said the Catholic bishops are not scheduled to vote on the declaration during their Nov. 16-19 annual fall assembly in Baltimore but that he hoped it would be the topic of much discussion among the bishops.
"We want all the bishops to know about this declaration and help promulgate it in their own dioceses," he added.
Jesuit Father Jared Wicks, a Catholic member of the task force and scholar in residence at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, said in an ELCA news release that the document represented "a moment to move from study to declaration, to expand in Catholic and Lutheran believers a shared awareness of their real agreements on significant and well-defined essentials of our faith and life."
Asked at the news conference what was the most difficult issue that continued to divide Lutherans and Catholics, Bishop Madden cited women's ordination as "one of those issues that we are still discussing."
The Lutherans have been ordaining women since 1970; the Catholic Church teaches it has no authority "to confer priestly ordination on women."
Bishop Eaton said Lutherans still had difficulty with the Catholic understanding of "the role of the bishop of Rome" and the issue of papal infallibility.
"We are really sorry for some of the things (Martin) Luther said about (the pope) back in the day," she said, adding that there have been "terrible misunderstandings and, on our part, unfortunate caricatures" surrounding the issue.
"But we really like this one (Pope Francis) a lot," Bishop Eaton said.
Kathryn Johnson, ELCA director for ecumenical and interreligious relations, said the declaration marked the beginning of "a totally different world of relationship and hopefulness" between Catholics and Lutherans.
Father John Crossin, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said he had been approached by an Anglican colleague about doing a similar document that looks at remaining issues dividing the two communions.
The declaration "is already starting to have a little ripple effect," he said.

Francis to Publish First Book of His Papacy

Francis in January will publish the first book of his papacy, written in an interview format with Italian journalist and Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli.

The book’s world-wide release on Jan. 12 will coincide with a special jubilee “year of mercy” that Pope Francis has called to reach out to alienated members of the church and to non-Catholics in need.
In the new book, “The Name of God Is Mercy: A Conversation with Andrea Tornielli,” the pope “discusses mercy, a subject of central importance in his teaching and testimony, and in addition sums up other ideas—reconciliation, the closeness of God—that comprise the heart of his papacy,” according to Random House, which bought North American rights in English and Spanish at auction from Italian publisher Piemme.
Random House will also release an audiobook in January. A spokeswoman for the publisher declined to say how much the company paid for the rights.
Bluebird, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, will publish the book in the U.K. and Commonwealth countries excluding Canada.
Rights so far have been sold in at least a dozen other languages, according to Piemme’s website, and after Friday’s announcement more queries came pouring in from countries including China, said Carole Tonkinson, Bluebird’s publisher.
This isn’t the first time the pope has used an interview format to speak to his flock. In a headline-grabbing 2013 interview with the Italian Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, Pope Francis warned that the Catholic Church had become too focused on abortion, gay marriage and other social issues. That interview was later published in book form by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins, which, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.
Earlier this year, several U.S. publishers, including Melville House, issued editions of the pontiff’s 183-page encyclical on climate change. Those editions have sold at least 43,000 print copies, according to Nielsen BookScan.
Mr. Tornielli is a reporter for the newspaper La Stampa and runs its Vatican Insider website. His 2013 biography of Pope Francis has been translated into 16 languages, according to Piemme.
The pope’s new book “is directed at everyone, inside or outside the Catholic Church, seeking meaning in life, a road to peace and reconciliation, or the healing of physical or spiritual wounds,” Random House said.
“Pope Francis is an extraordinary person and he’s inspired people,” Ms. Tonkinson said. “It’s really amazing how he’s reaching across all sorts of barriers in terms of country and religion. He’s a spokesperson for mercy much like the Dalai Lama is a spokesperson for compassion.”
This new book isn’t the only offering from Pope Francis in the coming months. In November, he’ll release a prog rock album.

Still Controversial: Cardinal Danneels and the Conclave of 2005

They Wanted Martini??

Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels (r) with German Cardinal Walter Kasper in 2008. 

German journalist Paul Badde recounts the actions of the Belgian cardinal — whose participation in the recent family synod drew criticism — at the time of Pope Benedict XVI’s election.

Francis’ choice of Cardinal Godfried Danneels to attend last month’s Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family as one of his 45 papal delegates was heavily criticized on account of the Belgian cardinal’s record.

The archbishop emeritus of Mechelen-Brussels advised the king of Belgium to sign an abortion law in 1990, told a victim of clerical sex abuse to keep quiet and refused to forbid pornographic, “educational” materials being used in Belgian Catholic schools. He also once said same-sex “marriage” was a “positive development” and congratulated the Belgian government for passing same-sex “marriage” legislation, although he has sought to distinguish such a union from the Church’s understanding of marriage.
The cardinal, who was pictured standing next to Pope Francis on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on the night of the Pope’s election, also admitted in September to being part of what he called the St. Gallen “mafia” club that was opposed to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and campaigned to prevent him being elected in 2005.
German journalist and author Paul Badde reported on their campaign at that time. In this interview with the Register, Badde, an expert on the Holy Face of Manoppello, recalls the events that took place in 2005, including the strong resistance of German Cardinal Joachim Meisner to the group’s campaign, which, he insisted, contravened conclave rules.
On Nov. 6, the Vatican is expected to announce Bishop Jozef De Kesel of Bruges, who is supported by Cardinal Danneels, as the new archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. He will replace Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, viewed as a “Ratzingerian,” who had his resignation immediately accepted upon turning 75 over the summer.
The Register contacted Cardinal Danneels Nov. 3 to see if he would like to respond to the concerns raised about his actions, but he declined the request.

You say that during the 2005 conclave there was resistance to efforts by members of the so-called St. Gallen group to have Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio elected. Can you elaborate on that?
Paul Badde: I hadn’t heard of a so-called St. Gallen group in those days. I just knew that a certain group of cardinals had met in Villa Nazareth [a college residence in Rome founded by Cardinal Domenico Tardini] at the invitation of Cardinal Silvestrini, an ardent opponent of Cardinal Ratzinger.  I knew that from a very reliable source, who had told me that they were trying to have Jesuit Cardinal [Carlo] Martini elected, the popular archbishop from Milan. It’s true, also Cardinal Bergoglio from Buenos Aires was considered “papabile,” but wasn’t mentioned in that context. And [I learned] that they tried everything to prevent the election of Joseph Ratzinger. In the first photo after Benedict’s election, however, in the Sala Ducale, beside the Sistine Chapel, standing next to the new pope, a meter away, was Cardinal Joachim Meisner [then archbishop of Cologne] on his right side — with then another vacant meter on the right of Cardinal Meisner. It looked as if nobody would dare to come close to Cardinal Meisner, as if he were still glowing — as after an enormous fight.

How do you know this?
That’s what the photo is telling me. We were with Meisner on April 4, 2005. John Paul II had died April 2, but two days later, we went to Manoppello [famous for the Holy Face of Manoppello]. It was an appointment arranged in January of that year. And although his friend, John Paul II, had died two days before, the cardinal and I managed to slip away to Manoppello on Monday, April 4, sharing a long car ride together. He was enormously impressed by the Holy Face. He was the first bishop I know of who immediately identified the Sacred Veil with the “Soudarion” from the Holy Sepulchre mentioned in the Gospel of the Resurrection of St. John. He knelt down. We prayed a Rosary there, then returned to Rome by noon and prayed another Rosary right in front of John Paul II, who was lying in state in the Cappella Clementina, before he was carried to St. Peter’s Basilica later that afternoon. So the whole day was a very intimate situation, as you can imagine. It was no wonder that I called him later to ask for his advice when I heard right before the conclave that something was cooking in the Vatican that the media hadn’t heard of. That was on April 16, 2005.

What exactly did you hear?
Well, I’ve been told that, on April 5 — only three days after Karol Wojtyla’s death! — a group of cardinals had gathered secretly to prevent the election of Joseph Ratzinger, the right hand of the Polish Pope for decades.

Who was involved?
I’ve seen a list naming the cardinals: Silvestrini, Danneels, Murphy O’Connor, Martini, Lehmann, Kasper and Audrys Juozas Bačkis of Lithuania, and I had heard that “their absolute aim is to get Ratzinger out of the race”; and that they met at Villa Nazareth.

What was Cardinal Meisner’s reaction to this news?
He was upset, telling me that a conspiracy like this one was “absolutely against the explicit rules” which John Paul II himself had reshaped in his apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, of Feb. 22, 1996.

And what did you then ask him?
Well, after being that close with him a couple of days earlier, I asked him: “What shall I do? I’ve got the list: I don’t want to disturb anybody; I don’t want to blame anybody; I don’t want to raise any scandal.” At that time, I still felt new to reporting on the Vatican. I rather continued to feel much more with the tortured Middle East, where I had sort of lost my heart in Jerusalem, after being stationed there for some years.

And what did he answer or counsel you?
He said: “Just follow your conscience.” He didn’t tell me to do or write this or that. So I wrote an article where I said, “Most of my colleagues here in Rome are looking at the conclave as though it were a Dan Brown novel.” But I also said that some of the cardinals didn’t seem to follow the instructions of the Church either, and I listed some names of those involved in my article.

How did things then proceed?
The next day, the conclave began, and everything went very fast. I was sure Meisner was furious, and I imagine that he fought like a lion, even though he couldn’t speak any languages. His Italian is poor, his English worse. He has a sense of Polish, but he surely must have suffered a lot by this inability, being always so courageously outspoken in his mother tongue. I met him again on the first night of the papal election in front of his hotel, and he still looked exhausted. “I can’t tell you anything,” he told me, “but it doesn’t break the secrecy of the conclave when I admit that these were the hardest days of my life.”
I don’t think that he had Ratzinger in mind as his personal choice before the conclave — no matter how friendly they were.
Cardinal Danneels, however, skipped the dinner to which Pope Benedict XVI had invited all cardinals after his election that very same day.

What are your reflections now?
Danneels, by appearing in February 2013 on the balcony after Pope Francis’ election, shows he must feel very secure eight years after he failed to prevent the election of Pope Benedict. Note that he recently referred to his group as the “mafia.” I didn’t refer to them that way in 2005. He used that term, and he was proud of it. He was really proud of it. Recall that he had tried to get the king of Belgium to sign an abortion law, the king refused, and the cardinal tried to push him. Then he tried to cover up the prelate who tried to abuse his own nephew. So calling on him to be a consultor, papal delegate, for a synod on the vocation of marriage and the family was irritating to many.

Do you believe he, or the group, had some impact on the last conclave?
I’m not sure he triggered the last papal election; I doubt it. I don’t know. I’m a witness to what happened then, but I doubt they had an influence on the last conclave. The group disbanded; they grew frustrated. For that reason, Danneels liked to see it as a delayed victory, but I don’t think it was that way.

What’s the difference between the so-called St. Gallen group and, say, those who pushed for Cardinal Ratzinger to be elected, such as Cardinal Julian Herranz. Were they breaking the rules too?
No, because, apart from Silvestrini, they were cardinals in the conclave. You have pressure groups, that’s clear, but Ratzinger had no pressure group. He just seemed to be a natural choice for many, after his many years so close at the side of John Paul II, and even more so after his famous homily before the conclave warning fervently of “a dictatorship of relativism.” These other cardinals, however, tried to force a result. It was a true conspiracy, not a conspiracy theory. They had one aim: to prevent him, Ratzinger, from being elected.

During the most recent synod, I asked various synod fathers about Cardinal Danneels and why he was chosen as a papal delegate. They all expressed ignorance, saying they had nothing to say or didn't know anything about it.
Yes, I asked a number of bishops, too. They had no opinion about it either.

Is it a conspiracy of silence?
No, they don’t know how to react to it. They’re afraid, that’s the issue, so no one dares criticize the Pope for that decision. That’s for certain. They could comment, but they play innocent or naïve.

How important is it to understand the reform agenda of the St. Gallen group who met at Villa Nazareth? How much does that give us a clue about where this pontificate is heading?
They have an agenda, and have had it since right after the [Second Vatican] Council, after Humanae Vitae. Then we had a synod in Würzburg: They said it’s up to the parish priest to teach about contraception. So they had an agenda from then on. Then it’s important to note that nothing is new about what Kasper is declaring. He was talking about this in the early 1990s, but then it was a dispute between him and Cardinal Ratzinger. He was angry at Ratzinger, that he had won the day. Now, Ratzinger can’t say anything anymore, so his [Kasper’s] time has come.

Should there be some pressure from the faithful?
There was some, including a petition, but I don’t think it will lead anywhere. Of course, it was a signal that Pope Francis had invited Cardinal Danneels to the synod. And don't forget, from the same group that did everything, legally or illegally, to prevent Cardinal Ratzinger from being elected as pope in 2005, Cardinal Bačkis from Lithuania and Cardinal Kasper play key roles in last month's synod.

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier and others said an agenda and ideology were pushed at last year's extraordinary session, leading to accusations of an engineered synod. Did you see this latest one in the same way?
No. But I hope this synod won't be remembered as the “Mafia Synod” one day, deriving it from Cardinal Danneels’ own words. But then the synod shouldn’t be overestimated anyway, since it will be Pope Francis alone who is going to decide which direction the Church is heading — no matter what the synod has declared. His decision will be remembered.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/still-controversial-cardinal-danneels-and-the-conclave-of-2005/#ixzz3qjLV6zlb