Is The End Starting?

Looking at what is happening around the world, it appears that the beginning of an end is slowly taking shape, with demonstrations and riots across the globe in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, [1], United Kingdom (Brexit) [2], Spain (for [3] and against [4] Catalan independence), France (climate change activists) [5], Hong Kong (continuing riots - 21 consecutive weekends) [6], Iraq (many dead) (26 October 2019) [7], [8] (5 October 2019) [9], Lebanon [10], South Africa (5 September 2019) [11], there may be other places but this is the list for now.  These riots are mostly about differences in wealth and political power between those who have them and those who do not.  Conflicts could lead to a shortage of food production, raising the possibility of rising of death tolls.

Then there is inclement weather.  Wildfires in California [12], flooding in Britain [13] and in Japan [14] and fires in Indonesia [15].  Unfavorable weather conditions, too, can create food shortages.

Earthquakes are happening.  Volcano Discovery  has a current list [16].  They are minor.

Diseases can recur.  There is a polio outbreak in the Philippines [17], never mind the African swine fever [18] that the government of Philippines said is not a threat to humans [19], at least not yet, until there is commercial success with the pig-human chimera when the African swine virus can start to mutate inside the pig and spread to humans and other species.  Quoted in part below without the hyperlink is from an article dated October 20, 2017, that talks about a pig-human chimera farm and ends with an ominous prophetic sentence in its concluding paragraph [20]:

Like many of the scientists who helped usher in the groundbreaking creation of a part-human, part-animal chimera earlier this year, biologist Dr. Pablo Juan Ross is no stranger to cutting-edge tools such as CRISPR and stem cells. But he also knows his way around the inside of a pig uterus. 

While growing human cells inside fetal pigs involved some of science’s fanciest new tricks, it also required something decidedly more mundane: a farm, stocked with livestock and staffed with people like Ross who know how to handle them.

...

Implanting a sow with chimeric embryos isn’t easy. It take a full surgical team, strong folks to correctly position large animals on operating tables, and experts like UC Davis veterinarian Joan Dean Rowe, who has the deft touch to implant embryos — chimeric or otherwise — into precisely the right place within a pig’s huge and complex double-horned uterus. 

A lot can go wrong in these experiments, and for Ross, it often did....

If this world is starting to end, what will the end look like?  The answers (in italics  below) are in Book of Genesis.

The Serpent said:  "'...and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'"  [Emphasis  added.] [21]  Man, however, often by his Free Will chooses evil over good.  The pig-human chimera alters and warps God's perfection in Creation.  By trying to be like God, man ruins perfection and in the process he ruins himself.

God knew this was going to happen.  Earlier, God said: '"You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."' [Emphasis  added.] [22]

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/theres-still-time-for-bolivias-president-to-right-the-path-to-democracy/2019/10/24/67eeb1da-f4f1-11e9-8cf0-4cc99f74d127_story.html

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/19/peoples-vote-march-hailed-as-one-of-greatest-protest-marches-in-british-history

[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50194846

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/27/at-least-80000-attend-march-against-catalan-separation-in-barcelona-spain

[5] https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1181059/paris-riots-climate-change-protests-police-greta-thunberg-extinction-rebellion

[6] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3034750/hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-anti-government-protesters

[7] https://www.dw.com/en/iraq-death-toll-mounts-amid-fresh-protests/a-51000958

[8] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/26/world/middleeast/iraq-protests.html

[9] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49946325

[10] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/lebanon-protests-riots-tripoli-hezbollah-whatsapp-a9170611.html

[11] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/09/05/deadly-xenophobic-riots-south-africa-prompt-diplomatic-tensions-with-nigeria-heres-why/

[12] https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/us/california-fires-power-outages-monday/index.html

[13] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7620963/More-200-flood-warnings-alerts-place-Britain.html

[14] https://www.dw.com/en/heavy-flooding-and-mudslides-leave-10-dead-in-japan/a-51000068

[15] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southeast-asia-haze/area-burned-in-2019-forest-fires-in-indonesia-exceeds-2018-official-idUSKBN1X00VU

[16] https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/today.html
[17] https://www.who.int/csr/don/24-september-2019-polio-outbreak-the-philippines/en/
[18] https://www.oie.int/en/animal-health-in-the-world/animal-diseases/african-swine-fever/
[19] https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084284
[20] https://www.statnews.com/2017/10/20/human-pig-chimera/
[21] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3A+1-6&version=NIV
[22] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2%3A15-17%2CGenesis+3%3A1-7%2CMatthew+4%3A1-11&version=NIV

Mother Earth?

Vatican News  reported as follows, quoted in part [1]:

The Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, on Thursday released a new book of Pope Francis’ thoughts on the environment, including a previously unpublished text. “Our Mother Earth: A Christian reading of the environmental challenge” (Italian: Nostra Terra Madre. Una lettura Cristiana della sfida dell’ambiente) ...

Wikipedia  has this to say about Mother Earth, quoted without hyperlinks [2]:

Mother Nature (sometimes known as Mother Earth or the Earth-Mother) is a Greco-Roman personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of the mother.

The Catholic Church has only one Mother.  She is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.  The earth is not a mother.  Nature is sometimes referred to as "Mother Nature" in a secular sense but not in a religious sense.  The pope has no business publishing a book on the environment and referring to nature as "Our Mother Earth".

His job is solely to bring God into focus in order to lead souls to Heaven, not to be a climate activist like the 16 year old Greta Thunberg, born "born 3 January 2003" [3], or be like one of those self-proclaimed environmentalists who are mostly wealthy, influential and well-educated hypocrites whose combined carbon footprints are probably far, far larger than all the ones made by those who lack education, are powerless and who live in abject poverty around the world.

Further along the same article published by Vatican News  is this rather troubling paragraph [4]:

The Holy Father, however, cautions that a technological revolution and individual commitment are not enough. Awareness, he says, is gained primarily through an “authentic spirit of communion”.  We must start again from forgiveness: asking forgiveness of the poor and the exclusive, first of all, in order to be capable of asking forgiveness also of “the earth, the sea, the air, the animals…” For Pope Francis, seeking forgiveness means totally revising one’s own way of thinking; it means profound personal renewal.

When did Christ teach His flock to ask for "forgiveness also of 'the earth, the sea, the air, the animals...?"  Are they gods equal to God the Father Whom Catholics pray to for forgiveness?  Should Catholics begin confessing directly to the earth, sea, air and animals?

And what does he mean by "an 'authentic spirit of communion'"?  Communion with what?  Is one's communion with Christ not good enough for Bergoglio?  Perhaps it is not.  That is probably why Bergoglio did not bother mentioning Jesus Christ by His Holy Name when speaking of communion in a Catholic sense.

What happens to one who is Catholic, who is devoted to God who "totally [revises] one's own way of thinking"? [Emphasis  added.]  Does this total  revision of thought that leads to a "profound personal renewal" mean that all devout Catholics who, after the "renewal," need to start bowing down to and worshipping Satan as the almighty one?

In an effort to walk back on his words to correct himself, Bergoglio confuses rather than enlightens, which is what Satan does best [5]:

Forgiveness, he says, is only possible in and through the Holy Spirit. It is a grace to be implored humbly from the Lord. Forgiveness, then, is to become active, undertaking a journey together, and never in solitude.

Perhaps Bergoglio needs to demolish all confessionals around the world since forgiveness has to become active and be undertaken together in a shared journey, not received passively alone with deep personal and genuine remorse inside a dimly lit stall.

It is about time that everyone gets to listen to all the pedophile priests asking actively and humbly for the Lord's forgiveness together as a group, as well as to all the inept and perhaps corrupt cardinals who allegedly misappropriated funds designated for charities by funding money-losing investments and other shady transactions.  This would then truly be a total revising of thinking by and a profound renewal of the Catholic hierarchy.


[1] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-francis-the-christian-foundations-for-the-care-of-creation.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Nature
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg
[4] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-10/pope-francis-the-christian-foundations-for-the-care-of-creation.html
[5] Ibid.

Church Donations Gambled Away

Canadian priest pled guilty [1]:

While serving as a priest at St. Joseph’s Chaldean Catholic Church in London and St. Oraha Catholic Church in Kitchener, Saka allegedly gambled away $936,497 that was intended to support Iraqi and Syrian refugees coming to Canada. 

The money was given to him by parishioners as part of a sponsorship agreement so the church could sponsor parishioners’ family members wanting to enter the country.

[1] https://canada-news.org/london/former-ontario-priest-gets-2-year-sentence-for-gambling-1m-meant-for-refugees/

Good News For The Catholic Church

According to "a new book by Italian investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi which scrutinized more than 3,000 confidential Vatican documents, says the Vatican is in dire financial shape" [1].  "Nuzzi reports that contributions to the worldwide Peter’s Pence collection have dropped from €101 million in 2006 to less than €60 million." [2]

It could be speculated that the drop in Peter's Pence collection stemmed from the sex scandals that the Vatican tacitly condoned by not laicizing the offenders.  "But a new scandal, alleging large-scale unauthorized speculation with funds from the Peter’s Pence collection, threatens to steepen the decline in contributions." [3]

Also "poor management of the nearly 3,000 properties owned by the Vatican’s real estate office, [APSA, Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See [4]]. has also [very likely] contributed [to the decline]. Of the 2,926 properties, 800 are reportedly empty while others are rented out free of charge." [5]

"'There is no threat of collapse or default here. There is only the need for a spending review. And that is what we're doing. I can prove it to you with numbers,' [Bishop Nunzio] Galantino said on Oct. 22." [6]

It is advisable that people not hold their breath waiting for Bishop Nunzio Galantino to show proof.

Perhaps spending ought to be reduced significantly across the board and use the funds that were supposedly earmarked for the poor actually go to the poor.

The good news is that the Catholic Church may be on its way to becoming a poor church.  If it happens, it will be a miracle for the ages.


[1] https://www.irishcentral.com/news/vatican-financial-collapse
[2] https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=43853
[3] Ibid., quoted without hyperlink.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administration_of_the_Patrimony_of_the_Apostolic_See
[5] https://www.theweek.co.uk/103884/is-the-vatican-facing-a-cash-crisis
[6] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vaticans-asset-manager-says-holy-see-is-not-going-broke-64222

Video: Pachamama Idols Taken From The Vatican And Thrown Into The River Tiber

Intriguing video on You Tube  shows Pachamama idols being thrown into the river [1].  "Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. She is also known as the earth/time mother." [2]

Comment:  There are many good people who were never baptized and many bad ones who were.  This blogger believes that baptism alone is not a guaranteed admission into Heaven.  "For many are called, but few are chosen." [3]  Who gets to enter Heaven is for God to decide.  This comment is not  an endorsement of idolatry.


[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfQYHbX38ig
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachamama, quoted without emphasis, hyperlinks and footnote.
[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22%3A14&version=KJV

Proof That The Vatican Is A Shady Secular Institution

On October 21, 2019, CatholicCulture.org  reported as follows, quoted in part [1]:

Using leaked Vatican documents, the Italian journal L’Espresso has revealed details of unauthorized financial transactions, concluding that “the Holy See is facing a scandal that has few precedents in recent history.”

The Vatican Secretariat of State engaged in “reckless speculative operations,” using over $700 million that was taken from the worldwide Peter’s Pence collection, L’Espresso reports. The off-books investments eventually led to an October 1 raid by Vatican prosecutors on the offices of the Secretariat of State.

A memorandum from those prosecutors, which was obtained by L’Espresso, reports “serious indications of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, money laundering, and self-money laundering.”

...

During the period under investigation, the Secretariat of State apparently managed over $700 million brought in by the Peter’s Pence collection, without oversight. The Peter’s Pence collection, taken up each year in Catholic churches around the world, is intended to fund the Pope’s charities.

“Hundreds of millions of Euro destined for the least and the poor are still administered opaquely and with no transparency, as if the Vatican were a merchant bank in an offshore country,” the report claims,” L’Espresso reported.  [Emphasis  added.]

Is anyone not ashamed to be Catholic these days?

When will Catholic clerics around the world stage a protest?  It is not likely it will happen any time soon.  They are smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds them.  Is it not always easier to serve Satan than to serve Christ?

Story Behind The Supposed Resignation Of Vatican Police Chief Domenico Giani

Catholic Herald  reported as follows on October 10, 2019 [1]:

The Vatican police “raided” offices in the Secretariat of State and the financial oversight office known as the Financial Information Authority (AIF) last week [on October 2, 2019, by "Giani's men" [2]]. Five officials were suspended: four lay people and one monsignor. The incident made headlines, and then fell off the radar pretty quickly. Why?

Part of the reason is that it has been tough to get details regarding the case. L’Espresso reported that the seizure of documents and hardware from the Secretariat of State and the suspensions were in connection with a series of operations related to a €200 million (£178 million, $247 million) real estate deal in London gone sideways. Beyond saying that the Vatican police took documents and hardware in connection with an ongoing investigation and acknowledging the reported suspensions, the Vatican has offered no details regarding the case.

There is an inconsistency between the Catholic Herald  and Catholic News Agency (see below) and between the Catholic Herald  and Life Site News (see below) as to the currency but not the amount of the real estate investment.  It is therefore unclear whether the 200 million is in US dollars or Euro.

Since the Vatican has so adeptly obscure the facts, nobody outside of it knows the whole truth, but the sense is that this investment has not panned out as expected.  Here is a peek at the nature of the investment from Catholic News Agency [3], quoted without hyperlink:

According to Financial Times, Vatican police and prosecutors are investigating the possibility of improprieties in a 2014 $200 million investment made through Athena Capital, a Luxembourg investment fund, which financed a stake in the development of a luxury apartment project in London. That investment, along with a nearly $50 million 2018 investment in the same property, has raised questions about the internal control of Vatican money held in international banks and investment vehicles, especially after repeated efforts to bring financial practices into line with international practices and standards.

and from Life Site News [4]:

The Financial Times  reported yesterday that the Holy See became involved in the London real estate project, which involves the development of 45 luxury apartments, when “$200m held in Swiss bank accounts controlled by the Secretariat of State was transferred to a Luxembourg investment fund called Athena Capital.”

 “Athena is owned by the Italian London-based financier Raffaele Mincione through his company WRM,” FT continued.

“Athena had bought the Chelsea building for £129m in 2012 and then sold a minority stake in the project in 2014 to a fund it managed on behalf of the Vatican as a sole client. In 2018, the Vatican bought out the remaining equity in 60 Sloane Avenue from Athena. Mr Mincione’s vehicle earned around £130m from the project overall.”

...

Mincione is believed to have made a £128 million profit when the Vatican bought his share in the London property for £168 million.

At the center of this complicated mess was "Cardinal Giovanni Becciu, who was from 2011 until 2018 the second-ranking official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, and was in 2018 appointed to head the Congregation for the Causes of Saints." [5]

Quoted below is from another article with a bit of information on Giovanni Becciu [6]:

Libero Milone, selected by Francis to be the first auditor general, was unceremoniously kicked out of the Vatican in 2017 by the gendarmerie before he was able to finish his work for alleged double-dipping on expenses amounting to $33,000. All charges against him have since been dropped, and Milone, who had accused a former papal chief of staff, now Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, of financial malfeasance, has said his ouster was politically motivated.

There is so much that is wrong with the Vatican, but this is to be expected.  May Pope Francis live a very long and healthy life to witness the fulfillment of Saint Malachy's prophesy [7]:

The prediction in full is: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End.”

What the quoted prediction is unclear on is what will Peter the Roman feed his flock?  Baloney, maybe?  What is also unclear is whether the destruction will be a physical crumbling, a bankruptcy or a dwindling of the number of Catholics [8], [9] (except in Sub-Saharan Africa [10]), or some other kind of destruction, like a schism or an invasion.  It is clear that there will be a Judge, but unclear as to when the Judge will start judging.


[1] https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/a-vatican-money-mystery-that-leads-back-to-london/
[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vatican-raid-resignation/vatican-security-chief-resigns-after-uproar-over-leak-idUSKBN1WT1PI
[3] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-becciu-at-center-of-vatican-financial-investigation-63504
[4] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/financial-times-top-cardinal-implicated-in-vatican-financial-corruption-scandal
[5] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-becciu-at-center-of-vatican-financial-investigation-63504
[6] https://religionnews.com/2019/10/07/making-sense-of-the-vaticans-looming-financial-scandal/
[7] https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/st-malachy-prophecy-pope-francis
[8] http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2019/10/18/%e2%80%9cdis-evangelized%e2%80%9d-amazon-the-numbers-of-a-catholic-church-reduced-by-half/
[9] https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/
[10] http://graphics.wsj.com/catholics-world/

Pope's Own Words On Hypocrisy

The paragraph quoted below is from an October 15, 2019, article published by Vatican News [1]:

In his homily at Mass on Tuesday, Pope Francis says that Jesus does not tolerate hypocrisy. “We must be cured of hypocrisy,” he said, “and the medicine is knowing how to point the finger at ourselves before God”, since whoever is unable to do so is “not a good Christian”.

The medicine that cures hypocrisy prescribed by the "holy" Father begs these questions:

1.  Are there good Christians who are not hypocrites in the world?

2.  If there are, who are they, and where can they be found?

3.  Is the pope himself a good Christian who can admit before God that he is not and has never been a hypocrite?

4.  When one points one's finger at oneself and senses remorse, does one automatically become a good Christian who can resist the Devil and who will never again be hypocritical?

5.  How many times can one point one's finger at oneself and regret being hypocritical before the very act of finger-pointing at oneself is itself an act of hypocrisy?

6.  How many Catholic priests point their fingers at themselves?

7.  Who are the non-hypocritical Catholic priests who really walk in the footsteps of Christ to the point of willing to die on a cross for Christ?

Furthermore, the article also reported as follows [2]:

He goes on to explain that “a hypocritical attitude stems from the great liar, the devil”. The Pope says the devil is the “great hypocrite”, adding that all other hypocrites are his “heirs”.

Based on the above statement, that being a hypocrite seems to be the Devil's fault and that having been a hypocrite, one has irrevocably become the Devil's "heir" as if Free Will no longer exists.

And why not blame the Devil, just as Eve blamed the Serpent, and Adam blamed Eve?


[1] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope-francis/mass-casa-santa-marta/2019-10/pope-francis-mass-santa-marta-homily-hypocrites.html
[2] Ibid.

Interesting Observation By Bishop Johnny Eduardo Reyes of Puerto Ayacucho

"A Venezuelan bishop, speaking at the Amazon Synod, has remarked that at a time when the Amazon region (among others) suffers from a severe shortage of priests, there is an enormous number of priests now living in Rome. 'It cannot be that they’re all studying in Rome,' said Bishop Johnny Eduardo Reyes of Puerto Ayacucho." [1]

Hypocrisy aside, is this not human nature?  How many priests (shepherds) deep down really want to work among "sheep" in the Amazon region and smell like "sheep" when they can live in Rome and smell like a rose?


[1] https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=43803

No Mercy For Bergoglio's Bodyguard

When one reads the paragraphs quoted below [1], does one really believe that the resignation was not coerced but voluntary?

Pope Francis' chief bodyguard has resigned over the leak of a Vatican police flyer identifying five Holy See employees who were suspended as part of a financial investigation.

The Vatican said Monday that Vatican police chief Domenico Giani bore no responsibility for the leaked flyer but resigned so as not to disrupt the investigation and "out of love for the church and faithfulness" to the pope.

Perhaps the truth is hidden in two of the final paragraphs of another article dated October 14, 2019, quoted below [2]:

Francis met with Giani in recent days and thanked him for his service, professionalism and willingness to step aside as "an expression of freedom and institutional sensitivity," the Vatican said.

...

Giani said he was leaving at a difficult time, but was looking forward to spending more time with his wife and two children.

Giani is now without a job and salary.  He needs both to support himself and his loved ones.  Perhaps he can take comfort in these words of his former boss from an article dated July 14, 2019 [3]:

“Mercy towards a human life in a state of need is the true face of love” Pope Francis said, explaining that it is by loving the other that one  becomes a true disciple of Jesus and that the face of the Father is revealed.

Was "the face of the Father" being revealed to Giani when Bergoglio "thanked him for his service..."?  Many would probably be curious to see a photograph of that face.  Perhaps it would be similar to the photograph that appeared in one of the articles quoted above [4].  Is that the universal face of kindness, mercy and love?  Or, it is more like the image below?

pinrest.com

[1] https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/popes-bodyguard-resigns-over-new-financial-leaks-scandal/ar-AAILsDx
[2] https://www.yahoo.com/news/popes-bodyguard-resigns-over-financial-132403706.html
[3] https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-07/pope-angelus-catechesis-good-samaritan-mercy.html
[4] https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/popes-bodyguard-resigns-over-new-financial-leaks-scandal/ar-AAILsDx

Science Or Something Satanic?

"Human-animal hybrids, also known as ‘chimeras’, are creatures with a mixture of human and animal cells. They are created by injecting human stem cells into the embryo of another animal." [1]

"Researchers led by Spanish scientist Juan Carlos Izpisúa have created for the first time a human-monkey hybrid in a laboratory in China – an important step towards using animals for human organ transplants, project collaborator Estrella Núñez confirmed to EL PAÍS." [2]

"[A]ccording to El País, Izpisúa Belmonte may have collaborated with monkey researchers in China to circumvent legal issues in the US and Spain, where research with primates is heavily regulated." [3]

"Under the new Japanese guidelines, a Japanese scientist, Dr Hiromitsu Nakauchi, is the first to receive government approval to produce animal embryos that have human cells and transplant them into surrogate animals...." [4]

"Hiromitsu Nakauchi, who leads teams at the University of Tokyo and Stanford University in California, plans to grow human cells in mouse and rat embryos and then transplant those embryos into surrogate animals. Nakauchi's ultimate goal is to produce animals with organs made of human cells that can, eventually, be transplanted into people." [5]

Is this where science is headed? [6]

Detail of Satan from The Last Judgment (c. 1583) by Jacob de Backer

[1] https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/human-animal-hybrids-can-we-justify-the-experiments/
[2] https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/07/31/inenglish/1564561365_256842.html, quoted without hyperlinks.
[3] https://singularityhub.com/2019/08/13/wait-what-the-first-human-monkey-hybrid-embryo-was-just-created-in-china/
[4] https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_144752, quoted without hyperlinks.
[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02275-3
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan

Comment On A Lecture By A Benedictine Monk

National Endowment For The Humanities published an article entitled  Respected Benedictine monk warns that society is losing its ability to listen [1].  The entirety of which is quoted below:

The work of a Benedictine monk to preserve historical manuscripts has taken him from the grounds of St. John’s University in Minnesota, to the Middle East, to sub-saharan Africa and beyond.

On Monday, the Rev. Columba Stewart’s travels took to him to the Warner Theater in Washington D.C., where he delivered the Jefferson Lecture, billed as the National Endowment for the Humanities’ most widely attended annual event and the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

Stewart, wearing his full traditional religious habit, detailed during the prestigious lecture the effort to save from destruction historical manuscripts around the world by the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, where he serves as executive director.

The monk and scholar issued a stark warning during his talk on the need for humanity to understand each other in a message that transcended race, religion and political differences. To his diverse audience, his message was a simple one that has been his first rule of life as a Benedictine monk: “Listen."

“We are at great risk of losing the ability to listen,” Stewart said, “and therefore losing our ability to understand.”

“The terrain for rational discourse has shrunk to a narrow strip between camps defined and limited by their political views, religious beliefs, racial or ethnic identity,” he said.

Stewart said that “the discipline of listening is now an endangered art.” But, he added, “equally endangered are the stores of wisdom contained in the manuscripts of the world, targeted by those fearful of difference.”

The Hill Museum and Manuscript Library has dedicated itself to preserving historical manuscripts on microfilm, especially those in areas where they may be destroyed. Stewart’s work has led him across the globe, from the deserts of Iraq and Mali to the jungles and savannahs of Ethiopia. Manuscripts have been preserved in Lebanon, Syria, Austria, France, and everywhere in between.

And his organization’s work could not be more timely. With the invasion of ISIS into western Iraq in 2014, the Syrian civil war, and terrorist groups active in Africa, many manuscripts and priceless historical artifacts have been destroyed. But thanks to the work of the library, microfilm copies were made of many of them, preserving the manuscripts for future generations.

Stewart invoked the centuries old stereotype of a monk studiously hunched over a book at a desk, pen in hand, to describe the work to which he has devoted his life.

“A belief in the power of words” drove monks from centuries ago to painfully copy manuscripts — and the ones of today continue to preserve them, he said.

“To know what is most important to [a] people, to understand the questions they asked, and what gave them purpose and identity, we need to read their manuscripts,” Stewart said.

In his worldwide mission to preserve those manuscripts, the Benedictine monk has found himself in some of the most volatile places on Earth.

In Syria, Stewart said, a Greek orthodox patriarch and his Assyriac counterpart in Aleppo were prominent supporters of his work several years ago. But as the situation in Syria rapidly deteriorated with the civil war and the rise of the Islamic State, the two clergymen disappeared and were never heard from again, he said.

Many of the physical manuscripts that the two helped the library preserve were subsequently destroyed, but thanks to the microfilm project, they live on elsewhere.

The origin of the preservation project traces back to the aftermath of World War II and the ongoing Cold War’s threats of nuclear winter. By the turn of the century, Stewart said that 85,000 manuscripts had been preserved in microfilm. And not just Christian manuscripts, but Jewish, Islamic and other historical manuscripts too. He noted that all three of those intellectual traditions are driven by people who listen.

“It is often said that Jews, Christians and Muslims are people of the book, even if not of the same book. We are, all three traditions, people of many books,” Stewart said. “As are those who follow ancient philosophies and other ancient traditions.”

“In those books are stories, reflections on stories, ideas spun by human observation and experience. Attempts to trace how our universe exists and functions in space and time. These books changed the world because their words were heard. They were taken seriously. Serious enough to prompt rebuttal or controversy, admiration or adoption. But they were heard.”

Granted that it is important to listen and to understand.  However it is a waste of time to listen and understand without a willingness to accept what is heard and understood.  Humility is necessary for acceptance.  Acceptance is a precondition for love.  Love is what Christ wants everyone to do.



[1] https://www.neh.gov/news/respected-benedictine-monk-warns-society-losing-its-ability-listen

Satan, Liar And Tempter, And The Coming Of The Antichrist

Satan's first lied, then tempted, quoted without references [1]:

"You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman.  ^"For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

After Adam who chose to disobey God and ate the forbidden fruit that Eve gave to him, God said: "you are dust and to dust you will return." [2]

Satan lied to ruin man.  Satan is envious of man and will do anything to possess his soul and send it to Hell for an eternity.  There are people that are, so to speak, low hanging fruit for Satan to pick and ruin easily.  They are the ones who on the surface appear bold but who are actually timid and insecure, who rely on lies to prop themselves up to hide their innate weaknesses, who are scared to death of the truth which ironically is their own powerlessness combined with their nothingness.  When stripped of their influence, liars will tremble.  Not even mountains of denials can cover up the inevitable realization that they are dust and to dust they will return.

Fearing and denying the truth is no different from fearing and denying God.  Those who fear God and try to do the right things by God will probably have God's mercy.  Those who deny God and submits willingly to Satan seal their own fate, one that an eternity of regret will likely not reverse.

Liars, like Satan, hide behind crooked ways.  What they say has no bearing upon what they do.  Liars prefer twists and turns, resembling snakes that zigzag around, especially those venomous two-headed ones.

Nowadays, lies are so ubiquitous that they have become the norm.  A good liar is also a good tempter because a liar can make anything sound good and believable since he knows he will not and cannot make his promises come true.

As more and more two-faced liars attain positions of power, people around the world are beginning to have a cloudier and cloudier sense of the truth.  This progression paves the way for the rise of the Antichrist.  The Antichrist impersonates Christ.  By the time it appears, people would be so accustomed to liars and their lies that most would not be able to tell that the Antichrist is not the true Christ.

Is the world coming to an end?  Not imminently but it seems to be meandering gradually toward it.


[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3B&version=NRSVCE
[2] Ibid.