But is anyone listening?

I have to say, I don’t actually disagree with his call for reforms…

Pope Francis issued a strong call for world financial reform on Thursday, condemning a heartless “dictatorship of the economy” and saying the economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries.

“Money has to serve, not to rule,” he told ambassadors in the first major speech about finance since his election in March in which he also urged states to take greater control of their economies and protect the weakest.

But Frankie, really, first start with your own house. Lots of corruption for everyone to rail against. No need to look so far afield.

On a brighter note:

Christianity could be facing a catastrophic collapse in Britain according to official figures suggesting it is declining 50 per cent faster than previously thought.

Pope Francis has confirmed that saint making is political and propagandist. On Sunday, May 13, Francis rescued 800 people from obscurity by making them saints:

The 800 were killed in 1480 in the siege of Otranto, on the south-eastern Adriatic, by Ottoman Turks who sacked the city, killed its archbishop and told the citizens to surrender and convert.

When they refused, the Ottoman commanding officer ordered the execution of all men aged 15 or older, most by beheading.

The canonization gave Francis the opportunity to discuss the issues that affect his papacy:

“While we venerate the Otranto Martyrs, we ask God to sustain the many Christians who, today, in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence and give them the courage to be faithful and to respond to evil with good.”

Sympathy for those who are suffering from violence is a noble sentiment, but note that Francis mentions only Christians.  Is responding to evil with good only necessary when Christians are concerned, or do all those who suffer violence for their belief or lack of belief merit consideration? Since Francis’s god has been silent on these and other issues, maybe the Catholic church should do something to give sustenance to the persecuted.

Francis also uses the Otranto Martyrs to make “his first appeal as pope against abortion.” Francis makes a connection between the execution of men aged 15 or older and abortion by

throwing his support behind an Italian group promoting legal protection for embryos.

Francis is a pope just like all the other popes. We need to be constantly vigilant of the perfidy of the Catholic Church and its popes.

tinyurl.com/d7e7vsb

The subject line for the emailed April 26^th Catholic Register Newsletter is  “Hold Your Bets”; the newsletter proudly announces,

This week, Cardinal Thomas Collins released a pastoral letter regarding gambling.  As politicians in the GTA debate the merits of a new casino, the cardinal warned of the social harm and family breakdowns that gambling can cause. You can read the full pastoral letter on the Register’s website.

To be fair,

The cardinal is asking the faithful of the archdiocese of Toronto to reflect on the harmful effects of gambling, both in the community at large and in church activities, before politicians deal out a new casino for the GTA.(emphasis added)

One of the “questions for reflection” is,

Does our parish, school or Catholic organization rely heavily on profits from “high stakes” gambling to support our activities? What percentage of operating funds relies on these activities? (note “high stakes” gambling refers to casino nights and bingos offering prizes of several thousand dollars)

In his pastoral letter, Collins says,

If we are engaged in any form of gambling [lotteries, 50-50 draws and bingos] that is likely to cause harm, we should find alternatives as soon as possible.

What took the Catholic Church in Canada so long to examine its practice of allowing individual churches to feature “Bingo Every Sunday, Wednesday And Friday Night”? Bingo games bring in a lot of money. Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, even posts its generous bingo payouts online to attract players.

If, as Collins says,

gambling is based on a fantasy of a quick solution to financial problems and that it appeals to “the most vulnerable and the most desperate.”

“This is a cruel illusion and it is not wholesome for governments to promote it,”

then the Catholic Church should do more than “find alternatives as soon as possible.” Thomas Collins and the Catholic church should practice what they preach and get out of the gambling business immediately before advising Ontario politicians to cancel the “ambitious plan to generate revenue by expanding gambling sites in Ontario.”

If there are any rational people who think that the latest Catholic pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who rechristened himself Francis, will be a better pope than the previous popes, they should quickly disabuse themselves of that idea. Good, better, or best are not adjectives that apply to Catholic popes.

For example, some naive people expect Francis to take immediate and firm action against sex abusers in the Catholic clergy because he has promised to do so:

Pope Francis has called for strong, specific worldwide measures for the Roman Catholic Church to act “with determination” against clergy sex abuse — the scandal that has rocked the church for more than a decade.

Francis assures the faithful

“Victims of abuse are present in a particular way in his prayers for those who are suffering.”

Prayers “in a particular way” are not particularly effective except for those who believe in the efficacy of prayer.

So, other than with prayer, what else does Francis intend to do to address and confront sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy. John McKiggan asks and answers this question in an April 19 post entitled “How Will Pope Francis Respond to the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis?”

McKiggan, a sexual abuse compensation claims’ lawyer with Arnold Pizzo McKiggan,  represented Ron Martin in Martin’s class action against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish, and McKiggan remains committed to informing the public about all forms of abuse and advising victims of abuse on how and where to get help. He also watches and assesses the Catholic Church’s responses to abuse.

In his April 19 post, McKiggan asks whether Francis’ “strong statement” is “a sign that the Church is moving in the right direction?” He thinks the pope’s demand “that the Bishops’ conferences around the world need to step up to disciplining the priests and assisting the victims” may be “problematic.” He supports his opinion by saying,

decentralization of authority is one of the factors that allowed the abuse crisis to happen in the first place. Bishops were moving abusive priests around like checkers on a checkerboard and no one was holding the Bishops responsible for their actions.

 

One of the main players involved in the scandal is the ex-Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law. Cardinal Law, who now lives in Rome, covered up hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse within his Archdiocese in Boston.

 

Law has indicated that his practice was to refer the priests to psychiatrists and therapists before re-assessment as to whether to return them to practice. It is exactly this kind of decentralized mismanagement that allowed the thousands of abuse cases around the world to take place!

 

As a sign of how attuned Francis is to the problem the Church faces regarding sexual abuse, one of the first Cardinals the new Pope met with following his election was Cardinal Law.

Yes, Francis met with Cardinal Law, an enabler, a person as guilty as the priests he  protected from prosecution by transferring them from parish to parish where they could prey on innocent and vulnerable minors.

McKiggan’s post is worth reading in its entirety.  At the end, of his post, McKiggan suggests what the pope should have done and asks, “What do you think: How should Pope Francis handle the clerical sexual abuse crisis?” You can answer that question here; I’m sure John McKiggan will be following the comments to this post

Do you know that January 11^th is Sir John A. Macdonald Day and November 20^th is Sir Wilfrid Laurier Day in Canada?  Most likely most Canadians don’t know or don’t care because Sir John A and Wilfrid Laurier day, unlike Victoria Day or Good Friday, do not mean a day off with pay. Canadians are not known for flag waving or honouring past prime ministers.

If Wladyslaw Lizon has his way, Canadians will have to add another day to their calendar of days that go unnoticed except by a select group.

Born and raised in Poland, Wladyslaw Lizon moved to Canada to pursue the many opportunities our country has to offer new Canadians.

It seems that one of “the many opportunities our country has to offer new Canadians,” especially if they are members of parliament, is the privilege of introducing a private members bill to ask Canadian parliament to set aside a day to honour a citizen of another country.

On September 19th, 2011, less than five months after he was elected as the Conservative MP for Mississauga East-Cooksville, Lizon moved for leave to introduce Bill C-266, an act to establish April 2 Pope John Paul II Day because Karol Józef Wojtyła, as John Paul II

visited Canada in 1984, 1987 and in 2002. . . . was a people’s pope and this bill recognizes this and his contribution to Canadians and all people in the world. . . . John Paul II stood up against tyranny and supported democratic values, something Canadians young and old should never forget to be grateful for. . .

There is just too much information to counter the praise Lizon is heaping on John Paul II to include it here. However, it is safe to say that most Canadians young and old will never forget the abuses committed and covered up by Catholic clergy under the leadership of John Paul II.

The suggestion that Canadian parliament declare April 2 Pope John Paul II Day is ridiculous.  Christine Moore, NDP MP for Abitibi—Témiscamingue (Québec), agrees.  Moore introduces her objections to Bill C-266 by saying, “As a Catholic, I recognize the tremendous contribution that Pope John Paul II made to humanity.” (It’s amazing to see how many Catholics there are in Quebec, Canada’s least religious province.) Moore goes on to say,

one of the issues that led to my decision is that Pope John Paul II is not Canadian. He is an important international figure who visited Canada, but he is not originally from here. It is also important to remember that the Pope is a head of state. This day would therefore recognize a foreign head of state, and I am a bit concerned that this would set a precedent. I would like to point out that this does not mean that Roman Catholics or Polish Canadians cannot celebrate the late Pope. These people can do so in a more general way without necessarily having a national day.

She is right but not for the reasons she gives. The Roman Catholic Church has punished humanity with 266 popes. However, there are not enough days in a year to criticize the RCC for its popes and its abuses against humanity, so let’s start by trying to put a stop to Bill C-266. Write your MP and make it clear that honouring a pope, a foreign head of state is an insult to Canadians. Canadians have an innate reluctance to honour other Canadians’ contribution to their country.  The suggestion that Canadians single out one religion over another, one nationality over another or one foreign despot over another by dedicating a day to John Paul II is an insult to Canadians!

As religious commentators go, Raymond J. de Souza isn’t bad. He seems reasonably broad-minded and well-informed, and his columns in the National Post often discuss interesting issues. His latest piece concerns a fictional conversation set in Renaissance Italy:

Michelangelo’s ceiling was dedicated 500 years ago last All Saints Day. But its defining cinematic portrayal came nearly 50 years ago, in the 1965 Charlton Heston film The Agony and the Ecstasy, based on the Irving Stone novel of the same name. In that film, there is a profound dialogue between Julius II, il papa terribile, and his reluctant fresco painter, Michelangelo.

Continue reading →

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Yesterday, Larry Moran at Sandwalk announced,

I’m going to a meeting (Responding to 21st Century Atheism) on Saturday, April 13. Are you going?

What a coincidence! Another Canadian Atheist writer and I are going as well.  We signed up in January. The course costs $50.00 and does not include a free lunch, as at least one commenter has noted. It is really churlish of the Jesuits to refuse to serve a little bit of bread and sacramental wine.  The course is being held in the St. Joseph Chapel, which ought to set the tone for awe and reverence so familiar those indoctrinated into pre-Vatican II Catholicism.

Up until yesterday, I was pretty confident that I could handle the Jesuits, but after making a comment on a Canadian Atheist post in response a comment from Larry Moran, I did more research and discovered, mea culpa, I may be mistaken about my assumptions about Jesuits. I need to do my homework before I attend the course.  I found an Evolving Thoughts post, an article in the Guardian and an article by Fr. Scott Lewis, S.J. that starts,

Many claim to speak and act on God’s behalf, but sometimes individuals or groups do ghastly and terrible things in the process. So how do we know the real thing?

which shouldn’t be too hard to address, but I need some help.

If you have been taught by Jesuits or have first hand knowledge of what the Guardian calls their “their embrace of liberation theology,” please contribute in the comments.