Religious Threadjacks

[RTH10260]

Revealed: New Orleans archdiocese concealed serial child molester for years
Lawrence Hecker confessed to superiors he had molested multiple teenagers but he was never prosecuted, secret documents show

Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans
Tue 20 Jun 2023 11.00 BST

The last four Roman Catholic archbishops of New Orleans went to shocking lengths to conceal a confessed serial child molester who is still living but has never been prosecuted, a Guardian investigation has found.

Upon review of hundreds of pages of previously secret church files, the Guardian has uncovered arguably the most complete account yet about the extremes to which the second-oldest Catholic archdiocese in the US went to coddle the admitted child molester Lawrence Hecker.

Back in 1999, Hecker confessed to his superiors at the archdiocese of New Orleans that he had either sexually molested or otherwise shared a bed with multiple teenagers whom he met through his work as a Roman Catholic priest.

The admitted conduct occurred during a 15-year period, beginning in the mid-1960s, which Hecker says “was a time of great change in the world and in the church, and I succumbed to its zeitgeist”. In a two-page statement given to local church authorities serving a region with about a half-million Catholics, Hecker says, “It was a time when I neglected spiritual direction, confession and most daily prayer.”





https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... d-molester

[Foggy]

I was taking the pastor at his word. He said that the Muslim faith had "advancements" because its practitioners are willing to strap bombs to their chests. And I just wondered, what advancements has the Muslim faith had because of suicide bombers?

I would argue that there aren't any. And violence isn't going to result in advancements for Christian idiots, either.

So you dont adhere to the theory that most of the technological advancement in human history has been driven by the necessities of war?

I do adhere to that, actually. But that involved people who were trying to invent better weapons, and ...

Oh, wait. I get it now. Advancements in suicide vest technology, yeah, there have probably been a few of those. You just hate it when your suicide vest malfunctions or sumpin'. You push the button and nothing happens. You need some technological advancements.

Yeah, I can see the advancements now. No wonder a pastor wants to use them.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.yourtango.com/news/man-dema ... -christian

The man wanted a refund after seeing Buddha imagery at a Chinese restaurant since he’s Christian.

A video posted to the subreddit, "r/PublicFreakouts" depicts a male customer in a Chinese restaurant picking up a food order. However, after he allegedly spotted a statue of Buddha, an Asian spiritual master associated with the Buddhism religion, he demanded a refund since Buddhist beliefs go against his beliefs as a Christian.

The incident took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Rose Garden Chinese restaurant.

Video:

https://deadstate.org/christian-man-dem ... ha-statue/

[RTH10260]

Chinese Food? Surely the guy must have been lucky cause the Chinese commies for sure did drop a few thousands of microchips into his dim sum

[Volkonski]

So, this was the first time in his whole life he saw a statue of Buddha in an Asian restaurant? He has led a sheltered life.

[Resume18]

https://www.yourtango.com/news/man-dema ... -christian

The man wanted a refund after seeing Buddha imagery at a Chinese restaurant since he’s Christian.

A video posted to the subreddit, "r/PublicFreakouts" depicts a male customer in a Chinese restaurant picking up a food order. However, after he allegedly spotted a statue of Buddha, an Asian spiritual master associated with the Buddhism religion, he demanded a refund since Buddhist beliefs go against his beliefs as a Christian.

The incident took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Rose Garden Chinese restaurant.

Video:

https://deadstate.org/christian-man-dem ... ha-statue/

How the living hell does this guy function in everyday life?

[RTH10260]

With the new SCOTUS ruling - he needs to be prepared to read signs like "we don't serve Vegans Christians here"

[RTH10260]

Head of school linked to Amy Coney Barrett’s faith group abruptly resigns
Then a professor at Notre Dame, the supreme court justice was on a board that selected Jon Balsbaugh to head the Trinity Schools

Stephanie Kirchgaessnerin Washington DC
Mon 3 Jul 2023 11.00 BST

A senior administrator of Christian private schools closely linked to People of Praise, conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett’s controversial faith group, abruptly resigned from his post earlier this year following complaints that allegations of teacher misconduct had been mishandled.

Jon Balsbaugh, an influential figure within the Christian education movement, was appointed president of Trinity Schools in February 2017, after being selected by a board of trustees that included Barrett, who was a professor at Notre Dame at the time.

Trinity is closely affiliated with People of Praise, the covenanted Christian charismatic community that has counted Barrett as a lifelong member. Her role as a trustee of Trinity from July 2015 to March 2017 is controversial in part because she served at a time when the school – which has campuses in Virginia, Minnesota and Indiana – had discriminatory policies in place that, in effect, barred children of same-sex parents from attending the schools.

For a group of people who consider themselves “survivors” of the Christian sect – some have even called it a cult – Balsbaugh’s tenure as president of Trinity, which came to an abrupt end in April, was emblematic of deeper problems within People of Praise, including an alleged culture of sweeping serious allegations of abuse against minors by some members of the faith group under the rug.

The Guardian reported in October 2020 – after Barrett’s nomination to serve on the supreme court, but before the Senate narrowly voted to confirm her – that People of Praise had hired the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to conduct an “independent investigation” into sexual abuse claims on behalf of the religious group.




https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ty-schools

[AndyinPA]

[neonzx]

Greek priest arrested for 'anointing' tourist's genitals with holy oil
Orthodox priest has reportedly claimed that he had wanted to help treat a rash on the Estonian man

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... -genitals/

Greek police have arrested an Orthodox priest on the island of Rhodes for allegedly molesting a male tourist by “anointing” his genitals with holy oil. The holidaymaker encountered the priest, 49, when he visited a monastery on the island with his girlfriend earlier this week.

The priest invited him into a small reception room in the monastery “in order to give him a special gift”. The cleric then asked the tourist to pull down his trousers and underpants so that he could “anoint” him.

He then allegedly massaged the oil onto the man’s private parts. The tourist was reportedly confused and embarrassed, not knowing if the ritual might have some legitimacy. But on reflection, after leaving the monastery, he contacted local police.

[RTH10260]

‘My prayerful support’: how the New Orleans archbishop hid ‘credibly accused’ abusers
Exclusive: memo reveals Gregory Aymond disregarded recommendations from board advisers to publicly label certain accused clerics as credibly suspected molesters

by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans
Tue 8 Aug 2023 11.00 BST

When he took over leadership of New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese in 2009, one of the administrative tools that archbishop Gregory Aymond inherited was a board of advisers which was set up to help determine the credibility of sexual abuse allegations made against clerics under his command.

But, multiple times, Aymond has demonstrated his comfort with disregarding recommendations from those advisers to publicly label certain accused clerics as credibly suspected molesters.

The archbishop on six different occasions disregarded findings of credibility that would have led to accused priests being outed as abusers to a region with about 500,000 Catholics, essentially going against the advice of his board.

Puzzling to some, Aymond’s handling of the half-dozen cases in question as the head of the US’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese are outlined in a memorandum which attorneys for victims of clerical sexual abuse prepared and handed to law enforcement in the latter part of last year. They wrote the document as a report, or brief, summarizing evidence of crimes they believed could still be prosecuted.

Though it has not led to any substantial action from authorities, the memorandum constitutes the latest revelation in a decades-old scandal at the 230-year-old organization whose reputation has been marred by evidence of going to extreme lengths to conceal at least one self-confessed child abuser.

Unfortunately ... the bishops say one thing and do another

The 48-page memo references documents handed over after the New Orleans church sought federal bankruptcy protection in 2020 in response to other abuse-related lawsuits. Broad confidentiality rules govern the proceeding, so both church officials – and, to some extent, advocates for victims – have tried to shield the memo from becoming public.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ed-abusers

[Suranis]

The questions are - "half a dozen" out of how many? If its 6 out of 1,000, or 100, it suddenly does not seem like very much.

Plus, Why couldn't the writer just say "Six." Because "half a dozen" creates a distraction from the fact that it was just Six. 6. Out of how many years> Or maybe the writer just does want a small number of abusers associated with the RCC.

Second these six accusations were "Accused Priests." The article does not say if they were actually proven to have done anything. The fact that it does not actually say whether these men were actually guilty actually suggest that they were not guilty of anything, they were just "accused."

The impression I'm getting is the writer straining to create the illusion of more being here than there actually is.

Excuse me, I'm just going to put on my steel underpants.

[raison de arizona]

One might argue that disregarding recommendations and shielding even one credibly accused abuser is a pretty bad thing, much less six.

[Suranis]

Allow me to rephase the article into comprehensible english:

"There was a memo questioning the Bishops decisions on 6 accused Priests. The Authorities looked at the memo and the cases and did not take any action."

That does not have the same ring to it, does it?

Moving on;

"whose reputation has been marred by evidence of going to extreme lengths to conceal at least one self-confessed child abuser."

evidence of going to extreme lengths to take money from Ukraine to destroy Trump...

And first it was 6 and now its just one? Sorry "half a Dozen" "at least one"

Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh... if you have PROOF of rather than just "Evidence of..." why not just say that you have proof?

And if he was "Self confessed" how would you conceal him? Oh sorry "at least" Him. Don't you know how many there are?

Oh ya, by saying "at least one" you actually make the reader think there is more than one, even if you know there isn't. Just like saying "Evidence of" you make them think there's proof. Just like FOX screams about all the "evidence" that 2020 was stolen.

And reading further down the Diocese has pretty much been rendered broke from all this, so why would they bother concealing this half dozen I mean "at least" one case?

Very curious. I'm sure that it will turn up on Hunters Laptop if you strain your muscles wishing it to be evidence. Vauge is vauge.

The fact is, all the VERY CAREFUL language here is actually evidence that there is very little here, but they need to keep kicking Priests. The time of lovely juicy EEEEVIIIILLL Priests is over, so they have to resort to this very vauge shit.

Like the "Credible whistleblower" on the biden crime family. Credilility is in the eye of the beholder it seems

[RTH10260]

Video in article, imho the buidling looks like some heritage site to preserve

Flock wants New York church demolished to fund mission work
Flock wants New York church demolished to fund mission workScroll back up to restore default view.

Tue, August 8, 2023 at 9:53 PM GMT+2

Congregants of the West Park Presbyterian Church want to demolish their landmark 19th-century New York City church to fund mission work. Others oppose the plan. (Aug. 8) (AP Video: Ted Shaffrey)



https://www.yahoo.com/news/flock-wants- ... 48856.html

ETA building has date 1889 carved into a stone.

[RTH10260]

300 New Orleans priests were reported for sexual abuse - only 25% are on archdiocese’s credibly accused list
The number of abuse claims – 310, spanning several decades – have been kept from public as archdiocese undergoes bankruptcy proceedings

Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans
Wed 9 Aug 2023 11.00 BST

More than 300 people employed by Roman Catholic institutions in the south-eastern US city of New Orleans have been accused of sexually abusing children or other vulnerable people whom they met through their work over the last several decades, secret documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.

Though New Orleans’s 230-year-old archdiocese has spent a significant portion of its recent history managing the fallout from its association with the worldwide Catholic church’s clerical molestation scandal, the organization has generally sought to keep hidden the exact number of priests, deacons, nuns, religious brothers and lay staffers – such as parochial school teachers – under its supervision who have been named in abuse claims.

A memorandum which attorneys for victims of clerical sexual abuse prepared and handed to law enforcement in the latter part of last year arguably gives the clearest idea yet of the number of accused abusers working over the last five decades or so in a region that is home to about a half-million Catholics. The brief summarizes evidence of what its authors believe are crimes that could still be prosecuted.

And while the 48-page document has not led to any substantial action from authorities, it shows how the archdiocese itself only finds roughly a quarter of the allegations against its clergymen to be credibly accused, which is well below what research estimates is the norm for sexual abuse claims to be found false or unprovable.

The memo additionally asserts that the archdiocese has referred fewer than two dozen of its accused clerics to law enforcement, on average waiting nearly two decades to do so.

The memo alludes to secret internal archdiocesan records that were handed over after the local church sought federal bankruptcy protection in 2020 in response to a wave of abuse-related lawsuits. Because confidentiality rules govern the bankruptcy, both church officials and advocates for molestation victims have worked to keep the memo hidden from public view.

The Guardian, however, obtained a copy of that memo.

For nearly five years now, the New Orleans archdiocese has curated a list of 77 priests and deacons whom the organization considers to be credibly accused. Officials maintain that the roster, first released by Archbishop Gregory Aymond in 2018, resulted from an extensive, ongoing internal review of files concerning the careers of more than 2,300 clerics, which was meant to fulfill promises of transparency spurred on by the abuse crisis.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... use-claims

[RTH10260]

New Orleans archdiocese failed to monitor priests accused of sexual abuse
Victims’ advocates detailed church’s neglect in following oversight recommendations when transferring accused clergy

Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans
Thu 10 Aug 2023 11.00 BST

After the US’s second-oldest Roman Catholic archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020, attorneys for people claiming sexual abuse at the hands of the organization’s clergymen reviewed thousands of records outlining how the church managed the careers of priests and deacons faced with substantial allegations.

Glaringly missing from those documents is any plan by which the archdiocese of New Orleans could reliably protect children from contact with clerics who had been suspended from public ministry following molestation allegations – but who for years stayed in close proximity to and were financially supported by the church.

The archdiocese’s failure to implement a meaningful oversight plan for suspected, still-living predator priests and deacons – as was repeatedly recommended to the organization – is outlined in a 48-page memorandum secretly prepared by a team of attorneys representing some people pursuing clerical abuse claims through the bankruptcy proceeding.

The accusers’ lawyers have turned it over to law enforcement in what was meant to be a summary of crimes that they believed could still be prosecuted. The brief has not led to any substantial action from authorities. And as broad confidentiality rules apply to the bankruptcy, parties on all sides of the case have sought to keep its contents from becoming public.

Nonetheless, the Guardian obtained a copy of the memo, which vividly demonstrates the limits of measures that church leaders in a region with about a half-million Catholics have taken to ostensibly help put distance between accused clerics and children as well as adults who are described as vulnerable.

At least 17 clergymen were still living either at the time they were included on the list of credibly accused clerics that the New Orleans archdiocese first released in 2018 – or when they were added to that roster during several subsequent revisions.

According to the memo’s authors, one of the most egregious examples to emerge from that group was Gerard Howell.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... t-children

[Suranis]

https://southasiajournal.net/sri-lanka- ... -buddhism/

Sri Lanka arrests stand-up comedian for insulting Buddhism
By
ucanews.com -
May 29, 2023
0
148

Jayani Natasha Edirisuriya has been accused of disrespecting Buddhism and ridiculing Buddhist girls as ‘virgins’

Sri Lanka arrests stand-up comedian for insulting Buddhism

Sri Lankan stand-up comedian Jayani Natasha Edirisuriya (Photo: Youtube)
UCA News reporterBy UCA News reporter

May 29, 2023

Sri Lankan police have arrested a stand-up comedian reportedly while she was attempting to flee the country after a public backlash against her performance insulting Buddha and Buddhists.

Police accused Jayani Natasha Edirisuriya of disrespecting Buddha, ridiculing Buddhist girls as “virgins” and saying “protecting their virginity is the biggest goal” for Buddhist-run schools.

Buddhist monks, critics, and a section of the media in the country felt Edirisuriya had shown a lack of understanding and disrespected Buddhist philosophy and culture.

Sri Lanka is officially a Buddhist country with over 70 percent of its 22 million people following the religion.

Edirisuriya was apprehended at the Katunayake Airport in a suburb of Negombo by immigration officials and handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department on May 28. She has been remanded in custody of the Police Computer Crime Investigation Division until June 7 following her court appearance.

Recent statements by Edirisuriya, 31, on social media had raised a storm leading to some Buddhist monks complaining to the police and seeking her immediate arrest.

Buddhist monk Ven. Balangoda Kassapa Thera alleged that “people of the Born Again gang are behind insulting the Buddhist culture, and that the law should apply to all of them” in the country.

Police said Edirisuriya’s controversial statements were part of a video of an event titled ‘Modabhimana‘ (fools’ pride). The video went viral on social media creating public outrage.

Some media reports said Edirisuriya through her program was articulating her perspectives on various socio-religious matters.

She said she had no intention of insulting Buddhism and even tendered a public apology over the comments she had made in the video.

However, realizing she was in trouble, the stand-up comedian tried to flee to Singapore, local reports said.

Vidura Wickremanayake, minister of Buddhist, Religious and Cultural Affairs said he would soon submit a draft bill to the parliament to prevent any distortion of religion.

He cited several instances, including the recent one of Pastor Jerome Fernando, accused of making derogatory statements about Lord Buddha while addressing a gathering of members of his Born Again Christian church that was broadcast live on social media.

Pastor Fernando has reportedly fled the country for Singapore.

Lawmaker Vajira Abeywardena said the federal government will not tolerate any attempts to create religious disharmony.

[RTH10260]

To note that Thailand also takes Buddhism very serious. In India tinkering with Hinduism and Islam can be life shortening.

[RTH10260]

I may have missed it, but they do not say the secretary showed said letter to the pope

Letter suggests Pope Pius XII knew of mass gassings of Jews and Poles in 1942
Letter from church source in anti-Hitler resistance reporting 6,000 daily killings undercuts Vatican’s claims of lack of knowledge

Associated Press
Sat 16 Sep 2023 23.34 BST

Newly discovered correspondence suggests that the second world war-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland. The documentation undercuts the Vatican’s argument that it couldn’t verify diplomatic reports of Nazi atrocities to denounce them.

The documentation from the Vatican archives, published this weekend in Italian daily Corriere della Sera, is likely to further fuel the debate about Pius’s legacy and his now-stalled beatification campaign.

Historians have long been divided about Pius’s record, with supporters insisting he used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives while critics say he remained silent as the Holocaust raged.

Corriere is reproducing a letter dated 14 December 1942 from the German Jesuit priest to Pius’s secretary, which is contained in a forthcoming book about the newly opened files of Pius’s pontificate by Giovanni Coco, a researcher and archivist in the Vatican’s apostolic archives.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... es-in-1942

[Suranis]

I'm not sure how much they wanted Pius to do considering that he was a virtual prisoner in the Vatican at the time. But in the event he DID condemn things strongly. I suppose people wanted him to charge the gates with a machete to slaughter the Naziz personally, and "condemn" so harshly he broke a blood vessel.

Frankly, I think nothing he could have said would have been enough for the critics.

Anyway this is the wiki article on his 1942 Christmas address, in order to give it some background.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius ... as_address

Pope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address

Pope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address was a speech delivered by Pope Pius XII over Vatican Radio on Christmas 1942. It is notable for its denunciation of the extermination of people on the basis of race, and followed the commencement of the Nazi Final Solution program to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The significance of the denunciation is a matter of scholarly debate.

Background

The 1942 Christmas Address by Pope Pius XII was made shortly after the war had turned decisively against Nazi Germany. Hitler had broken his alliance with Stalin and advanced into the Soviet Union, although his army in Stalingrad had been surrounded, decimated, starved and was about to surrender, precipitating disaster on the Eastern Front. Following decisive victories in North Africa, the Pacific and the air war in Northern Europe, the war had turned in favour of the Allies. From May 1942, the Nazis had commenced their industrialized slaughter of the Jews of Europe – the Final Solution.[1] The brutalization of the Catholic Church in Poland had been underway for three years.

The Catholic Church had offered condemnations of Nazi racism since the earliest days of the Nazi movement. The 1942 Christmas address is significant for the light it throws on the ongoing scholarly debate around the war time policies of Pius XII in response to what would later be termed The Holocaust (the systematic murder of Europe's Jews by the Nazis). Pius' cautious approach has been a subject of controversy. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, his "strongest statement against genocide was regarded as inadequate by the Allies, though in Germany he was regarded as an Allied sympathizer who had violated his own policy of neutrality".[2] According to concentration camp prisoner, Father Jean Bernard of Luxembourg, treatment of clergy imprisoned in the Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp worsened when Pope Pius or the German bishops were critical of Hitler or the Nazis.[3]

Two Popes served through the Nazi period: Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) and Pope Pius XII (1939-1958). In 1933, Pius signed a Concordat with Germany – hoping to protect the rights of Catholics under the Nazi government. The terms of the Treaty were not kept by Hitler. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica: "From 1933 to 1936 [Pius XI] wrote several protests against the Third Reich, and his attitude toward fascist Italy changed dramatically after Nazi racial policies were introduced into Italy in 1938." Pius XI delivered three papal encyclicals challenging the new totalitarian creeds from a Catholic perspective: against Italian Fascism Non abbiamo bisogno (1931; "We Do Not Need to Acquaint You"); against Nazism Mit brennender Sorge (1937; "With Deep Anxiety") and against atheistic Communism Divini redemptoris (1937; "Divine Redeemer"). He also challenged the extremist nationalism of the Action Francaise movement and anti-Semitism in the United States.[4]

Pius XI's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pacelli (future Pius XII), made some 55 protests against Nazi policies, including its "ideology of race".[5] As Cardinal Pacelli, Pope Pius XII had assisted Pius XI draft the Mit Brennender Sorge encyclical, a powerful critique of Nazi ideology. Pius XI also commissioned an encyclical demonstrating the incompatibility of Catholicism and racism: Humani generis unitas ("The Unity of the Human Race"). Following his death however, the less confrontational Pius XII did not issue the encyclical, fearing it would antagonize Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany at a time when he hoped to act as an impartial peace broker.[6]

With Europe on the brink of war, Pius XI died on 10 February 1939 and Cardinal Pacelli was elected to succeed him as Pope Pius XII. As Vatican Secretary of State, Pacelli had been a critic of Nazism and the Nazi government was exceptional in not sending a representative to his coronation.[5] Pius, a cautious diplomat, pursued the course of diplomacy to attempt to convince European leaders to avoid war.[6][7]

Following the outbreak of war, Pius followed Vatican precedent and pursued a policy of "impartiality". Despite this official policy, Pius passed intelligence to the Allies and made a series of general condemnations of racism and genocide through the course of the war,[6][7] and chose diplomacy to assist the persecuted during the war.[6] For this he was scorned by Hitler as a "Jew lover"[8] and a blackmailer on his back, who he believed constricted his ally Mussolini and leaked confidential German correspondence to the world.[9]

Largely posthumously (and controversially), Pius has been criticized for not "doing enough" to prevent the Holocaust – and by others of being "silent" in the face of it. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, depictions of the Pope as anti-Semitic or indifferent to the Nazi Holocaust lack "credible substantiation". Upon the death of Pius XII in 1958, he was praised by world leaders for his wartime leadership, with the Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir saying: "When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace."[5][10]

One scholarly critic of the legacy of Pius XII has been Michael Phayer (author of The Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965 (2000)). He has written that the Catholic Church possessed a specific knowledge of the Holocaust that rivaled that of the Allied governments.[11] The Vatican possessed information on the systematic nature of deportations and atrocities, compiled from its own diplomatic corps in Eastern Europe, from Catholic bishops in Germany, the Netherlands, and Eastern Europe, from ordinary Catholics, priests, and laity, from the Polish government-in-exile, the foreign diplomats to the Holy See, and various Jews and Jewish organizations.[11] A variety of historians have comprehensively examined the data received by the Vatican, which "covered not just the activity of mobile killing squads but every aspect of the Nazis' murdering process".[11]

However, according to Phayer, until 1942, Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione had repeatedly and publicly stated that the Vatican was "unable to confirm atrocity reports".[12] Phayer wrote: "regarding Maglione's oft-repeated rejoinder to the effect that something could not be confirmed, he never took steps to confirm the many reports of atrocities that flowed to his office. Had Pope Pius wished to do so, he could have assembled a comprehensive picture of the genocidal crimes of the Nazis."[13] Messages to the effect that the pope was losing his "moral authority" due to the failure to condemn Nazi atrocities poured in from diplomats accredited to the Vatican from the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Cuba, Belgium, and Poland.[14] Moreover, the Allies condemned the genocide of the Jews on 17 December 1942 in the Joint Declaration by Members of the United Nations, which – according to Phayer – "must have sent the Holy See scurrying to play catch-up".[15] Pius XII refused to endorse the Joint Declaration, as urged by Harold Tittmann, his US ambassador, and indeed, his own speech would be "not as bluntly stated as the United Nations' declaration earlier that month".[16]

A defender of Pius, the eminent historian of the Holocaust, Martin Gilbert portrays Vatican policy in the lead up to the 1942 Christmas message with a very different emphasis: "In his first encyclical as Pope, Pius XII specifically rejected Nazism and expressly mentioned the Jews, noting that in the Catholic Church there is "neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision."[17] The head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Mueller, commented that the encyclical was "directed exclusively against Germany." So outspoken was it that the Royal Air Force and the French air force dropped 88,000 copies of it over Germany. One strong piece of evidence that Dalin produces against the concept of "Hitler's Pope" is the audience granted by Pius XII in March 1940 to the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the only senior Nazi official to visit the Vatican during his papacy. After Ribbentrop rebuked the Pope for "siding" with the Allies, the Pope responded by reading from a long list of German atrocities and religious persecution against Christians and Jews, in Germany and in Poland which Germany had occupied six months earlier. The New York Times, under the headline "JEWS' RIGHTS DEFENDED," wrote on 14 March 1940: "The Pontiff, in the burning words he spoke to Herr Ribbentrop about religious persecution, also came to the defense of the Jews in Germany and Poland."[18]

Content

The 1942 Christmas address was 26 pages and over 5000 words long and took more than 45 minutes to deliver.[19] The majority of the speech spoke generally about human rights and civil society.[19] According to Rittner and Roth, "always one to choose words carefully, Pius wrote several drafts before he had crafted exactly what he wanted to say on that particular Christmas Eve".[19] Phayer wrote that the speech was "crafted to fit the circumstances as he saw them – that is to say, he addressed principles and omitted particulars".[20] Speaking on the 50th anniversary of Pius' death in 2008, the German Pope Benedict XVI recalled that the Pope's voice had been "broken by emotion" as he "deplored the situation" with a "clear reference to the deportation and extermination of the Jews."[21]

The Pope addressed the issues of racial persecutions in the following terms:

Humanity owes this vow to those hundreds of thousands who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or race, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline[20] [also translated: "marked down for death or gradual extinction"].[19]

Rittner and Roth described these as the "pivotal words that remain one of the key flashpoints in the Holocaust-related controversy that continues to swirl around him", and came near the end of the speech.[19] Phayer, Rittner and Roth see it as significant that Pius XII did not address the perpetrators or victims by name.[22][23] Nor did he mention Jews or antisemitism.[23]

Contemporary reception

The immediate reaction to the speech was generally positive, with the exception of the Nazis and Jewish victims in Poland.[24] Diplomatic criticism of the Vatican's "moral authority" essentially ceased for an entire year, until the deportations of the Italian Jews began in 1943.[25] A New York Times editorial called Pius XII a "lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent".[26][n 1] Phayer's survey of global news sources notes that every paper that covered the speech did so in a positive light, although none of them considered it front-page news.[28] Tittmann pressured Pius XII in their diplomatic meetings to go further in his public statements, but privately wired the State Department that "taken as a whole, the message may be regarded as an arraignment of totalitarianism. Furthermore, the reference to the persecution of the Jews and mass deportations is unmistakeable."[29]

The speech elicited the strongest reaction in the Dutch Catholic Church.[30] Archbishop of Utrecht, Johannes de Jong, saw the address as a signal for Catholics to publicly confront Nazism.[31] A later pastoral letter from the Dutch bishops claimed to be "following a path indicated by our Holy Father, the Pope" and quoted the address: "The Church would be untrue to herself, ceasing to be a mother, if she turned a deaf ear to children's anguished cries."[31] However, unlike the Christmas address, the Dutch letter went farther and "named names".[31]

Others were more guarded in their reactions. Bishop Konrad von Preysing of Berlin agreed that the address referred to Jews, but considered it not specific enough.[28] Catholic Poles believed that the address referred to them alone and wished that the pope had identified the Germans as the perpetrators.[32] The Polish government-in-exile in London remained dissatisfied with the address, wishing for a "more trenchant papal condemnation" that named the perpetrators.[33]

The German government expressed displeasure at the Christmas address and boycotted the pope's Christmas eve liturgy.[33] According to Pinchas Lapide's Three Popes and the Jews, on 27 December 1942 the Prague department of the RSHA reported the following about the Christmas broadcast, that "the Pope has repudiated the National-Socialist New European Order. ...He is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals."[34] However, Phayer claims he attempted to assuage the German ambassador, Diego von Bergen, by pulling him aside and assuring him that his remarks were intended for the Soviets and Stalin rather than the Germans.[33]

Phayer argues that contemporaries and scholars have viewed the speech differently because "we know that the pope would not take up the matter again, but contemporaries did not know that this would be the case. In fact, to assert that Pope Pius himself intended this to be his one and only statement is incorrect."[35]

[poplove]

Pete Scamtilli needs $50K a month to build a church.

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[NewMexGirl]

Pete Scamtilli needs $50K a month to build a church.

[Uninformed]

Re Santilli and the “Black Robe(d) Regiment”.

“ROD OF IRON: ANTIGOVERNMENT, CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND FAR-RIGHT MOVEMENTS TO JOIN AT 'FREEDOM FESTIVAL'”:
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/202 ... m-festival

“The event showcases a widening coalition intent on destabilizing democracy, with Pastor Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon, who in 2013 founded the Sanctuary Church, playing a prominent role, experts tell Hatewatch. Steve Bannon, Joey Gibson of the far-right Patriot Prayer group, former Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Saccone and pastors Dan Fisher and Gary Haskell, who want to revive a “Black Robed Regiment” of clergy to fight for “liberty,” are scheduled to speak.”

[northland10]

I guess it's time to run off to the Palm Beach County Court docket and see if GIL is actually scoring a partial win against Santilli. Last I checked, that old case was still going.