Tag Archives: Pope Francis

Christians are going extinct in Jerusalem, attacked by radical Jews

In an essay in The Telegraph, Dec. 18, 2021, Francesco Patton, the leader of the Franciscan Friars in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East, dolefully writes that Christians are on the verge of extinction in Jerusalem:

[O]nce we numbered 20 per cent of the population of Jerusalem, today the Christian community counts for less than 2 per cent.

In recent years, the lives of many Christians have been made unbearable by radical local groups with extremist ideologies. It seems that their aim is to free the Old City of Jerusalem from its Christian presence, even the Christian quarter. In the last years we suffered because of the desecration of our holy sites, the vandalization of our churches, offences against our priests, monks and worshippers. The frequency of these hate crimes leaves families and communities who have lived here for generations feeling unwelcome in their own homes.

But Patton does not identify who the “radical local groups with extremist ideologies” are.

The reader immediately thinks of radical Muslims.

But Patton provides a clue when he writes that “These radical groups do not represent the government or the people of Israel.”

A couple of alert Telegraph readers point us to these little-known and -publicized news reports:

  • In 2015, National Geographic reported on increasing “tension between Christians in Israel and a growing movement of Jewish extremists who seek to cleanse their nation of religious minorities.” Attacks against Christians “have become more brutal and more aggressive,” including an arson attack six months ago that left one Catholic monk hospitalized and caused nearly $1.8 million in damage.” The response from the Israeli government had been less than vigorous.
  • More recently, on Dec. 17, 2021, LifeSiteNews reports that “Throughout recent years…, there have been reports of radical Jewish individuals and groups in Jerusalem spitting on Christians, disrupting their prayer and likely firebombing their property, which Church authorities have routinely condemned…. According to a 2017 report, within an eight-year timeframe, 53 churches and mosques were vandalized in Israel and Palestinian territories under Israeli military occupation. Of those incidents there were only nine indictments and seven convictions, with 45 of those cases being closed.”

The Israeli government is not just limpid in its response to the attacks by radical Jewish groups against Christians, the government indirectly encourages the attacks via the 2018 Nation State Law.

The Nation State Law states that although non-Jews (including Christians and Arabs) “are no less citizens of this country than our Jewish brothers and sisters,” “According to this law, the State of Israel has legislated that the people whose ‘welfare and safety’ it is most concerned to promote and protect are limited to the Jewish citizens of the State of Israel.

Doesn’t this send a message to Jewish extremists that the Israeli government will not promote and protect the welfare and safety of Christians?

Meanwhile, the response from Pope Francis is the sound of crickets.

Pope Francis hides the Crucifix in his waist sash so as not to offend Israeli rabbis.

~E

Newsmax White House correspondent: Pope Francis is dying

John Gizzi, formerly a writer for Human Events, is currently the chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.

Yesterday, Dec. 7, Gizzi reported for Newsmax, “Vatican Preps for Conclave as ‘Pope Is Dying“.

The brief article is behind a paywall, which you can access for $1.

According to Novus Ordo Watch:

Gizzi writes that a “secretary of one of the most powerful Vatican Cardinals” told him straightfowardly: “Pope Francis is dying.” Furthermore, Gizzi asserts that sources inside the Vatican do not expect Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) to see the end of next year, 2022, and are in “pre-Conclave mode”.

Without more details, one can only speculate as to what exactly the situation is, but apparently Francis is said to be terminally ill and not expected to live another 13 months for that reason. A diagnosis has not been revealed or rumored, but colon cancer would be a possibility, considering Bergoglio’s colon surgery back in early July. At the time, some Vaticanists expressed concern that this surgery had not been announced days or weeks in advance, as would have been customary….

The question at issue, then, is whether it is Francis and the Vatican public relations machine that are downplaying the reality, or whether certain officials in the Vatican are exaggerating it, perhaps due to wishful thinking. Time will surely tell.

Last July 7, Luis Badilla Morales of the Francis-friendly and well-connected Italian Novus Ordo blog Il Sismografo reported that Francis’ condition was more serious than the Vatican was letting on: “the disease that has struck Pope Francis is severe and degenerative. It could also be chronic.”

~E

Sunday Devotional: From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female

Genesis 2:18-24

The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.

So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep,
he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib
that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:
“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called ‘woman, ‘
for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.

Mark 10:5-9

But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment. 
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. 
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh. 
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.” 

Our Lord said, “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.”

Not “male and male,” or “female and female,” or  “she-male and he-male” trangenders.

And yet, as reported by LifeSiteNews, in an airplane interview on September 15, 2021, while ruling out same-sex marriage, Pope Francis expressed his support for civil unions of homosexuals because “we are all equal.” He said: “There are laws that try to help the situations of many people who have a different sexual orientation. If they want to support a homosexual couple in life together, states have the possibility of civilly supporting them.”

Br. Martin Navarro Ob. S.A. warned that the Pope’s support for same-sex unions “is tacitly equating a same-sex union with a family.”

That is why some call Francis the anti-Pope.

May the peace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord be with you,

~E