Todas las revoluciones prometen el paraíso en la tierra y la liberación de las cadenas…. Y todas, sin excepción, acaban en un baño de sangre.

Francisco J. Contreras: “El Islam lleva las de ganar en el choque de trenes con la izquierda en Europa”

por Alfonso Basallo 

Todas las revoluciones prometen el paraíso en la tierra y la liberación de las cadenas…. Y todas, sin excepción, acaban en un baño de sangre. La francesa, la bolchevique -de la que se cumplen ahora 100 años-, la mexicana…


No fue una excepción la revolución sexual de los años 60. Y eso que, de entrada, parecía una revolución amable -haz el amor y no la guerra-. Flores, hippies, música, besitos… No se veían trenes blindados como en 1917, ni guillotinas como en 1789, sino amor, mucho amor.

Y en lugar de la toma de la Bastilla, lo que hubo fue la toma de la pastilla… que, por primera vez en la Historia, permitía separar placer de procreación y dejar a los Romeos y Julietas de la época de los Beatles expresar espontáneamente el amor sin la espada de Damocles de sus consecuencias.

Pero la bomba de relojería que activó la píldora anticonceptiva le ha estallado a Occidente medio siglo más tarde. Porque ha destruido el significado nupcial y el significado procreativo del cuerpo humano (para eso fue expresamente diseñado: “Creced y multiplicaos…”), ha roto hogares, ha enfrentado a hombres contra mujeres en la guerra de sexos, ha convertido el placer en un ídolo de barro al que se supedita todo lo demás, y ha sembrado Occidente de “singles” sin vínculos y sin familia, perpetuos adolescentes incapaces de asumir responsabilidades; y por lo tanto, fácilmente manipulables por los Gobiernos.

Y, como todas las revoluciones, ha acabado en sangre. Las antiguas decapitaban reyes o fusilaban zares, la revolución sexual de los años 60, acaban con bebés en el vientre materno.

Y como todas las revoluciones, lo que ha traído la de los años 60 no ha sido el paraíso en la tierra sino una dictadura. La dictadura de la cultura de la muerte y de la ideología de género, que destruye el último reducto de libertad auténtica: la familia.

Desolador panorama… si no fuera porque en la vieja Europa hay sectores de la sociedad que siguen creyendo en la familia, célula originaria de la libertad -como decía Benedicto XVI-; naciones que luchan por la dignidad humana acaso por haber sufrido en sus carnes botas totalitarias -Polonia, Hungría, Croacia, Eslovenia- o que no renuncian a la Resistencia frente a invasores más sutiles pero no menos peligrosos que los nazis -como la Francia de la Manif pour Tous-; y minorías creativas que, como los irreductibles galos de Astérix, se niegan a rendirse.

De todo eso -de la reconquista de Europa a través de la familia- he tenido ocasión de conversar con el profesor Francisco José Contreras, editor del libro La batalla por la familia en Europa (La Manif pour tous y otros movimientos de resistencia) (editorial Sekotia).

Catedrático de Filosofía del Derecho y ensayista, bien conocido por los lectores de Actuall, gracias a sus perspicaces columnas, Contreras hace un “parte de guerra” de aquella batalla en la entrevista que te ofrezco como suscriptor del periódico

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El catedrático y ensayista analiza el efecto devastador sobre Europa de la revolución sexual de los 60 -con la punta de lanza de mayo del 68-, la decadencia demográfica y la 'invasión' islamista, y la posible solución: la revolución de la familia, incoada por la Manif pour tous.

El catedrático en Filosofía del Derecho Francisco José Contreras.la autoridad. Y también en Francia ha surgido La Manif pour tous, una revolución antropológica para defender el triángulo padre-madre-hijos, cimiento de la civilización, seriamente amenazado por la cultura de la muerte y la Ideología de Género.

Francisco José Contreras, catedrático de Filosofía del Derecho, ensayista, conferenciante, columnista de Actuall, ha coordinado el libro La batalla por la familia en Europa (La Manif pour tous y otros movimientos de resistencia) (ed. Sekotia), en el que él mismo y otros treces cualificados autores reflexionan sobre lo mucho que se juega Europa en un momento de decadencia moral y demográfica como no se veía desde la caída del Imperio Romano.

Autores como Jean Sévillia, Ludovine de la Rochère, Luca Volonté, Sophia Kuby, Mayor Oreja o Benigno Blanco, entre otros, describen el paisaje antes y después de la batalla, y las iniciativas a favor de la familia y la vida en los distintos países de la UE, todo un movimiento de resistencia frente a una forma de tiranía más sutil pero más peligrosa que los totalitarismos nazi y comunista.

¿Comencemos por el principio, la gran crisis cultural de Occidente empieza en los años 60 con la revolución sexual?

Bueno, es difícil establecer esas cosas de manera categórica. Hay quien se remonta –buscando el origen de “la crisis cultural de Occidente”- nada menos que al nominalismo de Guillermo de Ockham (s. XIV), o a la ruptura de la cristiandad con la Reforma, o a la “filosofía de la sospecha” (Nietzsche-Marx-Freud)…

Yo me refería al ataque a la familia de la revolución de los años 60.

Pero sí, sin duda la revolución sexual de los años 60 y la consiguiente desestructuración de la familia han hecho mucho daño a la sociedad occidental. Por lo demás, ya había habido una “revolución sexual” en los años que siguieron a la Primera Guerra Mundial, aunque no tan masiva y definitiva como la de los 60-70.

Son inevitables los paralelismos con Roma: en el momento de máximo esplendor, una civilización se tambalea porque deja de tener hijos…

Sí. En Roma hubo intentos de reacción: el emperador Augusto promulgó leyes que incentivaban fuertemente el matrimonio y la paternidad. Pero, al final, la “invasión de los bárbaros” –que fue una infiltración paulatina, más que invasión violenta- tuvo mucho que ver con vacíos demográficos que son llenados por pueblos más jóvenes y más dispuestos a reproducirse.

Como ahora…

Exactamente igual a lo que vemos ahora.

Nuestra cultura postmoderna es la primera en la historia que se ha desentendido de la reproducción (…) Y lo vamos a pagar muy caro.

Hablando de hijos, dice vd. en el libro que lo más determinante en el matrimonio no es el amor, sino la unión de hombre y mujer para tener hijos. Explíquelo porque suena un poco feo…

El matrimonio es (o era) una institución que promociona la formación y larga duración de parejas hombre-mujer sólidas. La razón fundamental por la que el Derecho incentivaba y protegía a la pareja hombre-mujer era su fecundidad: de ahí salen niños, ahí es donde los niños pueden ser cuidados y socializados correctamente.

Es cuestión de vida o muerte para una sociedad que exista un número suficiente de parejas hombre-mujer dispuestas a procrear y educar: lo primero lleva unos minutos, pero lo segundo requiere décadas. Ahí se juega la conservación de la especie. Lo han sabido todas las culturas, y por eso institucionalizaron y sacralizaron el matrimonio bajo una u otra modalidad (monógama o polígama).

…Menos el Occidente actual

Nuestra cultura postmoderna es la primera en la historia que se ha desentendido de la reproducción, anteponiendo la libertad amorosa de los adultos al bienestar de los niños, que necesitan criarse con su papá y su mamá. Y lo vamos a pagar muy caro.

¿Mayo del 68 materializa aquello de “matar al padre” que decía Freud, al negar la autoridad?

En efecto, entre las difusas ideas de mayo del 68 destacaba la rebelión contra toda forma de autoridad (“prohibido prohibir”, etc.), incluida muy especialmente la del padre de familia. Freudomarxistas como Wilhelm Reich o Herbert Marcuse y neomarxistas como Antonio Gramsci llevaban medio siglo denunciando la “familia burguesa” como una institución represiva y castrante.

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Leer más aquí: www.actuall.com

U.S. Catholic bishops denounce key policies of President Trump at U.S. Vatican-sponsored conference.

Catholic bishop’s blistering rebuke of Trump: ‘Now we must all become disruptors’

By Pete Baklinski

MODESTO, California, February 24, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Catholic bishops denounced key policies of President Trump at a Vatican-sponsored conference in California last weekend. One prominent bishop went as far as calling “immigration,” not the right to life for the preborn, the “key [issue] we have to face now in our local church.”

“President Trump was the candidate of disruption,” San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy told about 650 participants at the World Meeting of Popular Movements that took place in Modesto. “He was ‘the disruptor,’ he said. Well now we must all become disruptors."

“We must disrupt those who would seek to send troops into our streets to deport the undocumented, to rip mothers and fathers from their families. We must disrupt those who portray refugees as enemies rather than our brothers and sisters in terrible need. We must disrupt those who train us to see Muslim men, women and children as forces of fear rather than as children of God. We must disrupt those who seek to rob our medical care, especially from the poor. We must disrupt those who would take even food stamps and nutrition assistance from the mouths of children,” Bishop McElroy said.

Christianity, following the ancient Jewish faith, places great emphasis on welcoming the “stranger and sojourner” from foreign lands into one’s country and home. But faithful Christians also recognize, at the same time, a priority of those who should be welcomed first and given sanctuary first. Topping the list is the unborn child who seeks safe passage from womb to world.

Cardinal Raymond Burke told LifeSiteNews last September that if securing a person’s right to life shifts to something else, then those fighting against poverty and for the rights of immigrants are liable to have the wrong “orientation” in their laudable efforts.

“It doesn't make any sense at all to be concerned about immigration or poverty if human life itself is not protected in society. It's an absolute contradiction,” the Cardinal said.

“The first justice accorded to any human being is to respect the gift of life itself, which is received from God. And so, the unborn should be protected,” he added.

But in his opening remarks, McElroy — in a likely nod to Pope Francis’ call for Catholics to stop being “obsessed” with opposing abortion — called immigration the “key [issue] we have to face in our local church at this moment.”

While Trump’s travel ban could affect roughly 60,000 immigrants/refugeesseeking entrance into the U.S. annually, the number of U.S. babies aborted annually remains constant at about 1,000,000.

While McElroy listed the “protection of human life, from conception to natural death” among a host of “intrinsic human rights,” he did not say that every human has the right to life, but only the right to “protection.”

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez also slammed Trump’s policies on immigration.

“I do not like the harsh tone, the sense of indifference and cruelty that seems to be coming out of this new administration in Washington. They are playing with our emotions, with people’s emotions, toying with their lives and futures, and that’s not right,” he said.

Cardinal Joseph William Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, told conference participants via live-stream video that “dark clouds” are gathering throughout America with the “rise of populism and nationalism” on account of the Trump administration.

“Channeling the anger of anxious people toward ‘the other’ rather than toward the architects of the economy of exclusion … is a classic tactic of a populist leader,” he said. “And the rise of populism and nationalism in the United States has laid bare a second ‘invisible thread’ that, sadly, has promoted the exclusion and marginalization of people in our American experience, intensifying in times of fear and anxiety the sins of racism and xenophobia.”

But not all U.S. prelates are on the same page regarding Trump’s immigration policies. Last week Bishop Bawai Soro, who is with St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Church in El Cajon, California, said he supported Trump's executive order on refugees. Soro is an Iraqi-American who came to the U.S. as a refugee.

“The United States of America is a sovereign country and the world’s superpower. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, illustrated how radical Islamic terrorism is the clear and present danger facing America. Mr. Trump has no one to apologize to for his immigration doctrine for the simple reason that coming to America is not a right but a privilege, a privilege that is earned by waiting in line for however long it may take to reach America. Americans are therefore consoled by his position that the fundamental duty of the government is protecting Americans from all enemies foreign or domestic by maximally securing the homeland’s borders and, if necessary, also by extremely vetting certain individuals,” he wrote.

While U.S. prelates are busy criticizing Trump’s immigration policies, few have noticed his actions to protect babies targeted for abortion. Trump has unabashedly stated on numerous occasions prior to becoming elected that he is “pro-life.”

Within his first weeks of office, Trump reinstated the Mexico City policy that defunded abortion overseas, supported the Washington March for Life, andnominated a pro-life justice to fill a vacancy in the Supreme Court. Last month pro-life leader Father Frank Pavone praised Trump for beginning what he called a “new era of pro-life leadership in our country.”

The World Meeting of Popular Movements is an initiative of Pope Francis. The event brings Church leaders and grassroots organizations together to address what the pope calls the “economy of exclusion and inequality” by working for “structural changes that promote social, economic and racial justice.”

Pope Francis addressed the California conference in a letter, telling participants to “defend our Sister Mother Earth,” to “stand alongside migrants,” to accept climate change as “real,” and to accept that “Muslim terrorism does not exist.”

In his letter, Francis praised the work of “People Improving Communities through Organizing” (PICO), an organization funded by billionaire globalist George Soros and listed as a partner of the event on the Popular Movements website.

“I would also like to highlight the work done by the PICO National Network … promoting this meeting. I learned that PICO stands for 'People Improving Communities through Organizing.' What a great synthesis of the mission of popular movements: to work locally, side by side with your neighbors, organizing among yourselves, to make your communities thrive,” he said.

DiscoverTheNetworks.org, a watchdog of leftist organizations, describes PICO as a group that “uses Alinsky-style organizing tactics to advance the doctrines of the religious left.”

“Using people of faith as its foot soldiers, PICO seeks to maximize the potential for transformation of people, institutions, and of our larger culture, particularly as regards health care, public education, low-income housing, and immigration,” DiscoverTheNetworks states. “PICO's proposed solutions nearly always entail expanding the power and control of government, while displacing the private sector. As PICO puts it, ‘government can play a vital role in improving society.’”

LifeSiteNews reported last August how emails leaked through WikiLeaks revealed that Soros funded PICO in a long-term project of shifting “the priorities of the U.S. Catholic Church.” The grant specifically targeted the ‘pro-family’ agenda, redirecting it from defending marriage to being concerned with income equality.

The event’s keynote speaker was Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development. Also speaking at the event were Bishops Stephen Blaire of the Diocese of Stockton, Shelton Fabre of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, and Oscar Cantú of the Diocese of Las Cruces.

Under Francis’ pontificate, priests and bishops within the Catholic Church have been encouraged to shift away from emphasizing perennial Catholic teaching on marriage, sexuality, and life to emphasizing pastoral concern for those in “irregular” situations, those suffering from various forms of discrimination, and immigrants.

Last November, Italian historian Professor Roberto de Mattei suggested that with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s loss in the U.S. election, Francis suddenly emerged as the “leader of the Global Left."

“For his part, after Clinton’s defeat, Francis now remains the only point of reference for the international left, now lacking a leader,” he wrote at that time.

In the same article, De Mattei critiqued Francis’ “Popular Movements” initiative as a melting pot for “revolutionary agitators.”

Commenting on the November 5 conclusion of the Third World Meeting of the “Popular Movements” in the Vatican attended by Francis, he said: “Pope Francis turned to them saying: ‘I make your cry mine.’ But the cry of protest that is raised by the movements gathered in Paul VI’s audience hall is, unfortunately, characterized by ideological fanaticism and incitement to violence.”


Read more: www.lifesitenews.com

The life and work of Michael Novak was a witness to Christian faith and the promise of America.

Michael Novak: Catholic, American Patriot, and Lover of Liberty by Samuel Gregg on February 20th, 2017 The life and work of Michael Novak was a witness to Christian faith and the promise of America. Are Refugees Dangerous? by Robert Carle on February 21st, 2017 President Trump’s executive order on immigration is deeply troubling, because it inflicts suffering on “the least of these” for political gain. This demeans the office of the President and robs the United States of its moral high ground in the War on Terror. The Catholic Church in De Facto Schism: What’s to Be Done? by E. Christian Brugger on February 22nd, 2017 Knowing that the episcopate is divided on de fide doctrines of morality, Pope Francis needs to lead his brother bishops to face frankly this crisis in the Church and to resolve firmly to overcome it. Meanwhile, lay Catholics should not allow distress over the present situation to shake their faith in Jesus’s promise to preserve the Church from damnable error. Remembering Jane Roe and Mary Doe: The Courage of Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano by Harold Cassidy on February 23rd, 2017 The shameful and irrational desire on the part of the Courts to reach decisions in Roe and Doe with no evidence—and without even knowing if the women in whose names the cases were brought actually wanted abortions—was later exposed by the courage of these two women. Can Same-Sex Marriage Really Reduce Teen Suicide? by Mark Regnerus on February 24th, 2017 The legalization of same-sex marriage may be associated with a short-term emotional bump for youth who identify as sexual minorities, but it is not a robust, long-term panacea for the emotional struggles of teenagers.

Vídeo explicando en 7 minutos las causas de la Revolución Rusa, cómo se desarrolló y el régimen de terror al que dio paso.

Ni Lenin era un santo, ni la revolución rusa una gesta heroica: mira este vídeo si te atreves

Academia Play publicó este martes este vídeo explicando en 7 minutos las causas de la Revolución Rusa, cómo se desarrolló y el régimen de terror al que dio paso.
elentir -
23/02/2017

https://youtu.be/-mnRwShLmXc

La de 1917 fue una “hermosa” revolución en la que sólo “murieron cinco personas” y en la que los comunistas derrocaron al Zar. Esa mentira y otras parecidas son las que cuentan algunos.

La realidad es muy distinta, empezando por el hecho de que en noviembre de 1917 lo que hubo fue un golpe de Estado bolchevique contra el gobierno provisional establecido tras la abdicación del Zar en marzo de ese año. El golpe de noviembre fue encabezado por Lenin, que tomó el poder con la promesa de convocar unas elecciones para formar la Asamblea Constituyente de Rusia. Esas elecciones se celebraron el 25 de noviembre y en ella fueron derrotados los bolcheviques, que apenas consiguieron una cuarta parte de los votos frente a una clara mayoría del Partido Social-Revolucionario de Víctor Chernov. En vez de aceptar su derrota en las urnas, Lenin disolvió la asamblea, prohibió los demás partidos y dio paso a una dictadura comunista, lo que provocó el estallido de una sangrienta guerra civil que duró cuatro años. En Rusia no volvería a haber libertades civiles ni elecciones democráticas hasta 1991, cuando cayó la Unión Soviética.

Academia Play publicó este martes este vídeo explicando en 7 minutos las causas de la Revolución Rusa, cómo se desarrolló y el régimen de terror al que dio paso.

Mi felicitación a Academia Play por el vídeo, que ya ha provocado las primeras rabietas entre los nostálgicos del Gulag (lo cual no deja de ser una buena señal).

Esta noticia se publicó originalmente en el blog de elentir.

Leer más aquí: www.actuall.com

Pope Francis: "let true humanity burst through with authentic resistance, resilience and persistence"

Pope Francis Praises Soros-Funded Organization; Encourages “Resistance”

by Maike Hickson


On 17 February, Pope Francis released a letter written for those gathered for the World Meeting of Popular Movements held in California from 16-19 February — a meeting organized by the Vatican. Such meetings regularly take place in the Vatican and are initiated by Pope Francis himself in his attempt to work together with a variety of grassroots movements world-wide.

In the letter, which is dated 10 February, Pope Francis publicly praises the organization PICO — People Improving Communities through Organizing — which was one of the promoters of this Vatican event. Francis writes:

I would also like to highlight the work done by the PICO National Network and the organizations promoting this meeting. I learned that PICO stands for “People Improving Communities through Organizing”.What a great synthesis of the mission of popular movements: to work locally, side by side with your neighbors, organizing among yourselves, to make your communities thrive. [my emphasis]

What Pope Francis does not mention here is that PICO is heavily funded by George Soros. Leftist watchdog website Discover the Political Networks describes PICO as a group that “uses Alinsky-style organizing tactics to advance the doctrines of the religious left.” As John-Henry Westen, editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews reported in August of 2016, leaks from the Soros Foundation have shown how Soros funded PICO and other organizations in order to influence the Vatican in favor of certain policies and agendas. Westen reports:

Leaked emails through WikiLeaks reveal that billionaire globalist George Soros — one of Hilary Clinton’s top donors — paid $650,000 to influence Pope Francis’ September 2015 visit to the USA with a view to “shift[ing] national paradigms and priorities in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign.” The funds were allocated in April 2015 and the report on their effectiveness suggests that successful achievements included, “Buy-in of individual bishops to more publicly voice support of economic and racial justice messages in order to begin to create a critical mass of bishops who are aligned with the Pope.” […] Grantees were PICO, a faith-based community organizing group, and Faith in Public Life (FPL), a progressive group working in media to promote left-leaning ‘social justice’ causes. Soros has funded left-wing causes the world over and was just found to have been funding an effort to eliminate pro-life laws around the globe.

That there are already well-established ties between the Vatican and this progressive, often subversive, Soros-funded organization PICO can also be seen in this part of Westen’s report:

In order to seize on the opportunity provided by the Pope’s visit to the US, says the report, “we will support PICO’s organizing activities to engage the Pope on economic and racial justice issues, including using the influence of Cardinal Rodriguez, the Pope’s senior advisor, and sending a delegation to visit the Vatican in the spring or summer to allow him to hear directly from low-income Catholics in America.”

In 2013 Cardinal Rodriguez endorsed PICO’s work in a video during a visit from PICO representatives to the cardinal’s diocese. “I want to endorse all the efforts they are doing to promote communities of faith,” he said, “… Please, keep helping PICO.”

This same network is right now taking steps to oppose President Donald Trump’s policies with regard to immigration questions, specifically the so-called Immigration Ban. It is organizing protests an different locations in the U.S. As one statement on PICO’s website regarding “Organizing for the Resistance” says:

This morning, PICO National Network, United We Dream, and Church World Service declared together on a media conference call that faith communities in America are taking a prophetic stance against President-elect Trump’s promised persecution of immigrants, Muslims and people of color by providing Sanctuary in more than 800 congregations. And this is just the beginning. […] Now is the time for us to create empathetic space for uncommon encounters across difference, building bridges and disrupting patterns of isolation and fear in our communities. This is a moment for multi-racial, multi-faith communities to reimagine the Beloved Community, taking bold and prophetic action to realize it.

This is part of the managed chaos we have been witnessing in the U.S. for some weeks now. And it seems that Pope Francis, in his own 10 February letter, encourages such crises:

As Christians and all people of good will, it is for us to live and act at this moment. […] The direction taken beyond this historic turning-point—the ways in which this worsening crisis gets resolved—will depend on people’s involvement and participation and, largely, on yourselves, the popular movements. We should be neither paralyzed by fear nor shackled within the conflict. We have to acknowledge the danger but also the opportunity that every crisis brings in order to advance to a successful synthesis. [sic. The dialectical method.] In the Chinese language, which expresses the ancestral wisdom of that great people, the word “crisis” is comprised of two ideograms: Wēi, which represents “danger”, and Jī, which represents “opportunity”. The grave danger is to disown our neighbors.

Pope Francis himself calls for resistance, and implicitly seems to encourage the self-proclaimed “chaos managers”:

But here we also find an opportunity: that the light of the love of neighbor may illuminate the Earth with its stunning brightness like a lightning bolt in the dark; that it may wake us up and let true humanity burst through with authentic resistance, resilience and persistence.

In reiterating some themes discussed before, Pope Francis adds:

Here are the roots of the authentic humanity that resists the dehumanization that wears the livery of indifference, hypocrisy, or intolerance. I know that you have committed yourselves to fight for social justice, to defend our Sister Mother Earth [sic] and to stand alongside migrants. I want to reaffirm your choice and share two reflections in this regard.

The pope adds the importance of protecting nature and his plea for religious tolerance, namely that “no people is criminal and no religion is terrorist. Christian terrorism does not exist, Jewish terrorism does not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not exist. They do not exist.” [my emphasis]

Does it surprise us that this Vatican meeting in California “criticizes Trump orders“? As the Miami Herald reports:

Speakers at a Vatican-sponsored conference in Northern California — including an archbishop — denounced President Donald Trump’s orders on immigration and travel and vowed to fight them at a meeting Friday. Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said President Barack Obama deported a high number of people, but the harsh tone and cruelty coming out of the new administration was prompting mass fear and panic. [my emphasis]

In this context, this conference now called the Catholic Church to investigate its own “racism”:

The gathering of more than 600 clergy and social justice activists also included a session on racism Friday, where speakers encouraged religious people and institutions, including the Roman Catholic Church, to confront their own racism. [my emphasis]

In November of 2016, the Italian historian Professor Roberto de Mattei had informed us that, after Hillary Clinton’s loss of the election, Pope Francis might very well now become the world leader of the Left. De Mattei then wrote:

On his return flight from Mexico on February 18th of this year [2016], in commenting Trump’s plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico in order to slow down the migratory surge the Pope had said that “a person who thinks only of building walls and not bridges, is not a Christian.” […] Yet, no matter how strong the reservations towards Trump can be, for a Catholic it would be difficult to imagine a position of equidistance between him and Hillary Clinton, who had officially inserted a massive implementation of abortion and the LGBT agenda into her programme. [That is,] Unless self-defence against the migratory invasion is considered a graver sin than the legalization of abortion and so-called homosexual marriage.

De Mattei is to be commended for his far-sightedness. He not only predicted Pope Francis’ role as the leader of the Left world-wide, he also pointed to the increasing danger of incited and practiced violence in this regard:

For his part, after Clinton’s defeat, Francesco now remains the only point of reference for the international left, [now] lacking a leader.On November 5th at the conclusion of the Third World Meeting of the so-called “Popular Movements” in the Vatican, in the presence of revolutionary agitators from the five continents, Pope Francis turned to them saying: “I make your cry mine”. But the cry of protest, that is raised by the movements gathered in Paul VI’s audience hall, is, unfortunately, characterized by ideological fanaticism and incitement to violence. [my emphasis]

Not two weeks ago, major newspapers in this country came out with stories as to how Donald Trump’s closest advisor, Steve Bannon, now tries to influence the Vatican, with the help of Cardinal Raymond Burke. OnePeterFive’s author Christian Browneresponded some of these attacks on Cardinal Burke with charitable indignation. However, if we are concerned about Trump’s advisor trying to influence Vatican policies, we might be just as concerned about Pope Francis trying directly to influence U.S. politics and supporting groups that are funded by George Soros, supporter of Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood. Worth noting in this context is the request made by The Remnant, on 20 January 2017, that the Trump administration should investigate “what appears to be a collusion between a hostile [Obama] United States government and a pope who seems to hold as much ill will towards followers of perennial Catholic teachings as he seems to hold toward” Trump himself.

As to the strategic and tactical networks of “revolutionary agitators,” we might recall the gifted Louis Auguste Blanqui (1805-1881) in nineteenth century revolutionary France, and why Vladimir Lenin himself so greatly admired him and learned from him. Pope Francis himself would probably agree that Louis Blanqui was a greater revolutionary agitator and organizer than Saul Alinsky.


Read more: www.onepeterfive.com

Pope Francis: "I know that you have committed yourselves to fight for social justice, to defend our Sister Mother Earth and to stand alongside migrants."

The Pope’s Message at the Meeting of Popular Movements in California, 17.02.2017


The following is the message sent by Pope Francis to the participants in the Meeting of Popular Movements taking place in Modesto, California, United States of America, from 16 to 19 February.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

First of all, I would like to congratulate you for your effort in replicating on a national level the work being developed in the World Meetings of Popular Movements. By way of this letter, I want to encourage and strengthen each one of you, your organisations, and all who strive with you for “Land, Work and Housing,” the three T’s in Spanish: Tierra, Trabajo y Techo. I congratulate you for all that you are doing.

I would like to thank the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, its chairman Bishop David Talley, and the host Bishops Stephen Blaire, Armando Ochoa and Jaime Soto, for the wholehearted support they have offered to this meeting. Thank you, Cardinal Peter Turkson, for your continued support of popular movements from the new Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development. It makes me very happy to see you working together towards social justice! How I wish that such constructive energy would spread to all dioceses, because it builds bridges between peoples and individuals. These are bridges that can overcome the walls of exclusion, indifference, racism, and intolerance.

I would also like to highlight the work done by the PICO National Network and the organizations promoting this meeting. I learned that PICO stands for “People Improving Communities through Organising”. What a great synthesis of the mission of popular movements: to work locally, side by side with your neighbours, organising among yourselves, to make your communities thrive.

A few months ago in Rome, we talked at the third World Meeting of Popular Movements about walls and fear, about bridges and love.[1] Without wanting to repeat myself, these issues do challenge our deepest values.

We know that none of these ills began yesterday. For some time, the crisis of the prevailing paradigm has confronted us. I am speaking of a system that causes enormous suffering to the human family, simultaneously assaulting people’s dignity and our Common Home in order to sustain the invisible tyranny of money that only guarantees the privileges of a few. “In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point in its history.”[2]

As Christians and all people of good will, it is for us to live and act at this moment. It is “a grave responsibility, since certain present realities, unless effectively dealt with, are capable of setting off processes of dehumanisation which would then be hard to reverse.”[3] These are signs of the times that we need to recognise in order to act. We have lost valuable time: time when we did not pay enough attention to these processes, time when we did not resolve these destructive realities. Thus the processes of dehumanisation accelerate. The direction taken beyond this historic turning-point—the ways in which this worsening crisis gets resolved—will depend on people’s involvement and participation and, largely, on yourselves, the popular movements.

We should be neither paralysed by fear nor shackled within the conflict. We have to acknowledge the danger but also the opportunity that every crisis brings in order to advance to a successful synthesis. In the Chinese language, which expresses the ancestral wisdom of that great people, the word “crisis” is comprised of two ideograms: Wēi, which represents “danger”, and Jī, which represents “opportunity”.

The grave danger is to disown our neighbours. When we do so, we deny their humanity and our own humanity without realising it; we deny ourselves, and we deny the most important Commandments of Jesus. Herein lies the danger, dehumanisation. But here we also find an opportunity: that the light of the love of neighbour may illuminate the Earth with its stunning brightness like a lightning bolt in the dark; that it may wake us up and let true humanity burst through with authentic resistance, resilience and persistence.

The question that the lawyer asked Jesus in the Gospel of Luke (10:25-37) echoes in our ears today: “Who is my neighbour?” Who is that other whom we are to love as we love ourselves? Maybe the questioner expects a comfortable response in order to carry on with his life: “My relatives? My compatriots? My co-religionists? ...” Maybe he wants Jesus to excuse us from the obligation of loving pagans or foreigners who at that time were considered unclean. This man wants a clear rule that allows him to classify others as “neighbour” and “non-neighbour”, as those who can become neighbours and those who cannot become neighbours.[4]

Jesus responds with a parable which features two figures belonging to the elite of the day and a third figure, considered a foreigner, a pagan and unclean: the Samaritan. On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, the priest and the Levite come upon a dying man, whom robbers have attacked, stripped and abandoned. In such situations the Law of the Lord imposes the duty to offer assistance, but both pass by without stopping. They were in a hurry. However, unlike these elite figures, the Samaritan stopped. Why him? As a Samaritan he was looked down upon, no one would have counted on him, and in any case he would have had his own commitments and things to do—yet when he saw the injured man, he did not pass by like the other two who were linked to the Temple, but “he saw him and had compassion on him” (v. 33). The Samaritan acts with true mercy: he binds up the man's wounds, transports him to an inn, personally takes care of him, and provides for his upkeep. All this teaches us that compassion, love, is not a vague sentiment, but rather means taking care of the other to the point of personally paying for him. It means committing oneself to take all the necessary steps so as to “draw near to” the other to the point of identifying with him: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” This is the Lord’s Commandment.[5]

The economic system that has the god of money at its centre, and that sometimes acts with the brutality of the robbers in the parable, inflicts injuries that to a criminal degree have remained neglected. Globalised society frequently looks the other way with the pretence of innocence. Under the guise of what is politically correct or ideologically fashionable, one looks at those who suffer without touching them. But they are televised live; they are talked about in euphemisms and with apparent tolerance, but nothing is done systematically to heal the social wounds or to confront the structures that leave so many brothers and sisters by the wayside. This hypocritical attitude, so different from that of the Samaritan, manifests an absence of true commitment to humanity.

Sooner or later, the moral blindness of this indifference comes to light, like when a mirage dissipates. The wounds are there, they are a reality. The unemployment is real, the violence is real, the corruption is real, the identity crisis is real, the gutting of democracies is real. The system’s gangrene cannot be whitewashed forever because sooner or later the stench becomes too strong; and when it can no longer be denied, the same power that spawned this state of affairs sets about manipulating fear, insecurity, quarrels, and even people’s justified indignation, in order to shift the responsibility for all these ills onto a “non-neighbour”. I am not speaking of anyone in particular, I am speaking of a social and political process that flourishes in many parts of the world and poses a grave danger for humanity.

Jesus teaches us a different path. Do not classify others in order to see who is a neighbour and who is not. You can become neighbour to whomever you meet in need, and you will do so if you have compassion in your heart. That is to say, if you have that capacity to suffer with someone else. You must become a Samaritan. And then also become like the innkeeper at the end of the parable to whom the Samaritan entrusts the person who is suffering. Who is this innkeeper? It is the Church, the Christian community, people of compassion and solidarity, social organisations. It is us, it is you, to whom the Lord Jesus daily entrusts those who are afflicted in body and spirit, so that we can continue pouring out all of his immeasurable mercy and salvation upon them. Here are the roots of the authentic humanity that resists the dehumanisation that wears the livery of indifference, hypocrisy, or intolerance.

I know that you have committed yourselves to fight for social justice, to defend our Sister Mother Earth and to stand alongside migrants. I want to reaffirm your choice and share two reflections in this regard.

First, the ecological crisis is real. “A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system.”[6] Science is not the only form of knowledge, it is true. It is also true that science is not necessarily “neutral”—many times it conceals ideological views or economic interests. However, we also know what happens when we deny science and disregard the voice of Nature. I make my own everything that concerns us as Catholics. Let us not fall into denial. Time is running out. Let us act. I ask you again—all of you, people of all backgrounds including native people, pastors, political leaders—to defend Creation.

The other is a reflection that I shared at our most recent World Meeting of Popular Movements, and I feel is important to say it again: no people is criminal and no religion is terrorist. Christian terrorism does not exist, Jewish terrorism does not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not exist. They do not exist. No people is criminal or drug-trafficking or violent. “The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence yet, without equal opportunities, the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and will eventually explode.”[7] There are fundamentalist and violent individuals in all peoples and religions—and with intolerant generalisations they become stronger because they feed on hate and xenophobia. By confronting terror with love, we work for peace.

I ask you for meekness and resolve to defend these principles. I ask you not to barter them lightly or apply them superficially. Like St. Francis of Assisi, let us give everything of ourselves: where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, let us sow pardon; where there is discord, let us sow unity; where there is error, let us sow truth.[8]

Please know that I pray for you, that I pray with you, and I ask God our Father to accompany and bless you. May He shower you with his love and protect you. I ask you to please pray for me too, and to carry on.

Vatican City, 10 February 2017



[1] Address to the 3rd World Meeting of Popular Movements, Paul VI Audience Hall, 5 November 2016. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2016/november/documents/papa-francesco_20161105_movimenti-popolari.html
[2] Evangelii Gaudium §52
[3] Ibid. §51
[4] Cf. General Audience, 27 April 2016. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2016/documents/papa-francesco_20160427_udienza-generale.html
[5] Ibid.
[6] Laudato Si’ §23
[7] Evangelii Gaudium §59
[8] Cf. St Francis of Assisi, Peace Prayer.

Source: press.vatican.va

Carta del papa Francisco: "Sé que ustedes han asumido el compromiso de luchar por la justicia social, defender la hermana madre tierra y acompañar a los migrantes."

Carta del papa Francisco a los Movimientos Populares, Modesto, California, 

English

Comunicado de prensa con el mensaje enviado por el papa Francisco a los participantes del I Encuentro Mundial de Movimientos Populares – Regional EEUU.

Carta del papa Francisco: Español – Inglés (pdf)

Queridos Hermanos:

Quisiera, ante todo, felicitarlos por el esfuerzo de reproducir a nivel nacional el trabajo que vienen desarrollando en los Encuentros Mundiales de Movimientos Populares. Quiero, a través de esta carta, animar y fortalecer a cada uno de ustedes, a sus organizaciones y a todos los que luchan por las tres T: “tierra, techo y trabajo”. Los felicito por todo lo que hacen.

Quisiera agradecer a la Campaña Católica para el Desarrollo Humano, a su presidente Mons. David Talley y a los Obispo anfitriones Stephen Blaire, Armando Ochoa y Jaime Soto, por el decidido apoyo que han prestado a este encuentro. Gracias Cardenal Turkson por seguir acompañando a los movimientos populares desde el nuevo Dicasterio para el Servicio del Desarrollo Humano Integral. ¡Me alegra tanto verlos trabajar juntos por la justicia social! Cómo quisiera que en todas las diócesis se contagie esta energía constructiva, que tiende puentes entre los Pueblos y las personas, puentes capaces de atravesar los muros de la exclusión, la indiferencia, el racismo y la intolerancia.

También quisiera destacar el trabajo de la Red Nacional PICO y las organizaciones promotoras de este encuentro. Supe que PICO significa “personas mejorando sus comunidades a través de la organización”. Qué buena síntesis de la misión de los movimientos populares: trabajar en lo cercano, junto al prójimo, organizados entre ustedes, para sacar adelante nuestras comunidades.

Hace pocos meses, en Roma, hemos hablado de los muros y del miedo; de los puentes y el amor. No quiero repetirme: estos temas desafían nuestros valores más profundos.

Sabemos que ninguno de estos males comenzó ayer. Hace tiempo enfrentamos la crisis del paradigma imperante, un sistema que causa enormes sufrimientos a la familia humana, atacando al mismo tiempo la dignidad de las personas y nuestra Casa Común para sostener la tiranía invisible del Dinero que sólo garantiza los privilegios de unos pocos. “La humanidad vive un giro histórico”1.

A los cristianos y a todas las personas de buena voluntad nos toca vivir y actuar en este momento. Es “una responsabilidad grave, ya que algunas realidades del mundo presente, si no son bien resueltas, pueden desencadenar procesos de deshumanización difíciles de revertir más adelante”. Son los “signos de los tiempos” que debemos reconocer para actuar. Hemos perdido tiempo valioso sin prestarles suficiente atención, sin resolver estas realidades destructoras. Así los procesos de deshumanización se aceleran. De la participación protagónica de los pueblos y en gran medida de ustedes, los movimientos populares, depende hacia dónde se dirige ese giro histórico, cómo se resuelve esta crisis que se agudiza.

No debemos quedar paralizados por el miedo pero tampoco quedar aprisionados en el conflicto. Hay que reconocer el peligro pero también la oportunidad que cada crisis supone para avanzar hacia una síntesis superadora. En el idioma chino, que expresa la ancestral sabiduría de ese gran pueblo, la palabra crisis se compone de dos ideogramas: Wei que representa el peligro y Ji que representa la oportunidad.

El peligro es negar al prójimo y así, sin darnos cuenta, negar su humanidad, nuestra humanidad, negarnos a nosotros mismos, y negar el más importante de los mandamientos de Jesús. Esa es la deshumanización. Pero existe una oportunidad: que la luz del amor al prójimo ilumine la Tierra con su brillo deslumbrante como un relámpago en la oscuridad, que nos despierte y la verdadera humanidad brote con esa empecinada y fuerte resistencia de lo auténtico.

Hoy resuena en nuestros oídos la pregunta que el abogado le hace a Jesús en el Evangelio de Lucas «¿Y quién es mi prójimo?» ¿Quién es aquel al cual se debe amar como a sí mismo? Tal vez esperaba una respuesta cómoda para poder seguir con su vida “¿serán mis parientes? ¿Mis connacionales? ¿Aquellos de mi misma religión?”. Tal vez quería llevar a Jesús a exceptuarnos de la obligación de amar a los paganos o los extranjeros considerados impuros en aquel tiempo. Este hombre quiere una regla clara que le permita clasificar a los demás en “prójimo” y “no prójimo”, en aquellos que pueden convertirse en prójimos y en aquellos que no pueden hacerse prójimos2.

Jesús responde con una parábola que pone en escena a dos figuras de la élite de aquel entonces y a un tercer personaje, considerado extranjero, pagano e impuro: el samaritano. En el camino de Jerusalén a Jericó el sacerdote y el levita se encuentran con un hombre moribundo, que los ladrones han asaltado, robado, apaleado y abandonado. La Ley del Señor en situaciones símiles preveía la obligación de socorrerlo, pero ambos pasan de largo sin detenerse. Tenían prisa. Pero el samaritano, aquel despreciado, aquel sobre quien nadie habría apostado nada, y que de todos modos también él tenía sus deberes y sus cosas por hacer, cuando vio al hombre herido, no pasó de largo como los otros dos, que estaban relacionados con el Templo, sino «lo vio y se conmovió» (v.33). El samaritano se comporta con verdadera misericordia: venda las heridas de aquel hombre, lo lleva a un albergue, lo cuida personalmente, provee a su asistencia.

Todo esto nos enseña que la compasión, el amor, no es un sentimiento vago, sino significa cuidar al otro hasta pagar personalmente. Significa comprometerse cumpliendo todos los pasos necesarios para “acercarse” al otro hasta identificarse con él: «amaras a tu prójimo como a ti mismo». Este es el mandamiento del Señor3.

Las heridas que provoca el sistema económico que tiene al centro al dios dinero y que en ocasiones actúa con la brutalidad de los ladrones de la parábola, han sido criminalmente desatendidas. En la sociedad globalizada, existe un estilo elegante de mirar para otro lado que se practica recurrentemente: bajo el ropaje de lo políticamente correcto o las modas ideológicas, se mira al que sufre sin tocarlo, se lo televisa en directo, incluso se adopta un discurso en apariencia tolerante y repleto de eufemismos, pero no se hace nada sistemático para sanar las heridas sociales ni enfrentar las estructuras que dejan a tantos hermanos tirados en el camino. Esta actitud hipócrita, tan distinta a la del samaritano, manifiesta la ausencia de una verdadera conversión y un verdadero compromiso con la humanidad.

Se trata de una estafa moral que, tarde o temprano, queda al descubierto, como un espejismo que se disipa. Los heridos están ahí, son una realidad. El desempleo es real, la violencia es real, la corrupción es real, la crisis de identidad es real, el vaciamiento de las democracias es real. La gangrena de un sistema no se puede maquillar eternamente porque tarde o temprano el hedor se siente y, cuando ya no puede negarse, surge del mismo poder que ha generado este estado de cosas la manipulación del miedo, la inseguridad, la bronca, incluso la justa indignación de la gente, transfiriendo la responsabilidad de todos los males a un “no prójimo”. No estoy hablando de personas en particular, estoy hablando de un proceso social que se desarrolla en muchas partes del mundo y entraña un grave peligro para la humanidad.

Jesús nos enseña otro camino. No clasificar a los demás para ver quién es el prójimo y quién no lo es. Tú puedes hacerte prójimo de quien se encuentra en la necesidad, y lo serás si en tu corazón tienes compasión, es decir, si tienes esa capacidad de sufrir con el otro. Tienes que hacerte samaritano. Y luego, también, ser como el hotelero al que el samaritano confía, al final de la parábola, a la persona que sufre. ¿Quién es este hotelero? Es la Iglesia, la comunidad cristiana, las personas solidarias, las organizaciones sociales, somos nosotros, son ustedes, a quienes el Señor Jesús, cada día, confía a quienes tienen aflicciones, en el cuerpo y en el espíritu, para que podamos seguir derramando sobre ellos, sin medida, toda su misericordia y la salvación. En eso radica la auténtica humanidad que resiste la deshumanización que se nos ofrece bajo la forma de indiferencia, hipocresía o intolerancia.

Sé que ustedes han asumido el compromiso de luchar por la justicia social, defender la hermana madre tierra y acompañar a los migrantes. Quiero reafirmarlos en su opción y compartir dos reflexiones al respecto.

La crisis ecológica es real. “Hay un consenso científico muy consistente que indica que nos encontramos ante un preocupante calentamiento del sistema climático”4. La ciencia no es la única forma de conocimiento, es cierto. La ciencia no es necesariamente “neutral”, también es cierto, muchas veces oculta posiciones ideológicas o intereses económicos. Pero también sabemos qué pasa cuando negamos la ciencia y desoímos la voz de la naturaleza. Me hago cargo de lo que nos toca a los católicos. No caigamos en el negacionismo. El tiempo se agota. Actuemos. Les pido, nuevamente, a ustedes, a los pueblos originarios, a los pastores, a los gobernantes, que defendamos la Creación.

La otra es una reflexión que ya la hice en nuestro último encuentro pero me parece importante repetir: ningún pueblo es criminal y ninguna religión es terrorista. No existe el terrorismo cristiano, no existe el terrorismo judío y no existe el terrorismo islámico. No existe. Ningún pueblo es criminal o narcotraficante o violento. “Se acusa de la violencia a los pobres y a los pueblos pobres pero, sin igualdad de oportunidades, las diversas formas de agresión y de guerra encontrarán un caldo de cultivo que tarde o temprano provocará su explosión”5. Hay personas fundamentalistas y violentas en todos los Pueblos y religiones que, además, se fortalecen con las generalizaciones intolerantes, se alimentan del odio y la xenofobia. Enfrentando el terror con amor trabajamos por la paz.

Les pido firmeza y mansedumbre para defender estos principios; les pido no intercambiarlos como mercancía barata y, como San Francisco de Asís, demos todo de nosotros para que: “allí donde haya odio, que yo ponga el amor, allí donde haya ofensa, que yo ponga el perdón; allí donde haya discordia, que yo ponga la unión; allí donde haya error, que yo ponga la verdad”6.

Sepan que rezo por ustedes, que rezo con ustedes y quiero pedirle a nuestro Padre Dios que los acompañe y los bendiga, que los colme de su amor y los proteja. Les pido por favor que recen por mí y sigan adelante.

Ciudad del Vaticano, 10 de febrero de 2017.





Notas

1 Papa Francisco, Evangelii gaudium, 52.
2 Papa Francisco, Audiencia general del miércoles 27 de abril de 2016, Conf.
3 Ibid.
4 Papa Francisco, Laudato si’, 23.
5 Papa Francisco, Evangelii gaudium, 52.
6 Oración de San Francisco de Asís (Fragmento).

Fuente: movimientospopulares.org