Posted on 03/19/2009 5:06:17 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Pope Benedict's repeated gaffes and the Vatican's inability to manage his message in the internet era are threatening to undermine his papacy, Vatican insiders have said.
The Holy See is struggling to contain international anger over the Pope's claim on his first official visit to Africa that Aids "cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".
The Pope's remarks about condoms, and a recent furore over his lifting of the 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who has questioned the Holocaust, has left him looking isolated and out of touch, prompting calls for a radical shake-up of the way the Holy See delivers its message.
The Pope is isolated and fails to adequately consult his advisers, said a Vatican source with 20 years' knowledge of the Holy See.
Another Vatican insider described Pope Benedict's four-year-old papacy as "a disaster", recalling the pontiff's previous inflammatory remarks on Islam and homosexuality.
"He's out of touch with the real world," the Italian insider said. "On the condom issue, for example, there are priests and bishops in Africa who accept that condoms are a key part of the fight against Aids, and yet the pope adheres to this very conservative line that they encourage promiscuity. The Vatican is far removed from the reality on the ground."
The Vatican's traditional culture of secrecy has made it ill-equipped to communicate its message in the internet age.
The Holy See claimed that the Pope had no idea that British bishop Richard Williamson had denied the extent of the Holocaust, but critics have pointed out that a simple Google search would have uncovered the maverick's anti-Semitic views.
"Until recently the Vatican was secretive and their way of controlling the message of the Church was to release information slowly and highly
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The world population, either 3/4 or 2/3, I am working from memory. Some Church officials made comments about the Indonesian tsunami as being part of or the beginning of the chastisement.
Our Lady of Good Success gave prophecies similar to Fatima. Everything comes together for this point in time.
Dunno. Never heard that one before. The prophesy I am remembering...seems like it came from a former pope. Just can’t remember for sure. It’s been too long and my brain is too old and tired.
Can’t recall. Sorry. I was just fishing for info from freepers with better memories than I.
This pope is devout, conservative and effective. That’s why liberals (like this “insider”) hate him.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . . another example of
the great torrent of the Vatican milk of human kindness by the gallon in every chalice?
How sweet.
Methinks the posts by such attitudes SHOULD be in one mass of text to prevent more folks from bothering to read them.
That’s a great idea!
Here are some more:
Jim DeMint, we got your back.
Jim Inhofe, we got your back.
Sean, we got your back.
Hugh, we got your back.
Czech Republic, we got your back. (I hope.)
Taiwan, we got your back (Gulp.)
I am impressed by how impressed you are with yoursef.
Thanks for the ping!
They really are starting to hit on ALL fronts aren’t they? This is only the beginning...
I’ll be praying that more and more will have their eyes and ears opened to what is going on — AND that God will guide them to the Bible when they come to their realizations.
I really feel sorry for those people who have no clue what it is they are seeing, or are blinded by incredulity.
Isaiah Ch. 5
See Post #41. While Nostradamus did make predictions along these lines, the prophecy the poster was recalling was spoken by St. Nilus all the way back in 430 A.D. — it’s the list of Popes, and according to that prophecy Pope Benedict is the 2nd from the last...
CORRECTION!!!!
I combined two different accounts - there was one by St. Malachy, and a separate one from St. Nilus. Post #41 (not written by me) is accurate where I have been mistaken! :)
My apologies, it’s been a long time since I’ve looked at these particular things...
Much as we may differ on various doctrinal issues, I've been convicted for some time now that it really is time to put that all aside now. It's John 17 time....
Maybe it's the German Lutheran in me, but I've always LOVED this pope. My son has Scout meetings at our local parish, and every time I pass the papal portrait, The Lord nudges me to say a prayer for him.
I see much humility and a love for God in his face, a wise and gentle soul. Also, he loves cats!
Seriesly though, very soon we won't have time to be splitting hairs over transsubstantiation and Holy Water-type of issues: "Is Jesus Lord? Has Jesus Christ come in the flesh? Has God raised Him from the dead?" "YES INDEED? Welcome brother/sister in Christ!"
I guess persecution has a way of paring things down to the essentials of life.
Yep.
In other words, a typical 81-yr-old opinionated academic professor. They just need a younger wily spokesman, "What he means is..."
Why do they expect the pope to be an expert on condoms? Of the people who engage in multiple-partner unsafe sex, how many are sitting around waiting for the Pope for advice on which condoms to buy? That's an absurd argument.
We're closer to a new era of persecution. As religious observance fades, the Pope and Catholics become targets for scapegoating and renewed anti-Catholic bigotry. The blaming the Pope for AIDs meme is a case in point. AIDs didn't exactly start among pious Catholics following the Pope or Humanae Vitae. The African dislike of condoms has little to do with pious devotion.
It’s persistently
sooooooooooooo markedly impressive and refreshing, . . . affirming and encouraging to find soooooooooo much deep seated and globally generalized
ignorance about me on such threads. Very kind. Quite a caring service, actually.
Yeah . . . the quote below was extremely sobering to me when I first read it.
Even with my 45+ years of study of the topic . . . I guess I’d just kind of fantasized that the Vatican would somehow be more immune, longer, to such skillful, well plotted, well engineered conquests by the globalist oligarchy. I was shocked to see how wrong I was.
Oh, sure, I’ve read all the . . . shrill stuff about the Church of Rome and the AntiChrist etc. Never fit close enough per my studies. Still doesn’t really.
I could be wrong but I just haven’t seen it happening quite that way. It would be all tidy and dramatic in some respects and I suppose it technically COULD transpire that way. I just have remained quite skeptical. And, I’ve thought better of the men at the top than their being THAT complicit.
But this quote sobered me and jerked me up short. I was forced to realize that the Vatican is far tooooo important an influence over 1 billion plus souls for the oligarchy to leave it very independent and out of their control at all.
And the oligarchy CERTAINLY has had the means for many decades if not a few centuries to engineer such a conquest.
Scripture is simply right . . . the GREAT DECEPTION(S) of the END TIMES WILL BE THAT SKILLFUL, THAT MASSIVE, THAT WELL CRAFTED FROM HELL, THAT EFFECTIVE . . . and massively so. ALL those NOT having their eyes and priorities
FIRMLY FIXED THOROUGHLY IN AND ON GOD ALMIGHTY
WILL BE vulnerable to management from hell.
It’s basically that simple.
1967 - March 26: Pope Paul VI writes Populorum Progressio and states: “Who can fail to see the need and importance of thus gradually coming to the establishment of a world authority capable of taking effective action on the juridical and political planes? Delegates to international organizations, public officials, gentlemen of the press, teachers and educators—all of you must realize that you have your part to play in the construction of a new world order.
Doesn’t sound a great deal different than Z Bresenski; H Kissenger; Rockefeller; Nixon; Bush SR or Othuga on that score. Sadly.
Wow. I think you’re right . . .
Lots of applications in our era across the board politically and to LARGE RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS OF ALL STRIPES:
Woe to you who add house to house
and join field to field
till no space is left
and you live alone in the land.
9 The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing:
“Surely the great houses will become desolate,
the fine mansions left without occupants.
10 A ten-acre [a] vineyard will produce only a bath [b] of wine,
a homer [c] of seed only an ephah [d] of grain.”
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to run after their drinks,
who stay up late at night
till they are inflamed with wine.
12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
tambourines and flutes and wine,
but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD,
no respect for the work of his hands.
13 Therefore my people will go into exile
for lack of understanding;
their men of rank will die of hunger
and their masses will be parched with thirst.
14 Therefore the grave [e] enlarges its appetite
and opens its mouth without limit;
into it will descend their nobles and masses
with all their brawlers and revelers.
15 So man will be brought low
and mankind humbled,
the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.
17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture;
lambs will feed [f] among the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
and wickedness as with cart ropes,
19 to those who say, “Let God hurry,
let him hasten his work
so we may see it.
Let it approach,
let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come,
so we may know it.”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
and champions at mixing drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so their roots will decay
and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty
and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people;
his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
The mountains shake,
and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
26 He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
Here they come,
swiftly and speedily!
27 Not one of them grows tired or stumbles,
not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist,
not a sandal thong is broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp,
all their bows are strung;
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint,
their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their roar is like that of the lion,
they roar like young lions;
they growl as they seize their prey
and carry it off with no one to rescue.
30 In that day they will roar over it
like the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks at the land,
he will see darkness and distress;
even the light will be darkened by the clouds.
I think you’re quite right.
Thx.
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