German Journalist Calls Pope Francis a Relativizer

Alexander Kissler is a German author and journalist who is responsible for the Culture Section of the German intellectual journal Cicero. He is also one of the few open critics of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Open Door Politics with regard to the immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa. He had, for example, an outcry of indignation after the Cologne incident on New Year’s Eve in 2015, where hundreds of women were aggressively pursued by “North Africans, most of them asylum seekers.”

Now he has directed his indignation toward the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis. The cause of it is Pope Francis’ recent 17 May La Croix interview. First, Kissler commented on this interview on Twitter with the following words: “Relativistic sillynesses which are directed against one’s own Church. A Pontifex as a loose cannon.”

Then Kissler followed up with a 19 May article, entitled “A Relatively Catholic Pope” which has already found wide distribution. This article appeared not only in the journal Cicero, but also in the popular magazine FOCUS, under another title, namely: “This is Why This Pope Does Damage to His Own Church.” In the following, I will quote from the Cicero version of his article.

Kissler says that this pope is “practicing a voluble relativism” which has come clear once more in this recent interview of his. With this, Kissler says, “he is damaging the Church and confusing the world.”

In an ironic tone, the journalist wonders: “Probably, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is exactly such a relativizer who is conscious of his power, voluble and relatively uninterested in the Catholic Faith.” Pope Francis, according to Kissler, appeared on the “pontifical stage” by saying “Good evening,” and then proceeded to always have a joke on his lips. However, says Kissler, these jokes and “grammatical half measures” have now become “stale and wounding.” The German author continues: “This pontificate runs the danger of damaging the Church and of pleasing a world which continues to remain skeptical about everything ecclesial. Francis is offending Catholics without finding new believers among the non-Catholics. The numbers of Catholics leaving the Church continue to remain high, the number of new priests modest, and the extraordinary Year of Mercy as declared by Pope Francis lures only few people to go to Rome.”

In Kissler’s eyes, Pope Francis “relativizes the distinctiveness of the office” by talking so much and by giving so many interviews. He boldly claims that this pope – as proven in this later interview with La Croix – tries, even with the help of sillynesses and “affronts against his own Church”, to get approval from “those tribunes of the world who do not expect anything from him.”

Alexander Kissler is indignant about Pope Francis’ “drawing a direct connection from the mass-murdering terror of the ‘Islamic State’ and its ‘War of Conquest’ over to the mission of the disciples sent by Jesus which could be interpreted in the sense of ‘the same idea of conquest.’” Kissler comments with the words: “The Church as a potential terrorist organization – is this a derailment or more?” and then continues:

In the face of such a counter-to-fact contraction, what might the Christians now think who are running for their lives away from fanaticized Muslims? Do they now feel consoled, understood and strengthened by their Supreme Shepherd – or cynically abandoned? Whoever compares everything with everything, loses the foothold, misses one’s own bearing What does it say about a Church whose own chief has difficulties with the profession of Christ’s salvific necessity?

It is obvious that this man, Mr. Kissler, has a just sense of indignation and desperation about the phenomenon of Pope Francis. He continues in his article to show the irrationality of a pope claiming that there are wars in the world “because there are weapon producers” (“As if mankind did not wage wars earlier with the mere help of bare hands and stones….”); he argues against Francis’ “anti-capitalism which is not well thought through”; he shows how Professor Robert Spaemann criticizes the pope for his “situation ethics”; Kissler also questions with regard to the “female deacons” whether the pope knows what he is talking about; he shows how the pope keeps talking even though he himself constantly warns against “gossip and chatter”; the journalist also is indignant about Francis’ constant “scolding of the priests” (“One does not want to be a priest under this pontificate.”); Kissler sees relativizing tendencies with regard to the papal text Amoris Laetitia (“A pope, however, who turns everything into fluid, is no rock.”); and, finally, Kissler refers to the pope’s words on 24 April 2016 at the “International Earth Day” meeting in Rome – namely, that it does not matter which religion one belongs to – and then comments: “The problem is not, that someone talks like Pope Francis – the problem is that it is a pope who talks like that.”

Kissler concludes his article with the piercing words that the pope should not try to become a “UN General Secretary with a Pectoral Cross” or a “Dalai Lama turned white” but, rather, to do the “essential duties of a pope,” namely: “to herd the sheep and to lead mankind to Christ.”

The Muslim Sack of Rome and St Peter’s in 846 AD

http://romanchristendom.blogspot.com/2007/09/rome-was-sacked-by-muslims-in-846-ad.html

Rome was sacked by Muslims in 846 AD during the great conquests of Islam after the time of Mohammed.

During the 8th and 9th centuries, the Muslim Arabs (then called Saracens in Europe) were rapaciously invading Christendom through Southern Italy which they succeeded in conquering by fire, murder, rapine and the sword. Sailing from newly acquired bases in North Africa which they had just stolen from the Christians of the Eastern Roman Empire, the had conquered Sicily and were now bent upon seizing the rest of the peninsula.

They had earlier been rebuffed in France in 732 by King Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, but they had got as far as Tours in Nothern France. King Charles was the first to halt their seemingly inexorable advance. Thereafter they retired to Spain and parts of Southern France and settled. They retained their hold on what had once been Catholic Visigothic Spain for the next 800 years! They were not finally ejected from Christian Spain until 1491 by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.

Under Pope Paschal I (817-824), the relics of the holy martyrs were concealed in the walls of the city of Rome. When Rome was sacked, Paschal’s careful precautions did not prevent the wholesale spoliation and robbery of Basilica of Saint Peter itself, nor, indeed, of San Paolo fuori le Mura (St Paul’s outside the Walls), because they both lay outside the walls of the city of Rome.

Later, a second wall was constructed on the other side of the Tiber from the main city area. It was constructed by order of Pope Leo IV and so this enclosure was called the Leonine City.

The Islamic conquest and domination of Sicily, as well as parts of southern Italy began in the 7th century after the foundation of Islam and the attempt by the Muslim leaders to conquer the world.

By Koranic tradition, Islam makes its attempts to re-conquer the world in the 7th or 8th decade of every century and does not stop until it is halted by force. When stopped it generally lies low until the 7th or 8th decade of the next century when it then makes another attempt at world domination.

How, then, can it call itself a religion of peace? It does so because it means by peace the eventual peace that will, it says, be the consequence of the conquest of the world for Islam. In the meantime, however, it is war.

http://www.cicero.de/salon/franziskus-im-interview-ein-relativ-katholischer-papst/60925 FRANCIS INTERVIEW A relatively Catholic Pope FROM ALEXANDER KISSLER 19TH MAY 2016 Pope Francis knows its dangers, to be without their Lord. Kisslers Breakaway: Pope Francis practiced a loquacious relativism. The recent interview brought it once more to light. He hurts the church and confused the world Maybe everything is completely different. Perhaps the pontificate of Pope Francis is actually that played a joke, as the it perceive Well-meaning now. Perhaps followed #Varoufake and #Verafake a #Popefake and Jan Böhmermann has introduced an Argentine stand-up comedian in the Vatican. Or Roberto Benigni has its finger in the pie? Oh, no, probably are things differently, simple: Presumably Jorge Mario Bergoglio is exactly power-conscious, talkative and the Catholic relatively disinterested relativizers how Pope Francis appears more and more. At first it was funny. Since entering a corpulent charmer the pontifical stage and wished "Good evening," gladly "Bon appetit" and always had a Scherzlein on the lips. How we laughed when Bergoglio said to want to defend his mother's honor with slaps, as he praised the parental pat on the infant and Catholics inculcated, they would not like rabbits multiply. That was an unconventional sound to the finely engraved considerations of its predecessor, the antirelativistischen theologian Pope Benedict XVI. Francis compares the IS with the disciples of Jesus Now there was instead a chosen as the top bridge-builder, the well-known half-ironically, to be blessed with "a few theological lights" , the popular anecdotes strung together from the Argentine homeland and was always ready for a prank - and for a sentence without predicate and for more a rhetorical question and another and another exclamation: "That does not matter! (...) Respect yourself, respect yourself! " The jokes and the grammatical half measures have remained, but they are stale and hurtful become. The pontificate threatens the church to harm and to please a world that remains skeptical minded particular Church. Francis pushes Catholics on the head without finding believers among non-Catholics. The exit numbers remain high, the quantities of the new priests manageable, the extraordinary year of mercy, which exclaimed Francis few lures to Rome. Bergoglio are like interviews, likes to talk and likes to laugh. Interviews with the Pope became the global sensation for journalistic everyday business; . well as relativized to the particularity of the Office The interview Francis now was the French weekly newspaper "La Croix" , dispels all doubts: This pope is too good for no folly and no affront against the own church. He vies know sparse to applause from those tribunes of the world, who expect nothing from him. From genocidal terror of the "Islamic State" and the "war of conquest" he proposes a direct bridge to the mission of the disciples by Jesus, which could be interpreted in terms of "the same idea of conquest". The church as a potential terrorist organization - a derailment or more? What may be Christians who run for their lives against fanatical Muslims think in this counterfactual aggregation? Do they feel comforted by her Pastors, understood erected - or left cynically down? Those who compare everything with everything, loses his grip, missed their own entertainment. What does it say about a church, though their chief to schwertut with a commitment to the necessity for salvation of Christ? Unreflective anti-capitalism Also of Francis in "La Croix" accomplished harmony between Cross and headscarf - a garment the one instrument of torture and confession symbol the other - and its relativistic turn of the Christian roots of Europe to also Christian roots of Europe emptied the papal speech. Precise Francis was not at the root question of vagueness is the authenticity mark all chatting. It obeys the motto "Nothing definite you do not know". At least naive if not foolish was then the papal thesis wars there would be, "because there are arms producers". As if the war were already been out with bare hands and stones as if not jerrycans, stick, spear had almost been enough to put the genocide of the Hutu against the Tutsi to the factory. Etc. pp. An unreflective anti-capitalism leads the Pope astray. The talker is all one. He lives in the situation and any new situation will force new attention techniques. What comes next, the wind carries them. Francis appears as a protagonist of a "pure situational ethics" (Robert Spaemann). He has appeared now situationally, in district of nuns, a debate on the admissibility of deaconesses in the Roman Catholic Church going . He was again the theological Immaculate and encouraged to aufzuhelfen own ignorance, a Commission. This should clarify what it "in the early days of the Church" with the deaconesses was all about. A Pope should know that this question in 2002 by the International Theological Commission of the Vatican under the title, however, "The diaconate: Development and Perspectives" has been treated broadly. Will Francis get his way for revaluation against then Expertise? Was it all just said so then, because it's nice and cute walked among women? Did he not know? He does not want to talk - and do it but constantly Bergoglio knows its dangers, to be without their Lord. Touched by tragedy plays around him. No other topic has devoted Francis of the early days of the pontificate more attention than the warning of chatter and talk: "How much chatter there are in the church how much we talk Christians yet! The gossip - that's when you pull each other's skin off, do not "(18th May 2013) " The Expert cleaves the Community , the chatter destroys the community. They are the weapons of the devil "(January 23, 2014). " Chatter and clapping is terrorism because of the chattering and clapping, like a terrorist is who throws a bomb and then runs away, he destroyed: destroyed with his tongue he . "(September 4, 2015) " and the chatter kills "! (January 21, 2016) " We want to ask the grace of unity for all Christians (...) and for the grace to us to bite your tongue " - said Francis on May 12, 2016 morning in Santa Marta, and arose to the nuns. Every person is a chasm. In one case, Francis is not relative but absolute: in his priest scolding. Priests would not be in this pontificate. Beatings from the front, beatings from behind holding the Bishop of Rome ready for them. Clericalism is his worst insult, even now in the "La Croix" interview. The priesthood is built in papal perception close to sadism as easily govern forefinger and threatening behavior, ambition and a potential "torture chamber" called confessional. Shrill, unjust can the pastoral reality, at least in the West, where a cozy Eiapopeia proclamation dominated, not recorded. Since it is no wonder that on vatikanischem land and also in the Italian Episcopal Conference, the mood is so bad not seen since the days of the Risorgimento. Hardly anyone does not feel snubbed, not groans when the Regiment of whims spring up surprises. A UN Secretary General with pectoral cross Robert Spaemann critique of "pure situational ethics" refers to the recently published Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Amoris laetitia" . Thus Francis fully draw on the field of marriage, family and divorce a break with the tradition of teaching, their consequences are foreseen: "uncertainty and confusion of the Episcopal Conferences to the little priest in the jungle. (...) The chaos was charged with a stroke of the pen to the principle. The Pope should have known that it splits the church with such a step and leads toward a schism. "According to Francis - so Spaemann reading - is the dividing line between" objectively sinful "and" godly behavior "no longer absolute. A pope but which liquefies everything is not a rock. As the thus derided on April 24 this year as a surprise guest at a "rally for social justice and environmental protection" on the occasion of "International Day of the Earth" showed up in the park of the Roman Villa Borghese, he said spontaneously and situationally: Whether someone "this religion" or "the religion" belonged, games "not matter! All precede together to work together. Respect yourself, respect it! " Not that anyone speaks as Francis speaks is the problem - but that a pope speaks like that. And that therefore a pope, which nothing should go through the faith of the apostles, is indistinguishable in the ranks of the secular lords. When the "high priest of the universal Church" wants to be a robed in white Dalai Lama, a UN Secretary General with pectoral cross, then the essential tasks of the Pope to contingencies, may be where held depending on the situation to three doses, or not: the herd to graze, to lead people to Christ. From Francis no territorial gains are to be expected in this spiritual core business. Sustainability, humility, accountability and faith formation is not his thing. The successor will assume a spiritually emaciated and unsettled Church. This tragedy will survive the pontificate of the man from the other side of the world.

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