Theordore McCarrick's Former Secretary - Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo - Reveals A Part Of The Truth

Two days ago on May 28, 2018, Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo, Theodore McCarrick's former secretary published a report containing facts that "show clearly that high-ranking prelates likely had knowledge of McCarrick’s actions and of restrictions imposed upon him during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. They also clearly show that these restrictions were not enforced even before the pontificate of Francis." [1]

They also suggest that some prelates, not named in the report, who have continuously lied about the truth.  Are they not afraid of the day when they have to face Christ Who is Truth Himself?  How would they answer?  Since they are still alive, they still have time to repent.  Time will tell if they will or not.

Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo is not a saint, at least not yet.  Below is his public confession [2]:

The hierarchy’s abuse of authority and cover up, in their various and serious manifestations, have inflicted consequences upon me, too. As Pope Francis has noted: “Many of those who have suffered in this way have also sought relief in the path of addiction” (Homily, July 7, 2014). Especially as a priest, I regret unreservedly the harms that I caused as a result of them through seeking consolation in alcohol. Now I am deeply grateful for the therapeutic treatment that I am receiving, which has allowed me to embrace a life of sobriety. 

Beyond his embrace of sobriety,  Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo has also embraced truth and transparency, but he has not gone far enough.  At the end of the report, the following paragraph was printed in bold [3]  [Emphasis  added]:

The documents used in this report have been vetted for their authenticity by lawyers and journalists. Additional documents and other sensitive correspondence from McCarrick that offer further background on these and other issues are in my possession. They will form the basis of further possible reports if this contributes to the good of the ongoing investigation and efforts to address the abuse crisis, love of Holy Mother Church, and ultimately the salvation of souls.  

By withholding certain documents, Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo is no better than those who omit to tell the whole truth.  Perhaps he can even be considered to be in complicity with them until he releases the "[a]dditional documents and other sensitive correspondence from McCarrick."

A partial truth is the equivalent of a partial lie.

Sexual abuse is a serious matter and the whole truth needs to be presented, not just a part of it.  Why not disclose everything at the same time?  Is this a game of hide and seek?  Are victims not entitled to the whole truth?  Why play with their emotions?  Why create a mystery and leave them wondering?

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." [4] [Emphasis added]  Jesus did not say, "I am the way and the half-truth."  Jesus' truth is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Those who do not live by the whole truth have lost their way to Heaven unless they repent.

[1] http://thefigueiredoreport.com/

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A6&version=NIV

A Religion-Free China

Articles published by Bitter Winter  show a China that is determined to eradicate not only Christianity but also Islam and Buddhism.  The editor-in-chief is Massimo Introvigne and the director-in-charge is Marco Rispinti with offices in Turin, Italy. [1]

Below are three selected articles from the website, bitterwinter.org, quoted in part without hyperlinks:

I.  Eradicating Buddhism [2], from an article dated May 29, 2019:

In China’s war against religious belief, more and more reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, even the country’s traditional religions of Buddhism and Taoism are not safe from persecution. Numerous temples have been shut down or destroyed, and religious statues have been forcibly demolished, sometimes by using explosives. Bitter Winter  continues to receive shocking reports indicating that the campaign to suppress Buddhism is escalating.

Classified as a national 4A-level scenic area, the Bodhi Island Scenic Area, also known as “Buddhist Kingdom on the Sea,” is located in Bohai Bay to the southeast of Tangshan city in north China’s Hebei Province. As early as February 2001, the area was designated as a historical and cultural site protected by Hebei Province. 

On February 15 this year [2019], the authorities sealed off multiple buildings on Bodhi Island, including the temples of Chaoyin and Chaoyang, on the grounds that government funds cannot be used for the construction of Buddhist venues. The authorities also ordered the monks at the two temples to leave the premises within one week.

Since the monks left, the sounds of the morning and evening bells and the chanting of Buddhist sutras that once echoed daily from the temples have disappeared.

The same month, a Buddhist temple in Yicheng district of Zaozhuang city, in east China’s Shandong Province, built at the cost of more than 10 million RMB (about $1,492,600), was also sealed off.

II.  Eradicating Islam [3], from an article dated May 29, 2019:

The imam from the north-central province of Gansu agreed to talk to Bitter Winter  on the condition of anonymity. The mosque to which he belongs is government-licensed, and most of the worshipers going to the mosque are Hui Muslims. Since last year, the mosque was ordered to raise the national flag and display Party policy propaganda signs.
...

The imam explained that mullahs, Muslims that are learned in Islamic theology and sacred law, are cultivated from childhood, allowing them to study the Arabic language and the Quran. “But from last year, the government started vigorously prohibiting language classes, not allowing people to study or write in Arabic,” he said.
...

With tight restrictions on minors studying the Quran and the imposed strict control by the Religious Affairs Bureau, the number of mullahs has significantly decreased. Taking the example of his mosque, the imam said that they used to cultivate more than 60 mullahs, and now there are only seven or eight.
...

The imam said that since last year [2018], the suppression in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has been severe. “Domed roofs and crescent moon symbols have been removed from many mosques. The state has greatly hurt the feelings of the Muslim people. Now, the general feeling is that if this trend continues, the government won’t let us believe anymore, because China has a history of suppressing religious belief and closing down religious venues. The situation in Xinjiang is even more dire.”

The imam didn’t expand on the suppression of Muslims in Xinjiang since local police officers had warned him not to speak about it. “We are not interested in politics or political power at all; it is just about faith,” the imam emphasized.

III.  Eradicating Christianity [4]. from an article dated May 18, 2019:

On Easter Day, a house church located in Binzhou city’s Gaoxin district of eastern China’s Shandong Province was raided by the police. The meeting venue was forcibly demolished, and three believers were arrested.

That day, a few believers came to the church early to prepare for celebrations. Unexpectedly, however, they were discovered by police officers on patrol. Soon, more than 30 people from Gaoxin district—including public security personnel, special police, the district’s mayor, the police station chief, and an electrician—arrived at the church. They blocked off the entrance to the church, prohibited pedestrians from passing through, and prevented believers from entering.

Special police officers, armed with guns, searched inside the meeting venue for the believer in charge of the celebrations, but to no avail. The police arrested three male believers, and dispersed the others into the church’s courtyard, to be watched over collectively. They then began raiding the church, and confiscated everything they found, including Bibles, furniture, and a piano. Shortly thereafter, the meeting venue’s electrical wires were cut, and the roofs, doors and windows were all demolished. The three arrested believers were later released, but the congregation was effectively dispersed. “Hearing the sound of doors and windows being smashed was both grudging and frightening,” one believer told Bitter Winter.
...

A Catholic believer in Fuzhou told Bitter Winter  that at around 8:00 in the evening of April 21, [2019,] more than 100 believers were attending the Easter evening Mass at the church’s meeting venue in Dongcheng Apartment building. The police arrived and dispersed the believers.

How China is cementing its anti-religious agenda [5], from an article dated May 8, 2019:

At the symposium for ideological and political theory teachers held on March 18 in Beijing, President Xi Jinping repeatedly stressed the necessity of cultivating generations of talents that will support the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] leadership and the Chinese socialist system. This must start with schools, he said, to make young people the successors of communism, with teachers doing everything to prevent the spread of “false ideas and thoughts.” 

Directed by their leader, schools and kindergartens throughout China are making sure that the new generation of China is growing imbued sufficiently with the “right ideas and thoughts” of communism and atheism.

In early April, the Suiyang District Education and Sports Bureau in Shangqiu city, in the central province of Henan, ordered primary and secondary schools to hold signing events, pledging to stay away from religion.

In Gaoxin town, under the district’s jurisdiction, such events were held at all 18 schools and kindergartens.

This blogger believes that China's strong-arm approach will eventually backfire because every person knows instinctively that he/she has Free Will and no regime is able to dictate a person's thoughts and beliefs, even if indoctrination begins at Kindergarten levels.

If China insists on spreading atheism, then it is going about it the wrong way.  It should instead learn from Satan, by tempting people with all kinds of vices, hedonism, material possessions and mindless entertainment so that by spending all their time on and desiring of all things secular, people would set religion aside willingly and forget about it.

[1] https://bitterwinter.org/about/ and https://bitterwinter.org/editorial-board/

[2] https://bitterwinter.org/the-war-on-buddhism-continues-to-escalate/

[3] https://bitterwinter.org/imam-from-gansu-the-state-has-hurt-muslims-feelings/

[4] https://bitterwinter.org/a-bitter-easter-for-christians-in-china/

[5] https://bitterwinter.org/the-grooming-of-chinese-atheists-starts-in-kindergartens/

Should There Be A Hell For Merchants Of Death And Of GMOs?

Yes is the answer.

Merchants of death as defined here includes any one who contributes directly and/or indirectly to the invention, development, manufacture, sale, purchase and use of weaponry of any kind that kills.  Life is a gift that is meant to be lived.  Nobody has any right to end the life of another.  Those who give orders to kill are no less culpable than those who kill.  Those who agree that killing is justified is equally culpable.  There are those who do not agree with the last statement because they believe that they are sinless and perfect and therefore can be both the judge and the executioner.  The Son of God was a sinless man and He went to His death asking His Father to forgive them because they did not know what they were doing. [1]  These words from the Cross were not words of vengeance.  Those who believe in and want vengeance belong to Satan.

The merchants of death are here to stay.  They have a purpose.  Their weapons of destruction will begin the last days.

Merchants of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) as defined here includes any one who contributes directly and/or indirectly to the invention, cultivation, development, manufacture, sale, purchase, spreading the use of organisms that God never made.  These are Satanic foods because the whole purpose of having them is based on avarice for profit.  The culprit is Monsanto.  Quoted below is from Wikipedia  without hyperlinks [2]:

The Monsanto Company (/mɒnˈsæntoʊ/) was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901. In 2018, it was acquired by Bayer [AG] as part of its crop science division. It was headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto developed Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, in the 1970s, and became a major producer of genetically engineered crops.

"As a reminder, a GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant, animal, microorganism or other organism whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering, also called biotechnology. This process involves rearranging the building blocks of life in experimental ways that don’t happen in nature." [3]

Quoted in part below is from an article dated March 12, 2019, published by the Non-GMO Project  entitled The World’s First GMO Salmon is Coming to America [4]:

On March 8, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lifted its ban on the import of the genetically modified AquAdvantage salmon created by AquaBounty Technologies. The FDA initially approved this GMO for human consumption in 2015, but Congress required the FDA to halt imports of the fish until appropriate GMO labeling guidelines could be established.

...

AquaBounty hopes to have its GMO salmon on the market as soon as 2020. Since compliance with the NBFDS does not become mandatory until 2022, it is unclear whether AquaBounty would choose to label its salmon in the interim. This means it is possible that GMO salmon could be sold in the US without a GMO disclosure for two years. The Non-GMO Project will continue to monitor this situation as it develops.

The long-term effects of consuming GMOs on humans are still unsettled.  Quoted below in part is a timeline from greenamerica.org [5] [Emphasis original]:

GMO foods are such an embedded part of our food system these days, but it's not difficult to think back to a time when food was simpler and healthier. How did we get to the point that genetically modified organisms infiltrate so much of what we eat? In a recent issue of Rosebud Magazine, GMO expert GL Woolsey took a look at the history of GMOs. We present that for you here now.

1935 - DNA DiscoveredRussian scientist Andrei Nikolaevitch Belozersky isolates pure DNA.

1973 - Recombinant DNA CreatedThe idea for man-made DNA, or rDNA, comes from a grad student at Stanford University Medical School. Professor Herbert Boyer and a few of his biologist colleagues run with it.

1975 - Asilomar ConferenceA group of biologists get together with a few lawyers and doctors to create guidelines for the safe use of genetically engineered DNA.

1980 - First GMO Patent IssuedA 1980 court case between a genetics engineer at General Electric and the U.S. Patent Office is settled by a 5-to-4 Supreme Court ruling, allowing for the first patent on a living organism. The GMO in question is a bacterium with an appetite for crude oil, ready to gobble up spills.

1982 - FDA Approves First GMOHumulin, insulin produced by genetically engineered E. coli bacteria, appears on the market.

1994 - GMO Hits Grocery StoresThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the Flavr Savr tomato for sale on grocery store shelves. The delayed-ripening tomato has a longer shelf life than conventional tomatoes.

1996 - GMO-Resistant WeedsWeeds resistant to glyphosate, the herbicide used with many GMO crops, are detected in Australia. Research shows that the super weeds are seven to 11 times more resistant to glyphosate than the standard susceptible population.

1997 - Mandatory LabelsThe European Union rules in favor of mandatory labeling on all GMO food products, including animal feed.

1999 - GMO Food Crops DominateOver 100 million acres worldwide are planted with genetically engineered seeds. The marketplace begins embracing GMO technology at an alarming rate.

2003 - GMO-Resistant PestsIn 2003, a Bt-toxin-resistant caterpillar-cum-moth, Helicoverpa zea, is found feasting on GMO Bt cotton crops in the southern United States. In less than a decade, the bugs have adapted to the genetically engineered toxin produced by the modified plants.

2011 - Bt Toxin in HumansResearch in eastern Quebec finds Bt toxins in the blood of pregnant women and shows evidence that the toxin is passed to fetuses.

2012 - Farmer Wins Court BattleFrench farmer Paul Francois sues Monsanto for chemical poisoning he claims was caused by its pesticide Lasso, part of the Roundup Ready line of products. Francois wins and sets a new precedent for future cases.

2014 - GMO Patent ExpiresMonsanto’s patent on the Roundup Ready line of genetically engineered seeds will end in two years. In 2009, Monsanto introduced Roundup 2 with a new patent set to make the first-generation seed obsolete.

Perhaps Hell is already encroaching upon this world.  If this is true, then the merchants of death and of GMOs do not have to go to Hell, Hell has come to them, and to all earthly inhabitants.

What is Hell on earth like?  Here is a peek at it, quoted without references [6] [Emphasis  added]:

Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you,  for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many.  And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately.  Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world.  But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.

Perhaps one of the reasons that nations will be at war is because there is not enough food, and perhaps the reason that there is not enough food is the collapse of bee colonies.  Below is quoted in part without references from Wikipedia [7]:

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees.

...

In the six years leading up to 2013, more than 10 million colonies were lost, often to CCD, nearly twice the normal rate of loss. In comparison, according to U.N. FAO data, the world's beehive stock rose from around 50 million in 1961 to around 83 million in 2014, which is about 1.3% average annual growth. Average annual growth has accelerated to 1.9% since 2009.

Below is an update on colony collapse disorder [8]:

Since the alarm was first raised, many countries have created new monitoring methods to judge the status of their bee stocks.

As a result we have much more data on bee populations, although coverage is still patchy and differences in survey methods make it hard to compare between continents.

It is clear that bees in the United States are still struggling.

Beekeepers can tolerate up to 15 per cent losses of colonies over winter, but the US is massively above this threshold, having lost 28.1 per cent of colonies over the 2015-16 winter.

Canada, by contrast, reported 16.8 per cent losses.

This is better, but still above the level of losses at which beekeepers can easily restock.

Only recently have we had data from central Europe. There, honey bees seem to be doing better: 11.9 per cent losses in 2015-16.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand surveys only began in the last year and have reported winter loss of 10.7 per cent.

Australia does not yet have a countrywide survey of the state of bee colonies.

Studies have pointed to many reasons for colony collapse disorder except GMOs.  Bees are God-made and are not used to Satan-made GMOs.  As GMOs become more and more widespread, more and more bees colonies will probably disappear at faster rates than the present, causing famine around the world, beginning with countries that use Monsanto (now Bayer AG) agricultural products indiscriminately to maximize yield and profits.

It is man's love of money and power that he is willing to take other people's lives and ruin his own decendants' by replacing Mother Nature's foods with artificial formulations, i.e. "magic arts" (see passage quoted below).  By doing these things, he has created his own Hell on earth.  This is why the world has to end.

From the Book of Revelations 21, quoted in part without references [9] [Emphasis  added]:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.  Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.  But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+23%3A34&version=NIV
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto
[3] https://livingnongmo.org/2018/08/14/gmo-feature-corn/
[4] https://www.nongmoproject.org/blog/the-worlds-first-gmo-salmon-is-coming-to-america/
[5] https://www.greenamerica.org/blog/gmo-timeline-history-genetically-modified-foods
[6] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=NLT
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder
[8] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-08/colony-collapse-ten-years-after-crisis-what-is-happening-to-bees/8507408
[9] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=NLT

Peace Between Israel and Palestine Remains A Dream

ANSAmed  published an article on 22 May 2019, entitled 2-state solution repeated uselessly, say Catholics. [1]  The article is quoted below in full [2]:

The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land have said in a statement that the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian Territories has gone nowhere and that discussing it repeatedly has become empty rhetoric. It added that a new orientation was needed, different education and a new vision for the holy land and the two populations living therein. It said that only peace based on dignity, mutual respect and equality as human beings ''will save us''. The statement was signed by Catholic representatives of different rites including Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate, and Father Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land.

It focuses on an analysis of the current situation in which ''every hope of peace'' has disappeared and in which even those who once claimed to be guardians of democracy and peace promoters have become promoters of power and partisan participants of the conflict. The church leaders said that, reflecting on recent decades in which peace and reconciliation were promoted, ''we have received more hatred, oppression, corruption and demagogy'', and that the time has come from the Church and spiritual leaders to find another way and to insist that everyone, [including] ''Israelis and Palestinians, are brothers and sisters in humanity''.

The statement urged an exit to ''this permanent situation of war, hatred, and death'' and called on Christians in Palestine and Israel to join with Jews, Muslims, Druze and others sharing a vision of a society based on equality and the common good and to build bridges based on mutual respect and love. The statement added that equality is a necessary foundation for a just and lasting peace. (ANSAmed).

Sadly, there are certain people who see themselves as better than others.  Unless this mentality changes, which is nearly impossible without re-education to re-program their thoughts, equality is not foreseeable and therefore "a just and lasting peace" between Israel and Palestine remains a dream.

It is overly optimistic to want a bridge built "based on mutual respect and love" but one built based solely on mutual respect ought to be sufficient.  Love of neighbor as oneself can come later.  At least, one of the Ten Commandments, thou shall not kill, would be observed.


[1] http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2019/05/22/2-state-solution-repeated-uselessly-say-catholics_40878dce-4727-49de-b4fe-34b483bbbc54.html
[2] Ibid.

Priests Arrested In Michigan For Sexual Abuse

"Four of the five men named by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel at a Friday news conference[, May 24, 2019,] have been arrested.

"The fifth is now living in India and Nessel said authorities hope to extradite him to the U.S." [1]

These men are Catholic priests.  As reported by the Detroit Free Press, quoted in part [2]:

[Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel] said the five cases were the "tip of the iceberg" as investigators continue to track down hundreds of tips on abuse by Catholic priests.

In some of the incidents, the priests mixed their sexual activity with references to Catholic beliefs or committed the acts during Catholic rituals such as confession, according to allegations in affidavits.

In other cases, the priests plied children with drugs such as cocaine, marijuana and alcohol before sexually assaulting them, allege prosecutors and police. In one case, a priest is accused of threatening to kill his victim if the boy reported the abuse.

Deputy Solicitor General Ann Sherman, who is helping with the investigations, said that some Catholic Church officials have alarming views on sexual abuse of children.

"I am deeply disturbed by what we have discovered," Sherman said at the news conference. "I'm also disturbed by some attitudes of some of the hierarchy in the church ... who demonstrated a serious misunderstanding of sexual assault."

In one case, a priest "explained that this child victim needed to simply admit that he teased, enticed, or gave permission for the abuse to occur," Sherman said. "This attitude is horrific. Sexual abuse is never the fault of the victim and it certainly can never be that sexual abuse of a child is a child's fault."

What were these priests thinking?  Had thoughts of spending an eternity in Hell ever crossed their minds?

Can priests who sexually abuse be forgiven?  How far does God's mercy go?  Perhaps the "holy father" over at the Vatican will talk about mercy for sexually abusive priests.

As far as this blogger is concerned, they and others like them that are yet to be charged and arrested, as well as those who turn a blind eye and shield them from prosecution are vermin, scum of the earth.  They are not to be thought of as part of the Catholic Church even though in every other way they act in persona Christi, and good actors they truly are.  The one who can impersonate Christ better than these Satanic precursors is the Antichrist who has yet to show his face.


[1] https://abcnews.go.com/US/priests-charged-sexual-misconduct-amid-michigan-investigation-tip/story?id=63256738
[2] https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/05/24/michigan-catholic-priests-sexual-abuse-nessel/1221964001/

Vatican's Ultimate Hypocrisy

The Bergoglio's papacy is a papacy dedicated to politics, not so much to the the salvation of souls, and the head of the papacy is Bergoglio himself, the quintessential politician.  As reported by apnews.com [1]:

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday defended his invocation of God at a political rally, after Italy’s Catholic establishment criticized it as a cynical exploitation of faith ahead of European Parliament elections this weekend.

Salvini brandished a rosary and entrusted Italy to the Virgin Mary at a rally on Saturday, which featured a host of far-right European leaders. He spoke glowingly of St. John Paul II and retired Pope Benedict XVI for having tried to remind Europe of its Christian roots.

Asked to comment, the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said God was for everyone and “invoking him for yourself is always very dangerous.”

An Italian Jesuit close to Pope Francis, the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, denounced the use of the rosary and the invocation of God for political campaigning. Spadaro, who has criticized the influence of right-wing evangelicals in U.S. politics, tweeted a photo of a commemorative coin of U.S. President Donald Trump being promoted by U.S. evangelicals as a “point of contact” with God.

“There are those who in electoral campaigns use God and saints, and those who even sell coins to pray for the re-election of their candidate,” he said.

“The exploitation of religion seems to know no decency.”

He might add that the Vatican also lacks decency because it exploits the Church Christ founded and sells tickets to enter the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican museum and different sorts of religious items, stamps and other souvenirs to defray some of the costs of maintaining the Vatican and its surrounding grounds, to pay salaries and to support in part the Holy See (the political branch, the governing body of the Catholic Church).

The foregoing assertion may or may not be true.

This blogger is looking forward for the Vatican to prove that his assertion is false by being transparent in all  of its finances by itemizing each and every transaction related to income from every source around the world, including receipts from donations everywhere and by accounting for each and every expense (including settlement claims) with no miscellaneous category permitted, no write-offs for small amounts due to immateriality, and by specifying the names of every the poor and needy individual and charitable organization that it supports around the world, the name of every law firm and lawyer it consulted, as well as the name of every church, seminary, religious organization, politician and political entity it donated funds to, if any.  Evidence, including but not limited to bank records, brokerage statements, real property holdings, and all other kinds of investment holdings, loans and contracts, business relationships must be submitted to independent auditors to do a full and complete annual audit of every single financial line item so that the truth can be revealed.

The Vatican would not dare.  It, like any political entity, survives best and most successfully on secrecy and words.

Bergoglio has always used his position to dictate to others to help migrants but he has not himself acted.  He could auction off all of the Vatican's art collection to help migrants but he has not.  He wants to use the resources of other countries (tax revenues) to aid migrants.

It is not that migrants do not need help.  They do.  Mary, Joseph and Jesus were migrants when they fled to Egypt to escape from Herod.  Egypt was their sanctuary country.

Vatican City State, even though small in size, has a lot of churches, seminaries and land around the world under its authority.  It could open up all the spaces to house the migrants but it has not done so.  Is it because it fears for the safety of those who occupy the spaces, and because it wants maintain the existing beauty and tranquility of those spaces?

If so, then it is acting like Salvini who according to the article cited, tweeted that "'I’ll continue to give witness to my Faith with my work for a more beautiful and secure Italy....'" [2]  Therefore, the Vatican and its surrogates are hypocrites for criticizing Salvini because he is not in line with its political agenda.



[1] https://www.apnews.com/5cb13f019ce64824b88150a1fec0e6bb
[2] Ibid.

Thoughts On Mother's Day From A Son's Perspective

Without a mother one would not exist.  Without a mother's care, one would not live to experience childhood.  Without a mother teaching a boy who knows nothing, he will not be able to take care of himself.  Without a mother setting a good example, disciplining the child, the boy will grow up to be self-absorbed, uncaring, arrogant, unkind, rude and unconscionable.

A mother will not always be by her son's side, watching over him, protecting him, guiding him throughout life.  What a mother teaches to the young boy will be remembered.  These lessons will be his guide.

Deep inside every man is still the boy he once was.  Not every situation a man encounters is one that was rehearsed.  The boy that has grown up has to make up his own mind and choose correctly.  No mother can prepare her son for making the right choice every time.  She can only impart so much.

A mother cannot shield her son from every temptation, correct every wrong move.  She can teach her son some basic universal principles of life.  This blogger has benefited from two that were taught to him:

1.  Do right by others;
2.  Do right by your own conscience.

These were the only two.  There was nothing else.

(Here is the link to the same Mother's Day song in Hindi on You Tube that was cited last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AesOAB6SO2M  The singer, Paarth Singh, re-published the song in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkom74_QA3k)