Pope Francis, Get Out of Venezuela. You’re Only Making Things Worse.

Miami Herald ^ | February 8, 2017 | Andres Oppenheimer

[BlessedBeGod]

Many of us have praised Pope Francis for his humbleness and for his tolerance toward victims of discrimination who had long been neglected by the Vatican, but it’s time to tell him loud and clear: Get out of Venezuela.

The Vatican’s mediation effort in Venezuela has been — to use a word much in vogue in Washington these days — a disaster. It has legitimized that country’s authoritarian ruler Nicolás Maduro, throwing him a lifeline when millions of protesters were demanding his resignation on the streets in October 2016. And it has helped him get back on his feet by further cracking down on the opposition.

Several interviews with Venezuelan opposition leaders and Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro this week convinced me that the Vatican’s mediation, and the opposition coalition’s failure to officially suspend it, have become the biggest obstacles for a solution to Venezuela’s political and economic crisis.

The Vatican’s mediation alongside that of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) — a group that has done virtually nothing but defend populist demagogues in the hemisphere — failed to result in any action. Maduro didn’t release Leopoldo Lopez and other prominent political prisoners, and as he has increased the overall number of political prisoners from 83 last year to 108 today, according to the Foro Penal research group’s figures.

In addition, the Maduro regime has invalidated the Venezuelan people’s constitutional right to call a recall referendum, and has taken away the most important powers of the opposition-controlled National Assembly.

The regime also has taken away Congress’ right to impeach the president and pick members of the National Electoral Council and to approve the national budget. Nearly 80 percent of Venezuelans now oppose Maduro, according to a recent Datanalisis poll.

Venezuela is now in a catastrophic paralysis amid political and economic chaos — inflation is projected to surpass 1,000 percent this year, a world record — widespread food shortages and South America’s highest violence levels.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that, to restore democracy in Venezuela, the United States and Latin American countries should implement the OAS Democratic Charter, which calls for gradual collective diplomatic sanctions against countries that break the rule of law.

But in an interview this week, Almagro told me that his hands are tied for as long as the Vatican-UNASUR mediation remains officially alive.

“While the Vatican remains there, we will definitely not take any action to move forward with the Democratic Charter,” Almagro told me. “If they tell us that that dialogue is over, and there is a formal communication by both the opposition and the Vatican to that effect, we will restart whatever work is needed.”

He added that, as of today, the paralysis in Venezuela is a result “of the Vatican’s presence and of a wait-and-see attitude by the Venezuelan opposition.”

My opinion: Three key things should happen for Venezuela to get out of its downward spiral.

First, the Venezuelan opposition and the Vatican should officially announce that the current mediation is over. They should officially declare Venezuela a dictatorship because Maduro has broken the rule of law, especially since he stripped away all major powers from the National Assembly after the opposition won the Dec. 6, 2015, elections by a landslide.

Second, the opposition-majority Venezuelan National Assembly should officially request the OAS to activate the Democratic Charter to impose regional diplomatic sanctions on the Maduro regime. For that to happen, the OAS needs the votes of a majority of Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Third, President Donald Trump must stop insulting Mexico, and by extension all of Latin America, in order to get most countries in the region to vote for diplomatic sanctions under the OAS Democratic Charter. Otherwise, Maduro will portray himself as the victim of a U.S. plot, and most countries will not want to be seen as allies of a U.S. president who despises the region.

Unless these steps are taken, I’m afraid Venezuela will continue on its downward spiral. It’s time to put an end to this drama. Pope Francis should take the first step, and stop being an obstacle in the restoration of democratic rule in Venezuela.

[ETL]

This pope is a proponent of communist “Liberation Theology”.

[ETL]

Re: This pope is a proponent of communist "Liberation Theology".

The Real Story Behind Rev. Wright's Controversial Black Liberation Theology Doctrine

Monday, May 5, 2008
FoxNews/Hannity's America
[special Friday night edition--original airdate May 2, 2008]

(some key excerpts)

JOSE DIAZ-BALART, TELEMUNDO NETWORK: "Liberation theology in Nicaragua in the mid-1980's was a pro-Sandinista, pro-Marxist, anti-U.S., anti-Catholic Church movement. That's it. No ifs, ands, or buts. His church apparently supported, in the mid-'80s in Nicaragua, groups that supported the Sandinista dictatorships and that were opposed to the Contras whose reason for being was calling for elections. That's all I know. I was there.

I saw the churches in Nicaragua that he spoke of, and the churches were churches that talked about the need for violent revolution and I remember clearly one of the major churches in Managua where the Jesus Christ on the altar was not Jesus Christ, he was a Sandinista soldier, and the priests talked about the corruption of the West, talked about the need for revolution everywhere, and talked about 'the evil empire' which was the United States of America."

REV. BOB SCHENCK, NATIONAL CLERGY COUNCIL: "it's based in Marxism. At the core of his [Wright's] theology is really an anti-Christian understanding of God, and as part of a long history of individuals who actually advocate using violence in overthrowing those they perceive to be oppressing them, even acts of murder have been defended by followers of liberation theology. That's very, very dangerous."

SCHENCK: "I was actually the only person escorted to Dr. Wright. He asked to see me, and I simply welcomed him to Washington, and then I said Dr. Wright, I want to bring you a warning: your embrace of Marxist liberation theology. It is contrary to the Gospel, and you need, sir, to abandon it. And at that he dropped the handshake and made it clear that he was not in the mood to dialogue on that point."

Source: The Real Story Behind Rev. Wright's Controversial Black Liberation Theology Doctrine:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
____________________________________________

"Their founding document [the Weather Underground's] called for the establishment of a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other "anti-colonial" movements[1] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world: world communism."..."-Berger, Dan (2006). Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity. AK Press, 95.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_Underground#cite_ref-Berger_0-0

Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (Paperback) by Dan Berger
http://www.amazon.com/Outlaws-America-Underground-Politics-Solidarity/dp/1904859410
____________________________________________

From the New York Times, August 24, 2003

"they [the Weather Underground] employed revolutionary jargon, advocated armed struggle and black liberation and began bombing buildings, taking responsibility for at least 20 attacks. Estimates of their number ranged at times from several dozen to several hundred."

Article: Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DE1539F937A1575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2
____________________________________________

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and Dr. William Ayers
are greeted by Rebekah Levin with the Committee
for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine.
(Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune / May 17, 2009)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ayers_wrightmay18,0,6689521.story

[onedoug]

The pope has never met a despot he didn’t want to curl up with.

[ETL]

Obama's Church: Gospel of Hate

Kathy Shaidle, FrontPageMag.com
Monday, April 07, 2008

In March of 2007, FOX News host Sean Hannity had engaged Obama's pastor in a heated interview about his Church's teachings. For many viewers, the ensuing shouting match was their first exposure to "Black Liberation Theology"...

Like the pro-communist Liberation Theology that swept Central America in the 1980s and was repeatedly condemned by Pope John Paul II, Black Liberation Theology combines warmed-over 1960s vintage Marxism with carefully distorted biblical passages. However, in contrast to traditional Marxism, it emphasizes race rather than class. The Christian notion of "salvation" in the afterlife is superseded by "liberation" on earth, courtesy of the establishment of a socialist utopia.

http://web.archive.org/web/20090321190904/http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=30CD9E14-B0C9-4F8C-A0A6-A896F0F44F02
__________________________________

Catholics for Marx [Liberation Theology]

By Fr. Robert Sirico
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, June 03, 2004

In the days when the Superpowers were locked in a Cold War, Latin America seethed with revolution, and millions lived behind an iron curtain, a group of theologians concocted a novel idea within the history of Christianity. They proposed to combine the teachings of Jesus with the teachings of Marx as a way of justifying violent revolution to overthrow the economics of capitalism.

The Gospels were re-rendered not as doctrine impacting on the human soul but rather as windows into the historical dialectic of class struggle. These "liberation theologians" saw every biblical criticism of the rich as a mandate to expropriate the expropriating owners of capital, and every expression of compassion for the poor as a call for an uprising by the proletarian class of peasants and workers.

http://web.archive.org/web/20090321190909/http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=460782B7-35CC-4C9E-A2C5-93832067C7CD

************************************************************

Re: James Cone, founder of "Black Liberation Theology":

SEAN HANNITY: But Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not backing down and has not for years and in his strong stance on the teaching of black liberation theology is nothing new. He had the same things to say last spring when he appeared on "Hannity & Colmes:"

WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the '60s, systematized black liberation theology that started with Jim Cone in 1968 and the writings of Cone and the writings of Dwight Hopkins and the writings of womynist theologians and Asian theologians and Hispanic theologians, then you can't talk about the black value system.

HANNITY: But I'm a - reverend

WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354158,00.html
______________________________________

The Black church and Marxism: what do they have to say to each other
by Cone, James H. 1938- . Harrington, Michael 1928-1989

https://archive.org/details/TheBlackChurchAndMarxismWhatDoTheyHaveToSayToEachOther

[batterycommander]

Perhaps all these Venezuelans should get on a boat and head for San Francisco, the sanctuary city within the Ninth Circus and see how they can cope there. I’m sure the Pope can acquire a papal tub to get them there.

[marron]

They should rally another one of their million-strong protest marches. Have a priest pronounce last rites over the crowd, and then march on the president’s palace.

Parallel to that, they could have a flying squad armed to take out soldiers who open fire on the peaceful marchers as they climb over the fence into the palace.

[marktwain]

This is an incredible tragedy. It is as if a pope sought to desperately prop up the Soviet Union.

[GOPJ]

“There are an estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, according to Vatican figures. More than 40% of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America - but Africa has seen the biggest growth in Catholic congregations in recent years.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-21443313

Socialism ‘works’ for ‘the elite few’ if it had 1.2 billion people donating to keep it afloat.

[GOPJ]

“There are an estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, according to Vatican figures. More than 40% of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America - but Africa has seen the biggest growth in Catholic congregations in recent years.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-21443313

Socialism ‘works’ for ‘the elite few’ when it has 1.2 billion people donating to keep it afloat.

[LeonardFMason]

Can’t wait till His (ASS) Holiness retires.

[ETL]

Liberation Theology and the KGB

Jay Richards | February 2, 2010

The presence of Marxism in liberation theology is well-known, at least to seminarians who are critical readers. Practically every seminarian reads Gustavo Gutierrez's Theology of Liberation at some point, but most laypeople find it hard to believe that there could have been (and continues to be) a widespread attempt to hybridize Christian theology and Marxism.

Marxist regimes obviously benefited from the spread of liberation theology in the churches. Still, I was not aware of any connections between liberation theology and communist clandestine organizations until now.

A new article by Robert D. Chapman in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence begins to connect some dots. In "The Church in Revolution," Chapman, "a retired operations officer in the Clandestine Services Division of the Central Intelligence Agency," argues that the KGB infiltrated the Russian Orthodox Church through Metropolitan Nikodim, the Russian Orthodoxy's second-ranking prelate. Nikodim was a proponent of liberation theology. Nikodim was active in the otherwise-Protestant World Council of Churches. And the WCC, of course, became an actively left-wing organization during the last half of the 20th century.

Chapman also details the growth of liberation theology in Latin America-and the Vatican's struggles with it-and the growth of black liberation theology in the United States. Prominent proponents of the latter include James Cone and Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The arguments of liberation theologians should be challenged on their merits. The source of an argument, after all, doesn't establish its truth or falsity. Still, it's interesting to learn that liberation theology may have been, at least in part, a project of the KGB.

Unfortunately, this isn't just history. Chapman concludes ominously:

"the Theology of Liberation doctrine is one of the most enduring and powerful to emerge from the KGB's headquarters. The doctrine asks the poor and downtrodden to revolt and form a Communist government, not in the name of Marx or Lenin, but in continuing the work of Jesus Christ, a revolutionary who opposed economic and social discrimination.

A friend of mine, a head of Catholic social services in my area and formerly a priest, is a liberation theologian. He has made a number of humanitarian trips to Central America and told me, "liberation theology is alive and well." The same can be said of its sibling in the United States [ie, Black Liberation Theology]."

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2010/02/liberation-theology-and-the-kgb/

************************************************************

More on Liberation Theology and the Soviets
Catholic News Agency ^ | 5/15/2015 | Alejandro Bermudez

If the Soviet bloc wasn't the mother of liberation theology, it was certainly a sinister stepmother, enlisting Catholics in a geopolitical cause and inviting them to sell their souls for funding and support.

Only the naive can disregard the mountain of evidence connecting liberation theology with Soviet action in the region.

(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...

Liberation Theology and the KGB