Seeing as he is on the brink of his visit....
"For Pope Francis, visit will be his first to United States; Some wonder if pontiff will face culture barrier" by Rachel Zoll Associated Press August 31, 2015
NEW YORK — Pope Francis never sought networking within the deeply influential and well-resourced US church.
This gap in his resume can be explained in part by Francis’ personality. He was a homebody who loathed being away and felt a profound obligation to stay near the people of his archdiocese. He also famously opposed ladder-climbing, condemning what he called ‘‘airport bishops’’ who spend more time traveling for their own prestige or pleasure than serving their flock.
Still, Francis’ lack of firsthand experience of the United States stands out for many, especially those struggling to absorb his unsparing critique of the excesses of global capitalism and wondering whether this first Latin American pope harbors resentment about the history of US policies in his native region.
Some are praising him as a savior while others are issuing a warning.
I'm expecting the unexpected, and what better way to set the Christian and Muslim world against each other than an assassination? It would totally deflect from the heat Israel has been getting over Iran and the Palestinians, too. I mean, they already know his schedule (even the parade) and I wouldn't bet against a false flag on Francis’ first US visit. After all, they are not exactly BFFs.
Time for this Pope to Paqutin.
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Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, an Argentine and one of Francis’ key advisers at the Vatican, said he disputed the perception that the pope disliked the United States. Francis’ view that a global economic system focused on maximizing profits was destroying the poor and the environment has landed hard in a country considered the world headquarters for capitalism.
It all sounds good; however, the Vatican bank is up to its neck in all the fraud and corruption, and this rhetoric is the same boilerplate I heard for years. He's a different kind of Pope, but I'm still not hearing it. Sorry.
Sanchez Sorondo insisted Francis is not anticapitalist and said the pope admires America for the principles of the Founding Fathers, who influenced the independence movement in his native Argentina.
We are far away from those, and the noble aristocrats who set the whole system up would be horrified at what it has become.
But Francis’ outlook also is shaped by another history, including US ties with Latin American dictators, America’s treatment of Mexican and Central American immigrants, and longstanding US policy toward Cuba, Sanchez Sorondo said. Francis recently helped negotiate a historic thaw in US-Cuba relations that has led to restored diplomatic ties between the countries.
See: Cuba set to pardon 3,500 prisoners
You can credit the Pope for that ‘blessing’, and he will soon be in Cuba along with a lot of other folks who will begin stapling together the economy as Cubans come north.
‘‘I don’t think the pope has anything against America,’’ Sanchez Sorondo said in Rome. ‘‘What the pope might have is that he felt the repercussions of America in Latin America.’’
This is utterly new ground as well for American Catholics, accustomed to Francis’ immediate predecessors, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who both lived through World War II, when Americans were considered liberators and generous benefactors who rebuilt the war-ravaged continent.
This time we are the bad guys.
‘‘Pope Francis — his cultural roots, his formation — is completely different,’’ Massimo Faggioli, an expert in church history at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, said. ‘‘This trip to the United States will be the most difficult, the most challenging, and the most interesting because he’s exploring a world that for him is more foreign than Asia, than the Philippines.’’
I hope his Swiss Guard is up to the job.
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If you heave the time you can take Communion, but beware of the unintended consequences:
Pope Francis expands absolution for abortion
Pope extends olive branches on abortion, traditionalist dissent
Women welcome pope’s remarks on abortion
Is he just out of step with what has been going on over here, or does he in fact approve even in a case of rape?
So you can greet him at St. Pat’s (not in Eastie), or catch up with him in Philly (seats are still available):
"A plan to establish a campground for thousands of papal pilgrims in a Philadelphia park — charging $199 per camper — has been scrapped because of a lack of interest. The company, ESM Productions, said Friday the plan was canceled because of a lack of interest. About 3,000 of the 11,200 downtown rooms were still available two weeks away from the pope’s Sept. 26 arrival, members of the city’s hospitality industry said. Hotels were also cutting rates, eliminating minimum stay requirements, and tossing in extras like subway tokens and bags full of Philadelphia-centric snacks to lure guests for the two-day visit."
Ummmmm, where's the porto-potty?
"In brief comments to reporters aboard the papal plane returning from last Saturday’s trip to Bosnia, Francis said his forthcoming environmental encyclical will deal, among other topics, with relativism, which he described as a “cancer of society.” (In the same breath, Francis also called consumerism a “cancer.”) Relativism is a philosophical position that holds there are no absolute moral rules, because everything is relative to particular circumstances and individuals. At the popular level, it refers to an “anything goes” morality opposed to traditional Catholic teaching. It might seem odd for Francis to use an environmental tract to bring up a debate over moral philosophy, but that’s where understanding the mind of Benedict XVI helps."
(Blog editor opens door of bathroom and the stink emanating forth made him close it again)
"Draft of pope’s encyclical on the environment leaked online" by Michael O’Loughlin Globe Staff June 16, 2015
ROME — An Italian magazine published Monday what it contended was a leaked copy of a highly anticipated encyclical on the environment from Pope Francis, including papal backing for the idea that human beings are primarily responsible for climate change.
That is where I get up and walk out of church.
“We’re in the presence of an alarming warming of the climactic system,” the leaked version reads.
PFFFFFFFT!
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While the vast majority of scientists agree that the Earth’s climate is changing because of human activity, some climate change skeptics say there is no explanation for what is happening or that changes in climate and temperature are part of a natural cycle.
I'm no longer laboring over the issue (or many others judging by the paucity of posts here this week).
The leaked document appears to allow room for the idea that natural forces contribute to climate change but says, “Numerous scientific studies indicate that the major part of global warming in recent decades is due to the high concentration of greenhouse gas . . . emitted above all because of human activity.”
The Vatican bank is all set to go with its carbon credit accounts. The human activity point is right to a point; it's the oil and gas drilling and fracking that is releasing more harmful methane, but carbon provides a much larger tax base to create trading markets and derivatives from such.
The draft, divided into six chapters, calls climate change “one of the principal challenges now facing humanity” and laments that “the heaviest impact in the coming decades will probably fall on developing countries.”
Fukushima is still leaking tons of radioactive water into the Pacific each day, the depleted uranium weaponry is poisoning the planet as the war machine spews pollution, the air, water and soil are full of harmful chemicals, but the problem is an erratic if not non-existent global warming crisis that will benefit banks that underwrite the credit accounts and collect the commissions. Thank God for them saving the planet, 'eh?
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The document appears to call for changes in how human beings use the Earth’s resources, and it also identifies as serious problems water shortages, loss of biodiversity, and general planetary pollution.
The Vatican has been working with the United Nations in recent months to highlight threats posed by climate change, leading critics to question how the church could partner with an organization that promotes population control methods opposed by Catholic teaching.
The version of the document published by L’Espresso places distance between the Catholic Church and those who believe the planet is overpopulated.
It rejects the notion that technological fixes alone will solve the Earth’s environmental challenges as well as the idea that human beings themselves are the problem. The answers do not lie in reducing “their presence on the planet,” the document states.
Need to sustain the flock so pump out those kids!
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Sorry for being so ticked off. Maybe you would like to take the lead and join the environment Pope:
"Pope’s eco-manifesto looks like a game-changer in the US" by John L. Allen Jr., Associate editor June 19, 2015
PFFFFFFFFT!
Now that Pope Francis finally has released his long-awaited encyclical letter on the environment, blaming “unfettered greed” for mounting pollution, global warming, and climate change, and framing strong limits on fossil fuels and greenhouse gases as a clear moral imperative, the question becomes: So what?
Despite a remarkable degree of hype in the run-up to Thursday’s presentation of Laudato Si’, the title of the pontiff’s 184-page ecological manifesto — which, among other things, caused the Vatican website to crash in response to massive demand to read the text — it’s still reasonable to wonder whether the pope’s exhortations will have any real-world impact.
After all, other moral authorities have weighed in on the same issues for some time, and it’s not as if the planet is notably cooler or cleaner as a result.
At least in the United States, however, there are three arenas where Laudato Si’ seems likely to have an immediate echo: the 2016 presidential race, the pope’s trip to the country in September, and the management of Catholic facilities all across America.
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The pontiff unambiguously accepts the scientific consensus that changes in the climate are largely man-made, and also laments a loss of biodiversity and growing scarcities of safe water.
Which is why I reject it.
Francis is especially strong on the link between environmental problems and poverty, arguing that developing nations will bear the brunt of today’s ecological crisis and that poor people are ill-equipped to adapt to a changing climate.
It’s essential, he insists, “to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”
It's coming from Palestine.
For Christians, Francis says, there’s a special obligation to care for “our common home” rooted in the Biblical idea of nature as God’s creation. Yet he says the message of Laudato Si’ is intended for all, because no one is exempt from the consequences when, as he puts it, the Earth begins “to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”
It's a list of countries the U.S. has either bombed into oblivion or is currently destabilizing. You know, Iraq, Libya, Syria, the usual suspects.
The 2016 presidential campaign
On the Sunday before the encyclical’s release, Francis offered up a prayer that “everyone can receive its message.” In the United States, one group for which that’s likely to be especially tricky is made up of Republican presidential contenders, particularly those — perhaps as many as five, when all is said and done — who are also Catholic.
Even before the document appeared, Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum were asked how they squared their devout Catholic faith with their commitment to the free-market, pro-growth orthodoxy that Francis excoriates in Laudato Si’.
Both fell back on some version of, “The pope’s a great guy, but he should stay out of politics.”
The stakes may get even higher if the roughly 300 Catholic bishops in America line up behind the pope.
In the past, candidates who are both Catholic and pro-choice have been barred from speaking in Church venues, even turned away at the Communion rail. It’s not clear if similar displays of disapproval will surround those who break with the pope’s environmental line, but even raising the question injects a new variable into the 2016 race.
Inevitably, the encyclical also becomes part of the subtext for Pope Francis’ debut trip to the United States, set to bring him to Washington, New York, and Philadelphia in late September.
With Francis coming, pollsters and analysts will scramble to gauge to what extent Americans have accepted the pope’s message — not only at the broad policy level, but also in practice, especially his call for new lifestyles and a break with “compulsive consumerism.”
In other words, issuing the encyclical just three months before he visits the States ensures the trip will become a national examination of conscience.
Mine's clean. Heck, I have a surplus. I biked in all weather from 1993 to 2004. Didn't have a driver's license and wore it as a badge of honor when I believed the spew.
Beyond the political and cultural ferment, the encyclical’s most direct impact may come in terms of how the Church manages its own resources. Catholicism in America has a massive footprint, and every one of those institutions will come under new pressure to “go green.”
Francis’ encyclical appears set to reshape the presidential race....
And since.... pfffffft.
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"Climate encyclical fuses theology, complex science; Francis details profound perils, specific solutions" by Anthony Faiola and Michelle Boorstein Washington Post June 19, 2015
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis unmasks himself not only as a very green pontiff but also as a policy wonk.
In the paper released Thursday, Francis lays out the argument for a new partnership between science and religion to combat human-driven climate change — a position bringing him immediately into conflict with skeptics, whom he chides for their ‘‘denial.’’
Now we have to take global warming on faith!
FRANCIS is a FRAUD!
The social-minded pope takes on corporate greed, fossil fuels, and the West’s disposable culture, exposing those who use eco-friendly labels for branding and selling while ignoring the plight of the world’s poor. And yet, he said, everyone should do their part. He urged use of public transit, carpooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, recycling — and boycotting certain products. Most of all, he called for an ‘‘ecological conversion’’ for the faithful.
How is he getting around on all these trips, btw, and what's the footprint with entourage included?
Oh, did I mention the $tench of hypocri$y that emanates from all these "leaders" promoted by my pre$$?
‘‘It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment,’’ he writes.
No offense, but f*** off. I barely take a breath these days, that good enough?
Green activists held out hope that the pope’s message would touch religious skeptics of climate change.
The climate is always changing; I'm just skeptical that it is me doing it, and even more so when the same people polluting the planet tell me a carbon tax is the answer. Mark my words, kids, one day you will need to weigh and compost poop.
In the document, a reforming pope who has set a new tone for the church on issues including homosexuality laid out a green view of faith that embraced the moral imperatives of everything from animal rights to solar panels.
And he backed up his science with Bible verse.
Oh, well! A new Inquisition! ‘‘Climate change is now an issue of social justice.’’
From the same guys who hung Galileo.
In the document, Francis linked global warming to the overarching theme of his papacy — fighting inequality and global poverty. ‘‘The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,’’ Francis wrote, blaming a toxic cocktail of overconsumption, consumerism, dependence on fossil fuels, and the errant indifference of the powerful and wealthy. He described a hell on Earth should nothing be done, one filled with more methane and carbon dioxide, acidification of oceans, and the crippling of the global food supply.
It already is for billions and getting worse by the second, minute, hour, day....
As several major conferences aimed at forging a broad global treaty on climate change are approaching, Francis sought to wield his influence to shape a fair deal for the developing world. He called for a binding international treaty that would have rich countries help poorer ones adapt, including a move to help them switch from fossil fuels to clean energies such as solar power.
I don't oppose such a thing, but those solutions ring hollow after decades of neglect while the energy companies got rich.
Climate change ‘‘represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day,’’ the pope wrote. ‘‘Its worst impact will probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades.’’
His declarations resonated worldwide.
President Obama issued a statement Thursday echoing the encyclical’s themes of taking bold actions to reduce environmental degradation and protect the poor, and he praised the pontiff for making his case with ‘‘the full moral authority of his position.’’
I'm as tired of this guy's mouth as I was Bush's at the same time in his term.
‘‘This clarion call should guide the world toward a strong and durable universal climate agreement,’’ said a statement from Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat.
UN-backed talks seeking a global pact to combat climate change are scheduled to open in Paris on Nov. 30.
I hope it is freezing cold. Remember Copenhagen?
In France, President François Hollande said he hoped the ‘‘voice of Pope Francis is heard on every continent, not only by believers.’’
Meanwhile, the war machine of France gets deeper involved in Africa and Syria.
The document was partly drafted with the input of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a decades-old body that includes leading academics and scientists from various faiths, including atheists and agnostics such as Stephen Hawking.
Vatican set to say aliens exist and become the leading edge of liberalist theology (just ignore the pooper pumping history and stands on abortion, etc).
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Now that the framework is in the spotlight, it sure says a lot about this Pope:
"Mayor Martin J. Walsh is one of 65 mayors and top representatives from some of the world’s most prominent cities — including London, New York, Paris, Stockholm, and Tehran — participating in this week’s meetings. Most of the American mayors in Rome this week are Democrats, perhaps reflecting the frequently partisan nature of environmental debates in the country. Speaking on condition they not be identified, organizers told the Globe a wide variety of American politicians were invited, but mostly Democrats accepted. Walsh said the matters to be discussed in Rome are “human issues” that transcend partisan politics. “One is about making sure we stop sexual exploitation in the US and the world, and that’s not a party issue,” he said. “I know the environment sometimes becomes a party issue, but it really shouldn’t be. We need to preserve the world for future generations.” Both Tuesday’s workshop, titled “Modern Slavery and Climate Change: The Commitment of the Cities,” and a Wednesday symposium on “Prosperity, People, and Planet: Achieving Sustainable Development in Our Cities,” will be hosted by the Vatican’s Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences and underwritten by an Italian donor. The meetings are cosponsored by the United Nations."
Yeah, let's turn to the Catholic Church for leadership on sexual exploitation. Where was Marty's head all this time, up his ass? Certainly wasn't in a Globe these last dozen years!
Yes, believe in the global elites who have made the world such a wonderful place -- for themselves!
"The two-day meeting is the latest in a series of Vatican events designed to influence the UN's new development goals. Vatican organizers of the conference said the pope believes climate change is inextricably linked to poverty, so pairing it with the struggle against modern forms of slavery at this summit was a natural fit. California Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, used his turn at the microphone to denounce global warming deniers who, he said, are “bamboozling” the public with propaganda and helping to elect “troglodytes” to public office rather than environmentally responsible leaders. Meanwhile, two Spanish survivors of human trafficking held the gathering in thrall with their horrific tales of imprisonment and abuse. On the environment, the mayors' declaration said that 'human-induced climate change is a scientific reality' and called its effective control 'a moral imperative for humanity.'" "
How did all you mayors (and Governor Brown, whose state is on fire even as the rich golf courses are watered well) get over there? The shrill denunciation of deniers as I read an agenda-pushing war pre$$ that bamboozles with propaganda is starting to make me sick, as are the horrific tales of human trafficking (meant to dovetail into another agenda but no too deep; they are, after all, Obummer's war refugees, all of them) while the elite pedophile rings are covered up and minimized.
"A record-breaking storm slammed parched Southern California on Tuesday, cutting off power to thousands, jamming traffic during the morning commute, and stranding some people in surging waterways. Downtown Los Angeles saw a staggering 2.39 inches, breaking a record for rainfall for the date and marking the second-wettest 24-hour period on record for September, National Weather Service meteorologist Robbie Munroe said. The monsoon also brought punishing wind and driving rain to the Phoenix area. The wet weather was not expected to relieve the area’s record drought, but offered a brief respite from hot and dry conditions, and could be a harbinger of El Nino, an ocean phenomenon that may bring heavy rain to Southern California this winter, Munroe said. David Quinones, a homeless man who lives in an encampment along the riverbank said...."
Good luck relighting the fire.
And about that science:
"For much of history, astronomy and astrology were a big part of medicine. The scientific community has long since discarded astrology as pseudoscience. Yet new scientific research suggests your ‘‘sign’’ actually may have more to do with your health than you might think. This is not because of the influence of any heavenly bodies, but because of the time of the year you are born. A new study suggests that your birth month has a connection with the diseases you might develop in your lifetime. The researchers emphasize that other environmental factors, like diet, medical care, and exercise, are more likely to influence whether you get a disease. And since these numbers are culled from New York City, they may not be applicable to babies born in other places. The research supported a previous study that had found a dip in fertility among women born in May through September. It also confirmed a previous study."
That's why your kid has ADHD, not all the vaccines that have been pumped into them. Confirmed in previous studies that they are all safe.
Un-flipping-real. You are sick because of your sign, not the GMO- and chemical-laden food, toxic poisons in the air, water, and soil, etc.
May want to check that morality at the tent:
"‘Spotlight’ gets glittering debut in Venice" by Mark Shanahan Globe Staff September 03, 2015
VENICE — In recent years, the Venice Film Festival has been a harbinger of the Hollywood awards season, showcasing a slate of movies with strong Oscar prospects. Just a year ago, Keaton, who plays former Globe assistant managing editor Walter Robinson in “Spotlight,” was here to premiere “Birdman,” which ultimately won the Academy Award for best picture.
That pos won Best Picture?
Held on Lido, a sandbar turned sleepy beach resort across the lagoon from hordes of tourists loitering in the heat at Piazza San Marco, the Venice Film Festival is the world’s oldest film festival, and may rival Cannes for most glamorous. Movie stars, breezily attired in linen suits and summer dresses, typically arrive at historic Palazzo del Cinema in wood-paneled water taxis, but “Spotlight” does not cover the Globe in glory, and that makes it more credible to some who saw it Thursday. Several times in “Spotlight,” clergy abuse victims and their advocates say they tried to get the Globe’s attention but the paper did not pursue their claims....
The Globe series, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003, had repercussions far beyond Boston: Similar scandals were uncovered elsewhere in the United States and around the world; the laity rebelled; church policies for handling abuse allegations were rewritten; and costs related to abuse claims topped $2 billion in the United States alone.
And there was one more. At the end of “Spotlight,” the audience learns that Cardinal Bernard Law, who had resigned following the Globe series, was eventually reassigned to the Patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. The crowd at Thursday’s screening erupted in laughter.
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The big news now is Depp, if you remember:
"Brookline police officers guided vehicular and pedestrian traffic, clearing the theater entrance of fans who lacked media credentials and telling spectators in clipped tones to pass through crosswalks. Meanwhile, helicopters hovered above the theater, which was adorned with a red carpet and large “Black Mass” posters featuring Depp in the aviator sunglasses and tight-fitting leather jacket that Bulger sported in the 1970s. Cast members began arriving shortly after 6:30 p.m., to rousing cheers from the crowd, many of whom stood on tiptoe and held up cellphones to snap photos from hundreds of yards away. Public figures from outside the movie biz also attended, including Patriots owner Bob Kraft and MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, a Dorchester native. But Geoff Hunt, 45, a Brookline resident who grew up in Boston, [when] asked about Hollywood’s decision to market a film about Bulger’s checkered life, was forthright. Jennifer Hunt also said she enjoyed the hoopla surrounding the premiere and did not mind the ensuing traffic gridlock and parking restrictions."
Ah, the glamor! Don't you want to just hurl? (What's this about the government being in trouble over there?)
Maybe sex abuse was at the bottom of Whitey's wickedness (if only he had made it to Mexico).
"The trial of a former Vatican ambassador accused of sexually abusing boys while stationed in the Dominican Republic and of possessing child pornography was adjourned indefinitely Saturday after he fell ill and was hospitalized. The defendant, Jozef Wesolowski, 66, was taken to an Italian hospital for an “unexpected illness” Friday, the Vatican said in a statement. The trial will resume when Wesolowski recovers, it said."
"Vatican prosecutors had accused Wesolowski, 67, of sexually abusing children in the Dominican Republic, where he was stationed from 2008 to 2013 as the Vatican’s ambassador. "
"The former papal envoy to the Dominican Republic, who went on trial at the Holy See this summer charged with sexual abuse of minors, died of a heart attack, according to initial autopsy results, the Vatican said Saturday. A Vatican statement indicated that laboratory results, expected in coming days, could elaborate on the cause of the death of Jozef Wesolowski, a 67-year-old Pole, Thursday evening at the Vatican."
"Jozef Wesolowski, 67, died of a heart attack Thursday in his room at the Vatican. Wesolowski was accused of sexually abusing teenage boys while serving as papal envoy in the Dominican Republic. His trial was seen a highly visible way for Pope Francis to show he’s serious about cracking down on high-ranking churchmen worldwide accused of sex abuse of minors or of covering up such abuse by lower-ranking churchmen."
And there it is again!
Also see:
Pope Francis has done nothing to prevent sex abuse
Pope Francis, the church sex abuse scandal is not over
You might want give that ticket to someone else, kid.
I know he is big down South:
"Yes, Virginia, Pope Francis has a strategy underneath the rhetoric" by John L. Allen Jr., Associate editor July 11, 2015
Drawn from the thinking of 19th century founders of modern Latin America, such as Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, the term today generally refers to the press for tighter economic and political unity across the continent.
But Francis, who has long been on record in favor of making the idea of a patria grande in Latin America a reality, since well before he was elected pope, appears to mean something more by the phrase than that. He thinks Latin America, together, can and should be a counter-weight to some of the corrosive economic forces he sees at work in the world.
Drawing on Argentina’s Peronist heritage, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina said that Latin America can lead the way towards a “third position” between Communism and free-market capitalism. In so doing, he said, Latin America can help resist an “imperial concept of globalization” he associated with the Anglo-Saxon world – presumably meaning, above all, the United States.
To accomplish that, he insisted that Latin American nations must form a more-or-less united bloc in global affairs.
For all intents and purposes, what Bergoglio seemed to have in mind was a sort of EU for Latin America, an interlinked system of trade and political accords that would allow the continent to position itself as a serious counterpart to both the major Western powers and other global protagonists such as Russia and China.
More centralized and regionalized power, and we have seen throughout history how that is the wrong direction. Might be good for the South; however. Harder for the U.S. to destabilize individual governments.
In less direct fashion, Francis came back to that project for the future of Latin America during his remarks last week.
“Despite the progress made, there are factors which still threaten equitable human development and restrict the sovereignty of the countries of the patria grande and other areas of our planet,” he said in Bolivia.
“The new colonialism takes on different faces,” the pontiff said. “At times it appears as the anonymous influence of mammon: corporations, loan agencies, certain ‘free trade’ treaties, and the imposition of measures of ‘austerity’ which always tighten the belt of workers and the poor.”
Francis believes the developing world must find new ways to assert itself, to stand up in defense of the planet’s impoverished masses. Francis also realizes he’s in a unique position to move the ball on that agenda in his own backyard....
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It is the “globalization of hope,” can you believe it?
Haven't we had enough "hope?"
"In Paraguay slum, pope calls for inclusivity; As trip ends, he leaves message of anti capitalism" by Nicole Winfield Associated Press July 13, 2015
ASUNCION, Paraguay — Pope Francis put into practice his call for the world’s poor and powerless to not be left on the margins of society by visiting a flood-prone slum Sunday and insisting that the Catholic Church be a place of welcome for all — sick and sinners especially.
Francis said he wanted to visit the neighborhood of shacks of plywood and corrugated metal to encourage the residents’ faith despite the difficulties they encounter. In addition to the lack of services, heavy rains regularly burst the Paraguay River banks and turn Banado Norte’s dirt roads into impassable pools of mud.
Francis ended his three-nation South American pilgrimage with a huge Mass and words of hope and faith for young and old. But the political, anticapitalist message he left behind may have a more lasting punch before flying back to Rome on Sunday....
And I thought he cared about global warming.
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His mission was a message of hope.
Who does he think he is, Obama?
"Hundreds of thousands hear Francis at first Mass in Ecuador" by Jim Yardley New York Times July 07, 2015
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — Pope Francis on Monday officiated at the first Mass of his Latin American tour before hundreds of thousands of faithful who waited for hours under a broiling sun in a large dirt field in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city.
It is worthy of the coverage.
Now if you will excuse me, I think I'll nap through this.
Wearing richly decorated vestments made by local nuns, he gave a 17-minute sermon in which he stressed the theme of the family.
Francis praised families as the bedrock of society, and said miracles are performed every day inside a family out of love.
Francis has dedicated the first two years of his pontificate to family issues.
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For the great majority of the faithful in the open field, Francis was a tiny speck, if he was visible at all, and the stage from which he spoke a distant mirage in the heat. But they could watch him on large television screens mounted around the park.
Many people brought plastic stools to sit on and umbrellas to ward off the sun. Vendors circulated among them, selling food and souvenirs.
Many arrived before dawn, and people continued pouring into the park throughout the morning, often arriving in extended families, with grandparents, children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren — the littlest ones often carried on a parent’s shoulders.
In places, the scene had a carnival atmosphere. Merchants hawked popcorn, fruit salad, hot dogs fried in bread, and other local delicacies. Others sold souvenirs, nearly all emblazoned with a photo of Francis: key rings, coffee mugs, crosses, flags, T-shirts, headbands.
At times it felt like a Latin American political rally, with bands playing upbeat pope-themed songs from the main stage to enliven the crowd before his arrival.
*********************
This was the first opportunity for Francis, who arrived on Sunday, to begin shaping the message of his trip.
A month ago, the pope released a blistering critique of capitalism in an encyclical about environmental degradation and climate change. Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, has been criticized for vowing to open protected areas of the Amazon for oil exploration.
Related:
"It’s a classic David vs. Goliath case. A group of Ecuadorian villagers. One behemoth oil company. Score another one for the stone-slingers. The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday unanimously dismissed an attempt by Chevron to block the villagers from using an Ontario court to collect billions in damages over rainforest pollution. The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Pablo Fajardo, said the ruling ‘‘isn’t just any triumph. We’ve won in a country that is among the most credible in the world for its judicial transparency.’’ Lawyers have fought for years in several countries over who’s responsible for pollution in the rainforest. The plaintiffs have argued that the case should be heard in Canada because US-based Chevron has a Canadian subsidiary. In February 2011, a judge in Ecuador issued an $18 billion judgment against Chevron in a lawsuit brought on behalf of 30,000 residents. The judgment was for environmental damage caused by Texaco, which was later bought by Chevron. Ecuador’s highest court later upheld the verdict but reduced the judgment to about $9.5 billion."
That should $ettle that!
After his visit to Guayaquil, Francis is scheduled to travel to Quito for a private meeting with Correa. The president has also been the subject of strong protests for proposing to raise taxes and has been accused of wrapping himself in Francis’ popularity.
Btw, Correa is not liked by U.S.!
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So Francis has arrived in Ecuador; only problem was the script was changed:
"Pope Francis Lands in Ecuador to Begin South America Trip" by WILLIAM NEUMAN, JULY 5, 2015
QUITO, Ecuador — Met by indigenous children in traditional garb and a stiff Andean wind that blew the white skullcap off his head as he emerged from his airplane, Pope Francis arrived here on Sunday to start a three-nation tour that will take him to some of the poorest and yet most environmentally rich countries of his native continent.
“I give thanks to God for having allowed me to return to Latin America,” he said after being greeted on the tarmac with a hug by President Rafael Correa.
The first pope from Latin America, Francis later drove through the streets of Quito, the capital, standing in the back of a white car with open sides. Thousands of enthusiastic followers packed the route, throwing flower petals, locally made Panama hats and other items at him. At one point a person ran up to the car and held up a small child dressed in white, and the pope reached out to touch the child on the head. brings his message of a church in transformation to a region that contains nearly four out of 10 of the world’s Roman Catholics, but that has seen many faithful leave in recent years to join Protestant denominations or abandon organized religion altogether.
I've combined to two to give you a better feel for the overall visit, but I must say the open car bit worries me.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, estimated the crowd at 500,000.
Francis, 78, has planned a large open-air Mass on Monday in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, and then one in Quito on the site of the city's former airport the next day. He will travel to Bolivia on Wednesday where the trip will include a violent Bolivian prison and a meeting with grass-roots groups, the sort of people he ministered to in the slums of Buenos Aries, and from there to Paraguay and a flood-prone shantytown. The three nations are among the smallest and poorest countries on the continent.
Well, I stopped in Paraguay first and he was not welcomed in Bolivia (btw, U.S. doesn't like the leader and government of Bolivia, either. Part of a rejectionist-leftist trend down there begun by Saint Hugo).
Crowds are expected too be huge. While the countries themselves are small, they are fervently Catholic: 79 percent of the population is Catholic in Ecuador, 77 percent in Bolivia, and 89 percent in Paraguay, according to the Pew Research Center.
Francis comes to Ecuador shortly after releasing a landmark encyclical on the environment. In it he exhorted the world to take prompt action to halt potentially catastrophic climate change and ecological degradation, which he warned were partly caused by unchecked economic development and a culture of consumerism.
As he spews greenhouse gases flying across the Atlantic, yup.
He is expected to return to those themes in Ecuador, a country of great biological and environmental diversity, with the Amazon rain forest, the Andes Mountains and the Galápagos Islands.
President Rafael Correa has vowed to open a previously protected section of remote Amazon jungle to oil exploration, over the fierce objections of environmentalists, and indigenous groups have protested that the government has failed to take into account their objections to that and other projects.
Obama opened the Arctic and it was no big deal.
In a speech after his arrival Sunday, Francis signaled key themes: the need to care for society's most marginal, ensuring socially responsible economic development, and, turning to Ecuador specifically, defending 'the singular beauty of your country.'"
"From the peak of Chimborazo to the Pacific Coast, from the Amazon rainforest to the Galapagos Islands, may you never lose the ability to thank God for what he has done and is doing for you," he said.
Beyond the major public Masses in each country, Vatican organizers have scheduled lots of time for the pope to move among the throngs that are expected to gather along his route.
Francis, who was born in Argentina, visited Brazil in 2013 shortly after becoming pope. This is his first visit to Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America since he became pope.
He arrives in Ecuador at a time of political tension, which has become more acute as his visit has focused world attention on the tiny country. For several weeks, protesters have taken to the streets in some of the largest demonstrations against the government since Mr. Correa became president in 2007.
First I've seen of them. Typical U.S. destabilization effort. I wonder if the Pope will have anything to say about those.
The protests started as middle-class opposition to proposals that would have significantly increased taxes on inheritances and capital gains. But they soon became expressions of discontent over Mr. Correa’s often belligerent style of governing, austerity measures, regulations affecting the health system and other complaints.
Look at the rip job of him as he made U.S. clients unhappy.
Correa withdrew the tax proposals, which he had described as a way to redistribute wealth here. But the government has put up billboards and banners with statements from the pope that critics have said are intended to suggest that he supports the president's redistributionist goals.
Awkward!
Ecuador is a heavily Catholic country, and there has been much anticipation of the pope's arrival in what is just the second papal visit there, coming 30 years after Pope John Paul II was here in 1985. Thousands of people lined the road from the airport on Sunday waiting for Francis to pass by.
Government workers have been given Monday and Tuesday off. Thousands of visitors are expected to flood in from neighboring Colombia and Peru and other nations in the region.
That is where the print ended, and no word on that border war, huh?
Upon welcoming Francis at the airport, Mr. Correa gave a speech in which he referred to statements by the pope decrying unequal distribution of wealth.
Francis, dressed in a floor-length white vestment with a silver cross on a chain around his neck, thanked the president for his “consonance with my thoughts,” adding, with apparent humor, “You have quoted me too much.”
In what may be seen here as an allusion to the nation’s bitter political divisions, Francis went on to say, “We can find in the Gospel the keys that will allow us to confront today’s challenges, appreciating our differences, fostering dialogue and participation without exclusion.”
And he urged people to give “special attention to our most fragile brothers and the most vulnerable minorities, the debt that is still owed by Latin America.”
Newspapers carried banner headlines on Sunday announcing the pope’s arrival. Souvenir sellers were offering T-shirts, wooden crosses, Francis key chains and other memorabilia. Churches sold $5 “pope kits,” small cloth bags containing a white T-shirt with the official logo of the papal visit, a blue kerchief, a plastic rosary and a souvenir booklet.
Yet not everyone here rushed to welcome the pope or snap up a souvenir.
“He’s just a normal human being like any one of us,” said Arturo Norero, a pastor at a Baptist church here, where Protestant groups like his have been steadily drawing disaffected Catholics.
Blasphemy!
“There is so much hullabaloo and millions of dollars are being spent on his visit, which, if we look at it logically, could be better spent on the basic needs of our society,” said Mr. Norero, a former Catholic who has a brother who is a priest.
Well, yeah.
Another pastor, Luis Miguel Hernández, 28, said Francis’ arrival in Ecuador could be a sign that a biblical prophecy of the end of the world was at hand.
“We see that we’re getting close to the end times,” Mr. Hernández said.
And the clock is ticking.
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"Pope presses environment message in bio-diverse Ecuador; He urges students to take the lead" by Nicole Winfield Associated Press July 08, 2015
QUITO, Ecuador — Pope Francis challenged Latin America’s youth to take up his environmental protection campaign Tuesday, saying the defense of God’s creation isn’t just a recommendation but a requirement.
Now bend down and touch your toes.
Francis’ appeal, delivered at Quito’s Catholic University, is particularly relevant for Ecuador, a Pacific nation that is home to one of the world’s most species-diverse ecosystems in the Galapagos Islands and Amazon rain forest but is also an OPEC country heavily dependent on oil extraction.
Francis told students and professors that God gave humanity the earth to not only cultivate, but also to care for — a message he framed last month in his headline-grabbing encyclical on the environment.
‘‘It is no longer a mere recommendation, but rather a requirement because of the harm we have inflicted on it by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed it,’’ he said.
Who is we?
Screw the Church and it's collective guilt from this elite con man in cloaked in religious robes.
He challenged universities to ensure that students’ educations aren’t aimed only at profitable careers but at helping the poor and the environment.
‘‘There is a relationship between our life and that of Mother Earth, between the way we live and the gift we have received from God,’’ he said.
I had the politically-correct pseudo-science classes just as we were entering the cold phase. Kids were a bit confused.
Francis’ environmental message has been cheered by indigenous groups, who have complained of being increasingly marginalized by Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa as he pushes mining and oil drilling in the Amazon. That push, coupled with high crude prices, allowed Correa to lift 1.3 million people out of poverty in his eight years in office.
And with crude prices now low? That behind the unhappy protests, too?
Francis has called for environmentally responsible development that is aimed at helping the poor without sacrificing the planet.
So WHERE is the CALL AGAINST WAR from this guy then? (Don't hold your breath; he buys into the whole ISIS™mythology promoted by war-mongering government and war-pushing pre$$)
I mean, you want to talk environmental degradation!
It was a message he was likely to repeat later in the day at a meeting with indigenous groups, and then later this week in Bolivia, the next stop on his three-nation South American tour.
I've heard enough.
Bolivian President Evo Morales has been hailed as an environmental hero by many for demanding rich nations do more to halt global warming, but he has been assailed by conservationists at home who say he puts oil and gas extraction ahead of clean water and forests.
What government doesn't?
Francis began his last full day in Ecuador with an open-air Mass that drew more than 1 million people.
That does justify the coverage.
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Related: Pope Francis apologizes for exploitation of native peoples, calls for economic justice
For all its faults, and there are many, the Catholic Church still represents a threat to the Jew World Order simply by its mass of followers.
Also see:
Strong quake jolts Chile, stirring fears
Preparedness helped limit casualties in Chile earthquake
Let us then move on to another country that suffered under U.S.-sponsored oppression:
"New twist in 1989 Salvadoran killings; Former officer faces extradition hearing in N.C." by Jonathan Drew Associated Press August 19, 2015
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina is the unlikely scene of a court battle that could determine whether a former Salvadoran military colonel is prosecuted for the notorious slayings of Jesuit priests more than two decades ago during El Salvador’s civil war.
An extradition hearing Wednesday for Inocente Orlando Montano is the latest twist in a case that stretches back to 1989, when authorities say members of the military killed six priests and two witnesses. He is one of 20 former military members indicted by a court in Spain, the native country of five of the priests.
Wasn't that slime living in Everett?
The 73-year-old Montano arrived in the United States in the early 2000s and worked for six years at a candy factory in Everett, Mass. He was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to nearly two years for immigration fraud and perjury, and was taken into custody by US marshals after his release from prison in April.
I'm thinking they double-crossed him.
Montano, currently in a jail in Greenville, N.C., is the only former officer within the reach of Spanish prosecutors. An arrest warrant issued in Spain accuses Montano of murder and other charges under a terrorism law.
Most of the other former military officers implicated in the killing of the priests are in El Salvador, where authorities have no plans to prosecute or extradite them because of an amnesty law for crimes committed during the 12-year civil war that ended in 1992.
Montano has denied involvement in the killings. A defense lawyer in the extradition case didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Carolyn Patty Blum, a human rights lawyer who helped persuade Spanish authorities to take up the case, said Montano offers the best chance for mounting a trial that would show what role top military officials played in the killings.
‘‘There will be no movement in El Salvador for the vast majority of the defendants unless there is an erosion of the amnesty law,’’ said Blum, who is senior legal adviser at the Center for Justice & Accountability in San Francisco.
Calling arguments against extraditing Montano a ‘‘nonstarter,’’ Blum said she believes the judge will have all the information she needs by the end of the next hearing and could rule from the bench or issue a written ruling later.
The State Department has a final say but it seems unlikely that it would refuse extradition, since one of its lawyers already reviewed Spain’s request before the department referred it to federal prosecutors.
The killings sparked international outrage and helped erode US support for the right-wing Salvadoran government’s fight against leftist rebels.
The US government supplied money, weapons, and training to government forces. But the plentiful weapons also fell into rebel hands. ‘‘In effect, we were arming both sides,’’ Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a New York Democrat, said on the Senate floor the day after the killings.
The U.S. government seems to do that a lot. Good way of keeping wars going and profits flowing, I gue$$.
The deaths occurred on Nov. 16, 1989, when court documents say members of the Salvadoran military killed six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter at a university in the country’s capital city. The priests had been calling for discussions to end the fighting.
Ever notice people that call for peace are often violently killed?
Two military officers were sentenced to prison in El Salvador in 1992 for the killings, but they were released a little over a year later after the amnesty went into effect. Montano and other high-level officials were never tried.
An extradition complaint filed by US authorities in April says that Montano, who also served as El Salvador’s vice minister of defense and public safety, oversaw a government radio station that issued death threats against priests at the university.
It says the colonel attended a meeting when another officer gave the order for the killings.
Blum said her organization partnered with a Spanish advocacy group to file a 2008 complaint asking authorities there to look into the case. The indictments were issued in 2011 after an investigation by a Spanish court.
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Related:
"He came here from El Salvador about 2½ years ago with his younger brother. His mother worked tirelessly at a Winthrop pizza and subs joint to scrape together the money to bring the boys to Boston. But just 11 days after Wilson Martinez celebrated his 15th birthday, his American dream was over. His body was found Monday morning on Constitution Beach — just one day he before he was to begin his sophomore year at East Boston High School. Investigators say he had been fatally stabbed. No arrests have been made."
I'm told “Every death is tragic, but what’s important right now is to gather the facts.”
See: Miscarriage of justice in El Salvador — and the US
I aborted it.
Where to next?
"In demographically shrinking Europe, Protestant megachurches already seem to be fairly absent from the south of the continent where Catholicism is predominant. The sizes of northern European megachurches lag far behind compared with those in Africa, Asia, and South America. One mostly blank spot on the map is China, one of the world’s least religious nations, by far. Although reasons for the surge in global megachurches differ, urbanization and economic growth have played a significant role in countries such as South Korea, [which] is at the forefront of a global phenomenon."
He's going to try and convert the Hindus:
"India tolerant? Its Christians beg to differ.... During the rampage at least three women were gang-raped, including a Catholic nun. The tragedy was compounded during the exile in the forest, as more Christians died of either starvation or snakebite while waiting to go home. The truth is that Muslim radicalism in places such as Iraq and Syria could disappear tomorrow, and that wouldn’t mean that Christians elsewhere are safe. It’s not just rogue states such as North Korea where Christians are at risk. India is a vibrant democracy and among the emerging superpowers of the early 21st century, with a constitution that guarantees religious freedom, though that’s hardly the reality on the ground."
See:
India showcases the maddening complexity of religious persecution
To preserve the memory of India’s martyrs, somebody has to pay the tab
People without a state get citizenship
Credit the pope.
Related:
"Dozens of villagers in eastern India beat to death five women Saturday, accusing them of practicing witchcraft and blaming them for a series of misfortunes in the village, police said. Residents of Kinjia village in Jharkhand state dragged the women from their homes and beat them with sticks and iron rods, investigators said. The attackers blamed the women for accidents and misfortunes suffered by villagers, including the death of an infant earlier in the week (AP)."
I've noticed that every religion is a little nutty, save for the Jewish one.
Thankfully there is heightened security now.
Also see: Raids in Mumbai net unwed couples
Playing to the Pope to make him happy.
"A court on Friday sentenced three Indian men to 20 years in prison for raping a Japanese student who was sightseeing in one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Prosecutors said the men met the 20-year-old woman in Jaipur, the Rajasthan state capital known for its historic forts and monuments, and offered to be her tour guides. The men, ages 20 to 24, took the woman to a village outside the city, raped her on a roadside, and fled. Villagers heard the woman crying and helped her contact police. Judge Girish Oja found the three guilty and sentenced them Friday, after a trial that lasted five months. The Japanese student’s rape in February was one in a series of attacks that has triggered public fury over India’s inability to halt chronic violence against women."
Related:
India police investigate rape charges against Saudi diplomat
The support for terrorism, child abuse, domestic slavery, all minimized and covered up when it comes to Saudi.
Saudi diplomat accused of rape leaves India
They are Nepali women and he's got diplomatic immunity. Wow.
Four killed in Nepal demonstartions (sic)
They started something up there anyway.
How long ago was that gang rape on the bus and all the laws were changed and the culture shift was on the way, blah, blah, blah???? Lot of lofty talk, that's about it.
And you wonder why I'm sick of this $hit?
Sorry to blow up and explode on you there. Just had to let out a roar like tiger.
Pope to visit Kenya, Uganda, and Central African Republic,
Maybe he will mention the UN sex abuse there, though I doubt it.
"Pope decries powers that let Hitler and Stalin kill millions; On Turin visit, past and present apathy decried" by Frances D’Emilio Associated Press June 22, 2015
ROME — Pope Francis on Sunday denounced what he calls the ‘‘great powers’’ of the world for failing to act when there was intelligence indicating Jews, Christians, homosexuals, and others were being transported to death camps in Europe during World War II.
He also decried deaths of Christians in concentration camps in Russia under Stalin.
The pope’s harsh assessments came in impromptu remarks during his visit to Turin, Italy, when he told young people he understands how hard it is to trust the world.
I trust the world; it is misleading authority that is the problem.
‘‘The great powers had photographs of the railway routes that the trains took to the concentration camps, like Auschwitz, to kill the Jews, and also the Christians, and also the Roma, also the homosexuals,’’ Francis said, citing the death camp. ‘‘Tell me, why didn’t they bomb’’ those railroad routes?
They did. That's why the camps were in the shape they were and why disease ran rampant.
Referring to concentration camps that came ‘‘a little later’’ in Russia, Francis wondered aloud: ‘‘How many Christians suffered, were killed’’ there?
25 million. Lot more than what that Hitler dude did, and yet it isn't a Holocaust™.
Lamenting cynicism of 1930s and 1940s world players, Francis said: ‘‘the great powers divided up Europe like a cake.’’
They are doing it again.
He also cited what he called the ‘‘great tragedy of Armenia’’ in the last century. ‘‘So many died. I don’t know the figure, more than a million, certainly. But where were the great powers then? They were looking the other way,’’ the pope said.
In April, the pope angered Turkey when he referred to the slaughter of Armenians by Turkish Ottomans as ‘‘genocide.’’
In today’s world, he told the young people: ‘‘Everything is done for money.’’ He criticized those advocating peace while manufacturing or selling arms.
Oh, finally.
The pope also obliquely criticized European countries and northern Italian regions refusing or reluctant to take some of tens of thousands of migrants who have landed at southern Italian ports after being rescued in the Mediterranean from smugglers’ boats....
I will be migrating over to that part of the agenda soon.
Francis reiterated his view that conflicts in the world today are tantamount to ‘‘a Third World War in segments.’’
It's a series I'm almost finished with, and we are right in the middle of it!
--more--"
"Why Christianity needs its own Yad Vashem" by John L. Allen Jr., Associate editor September 5, 2015
Why, for instance, isn’t there a “Schindler’s List” about the Christians who perished in Kandhamal, India, in 2008, in the largest orgy of anti-Christian violence of the early 21st century, in that case carried out by radical Hindus? Why isn’t there a “Diary of Anne Frank” for the children of Christian converts from Islam, who are often forced to go into hiding out of fear for their lives?
In general, why don’t Christians tell the stories of their victimization in a fashion compelling enough to make the world take notice? It’s certainly not for lack of raw material, since even low-end estimates hold that a Christian is killed for reasons related to the faith somewhere in the world every two hours.
I suspect the answer is complicated, but it likely begins with the fact that Christians don’t tell these stories because, all too often, they don’t know them....
And even if they did I doubt it would get the same kind of coverage.
--more--"
I'm sure for a chosen few it will be a Happy New Year; as for others, likely not.
I'm also part of the problem. I've been AWOL when needed most, and quite frankly tired of reading and blogging about the tripe that comes out of the Bo$ton Globe. What's worse is my time will be even more restricted since basketball on Sundays starts up next week rather than the first week of October as planned.
Right now I have to go get ready for the football games. Try to think of it as a Sunday worship with friends.
NDUs:
Pope Francis lays out gentle critique of Cuba’s Socialist revolution
Is that any way to treat a host?
Pope’s appeals inspire, inflame Congress
What is it, the rate hikes (with printed Globe filled with ads of an even worse winter, so go buy your $now $upplies now!) or the fires?
As usual I'm out of step with my congregation; I care more about the Constitution and the blackness coming over society.
I once told you I would only report on what I'm reading -- and what I'm not.
FURTHER UPDATES:
Pope urges Cubans to embrace change
Every time we are told that it is to our detriment, so why?
Knotty logistics for Pope Francis’ visit to US cities
That gets you back to the concerns I raised at the top.
Pope Francis’ balancing act
He's walking a tightrope.
US may abstain from Cuba embargo fight at UN
You can see for yourself from what I'm abstaining.
The Perversion that is the Papal Propaganda from the Pontiff
Pope has chance to reclaim ‘moral authority’ in visit
What moral authority? They don't have any left after the pooper-pumping that was covered up for centuries.
Btw, that guy smiling with him has none either; he joins a long list of war criminal presidents.
After 17 years, lone protester still holds vigil at Vatican embassy
I was just talking about that, and I suppose I got lucky with my childhood church experience, huh? Gotta good one, not a diddler.
Local Catholics going to great lengths to see Francis
I sure as hell haven't gone out of my way.
Pope Francis arrives in the US; denies being a leftist
What do those tired outdated labels even mean anymore?
