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Posted on 08/30/2015 6:58:38 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
From the Lepanto Institute’s report on ties between the World Meeting of Families and Planned Parenthood. A key leader for the World Meeting of Families has come under attack from a conservative Catholic “investigative group” that says he donated campaign funds to pro-abortion candidates.
The Lepanto Institute said Robert J. Ciaruffoli, currently listed as chairman (but sometimes listed as president) of WMOF’s board of directors, has, in various years, given campaign donations to Allyson Schwartz, Chaka Fattah, Bob Brady, Joe Biden, and Bill Richardson — all pro-choice Democrats. (The donations can be affirmed at the Federal Election Commission website.) The donation to Schwartz, a former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic before her stint in Congress, was singled out for criticism.
“The Church simply can't afford to have event leaders so cozy with Planned Parenthood's political cheerleaders,” said Michael Hichborn, the Virginia-based Lepanto Institute’s president. He sent the story out to reporters with the headline: “President of World Meeting of Families Funded Planned Parenthood Director's Political Campaign.”
Ciaruffoli did not respond to a call and email for comment.
Trending: New Publisher to Scrutinize Separate Newsrooms of Inquirer, Daily News, Philly.com “The Lepanto Institute has proven once again that it is not interested in presenting information in any useful way,” the Philadelphia Archdiocese said in a statement issued late Tuesday afternoon. “Neither the World Meeting of Families — Philadelphia 2015 nor any of its leadership supports Planned Parenthood. Lepanto’s sole intention is to create division, confusion, and conflict within the Church. Actions of that nature run contrary to Christian tradition. Their reports are not to be taken seriously.”
It’s true, however, that The World Meeting of Families leadership roster is packed full of members of the Philadelphia Democratic establishment, which generally runs pro-choice. Mayor Michael Nutter and Gov. Tom Wolf are both listed as honorary co-chairs. Other notable politicos include Comcast vice president David Cohen — a top fundraiser for President Obama — who is listed as a co-chair of the organization’s executive leadership cabinet, as is Comcast honcho Brian Roberts, who has given at least $76,000 to Democrats since 2006.
Indeed, one could make the case that the World Meeting of Families — and the accompanying visit by Pope Francis — would simply be impossible to pull off in Philadelphia without the support and active assistance of the city’s leading Democrats, many of them pro-choice.
Hichborn told Philly Mag that Catholics shouldn’t make common cause with individuals who work against church teaching on issues like abortion and homosexuality. "If the caveat is that you give positions of honor to people who are attacking the Catholic Church, you don't hold the event,” he said.
"They shouldn't be working with or giving positions of honor to individuals who are attacking the church,” he said. “If you can find another way, you find another way."
Archbishop Charles Chaput has been know to draw bright moral lines where church teachings are involved — over the summer praising a private Catholic school for firing a married gay teacher. Hichborn said he believes Chaput had been deceived by his staff with regard selecting WMOF leadership. "He's also a pretty busy man,” Hichborn said. “He doesn't have time to vet everybody."
Hichborn declined to give membership numbers for the Lepanto Institute, saying it is “purely an investigative organization, designed to protect the Catholic Church from enemies without as well as within." He had previously reported that a "gay agenda" was filtering into preparations for the World Meeting, a report also denied by the archdiocese.
The World Meeting of Families is September 22nd through the 25th. Pope Francis visits Philadelphia on September 26th and 27th.
The main thing would be to direct the "unsparing scrutiny and criticism" to overt acts and explicit nonambiguous words, especially official ones, and not toward the man. This means you can dismiss small foot-faults ("Did he or did he not genuflect?") and resist the teptation to be a tea-leaf-reader of Chatty Frank's off-the-cuff verbal fragments.
We have no right to hold the Pope under hostile surveillance as if there were a presumption of guilt. Everyone deserves, at least in public, a presumption of innocence. Yes, even the successor of Peter.
Above all, we should not be venturing into suppositions about his motives, habits, his personal moral inventory. That's between him and his confessor, and moreso, between him and God.
And when I say "not spotlighting his stumbles," I mean not magnifying the "publicity splash" of his mistakes. Generally speaking, I think the Devil counts on us (US) magnifying the bad effects of things 10-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold.
Take care not to be a force-multiplier for damaging impact. It immeasurably strengthens the Devil's hand.
I think we should familiarize yourselves more with the definitions of Rash Judgment, Detraction and Slander. If we engage in these things even a little, nobody will hear us or take us seriously when there's a serious judgment to be made. It's the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" effect.
Once again, Burke is the model.
Have your read the Devil’s Final Battle, by Father Paul Kramer?
No, never heard of it.
I figured so.
I recommend you read it.
http://www.fatimamovement.com/i-DevilsFinalBattle.php
Contributors:
Andrew Cesanek earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He worked as a Software Engineer at Motorola for 15 years, before retiring from the engineering profession. He is now a full time researcher and writer for the Fatima Center.
Mark Fellows is a Catholic writer known for numerous articles in various Catholic journals including The Remnant and Catholic Family News. He is author of the books The Ninth Pius on the life of Blessed Pope Pius IX, A Second Coming on the Holy Shroud of Turin and Fatima in Twilight.
Christopher Ferrara earned his Baccalaureate and Juris Doctor degrees from Fordham University. He is President and Chief Counsel of the American Catholic Lawyers Association. Mr. Ferrara has written extensively on Catholic issues. His articles have appeared in The Latin Mass and The Remnant, and other publications. He co-authored with Dr. Thomas Woods the book The Great Facade, Vatican II and the Regime of Novelty in the Roman Catholic Church.
Father Nicholas Gruner, S.T.L., S.T.D. (Cand.) heads one of the world’s largest Fatima apostolates with several offices around the globe. He lectures throughout North America on the subject of Fatima, and is publisher of The Fatima Crusader magazine. He also produces the television program “Fatima: ‘The Moment Has Come’” and the radio program, “Heaven’s Peace Plan”.
Father Gregory Hesse, S.T.D., J.C.D. was ordained in 1981 in St. Peter’s Basilica. He holds doctorates in both Thomistic theology and Canon Law. From 1986-1988 he served as the Secretary to Cardinal Stickler at the Vatican. Since 1991, he has worked in Austria, Germany and the United States giving lectures and producing theological articles that have appeared in Catholic Family News, The Fatima Crusader, and other journals.
Father Paul Kramer, B.Ph., S.T.B., M.Div., S.T.L. (Cand.) is lecturer and author of numerous articles on the Catholic Faith and on the subject of Fatima. Father Kramer received his B.Ph., S.T.B. from the Angelicum in Rome and his Master of Divinity at Holy Apostles College in Connecticut. He authored the book The Theological Vindication of Roman Catholic Traditionalism and has prepared a vastly updated edition of this book entitled The Suicide of Altering the Faith in the Liturgy.
John Vennari is writer, researcher, catechism instructor and editor of the monthly journal Catholic Family News. His articles have also appeared in publications such as Christian Order and The Angelus. He is author of the books Close-ups of the Charismatic Movement and The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita, a Blueprint for the Subversion of the Catholic Church.
“There is no wiggle room on abortion”.
You’re exactly right. But when two politicians are running for office the Catholic is suppose to vote for the one who is least extreme. I don’t really take that view, not when the candidate claims to be a Catholic and still believes in aborting babies if he doesn’t like who the father is, as in rape and incest and “life of the mother”. This is cafeteria Catholic Jeb Bush’s position. He throws the Catholic Church under the bus for political expediency. Megyn Kelly (who claims to be Catholic), knows Bush’s position but would not call him out on it. She did claim that was the position of Rubio, which was a lie and Rubio told her about it. She also knew Rubio’s position, which is the Catholic position. But Kelly was there to belittle and minimize any candidate not named Bush or Kasich.
Isn't that a shame that one must strive to achieve such a balance in regards to this Pope?
I doubt Pope St Pius X's catholic subjects had such unneccesarry struggles.
No, actually, it's a balance a Catholic should want to achieve with every person, inside or outside the household of the Faith, with whom he has a serious dispute.
But this balance must apply especially our chief pastors, whom Divine Providence has willed or permitted to occupy the places of authority in His Holy Church.
BTW I think St. Catherine of Siena is another key example of the right way to conduct matters of conflict with the Pope.
Now you're sounding like one of those ecumaniacs who wants to dialogue with ISIS, pro-abort politicicians (and bishops), the gay lobby, etc.
How much silly "dialogue" do you think Pope St. Pius V engaged in with Ali Pasha?
Matthew 5:43-48
This is for any FReeper who's still willing to read Jesus without the compulsive snarking.
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I'm all for Lepanto, by the way. Charity and justice can be required by just war, and vice-versa.
Before you infer others of being snarky, I recommend you review your own posts.
He (Francis) has done and said things that deserve unsparing scrutiny and criticism, and so be it: the good of the Church depends on the vigilance of the faithful.
This person ( German moral theologian Stephan Goertz) needs to be deposed from whatever ecclesial or academic perch he’s on, and slapped right across the face. I’d do the slapping.
One must make a distinction between snark, slapping, and just war. These are not simply three degrees of the same thing.
I would think you would have heard of "spiritual warfare" by now.
If so, do you think Pope Francis is waging one? If so, in which "spirit's" name? Keep in mind the agenda of his upcoming SinNod.
why is the crucifix “hidden”?
Benedict is still Pope.
My musical response: "I'm making a list, checking it twice..."
Actually, I'm not making a list: I'm not naming names, and deliberately. I don't want this to turn into a brawl.
As for the pics: I've seem about a bazillion pictures of Pope Francis (as have we all, they're everywhere) and this is the one time I've seen him without a visible pectoral cross. Or I should say "the only two" times. Are you saying Francis is intentionally concealing the Cross of Christ? As if he could fool Muslims and Jews into thinking he is not the Pope? My first assumption, based on reasonable statistical likelihood (a bazillion to two) is that the pictures were photoshopped.
Hiding a cross because of wanting to distance oneself from Christ, at any rate, would be a spiritual and moral fault, especially for a cleric who bears the crucifix upon his own person. But it's not snarking, which is a verbal thing --- its etymology is snort + remark --- a good example of Lewis Carroll's onomatopoiea---and I'm not quite sure why the alleged incidents with the cross would be brought into a discussion about snarking.
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